If you were thinking of it as we put it in the choak and hope they don’t walk though, I can see how it isn’t great. Thankfully it can be used for so much more.
Hooray. The game needs more shields
5000 HP is a lot of HP for even Junkrat & Soldier to widdle down. What do you expect their other 4 team members to do? Engage the enemy 4v6? Do you think the enemy team will just sit idly by and let them do that? I think not.
I mean…they could help bring the shield down
I don’t think the enemy team will have any power to do anything about it if the barrier crosses the whole map, just walk away and shoot it with 0 threat.
Doesn’t sombra EMP just delete it?
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Lets put a shield on a shield, with a shield on a shield shield.
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I forgot about that lol
Well I see utility in the new ult. Instead of using it like a Rein or Orisa barrier to block chokes, you could use it to split objectives in half and give your team cover to weave in and out of. A giant barrier in the middle of the point is basically a giant obstacle blocking all enemy fire and consequently reducing the effective space they can work in.
Not to mention while it’s active it would hard-counter the ultimates of Pharah, D.Va, Reinhardt, and McCree and it can also be a soft-counter to Zen, since it will block discord orb, and Moira because she won’t be able to effectively recharge her healing while it’s up.
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It opens up a lot of opportunity for the defender to spread out and shoot at the attacker from safety. It’s like having a massive Reinhardt to stand behind. It’ll work well on high ground on maps like Lunar Colony.
And as other said, you can also put it straight down the middle of a point and dance around the barrier. You can shoot thru it, your enemy can’t.
I think we play the game differently. 5000HP is a lot to work though. I’ve played some Junkrat and got a pretty good feel how much work it takes to knock down barriers depending on who it belongs to. Even with help, some barriers still feel like oppressive to remove. Sure, a giant shield would grant more opputunity to take it down, but if you send 2 teammates to ‘safely’ attack, the other 4 members are doing what?
and I’m saying anyone who plays this game long enough will know something is up. I’m sure Symmetra would see her barrier is being attacked, but if all of the other team is attacking it, they aren’t capturing the point or moving the payload. That’s precious time wasted.
If they go with your method of leaving 1 or 2 members to safely attack the barrier, that leaves the rest of their team at a man disadvantage, which seriously hinders their chances at winning the team fight.
But as someone suggested earlier, all it’ll probably take to really get rid of a barrier quickly is a Sombra EMP to knock it out.
I’m inclined to believe this. I reckon a smart Symmetra player can make some pretty impactful plays with it.
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I just ran some calculations based on what will probably be one of the most optimal 2/2/2 comps to take down this ult. It consists of Bastion, Junkrat, Orisa, Dva, Mercy, and Zenyatta. Not a super unusual comp I think. It would take this comp a total of about 5 seconds of complete focus using their maximum possible damage output without ults to deal 5000 combined damage. I assume perfect accuracy for everything because on a barrier this size that will be easy enough to accomplish, and I also take into account reloading time.
Of worthy note is that Whole Hog alone does 5000 damage over 6 seconds with 100% pellets.
Not sure how useful this info is but I was just curious to see what the results would be. I can share my calculations if anyone is interested. I don’t claim that this is 100% error-free.
I think it will be a game changer for two cp defense teams. Essentially elminating poke potential for the attacking team, allowing the defense to gain a significant ult advantage.
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In a competitive environment (OWL) they only need to get one pick to make it worth it,
You can walk through shields. Two words. Dive comp.
Mercy + bastion. Shield deleted in 20 seconds
Even with Bastion involved, that would waste a lot of time assuming the barrier is being used for the benefit of the team and not just wantonly wasted. There’s also the issue of forcing team comps for the explicit purpose of defeating this ONE thing, which is something I thought we’ve already learned our lesson on considering the many problems we’ve had in the past with Genji’s 8-second blade (reduced to 6 seconds because it forced team comps centered around saving many hero’s ultimates just to deal with it) and Mercy’s original rework (3 tempo-rezes on limitless flying, unlimited beam range and rapid movement speed made it nearly impossible to win team fights unless your team was composed in such a way that allowed you to deal with her directly, or also chose Mercy to have like-advantages).
What I’m saying is, if there’s some level of utility that one hero alone can bring that can force an entire team to redo their team composition just so they can deal with it, it shouldn’t be in the game. And a 5,000 HP barrier that effectively splits the fight in half for only one team has plenty of potential to do exactly that.
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Thats my point as well. In an ideal situation you can get 4 people to attack it while your 2 support heal up your team, but you’re not even going to get that chance because your enemy will have range attacks on you as well. Even if both are already fighting close range, it’ll screw up so many things.
Sym can predict soldier or mccree or pharah’s position to block ult, force them to cross the shield to be unsafe, blocking sniper’s LOS is also great, feel safe to play with sym’s shield you know, I think it’s been underrated.