Geoff Goodman, one of the developers for Overwatch, has been talking about Symmetra’s rework on the Blizzard forum, and he revealed new details about the hero.
For starters, Symmetra will have her maximum turret allowance reduced from six to three. Each turret will have 30 health and will deal twice as much damage as the previous turrets.
“Keep in mind it’s almost like you’re deploying two turrets at a time now, since they are more powerful individually,” Goodman said. “You lose a little bit of map coverage, but overall the turrets are actually more impactful, not less.”
Blizzard is also working on a new way for Symmetra to use her turrets by giving her an undeployed turret that can be fired like a projectile. This turret will stick to walls or ceilings and then unfold and deal damage like regular turrets.
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“Currently they will travel effectively infinitely in a straight line,” Goodman said. “The projectile speed isn’t super fast though so enemy players can see them coming. They can’t currently shoot them out of the air though, but we’re still iterating and may allow this.”
Goodman went on to say that the team tried to make her turrets heal instead of deal damage to keep her as a support, but felt it was “super awkward” due to how fast characters move across maps.
On top of the turret changes, Goodman also teased a brand new weapon for Symmetra. These alterations to the weapon aren’t concrete, however, and could change as Blizzard continues to rework the hero. The Overwatch team plans to replace Symmetra’s weapon with one that fires a straight beam that’s “fairly thick and has increased range.”
“It still has the potential to gain extra damage by dealing damage like it does now, but instead of going 30/60/120 dps it is currently 65/130/195 dps,” Goodman said. “This means the weapon has significantly more potential but it is more difficult to get it to max power.”
Her alternative fire will still be a charged-up large projectile, but it will have a bunch of changes, including an increase in projectile speed. It will also now impact enemies and environments by exploding, dealing area damage around it.
The last and most significant change from the rework, however, is the change to her ultimate. Symmetra’s teleport ability will now move to her E ability, while her Photon Barrier will become an ultimate. These changes will dramatically alter the way these abilities are used.
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This reworked teleporter ability will allow you to place it 25 meters away instead of right in front of you. When you place the exit, the entrance will automatically be built in front of you instead.
The new teleporter function will then allow you to transfer multiple objects, not just other heroes. Torbjorn’s turret and D.Va’s mech when it’s exploding are just a few of the examples that Goodman listed.
“[As for] her Photon Barrier… [it] …is now very different as well. Instead of placing a moving barrier, she places a static barrier wall that effectively is infinite in size and has 5000 health.” Goodman said. “She places this wall much like Mei places her Ice Wall, which means you can place it at some range and you can also change the orientation.”
Goodman continued to say that these changes are in the early stages, however, so there’s no estimate on when players will get a chance to see the new Symmetra or if any of these alterations will remain when the rework is finalized.
