Sym is getting a major overhaul to a lot of her systems from her weapons to abilities.
Yet the solution developers are promoting is, “Give her more Damage”
Personally, in my opinion, I would gladly accept less damage and even remove her Auto-aim feature if she had mechanisms to actually be able to enter and escape a fight.
Currently and in her future version, she has both low health and no mobility.
( Teleporter is not an on-demand mobility ability - something that powerful will likely have a long CD )
What do you think? Is More Damage the Answer? Or another solution is needed
P.S Before you say,
“Why not wait until PTR!”
Once it is in PTR there will be no major changes to her abilities or weapons. The only changes which can happen when it hits PTR is balance changes in numbers.
The thing that set Symmetra apart from other heroes is her weapon and kit. Being able to lock onto enemies has always been her thing, and her turrets were really useful. But as you said, she lacks mobility in this now fast paced game. Her Photon Barrier was interesting, but completely useless at times. And now Blizzard is making it her ult, which I think is a terrible idea.
Obviously more survivability would be required to turn her into a more well rounded hero which I thought was the goal of the rework (as she was too niche); however, as a generic DPS main, I am happy with more damage.
To be honest, id welcome a emergency recall ability IF sym has an active teleporter active.
Similar to tracers recall,
If sym is going to be a teleporter hero, give her a personal escape one.
Dmg numbers needs to be tweaked of course to be in order with defence heroes, but what she needs is a way to keep herself alive. With the new kit shes given that we know about, we have seen nothing beside her ult that provides it.
The tp may be a escape, but it sounds like its needs to be set up before hand. So adding a escape mechanic to trigger that can only be used when a tp is active, similar to a sombra relocator might be whats needed.
actually the rework is less about “give her more damage” and more about “let’s make her feel more useful for the team”.
and afaik her rework is not finalized yet… In that one post, Geoff said she’s still undergoing “heavy iteration”, which means everything is still subject to change, or not.
The way they are reworking her actually does improve her survival.
Current iteration Sym requires her to get within 7m to duel other players. Her secondary is only used against stationary comps or for holding chokes. Which makes her projected barrier a necessity for her to be able to engage.
However, the information we have on the New sym rework gives her a longer range primary with more damage. Even a single meter (though I suspect it will be several meters longer) improves her survival rate by allowing her to reach her opponent with less risk. The improved damage on her primary also means that the duration of each of her fights will be reduced as she will be doing enough damage to finish off enemies sooner. Thus reducing the time she is exposed to the enemy.
In addition we know that her secondary will be a faster moving projectile. If its speed remains at where Geoff last reported it will be slightly slower then that of a Pharah rocket.
What this does is give her weapon more dexterity when it comes to fights. It means that when enemies are not in range of her primary she has the option of having a longer range secondary to reach them. All without having to chase them down like current iteration. This allows her to engage enemies from the safety of her team.
If you can engage at longer ranges, do more damage, and have multiple means of engaging the enemy from the safety of your team your survival will inherently go up as a result.
Her potential for damage per second is pretty high but the problem is it’s reliant on her being able to get up close to targets and stay alive long enough to get a full charge. Her shield helped a bit with that allowing her to approach enemies but once it’s been used up and she’s latched on she’s very vulnerable. I would argue for survivability.
The thing is that she will no longer be solely relying on her primary fire. You have to break yourself of that habit and concept.
Her secondary will be slightly slower then Pharah’s rockets. Which means when the enemy does not close range she has a means of engaging them at range. This allows her to stay with her team and wait for the enemy to close range with her while her secondary still gives her value while she sits back a ways.
Theyre removing the auto aim. Increasing her overall damage while also increasing her base damage. Allowing her to place both her turrets and teleporter from range. Making teleporter a regular ability. Increasing the usefulness and consistency of her alt fire.
Does she need more survivability? Who knows. We need to see exactly how all this functions before we can have an actual opinion.
actually the rework is not about improving her survivability, at all.
The reworked kit will help her being a monster in team fights, but 1v1s will be a nightmare because the damage build-up is severely decreased and not to mention she also lost PB as an ability.
Her overall damage build up takes longer but the BASE damage is increased in all respects.
Her range is improved which means she will not have to be alone or place herself in reckless danger. Her damage increase will reduce the duration of fights, her turrets do not require her to run right up to the wall and deploy and in fact give her an option for mid fight deploys, her secondary allows her to stay back when she is alone.
The only reason projected barrier was needed is because she has ONE option for dueling in current iteration and that option required a max of 7m. With the improved range and dexterity her weapon provides her risk factor lessens by a large margin.
I imagine she’ll be able to escape a fight somewhat with Teleporter but it’s quite difficult for me to imagine wanting to use such a valuable CD ability just to save my own skin.
If she can throw those double strength turrets around more easily though, she might not need to escape as many fights as you might imagine she would, though…
i forgot to mention the lock on, which helps her immensely in a duel.
Higher damage potential doesn’t help her if the duel is initiated by the other guy, this fact doesn’t change even with the rework. The average dps still outdamages her.
And losing PB is indeed a huge loss, because it’s the one ability that helps her fend off so many things that would otherwise turn her helpless.
It’s also not simply needed for dueling.
It blocks Bastion and Torb’s turret, forces snipers to wait or reposition, blocks ults, and generally helps the team engage. 1000 health on a shield is a lot.
It’s the one de facto tool in her kit that actually gives her any sustain if you master its use. Well, other than SG.
Losing it will be a huge blow to any symm main out there… i’ve said this many times, but RIP PB.
And let’s not forget those new turrets! If she can fire one in a straight line into the correct position at the beginning of a duel / teamfight, the 2x slowing effect could vastly improve her ability to keep the beam on the target for the ensuing fracas.
“Less” risk is quite pointless when majority of the maps are open spaces that are minimum 30 meters in diameter. The only times she is facing less risk is in small hallways.
That is why Zaraya has Her Shield + high health
Mei has Self Heal + Ice Wall
Reaper has Wraith + Shadowstep
Rein has 2000 hp shield + high health
Doomfist has High mobility
You are theoretically right that their is “less risk”
But when you compare it 7m range.
But the risk involved compared to other short range heroes is like comparing the distance between you and your home, and your home and Neptune.
She still has extremely high risk when compared to other short range heroes.
That is IF the teleporter spawned instantly.
There has been no buildable in this game with instant spawn and creation.
And it is quite unlikely it will be instant in this case as well.
I am including Widow’s Spidermine that takes time to “Activate”
Not enough to make her a viable choice or even a worry to most players.
I see a sym attempt to close in on me I side step the barrier she throws and just shoot her. I know my damage will out duel her because she only gets 90 hp over 2 seconds and I have the free shots against her as she closes range before she locks.
With her extended range she will not be alone as she can hang back with her team instead of closing to 7m.
Sustain that will not be needed since her newly found range will allow her to engage at safer ranges. We are talking about Pharah speed projectiles that are LARGER then pharah’s projectiles. I think fast moving projectiles are better deterrents for snipers, turrets and stationary bastions.
I’ve never felt as a teammate “Thank god for that projected barrier”.
The majority of maps are NOT a minimum of 30m in diameters horizontally. That is a strawman if I have ever heard one. How are Pharah’s rockets ever useful then? They move at that speed as well but yet they allow Pharah to engage at mid to long ranges just fine.
Yes, these are all means of survival. However they are not the only means of survival. McCree has zero mobility, zero self heals, no means of baiting out abilities, no projected barrier, no auto aim outside his ult, yet he is doing fine.
This is just another sign that you are still trapped in the concept that she will be solely a short range character. That will no longer be the case. She will have mid to long range options as well. Giving her dexterity to switch between CQC when closed on and ranging the enemy when they fall back or hold range.
You will not be confined to just CQC. You will have range.
I’m on that weird boat that actually believes her current kit is not really weak, just severely misunderstood. Just tuning some of her numbers up probably would be enough to make her viable, just like they did with Mei.
But the major issue with Symmetra is that her fame is terrible, because of how underpowered she was at game release (and MANY players still believe some of her past limitations still apply, like “only good for point A defense”), and how easy it was for trolls to use her teleporter to grief her team, making people believe if you are picking Symmetra, you are trying to lure them into a pit. But this is a community issue, not a balance issue. Which is why I think the devs are changing her whole kit, to try to remove that perception from the community. And IMO, unless she gets overtuned to Valkyrie 1.0 levels of broken, I doubt that will be the case.
The only thing in Sanjay that is “more usefulness for the team” is the new teleporter. Everything else is pretty much “more damage”.
And the main problem I have with that approach is that I don’t see Symmetra’s character as a primary damage dealer. Alongside Mei and Mercy, she is the closest you have to a “civilian hero”, someone that have some special ability/weapon, but don’t focus that into battle as its primary use. Mercy character is about healing people hurt by the war. Mei is about fighting climate changes, and her short reveals she uses her weapon as a utility tool, not a killing tool. Symmetra focus her efforts into building a brighter future for everyone, and her comic reveals she is not found of the idea of killing people (unlike, Eg, Reinhardt or Junkrat show in their comics).
I can see she using her current beam as self-defense, and I can even see she “trying her best to not kill unless absolutely necessary”, with its ramp-up mechanics. Add to that the fact that the orb (which she used in the comic to STUN) is a better tool for 90% of the match, and the beam limited range, it plays within her lore. Giving her a face-melting weapon that incentives her to walk forward and melt people goes against the hero fantasy she is supposed to portrait.