The State of Symmetra

So to kick off this blog, I thought I’d start with one of the oddest characters to pin down their identity: Symmetra from Overwatch. Blizzard has mentioned that they are currently reworking her, as there has been a lot of feedback in how she feels like an incomplete character compared to the rest of the OW cast. I feel like it might be prudent to pick apart and identify the main aspects that make her awkward to play:

• Having to re-apply your shields to allies every time they respawn is basically just a chore to the point that people tend to not do it unless the person is in front of the Symmetra with the “E” target on them. This combined with the small shield value it gives makes her E feel non-impactful.
• Receiving no ult charge while your teleporter is active feels awful. Part of what makes Overwatch so dynamic and engaging is being rewarded for doing damage/healing by having your ult charge go up, giving you a real sense of progress in the game. For Symmetra, it turns into a series of “Drop teleporter -> wait for it to be destroyed or used up -> NOW I can ‘progress’”. When a game should be fast-paced, a character having a “wait” period is always going to feel wrong.
• The fragility of her turrets can make them feel just as non-impactful as her E. After spending time planning and setting up your turrets in the pregame, to have them unintentionally destroyed by wayward grenades, rockets, and tesla cannons feels terrible to the point that Symmetras tend to eventually forgo placing turrets and just resort to “microwaving” in the mid-late game.
• While unique, Symmetra’s ways of dealing damage can feel awkward. This one more comes down to a matter of opinion/personal taste. I personally enjoy Symmetra’s left-click “microwaving” (especially combined with an Ana Nano-boost), but the classic “W-M1” style tends to feel very annoying to play as, and play against for many players. As for her orb-shooting alt fire, it indeed does a lot of damage and can excel in some chokepoint situations, but the slow movement of it makes for a “fire and forget” situation, which tends to not feel very significant at all.

Bearing in mind these aspects, here are some ideas for changes that I feel would really improve Symmetra’s quality of life. Not ALL of these should be implemented together, it’s mostly just spitballing.

• Have Symmetra’s teleporter automatically apply shields to those that use it. This alleviates the Symmetra from having to constantly worry about shields, while still helping her team.
• Let Symmetra be able to charge up a new teleporter while she has a teleporter up. As maps progress and the enemy finds your teleporter, as Symmetra, your first instinct is usually to move it. However, your only options are to A) abandon the objective and focus defending your teleporter or B) wait for the enemy to destroy it, start from 0% and build full charge to put down a new teleporter way too late. The ability to replace the teleporter in a different location would give Symmetra much more utility, contributing to her identity as a support.
• Either increase the range on Symmetra turrets or switch Symmetra’s E to give a temporary large shield to a turret. An increase to the turrets’ range would allow Symmetra to place them further away from the action where the AoE’s are taking place, lessening the unintentional destruction of turrets. On the other hand, being able to place a temporary shield on a turret gives her kit more synergy and encourages fighting alongside her turrets instead of making them “fire and forget”.
• Regarding her firing mechanics, I’m personally a fan of how it gives her more identity, but a ridiculous thing I’d like to see is having her alt fire orbs bounce off walls, but lose size/damage with each bounce until they eventually despawn when small enough.

Again, these are just my ideas and Blizzard has a rework pipeline in progress. I’m very excited to see how it meshes with both amateur and professional play!