I call myself a pharrah one trick even though I have been playing really bad. After my laptop started dying, overwatch would make it crash, so no overwatch for a year or so. Any skill I did have from climbing my way up to not-quite-plat were rusty at best, but more accurately they were a rusty trombone.

I just wanted to introduce my situation, not to make excuses (my career profile is public on purpose) but to account for any misconceptions I may have about the current meta, as it has changed a lot since I played actively, and even the meta at higher levels. I am not a professional overwatch player, I'm not even a great player. I think I am a decent player, I get shit on in games, and I shit on people in games, it's basically hearthstone random. So I called myself a one trick, but I do switch when it seems necessary. Maybe not lately because I have been upset, and that's my reason for writing this. If you're reading this far you haven't dismissed this as another dps whining about the rest of the team for not healing. Thanks.

I guess I really do just want to whine a bit and see what others have to say, express how I feel and see what happens. It really feels like playing dps means you better be perfect, and you should assume the enemy team is perfect. As a Pharrah main, the amount of times someone begs me to switch the instant there's any hitscan on the other team indicates a lack of hope and imagination.

First of all, if me playing Pharrah caused them to switch to a soldier or mcree, there's no garantee they are any good, and even if they are there are ways to play around it: Get more sheilds, dive on them, pocket heal me while I kill them at range. As far as pockets go, I never expect to get one. Even if you play mercy, all I expect is that you look for me from time to time, I try my best to only call for heals when I know I'm in line of sight.

If I am dying, maybe the problem isn't me entirely. It might have something to do with the brig and the zen on heals that cannot possibly heal enough to keep me alive too. I could switch to something else, and usually that's how it goes, but the healers could also switch? Not even a Mercy. A moira, lucio, even an ana with decent aim. I feel like the onus is always on the dps to counter their team, and I don't deny that's a big part of the role, but the way people talk makes me feel like the other roles don't matter at all and as long as we have good dps we'll win.

That all being said, if I need to switch I usually will. If someone asks me to switch, I ask them for a suggestion. If they reply with something along the lines of "idk just get off pharrah or kill urself" I just stay pharrah. Telling someone to switch is not helpful in the slightest, it's the same as telling someone to just 'play better' it's open ended advice that doesn't steer anyone anywhere, and adding an insult on top of it is supposed to make me more receptive to your criticism? I don't want you to coddle my emotions, but be helpful and respectful, suggest a specific course of action, and don't insult anyone you want to do something for you.

If I swap because they have double sheild and we need to break it, help me. If I swap because their hammond and doomfist are just tearing up our backline, help me. If I swap because their widow is a fucking god, help me take her out. I have heard in the same sentence "It's literally your job to kill the sym tp" and "It's a team game" when I asked for help to kill the tp on point. We almost had it, but they revived and tped right in one after another. I missed a rocket that would have killed it, and I expected that someone would take it out but no one did, so I said "KILL THE TP", I regret the caps but capslock was on, and after I did all I got was shit on the mic about how I need to do it, and to switch off pharrah. They said nothing on mic the whole game until I asked for help and from then on the mic was only used to shit on me. Needless to say I was not feeling cooperative and acted like a crying child because I couldn't do anything else.

I guess my rant is over now. I just want to say that I want to win as much as you do but it is a team game and I can't do it by myself. It feels as if that's what's expected of me though. Just please consider giving out helpful advice or even being quiet over insulting me, and consider your hero pick before you tell me to change, the tank and support are just as important as the dps. I might be way off base, just a hurt ego trying to get revenge, and if that's true I will most likely stop playing Overwatch because there's something fundamental I'm missing here and it's not pleasant trying to find it. I hope, however, that some will read this and relate and some will read this and think the next time they want to 'encourage' their team mate by telling them they suck.