r/SymmetraMains has spoken, this is their feedback

General Discussion
1

I opened a poll up on r/SymmetraMains asking whether people preffered 2.0 (Shield Gen) or 3.0 (Current Symmetra). I will outline the votes and the replies stating what they loved about 2.0, what’s missing from 3.0 and what they love about current Symmetra.

If a developer stumbles across this, I’d appreciate it if you take the time to read the feedback given by the Symmetra subreddit.

This post is seperated into sections, for quick access to information that interests you.

Click on the arrows below to open up sections of the post. You can close these sections by clicking on the arrows again. Neat!

The Votes

The Votes

At the time of writing this post, 2.0 Symmetra has 80 votes, and 3.0 Symmetra 58 votes.

This means 58% of Symmetra players prefer pre-rework Symmetra over the current Symmetra.

Why would they prefer a “worse” version?

The answer is simple. People “main” heroes due to the enjoyment said hero brings. People loved 2.0 Symmetra for various reasons (I will outline feedback later in the post) and they do not care too much about “balance” if they are still having fun.

Arguably, 3.0 Symmetra is actually worse than 2.0 Symmetra. Looking at Overbuff, Symmetra’s pickrate and winrate are both lower than before the rework. Of course, statistics don’t completely represent balance, so take this with a grain of salt.

The Feedback

Their Feedback
There are a lot of quotes here, so I will provide a TLDR section for people that don’t want to read them all.

One user: I liked slow orb that went through barriers.
My reply: It was a great way to build at least 50% ult charge at the start of a defense round :stuck_out_tongue:

One user: The new one is good but frankly more boring, I’d like 2.0 back with throwable turrets and maybe the new secondary fire.

One user: I love support Sym, I wish they tried more balanced with her rather than not changing her for a year then giving us 3.0. I hope one day we would get a mix of the two [versions of Symmetra] but I can dream

One user: I miss 2.0 so much. I loved how unique her play style was with finding good spots for TP and shield gen and setting traps.

One user: I adored 2.0, the only thing I prefer in 3.0 are the throwable turrets.

One user: 2.0 is superior.

Because 2.0 was a relic of the time when Overwatch still at least tried to cater a lot more to casual players. Remember when that was a thing and OW wasn’t just one of many competitive shooter for tryhards?

3.0, the current Sym, in this vein is a sign how everything needs to [cater] to eSport, even if it doesn’t really work. Did the rework of Sym to 3.0 make her viable? No. She still isn’t used in the Comp scene or the OWL. So was the rework necessary? No. Did we lose players because of it? Yes. Did we get new players because of the rework? Yes. Why did we get these new players? Because suddenly her gameplay was more in line with other existing characters. Did the players lost stop playing OW completely as they haven’t gotten an alternative? Yes, these exist.

Now all that really is up for debate is the actual numbers and ratios, but honestly, for me the yes/no thing is already enough to call 3.0 a failure in intent and execution.

One user: I like playing 3.0 sym, but I really miss having her old kit*(especially the shield generator) and having her as a support (as besides for Symmetra and Sombra I only play supports). The only thing I would want Sym 2.0 to have from 3.0 sym would be the secondary fire movement speed and having the turrets being thown instead of being manually placed.

One user: i like symmetra’s current turret setup and her teleporter (more specifically when it wasnt infinite). the beam change was needed as it was near impossible for the average player like myself to go against [the lock on beam], but im glad they buffed her damage to balance her beam out. i do miss having photon barrier on hand though, like what 2.0 had. it was fun blocking shatters with one button press, now i have to press two buttons and click.


Feedback TLDR

TLDR

  • The Symmetra mains that do prefer 3.0 are not satisfied with infinite teleporter and would like it to go back to being temporary.

  • Most of the feedback suggests they prefer the new throwable turrets.

  • Lots of people miss Shield Generator and the old Photon Barrier.

  • Some people are unhappy with the developer negligence of 2.0 Symmetra. She recieved no balance changes before being reworked.

  • Several people have proposed a “new” rework that combines aspects of 2.0 Symmetra with 3.0 Symmetra.

  • Several people stated that they prefer the new secondary fire due to the increased damage and speed.

  • Moving Symmetra from the Support category to the Damage category has left many Symmetra mains feeling out of place.
    This specific feedback was not in the thread, but is what I’ve heard of from speaking with other Symmetra players on Discord and Twitter. Many Symmetra mains also play Mercy, Moira and Brigitte.

So what now?

That’s up to the developers. The way I see it, there are four options:

  1. Revert Symmetra back to 2.0. Perhaps provide some tweaks.
    Symmetra would perhaps have to be kept as a DPS, as I’m not sure a non-healing Support would work with 2-2-2 role lock.
  2. Rework her again, but combine her 2.0 kit with her 3.0 turrets and secondary fire.
  3. Revert infinite TP, make it temporary again.
    This solution is the most basic and easiest “solution”. There will be many Symmetra players still unhappy with her rework, but the Symmetra mains that prefer 3.0 would be happy.
  4. Have two version of Symmetra on the live server.
    This would likely be a technical nightmare, but it would keep all Symmetra mains happy. 2.0 was very strong on defense, and 3.0 on certain offense maps. Allowing Symmetra to switch between kits would make her a flexible pick. She would need to have a second hero icon so the enemy team knows which kit she’s playing with.

In my opinion, the best option is number 2. Combining aspects of both 2.0 and 3.0 is a middle ground for Symmetra players with a divided opinion.

EDIT: I’ve made a poll for all players. I’d appreciate your responses! It shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds of your time.

EDIT 2: The survey is now closed!

Here is the follow up thread going over responses:

28 Likes
2

While I do prefer 3.0 over 2.0 as a whole, I think I’d agree that my ideal version of her is a mix of the two. I don’t miss Shield Generator though; apart from being difficult to play against, while playing as Symm I felt like I had to abandon the fight to find a decent hiding spot and dedicate too many resources to protecting it.

Another option, as an extension of using both versions, is adding Sanjay, the other Vishkar employee we know, and let him use 2.0’s kit so both kits can exist in the game(or revert Symm to 2.0 and have him use 3.0, either way).

8 Likes
3

I just want Symm to be a proper builder, half of what makes her annoying to play is how often she can throw out turrets, spam orbs, etc

If she had a resource meter, and could throw turrets, build a healing generator, teleporter entrance/exit, her beam could get a more stable dps number in exchange for being far more effective against shields, and maybe keep her orbs but with slower follow ups. Take a hint from Engineer and make properly powrful builders with actual risk.

13 Likes
4

I really like this idea. Personally, I’m not attached to Symmetra 3.0 at all. If they gave 2.0 to another hero, I would be so mad.

I remember a lot of people being mad when they gave Sigma his barrer, because a lot of Symmetra players previously proposed that barrier for her.

13 Likes
5

I saw a very interesting Symmetra rework idea on here, that gives her a new resource meter to build stairs, shield gen etc.

This is the post with the idea!

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I’m down for it, in truth if she’s going to be a DPS or Suport it’s the only role she can fill. We don’t really have these in Overwatch, if we did Bunker would prob be meta.

7

I want 2.0! I miss “I’m getting the feeling they have a shield generator.”

7 Likes
8

I just hope this doesn’t include having the lock on again and its just her base kits from 2.0/3.0 merged together.

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9 Likes
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Why don’t you like the lock on?

11

Needless to say that less that 140 members of an already absolutely tiny fraction of the player base isn’t enough to reach any conclusion whatsoever lmao…

1 Like
12

holy butts, not again

this is going to be as irrelevant as that twitter poll

you know, the one where, when people follow you, they typically have the same ideas as you

yea, and that person posted a poll expecting to see accurate results

when obviously, only people who follow them, thinking like them, would agree?

yea

unfortunately, the majority of the vocalized people in this situation are ones who are going to prefer 2.0, being mobilized by basically a cult following

(no actual hate on anyone/the twitter user)

i’m not saying that it’ll be fair either way

i don’t like 3.0, either

i still don’t want 2.0 back, not without huge changes, which would still be 4.0

just make her a real support already, since she’s clearly not in a good state with either of them

2 Likes
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I don’t use reddit. !

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r/SymmetraMains has no following. It’s literally just Symmetra mains, old and new.

11 Likes
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i was talking about the twitter one

and using that as an example as how when you have a following, they’ll generally get the word out

meaning, again, most of that following has a higher chance of getting more of them in the same area

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No? People have minds of their own, you know. With your argument, you can’t trust anyone’s opinion because it’s been influenced by other people.

Stop trying to invalidate data to back your own belief.

3 Likes
17

For many things, that’s true. But for asking how Symmetra MAINS prefer the hero to be, then going to the place where they are makes the most sense. You’re not asking the average OW player, you’re asking the mains of a specific hero. So you make a poll on where they would be. This makes the twitter poll and this poll both accurate enough for the point of getting a general opinion of Symmetra mains. Same if you wanted it for Dva mains, Widow mains, zen mains, etc.

4 Likes
18

I don’t think it really matters whether the data is valid. I highly doubt Blizzard will actually listen to the Symmetra community :relieved:

1 Like
19

I think this is interesting. I want to find out what the forums think as that’s a broad section of the playerbase too. If we could get them to answer a couple of questions we can compare the data sets.

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The point of my OP is to gather the opinions of Symmetra by Symmetra mains. Any forum polls would have far more non-Symmetra mains answering than actual Symmetra mains.

Objectively, current Symmetra is on the same balance level as 2.0 Symmetra. The rework has failed what it sought to accomplish, thus leading to the Symmetra community wanting the more fun version of Symmetra to return.

The only thing her rework has accomplished is getting her played in OWL. Even then, she’s only picked on 2 maps for a few minutes to get to the point quickly and then swapped off.

She’s far more niche now than before her rework.

3 Likes