I did some Test in the Workshop and created two modes for just that.
According to my testing EMP’s precise casttime is 0.18s where the last possible moment you can stun it is at 0.17s.
This cast time is measured from the moment the game registers the Button press till the Target receives the status Hacked.
I measured this in two different ways:
I simply added a timer that starts when the button is pressed and stops when the Target is hacked. This always ends at a 0.18s but sometimes it was just about to go to 0.19 but drops back (Probably because of Latency correction)
I added a Value that can be increased by 0.01 for every time you Press Primary fire this Value reflects the time it waits after you Pressed EMP to stun you afterward for Example if I would increase the Value to 0.42 it would stun me 0.42s after I pressed my ult button. Here my EMP got canceled at 0.17 but not at 0.18.
This is/was kinda shocking I do not know where the misinformation came from that it was 0.5s (Maybe they secretly changed that sometimes? Maybe it was always like this? I have no idea actually).
Workshop code:
NEEYH
3JETH
Keybindings are in the workshop description.
Also add 1 bot Lucio into the enemy Team
Quality should improve soon.
(Edit: Also where does are Weapon fly to when EMP’ed lol xD)
So in the end with this evidence, I can only say I was wrong for an all to long time thinking EMP’s casttime was 0.5s. If She gets buffs for it in comparison obv.
Edit:
Okey thanks to a reply from @Bombz
we now know where the 0.5s come from I tested it and its indeed her recovery time at 0.48s.
Edit: Just to clarify this OP itself is no statement of Sombra’s Balance or my Opinion of it its simply Information I found and I wanted to share to clear the misinformation of it being 0.5s You’re free to discuss Balance here tho.
So basically if anybody ever manages to cancel out sombra EMP, we can scream "INHUMAN REACTION" at the top of our lungs? Because reacting to sombra decloacking and emping requires inhuman gamer reactions lol.
Decloak + EMP is 0.87s which is super reactable ONLY if you react with an EMP counter immediately after when you notice her declaok. This means that if you are a zen and you want to trans the enemy EMP you can’t trans on reaction to the EMP animation, you can only guess she is going to do it and react on the decloaking/translocating animation.
Long story short: EMP’s cast time is 100% humanly unreactable.
I wouldn’t say it’s wrong, just misinformed (which we all were)
It appears that Sombra’s animation is about half a second.
The thing is that people assumed the animation and the cast time are one and the same, similar to many other ults, when in reality, as you can see, the EMP goes off partway through the animation, cutting down on the actual cast window.
Like I said, I’m pretty sure all of us made this assumption, so thank you so much for actually putting it to the test. Really helps explain why that “0.5 second window” that everyone has been preaching about interrupting her in has always felt unreasonably small.
Playing fighting games I would react to 0.5s animations very easily. I have NEVER been able to react to EMP, even when I was expecting it. I knew it was was shorter than 0.5, but I never expected it was that short. I thought it was like 0.3 or something. I am shocked too.
Yes, indeed it’s easier to watch out for things during a fighting game match, but I watched streamer vods and YT videos as well of players getting caught in EMPs and the time it took for them to get hacked after she started glowing was unreactably short.
Countering EMP has never been about reacting to it, it’s about positioning your team in a way where EMP isn’t very effective. If your team is sufficiently spread out, there are often few if no opportunities for a good EMP. Zen may also not be able to react to the cast itself, but if you properly play cover, corners, or doorways it’s not hard to make it nearly impossible for Sombra to EMP both your team and you simultaneously, which gives you the opportunity to use trans in reaction if she chooses not to get you in it.
The fastest relevant queue for a reaction is audio queues at an average of about 0.17 seconds. Meaning in the best case scenario, where you press the button the moment you notice it, you have a 0.01 second window to react. In other words, even running at a generous 200 FPS, which I’m pretty sure is beyond what most monitors can physically do, you still have only 2 frames to press the button, give or take a few adjusting for differences in reaction times.
Add in the factor of ping and hardware performance, which can delay things ever so slightly, and yea, it literally becomes impossible to react to EMP.
As you said, the most you can hope for is if Sombra telegraphs beforehand with the decloak, similar to how you can watch a low level Reaper Wraith into the team before he pops ult. You’re not reacting to the ult at all, you’re reacting to the player letting you know it’s coming, which any good player can minimize.
Also I would like to add that the average of 0.17 is the absolutely fastest possible jolt to your nervous system when you are 100% watching out for it. Even if you could press the button immediately with no delay and there was no lag, it’s still 99.9% unrealistic to expect anyone to react within such a short period during a game.
Well this post isn’t here to say whenever this is Okey or not (For the most part atleast excluding my Opinion there at the end)
Its manly here to kill the missinformation that people use to say its reactable to I’m completly on the Sombra buff side but I want to argue with Facts not with missinformation.
My apologies- wasn’t disagreeing, but agreeing. Re reading it I worded myself quite poorly lol
It’s very reasonable to talk about doing it in a fighting game. Far less so during a fps.
For what it’s worth I also agree with your other thread- in regards to sombra having too much power in her kit on EMP, and that it’s be better for it to be shifted into her core kit.
The 0.5 second cast duration most likely refers to the full cast time, including recovery. Sombra’s EMP involves an upward leaping animation that prevents her from acting for a short time (I believe only Translocator is allowed to animation cancel it, but unsure), even though the effect fires as she first spreads her arms.
Fair enough. I just got the impression from the other thread that you linked that part of the point was that EMP is uncounterable (not just unable to be reacted to), to which I would disagree because it does have valid counter play, just not reactionary.
