Blizzard’s primed to make possibly the biggest shake-up to Overwatch‘s status quo with its next planned update to the live game.
In the latest Developer Update video, which aims to provide fans with regular information in regards to upcoming events, Overwatch lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed several drastic changes being made to vanilla character Symmetra in a future patch. We already knew Blizzard had been planning to rework the way in which the support hero played thanks to earlier comments made by Kaplan to Business Insider UK, but they’re far more extensive than you’d perhaps expect.
Headlining the list of changes is a brand new ultimate ability for Symmetra, making her the first character able to boast the possession of two, rather than one, such attacks.
“Symmetra is going to be the first character in Overwatch to actually have a choice of ultimates,” reveals Kapan in the developer update, adding that “When her ultimate is charged, it will light up just as before. Instead of just offering players the chance to trigger her Teleporter move, however, there’s also a shield generator that can be placed to protect the entire team.”
Worried that just one new ability won’t be enough to turn Symmetra’s fortunes around? Well, why not have another? Photon Barrier is Blizzard’s attempt to drive home Symmetra’s role as a support character, and allows her to project a shield similar to Reinhardt’s, only this one travels along a static path independent of its user.
Of the new defensive tool, Kaplan beams that it’s “really effective if you’re hanging behind your team and they don’t have somebody like a Reinhardt. Maybe they have a Roadhog and Zarya as their tanks up front, you can send this projected barrier out in front of you and it sort of signals your whole team to … follow with it.”
Small tweaks, including extending the range of Symmetra’s Photon Projector and increasing the stock of her turrets are also being made in order to promote Symmetra’s new, more aggressive playstyle. As usual, all of the proposed changes to Symmetra will be available for PC players first by way of Overwatch‘s Public Test Realm servers before going live on all platforms at a later date.
We’re quite frankly surprised that Blizzard has gone to such lengths in order to increase Symmetra’s appeal to a wider audience, but with her being one of the least-used characters in both the casual and competitive scenes, it’s to be expected.
We’re sure all of the Overwatch fans reading this will have their own thoughts on the topic, so let us know in the comments what you think of the new and improved Symmetra. Yay or nay?
