Many heroes in Overwatch have undergone changes since the beta. However, one heroine has been in discussion for several months now, and it seems the time is ripe: Symmetra is facing major changes.
A redesign for Symmetra?
In a conversation with Business Insider, Jeff Kaplan spoke about the support character.
“She is a very special hero and is indeed played, but is often swapped out. Normally, she is played while defending until the first point is lost and then switches to another hero. This definitely has a significant impact on her playtime when you look at the raw statistics.”
Overall, it seems that the playtime of Symmetra is not satisfactory. On many maps, she is hardly chosen, and in attack, she is almost never seen – which is not least due to her abilities.
“A character that is so situational is not exactly desirable for us. Even if I can understand why this happens, it does not mean that I think it is right. Symmetra is currently on our list, and we are taking a very close look at her.”
Even though Jeff Kaplan has not yet given specifics on what these changes will look like, it seems to be not just a few number tweaks to her abilities, but massive changes – such as a redesign. At least that can be inferred from the following words:
“It’s one thing when we make small changes – like we just did with Junkrat on the PTR, where we speed up an ultimate – and a completely different thing when we want to make significant changes like with Symmetra. That requires much more internal discussion and longer tests.”
A specific timeframe for the changes is not yet known (Blizzard is no longer making promises), but one could roughly look at November. That’s when the next “big” patch is due, which will likely bring more innovations – maybe finally Sombra?
