A small nerf to a niche use of the ability in exchange for another powerful new ability in addition to Photon Barrier staying the same. If heroes like Phara killed themselves on self-damage before breaking the reverse-Zarya barrier, it wouldnât be allowed, and if it had extremely low health it would be virtually useless for killing enemies with self-damage anyway. Iâd rather have another way to CC enemies than a once in ten games way to make a dumb Phara kill herself during an ult that sheâd probably be killed out of anyway.
Well since the identity of the Photon Barrier is that it is a moving Barrier, anything that makes it stationary removes the Barriers identity, while making it like Orisa Barrier.
However if you made the Barrier so that it only stops for like 1-2s while it is within 7m range in front of you and you are able to manipulate it, use it to block different angles and change its direction, then it becomes a lot more interesting, than a stationary barrier.
That will be a lot more balanced.
I think a reverse Zarya barrier is quite a solid and unique ability idea.
Essentially it removes a hero from the fight for a few seconds.
It is an annoying ability but if the cooldown isnât too low and if it has breakable health then I think it wouldnât be so bad to play against.
I think you could create a Healer based on this mechanic.
When your allies shoot the Enemy with the Barrier they are healed.
So enemies can negate healing by destroying the Barrier early.
This healer would also have another Barrier that they place on Allies, which if enemies shoot at it, give that Ally healing.
Another ability they could have is a âGenerate Forcefieldâ, either an Ult or some kind of channeled ability, slowly generate a Barrier around themselves a stationary spherical barrier that grows in size as long as the ability is channeled and the Barrier has more than 0 health.
Allies inside the Barrier are healed while enemies inside the barrier take Damage over time.
These could be some of the abilities of the Barrier-based Healer.
There Barriers would all be breakable levels of HP.
Yea I think they jumped the gun on that one.
I donât see how thatâs luck. 
I think making the Barrier temporary is a good way of negating itâs anti-fun characteristics.
Itâs actually a pretty powerful form of CC, since you are removing heroes from Battle temporarily, and that also what makes it anti-fun but you will have to test various types of this barrier to see whether it feels ok to play against.
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skills :3 but timing and luck is still crucial
and zaryaâs barrier only last 2s so her barrier sphere can last 2s too, or maybe 3, so even if its good, it take skills to detect what to protect and what to zone
I also use barrier to give Orisa some breathing time when enemies are focusing fire on her barrier at a choke. It helps to give her cooldown a little more time if she needs it. Same for Reins shield if it breaks. Good writeup! ![:smile:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/smile.png?v=5" ":smile:")
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Honestly as someone whoâs mained Sym since launch. He mentioned far too many pros then cons. It is a weak ability, and it being better then turrets goes to show just how weak Symmetraâs kit is.
The ability is very niche and most of the time only benefits the Symmetra player themselves, and even then just barely.
It needs lots of love or it needs to be trashed.
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I love it. Get to work Blizzard.
Iâm not quoting so as to keep this short, sorry.
The problem with PB is while it works very well for Sym protecting herself in a 1v1 type fight it is objectively worse than other abilities for defending a team. If you use it to cover your team moving, itâs path is clear from the moment you cast it, telegraphing your actions. Its difficult to pull back if the push isnât going to work as well, for example you caste it move forward and then a sniper picks your Mercy who failed to keep up, you will now lose the fight and cannot easily fallback as you sed your cover, this doesnât exist with other barriers. The high speed means your team have to be ready nd following or get left behind and that is what makes it harder to use reliably.
You cannot deactivate it and reuse it in a short time so it can be more easily bated than a Rein barrier while being less versatile. Yes you may block the hog hook, but he gets it back first. Rein meanwhile can block a Dva bomb and still use his barrier right after, making it better.
Obviously it has its moments just less than Rein, Orisa and Zarya but not enough, they arenât that consistent and they tend to defend her rather than the team, which isnât great. Combine that with her turrets being sooo easy to kill, counter and just ineffective and how is she really supporting the team? Her ult is alright but Iâd rather have Zen or Lucioâs who can do way more to support the team outside ult as well, why would you ever pick Sym over them unless your a Sym main.
Upping itâs CD is a bad idea as the spam would be horrid, no one would want to play against Sym, not because sheâd be strong but because her play style would be so toxic and unfun it would hurt the game, they need to balance her without killing enjoyment for everyone else. Thatâs means an ability that probably has less potential when used perfectly but can be used more often and is more consistently useful, two things that do not describe PB.
She needs to be made more of a support so as to actually help her team and IMHO the best way to do that (with minimal changes) is swap PB for something that actually supports people, like a cast barrier that can provide more reliable protection more often. The turrets are more key to her kit than PB and could be tweaked to work better but PB just doesnât feel right for a support which is her problem, she doesnât support enough and parts of her kit that donât have real support potential need to be looked at. Like it or not she is not viable most of the time right now, changes are needed and they need to make her worth picking over a Zen, Lucio or now Brigitte and that means more support stuff, less engage like a tank for a high dmg 1v1 melee that isnât that useful most of the time.
Yea it can be a great supplementary Barrier to throw out in between other other Barriers.
It can also supplement other Barriers by blocking at off-angles at which the other Barriers are not blocking at.
If you are being shot at from the both the low ground and high ground, and your Tank is protecting from the low ground , then you can send your up to the high ground and cover that.
It is alsow works very well for protecting anyone with you in these small skirmishes.
In these small skirmishes, the Primary strength of the Barrier is to block burst damage and CC from your opponents.
It is not there to prevent all persistent forms of damage.
What are these other abilities that we are talking about?
Certainly Brigitteâs Repair kit isnât as good at protecting the team as Photon Barrier.
People suggested things like that for Symmetra but Symmetraâs photon Barrier is far superior at blocking damage for the whole team than an overshield for 1 team member.
Yes and if Lucio speed boosts during the push, you will lose the Barriers.
See the Improvement section in OP on how I tackle all these issues while maintaining the identity if the Photon Barrier as a moving Barrier.
Yes it does.
Winston and Orisa barriers are also on cooldown. So you cannot fallback easily, until they get their Barrier back.
Brigitteâs Barrier is too narrow for protecting your team.
The only barrier in the game that is flexible in the way your are describing is Reinhardtâs Barrierand that is because he carries it around.
it is definitely easy to bait and once baited youâre vulnerable for 10s.
See the Improvement Section in the OP on Cooldown Reduction.
What do you think about the suggested improvements to Photon Barrier?
I am 100% sure that Photon Barrier will be removed in her upcoming rework. Removed or drastically reworked into something different,
Again Iâm not quoting to try and keep this short, sorry again.
The other abilities I was talking about are the barriers so Orisa, Winston, Rein and now Brigitte. Brigitteâs is still new so harder to talk about but is clearly just for her and works well as a personal barrier but isnât designed to keep the team alive and so is weak there but since thats not its job its fine. Winstons is not for defense but attack, plop it on the enemy for a few moments of total shut down, it isnât for defending a team but bringing chaos, which it is great for. Rein we agreed works well. Orisa can easily defend with her barrier, just camp in a secure spot with it but also use it for pushes, firing it far forward as cover till you reach it (moving at your own pace) and caste a new one. It also can be used in a fight to divide enemies, force them to move and help the team.
Now we have Sym which I think is best decribed as Orisaâs but worse. The fact it moves means it isnât there long enough. In a fight Orisaâs barrier shuts down an angle for a while and forces the enemy to work around it or focus fire it but Syms can easily be waited out and doesnât force the enemy to move around it as well or as easily. It also is worse for a push forward as it sets the pace of the team, you have to go right now and cannot pause. With Orisaâs if your pushing and a flanker comes out you can stop to deal with them and still be protected while you do, that doesnât work with Sym as the team have to play around the function of the barrier, rather than the barrier being flexible enough to work outside its ideal use or when the plan comes apart.
Lowering the CD would help this but her being able to just spam moving barriers out would really suck and could kinda turn into old Dva DM, with her just throwing it out so often to eat so much dmg and killing off any ranged attacks too easily, just look at her in total mayhem or low CD customs, so I donât think itâs CD can be lowered unless you massively drop the barrier strength which would open it to new problems.
It also doesnât fix the fundamental problem that it moving is really a hindrance. What makes Orisa or Rein great is their barrier is around long enough that you can play around it for a while and really get a lot of use out of them, Symâs however is very good (if you use it right which is hard) but only for a moment before its moved on and isnât helping anyone. To contrast with Winston if he puts his on top of you you have to move quite far to shoot around it, it will still block more angles or you have to focus fire it, Symâs however you can move just a little to the side to get an angle on people, wait it out in close range or push through it fairly easily making it much less of an inconvenience than his because its bigger and sits still. That short range close distance for Sym and maybe 1-2 others is fine, but it is too exposed for a big 4-5 member push and just isnât as flexible in use as the others so it worse.
Things like repair kit arenât for defending a team, i was talking about barriers but hers is an example of an ability that can work on a lower CD without being either OP or no fun. As a result it is more consistent and you get more use out of it so over the course of an entire game I actually would call it a better team defense ability, though it is no way an in the moment team defense ability like Sym or Orisa.
While Winston and Orisaâs barrierâs are on CD as well Winstons isnât as good for falling back but itâs size means you canât run through it easily so has some utility at this. It is best though if he stays with the barrier causing disruption, your team runs and he then jumps away a little later. Orisaâs barrier being strong and static can be fired then you run away behind it and it will block most damage, the way it fails is if the enemy run through it but it still buys time. Sym however could stay like a Winston would but canât survive herself without movement so thatâs not great. The barrier isnât big enough for great cover or covering from any angle like Winstons. It also by moving will not defend you as long as Orisaâs, the enemy can run through it much faster and it will buy much less time for an escape. The only way it works is if the team run, you sty behind, fire it then outrun it so it follows you which Iâm not even sure is possible, is hard to do and will almost always get you killed even if the team might escape. This is why it is objectively worse despite needing a bigger CD so as to still make the game fun. Its a bad ability.
Your improvement not a bad idea but is flawed. It makes the barrier too complex and user unfriendly as you have to do things to manipulate it, which opens more room for mistakes like not holding down long enough. 2 seconds of barrier doesnât seem like long enough to make that much of a difference, 4 would be better at which point your starting t copy Rein only its worse, any more changes and weâre starting to sound OP here. Having her use a barrier that moves only not when you hold the button then its still but only for a bit then it moves and you canât fire when you do this is just bad design. Winston you press a button and a bubble barrier is placed, Orisa you press a button and a barrier flies out, lands and thatâs it. Rein and Brigitte, hold a button for a barrier you move with but more slowly, can easily turn it on or off too whenever. That is good design.
If I had to keep PB but could change it iâd start by making it more curved like and umbrella shape to protect the sides better (it would spawn so the front is directly in front of you and the sides are already extending just behind you) and make it move a bit slower. Youâd lose some potential to rapid push there but it would become much easier to use as a way to get an entire team across a fire zone. It still wouldnât be my first choice but it would actually work the way it is meant to then rather than just being something to give you an edge in 1v1âs.
Edit: Sorry i accidentally sent this before I finished writing. Also sorry despite not quoting this was long AF.
Shnobz
That will be a big mistake. All the ideas I am seeing as replacements are not as strong as photon barrier.
Except for 1, where a guy suggested that pressing E should give a mini Photon Barrier to everyone (including Symmetra) around a certain radius of Symmetra.
So a personalized Photon Barrier for everyone.
Zippity
This is because Rein and Orisa are meant to be Anchor Tanks.
Symmetra isnât supposed to anchor the team around her with her Barrier (maybe with her Turrets but no her Barrier)
Her Barrier is to prevent Burst Damage and CC.
You say Orisaâs cuts off one angle, and so does Symmetra, except Symmetraâs cut off is temporary.
You say Winstonâs Barrier is to Attack not be an anchor point for team, and this is correct.
Symmetraâs Barrier is more like a Winston barrier in that regard, becuase her Barrier too is for Offensive usage.
You can throw it out and have the allies use it as cover.
However Symmetraâs Barrier is not meant to be a replacement to a Tankâs barrier.
So you are not going to line up behind it like Rein shield and do poke battles.
Thatâs not the purpose of the Barrier⊠clearly.
The Barrier reliably prevents Burst Damage and CC, and thatâs what it is for.
Lowering the CD is a perfectly fine way to Buff the Barrier becuase it moves!
Everything you said is the problem with a moving Barrier,( all of those things I agree with btw) make it balanced with a lower Cooldown!
Yea it blocks 1 angle temporarily whereas ORisaâs barrier blocks it permanently.
Yea you can move through it or side step it.
Yea you can simply attack from off-angles.
Thatâs why lower cooldown can be balanced on Photon Barrier!!
A lower cooldown Photon Barrier nothing like DM, donât even pretend they are remotely the same.
In fact, the buffs I suggested for Photon barrier are carbon copy of buffs that Developers implemented on Orisaâs Barrier, in order to make it viable.
I donât know if you were there, but there was a time when Orisaâs Barrier was garbage.
So the Devs enlarged it and gave it more a curve to make it protect against off-angles a bit better.
And they reduced the Cooldown on Orisaâs Barrier.
The cooldown on Orisaâs Barrier is low enough so that she always has a Barrier out.
The same should be done with Symmetraâs Barrier.
It should be enlarged, made to be more curved, and have a lower cooldown, so it can be spammed more frequently.
Because right now it in most cases it offer less than 1s of protection.
It needs a serious cooldown reduction if thatâs all thatâs done.
And in the OP, I suggested ways to implement cooldown reduction into it, that donât lead to a Barrier spam.
Look at the full picture. Yes there are problems with the Barrier BUT fixing its shape and lowering the cooldown alleviate most of them.
Pressing E to launch the barrier and Holding E to hold it, is not âtoo complexâ and âuser-unfriendlyâ lol.
Itâs about as simple as it can be.
I donât think you know how long 2s really is in Overwatch.
Itâs an eternity.
Right now the Barrier is good in CQC for less than a second. So 2s is plenty of time.
And it is about the same duration as a Zarya Barrier, which I think is a good Barrier.
In the last paragraph, you basically just restated the change I had suggested in the OP.
Enlarging and curving the Barrier alongside lower cooldown and the ability to hold the Barrier temporarily, will make Photon Barrier a potent Barrier.
It will still retain its weaknesses as a moving Barrier, which it should! But it will make Photn Barrier stronger at what it does and thus improve Symmetraâs power level.
The problem with symmetra is she is a support character. Other than her ultimates she provides little utility. Her turrets are one hit and you get very little use with her photon barrier. yeah it can block ults and cc, but its good for max 2 seconds and then its useless and on a long cooldown. She needs some kind of barrier supportive ability to protect herself and her teammates.
- it gets destroyed when comes in contact with walls and stuff
- moves 1 direction only
- long cooldown for some reason
- you canât control where it goes
Clearly we arnât going to agree so this will be my last reply
My basic issues with Sym are that for a hero that requires very little aim, a passive ult and passive turrets she should be maybe not low skill but simple to use, and that if fine btw. Her barrier however adds some complexity, which is also fine but making it even more complex with this you can hold it for a while if you want but not that long just doesnât gel with the rest of her imho. Her buff probably needs to up the potential/basic skill requirement for the rest of her kit rather than PB.
Your right that her barrier is not an anchor type ability. My issue is that a big barrier like that should be an anchor and is better if it is an anchor, thatâs the problem. The reason I compared it to old DM was people hated this constant blocking ability and while Sym wouldnât be as bad it would be similar. The ability to constantly spam barriers at people would kill long range attack potential, bring total chaos to fights as it passes through kind of like which it can now only not often enough to be a problem. If she can just constantly throw it in your face it would be too easy to shut down ults, flanks and just make fighting it a nightmare as she focuses it on individuals, not the team, something Orisa and Rein cannot do so well due to their responsibility to protect the team.
This is why Orisaâs buffs were fine as her barrier is mostly defensive (and when you use it to attack itâs to defend the attack, not oppress those attacking you) , so making it big and strong and low CD is fine as it those are off-set by it being static. It shuts down an attack leaving the defenders safe. Symâs barrier however shuts down a defense, making the defenders vulnerable and that is what should make it powerful, only it isnât very good at doing this due to how inflexible it is and upping itâs CD will not help its problems, only increase itâs strengths to the point where they too become a problem.
For me the fixes to it need to be make it move slower and be more curved though I think the size is fine so its better at being a Winston like attacking anchor and make it easier to use in this way. You can also use it to shut down a snipers angle for a while if it moves slower too. If you must have the speed and a lower CD make it much smaller as a personal barrier to protect Sym, but not her entire team or able to massivly block of entire angles and chunks of a map. That would work although make her even less of a support than she is now.
Um⊠she is a not support character in the sense that she is going to baby-sit the team and make sure to fix up all their boo boos.
She is the type of Support character, who like a Spider, weaves Webs of Turrets around her team, Turrets that damage enemies who enter their radius and slow them down.
Turrets, which enemies must tear down, otherwise they will take constant damage be slowed.
So her Turret webs are constantly pulling Enemy fire towards themselves and dishing out good damage and debuffs in the meanwhile.
Her Photon Barrier is capable of preventing lethal burst damage and CC.
Roadhog is about to hook your Zen, and kill him NOPE Photon Barrier.
D.va Bomb is about to go off and kill you and your allies around you, NOPE Photon Barrier.
Widow Sniping at your team from the ledge on Anubis, NOPE Photon Barrier.
And this is why it needs lower cooldown and have the functionality to be manipulated by Symmetraâs gun.
I think your thinking regarding Photon Barrier is misguided. You want it to be something that already exists in that game, namely Rein and Orisa Barriers.
And you think it needs to be that in order to be worth It.
You have no given any thought as to how it is good currently and why it is good in those situations. Which I suspect comes from a lack of experience with playing Symmetra.
The reason why people hated Old DM was because it ate up all damage and all Ults at virtually ALL times.
It was an uncounterable ability and required that the Dva be dead or be out of mech to work around it.
Photon Barrier is not DM.
Your list all the weaknesses with Photon Barrier which would prevent it from becoming OP with a lower cooldown but then turn around and say no it will be completely OP with a lower Cooldown.
LIke either you believe it has those weaknesses, which it does, or you believe it is currently awesome and lowering cooldown will just make it OP.
You canât have it both ways.
The weaknesses of the Photon Barrier as aptly summarized by Whitehorns, is the reason why it can work with a far lower cooldown.
This just shows you have clearly not bothered to read the thread. Had you read the thread, you would have known that I already address issues like this through the âthe wayâ in which the cooldown is reduced.
If you bothered to read the thread, you would notice I donât suggest a flat out reduction to the cooldown, rather I suggest a conditional cooldown reduction that would prevent it from getting spammed at a sniping Widow for example.
What?
You are confused person.
On one hand you think Photon Barirer is garbage, on the other hand, you think it should not be buffed without also giving it a MAJOR nerf.
Cmon you can do better than that.
Symmetra has no control over the battlefield at all. Sheâs always been a nuisance to anyone aware of her presence, and after the newbie phase, anyone that actually gets caught in a 6-turret shower should admit they walked into that like an idiot. She has to chase after her shield to get any mileage out of it beyond big, single shot ults, and her primary weapon is⊠well itâs an idiot check. Letâs not pretend itâs anything else.
Honestly, sheâs a defense hero. Give her actual, spammable healing/shielding or move her there already, and should Blizzard do so, make her turrets, I donât know⊠NOT junk? Maybe her barrier should be applied to an ally for a duration or until destroyed, and improve her alternate fire. Maybe small orbs move very fast, big orbs move slow, hit hard, and lash targets or try to drag them in to it, possibly both?
Here we agree. I want her to be a support, but not a healer and this is (part) of how she does that. She isnât good enough at it right now and changes should be made to make the turrets better. However I worry that tieing the fixes to the turrets to your fix to PB is too much as she becomes a good support, a good dmg dealer and has good clutch dmg block potential, you have to see how that is too much.
I want it to be more like them as I consider them better abilities as they are more versatile, which is what a tank type ability needs to be.
Iâve given it thought and I do think it is good at some things, such as shutting down sniper angles or a quick engage tool. This is why I consider lowing the CD a problem as it goes from good at these things to OP at them, yet still has the issues of lacking versatility and not being great for general team defense, which is where I feel it should be going. Maybe you could give some thought into how useless the barrier feels to your team mate, 5 feet away who didnât know you were casting it and now has to push or let you die, even though it isnât protecting them for more than 2 seconds before the angle is off. Itâs good for Sym, sucks for her team.
Maybe I overstated the comparison. It would never be as bad as old DM. It would however be a fairly easy regular use ability that could shut down certain ults a bit too well. The biggest complainers I felt about old DM where Pharah players, lowered CD PB would ruin them, McCree, 76, Dva easily and a few others like Bastion would rightly have complaints.
I feel I kind of can have it both ways, though i get why that confuses you. PB is very good at a few things and buffing it or lowering the CD would make it too good at those things. It would be horrid to play Widow into Sym for example as she presses one button and shuts down your key angle for ages and can then just do it again. She would kill ranged heroes viability which is doubly bad as they should be a weakness for her.
At the same time it still wonât fix what is for me itâs biggest issue, it sucks for defending a team. The shape is wrong, it moves a little too fast and the movement makes it lack any flexibility for mistakes by the team, poor communication, flankers and forces you to cluster. These issues will all remain so it will become too good at some things but still suck at others. Right now it is good at what it does, it could be better however but the fix isnât lowering the CD as that would throw it out of balance.
I admit I forgot about this, so am glad you are aware of the problem. It does get back t a few earlier issues I had with you wanted PB to be the super complex ability and Itâs too much. Look at Genjiâs dash, moves forward a fet instantly, 50 dmg if he passes you, resets if he gets a kill credit (also used to do 30 bleed dmg). Thatâs about as complex as it gets right now but you want a Barrier which moves unless you can hold in place but only for 2 seconds and you cannot fire when you do and if you donât do this you and pick it up and do it later. Also it either has 2 charges but they cannot both be out at once or the cool down can be reduced if it takes loads of dmg. I know you said you donât want all of your changes but even half is too much detail and too complex an ability and it doesnât really fix the problems.
The hold in place is good, only then itâs a worse Rein barrier so why bother. The change direction is just a complicated way to facilitate its new role as bad Rein barrier. 2 charges means she can still shut down an angle for ages and it becomes way harder to bait it so the shutdown potential becomes too much. The loads of dmg could be fine only then all an enemy has to do is stop firing and your in trouble, like with Zarya only its easier as you tend to use PB either in smaller fights so not much dmg absorbed or from far away so they have time to react. It would be better but not enough.
Okay this is a slightly complex idea but was clear(ish) in context. A defense must protect itself from attack, like with an Orisa barrier, thats how defense works. A offense must overcome that defense and attack, be that breaking it from range, a dive or pushing behind Reinâd barrier while protected. That however is ofset by his slow speed (which is also why it is easy to co-ordinate. Sym however could use her barrier to rapidly push a team to a point safely ignoring dmg, allowing the density of strength of a Rein comp with the effectiveness of dive aka an OP push. They cannot do this right now as her barrier sucks for this. If Symâs barrier was able to defend a teams push it would allow you to rapidly move numbers safely to the point regardless of if they have movement ability for a very heavy hitting push, basically slambulance only you donât have to pick tanks. That would be stupid OP and why PB is a problem. Right now it is a mix of good at a few things and bad at others, but if it was good at those areas it would be too good, so we need to focus on either reigning it in and making it more like Orisa or ditch the team defense stuff and make it better for just defending Sym, or replace it entirly but you cannot fix itâs current problems without addressing its potential strengths.
These are my suggestions:
Lower the CD about 1/4th, make it curve round like an Umbrella shape and reduce itâs speed by 20%. It would move in the direction Sym is moving rather than always forwards (i.e. running backwards it spawns in front of you and then follows you backwards). It can now defend a team, is easier to use in more ways but cannot be spammed.
Halve its CD but make it 1/3rd the size so it can reliably protect Sym but not her team. It becomes better at what it is currently good at but without making it too good at what it kinda sucks at now.
Replace it with a cast over-shield that provides a momentary 200 hp bonus to the target that lasts up to 3 seconds and can be cast every 6. Better support ability for defending key team members at key moments.
The current mix of bad and good lacks reliability, consistency a clear role and can be difficult to use. Your fixes get rid of the problems, give it consistency and do nothing to reduce its potential (besides making it harder to use) so are the epitome of bad design. Also note I described 3 fixes that make it a functional ability and needed only a few lines each, clean simple and better options than this cluster of bad design you propose.
Personally I find Photon Barrier to be rather underwhelming and not particularly useful, but that could just be because me and most of the rest of the Overwatch community suck at playing her.
I disagree. If she was focused on âweaving a webâ with her turrets then she should be in the defense category. Her turrets provide very little support. Especially in their current form. Litterally take 1 damage and they blow up and they are on a fairly long cd for the effort it takes to destroy them.
And the photin barrier. Yes it has its uses, but every other character with a shield is a better defense. Also it is more used to defend sym then her teammates.
Id say the way you want her reworked, she should be placed in the defense category, which I would be fine with. Supports need to do just that, provide support for your teammates either through healing or utility abilities. Syms only utility is her ults. The turrets in no way help boost your teammates. They do damage and debuff the enemy. And her photon barrier is honestly a sorry excuse for a skill. With the way symmetra is shown in the comics and her lore, she could have so much potential to be better.
All you have to do is say in Voice Chat, âi am gona cast Barrier, push with itâ and voila you will notice people push up with the Barrier and make use of it.
You can push behind it and turn the corner behind cover. Every choke is designed so that you are vulnerable for a few seconds before you can find cover. So Photon Barrier covers up the vulnerable spot, and allows your team to get behind cover.
Hanamura, Hollywood, Kingâs row, Volskaya, Anubis⊠I could go on. All you need is a few seconds of Barrier time to get to cover, to flank, etc.
You would have to lower itâs Hitpoints a tad as well if you implement a flat out cooldown reduction.
Since Photon Barrier is mostly used to block CC and Burst damage, it doesnât need much HP.
Making it weaker but more frequent is one solid approach to buffing it.
Another approach is to keep the cooldown as it is and put some sort of condition on when it gets reduced.
Another approach is to give Symmetra some control over the Barrier, allow her to change the angle at which the Barrier travels so she can get more use out of a single Barrier.
Symmetra Barrier is a worse Rein Barrier. Thatâs what makes it so powerful on a Defense Support hero.
Symmetraâs game does not revolve around her Barrier, so it doesnât need to be the same strength as Rein barrier in order for it to be good.
That is most likely the case. Photon Barrier is a preemptive Cleanse and Burst damage prevention ability in Mobas. You can do so much with just that much. But because it also can block for your whole team, it is much better than just Cleanse and stopping burst damage which in Mobas only effects 1 hero.
Disagree that she weaves a web with Turrets? What? lol⊠she already does that.
or do you disagree with her being a Support? Torbjorn is also Support and he is the long range version of Symmetra.
Yes her Turrets are disposable and should regen much faster.
Because their whole kit revolves around their Shield. They are Shield Tanks.
Symmetra is not.
You could put her in Defense category. It doesnât matter which category she is in. The categories were there for new players. If you have been playing OW for any significant period of time, you should be building Team comps, not based on category but based on the strengths and weaknesses of the heroes as individuals.
Debuffing is called Utility. -_-
Sounds like you are terrible with it.
None of these things are true. Try watching some high-rank Symmetra players on youtube or something.