Symmetra’s next Overwatch rework sounds absolutely wild

Symmetra isn’t quite ready to showcase yet, even though some of her sound effects are sneaking onto Overwatch PTR builds. Geoff Goodman, however, has been chatting about everyone’s favorite scientist on the official Blizzard forums. This isn’t the first time Goodman has given us a sneak peek on Symmetra, but things have changed even more since the last time we checked in. Just as a reminder, here’s what we already know about Symmetra’s second rework:

• Symmetra’s auto attack no longer locks on; it is a thick, straight, longer range beam that gains 65/130/195 DPS over two seconds of consecutive damage. Attacking a barrier restores Symmetra’s ammo.
• Symmetra’s alt-fire projectile fires twice as fast, moves significantly faster, and explodes upon hitting an enemy or wall.
• Shield generator is gone, and teleporter is now a standard ability on E that can teleport D.Va MEKA, Torbjorn turrets, etc.
• Her new ult is Photon Barrier, which is a static wall that is infinite in size and has 5000 health.
• Symmetra has half as many turrets, but they are projectiles and are stronger to make up for the diminished capacity.

All of this sounds awesome, right? It gets cooler (and weirder). Goodman shared some more changes to teleporter in the works that could make Symmetra the game’s most interesting character.

I don’t really have visuals to show you sadly, but we’re very much in progress working on her still. There have been a few changes to her as we’ve been play testing her since I last posted.

Firstly, her turrets are still projectiles, but they are now able to be destroyed while in the air. This makes it harder to throw them directly at people in a fight to force them to turn around to kill it. Now you have to be a little more sneaky where you throw them or just pre-place them.

Secondly, her teleporter ability now requires a button input to trigger, but the teleporter works both directions. This means you can do new tricks like tossing it into an enemy Zarya ult from far away and pull your team out to safety. We’ve also seen interesting strats where a Symm can baby-sit a friendly Ana/Zen and place a TP if they get jumped on, giving a mobility out to heroes that don’t typically have that option. There is a small cooldown before you can take the teleporter once you’ve used it, so you can’t just spam back and forth instantly.

Those are the biggest changes since last post, but there have been many small numbers tweaks to get her in shape. Hopefully we’ll have something reasonably soon for you guys to see/play!

As always, content is subject to change before it hits live servers, and Symmetra has yet to hit the PTR. Numbers can change, but it sounds like Symmetra’s core mechanics are coming together nicely. I am a little terrified that she might teleport me off the edge of the map into the abyss of Ilios, but what’s life without some risk?