Symmetra 3.0: A Summary From a 200 Hour Sym Main

Firstly I’d just like to say I love the Sym changes overall.
As someone who played Sym (with a successful 64% WR over all previous seasons & QP) for almost 200 hours, I knew how to make old Sym work, but new Sym provides so much new utility, strategy and fun to the character. I’ve played all iterations of Sym, all the way back to Season 1, and have seen nothing but overall improvement regarding the hero.

In this post, I hope to cover all parts of Symmetra’s ever-changing kit and my insight into what is done right and what can be improved regarding each.


Photon Projector: Primary Fire -

There is one glaring issue with Sym 3.0. I’ve seen numerous Symmetra mains and non-Symmetra mains alike stating that the new primary fire is useless.
While at first I believed this was just people having trouble tracking with it, I realised that it is, imo, heavily underpowered.

Most of the players I’ve seen address this prefer to use the secondary fire, even in close range, myself included. The only exception to this, imo, is against barriers and tanks. The new primary fire is extremely strong once tier 2 and 3 are reached, but the only realistic way to do that regularly is to use a barrier to a large hero that Sym can keep the beam focused on long enough.

My problem with the beam isn’t the aiming part.
I believe that achieving the next tier on the weapon takes too long, and decreasing between the tiers is too fast. This makes the weapon incredibly inconsistent at dealing damage and honestly just not worth the risk of getting up close and personal with the enemy.

There are a number of changes, that I have listed from my personal preference to the least preferred, that could be tested to remedy this weakness:

  • Speed at which tiers are reached could be increased
  • Speed at which tiers decay could be decreased
  • Damage of her standard tier-1 primary fire could be slightly increased, as it is laughably low.
  • Symmetra could be provided with 50 extra shield HP to compensate for having to get dangerously close to the enemy, especially now that her old photon barrier is gone.
  • Reverting to Sym 2.0’s primary fire: My least favourite option, but it would solve any issues with the new one.

Photon Projector: Secondary Fire -

I haven’t much to say on Sym’s orbs. While I do miss them being able to pierce through multiple enemies and barriers, the new orbs are clearly far superior.
Finally giving Sym a weapon that can actually fight against certain heroes (cough Pharah & Tracer cough), she is still at a disadvantage when against them, as counters should work.
The slight explosive radius on them also helps to secure kills.

With the old orbs, I found myself using them in a certain ratio. To help visualise this, I’ll be using S:M:L, ‘S’ being small orbs, ‘M’ medium orbs, ‘L’ large orbs.

  • With Sym 1.0/2.0, the ratio for myself was roughly 10:5:100
  • With Sym 3.0, it’s more balanced at a 25:10:100 ratio.
  • Large orbs are clearly still the best to use, imo, but I find myself able to utilise the other orbs way more, instead of simply forgetting they exist.

Overall, I believe that no changes to the secondary fire are needed.


Sentry Turrets -

Wow. What an excellent job Blizzard done with these turrets. Credit where credit is due, I can’t deny that the new turrets are flawless.
Gone are the days of constantly managing 6 1hp nuisances. Gone are the days of slowly building each turret one by one.

Now with 3 stronger turrets, I can more freely throw them around and use them to my advantage. Deploying them is no longer a dangerous thing to do.

I also love that they can be deployed and teleported, making use for fun tactics such as TP bomb while also providing some extra help when using the TP to ensure you are safe.

Once again, overall, no changes needed.


Teleporter -

The TP is also an example of something done right. Bugs aside, it’s able to be utilised for strong new strategies and offer Sym some much needed mobility options and the element of surprise.

While I do miss the clutch TP of Sym 1.0/2.0, finally not having to worry about it being hunted by flankers is a relief.

I haven’t much more to say on TP, except:
No changes needed overall.


Photon Barrier -

I just wanna say as a bit of a sidenote, that visually, the PB is stunning. I love erecting this huge glowing wall that blocks huge portions of a map.

In terms of gameplay, overall, the PB is strong. 5000hp is nothing to be shaken off. I know people argue that it can “just be walked through”, and yeah, that is true. But when utilised correctly, cutting off half of an objective for example can be game changing.

The current ult lasts 15s, which is quite long. However, I find that on average only ~1500hp of the barrier is used at a time. To increase this number, I believe the duration could be raised to 20s.

I do miss the old Photon Barrier, I find myself dying to ultimates more often now, but I think the 5000hp barrier is better for the hero.

Overall, the PB is strong but could use a small buff to its duration


Shield Generator -

I know, I know, SG is gone. It’s very sad.
However, I would like to offer some input about the now absent ultimate ability.

I believe that Shield Generator fit well into the game, and would be wasted if it was never seen again.

I think that it could be used for a future hero’s kit, likely as an ultimate.
Perhaps if another Vishkar hero was added, such as Sanjay Korpal.


Bugs -
It has to be done.
Bugs are important to resolve and so I’ve been able to compile as many as possible regarding Symmetra’s most recent rework.

  • Bug 1: TP self destruct -
    The teleporter, when placed in some areas that clearly say it is ok, will destroy itself.

  • Bug 2: Turrets around corners -
    Not necessarily a bug, but a hitbox issue that should be fixed. Turrets can get caught on corners and ledges very easily and unintentionally.

  • Bug 3: Teleporters on fences -
    This one is very glitchy. Attempting to place a TP on a fence requires a careful hand as even the slightest movement can end up ruining the entire placement.
    Reaper’s Shadow Step has the same problem.

  • Bug 4: Beams vs Walls -
    The beam can sometimes get stuck on wall hitboxes, despite a clear path with no blockage. A video example is here:
    - YouTube


Conclusion & TL;DR -
To conclude, the Sym 3.0 rework was mostly successful. There are still some weak parts of her kit and quite a few bugs that should be fixed ASAP.

  • Her turrets, TP, and secondary fire are perfect and should not be altered, except for bug fixes.
  • Her PB should receive a slight buff to its duration to ensure more dmg blocked is acheived.
  • Her primary fire takes too long to ramp up in stages and could receive one of the tweaks I mentioned above to help its use.
  • Shield Gen would be wasted if never used again

Thank you for reading my huge post, if you have any constructive input then please feel free to post below, I’d love to hear all of your thoughts both from non-Sym and Sym mains

  • Moon :slightly_smiling_face:
43 Likes

Mmmmmm a main who isnt crying about changes. That’s a tastey sauce.

12 Likes

There is one change I think the turrets do need - they have huge collision hitboxes. I am constantly sticking them to things I wasn’t aiming for.

They can be big for the enemy to shoot, that’s fine, I just want them to be small in terms of where they stick so I don’t accidentally stick them to the ledge I am standing on, a light pole near where I am aiming, etc. Especially when the cooldown is so long.

Also, the teleporter railing issue is super annoying. I’ve had some many teleporters flicker into being 5 ft away because of a stupid railing I can’t even say.

1 Like

Imo the turrets deployment need a smaller cooldown. To maybe 9 or 8 seconds instead of 10.

Also im still and advocate for having level 3 bream pierce shields. Or have it recharge her own shields.

2 Likes

The thing is they left the changes untouched and gave a measly slight buff that wasn’t effective at all. There’s nothing wrong adding feedback to hope for a better approach, but Overwatch doesn’t have a good track record on executing it properly. That’s why the game is in a decline, but they probably knew that from the start once the got their goals out of the way.

6 seconds on the turrets because it’s only 3. Not 6 turrets like she had before and even then it was rough to keep them all up.

1 Like

I mentioned this in the bug section, it may not have been very clear though, so my bad.

I think her left click should stay as is but gain a slight health steal that replenishes her shields while channeling to add survivability to her. Would compensate a bit for Sym losing her Photon Barrier.

Her ULT I would decrease the HP from 5000 to 2500 or so and add a 10% slow to enemies that cross it.

1 Like

Not a bad idea actually.

I like this idea too, I just fear it may be hard to balance so that it’s not horrendously OP but also isn’t too weak.

Keep in mind 2500hp is barely above a Rein shield, and against team comps with high dmg heroes like Pharah, Hanzo, Junkrat or Bastion it’d drop very very fast and wouldn’t feel like an ultimate at all.

As for the slow, I like that idea instead of my increased duration suggestion. Either would suffice.

Also I see people upset that her right click doesn’t go through shields anymore. They could maybe add that splash damage from the orb blast still does damage to people behind shields, just not the initial blast.

1 Like

I think her orbs are honestly perfect as they are. I do miss them going through shields but I think if they still did it’d be OP.

If you just mean the splash dmg though, that could be ok, but I think that her primary fire is in more dire need of attention over her secondary fire.

Oh yeah, sorry. I saw turrets around corners and thought that it was the old bug about beams going ‘around corners’ (really a latency issue).

No problem, was pretty poor wording on my part, I didn’t know how to write it haha

Personally, I’d like it if Symmetra has 4 turrets instead of 3. Obviously they would need to reduce the health, damage and slow, but still keep the overall health, damage and slow the same. I think it could make her a bit stronger at area denial.

Maybe I’m wrong, and it would just end up nerfing Symmetra, but I personally think that it could help her out a little.

The other two solutions I suggested for the lackluster primary fire are:

  1. Let it headshot. Since needing to aim is apparently so important, let’s reward good aim! It’s not like anyone but amazing players could headshot consistently.
  2. Make Sym a ‘fast’ hero like Tracer and Genji. That way, she can at least not by run down by her beam target (a huge issue versus Rein and Brigitte especially).

It seems a few people have issues with the turrets that I hadn’t found myself.

I do understand the desire to have 4 over 3 though, with many map areas having 2 entrances it’d be nice to have 2 turrets on each instead of 2 on one and 1 on the other.

At the same time though, I’d want to avoid the old Symmetra issue of “oh no one turret is dead better go deploy it, oh no another’s dead, oh no they’re all dead”.
Managing the old turrets was a pain in the butt and increasing the no. of turrets would only cause that problem to return.

I totally understand that. Although it might be a little less stressful with the turrets being thrown, so at least you don’t have to spend a year setting them all up again with the cast time and the slow.

Honestly, I’d like it if Blizzard would use the PTR to test things like this out. Just so that the community could form some better opinions that aren’t just based on theoreticals.

That’s true, it’s hard to tell without being able to test it.

Agree 100%. PTR seems to just be used to put upcoming patches on, rather than to actually test anything.

1 Like

Not much to say right now, on my phone. But wanted to post that this was an interesting read through and I appreciate it.

I’ve been playing Sym more lately, and while I think she could use some touch ups, she doesn’t seem nearly as bad as people make her out to be to me.

1 Like

Also, as far as more but weaker turrets go, one turret is already barely a threat. Any weaker and you’d have to use two, thus negating any advantage.

Plus, honestly? I don’t want her to be more turret centric. I already get 2/3 of my kills from turrets which is just depressing.

Thank you!

I think that many of the players who complain about current Sym just miss her old versions.
I too miss Sym 2.0, but to claim that Sym 3.0 is a failed rework and sucks because of that alone is delusional.

I believe most of her kit is now very versatile and strong.

And this exactly. A majority of Sym 3.0’s elims seems to be at least assisted by turrets, making her even more turret focused would feel like you’re letting the turrets play for you lol

1 Like