Do Doomfist and Symmetra Deserve to be Nerfed?

The latest update to the Overwatch Public Test Region brought out some much needed buffs and nerfs to several heroes in the game. With double barrier meta dominating the competitive ladder, as well as the entirety of the Overwatch League playoffs, it feels right for Blizzard to make some changes that would help to diversify the meta.

However, although the patch featured a decent number of healthy changes to several of the heroes, there are two heroes in particular that received some controversial changes, Symmetra and Doomfist. The changes detailed in the PTR patch notes received some mixed feelings from players. The reason being that Symmetra and Doomfist are widely regarded as products of the meta, they are only strong picks within the double barrier meta, but outside of it, they're nowhere near as potent.

Symmetra was hit with nerfs to her Photon Barrier as well as her Sentry Turret. Her ultimate ability, Photon Barrier, lasts for 12 seconds instead of 15, and had its health reduced from 5,000 to 4,000. Symmetra's sentry turrets have been altered from dealing 50 damage per second to 40 damage per second. These nerfs are already piling onto the nerfs she received to her primary fire, which deals slightly less damage per second for each tick.

Doomfist was hit was a massive change to his Rocket Punch, which takes 1.4 seconds to charge instead of the previous 1 second. His passive ability, The Best Defense..., has reduced shield gain per ability hit from 35 to 30, reducing Doomfist's survivability.

These characters, when taken out of the double barrier meta, are generally not seen as go-to-picks. It could be argued that several other heroes are even better than these two, but are not being picked because of the meta's presence. Characters like Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Reaper are incredibly strong outside of the double barrier meta, yet they have not been nerfed. While the nerfs to Doomfist and Symmetra certainly don't destroy the characters, only time will tell to see how impactful these heroes will be in the future.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard