The Symmetra Changes - but cohesive

TL;DR: I’m putting all the current dev comments in one post so others don’t have to scroll through “OOOOOOHOOAAHAOAHAHAAOAHFSAO” between each dev comment.
Original thread here

The Dev Comments

First comment:
We currently have moved her to Defense. We tried a healer version which had her turrets healing instead of dealing damage, but it felt super awkward, especially with how fast Overwatch moves.

That said, we are playing with a new way her turrets deploy. Instead of having to stick them directly onto a wall herself, she can now fire an un-deployed version like a projectile, which sticks to walls/ceilings/etc. Once it sticks, it will unfold like it does on the wall currently when she builds them.

This helps for a bunch of reasons but one of the big ones is that it makes it a lot easier to play her on offense or just be able to preposition her turrets much more easily/quickly.

Second comment:
Question: Do the turrets arc through the air like a Junkrat grenade, or do they travel in a straight line? How far away is “too far” to be able to set up a turret? Will they travel faster than her Photon Barrier?
Currently they will travel effectively infinitely in a straight line. (think of them like Pharah rockets). The projectile speed isn’t super fast though so enemy players can see them coming. They can’t currently shoot them out of the air though, but we’re still iterating and may allow this.

Third comment:
No, there are other changes to her turrets as well. We’ve lowered the max number to 3 (both that she can hold and that can be deployed), but we’ve increased their damage and slow potential. They also have 30 health currently, though that number will probably change over time as we test. They still die quite easily but there is a significant difference between dying to any damage and just having very low health.

Fourth:
Reply: “We’ve lowered the max number to 3”

Please. No. Turrets are literally going to be useless if you only give her 3.
So far we’ve found the turrets to be much more powerful this way, not less. Keep in mind its almost like you’re deploying 2 turrets at a time now, since they are more powerful individually. You lose a little bit of map coverage, but overall the turrets are actually more impactful, not less.

Plus spending less time re-deploying turrets frees you up to do other things at the same time, rather than spending so much focus on moving around trying to keep your turret nest up somewhere useful.

Fifth comment:
Question: Are you guys looking at potentially changing her weapon?
Yes. We’re still trying some things but whats working pretty well right now is her primary fire changed to no longer lock on but works as a straight beam that is fairly thick and has increased range. It still has the potential to gain extra damage by dealing damage like it does now, but instead of going 30/60/120 dps it is currently 65/130/195 dps. However, it now takes a combined 2 seconds of damage to ‘level up’ to the next tier of damage instead of 1 second. This means the weapon has significantly more potential but it is more difficult to get it to max power. Also, when hitting a barrier it currently generates ammo instead of consuming it. This means not only is she good at taking down barriers themselves, but she is good at just generating charge off barriers and using that charge to take down enemies as well.

Her alternate fire is still a charge-up large projectile, but it has a bunch of important changes as well. First off, it charges to max charge in 1 second, down from 2 seconds. Next, the projectile speed has increased significantly, currently it has changed from 10 m/s to 30 m/s. Lastly, instead of piercing enemies, it now impacts enemies/environments and explodes, dealing area damage around it. We’ve been heavily iterating on how much damage this ball deals now, but a direct shot has been hovering in the area of 130ish, with a large % of the damage coming from a direct impact (rather then the explosion).

I’ll say it here again, we are still pretty heavily iterating on this stuff so this is all subject to change, but we like to try to give you guys some insight as to whats going on with her rework as it stands today.

Sixth comment:
I guess at this point I probably should have just posted everything at the same time since everything always makes more sense in context so ill just post whats remaining at this point.

Her teleporter is moving to her E ability and the Photon Barrier is moving to her ult, but these have massive changes as well.

The teleporter now works as follows: You place the exit like you normally do, except that you can place it up to 25 meters away, instead of only right in front of you. When you place the exit, the entrance automatically gets built right in front of you instead of at your spawn. It lasts only a short time but allies can use it freely as they normally do, but there are some new things that can teleport as well. We’re experimenting with what works and what doesn’t but currently you can teleport things such as Torbjorn turrets, D.Va’s exploding mech, Junkrat tire, etc. This has lead to some sneaky/fun plays that are really unique to her. It also allows you to get onto high ground on offense with a comp that might otherwise have trouble doing so. The health has been lowered to 300 and the entrance is now attackable as well. If either die, the other is destroyed as well.

Her Photon Barrier has moved to her ultimate and is now very different as well. Instead of placing a moving barrier, she places a static barrier wall that effectively is infinite in size and has 5000 health. She places this wall much like Mei places her Ice Wall, which means you can place it at some range and you can also change the orientation.

This is all fairly early still and we’ve only recently started working on the visuals/animations/sounds etc, so its still a little ways out. I don’t have an ETA on when you guys will get a chance to see and/or play with this but hopefully it wont take too long.

Seventh comment:
[In regards to her ult]
Its actually been super interesting in playtests. There are a lot of different ways to use it and exactly where you place it is super important. You can do stuff like throw it into a fight from spawn like a Hanzo ult, because it spans across entire maps.

Eighth comment:
Correct, the shield generator is gone at the moment.

Ninth comment:
[Yet to come]

Hope you guys enjoy, it took a few minutes to do lol

7 Likes

Sounds op…

Why we screw zarya over and and over again? Sym has a better weapon now?

Forum Mod Edit: This post has been edited by a moderator due to masked language as it is in violation of the Code of Conduct.

1 Like

Thank you for this. I was sick of having to peruse that giant almost 500 post thread trying to find all of Geoff’s comments :roll_eyes:

I honestly don’t know how to feel about these changes. I love Symmetra the way she is, so any change will be hard to get used to. I’m just gonna wait to see her in play before I judge too much.

2 Likes

I’m calling it, we’re gonna have another Nerfcy on the horizon.

No problemo. It really is annoying having to scroll for ages for dev comments. Not really fun. I wish they would implement a feature for us to be able to skip to every dev comment made in a thread.

I’m personally very nervous. I mained Mercy so I’m paranoid about reworks now. The no lock-on is what agitates me the most. I’m a PC player who has to play with a controller, give me some leverage here, Blizz

i love how everyone either thinks she’ll be brokenly op or this will be a massive nerf, we’ll have to see.

then at least symm will be in the top 3 pickrates, worth it.

Not worth it. I don’t want to have to constantly relearn a hero because of the long string of nerfs. No one wants to relearn a hero over and over again

I was going to make a thread like this and make the text blue but you beat me to it. :confused:

My anxiety makes me faster, aha!
I considered doing the blue/orange text, but it would’ve taken longer.

I’m ready for the Symmeta

EVERYONE BRACE YOURSELVES

Wait, how do you make text orange? I knew about making blue but not orange.

Synaptic, you are typing up a damn storm, my dude

I don’t know how either, I just thought that when I quote devs or whoever, it would automatically color the text.

Oh, I was talking about this.

Here’s a list of Enemy ults that Symm’s new photon barrier could counter:

Tactical Visor
Deadeye
Molten Core
Earthshatter
Blizzard (Snowball will bounce of the barrier if you time it right)
Self Destruct
Graviton Surge
Whole Hog
Barrage
Tank Configuration

That’s a blank link, I believe, which makes the text blue.
Edit: wait, nvm, idk anymore lol

So like…everything LOL

I feel like Photon Barrier will be infuriating. It effectively splits the battlefield in half, but for only one team. Its HP is also ridiculously high, so I can’t see them honestly keeping this the way it is. It’s just too obvious how this will effect fights, regardless of how cool the idea is. Not only would it split the fight in half for only one team, the only way to really defend against it would be to use attacks that penetrate barriers (which is mostly relegated to melee), or to break the barrier extremely quickly, which would be a significant waste of resources and time. If you plan to bypass it by switching to mostly melee you’ve effectively given up a massive portion of your utility and given the other team a massive range advantage. I can see games coming down to whether or not you have a Symmetra on your team, and if both teams have a Symmetra, how often your barriers coincide with one another. At least that’s just my first-impression reaction to the idea, I’d have to wait and see.

1 Like

It is, but I forgot that you need to be level 3 to use it.

I was typing up a lot more, but decided to delete it. I figured I’d focus on one thing rather than every piece I wanted to criticize. I can see her being toned down a LOT from what we’ve been given here, especially if she’s going to be so much more DPS-heavy.

1 Like

I am level three, aha! :dancer:

I relate to every bit of this reply and your first one lol.
Maybe they’ll use the PTR properly and not push something that seems op to live, like Mercy.

2 Likes

I know what happened. You have to use the ‘Quote whole post option’ on it.
The exact command is <a>Text Goes Here