So I was watching this video that kinda perfectly encapsules what I perceive to be the main problem with Symm’s Primary Fire Beam.
She’s a close range character, similar to a Mei or Reaper
Her starting damage on her primary is a wimpy 60dps, which is pathetic, even by Support hero standards
If she’s not playing on a coordinated Deathball composition she’s stuck in a paradox.
Need to get close, to get charged up
Getting close with wimpy damage, is basically a death sentence.
So here’s how you fix that:
Symmetra
Beam Projector (Alternate Fire)
Damage dealt by projectile orbs charges up her Primary Fire
Such that one fully charged projectile orb charges her beam to full.
Boom. Now the Symmetra charge-up range paradox is solved. Since she can spam in orbs, then when she gets fully charged, she can go to town. Or use a fully charged projectile like a shotgun while rounding a wall corner.
Note, this can be done two ways in the code, either based on the TIME spent charging the projectile orbs, or by the DAMAGE the Orb deals. Keeping in mind the second method would be affected by damage boosts.
Extras
If you need some extra “power budget” to spend on further buffs, try these.
Symmetra
Teleporter
No longer teleports pre-existing sentry turrets.
There’s a commonly used Symmetra tactic called “Sentry bombing”. To me, it’s frustrating for low ELO, and basically worthless.
That said, I have seen some Symmetra players saying that they primarily use this just to teleport one sentry to augment and cover their initial attack as they exit the teleporter. So here’s a more moderate version of the above change. That would upset fewer players.
Symmetra
Teleporter
Only teleports one pre-existing sentry turrets.
Additionally, one of the limiting factors of balancing Symmetra is that every second counts in OWL Tournaments. So she’s often used for about 5 seconds at the start of a round. A lot of OWL players don’t like this, and it somewhat limits her balancing for Ladder play. And otherwise serves as a way to earn her more “power budget” to work with to purchase additional buffs.
Symmetra
Teleporter
Put on a 5 second cooldown at the beginning of the round.
With this Pros won’t feel obligated to use her for that 5sec cheese, and she can receive other buffs that are more relevant for Ladder.
For example.
Symmetra
Sentry Turret
Damage charges up her Beam Projector’s primary attack.
repeat: they just have to also bring back the piecing orb alt fire and give it the ability to also heal allies, as well as the healing turrets. (not buggy this time)
And also buff the Ult wall to have healing or maybe even antiheal. (or change the wall completely, refering to the golden statue in Sym’s short story.)
And Sym kit would still be close to what it is now.
Make it so that after she teleports it instantly starts recharging her shield health.
Or maybe give her a big midcombat shieldhealth recharge rate during her Ult. Kind like the selfheal passive Mercy gets in her Ult.
Or maybe during her Ult, she can teleport to any of her teleporters, while standing anywhere. Just look in the direction of the teleporter and press use. Kinda like a directional translocator with two exit points. Dunno how many times she’d be able to teleport. Maybe unlimited for the duration.
For some reason I think of Symmetra as having a Metroid style primary weapon where it does a rapid fire projectile with good projectile speed but can fully charge into a massive orb that goes 25 m/s
Like the Auxiliary means of Ramping up Levels. More akin to Symmetra’s actual lore of Siphoning energy (see “Better World”) and synergizes with existing abilities.
I will push to have the Orb Velocity increased as OW2 is not as static as the previous game.
Maybe increase time charge remains before it starts to decay.
I would also like to see a UI added that shows Symmetra’s Charge level. I know its visible in the weapon but it doesn’t show how long each level is at.
Primary Fire no longer has 3 charge levels, and instead will have 2 charge up levels, one being 100 and the other being 190, with a 3s charge up time needed to achieve level 2.
Instead of replenishing ammo on shields, it will now not use ammo on targets being damage by sentries.
Orbs damage increased to 130 and now instead having to be charged, the charge is automatic. What changes this is that Sym now has a ‘‘held’’ full orb always.
Successful hits with orbs will reduce the charge up time needed by 0.2 to 2s according to the charge level of the orb hit.
Sentries have several changes:
Damage reduced to 30 per second.
Max sentries on hold and deployed increased to 6.
Sentries now have 2 deployment methods according to the distance of target surface
First, instant deployment: deploys the sentry in a surface within 15m of Symmetra instantly and armed. No travel or arming time.
Second, travel time deployment: deploys the sentry in a surface outside of 15m away from Symmetra by throwing them. Current travel time and deployment.
TP changes
team TP functionality removed.
construct TP functionality removed.
TP no longer last indefinitely.
TP now has a 3 seconds duration and 6 seconds cooldown.
TP is now the ‘alternative’ skill to Photon Barrier (can be swapped by the weapon change keybind)
Photon Barrier
Basically 2.0 Barrier, but with one more function.
Now gives Symmetra 100 shield hp for 1.5 seconds right after being deployed.
Ultimate:
Texture.png wall: removed
Photon Constructs: Symmetra now can choose to deploy between 3 indestructible constructs:
Recall Matrix: Symmetra creates a recall gate within 5m of her location, which can summon any of her teammates to it once. Team mates can warp to the matrix by pressing the Interact Key. Has 4 charges and lasts 6 seconds.
Gravity Well: Symmetra creates a singularity generator that disables enemy mobility abilities around it and deals damage to enemies as they move.
Sentry Cluster: Symmetra creates a forward moving cluster of 6 sentries, that attack nearby enemies. Each Sentry deals 50 damage. Lasts 6 seconds. No more than 2 sentries can target the same target. If the cluster hits terrain, it will start moving in the opposing direction.
