I don't get why Sombra is useless now

General Discussion
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There are multiple things PTR Sombra can do that live Sombra can’t, summarized:

  • Total control of your hacks timing: often, you’re forced to retreat because you’re being focused or because Translocator/Stealth are about to expire. This means if you need to hack someone (and sometimes “need to” is a “must”), you have to stay 4 seconds vulnerable, possibly die, and you may not even hack your target. Now, you have full control of when to hack and when to retreat. You can wait Orisa’s shield to get weaker to hack her. You can wait invisible for Mercy to come to rez someone, so then you can hack and kill her. You can hunt Widowmaker without using the translocator (just like Tracer, but invisible) over and over. You can put a translocator on your backline and wait for Doomfist to appear and hack him. If you try to do all these on live, you’ll probably fail.
  • Scouting: to scout on live, you have to stay visible, very behind the enemy backline. You can’t do this effectively because you don’t want them to hear or see you. Now you can do this very close to them and invisible, and you still have translocator set to instantly come back to your team if you want. You have a passive Infra-sight. PTR Sombra has a much higher synergy with dive than live Sombra because of that. One thing that a lot of people (including Sombra mains) forget is that Sombra has always been team dependent. ALWAYS. That’s how she was designed. If you want to shine with Sombra, you have to rely on your team. The point is that you can make things easier for your team, and probably the strongest thing is scouting.
  • Destroy the translocator. No explanation required, good enough.

There’s only one thing live Sombra can do that PTR Sombra can’t: contest. Still, this is only bad on overtime, really, where you’re only useful if you have EMP. Any other forms of contesting, like backcapping, are even more easier. If you want to backcap, you can stay invisible beside the payload until everyone leaves. If someone doesn’t leave, you can simply do other stuff (including kill this person). Live Sombra has to retreat or reposition herself because Stealth/Translocator aren’t infinite. You can even pass a control point freely without them knowing a Sombra just passed.

Live Sombra seems very limited to me once I saw PTR Sombra.

1 Like
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This means if you need to hack someone (and sometimes “need to” is a “must”)

This was never the case. Nobody forces you to hack, you can just as well go for the kill right away. You are also not forced to teleport back. It’s all up to your critical thinking, something that actually requires skill and gamesense.

Scouting: to scout on live, you have to stay visible, very behind the enemy backline.

“scouting” is the most meaningless thing that anyone from Blizz have ever said.
Everyone, literally everyone in this game can tell what the enemy composition is or where they are. You don’t need to nerf a hero just to put an infinite cloack on it so they can see something that was obvious to begin with.

PTR Sombra can’t: contest.

Really?

Let me start listing it then.

Gap-jumping. Have you ever seen the Hanamura jump? yeah that is just one of the many jumps on each and every map that Sombra COULD do.

Translocator baiting. Leave your translocator on an obvious place so someone thinks they outplay you by camping your translocator, only to be outplayed themselves.

Use translocator behind enemy lines. Why? Well that 20 m wide loud beeping sound they added on the PTR makes the translocator a dead giveaway for the enemy where to look for them, and the simple fact that they KNOW it’s behind them.

Use the translocator agressively. The usage of the translocator is completely impossible during fights to reposition. As soon as it lands on the ground, it will be destroyed in seconds.

I’ve probably still missed something, I’ve gotten sick and tired of listing these all day… enjoy.

16 Likes
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Scouting isn’t even a thing in this game, so I’m not sure why that keeps getting brought up. It’s not the role of any single character or player to be aware of and communicate the usually very obvious strats the other team is using or about to use. There’s no use for a character that sits in the backline not getting picks/doing something productive. You’re wasting a DPS slot if you’re using Sombra as a “scout”. You’re forcing your team to play at a constant disadvantage and you’re being too passive.

4 Likes
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Here are the facts about what is happening on the ptr for sombra. Please dont try to make biased opinions sound like facts.

Buffs:

  • Infinite Translocator uptime
  • Infinite stealth (if you’re not shot)

Nerfs:

  • Loud as all get out translocator at the same range as live translocator can be heard at
  • Translocator can be destroyed
  • Translocator can be heard up to 20 meters
  • Translocator is targetable by turrets once on the ground (Possibly Moira’s ball, depending on how it’s coded)
  • Can no longer contest while stealthed
  • Can no longer jump certain gaps while stealthed
  • Slower while stealthed by 33% (+75% --> +50% speed boost)
  • Double stealth detection range (2 -->4 meters)
  • When coming to a translocator, the light turns from green to red, warning enemies you’re on your way
  • When coming out of translocator, you make a big bright light radiate from you saying to everyone “I’M HERE NOW PLEASE SHOOT ME BECAUSE I’M DEFENSELESS!”
  • Translocator gets instantly destoryed by almost all projectiles because almost everything does over 5 damage every pellet/bullet/tick of energy.

My personal opinion is that this update, brings to many downsides to Sombra. So i am against these changes and would much rather see her bugs fixed before they made any changes.

11 Likes
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I wouldn’t say useless, but she is a little weaker now …. but a lot of Sombra mains are panicing atm.

An at least mediocre Sombra can manage her timers well enough to get the thing done she was aiming for most of the time …. it’s only a buff for new or low skill Sombra players and it will implemente some bad habits i am affraid. And hack is still incredible unreliable.

Useless … the maps are small and direct. Your teams sees the enemy 90% of the time anyway. And it’s nothing you couldn’t do before.

That’s actually a fine buff … if there wasn’t the beeping and the lightshow after translocating.

Don’t underestimate that …. saves a lot of games by contesting like a berserk. You can slow down payloads a lot with it too.

Believe me, every true Sombra main know that …. your worst enemy, your hardest counter is your team …. the dead weight you have to carry through the game.

5 Likes
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Sometimes your winning condition is to hack someone. If Zarya + Hanzo have a combo at the end of the match, you must hack the Hanzo if you want to win. It’s much much easier do to this with PTR Sombra because you can simply stay invisible beside him. With live Sombra you have to rush or stay visible beside him and die.
There are multiple situations like these.

Are you sure you can say exactly where someone is, even if he’s flanking? Are you sure you know all your enemies’ plans? PTR Sombra know everything from behind them. I think scouting it’s very powerful at the right hands. You may not use it and it’s fine, but you can’t deny it’s a possibility now.

This list is full of irrelevant things. Gap-jumping? You have a translocator. The problem with gap-jumping is that you waste time if you fail, but if you’re invisible forever, what’s the point?
Translocator baiting? Now that Translocator makes a loud sound you can put in a place they would search and find, where you would be waiting.
Aggressive translocator is also still a thing, because it’s rare you let it land on the ground. It can’t be destroyed mid-air, so…

1 Like
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Isnt this already explained to death? its not just removal of stealth contest.

  • More added down time while not contributing.
  • More vulnerable to being detected by enemies and turrets.
  • removal of certain short cut jumps with invis
  • Translocator destructable which leaves you at risk of becoming a sitting duck for 4 seconds
  • resulting from that also less options to use it for baiting purposes and less aggressive flank options
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  • The first one is a choice you can make, not a thing from her. Actually, they added more contribution time, since you don’t have to rush because of Stealth/Translocator timings.

  • You can be detected easier, but you’re permanently invisible. You can take another route, wait or simply retreat. It’s something they added to bring confidence to people on countering Sombra, but it’s not a deal to her, really.

  • You have a translocator, use it. This cut jumps are good for live Sombra because you waste time on Stealth taking another route. But if you’re invisible forever, not a deal again.

  • Another thing added to bring confidence to people. If you’re still invisible, you can remain invisible until Translocator is up. If you’re visible and at the middle of the enemies then that’s a problem, but it’s not very different of Translocator camping (that’s gone): you just have to choose carefully where to put it.

  • You can still bait people using the sound it makes now.

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A Sombra is already behind the enemy most of the time. The enemy is focusing your team …. they don’t notice you even if you are visible most of the time. But now that the translocator beeps you can’t hide it in their backline anymore.

You can’t just stand arround invisible all the time … your team is in a 5v6 if you do so. And a good sniper can do the same and being usefull all the time.

2 Likes
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  • The first one is a choice you can make, not a thing from her. Actually, they added more contribution time, since you don’t have to rush because of Stealth/Translocator timings.

You dont have to plan ahead, which adds downtime to Sombra when engaging because you need to think about what you want to do. Playstyle becomes more passive and reactive which adds downtime. If you dont decide to use it that way there is no benefit from perma stealth and you just have a more detectable slower invis.

  • You can be detected easier, but you’re permanently invisible. You can take another route, wait or simply retreat. It’s something they added to bring confidence to people on countering Sombra, but it’s not a deal to her, really.

Just because you can play around it, doesnt mean it isnt a nerf.

  • You have a translocator, use it. This cut jumps are good for live Sombra because you waste time on Stealth taking another route. But if you’re invisible forever, not a deal again.

You get straight up options removed. You burn an extra cooldown just to be able to use the same routes she could use before. Same rule applis here, even if you can play around it, doesnt mean its not a nerf.

  • Another thing added to bring confidence to people. If you’re still invisible, you can remain invisible until Translocator is up. If you’re visible and at the middle of the enemies then that’s a problem, but it’s not very different of Translocator camping (that’s gone): you just have to choose carefully where to put it.

It is different because translocator camping is benefitial for your team if that keeps them out of the fight not contributing. Again, you end up with less options. Its a nerf.

  • You can still bait people using the sound it makes now.

They just have to shoot it and move on. It doesnt benefit you and you get a 4 second cooldown punishment.
Nerf

5 Likes
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One of Sombras main weaknesses is her long downtime. As longer you stay invisible as more useless you become. This patch will increase her downtime even more and the benefit is very low. The only way to make this an actual buff would be to drasticly increase her dmg and give her a guaranty kill …. what Blizzards won’t do.

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We don’t want Sombra to be a scout

We want her to be a flanker

We have characters that can tell you team comps already

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Lets make it simpler to understand:

Buffs:

  • Infinite stealth
  • Infinite translocator
  • Translocator can be canceled

Nerfs:

  • Movement speed increase in stealth reduced from +75% to +50%
  • Can no longer contest point while in stealth
  • Range detected while in stealth increased from 2 meters to 4 meters
  • Translocator can be destroyed by the enemy (It has 5 health)
  • Translocator now makes a load beeping sound that can be heard through walls up to 20m away

There’s no way anyone with any time at all on Sombra can see these changes as an overall buff.

2 Likes
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The nerfs outweigh the buffs, revert Translocator changes because it was perfectly fine before, and revert the detected range back to 2 meters and the nerf to contesting the objective while invisible.

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You forget the new fireworks upon translocating.

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The scouting Sombra comment might have trumped the RIP-tire escorting D.va cmment.

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if you’re at least somewhat decent with sombra this is never gonna happen.

P.S: the whole “scouting” thing is such BS. there’s literally nothing to scout for in this game. this isn’t TF2. this isn’t CS:GO.

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The only scouting worth for in this game is when your team scouts to see where tf is Sombra and why she has spent 45 seconds in stealth doing nothing.

2 Likes
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the public has spoken. :open_mouth: @ dev team