Devs confirm Sombra sucks on ladder

General Discussion
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Yes. Even in GM. Also say she’s dominant in league. This may hint she’ll get some changes soon to make her better on ladder but worse in league.

Sombra is so incredibly powerful in the Overwatch League and so dominant. If we were to look at the statistics, even among Master and Grandmaster Overwatch players, Sombra doesn’t perform very well because she’s so completely and utterly team dependent,” Kaplan explained. “But once you get these mastermind Overwatch League coaches showing their players when and where to EMP, she works.”

https://www.theloadout.com/overwatch/meta-jeff-kaplan?amp

Right now they are studying her to see why this difference is so huge. Thoughts?

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Good link, but it doesn’t inherently acknowledge that they see it as a problem and I wanna be cynical.

That said, this:

“I think there are many ideal states depending on your perspective and who you are,” Kaplan tells The Loadout. “I think most of our players would say in the ideal meta, all our heroes would be viable in some way competitively. I think as a competitive goal from a game designing and game balancing perspective that is extremely challenging, but it’s obviously what we strive to achieve.

would probably hint at changes for other F tiers. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the Hanamura tele failed so spectacularly.

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if your whole team is in vc and coordinates well sombra is overpowered, even just calling out in vc who’s hacked provides a significant advantage

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Are they gonna make her an actual dps? Because that’s honestly the only way I can see her being viable without making her more team dependent

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As with most things the dev say…don’t read too much into it…otherwise you end up in the camp where you’re expecting something to happen and then when it doesn’t all you can possibly have is disappointment

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In a nutshell:
Sombra is very strong in a coordinated group, but horrible when played solo.

It just so happens ladder does not have very good coordination but OWL does.

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Right, but they are also poking around there, and that is interesting.

I am hopeful.

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Because their precious e-sports league needs a separate patch versus the actual playerbase.

OW with the best players in the world playing on actual teams where they practice 40+ hours a week together is completely different than the random ladder.

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Indeed, I think they might be considering make her stronger on ladder but weaker in OWL.

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Security camera is more useful in owl

Bring back old stealth while we’re at it Jeff

But overall

Just don’t touch her, she’s perfectly playable rn

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Yep, and honestly I think that will be a double edge sword as well.

More Sombra play on the ladder will lead to more complaining about her.

The obvious way involves weaker emp and hack, and stronger gun, so maybe there will be less complaining.

But knowing the Dev team it would be a total curve ball.

I’ll take my chances though :). This could be good.

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That is sadly true, I think we can solve this by making her medium in terms of viability but buff her little by little along the way.

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Medium in viability on ladder is all I want.

If they get there, I’m happy. I don’t want her to be meta. I just want her there, you know?

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Same, I rather she be just good or middle as oppose to meta.

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15

This does not please the Lucio.

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I hate when she hacks me as Lucio. I’m just dead unless someone helps me.

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Depends on the changes I would guess.

I mean, I think that disabling changing aura is fair, disabling aura is just pants.

Like that would be a good start.

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Honestly the problem mostly only EMP in league. EMP in ladder is basically just “I have EMP and I’m doing it in 3…2…1…”

Or even just “My EMP is ready” and standing where you’re going to EMP and hoping your teams take the hint.

In Overwatch league, entire push strategies revolve around EMP and people already have an idea of what they are going to do when you EMP before EMP is even up.

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Honestly I feel like Aura should revert to it’s default state (how it when you spawn) rather than being turned off entirely. Although tbh Lucio really doesn’t need the buff, statistically speaking.

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Emp being smaller is a good plan I think.

We already have comps where everyone packs super tight so having counterplay for that is good.

But emp should also have counterplay and making so spreading out means only one or 2 get hit? That would be pretty good.

You could play mind games with emp, forcing the enemy to have to choose distance.

But emp as lampshade size would be good I think, then like, buff the rest of her kit based on that.

Other Sombras may feel differently, and that IS a big change to her ult.

But I’ve always been one for strong base kit, weak ults making for a better game.