I’m not sure why they ever reworked her as a dps to begin with, from what I remember the playerbase actually liked her as a support but here’s my reasons why she’s bad for the game as a DPS.
Her turrets are extremely unfun to play against
She’s really only picked on specific maps where her turrets shine therefore she’s only picked as a cheesy character to get an easy win in a round.
She can’t ever be buffed because her kit becomes extremely obnoxious and unfun which isn’t good for anyone that wants to pick her outside of those cheesy situations
She has a lot of potential as a support to be more unique compared to other supports and more fun to play against and more viable in different situations.
In higher level play it’s less about her turrets and more about easy teleports or teleport flanks but again, only in very specific scenarios/maps.
EDIT
To be clear, I don’t mean she should be reverted to her old original support kit.
I think she should be reworked completely back into a support with a new kit.
I like the idea they had during the experimental patch with her healing turrets.
The only design problem with Sym is tp. Everything else is fine. Having each hero feel and play different is better than every character be a point-and-click adventure.
Support sym as she used to be was borderline a throw and in a role queue environment would be a large detriment to the team. She was hated as a support with very obnoxious mechanics that were boring to play into. They can try again but old support sym was so hated high rank players couldn’t find players which created such a negative stigma sym players were outright reported for playing sym by teammates. Not sure what memories you have of people liking support sym.
Symmetra has been a red headed step-child for awhile. No news there.
Reworking her into a support was tried in an experimental patch, and to say it was horrible would be the understatement of the year.
In a bloated DPS roster, she could be removed and it would have little to no impact on the game. She’s picked so rarely now as it is, her missing from the DPS category would likely go unnoticed.
If she were to be made into a support, they’d need to gear it around shields, and as it stands, we already have too many of those in game.
We could debate all day long about what she needs to be viable, but we’ll just end up going in circles, others will chime in and say she’s fine, others will say she’s a dumpster fire, etc.
She needs something, no consensus has been forthcoming, developer interaction is non-existent.
At this point, holding your breath will result in asphyxiation.
Expect the worst, hope for the best, this way you’re never disappointed.
She definitely needs a rework and I think to stop her from becoming a monstrosity that makes the game unplayable because it’s so unfun to play against, support would be her best role.
Healing turrets were tested in the past I think in an experimental patch and I don’t see why that couldn’t work among other reworked abilities.
She had more turrets with a stronger slow and more damage as a support.
This was true for support Symmetra, too.
This was true for Support Symm, too.
Based off of what? People complained about her tp ult because a coordinated team could make sure no one ever could destroy it before the team returned from spawn and her shield gen was a cancer to find.
And again, support Symm was very situational.
As much as the playstyle is missed Symmetra was always a DPS in Support’s clothing. Aside from her shield ability in 1.0 she was basically only good in brawl comps and assault maps on defense, which is exactly her niche now, except she’s also now queen of koth. The only thing that’s really changed is she’s less focused on forcing the enemy into traps and more working with her team to do big damage and providing distractions with turrets/tp.
I believe that the experimental patch with Sym’s turrets were to set up Illari with her healing deployable.
We know the healing turret is viable now that it’s been reworked, however I doubt she’d get the ability simply because someone else has it.
If you look back, look at all the abilities that were taken away from Symmetra, only to be given to a new character. It’s actually quite comical. All the things that were supposedly ‘OP’ for Symmetra were literally piecemealed out to other, new characters.
So I don’t know at this point. Just redesign the character entirely. Just make her a good option to pick, not detrimental.
Well, the healing turrets that were tested a while ago during an experimental patch could be brought in, but of course Illari has that so I understand if you don’t want to do that.
She might just need an entirely new design.
I mean, that’s kind of my point. It’s a badly designed ability because they’re either too strong or too weak.
And if they’re too strong literally nobody wants to play the game because of how unfun it is, that’s not a good kit.
Retaining the builder identity wouldn’t be difficult. You could make her into a DPS character, while still allowing her to provide utility.
I’d tossed around ideas before about giving her abilities that allow for teammate enablement. For instance, deployables that amp damage, reduce damage taken, boost speed, allow for some kind of toggle (for instance, pierces shields as a modifier), a slow field, etc.
Some of the deployables could be Hardlight structures, stairs or ramps that allow for verticality in maps, jump pads, etc.
Turrets could be made into tethers, where if an enemy character gets in range, they’re tethered like a dog on a leash until it’s destroyed. They still have mobility within the tethers range, but are unable to leave the area until they destroy the deployable leashing them.
There are a lot of different things that could be done. Her primary fire could be made into a burst fire weapon instead of beams, her alt fire could be made to act like a debuff, when activated prevents movement abilities, things like that.
The options are endless, and I’m not suggesting any of those things I mentioned would be viable, just spitballing.
Its almost a requirement for supports to also be healers, and considering we just got a turret healing support, the chances are slim.
Personally they should just go back to Sym 2.0, but then do a few changes, mainly the throwable turrets and strait beam. Those changes were one of the good changes she got going to 3.0
I’d love the death noodle back! That would be nice, but the mechanic is dated. It’s all about ‘skill’ now. Can’t have something that takes very little skill to get good results from, that’s game breaking. (cough, Venture, cough).
Yeah, I want Sym to be reworked, but make no mistake that lock on beam should never come back, especially in a world where Moira exists, Genji would get double sucked and that’s just ridiculous.
The problem with the lock on beam is, at the time, it directly countered the ‘Darling’ characters of the time, Tracer and Genji. It basically made those characters exceedingly difficult to play while Symmetra was on the play field. If her turrets weren’t bad enough, the noodle was insult to injury due to the tracking.
Tracer/Genji get their survivability from their maneuverability and difficulty in tracking. That version of Symmetra completely voided that part of their mechanic. That was one of the go-to counter picks back in the day. Got a troublesome Tracer/Genji? Go Symmetra. Hard counter.
yeah that’s why pro sym players were so avoided they couldn’t find games.