About a week ago Blizzard revealed that they are looking to transform Symmetra from a Support hero into a Defense one. While they didn't reveal much in terms of details back then, they did announce that the goal behind the whole rework is to make Symmetra a bit more flexible and interesting to play. Well, if the newly unveiled changes go through, that is definitely going to be the case!

"We are playing with a new way her turrets deploy. Instead of having to stick them directly onto a wall herself, she can now fire an un-deployed version like a projectile, which sticks to walls/ceilings/etc. Once it sticks, it will unfold like it does on the wall currently when she builds them", Overwatch's Geoff Goodman shared on the official forums. This helps for a bunch of reasons but one of the big ones is that it makes it a lot easier to play her on offense or just be able to preposition her turrets much more easily/quickly."

"There are other changes to her turrets as well. We’ve lowered the max number to 3 (both that she can hold and that can be deployed), but we’ve increased their damage and slow potential. They also have 30 health currently, though that number will probably change over time as we test. They still die quite easily but there is a significant difference between dying to any damage and just having very low health."

As expected, her weapon will be undergoing significant changes as well

Besides making her turrets much more menacing, the rework will also remove the auto-aim feature of her weapon. However, in return it will have the potential to become even more face-meltingly powerful, by which I mean it can be built up to 195 damage per second! 

"This means the weapon has significantly more potential but it is more difficult to get it to max power," Geoff continued. "Also, when hitting a barrier it currently generates ammo instead of consuming it. This means not only is she good at taking down barriers themselves, but she is good at just generating charge off barriers and using that charge to take down enemies as well."

"Her alternate fire is still a charge-up large projectile, but it has a bunch of important changes as well. First off, it charges to max charge in 1 second, down from 2 seconds. Next, the projectile speed has increased significantly, currently it has changed from 10 m/s to 30 m/s. Lastly, instead of piercing enemies, it now impacts enemies/environments and explodes, dealing area damage around it. We’ve been heavily iterating on how much damage this ball deals now, but a direct shot has been hovering in the area of 130ish, with a large % of the damage coming from a direct impact (rather then the explosion)."

And Symmetra's two ultimates? Are they being changed?

"Her teleporter is moving to her E ability and the Photon Barrier is moving to her ult, but these have massive changes as well," Goeff added in one of his final posts. "The teleporter now works as follows: You place the exit like you normally do, except that you can place it up to 25 meters away, instead of only right in front of you. When you place the exit, the entrance automatically gets built right in front of you instead of at your spawn. It lasts only a short time but allies can use it freely as they normally do, but there are some new things that can teleport as well."

"We’re experimenting with what works and what doesn’t but currently you can teleport things such as Torbjorn turrets, D.Va’s exploding mech, Junkrat tire, etc. This has lead to some sneaky/fun plays that are really unique to her. It also allows you to get onto high ground on offense with a comp that might otherwise have trouble doing so. The health has been lowered to 300 and the entrance is now attackable as well. If either die, the other is destroyed as well."

"Her Photon Barrier has moved to her ultimate and is now very different as well. Instead of placing a moving barrier, she places a static barrier wall that effectively is infinite in size and has 5000 health. She places this wall much like Mei places her Ice Wall, which means you can place it at some range and you can also change the orientation. The shield generator is gone at the moment."

Before you get too attached to any of these ideas, it is worth mentioning that all of this is currently a work in progress and as such subject to change. That said, it is definitely a step in the right direction, and one that will make Symmetra actually viable on offense as well as defense! Perhaps most interestingly of all, the new teleporter ability seems to have the potential to enable slow and tank-focused lineups as it gives them the much-needed ability to reach high ground.

How exactly all of this will pan out in actual games, I'm afraid I don't have the faintest clue, but it really is good to see Symmetra get some interesting changes. If any more details get announced I'll make sure to cover it, but until then you might want to get a bit more playtime with the current Symmetra as the new one is going to be quite different indeed.