I have played Symmetra since I got Overwatch(Season 3), and seeing her get two reworks that fail to bring her out of F-Tier is disappointing to say the least.
Witht he experience I gathered by playing all her itterations, I came up with the following alterations to her kit in order bring her to a more viable place:
Primary Fire
- Unchanged
Secondary Fire
- Unchanged
Shift Ability: Deploy Turret
- Cooldown reduced to 8s (down from 10s).
- Stores up to 4 Turrets (up from 3).
- Max Nº of Sentry Turrets stays at 3.
New Utility: When using the ability, brings up two options like Moira’s “Biotic Orb”, Left Click for “Sentry Turrets” (current ability on Live) and Right Click for “Barrier Turret”.
Barrier Turret functions exactly like Symmetra 2.0’s old “Photon Barrier”, firing a turret that projects a shield as it flies until it hits a wall, but with some alterations:
- When used, consumes one Turret from the charges Symmetra currently has.
- Health reduced to 800 Shield.
- If used repeatedly (Symmetra has 2 charges, uses Barrier Turrets twice), the first shield disappears like Junkrat’s “Concussion Mines”.
- If the shield receives damage, its travel speed is reduced by 50%.
Notes: One of Symmetra’s current problems is how difficult it is to use her Primary Fire, as it has a very short range, while Symmetra has no survivability of her own.
All DPS heroes have some sort of self-sustain or movement ability to help them mid-fight, but Teleporter can’t be used as an escape, as it takes at least 3s to become avaliable to use and by then Symmetra is already dead. With this new utility, if she has a turret avaliable, she can use it to defend herself instead of attacking and with the increase in stored turrets she can have one in her back-pocket for emergencies. The reduction of travel speed when the barrier is attacked also allows enemies to mitigate a push, since if Symmetra and her team will have to walk slower to remain covered by it.
E Ability: Deploy Teleporter
- Changed to work similarly to Torbjorn’s “Depoly Turret”.
- Teleport Key changed from F to Crouch (crouch in the TP to use it).
- Press F to destroy the teleporter.
- Teleporter’s CD is 8s if it is destroyed by an Enemy, 4s if destroyed by Symmetra.
- Duration removed, now stays until destroyed.
Notes: The TP’s current duration makes it too fickle to be used reliably in a fight, as it is a stationary object that can be destroyed. Making it permanent allows Symmetra to create an escape route and leave it there until needed, while the change in Cooldown mechanics makes it so destroying the TP is its counterplay (once destroyed it will go on CD for 10, preventing Symmetra from using it to escape). The teleproter has two ends that can be attacked and, unlike Torbjorn’s Turret, can’t fight back or be repaired.
Ultimate: Photon Barrier
- Duration reduced to 10s (down from 15).
- Health Reduced to 4000 (Down from 5000).
- Barrier thickness increased to 0.5m (up from 0).
- Enemies are heavily slowed(70%) while crossing the barrier.
Notes: The new Photon Barrier is useful but it can easily be ignored if the enemy team simply walks through it or if the fight moves, like during Payload Maps. With these changes, enemies will have to think twice before doing crossing the barrier, as the slow-down effect will make it possible for them to be focused down as they walk through it, or going back to the other side to join the rest of their team.