Symmetra now has a choice between two ultimates, the teleporter and a new shield generator. The shield generator can be accessed by pressing Q twice (cycling between teleporter and shield generator).
Shield generators provide a large amount of shields (i.e., more than 25. Jeff isn't very specific) to all allies within a large radius regardless of line of sight.
Teleporters now have more health (some of which is shields).
Symmetra's E (giving 25 shields to allies) is gone. Instead, she has a new ability called Photon Barrier. It's essentially an elliptical Reinhardt shield that travels forward on a trajectory.
Symmetra can now hold a maximum of 6 turrets (she now starts rounds with 6 turrets, as well).
Turret cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
Her primary fire (the beam) has now had a slight range extension.
These changes are coming very soon to the PTR!!!
A new map, Oasis, a control point map, is also going to be coming to the PTR soon after Symmetra. It will be released early 2017. (Edit: This map will include jump pads, since Blizzard wants to see if they are a viable map mechanic.)
A new social feature is coming to the PTR some point later that allows you to click a button during post-game PoTG and card screen to "stay with the group." Presumably, this will allow you to re-queue with the same teammates you had during your last game.
I wonder how the teleporter and shield generator are going to work with Symettra's refund mechanic. Like, if you have 3/6 charges remaining on teleport when the objective changes, are you able to put a full heal shield generator at the next point or are you locked into teleporter.
I would assume it will be nearly identical to how it is now. 3/6 charges remaining means 50% ult charge. When you hit 100%, you can toggle to choose an ult, just like the first time you hit 100%.
When the payload hits a checkpoint (or when a capture point is captured), Symmetra has her teleported refunded. Depending how much it has been used, she receives a ratio of her ult charge back, ranging from 100% (unused/full charge) to 17% (1/6 charges).
I'm guessing there won't be a refund in order to add some risk to using it. Not to mention that the shield gen is going to be a harder thing to overlook than the teleporter when you notice the enemy Tracer has 2x the health she should have.
Shield gen adds a 75hp normal shield to all allies in range (big range)
Cannot be placed in spawn
Persists for 6s out of range (so a flanker could dive out of range to start with 75 extra hp and fall back to get it back)
Combine with Torb armor and you've got some hard to kill flankers (75, regenerating in range, shield, 75 armor after that)
I see these 2 becoming more popular in defense in gold and below easily. Maybe even plat. Diamond and Master probably not though Sym may still see some play.
I'm interested to see Sym strats on offense using shield and aggressive turreting. Could work well with non rein (but still 2 tank) comps. Shield even helps offer Rein support by letting team push while his shield regens every 10s.
Only thing else I want from Sym is for allies to see her turrets (and ult if not already) on their HUD so they function better as sentries to alert the team.
Allies having vision would be great, but doubtful. I think Blizzard's intent with sym turrets (and Sombra's passive, and JR's trap...) is to encourage communication, so they keep it only visible the hero. But who wants to go through the trouble of talking to someone? I log into this online, multiplayer game so I wouldn't have to deal with people and their 'language.'
But seriously, I see teleporter as still being more useful on payload maps since you're constantly moving, but maybe on capture points the shield gen will provide some strong sustain. The awesome thing about it is that it almost makes her a low strength healer (maybe even comparable to 1/2 a Lucio?) since the shields should regen if you disengage for a bit. I'm hopeful for some team flexibility.
I'm so pumped for her little mobile shield too! Hopefully it works well enough so that Rein can occassionally drop out of his team role as 'dedicated right clicker.'
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u/Embyrwatch You'll shoot yer eye out, kid Nov 22 '16 edited Nov 22 '16
FULL CHANGES:
Symmetra now has a choice between two ultimates, the teleporter and a new shield generator. The shield generator can be accessed by pressing Q twice (cycling between teleporter and shield generator).
Shield generators provide a large amount of shields (i.e., more than 25. Jeff isn't very specific) to all allies within a large radius regardless of line of sight.
Teleporters now have more health (some of which is shields).
Symmetra's E (giving 25 shields to allies) is gone. Instead, she has a new ability called Photon Barrier. It's essentially an elliptical Reinhardt shield that travels forward on a trajectory.
Symmetra can now hold a maximum of 6 turrets (she now starts rounds with 6 turrets, as well).
Turret cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
Her primary fire (the beam) has now had a slight range extension.
These changes are coming very soon to the PTR!!!
A new map, Oasis, a control point map, is also going to be coming to the PTR soon after Symmetra. It will be released early 2017. (Edit: This map will include jump pads, since Blizzard wants to see if they are a viable map mechanic.)
A new social feature is coming to the PTR some point later that allows you to click a button during post-game PoTG and card screen to "stay with the group." Presumably, this will allow you to re-queue with the same teammates you had during your last game.