😡 Why are Symmetra players Angry at the "Rework"?

General Discussion
556

I’m conflicted on this one. I like the new version better, but you’re absolutely right in saying they changed -everything-. It’s to the point where, despite the themes being consistent and most abilities still being there in some form, it’s a new hero.

Now the hard part is, how do you have both versions? You can’t really. Even if you reskin everything, it’ll be too similar in concept to have both. Personally I’m glad to have this version, but I would like to see the piercing come back on her RMB. It made her very good against some really cheesy comps. She’s gonna be niche no matter what, so give her [see: let her keep] something that makes her an actual real go-to for that barrier-focused enemy comp.

I like the faster charge and travel time, but it’s not worth losing the piercing damage in exchange for a minor AoE. It was already AoE, just in a different way. Adjust it if needed but bring it back.

I’m okay with literally everything else though. The shield was awkward. It worked, but it was awkward. Teleporter solves the same issue in a different way, somewhat. It’s also more versatile in general.

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557

She’s now a ground-based Pharah with tricks. I for one love it.

The Primary Fire is more of a tool than a proper weapon and I am fine with it. You want it buffed a bit, I am pretty sure that can be done without breaking her. But I don’t regard the current state as broken either.

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558

Make Sym 3.0 another Vishkar architect. If they want to save Sanjay for lore reasons, add a new character.

Lore wise, we already know Symmetra isn’t the only light bender in the world (Vishkar have a school for future light architects, that implies at least dozens new students per year), and we also know her designs are unique amongst other light architects. The common background would justify using “similar tools”, but the new hero would represent the “normal” way to use them: More direct, more aggressive, no worries about raising a huge wall in the middle of nowhere knowing it will crumble in seconds.

Mechanic-wise, I think they are different enough that currently I already consider Sym 2 and Sym 3 completely different heroes. I honestly feel that my favorite hero was deleted from the game, and we got a new hero at the same patch. They don’t play the same, they don’t fill the same spot in a team comp, and they don’t perform the same role in the roster. The only similarity right now is that they share the name of their abilities. McCree and Soldier are more similar to each other than both versions of Symmetra.

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559

Shield gen and Teleporter were some of the WEAKEST ults in the game. Shield gen was merely win-more, in that you would only win with it if you were already winning, and TP was just a worse Resurrect.

Photon Barrier, on the other hand, splits the teamfight in a way that puts extra mental overhead on the enemy. Shields are inherently disruptive, and Photon Barrier is incredibly disruptive on account of its huge health and size. It’ll block off snipers, or if you place it north/south it will split them down the middle and block heals and damage while doing nothing to harm your own team. It just disrupts like crazy, perfectly fitting for a zoning hero.

560

They are angry because it’s not for them. I am 100% in love with the rework and think she is quite balanced and perfect where she is… I mean if I had to change ONE thing it’s that the teleporter could have 8 more meters and last longer but it’s such a minor thing.

561

I agree 100% with that.

I just think that if you are reworking a character, considering the people who already love the character is a nice step. The way they did it is pretty much saying that this half percent of the playerbase, that was dedicated enough to still play Symmetra despite being the target of false reports and the blame goat of anything going wrong in the team formation, is useless and don’t matter for the game.

But yeah. You are right. This rework is not to make Symmetra a better hero for people who already play Symmetra. It is to appease the people who never touched her before.

They were the fastest charging ult in the game, and they were permanent. That make them leave a lasting impact through the whole match, unless the enemy team did a conscious effort to break it down. And if they did that, they are diverting attention from the main point, and your team can exploit that.

One common example I used all the time was setting a shield gen somewhere further in the backline, and as soon as I noticed Tracer going there to break it, I gave the call for my team to push into the enemy team because we would fight 6v5. Tracer would get my ult, we would win the team fight, and I would be around 80% on my next ult anyway.

It also break muscle memory in combo-reliant heroes. Genji is one that suffer the most if the enemy had a Shield Gen active, because he would need one extra slash to finish off his targets, and that would break his rhythm while using Dragonblade. Sure, SG was not strong enough to prevent a specific target to dying to Dragonblade, but it would prevent it from snowballing into a quadruple kill.

Other examples: Pharah and Reinhardt need one extra shot to kill any hero. Widow can’t instakill 250 HP heroes. Hanzo couldn’t scatter Zarya/Orisa down in one shot. Tracer lose one-clip potential. Hog can’t one shot with his hook combo. McCree can’t instakill with flash-fan.

25 HP on Photon Shield of 1.0 was pretty much useless. 75 HP is huge, and every time someone goes below 75 HP and lives while Shield Gen is active, they were saved by Shield Gen. But it’s so subtle that most players would not notice that they went below that threshold all the time during teamfights.

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562

They would need to reduce the speed or the damage or it would be too strong.

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563

Il bet 90% of the people in this discussion has almost never thouched symmetra,everyone who says symmetra is good or in a better spot have not played her. Ive been maining her since season 1 , hit GM most of the times. I play her tons in quick play now, hence noone is picking her in quick play? I always get to play her.
She is so bad, im actually laughing when playing her. I still love her style. Shes a bad dps with bad kit. Only “effective” at super close range.
The biggest diffrent is that you now get counterd by everything, before genji was running away from you. Now his running torwards you, to get the kill. I actually think blizzard made her bad so noone will ever pick her, cus they dont know how to balance her.

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564

I love Symmetra’s original design and I think it is one of the best designed heroes in the game.

When 2.0 rework came out, I was like this this Dev team knows what’s up. My trust and respect for them skyrocketed when I played with 2.0.

Later when people complained about 2.0, they made a Dev update.

In the Dev update, when they said “We are excited about Symmetra’s design, of holding a certain space and we don’t think she needs major changes”, I was excited!

I thought that we were in good hands!

This Dev team knows what’s up and they are going to keep their spine intact and hold their ground.

But no.

They turned out to be… well you can see.

They bent over backwards for the haters and ignoramuses in the community who convinced them that Symmetra is a bad hero and her kit is badly designed.

How tragic!

How tragic for an artist to make a beautiful painting, and later told is garbage and needs to be ripped apart.

This happened to Rembrandt, who tore up one of his masterpieces.

Devs are like Rembrant, Symmetra was a masterpiece and Devs have tore her up.

It is very tragic and heart breaking, especially for those who were in love with Symmetra’s original design.

We were the OG Sym mains, rocking her and climbing with her.

We were out-casted and despite the harassment, we mained her becuase we loved her.

It was the Dev’s responsibility to take our side and make sure our hero stayed in the game and played better.

They failed us. The community failed us as well.

Not only by harassing us, not only by getting us banned but by taking away our hero as well.

The funny thing is… we will still get banned for playing the new Symmetra, like I just did recently.

The irony!

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565

I have mostly posted this in other threads. But to me there are several core issues with the rework.

  • LMB numbers were not well thought out at all. Even at tier 3 she does less damage with that than if she only used RMB, and it takes far longer to reach tier 3. This makes LMB absolutely worthless until the numbers are changed.
  • The loss of any kind of self-protection. Removal of the toss out shield, and loss of the shield gen without any gains of health / personal shielding makes her ridiculously squishy.
  • The fact that she is only “damage class” hero that has an ult that contributes nothing to getting extra damage. Even Sombra and Widow’s ults contribute more. As for the “barrier dance” concept some people swear by, all the enemy has to do is stick an Orisa shield in front of their own team and the barrier dance concept instantly loses any ability to give damage and instead becomes a matter of time delay only… something not in the Sym ult’s favor since it goes away fast.
  • The doubling down of sentries was mostly a bad move. They did not gain enough health to truly survive well, but your damage potential drops fast since it is concentrated. I have no clue why the developers felt this was necessary to include in the changes when they allowed the sentries to be remote deployed.
  • The teleport moving to a quick use ability adds a bit of utility. However, for the most part this is either an out of combat utility or a very gimmicky ability in combat. Any gimmick will work the first few times it is come across, but with familiarity it loses its edge.
  • The loss of both shield gen and teleport pads as ults had an enormous cost that most players were not smart enough to understand. That enemy team sending players out to kill the Sym ult meant that they were always fighting team fights a player down. And if the Tracer was dumb enough to use her ult on the Sym ult, that meant that basically Sym’s ult was doing the same job as a Mercy revive.
  • Perhaps the most controversial change was the RMB. On the one hand it is now pretty much her main damage (and she should NEVER use LMB). On the other hand she can no longer counter play Torb turrets and Bastions or other people who shield cower. My personal opinion as to why Sym lost RMB pierce was because they realized it would make Sym 3.0’s ult even more useless than it already is. Regardless, some people will like this change, some will hate the fact that now Sym’s are reduced to being RMB spammers that can’t bypass shields.
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566

I miss the day when All I had to do was spam “E” to shield ppl and Put down a teleportor and play lazor tag x_x :frowning:

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567

She’s so much better at range now than she was before the changes with the faster orbs and being able to throw turrets across the map. I was laughing when playing her for the opposite reason, I was melting people. It’s hilarious watching Genji trying to deflect your beam and I also find her good against Brigitte by putting turrets in her path to slow her then charging LMB on her shield.
You’re right though, I haven’t played much of her in the past because I felt her kit was too limited because you basically had to wait for the enemy to come to you but I will play her way more now as I feel her new kit is far more engaging.
I understand that Symmetra mains are upset because they need to learn new ways to play her but I think the changes have made her an over-all stronger, more versatile hero.

568

Why charge LMB at all? You get less damage with tier 3 LMB than with a charged RMB…

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569

Because it’s more consistent, has higher damage per second than orbs when it’s charged and reloads ammo while damaging shields. I’ts especially helpful against Brigitte because no shield equals no shield bash. Once charged, you only need to hit something every two seconds to maintain that level and 180 damage per second is huge.

570

She isn’t really better at range except in situations where someone isn’t looking at you. That’s the reason they changed the brightness of her guns glow when charging her orbs, because if you see it coming it’s still hilariously avoidable. If you die to Syms new orb when you see it coming, you either walked into it or she is within melee range where it is stupid easy to land said orbs.

And if that’s how you’re dealing with Brigs then they are bots. Literal bots. One swipe at any turrets and they’re gone. Your guns charge means absolutely nothing to Brigs combo, and killing her (or anyone) as Sym still revolves entirely around outplaying her and capitalizing on mistakes/abilities being on cooldown/reloads etc.

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571

Short answer? Because they now have to aim and can’t just cheese their way through contesting.

572

I like your in-depth analysis. Have an upvote, friend.

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573

Yet those that complained about her old weapon can’t aim and kill her. She had more then enough counters but people didn’t want to play them… I was easier to report symm players and force a rework.

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574

In addition to her turrets, her gun had a hard lock-on, so all she’d have to do is hold down Left Click and run circles around you, consistently doing damage. Brigitte is “Genji-levels” of “skill requirement” compared to pre-rework Symmetra.

575

Good, don’t get in range of her. It was that easy.

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