I recently started a poll in the r/SymmetraMains subreddit. I asked:
Would you be interested in a Support Symm experimental card?
With the description of:
This isn’t saying “I think she should be a support,” I just want to know whether you would be interested in at least TRYING a support Symm.
Note: She would have some degree of healing, as is expected of a Support. I’d assume she’d still have a focus on utility (teleporter, shields etc) with healing on the side.
The results are as follows:
Yes - 154
No - 41
Total votes: 195
Out of almost 200 Symmetra Mains, 78% of voters wanted to at least try Support Symmetra on an experimental card.
So what does this mean?
There’s clearly an interest for Support Sym in her community. The poll makes it clear that this is not asking whether respondants think it’s the best route for the hero. Simply entertaining the idea on an experimental card is what a vast majority of respondants want.
Why would an experimental card be a good idea?
The Sym community is still pretty split on whether she should be kept Damage or moved to Support. From what I’ve seen in the subreddit, most skeptics worry that Support Sym would have a heavy focus on healing rather than utility/damage (which is how she’s always been played).
Having an experimental card that adds healing to her kit, but keeps her utility/damage focus, may win over the skeptics that worry about a loss of her identity.
Ideally, a Support Symmetra would be similar to Lucio/Zenyatta in which their play style is utility and DPS orientated rather than healing focused.
very very small pool to draw a conclusion, all you can take is that some people want to try it which you already knew would happen, plus taking the opinion of a hero’s mains only is mostly biased considering they all played during sym’s support days
Personally I would like to try it and I’m not a sym main whatever that means for you
And Symmetra has a very very small community. I’d agree that more votes would be needed had the results been close. However a 78% majority is very clear, and the “No” option would unlikely overtake.
Not necessarily. Symmetra was reworked almost 3 years ago now. She’s had her current kit longer than her old kit. Her community is much larger now than it was 3 years ago due to the game’s growth.
Geoff Goodman said he tried healing turrets as her sole healing method. This felt like a mismatch considering how fast paced Overwatch is.
He said that he’s willing to “have another crack at it”, and says he could have pushed harder on Support Symmetra. He also said that the healer Sym tests could have gone better if she had another way to heal rather than just turrets.
you see, the problem with making her a zen style support where healing is simply set and forget and doesn’t actually impede what the hero is doing actively most of the time, is that in doing so they have to make her more viable to dps in the process…
in which case we might as well just make her a better dps and not role switch.
like at that point, the only purpose of role switching would be to appease support players/mains in giving them another hero to play and faster queues… which really shouldn’t be the point of a role switch.
And those specifics reasons are also why I suspect so many people want support sym.
disclaimer: yes I am a support main and no I’m not in favor of switching sym into a support.
it is, however the game lacks supports (and tanks) this is well known so I think the possibility of having any hero move somewhere else is always enticing, look at mei’s “joke” experimental
Personally I would like it if her turrets didn’t straight up healed but instead if they would connect with each others and created healing “zones” or string like places to apply constant healing
I would however miss damage sym as well… there is sadly no right answer here
if we’re making her healing be low hps like zen’s and her utility be also on a high down time, yes she absolutely needs to be more viable or consistent. because SOMETHING has to make her compete against higher hps supports. for zen that’s better damage + discord. lucio may not have high damage but he has more heals and and his speed has waaaay higher uptime. uptime which far outdoes tp’s when you consider the pace of the game.
and she legit was terrible because damage was the only thing active she can contribute with and she often couldn’t do jack for that unless the team escorted her to be where she wanted to be.
keep in mind that 2CP is leaving us in OW2 too so don’t go into the trap of only thinking about CP def where static “wait for enemy to come to me” is passable in judging whether a kit design is good or not.
the numbers are already terrible. orbs are legit one of the worst numbered projectile weapon fires in the game and that’s her staple weapon fire. and you and I both know all the problems primary has.
You should probably set up a poll on the Forums. That way you’re getting perspectives from a more diverse selection of people, not just Symmetra mains.
the problem with that is you get more results of people that simply want a new support even if it means entirely killing off another hero and not caring about sym herself.
But I guess the question is really moreso what we want to measure.
if we want to measure the general consensus about what people want, then sure, cast the net as far and wide as possible.
If we want to know simply what sym mains (i.e. people that care most about sym) feel, then probs target somewhere where the majority of the community care about her e.g. the sym mains subreddit.
tbf to the devs, having static turret or totem heals have PLENTY of viability problems in OW where it’s very fast paced i.e. teams reposition around often.
the main problem is them keeping up with the more mobile teammates (who are about to get more mobile when dps get their mobility passive and tanks get more brawly and 2CP going bye bye) which if they don’t, they end up anchoring teammates’ positioning and dragging them down.
the reason why lucio has an aura and has speed boost + wall ride speed boosts instead of totems is to alleviate that problem. i.e. he can catch up to teammates rather than having teammates wait for him.
The other big problem with healing turrets is heal targeting. like whether you can target your heals is a VERY big difference. the lowest hp ally isn’t necessarily the one you should be healing. and that’d impact viability a lot.
That’s fine and all, but you’re going to end up with a biased group. You need multiple perspectives to see what everyone thinks would be best for the game, or at least more sects of the playerbase.
Look, they denied wraith cancel for basically the same reason, and it is an essential part of his kit that most people supported. Show me someone who thinks Sym works as a dps and I will show you a clown. Even if she was worthless as a support, it is OBJECTIVELY better to have another support over another dps.
Yes, maybe someone has the opinion that having twice the dps is healthy, but they are wrong and I don’t care about their opinion, neither should anyone.
Low healing = High damage? I don’t agree. Just because a support has low healing doesn’t mean he needs high damage to compensate. Zen is and was the only hero that fits in this category. Look at Lucio or Brig 1.0.
If the support has enough utility he can work even with low healing and low damage.
Teleporter, Shield Gen, Turrets and even Photon barrier are enough utilty to work with.
Faster queues are a side effect but it’s not the main reason.
And there’s nothing wrong with adding a new support to the game (after removing one).