Welp, I have some things to say and add to this. The first I’ll get out of the way is that Blizzard themselves have stated in the past, (not that long ago btw, I think either in Forums in the past or somewhere in the Blizzard App News area… Maybe even checked out an article that mentioned this, it’s somewhere out there in the Internet) Said in the past that They Did Not Want to Rework Symmetra. Which, ye, I can c us having some controversial feelings about this. But, the take I’m gonna have is looking at things in all ways and perspectives, Support Rework, DPS Rework and Blizzard’s wishes of not Reworking at all. I’m gonna try to respect all visions the best I can here. (even if I don’t prefer Blizz’s beliefs here, and don’t think we have to make her Support, I’m putting those personal feelings aside, cuz I just want Sym to be fine for once, and have no care in the world as to how we do it.)
I do feel like for whatever we think of doing for Symmetra, I do think we should keep some things in mind, one of those being the idea of Autism. She was built to be the character who has Autism, and her kit should reflect some of the things relating to such, which her current kit kinda already does. Just, keeping that general idea there. I’ll dig deeper myself later in the day today to find out exactly what is connecting to Autism here with Symmetra’s kit. (Mind you: Some of my Rework Ideas Miiiiiight go against this. Not too sure though, but will apologize if I do go against this)
Another thing we should try to keep in mind is exactly what she is, as in is she Support or DPS and keep to the idea of such with the diff ideas. If u grab ideas that seem more DPS-Like, and threw those ideas for a Support, that’d just be…Well, yeah. Confusing, weird and, obviously, would be better for a diff role. Let’s not make things too complicated here, shall we? We should be trying our best to make Symmetra fair in balance, not make a tornado of confusion.
I also dunno about the idea of making a full-fledge movement just to make a rework happen. Just, describe ur points, have a ton of people agree, and a ton of people asking Blizzard to do (blank) for Symmetra, and pray to god Blizz’ll listen to hundreds of thousands of millions and maybe even billions of people, and not be arrogant and ignore practically the entire world/community’s asks for a singular character to improve in a proper direction. Theoretically, that could work. We’re not trying to break into a company just to force them to do a Sym rework! That’s just taking things too far, obviously.
I am, technically, agreeing that we should work together to help Blizzard out on a character they Clearly do not understand how to properly balance. Not to be dissing Blizzard here, but based on the changes they’ve done in the past, doing 2-3 reworks, changing TP alone, like, 5 times for 5 different variants of the same ability, and based on the current OW2 changes they’ve been doing for Symmetra, and potentially more, the apparent look of things is that they dunno how to help Symmetra properly. It just Looks like such, not saying that it IS the case, cuz I don’t work 4 Blizzard, so idk what’s going on for Blizz’s side of things. But no matter what’s going on at Blizzard, as a community who just wants a good game, and wants a character to be properly balanced, we should be trying to help generate different ideas and such, and explain the purpose of Sym’s design, and more, and maybe, if Blizzard decides to reveal things here, maybe they can explain their side of things, y do they not want a rework, and what’s the purpose of Sym’s design in their eyes, etc.
So, I’m going to try to showcase 4 different builds of Symmetra. 1 Build was something I did 2 years ago, that could maybe be of some use to try to help out. The rest will be brand new build ideas coming off this Autistic mind of mind. The 2nd build will be how to make our Current Symmetra work Without giving her a full-fledge Rework. The 3rd build will be Reworking her to be a DPS. Finally, the 4th build will be trying to make her into a Support. The 1st build will be a copy and paste, btw, and I’ll put the exact words I said from my past design right below.
1st Rework: Idk if I ever did recently spill some Sym changes, but I can spill some thoughts that I’ve thought up of over the last, like, 2 months of time. Some of the thoughts are my ideas. Some thoughts were influenced. But one thing to point out: I won’t make her a support. Reasoning is because 1, I don’t remember her 1.0 very well, and I see her 2.0 as more of a dps build over support build, and 2, it’s honestly less work needed to keep her as a dps over transforming her back into support.
First, I’ll stop the beam from ramping, have the beam be the 2nd ramp (so no tiny beam in 1st stage or big, giant beam in 3rd stage), but have the dmg be 140 per sec. Then, I’ll add some hp to her, but nobody here, hilariously, said what type of hp should she get: shield or normal hp. Your preference on that, but I’ll add 50 shield for now until you guys spill what you’d like more. Finally, faster orb, from 30 meters per sec to 60, and reduce dmg of orb (right click btw) at max charge from 140 to 120.
I hope this will keep her niche state, but buff her correctly at the same time. Maybe this will ring any good ideas somebody might have. Because honestly, I believe that Sym is clearly not in the best spot myself, but I would like her to get some play. I would want to play her myself, but I will never play her if she is broken or in this position. I don’t even ask for a full-blown rework, the changes I’ve made is the size of the change that D.va got, the one that gave her the missiles.
(The forum of where my idea came from, which was previously intended for Devs, but now idc, I’m pulling everything I’ve got to help, in a general sense) A Little Bit of Everything... (forgive me on big post directed towards devs)
2nd Rework: This will be the Blizzard-Intended Rework Idea. So, to have things go their way, without asking for a rework, Here’s what I think they’ll have to do: 1st, I’ll look at her Right Click. Faster projectile now, but less impactful and charge time when feeling it still felt slow-ish for what it does. So, 1 of 2 things u can do here: A, quicken her Charge time, which is now 1 second, and make it, idk, .8 or .7 secs, safer on the .8 secs. Or B, u can increase the dmg output off the 90 dmg it does, and make it do, like, 110 dmg. This is only looking at her Right Click alone.
Her beam, from my old idea, actually went AGAINST the idea of Autism. So, I’m’a do something else here. So, it is a ramp-up beam that is 12 meters, smaller than Zarya’s beam, and does dmg of ramp-up being 60-120-180. I have a few ideas here. One thing could be to shake up the dmg numbers. So instead, I think the dmg numbers should be 80-120-160. 160 is still high dps, while strengthening the 1st stage beam. Another thing u can do is quicken the Ramp-Time. Still thinking of numbers here, but one thought could be instead of 2 secs for 1 ramp-up of both, I’d say leave the 120-180 ramp speed alone, but make 60-120 quicker, say, take 1 second instead? Or maybe make both 1.5 instead of 2 secs? Final thing you can do is increase the size of the beam. If u only increase the size of the beam alone and nothing else, I’d think 18 meters is fair. Otherwise, maybe it’s safer to do 15.
Next, her Teleporter. I’m actually gonna leave this completely alone. The reason y I think of doing this is because it already does it’s job perfectly fine, and it did get buffed in the speed of it’s summoning, from 2 to 1 seconds, which was previously a massive issue. This also is perfect for setting cool tricks, like TP Fakes, and TP Bombs, and stuff like that. I believe it flows with her kit well, and provides utility to the team, making her a unique character concept for a DPS. (Not every DPS has Utility btw) I don’t see the TP as a massive problem as of currently, but if there r issues with the TP that others feel are there, then I’ll come back to this and I’ll make my adjustments.
The Turrets. Ok, one area we can do here is make these turrets waaaay faster in, well, existing. They r moving at 15 meters per second, the cast time is half a second, and the set-up time is 1 sec be4 they do Anything. Cast time is fine. Everything else is slower than a Turtle, I’m not kidding you. So, Set-up Time should be Half a second also, and Turret Travel Speed must be, like, 50 meters per second, or something waaaay faster than now. I’m thinking a difference in speed from her Orbs though, sooo make sure those r not the same speed, just to help keep Sym a bit skillful. I feel the dmg output of her turrets are fine, I think, and with or without the slow of her turrets doesn’t matter as heavily, I don’t think. I could be wrong though, and maybe it does matter, but clearly, the turrets need to be faster in existing in the 1st place in order to do their job properly, ESPECIALLY when transferring into a quicker-paced game/meta like OW2. Why must it take .5 secs + 1 sec + However long it takes to reach destination with 15 Meters per sec, Be4 it does Anything? It isn’t 1 Turret = 120 dmg + 30% slow, or something, so y so much restriction? At least lower some of it.
Ok, finally, her Ult. There’s nothing wrong with her Wall. It’s an extra form of utility, makes the fights split, gives Sym & her team a bit more survivability if u Shield Dance, Like… There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her Wall. It’s quick, it’s unique, I feel fits the style of Autism… Like, idk what could be wrong with the Wall that would have to change. It’s fine as is. It’s a fast, impactful and unique ultimate. Like, if anything, after my changes go through, maybe a small nerf in Ult Charge could be something, but that might not even be needed in the 1st place, sooo the ult, like her TP, should be perfectly safe to not have to adjust.
3rd Rework: The Support Rework. Ok, to get it out of the way, u just leave her ult & TP alone. They perfectly fit the idea of a Support rly well. Sym’s Ramp-up Beam could get tweaked to be less impactful, so maybe, like, 50-100-150, and guide her turret’s focus of healing if u hit an ally with it? Her Orbs, depending on Off Healer Route or Main Healer Route, changes what happens to her Right Clicks. If Main, then it should Heal, and be a direct explosive that does the same thing it does now, but heals for 60 if u get hit by the orbs at all, (even the edge of the slash radius) but does no dmg. Otherwise, for Off Healer route, then the Orbs might need this tiny adjustment in being slightly faster orbs in travel time, I think from 50 to 60 meters per sec? Quicker in Charge Time, same as my Build 2, but then do slightly less dmg, we’re talking from 90 to 80.
Her Turrets. This will get a little more creative. I’m gonna borrow the idea people have had with Healing Turrets, but I am going to throw my own twist on that build idea. They will heal for 20/25 hps per turret, (depending on Main or Off Healer builds) but if u melee ur own turret/s, the turret/s will be destroyed, but then Symmetra will hold a blue design in her hand, where after a second has passed, she will clap her hands and will knockback whatever’s around her in a 5 meter radius, but it’ll knock the enemies back 10 meters away from their position. This idea not only gives her an option to heal, but gives her a bit more survivability as a Support. But, you gotta be careful of ur decisions, cause u do lose some of ur healing for ur own survival. But I can totally imagine this effect just being so cool, personally.
(The Basic Attack will not heal Symmetra, but her Turrets will, forgot to mention)
4th Rework: The DPS Rework. Do some of the DPS changes I already mentioned for her Basic Attack and her Turrets in her 2nd Build. But I’ll be looking more into her TP and her Ultimate. Her TP can go 2 ways: Be reworked to instead, let Symmetra’s Dancing be her new form of Mobility for herself, which just goes forward, say, 20 meters, but knocks back and damages whoever gets in your way (Read below for the stats, which’ll be the same as Dance)? Or, we can keep the TP, but when u destroy the TP, it can be exploded to dish out some knockback and dmg to enemies nearby the TP, say in a 3 meter radius, 80 dmg, and bounce back 5 meters? Give urself alone a speed boost of, say, 20%, after u TP through, but cannot have ur teammates teleport in with you anymore. I might get some backlash for this TP idea/s, buuut my ideas still do theoretically connect to the character of Sym a bit, sooo it’s not that bad? Things could’ve been worse? I’ll move onto the Ult.
Her ult can be gone and replaced with a giant turret that acts like Symmetra’s beam, but more extreme and less ramps. So, the dmg of this will be a giant beam, kinda like Coalescence, that just does raw dmg, starting at 120 dps, but after hitting some1 for 1 sec, ramps to be double dmg output. The ult lasts for 3 seconds. Sym cannot move when she ults, and u can hit Sym, who’d be on top of the turret. U can move the beam left and right. The beam distance is 20 meters. Turret’s size would be the payload size. Turret cannot be destroyed. To summon the Turret, placed below Sym, takes 1 second.
SPECIFIED: All My Rework Ideas End Here. I am personally still skeptical of some of my ideas here, but having a ton of ideas to work around with is better than having no ideas at all. Now, hopefully this will help get us somewhere, and hopefully, Blizzard will help Sym out fully, to go and make her a viable and fairly balanced pick, all the while sticking to her initial design and still supporting the idea, even through her kit, things that are related to Autism. I will be going back to this post I made, and maybe re-iterate and make changes and such whenever things come up, especially when I have a Symmetra main for a borther who might be able to help guide me here also. Maybe he has a Rework idea in-mind he could share, dunno. But hopefully, together, as a community, we can grab Blizzard’s attention, and get Symmetra to be in a good spot. It’s time Sym gets the help she needs.