The rework of the Overwatch heroine Symmetra is here. A lot of changes and new abilities are on the way.
Symmetra has always been an oddity in Overwatch. Some players have played her to defend a control point, but afterwards her usefulness was rather low. Blizzard announced a comprehensive rework of the hero a while ago, which is coming to the PTR soon.
The most important innovation is that Symmetra will receive 2 Ultimates. Both Ultimates can be placed in the game world and can be switched between by pressing the “Q” key (PC).
- Teleporter (Ultimate 1): The teleporter works as usual. However, it has significantly more hit points, and part of these hit points consists of shield energy – it recharges.
- Shield Generator (Ultimate 2): Symmetra places a shield generator that equips all allies in a large area with additional shields. The generator ignores the line of sight. A good “hiding” of the generator is necessary so that it is not quickly taken out by enemies.
Instead of her small shield boost, Symmetra now gets a Photon Projector. This functions similarly to the shield of Reinhardt or Winston but is “fired” forward and grows in size as it moves in the targeted direction.
Symmetra’s turrets have also been improved. She now has 6 charges at the start of the game, allowing her to place all 6 turrets immediately. The cooldown of each charge has been reduced to 10 seconds (previously 12). The maximum of 6 turrets in the game world remains unchanged.
Lastly, there are some minimal changes to her primary fire. The laser beam now has a slightly increased range.
The developers hope that with these changes, Symmetra will be playable in more situations and that more players will give this character a chance. However, whether all these changes will go live remains to be seen.
Cortyn says: Hallelujah, the changes sound excellent in theory. After the changes with Sombra didn’t go over so well, it will be time to put many hours into my favorite employee from Vishkar again. I can hardly wait for these changes to go live.
