[MEGATHREAD] Symmetra 3.0

Below, a list of the contemporary Symmetra threads can be found, alongside their major arguments. Effectively, a vast majority of Symmetra players are either (1) happy with the rework conceptually, but disappointed with its outcome, (2) happy with the rework conceptually, but demanding QOL changes, or (3) unhappy with the rework conceptually, and unhappy with its outcome.

It is undeniable that Symmetra’s position has not shifted too dramatically in the metagame; previous sub .6% pickrates have raised slightly, and a once astronomical winrate fell dramatically. Thusly, the purpose of the rework was known to all - to make Symmetra more viable on attack, and more skill-based as a hero.

A few suggested tweaks (that I am a proponent of) include:

  • Lower Ult cost for more frequent wall deployments combined with a reduced wall duration (1000 cost, 10s duration),
  • More consistent primary fire by either increasing its charge uptime, reducing its charge time amount, or a modification of its damage table (100/140/180)
  • Faster TP placement to allow instant graviton escapes
  • Turret range buff to 12m and better turret AI so that it discriminates when designating targets based upon who you’re firing at (as Sym)
  • A passive that grants Sym3 temporary shields when she connects with her primary fire, akin to Doomfist. This change would not be advisable alongside a consistency buff to the primary fire’s damage.

I didn’t mention it because I couldn’t find the exact statistical reference, but this certainly is the case. It was around .86% on PC and 1.2% on consoles.

(For some reason Symmetra has a higher pickrate on consoles (average of 1.8x higher); this effect is most probably a result of how easy it is to get value out of the turrets.)

The first thread I’ll present is the most useful, as it contains a majority of the discussion on the subject of Sym3. This thread has over 1,000 replies and does a good job of illuminating both sides of the discussion.

A discussion of how the revival of Pharah will further destroy Sym3’s chances to be useful on many points.

A thread about the absolutely disgraceful state of Sym3’s primary fire, and why it makes the kit feel so damn awful to play.

An essential thread; a discussion of what went wrong with the Sym3 rework and how to fix it.

A longer thread with over 400 posts and a (somewhat condescending) staff repsonse.

Symmetra’s voice lines were removed for turret placements, but this is fixed as of 18-Sept-2018.

A small thread outlining disappointment in the new Symmetra, which, despite a low reply count, seems to accurately encompass how uncomfortable she feels to play.

A discussion of the Symmetra and Sombra changes. Though I am opinionated that Sombra was only buffed, this smaller thread offers some interesting… insights.

A discussion of a Symmetra main satisfied with Sym3, who still points out many needed QOL changes.

This thread continues to push the Symmetragenda, and describe the generic problems with Sym3’s kit.

The statistical problems with the Symmetra rework.

A thread of suggestions for the future of Sym3: Sym4.

A thread on the nature of Sym’s not being a true DPS hero.

A thread on the discussion of returning TP as an ultimate (I do not endorse this position).

A thread on many problems faced by Sym3, and ways to improve her.

A thread on the position of the Sym3 pros.

A(nother) thread on the nature of her primary fire.

Yet another thread on the State of Sym3.

Another analysis of Sym3…

A way to satisfy both Sym 2.0 loyalists and the new 3.0 crowd (which includes the devs)…

Jeff and the community are in accordance…

70 Likes

Thank you for listing my newest post, also old sym actaully has a table pickrate of 1 percent right before she was reworked because of her shield Gen with brig

This only happened with brigs addition to comp and tracers pulse bomb nerf made it so tracer couldn’t one shot old syms ult

So she was at her best before the rework

15 Likes

Sym & bas need salvation. I can sure.

2 Likes

What? I don’t follow…

Symmetra is still in a sour spot and it’s sad to see that apparently the devs think she’s fine

9 Likes

Honestly, I just miss her primary fires’ tracking. She feels really difficult to do damage with, especially if you played her prior to her rework. I miss being able to melt faces and counter flankers like Genji and Tracer.

It also doesn’t help theres no easy way to map a button to interact with her teleporter. To be honest, the fact you even need a special “interact” button seems like an oversight by the developers. It makes those of us who use a controller to play really dislike playing her or seeing her on our team. She’s just an inconvenient hero now

13 Likes

If a Rework like this was applied to, oh say most DPS heroes (Hanzo, McCree, Genji) there would be rioting in the streets. Symmetra 1.0 was good, for starting out in the Support pool. Symmetra 2.0 was markedly better but could use some improvements. Symmetra 3.0… WTF were “THEY” thinking?
This is kinda what the Mercy Rework did, but in REVERSE. Making Symmetra more of a Troll pick than she ever was.
I’ve played Symmetra since the Free Weekend before Release, an I have got to say that THIS Rework is the worst thing I have ever seen aside from the Mercy Rework and 14 Nerfs. Scratch that, it IS markedly worst.

5 Likes

Why? I play on console and the interact feature isn’t bad at all.

I would prefer (90/150/180). Symmetra’s beam has always done damage in multiples of 30.

Posted this in another thread.

Nah. That needed to go. There was nothing skillful about her old gun.

3 Likes

Let me guess, you think ONLY aiming is skillful. Not situational awareness or any other skills the game employs, just aiming. You like that kind of play, CS-GO is THAT WAY ===>
An I hate to tell you this, but Symmetra HAD to aim to begin with, so your comment is invalid. Next?

14 Likes

How is my comment invalid? Oh it differs to yours therefore I am wrong. Sorry, but Symm’s gun should never go back to where it was. It required no aim at all and outputted so much damage. No way. Aiming is skill, sure there are different aspects to skill. But you cannot deny, aiming is a pretty large factor when talking about skill.

You can’t just disregard that. It’s way more important that ‘situational awareness’. Symmetra’s old gun was easy to use, high reward and just the most annoying thing to get away from.

3 Likes

As I am also a person who obsesses over small details, I know exactly how you feel about that. But I think that this is a very unstable distribution. Also, 160 is NOT a multiple of 30. And if you meant 90/150/180, that makes the distribution too top-heavy. The reason I would suggest 100/140/180 is that you get consistent damage across the board (with the mean 66% accuracy).

1 Like

I meant 150. Sorry.

I wouldn’t disagree with you here. The objective isn’t for it to delete people, but for it to do something other than to barriers (literally everything shreds barriers nowadays). So I think either a more consistent damage table (with the same maximum) or a passive that grants shielding will help her a lot! Otherwise, why even bother having the primary?

6 Likes

Blah, blah blah, not listening are you? THIS GAME WAS FOR ALL PEOPLE, not just for those people who are great at shooting.

  1. Just like Mercy, “THEY” RIP apart Symmetra’s identity. No longer can you do long range Teleports. So much for having your entire team Back-cap the point.
  2. No one had troubles with Mercy or Rez till the Streamers complained about it. No one had problems with Symmetra’s lock on gun, but now THAT is gone. Probably because someone like xQc or Seagul doesn’t like lock on weapons [Reference Mercy].

Anyone else seeing a pattern here? Now, lets see… You hardly play Symmetra in Quickplay, an NEVER in Competitive. Yet we are to take your word over everyone else (an YEAH, I quit playing months ago). Yes, it was annoying to get away from, so is Junkrat’s grenades/mines, Widowmaker’s poison/head-shots, Zenyatta’s Discord Orb, Tracer getting on your tail and continually blowing you out of the water, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on, but if they changed THOSE Hero’s abilities to make them less annoying to other heroes, the Magic that MADE the hero GREAT (or at least in Symmetra’s case VIABLE) would be gone.
Take away Tracer’s ability to dash so much (change it from 3 to 1 dash), an she would be a lot less viable wouldn’t she?
Or just take away her Recall, OOPS not as easy to survive attacks or be as good at attacking.
Her Gun is what made Symmetra Viable and able to survive against flankers. Now you have to have pinpoint aim 90% of the time to even go from level 1 to level 2. McCree, to use another Hero (though it works with EVERY other DPS), doesn’t have that problem. If he misses 1 shot his next shot is STILL at full strength. Not Symmetra’s, the damage output drops immediately so she is less viable. It was 1 part of her identity, and it was taken away from her. Do that to any other Hero and people would blow up the forums, just like they did with Hanzo’s “Scatter” arrows. That is till the replacement for “Scatter” was found to be more damaging. Symmetra’s gun, nope the exact reverse happened it is harder to get the full power out of it so people are complaining about it. IF, like all other DPS, it started out at FULL Power, instead of having to ramp up like the original design of Symmetra’s gun has done since pre-release, then some of the complaints might go away.
BUT just like Mercy, Symmetra’s Ult has been put on her “E” ability but unlike Mercy it seems to have gone through the 14 Nerfs from the get go. It is buggy, it doesn’t have as much distance, it is very situational. No wonder so many people are complaining about this MESS of a Rework.

14 Likes

Don’t play symmetra - just some ideas I’ve had floating around in my head

Using teleporter give shields.
Up tele’s health.
Drop the cooldown for turrets by a couple of seconds.

New megathread? rubs hands together
Let’s do this baby.

I will say outright my main desires for Sym’s rework currently, what I feel would make her perfect, are the following:

  • Increase tickrate to 5 per second. (Zarya’s is 5.5, this would help Symmetra with consistency but slightly hurt her against armor. But considering she has a discount junkrat gun for alternate fire, I think thats a low price to pay)
  • Level 1 charge to Level 2 charge should only take 1 second, Level 2 to 3 should take 2 seconds
  • Decrease the cost for Photon Barrier by 200 points (For the amount of value is gives, it should cost less. its not a bad ultimate, but its value is very static)
  • Increase Symmetra’s HP to 250 (125hp/125 shields)

Also, quoting Stevo, “When your team doesn’t need TP Symmetra is underpowered… but when they need TP Symmetra’s overpowered as F***”

2 Likes

It’s a first person shooter. What did you expect?

Because lock on weapons are easy to use. They require no mechanical skill what so ever, and we need less easy heroes and more harder heroes. You shouldn’t get rewarded for holding M1. The only reason Brigitte is different is because she outputs little damage, meanwhile, Symmetra was dealing loads of damage.

Because I have good taste. But seriously, I don’t need to play Symmetra a lot to know her gun was annoying. In fact, you didn’t need to play her at all. All you needed to do was play against her. Lock on is never good, for any hero. Sorry, you have to aim now.

Why are you still here complaining about a change that happened ages ago then? Move on with your life.

Easily avoidable. There’s no escape from Symmetra once she’s locked on if you’ve got no mobility you’re screwed. Her range was ridiculous as well.

Widow’s headshots require aim. I don’t see Symmetra’s old gun requiring the same? Exactly. And you can easily avoid Widow’s headshots. Zen’s discord doesn’t deal damage to you, it doesn’t require much of a brain to realise when he discords you just go stand behind a wall for a couple seconds.

These are just terrible ‘examples’ to excuse the fact you want an easy lock on weapon. Well no. All the characters you stated above require at least some skill, old Symmetra? None. Everything was done for her. If you’re going to compare her to other heroes, at least make a decent argument. You’ve only managed to show me how ridiculous her gun was, and the fact you just don’t want to have to aim.

Because they were their primary weapons? Symmetra could have easily had a weapon change to a non lock her like EVERY other hero.

I don’t see why you’re comparing blink to a lock on weapon.

These are bad arguments.

No it wasn’t. It was what made her annoying. And she can survive against flankers, if you’re good.

Awww. So does every other hero. Get over it.

Yes, but again. He needs to AIMMM. And plus, he’s a hitscan. Symmetra has a beam. Making it 10 times easier to do anything. And once it gets to level 2, it outputs a lot of damage.

You are comparing Symmetra’s gun to random abilities. Every other hero needed to aim, so does yours now. Adapt or don’t play. Simple. She could use some buffs, but not to her gun. It’s time OW started being about skill, rather than luck and not having to have any skill to carry.

2 Likes