OW2: Sym 4.0 - Support

Clearly, Sym is not working. She needs to be totally reworked, yet again. She had a hard time fitting in at the start, and it continues to be a problem in the OW2 beta.

Since OW2 has been turned into nothing more than objective based, death match modes, Sym really needs a rework more than ever before.

Ive already suggested 2 years ago that Sym 4.0 needed to be a thing, because she didn’t work well then, and still doesn’t work well on live, but they just abandoned her. They can no longer ignore the problem because they have fundamentally changed the game.

Overwatch has always been lacking in the Support roster, and to take someone away from that simply because you didn’t know how to balance her was the wrong move. We can not afford to lose support heroes, and the game never worked well with “defense” heroes anyway. OW2 certainly doesn’t support “defense” style heroes either.

Also, the “Tank” category NEEDS to be renamed into “Brawlers” but that’s another topic.


I am going to just piggy back off of a Sym 4.0 rework I suggested for OW1, and adapt it for OW2.

Sym - Support

  • HP changed from 100/125 to 150 health and 50 shields (200 total HP)
  • Removed Teleporter

Passive: Photon Aura
Primary Fire: Energy Orbs
Secondary Fire: Shatter
Ability 1: Sentry Turret
Ability 2: Pylon
Ult: Photon Barrier


Passive: Photon Aura

Sym radiates a shield generation aura around herself providing allies with instant bonus HP.

  • Aura size: 10 20 meter radius
  • Shields provided: 50 HP shield per ally in range
  • Decay rate: 12.5 shield per second when outside Sym’s aura (4 seconds)

Photon Projector - Primary Fire: Energy Orbs

Energy Orbs are now Sym’s primary fire. Energy Orbs do not change size with charge

  • Energy Orb damage: 66 (33 impact/33 explosion)
  • Max ammo increased from 70 to 100
  • Ammo cost increased from 7 to 10
  • Projectile size reduced from 0.5 to 0.4
  • Reload time reduced from 1.35 to 1.30
  • When a Energy Ball hits a barrier, Photon Projector does not gain a level, however it instantly refunds the ammo of that Energy Ball

Energy Balls no longer have a manual charge up time and now work like Mei’s Icicles with automatic charge up included in the shot

  • Cast time: 0.3 0.4 seconds

Energy Ball damage projectile size and projectile speed is dependent on Photon Projector charge level. When a Energy Ball does damage, it rewards a charge on Photon Projector, up to level 3. After 2 second of no damage, Photon Projector loses 1 level of charge

Photon Projector Levels

Photon Projector Level 1

  • Energy Ball damage: 90 (50 impact/40 explosion)
  • Projectile Speed: 50 45 meters per second
  • Projectile Size: 0.4

Photon Projector Level 2

  • Energy Ball damage: 95 (55 impact/40 explosion)
  • Projectile Speed: 45 50 meters per second
  • Projectile Size: 0.5

Photon Projector Level 3

  • Energy Ball damage: 100 (60 impact/40 explosion)
  • Projectile Speed: 40 55 meters per second
  • Projectile Size: 0.6

Photon Projector - Secondary Fire: Shatter

Sym shatters any shields currently provided by Photon Aura on allies and self for area of effect damage and grants temporary shield HP to a currently aimed at ally with Photon Projector

Using Shatter places Photon Aura on cooldown as well

  • Shield provided: 100 HP shield at targeted ally
  • Range: 30 meters
  • Decay rate: 25 shield per second (4 seconds)
  • Damage radius around shattered ally/self: 8.5 meter radius
  • Cooldown: 8 seconds
  • Cooldown on Photon Aura: 4 seconds

Photon Projector current charge level modifies the damage of this ability

Photon Projector Level 1

  • Damage: 75 explosion

Photon Projector Level 2

  • Damage: 85 explosion

Photon Projector Level 3

  • Damage: 95 explosion

Ability 1: Sentry Turret

Sym places a Sentry that always priorities lowest HP ally in range over doing damage to enemies. Sym has 3 charges of Sentry Turret. Placing a new Sentry destroys the old one.

  • Sym can now only place 1 Sentry Turret at a time
  • Ammo: max 1 on field, 3 charges
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds per charge
  • Travel speed increased from 15 to 20
  • Deployment time reduced from 1 to 0.5 seconds
  • Sentry health increased from 30 to 50
  • Range increased from 10 meters to 12 meters
  • Healing: 45 health per second
  • Damage increased from 40 to 45 damage per second
  • Movement speed reduction on targets totally removed

Ability 2: Pylon

Sym builds and places a hard light pylon that pulses with energy causing movement impairing and enhancing effects

  • Build time: 1 second
  • Range: 25 meters
  • Health: 200 (50 health, 150 shields)
  • Duration: 8 seconds
  • Cooldown: 16 seconds
  • Cooldown starts when Pylon in placed
  • Radius: 10 meters
  • Movement speed reduction to enemy: -25%
  • Movement speed buff to allies: +25%
  • Pylon acts as a jammer and locks out enemy movement abilities, and stops movement abilities in progress

Ult: Photon Barrier

Sym retains her current ult, as it was always more of a support ult anyway


I feel like this rework adds more skill and cohesion to her kit and gives her a strong identity as a shield focused healer.

Her play style would allow for supportive or offensive flows in combat by setting up combos with her Pylon, Shatter and Sentries to secure kills, disengage or engage and allows for last second life saving plays.

Teleporter is removed because it was too situational and utility focused which no longer fits into the extreamly fast paced flow of OW2.

7 Likes

I don’t want to hear a single crap about Symmetra Support.

10 Likes

If the shields provided by her aura would be 25 rather than 50 it’d be less annoying to deal with. But I actually like what you came up with. Let’s hope they take another good look at her and try to rework her into a proper support.

5 Likes

The devs have said in the past that the more specific the ability suggestion, the “least helpful” it is for them when working. I wouldn’t waste my time attempting to write up fictional changes.

I honestly don’t know what they’re going to do about sym at this point. They - for some reason - felt like avoiding a much needed rework and instead gave us what we have on beta. OW2 was the prime opportunity for an entire kit overhaul like Orisa but instead they reinforced a lack of understanding when it comes to Symmetra’s issues.

6 Likes

Yea, I agree. 25 shields could be fine too. I wasn’t sure about that one myself. I feel like 50 might be too much but the only reason why I went with 50 was because there are hardly any barriers in the game anymore and 25 HP didn’t feel like enough with how much burst damage there is now.

1 Like

How about we have her buffed by people who actually understand or care before doomposting.

She doesnt. And even if she did, making her a passive healbot doesnt fix anything.

Pretty bold of you to assume that I don’t understand or care.

Some of the changes they made in the OW2 current beta, I already suggested 2 years ago, so it looks like they are the ones who dont understand…and they work for Blizzard, so…

1 Like

I meant Blizzard.

That is exactly what I am saying.

They dont understand or care that the Sym playerbase doesnt want to be a taxibot. They will just keep it because of corporate interests or dev arrogance.

How depressingly closed-minded of you

3 Likes

But unfortunately Symmetra is a case that really needs a full revitalization with new abilities. They can’t keep shuffling around abilities when so much of what she has is just inherently abrasive towards the game she’s in.

2 Likes

Absolutely. That is why I tried to think out of the box and give her some new abilities that fit into the faster death match style of OW2

why do we get at least 3 of these threads every week for symmetra and no other heroes? Why are her mains so exceptionally delusional?

Having a proximity based support in OW2 feels really bad though. The fighting gets all spread out and I feel like she’s only going to have shields on maybe one or two people anyway. AoE slow isn’t that useful when half the cast has mobility to go around or through it and the maps are more open than ever. They need to decide whether her identity is going to lie with shields or constructs and then focus on that. Trying to maintain the turrets in her build feels clunky in any shield-based support redesign.

2 Likes

Because she’s the worst character in the OW2 beta, and she recieved several reworks, one of which officially moving her to a completely new role. It’s natural that her playerbase would be upset and divided.

2 Likes

What I never understood is why “constructs” always have to be stationary, or even seperate, targetable entities. Symmetra literally has the power of imagination over here and she never once thought “I can make an attachable gadget to buff my ally”? In the same vein as Zen orbs or Brig packs for example.

2 Likes

Why would anyone support shoving healing into a kit that’s never had any healing functionality lmao

5 Likes

I never ever said I support giving support Symm healing. I think with OW2 removing a tank from every game, it can better support non-healing supports than its predecessor.

Or honestly, a non-healing support could probably still have worked in OW1 and still be balanceable if they made Sym’s shield-giving ability a normal, cd ability that gives a temporary bout of health, instead of it just lasting forever for some god awful reason, making it impossible to balance.

3 Likes

I refuse to hear arguments for a non healing support until the dev team is capable of creating one. Support in overwatch = needing healing in the kit.

I understand people want her to be viable, but the ideas need to be based in what the devs have shown works in OW.

3 Likes

healing is just way too powerful to give up on having it. Until there can be team comps built around anti-healing a non-healing support will never be viable unless completely overtuned.

Personally, I think a simpler solution is to make her turrets the ult somehow, and give her back her photon barrier, just with less health.

Then she can be focused around her gun, and has two ways to get in close to beam people. No more having to compensate for having turrets.

Of course, then you’d have to think of how the turrets could be an ult. Maybe it could just be a turret minefield that’s area denial like Hammond’s ult, but I’m open to suggestions.