Overwatch Shares Details On Symmetra’s Upcoming Major Redesign

For a few months now Blizzard has been teasing an overhaul to Overwatch’s Symmetra, the one hero that for many felt limited to a very specific defensive role. The original ultimate of Symmetra, the teleporter and the new shield generator will be buffed with additional health and regenerating shields to give the team stronger incentive toward protection. Here are the five big changes for Symmetra, and how they will affect how she plays in game.

Let’s start with the simple stuff. Oh, and there’s a slight range boost on her primary weapon, too.

The “Quality of Life” aspect of the redesign involves first off, her ultimate. Before, she could place down three turrets every cooldown period with a maximum of six turrets at time. Kaplan said this will help make the setup phase a bit quicker and also help her readjust her defenses part-way through a match. After that, the cooldown is only present when replacing turrets.

The cool downs on her turrets have been reduced, and she can place all six immediately, after which the cool down will begin. Think of this ability like a moving Reinhardt shield, that moves along a projected track separate from any particular hero. It’s similar to Winston’s barrier, except it’s an elliptical projectile that moves along a trajectory. I’m not sure what the total health of the barrier is, but it moves forward so fast it likely won’t break from damage often. You can skip to 10:31 if you want to see it, or watch the whole thing for details on upcoming revisions to Symmetra as well. If you’d like to mess around with them, you can right this second thanks to the latest PTR patch. The developer has therefore chose to mix things up a bit for the character that’s been left behind, and they’re giving her another Ultimate.

Placed on the center of point B on Volskaya, it extended about half way into the open snowy area beyond the main choke. However, you can toggle your ultimate to be a shield generator. This Shield Generator will allow Symmetra to protect her team with a layer of extra energy armour. She’ll have not only one but two ultimate abilities! This means that opponents will have to put in a concerted effort to actually destroy a teleporter.