Hey, this is a Sombra advocate here that has been in pain waiting for her to viable for years now. Offsetting nerfs for buffs as well as clunkyness that has always been a part of her kit are killing her. Her pros (basically just EMP, maybe the new cheesy perma invis hacks at really high levels of play) do not outweigh all of her cons which I could list forever. Sombra needs some help to be less clunky, more aggressive rather than passive, and overall more of an appealing pick. Let me know what you think she needs!
The new Sombra isn’t so much being used more because she is better than before, but because the meta is better for her than before. She is a great counter to Hammond, who is a pretty strong hero currently. Mercy’s healing got nerfed, making it easier for her to finish off kills. Widow and Hanzo got nerfed, making them less viable DPS options and giving Sombra more of a chance at taking them out, although Hanzo is still an unfavorable matchup and both are still common.
Overall, the infinite stealth has proven to be cheesy and makes it even easier to set up the perfect EMP. Sombra is still little more than an EMP bot, and infinite stealth only enables this more, particularly at high levels of play where there is strong coordination and a team is ready to pounce as soon as Sombra uses EMP. The last round of changes don’t fix the clunky problems with her kit, and make her more annoying for both sides. These are my ideas on how to fix her cheesy perma-stealth EMP feel while simultaneously giving her the buffs she needs. Sombra needs to be less passive and more active- and she needs to be less clunky.
-Removed infinite stealth (duration back to normal)
-Brought back 75% move speed and ability to contest point during stealth
-Increase base movement speed to 6 m/s (from 5.5 m/s)
-Automatic reload on translocation
-Reduced cooldown on hack breaks from 2 seconds to 1 second
-Increase translocator velocity by 15%
-Fix ALL bugs
Analysis: These changes should hopefully make Sombra much less passive and much more active, making her more engaging and much less clunky. Being a flanker, Sombra deserves to have the same movement speed as tracer and genji and this will make her a little more agile with and without stealth. The hack break cooldown is unfair and Sombra is already damaged enough from taking 1 damage, but this change should make it easier to deal with without “removing the counterplay entirely”.
The translocator changes make it more of an engage and disengage/escape tool rather than something you plop down and teleport back to (although that is still an option). The increased speed and reload change makes it easier to Sombra to finish off kills on escaping targets and gives her an option to bypass her long reload. Sombra will still have the weakness of no burst damage and low damage overall, and the translocator animation still counts as a sort of reload time, but now Sombra can make use of that time by being safe and covering ground. Translocator can still be destroyed by 5 damage so there is counterplay, and if Sombra does use it to finish off a kill or continuously bypass her reload it puts her in great danger because she won’t be able to teleport away to a safe spot instantly and she likely wont be making use of hack or stealth.
Overall these changes make her a little more fluid and flexible to play rather than the clunky and passive mess she can be now. Hopefully this makes it a little harder to set up that perfect EMP while giving her the speed and damage versatility she has needed for so long.
What do you guys think? I only want what is best for the hero and I would love to hear what other Sombra mains think. I’m looking to start a discussion here, not an argument. What changes would you guys like to see? Or would you rather she stay how she is now?