What’s her issues?
Sym’s issues comes down to:
- lack of reasonable ability to get herself in her effective range like other damage heroes
- lack of reasonable ability to stay alive in her effective range once there to be able to do her job like other damage heroes. esp with all the delays in her kit.
Paths to Take Without an Complete Redesign/Rework
generally speaking, there’s 3 ways to go about this, utility semi-sniper, reaper2.0 and jungler. The one that makes the most sense from what I can see is jungler.
Why not go utility semi-sniper?
The semi-sniper patch is achieved through making her orbs travel fast so that her effective range is longer to the point that her core issues are solved (not much need to get close, can survive longer further away). the issues with this are:
- countered by shields.
- really boring pew pew game play that would be much better experienced through other heroes like the hitscans (not to mention the point of sym as a character is to be more strategic rather than typical point and click like typical fps characters)
- other heroes like hitscans are better than sym balance-wise to play a semi-sniper role i.e. they have headshot bursts to kill in 1~2 shots quickly and reliability of their shots and not being able to be dodged when fired.
- makes pharah obsolete
Why would semi-sniper still need a more frequent tp?
More conflicting interests with tp use and positioning. Conflicting interests because to bypass shields sym would need tp anyways to get a good angle (which is currently have too high of a downtime to be able to adapt to team use vs individual use), or sym would play out like now in needing her team to pocket her to get in and live to m1. Not to mention wanting tp available or in spots that’d be useful for sym as an escape against flankers.
Positional conflicts because need to be close and near the frontline to taxi tp the team, but making sym sniper encourages being further back, this also limits tp usage to be more insurance tps only if it even makes sense at all if needed as an escape option for sym.
This can only really be resolved with more frequent tp casts like old 3.0 tp to let sym more fluidly and dynamically move and/or repurpose tps.
Why not go reaper2.0?
Reaper 2.0 path would be achieved by giving sym a lot more in combat sustainability so that she can heal up or block damage to close the gap and stay alive in her effective range to do her job. the issues with this are:
- really terrible to play against like it is with reaper (especially for tanks), esp with sym charging up and having turrets.
- really hard to balance (charge up and juggernaut-like bulk) esp when taking into account low ranks vs high ranks, would likely need a more frequent tp casts anyways if they don’t want to make sym a juggernaut too
- not fun for sym players to just w+m1
- not that skill intensive
Why would reaper2.0 sym still need more frequent tp casts?
As stated above, unless you make sym a juggernaut that can tank hits to close the gap, tp will be the in and out for sym. If using reaper as a benchmark, he has 2 mobility abilities to get in and out on top of lifesteal to function. If sym were to often not have tp for her, how much sustain would be needed to make up for that?
Why jungler route is best
By jungler route I mean sym roaming around (obviously mainly still around her team), using tp to pounce to help the team whether that maybe getting a picks or zoning or transporting them (either being aggressive or defensive). and doing so in enemy backline, your frontline or your backline. this would be achieved with more frequent tp (like old 3.0 tp), and a small but meaningful sustain buff. This is the best option because:
- it increases sym’s skill ceiling in managing her structures more and with needing to think more flexibly and more dynamically with what she should and can be doing at any given time as she has more options (due to more frequent tp). and doing the below optimally isn’t easy (won’t make sym OP in low ranks)
- more fun for the sym player due to more unique playstyle. when playing optimally it will mixing and matching various aspects of other heroes together frequently like one moment you’re setting up turrets to trap someone, next moment you might be flanking for a pick like a semi-tracer/sombra, then maybe going back for a backline peel like a brig or pushing the frontline like a charged zarya, or getting a sneaky turret trap in (whether in your territory or in territory) like old sym and torb.
- much easier to balance than the other routes because we already have a baseline for this that was close to being on the mark with balance: sym right before infinite tp patch. she was on this path for at least a year and was objectively not OP nor oppressive at all with a more frequent tp on top of an unnerfed turrets, primary, and ult. what she lacked then was a small survivability buff.
But how would we achieve jungler sym without being (questionably) OP?
Although the following won’t be perfect as testing will be needed, it is a very decent start.
Must haves:
- tp reverted to old 3.0 tp or get a cd mechanic that gives sym her old 3.0 tp cast frequency
- passive that triggers sym’s shield hp regen whenever she interacts with tp
Tp won’t be too strong given that we had that standard for tp for over a year and it wasn’t OP across various metas so that’ll be fine.
Regen will make sym have less down time in conjuction with good tp usage without making her into a reaper2.0 (any damage dealt to her cancels shield regen, so this regen is moreso out of combat regen).
Should haves:
- For primary, either
- flatten out the dps across primary’s level and increase its range
- OR increase the dps on lvl 1 beam and keeping the same dps on other lvls
- increase projectile speed for orbs to 30m/s. adjust projectile hitbox size and aoe radius where necessary.
- can reduce dps of turrets if needed
Orb changes are to make her most general weapon more general in having longer effective range and be more consistent if the sym player can aim.
For primary either it’s to be less situational (1st sub point) or it’s to be more bursty for it’s current level of situational-ness.
Can nerf turrets’ dps as these changes are aiming to put more power into what the sym player controls (i.e. the more skillful parts) which’d mean sym would be less pub stomper and her power level would have better positive correlation with rank.