A serious Overwatch 2 bug seems to have caused an unintentional but significant Symmetra nerf in the Blizzard multiplayer game. The DPS hero has gone through many dramatic overhauls and reworks over the years, but her latest iteration seems to be accidentally broken in several different and rather unfortunate ways that might make her borderline unplayable in Overwatch 2 season 3 until rectified.
The first of these issues relates to her ultimate ability, Photon Barrier, which got a small but largely insignificant nerf (the only listed change for Symmetra) in season 3 that increased its cost by 10%. However, as highlighted in a video by YouTuber Not Muda (seen below), it appears that her ultimate now takes much longer to appear after using it.
This isn’t merely a visual effect, either, as the video demonstrates a Rein shatter and Sombra hack affecting Sombra before the barrier can pop up to block them. The ultimate ends earlier than expected, too, allowing damage to pass through while its duration is still ticking down. Helpfully, the barrier appears to still appear if you die while in the casting animation – but that’s likely to feel like scant consolation in the moment.
Perhaps even more serious, however, is the second Symmetra bug. When placed turrets collide with moving parts of the environment – such as sliding doors, rotating platforms, or the payload rolling over them – they are traditionally destroyed. A pain, to be sure, but you can just replace them. Unfortunately, this latest glitch seems to be a much more severe problem, as the turrets now simply disappear without being properly destroyed.
We’ve tested this in-game and can confirm the problem occurs as demonstrated in the video below: if one of your turrets is removed by environmental collision, the game appears to think it’s still placed, meaning that you can now only put down two of your usual three turrets. Attempting to place a third will simply replace the older of the two. This effect stacks – meaning that you can end up in a situation where no turrets can be placed.
For a moment, I thought the problem had already been fixed – the cooldown ticks down as normal, and Symmetra’s usual turret-deploying voice line and animation plays out. But no turrets actually appear, and you’re left to fend for yourself. That’s not to say Symmetra can’t be dangerous by her own means, as anyone who’s been chased down by her fully-charged Photon Projector can attest. But it’s certainly a massive hit to her overall utility, making it difficult to recommend her until Blizzard has fixed this particular problem.
Update – Feb 10, 6:55pm GMT: Following a live update from Blizzard, it appears from our own testing that both of these bugs have been resolved. Blizzard has yet to comment officially, but we have reached out to them and will update with any further news.
Update – Feb 22: Blizzard confirms in its latest patch notes that both these issues have been resolved “in a previous patch.”
In the meantime, then, take a look at our Overwatch 2 tier list for the best characters to play in season 3. We’ve also got a guide to all the Overwatch 2 maps and game modes, including new Control location Antarctic Peninsula, and an explanation of how Overwatch 2 ranks work in the FPS game’s competitive mode.