Symmetra Rework Thoughts (First Impressions, will update)

General Discussion
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I was a symmetra main until Moira came out, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the leaks and news regarding the rework. When her new kit was revealed I was really excited because it sounded really fun and it seemed like it would still be in line with who she is as a character. Now that she’s available on PTR, I honestly don’t know if I could be more disappointed. I’ll itemize my thoughts here:

Primary Fire-

I liked the autolock of her old fire a lot. I could worry more about where I was moving and pay attention to my surroundings without entirely focusing on aiming. I'll freely admit it was a bit overpowered in most situations, but removing it altogether is insane. I am a shaky person, and aiming a tiny beam with no lock on is extremely difficult. I could lower my sensitivity, but with how fragile and quick sym is, it's not super viable to play at a low sensitivity.

Alt Fire-

Honestly, the trade-off of speed and splash damage for the piercing feels fair to me, though it completely changes how you use it. I think with time I'd be fine with this ability.

Teleporter-

It's terrible. 70% of the time it explodes for no reason the moment I place it, and you have to hit a button to teleport? What the heck is that about? I don't have to hit a button to accept a zen orb or to get healing from soldier's pack, so why do I have to hit a button to use this ability?

Sentry Turrets-

I think I'm okay with the turret but they shouldn't be able to take damage mid-air. I could understand defense matrix taking them out obviously, but other sym turrets locking on and melting them? Do they melt Pharah's rockets?

Barrier-

Cool in theory, extremely situational and finicky in practice. Unless you get it just right, it just doesn't do enough to feel like a worthy replacement to the shield generator.

Character consistency-

She's not Symmetra anymore. Symmetra is a cool, composed person who doesn't make rash decisions, and she's literally a builder. Her new kit does not fit that description at all. It's all about super quick thinking and there isn't much composure to her play style now, and there's less building going on and a lot of launching things from a distance.

Accessibility-

Symmetra was a way in to Overwatch for people who don't have a ton of skill with FPS. I can agree that in the hands of skilled users she was overpowered in a lot of situations, and she could feel cheesy in general, but now the skill level required to play her successfully feels like it just shot through the roof, and she's certainly not a viable option for people who aren't great at aiming any longer.

Suggestions

I think a reduced hitbox(?) for the autolock on her primary and a quicker damage falloff but the same damage and ramp up would have felt a lot better. Like I said, I can accept the new alt fire, but the TP should definitely not require a button press to use, and I think maybe a more limited use number (2 or 3 perhaps) would have been better than a time limit on it. I don't know exactly what change I'd want to see in the turrets or ult, but I'm going to play her some more and update this post when I have a more solid stance there.

As it stands, if the rework went live as-is, I don’t think I will play Sym remotely as much as I used to, and that’s really sad to me because she was one of my favorite parts of this game, and I really identified with her as a character.

Update: I made this post last night after first experiencing the rework, and I was honestly in a bit of shock about it, plus I had a lot of other things going on in my life recently so I wasn’t really thinking about this clearly. After some thought and reading what some people had to say here and on reddit, I definitely think this is the right direction to go with Sym for the game overall. I still think some things are probably going to need tweaking before they go live but I’m just going to play her more before I form my opinions on that.

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We’re gonna have to adapt to these changes, it’s not hard at all to track with the beam, I also get shaky, I just lowered my sensitivity by a bit.
And I’m sure the button is there to prevent people from walking through it by mistake and also to avoid trolling syms.
Use your turrets while the enemies are distracted and they won’t destroy them straight away.
In my opinion, sym is still sym, she’s still a builder and she’s freaking awesome!
I just hope they don’t nerf her too much later on.
A lot of my friends main sym as well and they agree with what I’m saying.
I’m sure the idea of the new tp was supposed to help your slow teammates with moving around, 2 or 3 charges is horrible tbh, so I think it’s fine atm.

I also wanted to mention some of the bugs I noticed with sym atm:

when you ult really fast there’s a chance that the barrier might just disappear.
her turrets don’t always land where you aim, even if you’re standing still, maybe it’s because of their size? sometimes they land on random corners in the way, even when your crosshair isn’t on them.
her tele dies on it's own a lot, as soon as you place it, it happened a couple of times for me.

Overall, I am extremely happy with all the new changes, I am so overwhelmed by all the positivity I have encountered just playing in the ptr.

(edit: there’s a bug where you can place turrets inside walls, I think it can be done using mei.)

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from what i have seen. This rework is better. The loss of auto aim is made up for in the speed and consistency of alt fire.

The button press on the tp stops sym from trolling.

The barrier is the only thing I do not like.

She is still a builder, but now a builder that throws what she builds at you. This is going to make her more meta friendly as now she is good for pushing as well as defending.

The old sym is unfair to play against with her tracked beam and damage ramp up. Now i would only feel that if i died to her now it would be due to the players ability not a hero’s kit. (kinda get that with genji(yes i think it is his kit that is strong not the player behind him but im off-topic))

I sense a lot of hate coming to sym and i can understand it as unlike hanzo this is a LARGE rework. But I feel this would but her in a better place

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The truth being old sym mains won’t necessarily be as good on Sym anymore :wink:
People who weren’t Sym mains in the past can now play her better than old Sym mains.

With her TP, you need to press F, because people running past it are not auto teleported by accident. It’s a conscious decision to do it that way, and I think it’s great. You can press ‘F’ multiple times and switch positions.

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I think I might warm up to her with some more time but I still feel like this is too much of a change. It almost feels like more of a new hero than some of the actual new heroes have.
To me, it feels like this rework is sort of four steps away from what she was before, when we only needed a step or so. If they made less drastic changes to Sym and separately took this kit one step further away and gave it some slightly different visual effects, it would be good for a new Vishkar hero imo

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The update is great, my only problem is she used to be a nice character for new players to learn the game with. Her weapon lock on was great for brand new players to FPS games who didnt necessarily know how to aim well (especially on PS4 or Xbox). That’s gone now.

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Sounds like that mode where you can play older iterations of heroes is gonna be needed for a lot more people…

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I think that the new Symmetra is mess.
Without her photon barrier, she is next to impossible to use for attack.
And the teleport is just bad.

She is now basically just a bad version of Zaria.

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Lame excuse dude. Its not rocket science to get the idea what to do.

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Not an excuse, i play her fine. I’ve introduced real life friends to Overwatch who’ve never played a FPS before. The aim assist and slow pace was great for them to learn and get to really love the game.

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I understand your issues with her, but truth is that Sym had marginal use, and there wasn’t really a way to improve without major changes.

You do seem like the type of player that would enjoy playing a support though, as most of the attributes you seem to appreciate with original Sym are those related to her intended role as a support. If you really want to go with just a single hero, Moira is probably your best bet, but then I would strongly advice that you don’t play her as a dps, but as the support hybrid she is. Otherwise, you would probably be able to have quite a bit of fun picking up the off-heal class, or even main heal.

Regarding sensitivity; there is no reason to play any hero at high sensitivity unless it involves a lot of big changes in direction. The only hero that requires this is Winston, for flicking when jumping. You simply need to train using your arm instead of your wrist for moving the mouse. You can lower it a bit at a time, and play two or three QP matches on each level until you’re somewhere between 3000 and 6000 effective sens (Mouse CPI * In-game sensitivity).

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When i was kid friends introduced me to quake, unreal half life(with CS) where i had to aim. I was bad but loved it. Stop making it like you need some lock on target hero to learn to like FPS games.

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People are different. Some people don’t think pixel-perfect aiming is fun, and there is room for other mechanics in Overwatch due to it’s setting. However, the issue is that Sym was supposed to be a support. Her beam was supposed to be used when needed for backline defense or assists. It wasn’t supposed to be use aggressively, with her as a front-line hero. Same with Moira.

I think locking beams are perfectly fine for supports, they shouldn’t need good aim to contribute in other ways than healing, but in the lower ranks they’re played as DPS, and people don’t know how to handle it. And that’s the issue, that due to beginners not able to respond, they both became DPS in those ranks. And in higher ranks, Sym was useless in her current design. So Sym was pretty much a crappy dps with a locking beam.

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Sure, i got into FPSs with the original doom. Those days are gone.

Like the other guy said, people are different. Overwatch with old Sym was a strategic game about setting up traps and ambushing people. It didn’t need twitch aim, which is great for empowering new players. Just because you think twitch aiming is important doesn’t mean everyone does.

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You have winston, moira, rein, mercy and brig and you are bothered that with reworking of broken useless character that it will damage the income of new players?

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Yes, because all of those require good knowledge of positioning and cross-functional teamplay, which new players don’t have.

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Well Old Symmetra was my go to hero who got me into this game. As it became clear she was not viable at all I have since translated to Moria and Orisa and I am trying to learn Doomfist.

But Symmetra and her playstyle was what drew me in in the first place.

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I guess pressing a button is required against griefing with the teleporter. Imagine putting it in spawn door and the other to the edge of cliff at hanamura 2point attack.

However it does seem that it stays up for too little a time. Maybe they should increase the uptime slightly.

Any changes are probably for the better. Symmetra currently is only for trolling and throwing.

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Doomfist’s viability is lower than Sym’s. If it’s forgiving aim that is the reason for learning him, I would suggest Junkrat and Pharah to be honest.

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I think most of its pretty cool but i mean her damage is so high now its insane… Yes you have to aim a bit, but that really isnt hard…