I hear people asking to make Symmetra a healer, I’m not really sure this would work for her (static turrets healing? Turrets flying above other heroes’ heads? Meh…) and with her lore (healing architect with shield and teleporter? Meh…).
Why not making her a tank? It is the easiest solution for me and also fits her actual kit and lore. She has always been connected to shields (her ulti is a shield, she breaks shields, charges her weapon breaking shields, she also had a shield generator that could come back, she often plays in first line like a tank…). Her teleporter definitely makes more sense to be used as a tank than as a healer. She decides where her team plays, like a tank. I don’t think teleporting your team as a healer makes any sense (since when healers decide where the team plays? Imagine Ana or Mercy with a teleporter, excuse me?) and we already know that as a dps it’s hard sometimes to have that team coordination… this would be improved if she was a tank, as we already follow tanks most of the time in this game.
I would get rid of her turrets and bring back a shield generator instead. Now, how this shield generator would work, can be discussed, but being a tank she would of course need to create shields for her team or have a shield available to protect herself and her team that is not just an ulti.
ummm thematically/lore-wise she really isn’t like a tank at all. like sure, tanks are about grabbing space but in a way that they’re in the front line. thematically sym’s been doing espionage, sneaking around, laying traps, sometimes assassinating people (implied), infiltrating, vishkar ambassador for political gain, doing plenty of things in the background away from the day of light etc. like that in no way seems anything like someone holding a front line.
pretty sure tanks defs also find it hard to have the team coordination. like tanks going in thinking the team has their back when they don’t happens all the time.
as a support and sym main, she makes much more sense as a dps tbqh. her problems as a dps are that she doesn’t have sufficient tools for individual uptime unlike most heroes in the game. and she defs can get them without making her OP and without any drastic redesigns as can be seen below:
Well, some tanks are like non-healing supports, they just have larger hitboxes and health-pools.
When Symmetra was in the support role (despite no healing) she had a barrier as an ability (and shield generator before that). Her turrets kind of work as zoning tools and TP is supportive as well.
Her kit could fit a Tank character, but problem is that she doesn’t have a big hitbox or a big health-pool.
Symmetra has quite a big hitbox, almost identical to that of Zarya, who is a tank. Symmetra mains have been complaining about her hitbox for ages.
Her healthpool should be increased if she becomes a tank, of course.
OW2 will have more mobility and quicker team fights than OW, Symmetra will definitely have problems as a dps with just one tank and her low mobility. Imagine her as a tank, changing team fights thanks to her teleporter.
I have always compared Symmetra to Zarya as they have lots of similarities (a charging beam, similar hitboxes) and Zarya is definitely superior to Sym and can easily win a 1vs1 (larger healthpool, bubbles, a 15m beam instead of 12m, etc.).
I don’t have any objection either to make her supps or tanks. but turrets can be made to provide not just healing, any support utilities can be a candidiate, even the infra-sight ability for a small radius like CCTV, for example.
Damaging turrets are the worst for me. It’s just too plain and can’t be balanced well(20% less damage on console, for example).
I would trade turrets for something more useful. They allow easy kills in lower ranks, but I think she would do better having some shield ability instead of turrets. I have never been a great fan of her turrets even if I like Symmetra a lot, I wish I was relying on my abilities to do direct damage and survive more than placing some turrets that can be destroyed easily.
