Zarya can do 195dps not factoring in however much her rightclicks can increase her dps.
Sym can do 330dps, also not factoring in a rightclick, but her turrets are inseparable from her max possible dps.
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The day people want TP and photon barrier over Zarya bubbles and Gravs is the day I eat my entire collection of hats. Her utility doesn’t justify the sad state of her weapon.
Sure, Sym can have more potential DPS if you factor in turrets, but you can’t control the turrets, they can be destroyed, and they’re on a long cooldown. It’s not enough.
What Sym needs:
-More low end damage: 90/135/180 instead of 60/120/180
-Turrets focus your primary beam target
-Substantial TP buffs and QoL
…Remember, Sym is ASTRONOMICALLY more squishy than Zarya and her beam has SHORTER range. She should outdo her in the damage department without contest, or she’s redundant. Her damage is worse, survivability is worse, and utility is more niche / overall worse. Something’s gotta go.
I guess it depends on how you look at this question. Are you looking at overall per game damage stats or pure DPS potential on her primary weapon? Either way there is no credible way to say that Zarya does more damage than any other hero in the game.
Pure Damage
These heroes do more damage than Zarya per game. (not at any specific rank, but just overall) - Source: Overbuff
- Bastion
- Junkrat
- Torbjorn
- Pharah
- Hanzo
- Ashe
- Soldier: 76
- D.Va
- Reaper
Pure DPS
These heroes have a higher DPS potential than a 100% charge Zarya just on their primary damage dealing weapon, optimal range, no headshots.
- Doomfist (if you count Rocket Punch)
- Reaper
- Tracer
- Bastion
- Junkrat
- Roadhog
If you add headshots, then these also get added.
- Ashe
- Genji
- McCree
- Soldier 76
- Sombra
- Hanzo
- Torb
- Widow
- D.Va
- Mercy (lol)
Now, if she has no charge, even Ana’s actual DPS is only like 10 lower than Zarya’s. Her 0 charge DPS isn’t that great. And if you factored in other abilities then you get even more heroes. I counted Doomfist’s fist as his primary. If you have a problem with that then he comes off the list.
Source: (If they were wrong then so am I. They got their data off of gamepedia and performed DPS calculations and factored in reloads and such)
I think it’s less important that Zarya potentially deals more damage than Symmetra and more that Zarya’s charge mechanic is vastly more practical and lenient than Sym’s.
Not only is Zarya negating a potentially huge amount of damage, her gained charge lasts longer, doesn’t cost her any ammo, and she can have it before the proper fighting even begins.
Symmettra always has to start with her pitiful Level 1 Laser and hopes to survive long enough to start snowballing. If she stops fighting for even a bit in an attempt to not die, her Laser will probably degrade at least one level.
Also Sym loses an entire passive benefit just because the enemy team doesn’t have Barriers. I’m not certain, but I don’t think there is any other bigger downside to a hero that is entirely dependent on what heroes the enemy is using. It’s like if Ana or Moira couldn’t damage Omnics.
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You have to understand the low end part of her damage though.
Right click plus left click can do 180dps in one second. Increasing it to 90 would make it 210dps in one second, which could potentially be too powerful.
Right now a fully charged Sym beam does (slightly) more damage than a fully charged Zarya beam.
They buffed the beam in secret.
Eh, I don’t buy it. In the time it takes to charge the right click, land it, then track someone over one second (assuming prefect acc over one second), most other dps heroes can kill you, and from range. It seems fair to me.
You’re also super vulnerable if you’re doing this.
But then you add even one turret into the equation and Sym would just obliterate people. Like, I think she’d actually become genuinely problematic for the first time.
Is that in PTR or on live? Because none of the Overwatch wikis are reporting anything other than 180dps.
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Zayra: Increases Damage when getting shot into her big bubbles, both her own and the one she can throw on teammates
Symmetra : Increases Damage when continuously tracking an enemy to ramp it up.
That was from a month ago.
The gamepedia wiki reports 64/128/192 which is slightly lower than what I got/estimated back then, but it also says that 10 seconds of charging (i.e. 1 full clip) deals 1600 damage. I tested it and can confirm. 1600 in 10 seconds is impossible with 60/120/180 but works perfectly with 64/128/192.
64 (2 / 1.2) + 128 (2 / 1.2) + 192 (10 - (2 / 1.2) - (2 / 1.2)) = 1600
Zarya’s M1 outclasses Sym’s M1 in every way.
Sym has to charge in-combat, which means she starts at minimum damage and must rank it up after a team fight has started. Zarya can pre-charge her gun using her bubbles in the poke-fights before a team-fight starts (especially against projectiles. Firestrike is basically a free 80% charge).
Symmetra starts at 60 damage per second. Zarya starts at 95 damage per second. Sym has 12m range. Zarya has 15m.
It takes Sym 4 seconds to go from maximum charge to minimum charge. It takes Zarya 62 seconds to go from maximum charge to minimum charge.
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It’s one of those things that sounds more strong on paper. You can’t control who your turret is hitting and they’re so vulnerable with the flight time and setup time… Your scenario to me seems more like stars aligning than a practical reliable scenario.
Don’t forget snipers who can flat out one shot people in a much less vulnerable position than Sym without relying on destructible deployables for a portion of their damage.
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Yknow disregarding her deployables destructibility, new Sym functions similar to a sniper imo. Like two turrets TP’d behind you and an orb = 220dps and is effectively a oneshot, she just has a 20m range for it instead of mapwide.
Idk you know my opinion I think Sym is dumb stronk and there are few ways to buff her that wouldn’t be problematic.
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Well… If you want to list off what Zarya does better and discount what Sym can do.
She can put out 210 dps uncharged and has a teleporter… Then again your argument does fall apart when you start thinking about her abilities.
Idk, comparing the hurdles and cooldown usage she has to go through to have similar output as other heroes who can just click on the enemy for the same effect at range and with better survivability… It’s just not a fair trade.
Maybe on paper with perfect psychic play she seems super strong, but her abysmal pick rates and lack of pro play besides as a bastion taxi speaks volumes to me.
She needs a solid push in a direction I think. Either greatly improved survivability, damage, or support utility though the appropriate buffs. I don’t want to see her as meta as Rein or anything, but I want her at the point where your team doesn’t collectively groan when you pick her.
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210 DPS only happens if the turrets last more than 1 second. Most cases, you’ll be lucky if the turrets get more than one tick of damage. We’re talking practical results, here, not theoretical maximums.
If you want to go that far, Soldier 76 can do over 400 dps without charging, not even accounting for his helix rocket.
WidowMaker can do 300 damage every 0.75 seconds and that’s actually a practical maximum for her. She only drops because she ran out of targets.
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Just saying that when you say:
Then go on to talk about Zarya’s abilities contributing to more damage like it’s a given, you’re trying to compare something without actually making a comparison.
All you’re doing is comparing Zarya’s whole kit to Sym’s gun, Sym is more than just her gun (whether you like it or not).
Comparing Zaryas whole kit to Syms whole kit is no comparison. Zarya wins, hard. Syms weapon should be far superior but isn’t, which is sad.
Bubbles don’t just exist to buff Zaryas weapon. It’s an extremely strong ability in its own right, not just some accessory to the damage.
Zarya has more range and more health than symm. She also has a defensive ability to get in close if she has to. Symm only has 200hp and a lackluster mobility option.