Hey guys! Welcome to Hero of the Week, my newest series on this blog! In this series, I’ll be going over the backgrounds of Overwatch heroes, their abilities, what I think of them, and how I’ve seen them played. Let’s jump right in!
Satya Vaswani
Age: 28
Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Architech
Base: Utopaea, India
Affiliation: Vishkar Corporation
Satya grew up in poverty-stricken Hyderabad, India. After the Omnic Crisis ended, the Vishkar Corporation began creating self-sustaining cities to house people displaced by the war. They had special interest in Satya, who was identified as one of a few people who were capable of light-bending. She excelled in her studies and was soon at the top of her class.
The Vishkar Corporation saw more potential in Satya than being an architech, so they started sending her on missions to spread their influence around the world.
Codename: Symmetra
Role: Support
HP: 200
- 100 Health / 100 Shields
Photon Projector Beam
- Range: 7 meters lock on / 9.5 meters tether break
- Rate of Fire: 4 hits per second
- Damage: 7.5/15/30 per hit
Photon Projector Energy Ball
- Speed: 10 meters per second
- Rate of Fire: 0.4-2 seconds of charging, 0.25 seconds of cooldown
- Damage: 26-125 depending on the charge time
Sentry Turret
- HP: 1
- Damage: 25 per second
- Movement Speed: -25%
- Max Range: 10 meters
- Max Deployed: 6
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
Photon Barrier
- HP: 1025
- Speed: 5.5 meters per second
- Area: 5 meters width
- Duration: Until impact or destruction
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
Ultimate: Teleporter
- HP: 400
- 50 Health / 350 Shields
- Uses: 6
- Duration: Until destroyed or used up
Ultimate: Shield Generator
- HP: 400
- 50 Health / 350 Shields
- Effect: +75 shields to allies
- Area of Effect: 50 meters
- Duration: Until destroyed
What’s Wooly’s Opinion?
My Current Playtime with Symmetra: 26 minutes
Frankly, I have never liked Symmetra in-game. Her character is awesome, but I’ve never felt like she was a true support hero. Maybe defense?
Either way, she hasn’t been my cup of tea and I honestly don’t know if she ever will be, but I can see why some players love to play her. Her weapon does quite a bit of damage and her primary fire (Photon Projector Beam) doesn’t require precision to murder the entire enemy team if you’re charged up. Nano-boosted Symmetra, anyone? I’ve seen a few and it’s horrific, to say the least.
She’s definitely gotten a lot more viable with her shield generator, though, and whether or not I like to play her (She’s currently my second-least played character [besides Orisa] at 26 minutes) or play against her, I can’t say she isn’t a useful character.
Tips and Tricks
Using Symmetra
Use the Microwave.
Seriously, the microwave (putting all six turrets in a small area) will decimate people who aren’t expecting it, and it gives ult charge like nobody’s business. I think that turrets are best placed in chokes or near health packs. Chokes are more popular because people have to go through them, but I think putting them near health packs can be useful for picking off low-health enemies and giving your team an advantage.
Like I said, I don’t have a ton of experience playing Symmetra, but she can be a destructive force in the right hands! Which brings me to my next point:
Fighting Symmetra
Get Rid of the Microwave.
That’s right! The enemy Symmetra has probably set up some kind of microwave room, and if you have to go through that choke, it’s going to kill you unless you do something about it. When I’m playing Mercy, I like to heal whoever goes through the microwave. It will simultaneously give me ult charge and peace of mind—if I see the turrets being destroyed, I’m not afraid of either me or my team dying in that spot. After you’ve encountered the first microwave and defeated it, repeat the cycle!
Keep Her at a Distance.
I can’t stress this enough; if you get caught in her beam’s range and don’t have some kind of ability/means of escape, you’d better kill her quickly or accept your fate. It’s easier to take Symmetra down when you aren’t being microwaved. As Mercy, I’m constantly trying to stay as far away from Symmetra as possible by using Guardian Angel to move around quickly. Unfortunately this depends on your team having good positioning, so if your team is all bunched up and there’s a Symmetra going to town on them stay as far away from her as possible while also attempting to heal your team so that they can kill her and make the area relatively safe again.
Be Aware of Balls.
Symmetra’s Energy Balls, I mean! A lot of Symmetras like to spam their secondary fire (Energy Ball) into choke points to get ult charge. You need to be aware of her positioning so that you’re not randomly running into her spam. Seriously. I still do this from time to time and it’s always because I wasn’t being aware enough. (Remember that Reinhardt and Winston shields don’t stop the balls! D.Va’s defense matrix does, and Zarya’s bubble can protect you as well.)
Find the Teleporter/Shield Generator.
If you can’t, make sure someone on your team does, because the fight is going to last longer and be more difficult to win if you don’t find Symmetra’s ultimate. Remember that it has 350 shields, so you need to take those out before you do any real damage to it! Otherwise its “full HP” is just going to come back, and you’ll have only wasted time.
And that’s Symmetra!
Please let me know if you liked this post and want to see more. I really don’t have much experience playing her, so definitely comment any more tips and tricks either for using Symmetra or defeating her if you have them! I’d love to hear what you have to add!
~ Wooly
