TLDR - It’s pretty good and with some tweaks it can be better.
Introduction
Symmetra is my favourite Melee Support 
Sorry Brigitte, I love you too but Sym is my most-played hero and I have put way too many hours into her. Too many to admit.
One of Symmetra’s Abilities is the Photon Barrier, where Symmetra casts an Elliptical-shaped Barrier that has 1000 hp and moves forward at your regular movement speed.
So you can cast this and walk behind it and it will protect you from the front as you walk forward.
Now recently, I am seeing a lot of people suggesting that we should remove this ability and replace it with another one.
And to replace it they often suggest some plain and boring ability, which is too weak to really be a fair trade for the Photon Barrier.
So I am making this thread to discuss Photon Barrier and how good it really is, because many people underestimate its power.
I am also going to talk about where it can be weak, and suggest ways to improve it, in case the Devs decide to buff Symmetra’s power level.
So let’s get right into it -
The Strengths of the Photon Barrier
1. Photon Barrier allows you to play more Aggressively and be more Offensive.
- Symmetra is a Melee hero and Melee heroes require protective skills like Photon Barrier in order to be more aggressive (or else they need a lot of Hard CC and Mobility)
- So Photon Brrier is Symmetra’s personal shield as she wraps a noose around your neck and fries it.
- Without Photon Barrier, Symmetra would be severely limited in her offensive potential. Photon Barrier, Shield and Tele allows Symmetra to playmore risky and I think they are crucial parts of her kit.
2. Photon barrier allows you to protect the front line from all the way in the back.
- Symmetra is squishy and sometimes or often (depending on how you play) you want to be positioned in the backline, near or behind your healer.
- Photon Barrier is a moving Barrier so you can be behind your team and you can protect the front line but throwing a barrier towards them.
- The Barrier will move and protect them while you are all the way in the back.
3. With Photon Barrier, you can protect Allies who are disengaging really well.
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You can protect disengaging allies by throwing the Barrier at them while they run back to you.
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If someone overextends and need to run back, Photon Barrier is really good for that. The barrier will continue to protect them as they successfully disengage behind a corner or a stationary Barrier.
4. Photon Barrier is really good at shutting down some Ults and blocking others.
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You can cast it at McCree Ult and as it moves towards him, it covers more and more of his field of view and prevents him from doing damage.
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You can cast it at Pharah and not only block her damage but also deal damage back to her, since Photon Barrier will move right into her face , this will cause her to damage herself.
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You can cast it an Tracer’s Pulse Bomb and send it flying back to her face.
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You can block Rein Earthshatters witha Barrier that touches the ground. You can also prevent Rein from Earthshattering, while you are standing all the way in the backlines. When you send this flying forward towards him, it will block his Earthshatter if he casts it.
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You can block D.Va Ult, Bastion Ult, Soldier Ult, all kinds of Ults with Photon Barrier.
6. WIth Photon Barrier you can shut down Sniper Sight lines.
- Since the Photon Barrier moves, it takes up more and more of a Sniper field of vision, thereby shutting their sightline down for a while.
7. Photon Barrier can block all kinds of CC and Burst damage.
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About to fight McCree? cast Photon Barrier and block his Flashbang
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About to get Hooked? Nope. Cast your barrier.
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About to fight Soldier? Let him shoot a few bullets and then cast the Barrier to block the incoming Helix Rockets.
8. It has really good Frontal pressure, which makes it good for pushing up.
-A friendly Soldier is about to Ult? Send him off with a Photon Barrier and watch people as they scurry away from from an invincible Soldier.
- Your team is about to Push? Cast a Photon Barrier and push from behind it.
So
Photon Barrier is really useful in the right situations.
So I don’t want to see it removed because it allows for really powerful maneuvers, which stationary barriers cannot do.
But despite its strengths it does have many weaknesses.
The Weaknesses of Photon Barrier
1. Its shape gives way to firing from off-angles.
- It is a flat Ellipse shape, people can fire from above, below, and from the sides very easily.
-When you are using it to make a Push, this can be a problem at the Defense is unlikely to all be standing in one cluster. Some of the Defense will be standing all over the place, 1 in high ground, 1 off to the side.
2. It is bad in close-quarters.
- Since it moves only in 1 direction, you can side step it if you are dueling a Symmetra.
- You can also just move through it if you are someone like Reaper.
- Since the Photon Barrier casts a few feet away from Symmetra, you can still damage Symmetra if you are in her face.
3. The cooldown is 10 seconds, which is too long.
- Now a 10 second cooldown isn’t that long but due to the weaknesses of the Photon Barrier, it feels like a really long cooldown.
- Since the Photon Barrier can be easily countered in close-quarters and since Symmetra is a Melee hero, you can see the problem here…
- The Photon Barrier’s effective protection in close-quarter is often less than 1 second of protection.
- So with <1 s of protection, the 10 second cooldown can feel super long
Improvements to the Photon Barrier
Of course, Photon Barrier should have some weaknesses, I don’t think any ability should be super good all the time.
However here are some ways to improve Photon Barrier and alleviate some of its weaknesses that make it feel better to play outside of the situations in which it is strong.
1. Shape of the Photon Barrier should be Bigger and Curve Around the Person behind it a bit.
- This way it will protect the person behind it from off-angles in a better way.
- We saw this change applied to Orisa’s Barrier along with a lower cooldown, which put her in the meta.
2. The Barrier should spawn closer to the player.
- The Photon Barrier must immediately protect Symmetra from the Front when it spawns.
- If Symmetra’s Hit-box clips out of the barrier when it is too close, then the Barrier Block-box should be thicker when it first spawns. Thinning to normal size, right after.
3. The Cooldown of the Barrier should be reduced.
Disclaimer - if all these changes listed in the improvement section are made simultaneously, then these Cooldown Reduction suggestions are too much cooldown reduction, and are broken.
The numbers here given in case only the Cooldown is reduced and nothing else is changed.
Damage Blocker
The Cooldown of the Barrier is reduced by 1s for every 100 damage it takes. The Cooldown of the Barrier is reset when the Barrier is destroyed.
- This way the more damage you block with the Barrier, the more you can spam it. Thus you can block even more damage. But when you spam it at a Sniper far away, the Barrier is less likely to be spammed, thus keeping the Barrier fair-play for the Sniper.
Additional Charge
Symmetra has 2 Charges of Photon Barrier at 10s Cooldown.
- This way she has two occasions where she can protect herself.
Barrier After Barrier
Photon Barrier has 2s cooldown BUT only 1 Barrier can be out at any given time. Casting Photo Barrier again destroys the previous Barrier.
- This way you can use Photon Barrier every 2 seconds but you may not spam Barriers at Snipers. I like this suggestion a lot, since I can use the Barrier much more frequently than in any other suggestion!
Aggressive Barrier
Photon Barrier Cooldown is reduced by 1s for every 100 damage Symmetra deals.
- This is an aggressive Barrier because the cooldown is tied to Symmetra’s damage.
- When you have that Beam locked on, the longer you stay in battle the more vulnerable you are. Having this Aggressive Barrier would allow Symmetra to deal damage and be able to defend herself more frequently.
4. Allow Symmetra to manipulate the Barrier with Her Gun
Personal Shield
Holding E delays the movement on the Barrier by 2s.
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This is like a 2s personal shield, like a pseuo-Reinshield. You hold E, the barrier stays in position in front of you for 2s, after which you can no longer hold it and it is automatically released, travelling forward in the direction you are facing at the time of release. So Press E to send out Barrier as normal, Hold E to keep it in front of you for 2s.
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Allowing Symmetra to hold the Barrier with her gun, only for a bit and change the direction of it, at the cost of fire power, will help alleviate the weaknesses of the Photon Barrier.
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She can’t do it indefinitely just for a second or two and gain the advantage of protection from off-angles and gain a larger window of protection.
So a high level Sym could throw out a barrier, fry the person behind it then turn the Barrier and go for someone else.
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This increases the Skill Ceiling of the Photon Barrier and Symmetra overall.
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As long as the Barrier is within 7m range, she’d be able to manipulate it with her weapon using the E button.
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This maintains the current functions, the current Strengths of the Barrier, while making the Barrier more versatile of an ability and allows high level Syms to get more use out of the it.
This maintains the identity of the Barrier as a Moving Barrier.
-I think it is important that the Barrier is not made to be a stationary Barrier like Orisa, as many people suggest. I don’t think that is the right way to do change it.
In addition it brings in the telekinetic properties of her gun into her kit and allows her to manipulate the Barrier after casting it.
I thought of this idea months ago but shrugged it off, but the more I think about this idea, the more it grows on me.
With this type of Personal barrier, I don’t think the cooldown needs to be reduced all that much, if at all.
This type of Barrier with an 8s, or even the current 10s cooldown, will be fine.
That’s all my thoughts for now. Thank you all for reading!
For an in-depth discussion of Symmetra’s Core Identity and how her Skills should be changed according to that identity, Check out -
For an in-depth discussion of Symmetra’s Weapon, Abilities and Ultimate and their strengths and weakness and 11 ways that Symmetra can be buffed, Check out -