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Symmetra Rework And New Social Features Are Live In Overwatch

Symmetra’s had an eventful past, going from her origins of giving teammates 25 shields, to her shield generator ultimate redesign, and now finally, a full hero rework. Balancing the hero seems to have been a finnicky challenge, as she was a mix of being unviable in the meta yet not requiring any skill due to her lock-on gun.

Released on the Public Testing servers 3 weeks ago, all Symmetra changes are now currently available in live servers. Symmetra has rightfully been moved out of the support category into a new damage role, and as such her abilities have been tweaked for her to dish out more damage.

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Here is a rundown of her changes, courtesy of gifs by u/itsjieyang on the Overwatch Reddit:

Her Photon Projector gun does not lock on to targets anymore, instead her primary fire is essentially just like Zarya, a straight beam with a 10-metre range (increased from 7 metres), and her alternate fire now explodes on contact. Her damage output overall has increased, and she now has 3 sentry turrets that function as projectiles.

Her biggest change is that her teleporter is now a cooldown ability, allowing her to place her teleporter 25 metres away from her. This is a whole new world of potential combos with other heroes, as you can now teleport a D.Va bomb or Junkrat Rip-Tire to blow up unsuspecting enemies, or send heroes that are not mobile up onto high vantage points.

Finally, her ultimate ability has been altered. Say goodbye to the shield generator entirely, as she now deploys a ridiculous 5000 health barrier that spans and cuts through the entire map.

These changes certainly make her a more engaging and skill-based hero, as opposed to the lack of aim needed to brainlessly microwave enemies and set up the car wash of turrets at choke points.

Three other heroes have been buffed as well. Doomfist’s shield gain and McCree’s Deadeye range have been increased, and Orisa’s Supercharger cost has been decreased by 15%.

In an effort to combat the rampant toxicity in the game, Overwatch has introduced the Endorsement system, allowing you to endorse players in your match with three types of commendations – Sportsmanship, Good Teammate, and Shot Caller. The endorsements a player receives shows up in a symbol on player profile and social menu so you can get a gauge of the types of people you’re playing with, and players will be awarded for maintaining a high endorsement level!

The much-awaited Looking for Group feature has also arrived, allowing players to form their own ideal team compositions and craft their own gameplay experience. This lets you avoid those annoying quick play games where you end up with 5 DPS, as you can fill a role in existing LFGs or put up your own.

For more information, check out the full patch notes, which includes details of the Horizon Lunar Colony map changes and bug fixes.