I stick to Symmetra when defending Kings Row and Hanamura. Anyone else have favorite maps for busting her out? I could see a case for defending Hollywood but I will always try to get my Torb on there. I'd consider trying Volskaya and Anubis, but other than those, wouldn't use her.
Every map. EVERY. MAP. The best strategy is to cajole another player or two into going Lucio for their first life so that they can speed boost you to their spawn and set up sentry turrets, every second counts prior to those doors opening. Plop as many turrets as you can around those doors. Then start charging a shot two seconds prior to doors opening and keep doing so for as long as it's safe. Your effort will be paid off in a 50%-90% charged ulti guage in the first few seconds of the match.
Thing is symmetra players love to pick her when it's inappropriate. Yeah that teleporter is handy, but wouldn't have been necessary if they had been doing more damage or healing people. When she consistently outputs damage on chokes & inescapable corridors, great. When the teleporter isn't immediately destroyed, and can tele a full load a long distance, great. But certain contexts (mobile payload, KOTH, too many checkpoints, short tele distance), she's not going to have enough time or safety to set up new turrets that are going to do as much as a more context appropriate hero, or it's just not going to pay off enough. I'm not saying she doesn't do work, just in some situations, she doesn't do ENOUGH work. When someone insists on playing a hero even though the context has changed and it's not working out anymore, they are useless autolock hanzo and not pulling their weight. This is coming from someone who loves Mei, but recognizes that her damage output is really low and she isn't always the best choice.
Symmetra's good with defending: 1) Choke points, where she can set up turrets and get close without being exposed 2) A fixed defense point far from spawn, where the teleporter is needed to reinforce on pace with the office.
During payloads and on last points you're generally better served with a different character.
It's dependent on the style and skill of the Symmetra. My style is to place single turrets in all the different ways someone can come in and use it as a alarm system that I can use to get to a point where I can pretty much ambush someone. I'll change out of Symmetra if they hard counter her too much with WInston or Tracer (or anyone decides it's their life goal to kill every one of my turrets regardless of where they are). While I tend to avoid Symmetra when the map becomes a payload map, I've had some really great games as her on those kinds because people tend to not expect a Symmetra. With properly positioned turrets you have a net of information almost as good as Widow's Ult or Hanzos Arrows. Also placing the teleporter behind the advancing team sometimes allows for back attacks that can be devastating.
The skill is to realize when you need to change it up.
The most effective general case symmetra I've seen is point defense maps where she makes a safe room for the team to regroup, escape to, and heal near the point. But it's not enough on its own. She has to also reliably spam entryways (Especially Reins) with her balls, and also be ready to aggressively jump into the fray and attack when a battle is winnable.
An aggressive Sym jumping into a tight melee at the right moment can turn it from a partial kill to a team kill.
I've been playing a lot of Ana recently. I like her a lot. Then play Lucio if I'm healing and it's close quarters. She is surprisingly effective at short and long range. And shutting someone's ult down with a sleep dart is the best.
I broke level 100 yesterday and realized then that the Level progression resets to each level again be less points until the threshold is met, so I've been grinding levels for boxes the last couple of days before the summer games even ends, and I got what I wanted basically with the last box I got: The Shotput Highlight Intro.
I ended up getting both Lucio ones, I think Window (don't care), Zarya's white one, and the orange Tracer one. I really wanted the British flag Tracer one but I don't think it's gonna happen. I got the shotput intro I think in my first box.
The most effective general case symmetra I've seen is point defense maps where she makes a safe room for the team to regroup, escape to, and heal near the point. But it's not enough on its own. She has to also reliably spam entryways (Especially Reins) with her balls, and also be ready to aggressively jump into the fray and attack when a battle is winnable.
There are a few maps that Symmetra can play offense quite effectively, but they are edge cases. Attacking on Dorado can be effective if you can keep turrets on the payload AND put them other places on the route as well. But you can't go into a hidey hole once they're up because they WILL be destroyed and you've gotta be running round causing confusion and slowing the other team down while your teammates kill them AND be able to go redeploy turrets at the same time. It's a juggling act the likes of which only Courage Burrage has seen.
I loooove going up against Reinhardts as Symmetra. He's basically fucked if he turns around to try to swat you, revealing his exposes ass to the team. If he doesn't turn, you're gonna cook him regardless.
I loooove going up against Reinhardts as Symmetra. He's basically fucked if he turns around to try to swat you, revealing his exposes ass to the team. If he doesn't turn, you're gonna cook him regardless.
Also, your charge-balls penetrate his shield (and yes, I know how this sounds).
Lol Vic, you know I was 1. In that game 2. On your team 3. Spamming junk bombs down the line around you as Webby was scoring a lot of direct hits as pharrah 4. Also getting those kills & highlight reel.
Not to say that isn't aggressive symmetra play, but that was an unbalanced game, and a more organized team would have shut us down fast.
Also, like I said, symmetra has her place, but people are playing her when they could and should be playing someone else. And it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, which is why some games just crumble.
Strategically, what I saw in custom spectating confirmed my experience on the ground. The players on this forum, in general, do not push aggressively or with coordination. They also tend to push the same heavily guarded and disadvantaged point over and over. There's even a weird choke mentality where the defending team will back away from the choke but the attacking team will stay there (I think they would rather be playing defense where the map forces you to work together and play more statically). There are exceptions; they know who they are, but that does not a whole team make.
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TIL: No one can handle dad when it's dad time and I'm dad. NoFunGirl is a scary Mei player. Jormungander plays Reinhardt like a boss.
Mei time was best time. But everyone decided to kill Mei...
This is why you always check your surroundings.
The best strategy is to cajole another player or two into going Lucio for their first life so that they can speed boost you to their spawn and set up sentry turrets, every second counts prior to those doors opening. Plop as many turrets as you can around those doors. Then start charging a shot two seconds prior to doors opening and keep doing so for as long as it's safe.
Your effort will be paid off in a 50%-90% charged ulti guage in the first few seconds of the match.
1) Choke points, where she can set up turrets and get close without being exposed
2) A fixed defense point far from spawn, where the teleporter is needed to reinforce on pace with the office.
During payloads and on last points you're generally better served with a different character.
The skill is to realize when you need to change it up.
An aggressive Sym jumping into a tight melee at the right moment can turn it from a partial kill to a team kill.
And as has been said here, absolutely, 100%, always switch off Symmetra if a team caps a point and starts a rolling payload.
Not to say that isn't aggressive symmetra play, but that was an unbalanced game, and a more organized team would have shut us down fast.
Also, like I said, symmetra has her place, but people are playing her when they could and should be playing someone else. And it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, which is why some games just crumble.
Strategically, what I saw in custom spectating confirmed my experience on the ground. The players on this forum, in general, do not push aggressively or with coordination. They also tend to push the same heavily guarded and disadvantaged point over and over. There's even a weird choke mentality where the defending team will back away from the choke but the attacking team will stay there (I think they would rather be playing defense where the map forces you to work together and play more statically). There are exceptions; they know who they are, but that does not a whole team make.