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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
They’re 2 different heroes, did it also occur to anyone that you can throw them behind the enemy and they lock on for 150 dps until they turn around to take them out (via tele, not actually throwing them).
Sym’s whole kit deals 210-330 dps (some of it auto hitting), Zarya’s is 95-185 dps. Sym’s weapons deal more damage, it’s just not point and click (plus she has teleporter that does protect turrets with the exception of splash damage).
You’re overselling it hard. Again, turret bombing is on a 30 second cooldown with a 5 second setup. The teleporter is loud, giving the enemy an easy read on it’s location (this is why Reapers and Sombra’s callouts when they teleport/reveal is so widely criticized). The turret bomb is also dismantled by half the cast with a single multi-target shot.
It might’ve been useful the first few weeks when Sym 3.0 was revealed, but at this point no one should be falling for that tactic.
150dps only matters if it lasts more than 1 second, and in a competitive match it doesn’t even come close.
Tbh that’s how she has always been and it’s been unique to her as a DPS/Support so I’ve never minded. I like that she relies out outplaying vs brute force.
When it comes to her usage in pro play idk. I don’t believe any pro player aside from Seagull who isn’t even technically a pro player anymore has actually put extensive time into learning what she can do on her own. They understand how powerful TP is for it’s enable potential, but not how to play her outside of the basics. At least that’s what it’s looked like to me when she’s picked.
You have to know this will never happen tho tbh. I accepted that a long time ago. You could buff her into OP levels, the most OP hero that’s ever been in the game, and even if people played her I guarantee she would still be hated.