For a little while, Blizzard’s acknowledged that Symmetra is too much of a situational hero. Now they’re doing something about that.
In a new developer video, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explained that a new version of Symmetra will soon be coming to the game’s PTR.
Nu-mmetra will be the first Overwatch hero to have a choice of ultimates. Her options are her trusty old teleporter and a new shield generator that creates individual shields for the whole team, which theoretically gives her some utility even after the other team has taken the first point and you don’t need a stinkin’ teleporter any more.
Symmetra’s old shield ability, meanwhile, will be replaced by a new ability called Photon Barrier. It’s a Reinhardt/Winston-esque barrier, except it moves along a trajectory. The hope is that your team will move with it. Otherwise, well, it will probably look pretty silly. Symmetra will also be able to set up and relocate her turrets more quickly, and her primary fire beam will lock-on from a slightly further distance.
All-in-all, it sounds like she’ll be a much better-rounded support — not just on defence but also on attack — with a newfound emphasis on pushing through tough chokepoints and giving her team an extra layer of defence during point captures.
So, what do you think? Symmetra players, do these changes sound like just what the magical hologram architect ordered? People who’ve avoided her like the plague, are you reconsidering now?
Comments
14 responses to “Blizzard Is Giving Overwatch’s Symmetra Two Ultimates”
great when is Tracer going to become more survival? with all the buffs all over the place to people like Soldier, DVA, Zayra improved ray lock on and increasing the overall damage flying around and now she can be hacked to take away all the things she has instead of hit points. She is just feeling a bit unloved.
sure since day one, virtually everything can one or two shot her but lately her life expectancy is definitely shorter.
I have no problems wrecking face with tracer. I think she is one of the only characters that is in a truely good spot. Also when any character gets hacked they are pretty much a giant piñata waiting to be smacked around. Only you don’t find candy just salt.
All Tracers deserve to die a quick and, hopefully painful, death
you don’t just buff heroes because they haven’t had a buff in a while, and others have.
tracer is fine. sure it may be a bit harder with other heroes doing more damage, but she’s still a more than capable hero
I’m really glad they’re working on it. I like playing symmetra and she can be really good, but she was incredibly situational.
nice, fresh observation..
Great comment, really adds to the conversation. Lemme give you some more then, hm? At the beginning of the match, it was actually quite stressful trying to set up, so I’m glad they changed the turrets. I think my best turret placement was 5, but usually I would only get 4. It’s very hard to build your ultimate if you can only have 4, especially in places like Numbani, so it’s completely situational.
I love this buff, I will main Symmetra again without fear of being shouted down in Competitive <3
It will be really interesting to see the speed that the photon barrier moves. It could make her more viable on attack type missions if the balance is right. Not sure if it is effective for defence as a static shield is more valuable for protecting a choke point.
She was my main and is still my favorite character, but have found that using Symemetra usually unbalances a team where other characters make a more effective difference.
Temple of Anubis, both points are great, Numbani pt 1 and Hollywood pt 1 I have found to be the best for a Symmetra. Can work on other maps, but find you lose to much for team composition.
The reduced cool down of turrets will be welcome. After 2 are placed it takes ages to get them back and they only take 1 shot to destroy, making it a bit unbalanced for the time it takes to lock down an area. Most teams will get 2 attacks in.
Hopefully it will at least let people play without getting the “Really? Symmetra, change character”. Even when you average 19 kills on D on Anubis with her and typically get gold elims on D for that map.
Any improvement to Symmetra is a good thing. She was way too situational (ie generally only good on point A of capture A/B maps). Hopefully now I won’t automatically lose a match if someone chooses her on KOTH
She can be used on king of the hill, but she has to be the first one to get in there to set up otherwise it’s too easy for her to be killed
Yet another example of terrible game balance
Wasn’t Symmetra a ‘more skilled player’s’ version of Torbjorn before this?
I love Torbjorn by the way.
I am trying to get better with my lesser-used characters, but if I am being selfish I’d ask Blizzard to maybe change the hero selection screen so the ones riiiiiiiight up the far right of the list are moved about, I don’t know how many others feel this way but because that class is at the ‘end’ of the line-up I know I often disregard them, especially in the clinches.
Sounds nice. I like that the changes help to better demonstrate her theme of being a wily matter manipulator. I always thought just a teleporter and some turrets was too little to make her seem interesting.