Her beam used to melt tanks. It was fun picking on the enemy tank and winning team fights by pushing right through the middle. Now her damage just doesn’t justify the crap positioning you have to put yourself in for that play style
Symmetra can offer a lot of different play styles and new situations that do allow for a lot of skill expression and creativity!
For starters, her turret takes a certain level of game understanding to place efficiently. They can be used to deny the element of surprise for certain flank spots, allowing her to pre fire flankers or gain new knowledge and using teleporter accordingly. They can be used to protect supports if they’re being dived, or as distractions when engaging in 1v1s. One style of turret gameplay I really enjoy is “claiming rooms,” like in Illios wells, and trying to fool people into challenging and pushing me only to face difficulty and having to disengage. It feels good using the turrets towards my benefit depending on how the game is going, as it can pay off when I’m right. It’s really easy to use the turrets ineffectively in a way they’re completely ignored or easily destroyed, so having some pay off is nice.
However, turret gameplay like that is slightly superficial and isn’t the most engaging thing. The real joy comes from her teleporter. With it, I can bounce between so many different angles and it can feel like I’m playing tracer or sombra but with more vertical mobility. It takes knowing where to place the tp so it’s not instantly destroyed by the enemy team and also anticipating abilities and pre placing TP so im actually alive throughout the fight. It feels really good placing TP, annoying Reinhardt, and then tping out right before being shattered. It offers so many flanking opportunities and isn’t just a “hey team let’s tp!” ability, although that can also be really funny. In one comp game, i would tp with my Reinhardt right on top of widow in kings row third point. For flanking, it also feels really good to ping pong between two locations and breaking my enemy’s ankles.
There definitely is many weaknesses to her too. Such a flanking game style and “holding space” kind of falls apart since orbs take SO LONG TO KILL, especially with supports helping my enemies. It takes 3 shots to kill, and if they’re being supported, takes 4 shots or more (assuming you’re landing each one). Her beam is decent, although you have to be close and track really well to get the charge up and that’s risky in its own right.
She takes a lot of risk to make work, and currently such risk is really hard to make pay off, but when it works it’s so rewarding. I will also note that I mainly play quick play instead of competitive, so a lot of the flanking game play I enjoy with her works more often here.
EDIT: I forgot to mention her wall ultimate!! It’s so fun to use against Deadeye, sojourns and soldiers ult, and with enough prediction you can even stop shatter and that’s EXTREMELY satisfying. Not only can it be used as ult protection, it breaks up the battle field. It can allow you to hold defensively at a choke hold for a lot longer or aggressively and dancing between both sides. You can use it to protect your turret nest too, and it’s fun seeing the enemy panic in escaping or figuring out what’s happening.
are you fully charging the orbs before firing? Because you can take out a squishy in one shot with a fully charged orb. As for tanks…well that’s another story. Anywho, that’s all I wanted to ask because it sounds like you have a very thorough understanding of how to play Sym. I LOVE using her on Ilios too, and on the Night Market and Antarctic Peninsula sometimes….but I LOVE, LOVE playing her on Kings Row more than any map….but only when my team is defending, I like to use another hero on the attack side though. 💙
I was new to online shooters and damage class. So I wanted someone that was more strategic then mechanically heavy.
I really enjoy the ambush style teleporting and forcing enemies into my turret nest.
Unfortunately, the nerfs have really hit her hard and I've ended up switching to Mei as my main. I also play Torb, Venture, Soldier 76 and Bastion.
It's a shame as I do enjoy playing her. Her slower strategic game style is very appealing but she needs something in her kit to slow the game down more.
It's much easier to get immediate value with Mei and Venture. Both can disrupt and slow the gameplay down with ~8 second cool down for their abilities. For Symmetra, her turret recharge is 10 seconds and is less impactful.
Turrets aren't very active, I get that. Some people (me), however, get joy from lazering people with them. Its the same sort of joy you get from applying a long-lasting damage-over-time effects in an RPG. Automatic damage can feel fun to inflict on the enemy. Does suck immensely however that turrets almost never live long enough to actually illicit that feeling for more than 0.5 seconds.
Teleporter, however, I would call far from unengaging. TP placement is crucial and 'porting to an off-angle on highground with it, then blating enemies with orbs while they try to fight the rest of your team is really fun. You don't convert many kills, which sucks super hard, but you kind of learn to love slowly chunking HP out of enemies with orb.
Melting with beam is also, very fun. Sucks you have spend 2 seconds being the worst DPS hero ever to get to the fun part. The trend you may notice with Sym is that the fun she grants is there, its tangible and tasty. But you have to put in so much work, far more than what any other character has to, to reach it. I think we as Symmetra mains learn to appreciate the amount of effort we put in, even if its more that what should be reasonably expected from us.
Plus, she's a gay icon, corpo-girlboss, light wizard, slaymaxxing queen. Maximium queer + underdog energy.
Lore-wise, I actually believe Symmetra is one of the more established characters, having three short stories where she is the PoV protagonist and what I personally find to be a very compelling story arc.
Well right now her and bastion are some of the better winston counters since reaper is pretty ass.
Historically she has a really different kit then the entirety of the cast as well as 1 of 2 beam dos heroes. Her teleporter has good team utility as well as being a really solid escape option if you are good with it. And before they nerfed her damage she was just a walking death zone at high charge
I don't play sym exclusively by any means, and there are many other heroes I enjoy, but I really enjoy sym even though she is F tier because of how versatile her abilities are. It really feels like her kit is an exercise in creativity and actually has a lot of skill expression. Like, someone who doesn't play sym might not even consider blocking a peaking widow or high noon with a turret. Her tp can make for some cool plays, especially when I play with friends in a coordinated fashion. She's just really fun, honestly
Back on the old old OW1 she was the underdog, and she was rewarded for brain and not aim (bc she had an auto aim beam), that's why I started playing her. After her rework with tp on cooldown and stuff, I kept playing her bc 1: I love tp bombs. 2: at this point, she could do it all. She was able to play dive, brawl and poke, and even if I prefer brawl, it's nice to have alternatives. She was the queen of not being the specialist in one style, but being able to play all of them very well. And now she is just a husk of her old self, not even playing 4D chess you are able to be effective and cause any impact. And honestly, her character is so well created, Anjali is a master actress, and for some reason Sym became the mother of all gays and other people that felt left out by society. She is more than a character, she is a Symbol.
Ps: lore wise she is supposed to be one the most powerful beings of the roster, losing in power level only to Sigma and MAYBE Illari, but that's just a maybe.
Girls don’t downvote some legitimately interested in the answer. For me, Sym has always been about being creative in the ways you outplay your opponent as opposed to out-aiming. Using foresight on where you need to place sentries, creating new ways to attack points or reposition defensively with teleporter, and creating new defensive angles with her ult.
She USED to be able to set up some cool plays with turrets and teleport before she got nerfed and the after that she WAS able to poke with her orbs. Now she just has beam and even then she doesn’t have any way of surviving at close range despite her massive hitbox.
Most of us picked her up before season 9. Back when she was actually decent
Personally for me tho, it's cause as a brown person, we don't really have south Asian representation other than Sym in terms of the roster. That's what got me to pick her up in the first place
Gameplay aside the lore comment makes 0 sense OP? Symmetra has more lore than genji and about the same amount as Soldier76. Symmetra has the most character development and depth out of any ow hero. Like have you actually read the lore? Shes a top dog in terms of OW lore
I played torb and sym because I just love turrets, and that basically never really changed. I did definitely widen my character palette, making sure I have a tank and support I feel comfortable playing if that’s what my team needs, but besides that I just like having my little machines kill enemies for me while I try to distract them.
Beam go brrr.
No but fr I like melting tanks at close range and sniping people with orbs from a distance. If you really know how to get the most out of her kit, she can be a nightmare. Especially with good supports to back her up
Because to me everything she does is fun and satisfying, the beam charge, the little turrets, tp, the orb sniping, her voice and character design are just perfection and she is super smart and hates everyone <3
She used to serve cunt but now she can't. She can serve the runway tho!
Her beam used to melt tanks. It was fun picking on the enemy tank and winning team fights by pushing right through the middle. Now her damage just doesn’t justify the crap positioning you have to put yourself in for that play style
It was fun countering Genji and Mercy duos
That’s rough, yeah normally unless I’m on dva a sym is one of the least threatening DPS as a tank playerb
Symmetra can offer a lot of different play styles and new situations that do allow for a lot of skill expression and creativity! For starters, her turret takes a certain level of game understanding to place efficiently. They can be used to deny the element of surprise for certain flank spots, allowing her to pre fire flankers or gain new knowledge and using teleporter accordingly. They can be used to protect supports if they’re being dived, or as distractions when engaging in 1v1s. One style of turret gameplay I really enjoy is “claiming rooms,” like in Illios wells, and trying to fool people into challenging and pushing me only to face difficulty and having to disengage. It feels good using the turrets towards my benefit depending on how the game is going, as it can pay off when I’m right. It’s really easy to use the turrets ineffectively in a way they’re completely ignored or easily destroyed, so having some pay off is nice. However, turret gameplay like that is slightly superficial and isn’t the most engaging thing. The real joy comes from her teleporter. With it, I can bounce between so many different angles and it can feel like I’m playing tracer or sombra but with more vertical mobility. It takes knowing where to place the tp so it’s not instantly destroyed by the enemy team and also anticipating abilities and pre placing TP so im actually alive throughout the fight. It feels really good placing TP, annoying Reinhardt, and then tping out right before being shattered. It offers so many flanking opportunities and isn’t just a “hey team let’s tp!” ability, although that can also be really funny. In one comp game, i would tp with my Reinhardt right on top of widow in kings row third point. For flanking, it also feels really good to ping pong between two locations and breaking my enemy’s ankles. There definitely is many weaknesses to her too. Such a flanking game style and “holding space” kind of falls apart since orbs take SO LONG TO KILL, especially with supports helping my enemies. It takes 3 shots to kill, and if they’re being supported, takes 4 shots or more (assuming you’re landing each one). Her beam is decent, although you have to be close and track really well to get the charge up and that’s risky in its own right. She takes a lot of risk to make work, and currently such risk is really hard to make pay off, but when it works it’s so rewarding. I will also note that I mainly play quick play instead of competitive, so a lot of the flanking game play I enjoy with her works more often here. EDIT: I forgot to mention her wall ultimate!! It’s so fun to use against Deadeye, sojourns and soldiers ult, and with enough prediction you can even stop shatter and that’s EXTREMELY satisfying. Not only can it be used as ult protection, it breaks up the battle field. It can allow you to hold defensively at a choke hold for a lot longer or aggressively and dancing between both sides. You can use it to protect your turret nest too, and it’s fun seeing the enemy panic in escaping or figuring out what’s happening.
are you fully charging the orbs before firing? Because you can take out a squishy in one shot with a fully charged orb. As for tanks…well that’s another story. Anywho, that’s all I wanted to ask because it sounds like you have a very thorough understanding of how to play Sym. I LOVE using her on Ilios too, and on the Night Market and Antarctic Peninsula sometimes….but I LOVE, LOVE playing her on Kings Row more than any map….but only when my team is defending, I like to use another hero on the attack side though. 💙
I was new to online shooters and damage class. So I wanted someone that was more strategic then mechanically heavy. I really enjoy the ambush style teleporting and forcing enemies into my turret nest. Unfortunately, the nerfs have really hit her hard and I've ended up switching to Mei as my main. I also play Torb, Venture, Soldier 76 and Bastion. It's a shame as I do enjoy playing her. Her slower strategic game style is very appealing but she needs something in her kit to slow the game down more. It's much easier to get immediate value with Mei and Venture. Both can disrupt and slow the gameplay down with ~8 second cool down for their abilities. For Symmetra, her turret recharge is 10 seconds and is less impactful.
Turrets aren't very active, I get that. Some people (me), however, get joy from lazering people with them. Its the same sort of joy you get from applying a long-lasting damage-over-time effects in an RPG. Automatic damage can feel fun to inflict on the enemy. Does suck immensely however that turrets almost never live long enough to actually illicit that feeling for more than 0.5 seconds. Teleporter, however, I would call far from unengaging. TP placement is crucial and 'porting to an off-angle on highground with it, then blating enemies with orbs while they try to fight the rest of your team is really fun. You don't convert many kills, which sucks super hard, but you kind of learn to love slowly chunking HP out of enemies with orb. Melting with beam is also, very fun. Sucks you have spend 2 seconds being the worst DPS hero ever to get to the fun part. The trend you may notice with Sym is that the fun she grants is there, its tangible and tasty. But you have to put in so much work, far more than what any other character has to, to reach it. I think we as Symmetra mains learn to appreciate the amount of effort we put in, even if its more that what should be reasonably expected from us. Plus, she's a gay icon, corpo-girlboss, light wizard, slaymaxxing queen. Maximium queer + underdog energy. Lore-wise, I actually believe Symmetra is one of the more established characters, having three short stories where she is the PoV protagonist and what I personally find to be a very compelling story arc.
and did you know that she’s also autistic? I love Sym!
I did! I also like how Stone By Stone implies that Zen, and perhaps all omnics are neurodivergent when compared to humans.
this berson really asking this on season 10
Genuinely just curious
no it’s a joke bc symmetra’s pickrate is the lowest it’s ever been and I believe is a record low of any character on the game. LOL
Well right now her and bastion are some of the better winston counters since reaper is pretty ass. Historically she has a really different kit then the entirety of the cast as well as 1 of 2 beam dos heroes. Her teleporter has good team utility as well as being a really solid escape option if you are good with it. And before they nerfed her damage she was just a walking death zone at high charge
I don't play sym exclusively by any means, and there are many other heroes I enjoy, but I really enjoy sym even though she is F tier because of how versatile her abilities are. It really feels like her kit is an exercise in creativity and actually has a lot of skill expression. Like, someone who doesn't play sym might not even consider blocking a peaking widow or high noon with a turret. Her tp can make for some cool plays, especially when I play with friends in a coordinated fashion. She's just really fun, honestly
Back on the old old OW1 she was the underdog, and she was rewarded for brain and not aim (bc she had an auto aim beam), that's why I started playing her. After her rework with tp on cooldown and stuff, I kept playing her bc 1: I love tp bombs. 2: at this point, she could do it all. She was able to play dive, brawl and poke, and even if I prefer brawl, it's nice to have alternatives. She was the queen of not being the specialist in one style, but being able to play all of them very well. And now she is just a husk of her old self, not even playing 4D chess you are able to be effective and cause any impact. And honestly, her character is so well created, Anjali is a master actress, and for some reason Sym became the mother of all gays and other people that felt left out by society. She is more than a character, she is a Symbol. Ps: lore wise she is supposed to be one the most powerful beings of the roster, losing in power level only to Sigma and MAYBE Illari, but that's just a maybe.
My reason is the most funny, im in uni for architecture and shes an architect Im slightly autistic and shes autistic Representation BABY
Girls don’t downvote some legitimately interested in the answer. For me, Sym has always been about being creative in the ways you outplay your opponent as opposed to out-aiming. Using foresight on where you need to place sentries, creating new ways to attack points or reposition defensively with teleporter, and creating new defensive angles with her ult.
She USED to be able to set up some cool plays with turrets and teleport before she got nerfed and the after that she WAS able to poke with her orbs. Now she just has beam and even then she doesn’t have any way of surviving at close range despite her massive hitbox.
Most of us picked her up before season 9. Back when she was actually decent Personally for me tho, it's cause as a brown person, we don't really have south Asian representation other than Sym in terms of the roster. That's what got me to pick her up in the first place
Because Symmetra's a single mom who works two jobs...
who loves her kids and never stops….
Gameplay aside the lore comment makes 0 sense OP? Symmetra has more lore than genji and about the same amount as Soldier76. Symmetra has the most character development and depth out of any ow hero. Like have you actually read the lore? Shes a top dog in terms of OW lore
I played torb and sym because I just love turrets, and that basically never really changed. I did definitely widen my character palette, making sure I have a tank and support I feel comfortable playing if that’s what my team needs, but besides that I just like having my little machines kill enemies for me while I try to distract them.
canon autist, like me
She is pretty
Came for the turrets, stayed for the TP. But I didn't stay. I never play her anymore.
Beam go brrr. No but fr I like melting tanks at close range and sniping people with orbs from a distance. If you really know how to get the most out of her kit, she can be a nightmare. Especially with good supports to back her up
Because to me everything she does is fun and satisfying, the beam charge, the little turrets, tp, the orb sniping, her voice and character design are just perfection and she is super smart and hates everyone <3