After months of teasing, the developers finally shared with us their new vision of Symmetra. Jeff Kaplan also talks about a new feature and Oasis, the upcoming Control map.
Overwatch is best described as a combination of a shooter and a MOBA, and both elements bring different but also similar challenges. While shooters are very much dependent on what weapons are viable, MOBAs really enlarge this in the fact that whole heroes can be unviable because of undertuned abilities. This is also true in Overwatch to a certain extent.
While pretty much every hero is occasionally seen in Competitive Play, there are several that could use some tweaking and even a redesign. The hero that needed the most help from Blizzard was Symmetra, and after weeks of teasing a rework we now know what she will be able to do in the near-future. Check out the below video to find out what Jeff Kaplan has in store for Symmetra:
Summary of the information covered in the video:
- Symmetra will be the first hero with 2 different Ultimates, which she can decide between when using her Ultimate during the match
- She keeps her old, familiar Teleporter, which now has more health of which a portion is a (regenerating) shield
- Her second, and new, Ultimate option is a Shield Generator, which is a physical object just like her Teleporter
- This object puts a large shield on all allies within its radius, and no line-of-sight is required unlike most similar abilities
- Symmetra's E ability (Photon Shield) has been replaced with a new ability called Photon Barrier
- It looks and acts similar to a Reinhardt shield, but is shot as a projectile in a certain direction blocking enemy fire along the way
- This ability can be used to move through a chokepoint while being protected as a team, without requiring a hero like Reinhardt or Winston
- Symmetra's turrets have also been reworked slightly, in the sense that you can now hold 6 charges instead of just 3, and the charges load up a few seconds faster. She can still only have 6 active turrets on the map
- Finally, while her Primary and Secondary are about the same, her Primary fire beam has a slightly longer range to lock-on
- This new Symmetra is coming to the PTR soon
- Jeff also mentioned the upcoming Control map, Oasis, which will be arriving on the PTR shortly after Symmetra
- Especially the existence of a jump pad, it being a new mechanic, will be tested and analyzed for potential future use as well
- A minor Quality of Life feature was also announced, called 'Stay with Group', which allows players to stay together as a team in competitive play after a match, even if those players didn't queue up together or are even friends in-game
We are very excited about both the map and the Symmetra rework! Her new E ability should allow for another way to make plays, featuring a very high skillcap, while her flexibility in Ultimate choice could prove to be a major boon.
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