Overwatch’s Symmetra is getting a rework and moving from the support role to one of dedicated defense.
Symmetra has always been a somewhat underperforming character in Overwatch. In the right hands, and in the right situations, Symmetra can be effective, but she’s rarely the first pick for players in the upper echelons of the Overwatch League.
On top of that, those right situations to use Symmetra were typically defensive ones. Symmetra’s turrets are useless as an offensive ability for the amount of time it takes to set them up and since it requires your opponent to walk into them. Rather, they’re much more effective as traps, setting up kill-rooms to stall your opponent’s advance or even wipe out a team’s push.
Symmetra’s defensive abilities were further strengthened after her December 2016 rework that saw another ultimate given to her. Instead of the teleporter, a useless ability on maps where the friendly team spawns close to the objective such as defending on Temple of Anubis, Symmetra could plop down a shield generator to greatly increase the overall tankiness of all her teammates.
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So in reality, Symmetra was already a defensive support if anything, and her switch to a full defense hero doesn’t really change much. However, Overwatch Dev Timothy Ford told Inven Global in an interview that Symmetra’s rework "will be a fairly dramatic change."
Beyond that, Ford was mum on what changes were happening to Symmetra’s kit. "One thing we can tell you is that Symmetra will turn from a support hero to a defense hero after the remake."
In addition to Symmetra, Hanzo will also see a slightly more minor rework. He’ll still be the same defensive sniper we’ve come to know and love (and hate), but his scattershot arrow will be replaced by a completely new ability--one that rewards aim rather than blind luck.
“Scatter Arrow was designed to melt tanks in the first place,” explains Ford. “However, it didn’t feel great to be killed by it in the actual game. It felt like you don’t get why you died? There were times players couldn’t accept it.”
The new ability will retain the same damage potential as scattershot previously held, but require more from the player than to just aim at the target's feet.
Patch date has yet to be announced, but the changes are soon to hit the PTR before being put on live servers.