Warning: rant time
Can we, please, stop with this “Symmetra is a DPS” propaganda?
I have recently been in game where my Ana was flaming me because I didn’t kill 4 enemy players on point (2 of them were tanks) because “Symmetra does so much damage” – I was hiding and waiting for my team to respawn and come through teleporter so we can defend together, but noooo – obviously I should’ve just walk into enemy team (without heals and on low charge) and just start killing them. That is not how this works.
With all of this “Symmetra is a DPS” talk people are acting like she is some kind of no-aim Reaper or something – that is simply not how she works. Heck, if it was like that, why would anyone play Reaper?
If she manage to get chain kills, that was because she was:
a) supported (Zarya bubbles, healing, armor ect.)
b) prepared (with high charge – from barriers and/or enemy tanks)
c) ignored by enemy team who let her set up
In this day and age, you will have more success by just W + M1/2-ing into enemy team with Moira than Symm. Just because she can’t heal it doesn’t automatically mean that she is a DPS.
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Don’t let them bother you. If these forums are any indication, no one knows what it is like playing symm. They either think she’s trash, or they think she’s OP.
However, what the Ana might have been telling you was to get out there and stall, or it was a snarky comment about running triple support. It is hard to say the reasoning without seeing what actually happened.
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In my 44 hours experience of symmetra, I consider her as a dps. There is 3 types of things you can do as symmetra: Kill 1 person behind the team, Nothing at all, or Kill the entire enemy team.
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Symmetra is a DPS, it’s just that 1v4 is bad for anyone.
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And that is why people don’t like symm’s. A lot of players don’t use her utility to be effective.
Its like saying that all you do as mercy is healing without guardian angel or damage boost.
There is always something you should be doing as symm to help your team out. She has so much utility why are you just limiting yourself to just DPS.
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People always compare her to Torb but honestly, I see more differences than similarities.
Her orbs, first and foremost, are used for getting ult. They aren’t effective zoning tools because of how slow they are and with the prevelance of D.Va you’re not gonna get any cheeky kills.
Second, her turrets are also primarily used for getting ult charge. Sure, they can lock down areas and deter flankers but with 1hp each and a 10m range they’re easy to play around. They’re better as a distraction and the slow effect is meant for your team to exploit. Defensively, they’re better spent protecting your ultimate once you have it as well.
Really, the only argument I hear is she can do a lot of damage with her primary, but that also ignores the fact that she has 0 reliable damage outside of 8m. She’s out-damaged by Zen, and even if you consider him a hybrid he’s still undoubtedly a support.
The issue with Symmetra isn’t that she’s a defense hero in support, but that her utility is too easily countered. She doesn’t have a consistent way to keep her team up without her ultimate like Repair Pack, Biotic Grenade, Orb of Harmony, Amp, or any form of healing. Her turret’s cooldown doesn’t refresh after death (yes, this is consistent with Tracer’s Blink and Junkrat’s mines but it hurts Symmetra especially since the 10 second respawn gives her 1 turret). Photon Barrier is really holding her back in this regard since she doesn’t block nearly as much as Zen or Lucio heal, so replacing that ability with a better damage mitigating ability is what I’d like to see.
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don’t hate the player (just report it), hate the game.
Symmetra is, has and will always be a mess if she can’t create shield or heal for her team.
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I feel like everything you said can be applied to dps. They don’t usually just kill everybody, they often have to be supported by their team. Also, I’ve seen quite a few posts that Symmetra is not in a good place, why would you play one hero that kills things when others do it better? To me, it just seem that they just chose to blame you.
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The truth is that she is niche.
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Never understood why peoplr think she’s a DPS in the first place. You pick Symmetra for the utility she brings not the damage, she’s too vulnerable and easy to shut down to be a DPS while also needing time to snowball in order to actually deal any significant damage.
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The truth is that the way MOST people play her, they play her in a niche way.
The problem (but why i get enjoyment out of her) with symm is that her “meta” playstyle is different in each situation. Most people only learn how to play her (and with her) on first point 2cp playstyle, because that works for them.
If you try to use that playstyle and apply it to the rest of the game, you will likely fail and find her underwelming. Heck, I personally find the most popular way to play symm on 2cp (especially since the change to rez) is outdated and no longer meta. However, people still try to use the old TP method with a Mercy and think that’s Symm’s meta.
See, the thing most people don’t realize with symm, is that her playstyle is drastically different and dependant on the other 11 players on the field. It is why when you see a symm on the field, the team has a hard time understanding what the Symm is doing… because maybe they didn’t play with her with and against the current comp.
A great symm uses her like the swiss army knife that she is. She doesn’t have the sharpest knife, but if you suddenly need a screwdriver in a pinch, she’s there with it in her kit to save the day.
She is great because she is the only character in the game that can drastically change her role in the team without switching heroes and losing ult charge. She can often do these many different things at once all at the same time.
She is not easily counterable. She IS the counter. The player determines how “countered” she is. If they only know one way to play her… then they won’t be able to switch on the fly when the team adjusts.
That is the reason people think she’s niche. A niche hero wouldn’t have a one-trick win rate of over 60%. ONE-TRICK (I don’t want to hear the arguments that her win rates are inflated by niche useage, its bs)
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People tend to tell me im not doing anything on sym. First, wow I didn’t know you had a first class seat right at my moniter seeing everything im doing (JK… kinda?) Second, people don’t realize sym needs her team to do work before she can do anything. Sym cant just run into the frontlines or even the back lines without her team putting pressure or at least getting a pick.
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PREACH, I have never heard something so true in my overwatch life. I kinda wish I could just copy paste this into team chat every game.
A hero like her having such a win rate is pretty weird, though.
All I can say is an offensive tp can have high impact if placed correctly, that one I admit. But I’d rather not. And many Syms I see play her badly. So often do I see the wrong ult being placed or at the wrong place.
She’s also risky. If you don’t get your ult down before we get rolled, that’s a big disadvantage and she becomes totally useless.
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Oh I agree completely. I’ve had people play symm either locking in before me or playing her when I’m not in the mood.
Each time I cringe and wonder wtf they are doing. I love symm. I also don’t get mad when people are like “do we really need a sym” or “Why symm” or “Attack symm, are you serious?”
I have to assure them that I think she’s awesome and I’m good with her. Not my teams fault, I’ve seen the bad symms.
But that can be said about the genji’s, widows, Rein’s, Ana’s, Tracers, Moira’s… There are very talented ones oit there… but there are also so many really bad ones.
Personally, I don’t chalk it up to anything more risky then anything else in solo queue.
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Unfortunately quite a few of them get offended when I tell them the wrong ult is being used. Some of them are extremely stubborn and refuse to follow my advice. I wouldn’t care, but it’s also my game they’re botching :-/ .
I play Symm a lot when the time is right. My turrets never get placed by my ult. If they find it consider it destroyed anyways. I place them where they are more use to help secure kills for me and my team in a fight.
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Uh a lot of her ults come down to predicting what you’re team going to do. TP is generally much more useful than SG even on attack. Do they have a Zarya? TP. Shields do nothing about a grav.
You also have to feel the flow of the game. I’ve seen Syms put shield gen to places that were useful for about 10 meters on the payload lol.