How is Sombra nerfed?

General Discussion
1

All I can tell from the PTR is that her invisibility and translocator last forever. What about this patch is a nerf to her?

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2

They fixed the 2 main issues on the PTR.
The detection radius is reverted and her Translocator no longer sounds like a nuclear alarm.

3

So she is buffed? 20 characters

4

She can’t contest the point anymore while inivislbe, and moves slower while invisible, and the translocator can be destroyed. Considerable nerfs to players who already had proper cooldown management and didn’t need things like infinite invisibility.

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5

I’d call it a sidegrade.
I don’t play her much anymore, but while she cant contest while invisible, she can now go on more elaborate flanks. Thing is, it takes her longer to go on those flanks now. I imagine the most dedicated Sombra mains will spawn camp supports.

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6

The first one makes sense, obviously it would be OP if she could contest while invisible forever. Idk why they made her slower, but the translocator is honestly impossible to find already. Especially now that they made it quieter. So I’m not worried about that

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7

Her translocator can be destroyed by the enemy.

Her speed has been nerfed.

Cannot contest while in stealth anymore.

So 3 nerfs to give two minor buffs.

Both lower her mobility in combat, by limiting where she can go. Since she was already strong out of combat, and her weakness (lack of utility mid combat) has been exacerbated even further, it is a net nerf to experienced Sombra play.

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8

She sprints slower when in stealth mode, which makes her unable to make jumps between spots in maps she use to take, her translocator can be destroyed in one hit (this includes enemy auto turrets shooting them)

Basically this change is like training wheels for lesser skilled people, any Sombra before this change could do the same exact thing with time constraints on their stealth and translocator.

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9

I think this should have come with the same 10%+ movement speed that Genji and Tracer have. Because it takes Sombra ages to set up a proper engagement, which leaves her team in a perpetual 5v6.

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10

I would answer this question, but my fellow Sombra Mains will… I will just link this here for you to view.

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11

Here’s the breakdown:

STEALTH

  • Can now be permenantly invisible.
  • Cannot contest/capture points while invisible.
  • Movement speed bonus reduced from 75% to 50%.
  • HOW THIS IS A NERF: First of all, no one asked for permenant invisibility. Second, it feels like just losing the ability to capture/contest would’ve been enough of a trade-off, losing a chunk of movement speed while invisible that we can use to close distance, get in position or slip through a rapidly-closing choke point feels like going too far with trade-offs. Plus, the speed bonus change is VERY noticeable, Sombra feels very sluggish (despite the fact her speed bonus is the same as Soldier: 76’s during Sprint). In addition, Sombra still has a foot-tappingly slow .7 second window where she’s activated the ability and the ability activates. Third and finally, Stealth can still be broken by taking ANY damage. Literally, any damage will drop it, intended or not.

TRANSLOCATOR

  • Translocator now has unlimited duration.
  • Translocator can be destroyed by using the interact button, putting it on a short cooldown.
  • Translocator has 5 hit points, and can be destroyed by enemies.
  • HOW THIS IS A NERF: First of all, no one asked for this change, either. Second, the fact that it has such a low HP amount. It can be destroyed by minuscule amounts of damage, or by accident. Further, using the Translocator to get into combat quickly was a common strategy by Sombra players, usually followed up by using EMP, and with it destroyable now this strategy goes out the window. Plus, any good player just camps the Sombra’s Translocator and waits for her to jump back to it, ambushing her and most likely killing her (since Sombra’s combat abilities are woeful), so destroying it isn’t even a viable strategy for enemies. Literally this change helps no one.
12

Also stray, unintentional fire has been a major crippling effect on Sombra’s kit for a long time now. And they added it to the only part of her kit that was not hampered by it.

13

She can’t contest anymore while invis, and she moves considerably slower while invis. Her Translocator can now be destroyed, meaning it can be destroyed by a stray bullet if shes attempting to get the high ground OR escaping.

People argue that “Well, if she has infinite translocator, then she can just go, try and get a kill, and tele out!”. And to that I say that was her original playstyle when she first came out, except she could get ult charge from hacked packs. That isn’t the case anymore. They dont quite know what they wanna do with Sombra.

So, combine it with the fact that her hack is STILL bugged and is extremely infuriating to play against and play as, her already weak damage, and these recent “buffs” and you’ve got a character thats going below F tier.

These changes dont help at all. At least not with the negatives they give either.

14

Try to reread the patch notes again and dont skip the lines where she gets nerfed.

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