Overwatch 2’s Symmetra gets huge buff that was missing from patch notes

Symmetra has seen a very powerful buff in the mid-season patch notes. However, arguably the strongest change wasn’t noted by Blizzard at all.

The recent mid-season patch notes for Overwatch 2 are out and it’s already been a big talking point for the community. As with any balance changes, each change is being scrutinized and theory-crafted into what it means for each hero. 

Surprisingly, besides poor Zenyatta who has seen a nasty nerf, every other hero mentioned more or less got a buff, including some drastic ones. Soldier 76 is benefiting from a lot of extra damage around his kit, and Torbjorn, while having some power taken from his turret, has seen a lot of damage repackaged into his gunplay.

However, arguably the biggest winner from the patch is Symmetra. Similar to Torbjorn, she’s had some damage taken away from her turrets, though they now reveal players when shooting them. On top of that, her secondary fire had been pushed immensely, with her now able to two-tap most DPS heroes with a fully charged burst. 

On their own, these changes make Symmetra much stronger than she was previously. However, perhaps her strongest buff was not noted in the patch notes, taking her from strong, to potentially busted.

Symmetra is even stronger than the patch notes say

As noted by Overwatch 2 aficionado KarQ, Symmetra has a buff that allows her to gain shield energy back when damaging shields. She can now regen 30 shield health per second (that’s the blue part of her health) when her primary fire damages a shield or barrier. Flats also noticed the change, much to his dismay as a Reinhardt connoisseur.

This is a pretty massive buff to her survivability, as she can now vampire shield from one hero to her own pool. That transfer of health should not be underestimated, and it puts her alongside Reaper as a character that can get into a fight and survive longer by doing more damage. 

It’s very odd that this change is not in the patch notes or referenced in the developer comments, especially for such a powerful change. This begs the question, was it meant to hit the live server? Just recently the developers left in an ammo change for Genji they were experimenting with, which they didn’t mean to leave in the game. 

Is it possible this was another change the developers were experimenting with but ultimately intended to take out? We will have to see. One thing is for sure though – Symmetra is probably in her strongest state ever right now.