Zarya is a better DPS than... a DPS

Why is it that Zarya, who is a Tank hero, often can perform consistently better than a hero like Symmetra? Zarya’s beam is easier to keep at high charge, has a longer range, and has more consistent damage from it than Symmetra’s beam. Zarya’s secondary fire also scales with the charge and can deal lots of damage, and moves much faster with a higher rate of fire.

Why is it that Zarya’s weapon is, quite literally, objectively better than Symmetra’s, when Symmetra is a DPS and Zarya is a tank? I’m not saying tanks shouldn’t be dealing damage, nor am I saying that a tank should not out damage a DPS, but what I am saying is this: Zarya’s weapon is very similar to Symmetra’s, but I don’t understand why it is mostly better than hers.

6 Likes

This is less of the zarya problem and more of a sym being trash problem imho

10 Likes

That’s kinda my point. A hero should not have a near identical weapon and be BETTER than a DPS

2 Likes

eh, I dont really see that as a balance point

4 Likes

On paper I think what the devs tried to do is make Symm a good pick on offence and and defence by using her turrets to hold a choke and her TP to get her team through a choke.

However it just isn’t that simple and doesn’t really work as intended if you aren’t with a 5 stack.

Zarya’s whole game is about creating & maintaining her charge, Symmetra is more than just her weapon.

Her other abilities might be situational, buggy or pointless, but the potential power TP can hold in a fight is enough to prevent the devs from giving her weapon any sort of buff that would put it on par with Zarya’s.

10 Likes

Sym equals high I have turrets

there is a free “cheat” in the game. double pocket zarya and you win every game. really, its unbeatable! try it

1 Like

Imho, Symm should have stayed a support. She has too much utility to be a viable DPS, and when she is used in OWL, she’s mostly used as a third support just for TP

1 Like

Well said. If Symmetra had Zarya’s gun in addition to her turrets and her teleporter she would be incredibly overpowered, and if Zarya had Symmetra’s gun then she would have a shell of a kit.

Say what you will about Symmetra being good and Zarya being bad, but there’s a good reason why Zarya’s gun is more powerful than Symmetra’s. Zarya kit is her gun while Symmetra just happens to have a gun.

3 Likes

I imagine it’s because Zarya’s design isn’t crushed by the weight of a thousand gimmicks, coupled with Sym being a character they at best don’t really care about, and at worst dislike.

Zarya also doesn’t have a turret nest that can dump an extra 120 damage that doesn’t even miss.

And I’m sure people will try to counter by saying that her turrets get insta-deleted so they don’t matter, but the point is that it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

2 Likes

this is more of a symmetra is garbage problem than anything

1 Like

I know your point is that Sym sucks and I agree, but Zarya does outdamage a lot of DPS heroes, she’s barely edges out over McCree in GM surprisingly, though McCree is straight up better at killing people
Reaper also does less damage overall than Zarya who has the same effective range as Zarya (arguably less than her) who’s also in the trash can

She also has the second highest Elimination to Death ratio (behind, unsurprisingly, DVA) and is the 6th overall in Eliminations, she’s a better DPS then most DPS, but most DPS are trash so that’s not really saying anything bad about her

That can be cancelled with a single quick melee and eats up 30 seconds of cooldowns.

I love those “I have gold dps and kills” Zaryas bragging in chat. I am always like “bro! you play Zarya, of course you have gold”. I play her only in mystery heroes, but even I, as a total noob Zarya can pull golden numbers with her. It´s lame…

It’s Symmetra’s primary fire that is terrible if not charged. Her charged fire melts everything.

Ah yes, those zero-impact turrets that are completely trivialized, and shouldn’t even factor into the equation. Surely we can agree that she should just lose her turrets entirely in favor of a stronger primary fire that’s much better than Zarya’s? I mean they don’t do anything after all, so this must be a massive buff.

/s

1 Like

Tanks are meant to do more DPS than damage heroes. They are supposed to be space creating battering rams when you play aggressively.

I mean, put hog and reaper next to each other.
In my opinion, hog is better dps than reaper.