Symmetra rework rant

General Discussion
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Why does blizzard COMPLETELY change one hero (Deleting them) instead of just giving them quality of life changes? This new Symmetra is not symmetra it could’ve been an entirely new character with a backstory. Symmetra wont be the same anymore if you change her like this.

easy fix for this hero is;

  1. increase ability/ult placement range.
  2. change shape and/or speed of her shield.
  3. allow teammates to see the AoE of shield gen.
  4. either increase orb speed or orb charge rate
  5. give turrets a little bit more health at the cost of amount of turrets place able
  6. make her gun range either shorter and allow for no aim, or increase her range and make her aim, like Moira or Winston.
  7. remove slowdown when placing abiliities
  8. make turrets become active faster.
    etc.

These are a few not even new abilities or anything major, just simple quality of life fixes.

They don’t even need to be all of these just a few.

Make the changes you have done and create a new character because deleting someone i enjoy so much, just to satisfy people that don’t even like her really ruins this game for me. make tp an ability and give her two shield ults idc, but don’t change her CORE don’t make me waste spending my in-game currency and all my comp points all these hours and time into a hero that i wont enjoy.

You’ve gotten so many Symmetra mains throwing ideas about how to make the character more viable and you just throw that out the window. I am betrayed.

Edit: She’s gonna become an empty shell of what she was,
now she’ll be know as that one hero with Zarya gun, literally her gun the the same thing as Zarya.
Although they’ve implimented what i suggested they did it poorly, yes i havent played new sym ( no one has ofc ) But i can safely say youre not supporting the right people in this issue, just because pro doesnt play her doesnt mean shes bad, thats backwards.

You were gonna have another character with doomfist i remember that leak, the hero was basically this new sym iirc, but instead of satisfying the sym playerbase, you delete the character just so that the ones that hate her will like her instead of the ones that already do (im bad with words). BASICALLY youre alienating youre playerbase, Her core is in shambles

7 Likes
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Good ideas, but I doubt they’ll take any advice for Symmetra’s rework.
There’ll soon be a trash can known as “Symmetra Feedback Thread” where they’ll throw everything people suggest, argue, or want to add.

9 Likes
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Didnt they do 1,2,4 5, 6, 7 in one way or another for the rework. (except for having to aim they made it zarya like :joy:) looks like they listened to you incredibly well

Also her core abilities are still sym she just has added abilities and her old ones are more versatile.

Really dont get people who say this is a new hero when she has the same abilities just a new ult

10 Likes
4

Hi
Im a Sym main. I’m also super disappointed with where this is going.

Basically, Blizzard have no spine. They should have just said

“Sorry guys we decided to pander to the masses and we are going to delete Symmetra.”
“Oh and we have this cool new character who is a mashup of Sym,Mei and Zarya”

If it were about her not being used in the league, they could have just made some minor changes to make her more viable. Instead they “Reworked” EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF HER.

Furthermore i don’t think they have consulted any real Sym mains about these changes. All the descriptions of how useful the new abilities are, dont match how i have ever played Sym.

  • 3 Turrets that have health and deal more damage, only sounds good if you cluster your turrets. I like to hide turrets near the point or payload and spread them out, which i find much more effective.

  • The Orbs will now explode when they contact players. The best part about sym orbs was that they would travel through multiple players and deal that much damage to each of them. This was useful against players clustering behind a rein or Orisa shield.

  • Photon Barrier is now an Ult. Symmetra is very slow moving and the PB was her only escape. This new PB sounds useless as its an ultimate that needs to charge up. So how often can i use this on a payload map? Because if its effective and we kill the enemy team, we will then push the payload beyond the 5000 HP wall and then its useless.

  • Mobile Teleporter This will just encourage more pissing around trying to place TP’s. Sym needs to get back to the fight ASAP! Also if i want to use this to get people from the spawn quickly. The enemy tracer will know where it is and destroy it immediately.

  • Removal of Shield Gen Will miss this amazing and game changing feature.

What they should have done

  1. Make turrets setup faster, and add the shooting turret deploy.
  2. Make the ShieldGen and Teleporter smaller, quieter and able to stick to walls and ceilings. This would allow for more locations and would make it harder for a tracer to find. This never works in high level play, because there is always someone who knows the few spots where SG’s and TP’s will be. You could also remove the animation that tells enemies that you now have a SG. Also i like your idea about showing the team the AOE for SG (kind of like lucios AOE)

TL;DR
Blizzard did this to appease the community and are deleting her on purpose.

6 Likes
5

increase ability/ult placement range.
change shape and/or speed of her shield.
allow teammates to see the AoE of shield gen.
either increase orb speed or orb charge rate
give turrets a little bit more health at the cost of amount of turrets place able
make her gun range either shorter and allow for no aim, or increase her range and make her aim, like Moira or Winston.
remove slowdown when placing abiliities
make turrets become active faster.
etc.

They basically did all of these…

I like new sym. She’s going to be more interactive to play and learn, as well as not get so much hate for her lack of aim. The only thing I don’t like is new teleporter.

3 Likes
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Can you tell me one thing that’s not changing? Because it really is everything.
*Primary Fire wont lock on and will be more like Zaryas Primary.
*Secondary Fire will now explode on contact and move faster. (Like a straight line version of Zaryas Secondary)

  • The ult is now a super mei wall.
  • The Shield gen is gone.
  • The TP, now requires consideration of both the entrance and the exit.
  • The photon barrier (in its current form is gone)

And the Lore behind her character doesn’t count.

7

100% guaranteed

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m just going to have to hope that Blizzard doesn’t give yet ANOTHER hero I use another unneeded complete overhaul

And be ready to hear people tell me how I should be happy about it

2 Likes
8

I don’t mean to be that guy but Symmetra ‘s current kit has no place in this game anymore. Maybe back in the early and beta days but right now and for a while it’s not a fit for this game anymore.

Plus those quality of life and buff changes you suggested is something they tried to do when she was reworked the first time. They buffed her base kit and she still was trash tier it’s a sign that her current kit doesn’t belong or fit in the game anymore.

Remember this character has the lowest pickrate and a 0% picrate in OWL she needs more than just some QOL changes and “small buffs”

Change is hard and I understand what your going through but at least wait till we see those changes in action before you scream “THIS ISNT SYMMETRA ANYMORE!!!” Chances are you’ll actually like these changes if you give them a shot.

5 Likes
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Aight, tell me how you’d buff a 0% throw pick builder with autolock to be viable without making her absolute trash to play against.

2 Likes
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I don’t blame blizzard. It would be extremely difficult to balance a hero with that type of play style in overwatch. They already tried and they still failed. Plus Symmetra isn’t too different. She still has her core abilities. The major thing Sym players will have to get used to is aiming not being toxic or anything but I’m pretty sure that Sym main don’t usually aim. Unless you play Sym and a histscan or something like that.

11

90 degrees turn on that.

Give yourself a wall you can shield dance around over a longer distance.

Have the cart travel along the wall, not through it.

12

Unneeded?

You do know that Symmetra has consistently been one of the least popular characters in the game since launch, right? Even adding the shield and the generator weren’t enough to make her a popular hero.

“Strength” here is irrelevant. It’s about how fun a hero is to play, and Symmetra…well, she isn’t any fun for anyone. Her autolock-on primary fire would fire around corners, and if she was allowed to ramp up, could microwave entire teams. Not to mention how her secondary fire just felt like it moved sooooooooo slowly, and was clunky and unfun to use.

Let’s not forget her shield generator and teleporter, which was a chore to deal with without a coordinated team, or your entire team walking through your carwash and dying. Assuming, of course, they didn’t just ignore your kill room and went for the objective, which a smart team will do.

Symmetra wasn’t exactly badly designed (except for Photon Shield, that ability was kinda useless), but she just wasn’t any fun for anyone to play or deal with, outside of a select few.

She kind of reminds me of Karma in League of Legends. She had a vocal minority who were sad that she was being reworked, but ultimately, she turned out to be much better once she was done.

Change isn’t bad, and I, for one, am looking forward to a Symmetra who is actually fun to play as and to play against.

2 Likes
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Payloads dont usually stay in a straight line for long. A SG tucked away in the right corner will cover multiple turns along the path. This might be ok, if the wall sticks to the payload like orisas does. But we already have Orisa!

Remember this is an ultimate… How many straight lines could you possibly do that on?

1 Like
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  • primary fire is still a ramp up beam
  • honestly a faster and explosive sym orb sounds much better and dangerous
  • ult is new yes. But is a giant version of photon barrier which seems like itll be more impactful than the barrier ever was.
  • shield gen is gone yes
  • tp is the same but more things can pass through it and is much more versatile allowing for more than just tele bot playstyle

Still has ramp up beam
Still has turrets
Still has tele
Still has shield

^ she still has all these. They just work slightly different and have been moved around

15

Every time I see a thread like this, it’s always the same. “They could have just buffed Sym’s main kit.”

What part of Sym’s current kit could possibly be adjusted that it makes sense for what Overwatch is? And really consider what Overwatch is now. Look at how fast it is. Look at how there’s so many characters with abilities that completely ignore just about everything Symmetra does. Look at how her abilities and skills compared to others. Look at how her effectiveness fluctuates depending on the rank she’s being played at.

It isn’t just a matter of Sym not receiving any buffs to her kit, it’s that her kit is garbage and poorly designed. I know a lot of Sym mains take this as an offense, for some reason, but it’s the blatant truth. Symmetra has not been able to keep up with Overwatch and it has nothing to do about buffs or nerfs, it’s because a character with her design is flawed. Turrets are not effective in Overwatch. Auto-aim primary fire with devastating damage forces limitations on the rest of her kit. Teleporter and Shield Generator are too passive of ultimate abilities to justify dropping a conventional one, in any strategy. Photon Shield does nothing in any advanced gameplay.

Nothing about Sym’s kit is built for modern Overwatch, and that’s what a big part of this rework is going to fix. Sym will now feel like an actual Overwatch hero, with abilities and mechanics that are actually in-line with how games play. The ability to launch turrets to set themselves up not only opens up her creative options, but it will allow her to multitask. The other changes to the turrets will mean she spends less time rebuilding Christmas lights and more time using them actively in battles. Her teleporter? Don’t even get me started on how sick that teleporter is gonna be. How long have people asked for Symmetra to have the abiltiy to make bridges to connect different levels of ground? This is that EXACT idea, but waaay more conventional and easier to implement.

All eight of the changes OP has listed would have followed one of two routes, when actually considered being implemented into the game. One route is that it doesn’t change Symmetra at all, because small buffs like “increased ult placement range,” “allowing teammates to see the AoE of shield gen,” these don’t do ANYTHING for Symmetra. Their nice quality of life things, I suppose, but in practice, what would these do to increase her actual power? It’s still the same flawed design focused on setting up pointless turrets and chasing after enemies that literally any other hero would have an equal or better time chasing.

The second route is that Sym, as we know her, does get buffed, and what do we end up with? A character with an auto-aim primary fire and tons of passive support? Enough passive support that it outranks what an active support would bring? Symmetra already has a lot of power in the lower ranks, is giving her objective buffs really the best approach to this? It isn’t.

And that’s why we have a rework. From the ground-up, she needs to be changed. Her kit does not make any sense in the game of Overwatch, not when you want to see her as a competent choice for people to select.

I think Sym mains that are hesitant about these changes need to be patient for just a little bit longer. I think many will embrace the new Symmetra when they can see her changes in motion, and they’ll see how she’s still the same Sym but no longer restricted by dumb design choices. We’re going to see more of Symmetra’s character in her abilities, especially with the creative options that Blizzard is exploring. I dunno, I can’t convince you guys to be hyped for something you just don’t like, but I would at least urge you to try and have some open arms to this rework.

5 Likes
16

She is my favorite character and i have the most fun with her. Your descriptions are from the enemy perspective and yeah its probably not fun getting destroyed by a character that you think is so terrible.

SG is easy and has nothing to do with your team. TP is not that great except for clutch attack on capture and hold maps.

Actually its lifesaving for you and your team, and was one of the only things that makes her viable against character like Soldier, or even Dva with the new rockets.

…

Lets say they decided to make some changes to Overwatch. They change every character. They change the Lore. They change the potential compositions. They change all the abilities. And more.

Are you going to say… hey i love change this all sounds great. Or are you going to say… thats all great but now this is nothing like Overwatch. Cant i keep playing Overwatch and you offer this new game separately?

3 Likes
17

They reworked her entirely because her kit and playstyle don’t fit in Overwatch. They could give her all the QoL changes and buffs they wanted, but there would never be a state of balance. Without a total rework, she would either be just as situational and non-impactful as ever, or so oppressive that she’s not fun.

They haven’t “deleted” Symmetra. They have given her kit a makeover. Big difference. Instead of being a lock-on beam, her beam will be more like Moira’s, where it has a wide and forgiving radius, but if the person leaves that radius, it stops hurting them. Her secondary fire is still a charged orb, it just moves faster and explodes instead of piercing barriers. It’s not like they gave her a shotgun. It’s the same weapon, just with a slightly different function.

All of her abilities are derivatives of her previous kit, just adjusted to suit the fast-paced style of Overwatch. The reason why she is so difficult to get value on attack is that the team moves up faster than she can set up turrets. With the new changes, she can set up forward turrets to start claiming space, rather than reinforcing already-claimed space.

I think you should wait to play her before making your judgement. I’d put money on her feeling like the old Symmetra, just with better reach and impact, instead of an entirely new hero.

1 Like
18

I felt the same way about mercy and how sad I was that they were ripping her apart.
That said, symmetra is trash and does need these changes.
Sending you positive vibes, I’m sorry this had to happen <3

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I did. Its at the end of the post under “What they should have done”

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Maybe they tried to just up her stats and it didn’t playtest right?