Symmetra 2.0 Analysis

So this week, Overwatch’s channel released a video with Jeff Kaplan explaining their current plans on Symmetra’s rework. As a tl;dw of the video, the changes are as follows:

• Symmetra’s E no longer places a small shield on the ally. It now projects a forward-moving, slightly curved, oval barrier in the direction that she is aiming.
• Symmetra has gained a second ultimate. She can now press Q to toggle between her ultimates: the first being her usual teleporter, the second being a “shield generator”. What this does is automatically applies 75 shields to allies in a large radius, ignoring line-of-sight (a.k.a. can work through walls).
• Symmetra’s teleporter has the same amount of health, but a large amount of it is now regenerating “shield health”, making enemies have to commit more to destroying the teleporter.
• Symmetra now starts the game with 6 turrets (up from 3), she can now hold a maximum of 6 turrets, and gains new turrets 2 seconds faster.
• Her primary fire’s tether range is very slightly increased.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by these changes. The shield generator ultimate is an interesting way to alleviate the chore of reapplying shields to people. The increase of turrets in the early game also really helps to relieve the pressured early game stress as Symmetra to make sure your whole team has shields and putting down as many turrets as possible before the game starts. As a whole, it seems like these changes focus around making Symmetra less stressful to play.

Her new barrier-shooting E is especially interesting. As Overwatch is a game where every map contains at least one chokepoint, having a shield that your team can move behind through a checkpoint is interesting. However, this brings up the argument that Reinhardt would be just as well suited, if not better in such circumstances, as Symmetra’s team would have to constantly move with the barrier, whereas a team with Reinhardt could stop or even retreat with him if they need to. I am excited to see what ideas people think of to make her E work though, both in casual and competitive play.

My only real concern regarding the rework is that Symmetra is still unable to gain “ult-charge” while her teleporter is up. As I detail in my previous post about Symmetra, having that period where you don’t get that sense of progression through increasing your ult-charge feels stale, especially in such a fast-paced game. However, the rework was JUST revealed and is still a work-in-progress, so we’ll see if/how they address that issue.

Again, the changes overall seem great and really give Symmetra players more tools to create more expressive and creative playstyles and give them much more impact to the game!