After never touching Symmetra after the open beta of Overwatch, I was happy to hear that Symmetra was getting a redesign. There is a stigma associated with Symmetra currently. She isn't great for comptetive matches, but with her new photon barrier and second ultimate, I image that she will fit in with the big guns soon enough.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, let's look at exactly what changes were made to our favorite architect:
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Photon Barrier (10 sec CD): This replaces her Photon Shields, allowing her to create an elliptical shield that shoots into the direction she is pointing.
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Turrets 10 sec CD: Instead of 3 at a time, she can now place all 6 at once. CD was reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.
- Photon Projector: The lock-on distance for her primary fire (left click) has been increased from 5 meters to 7. Her secondary fire (right click) was not changed.
2 Ultimates were given to Symmetra:
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Teleporter: In order to help the longevity of the teleporter, it now has some shield health. Actual health is 50 and shield health is 350, giving it 400 total health. It still holds only 6 charges.
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Shield Generator: This produces 75 shields for all teammates within its radius, ignoring the line of sight rule.
What Was Wrong Before?
Symmetra is currently a very situational hero, and pretty much defense only. For capture point maps, she is good for the first point on defense with the help of her teleporter, but is switched off immediately when the Point A is lost. King of the Hill maps are difficult to use her on because the teleporter can hardly be placed in a location where the enemy will not spot it or find it while flanking. With payload and hybrid maps, she is useful on defense up until the second or third point. Symmetra's teleporter is of no use because of spawn placement in each of these maps. If the team can run to the point nearly as fast as the teleporter can transport them, then the time it takes to charge the ulimate could be better used with a different hero.
The teleporter is not the only issue players have found with Symmetra. The cooldown for her turrets poses a problem for her defense as well. Turrets are not slow in their creation, but she can only place three at a time. With Symmetra being a “nest mother” (creating a teleporter with a “nest” of turrets to protect it), having to wait after placing the first three turrets does not allow for a quick defense when setting the teleporter behind the scenes. Her turrets are also hard to place for attacking. Unless Symmetra is used on attack for payload maps, where she can place her turrets on the payload, she has no good place for her turrets except for small rooms that the player believes will be swarmed with the defending team.
What Is the Benefit?
“Attack Symmetra” is going to become a new contender. Her new Photon Barrier works like a moving Reinhardt shield. The barrier has 1000 health, and is projected in front of her in a straight line. This allows her team to push along with her onto a point. Her barrier is also good to protect against ultimates. For example, McCree's Dead Eye can be nullified by her barrier being sent towards him, covering his bullet spray. She can also use this to protect her teleporter or shield generator from long distances.
Adding an extra two meters to her photon projector's primary fire also helps her on both attack and defense. By extending her beam length, Symmetra will be able to move around and stay (mostly) out of close range fire, like D.Va or Reinhardt. The length of the lock-on also helps her charge the weapon a little quicker than before, so that she can do the most damage in a shorter amount of time while staying mobile.
My favorite part about the Symmetra redesign is the fact that she has two ultimates, including a change to her teleporter's health. The teleporter, though the amount of charges stays the same, it's health has been increased. The health of the teleporter, as mentioned above, is (in PTR) 400, with 350 of it being regenerating shield health. With this increase, the teleporter is much harder to destroy, making a flanker like Tracer or Genji, who could destroy the teleporter and get away easy, work a little harder and possibly finding themselves unable to get rid of the teleporter.
Symmetra's second ultimate is a shield generator. This allows her to produce shields for all her teammates within its radius. The generator ignores all barriers, obstacles, and walls that are between it and the players. One thing to note is that the generator is indefinite. The generator does not go down until it is taken down. Symmetra can easily defend this piece of equipment with turrets and her barrier, keeping her teammates alive with 75 extra shield health. Now, just image this with Torbjorn's armor. Scary, isn't it?
The Final Stop
With Symmetra's new design, I really think that Symmetra will fit into the competitive scene better after her new abilities are released from the PTR. Playing her on both attack and defense is still not the easiest task, but the added health to her teleporter makes her a better defense pick. The shield generator is great for the survivabilty of Symmetra's teammates against pushes on attack and, if she can place it in a good spot, can help her team push the point with more health and her photon barrier. With all her buffs, I am excited to see how Symmetra will change the play of competitive Overwatch.
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