Would you like this change, or hate it?
me personally, I would love it. If they could make her feel similar to Juno, I might switch from dps to support full time
Currently I don’t play her in her dps role, I find her cheesy as hell. And playing against her isn’t fun.
So yeah, just curious if anyone else would play her a lot if she was a support?
Sombra is, by her core concept, basically a support hero, but she can never actually be given the support role because it simply doesn’t fit her. The biggest problem is that Sombra cannot heal and should never be able to heal.
Heroes are created with an identity, and Sombra’s identity is hacking. Most people associate hacking with something negative first and foremost, like hacking security systems. Accordingly, Hack has to be a debuff / CC, and that’s exactly how OW1 players classified it back then when the question came up whether the silence effect should be removed from Hack.
Up until the introduction of the fixed role system, I would have immediately agreed with anyone saying “let’s move Sombra from DPS to support,” because conceptually and based on her original design she was a supporter. But without healing, that doesn’t work—and every way of cramming healing into her kit is awful.
There were frequent suggestions to do it like Ana or Juno, but Sombra’s weapon just isn’t designed for that. It’s an SMG, which naturally has a high fire rate but low accuracy. At range, Sombra would heal basically nothing, while at close range she could easily keep a tank alive on her own.
Healing only through abilities—another common suggestion, usually with the idea that Hack should handle it—also doesn’t work, because every support has to be able to heal without restriction. Supports who have restricted healing, like Brig or Moira, still have an additional alternative way to heal on top of their normal healing.
What would have to happen, and what the consequences would be:
Sombra would have to lose about 90% of her assassin playstyle. A hint of it could remain, but no more than that. Accordingly, Sombra would need to be shifted back toward her utility-focused version, and that inevitably means Hack would need a longer duration.
The current duration with a 1-second silence effect is not sufficient and leaves a massive power gap in Sombra’s kit that has to be compensated with raw damage. If you don’t want to give Sombra damage but want to preserve what makes her unique, the silence effect on Hack would need to last 4 seconds. With adjustments to fire rate or damage—I recommend fire rate—you could then reduce the silence duration to 3 seconds.
Since in 5v5—and only in 5v5—we have the problem that all kinds of debuffs and CC are extremely strong against tanks, Hack would need to have a reduced duration on tanks, just like Sleep does.
Some people will, as always, say: “No, Hack needs to be removed,” but we all know that’s not going to happen.
The only other alternative would be a Sombra who, in addition to her silence effect, also has other debuffs / CC effects. And since in both versions we need something like invisibility—because Hack is very sluggish—and we also need an escape ability, those additional effects would also have to be part of Hack. Unless you manage to create a reasonable form of invisibility that allows us, through a single ability, to both engage and disengage when things get tight. In that case, you’d free up one ability slot for an additional effect.
However, it’s more pleasant to play against something that has one annoying but strong debuff/CC than two different ones at the same time. That’s why the first version with the longer Hack would still be the better option.
I would hate it because I love sombra and I like disrupting and going for elims. thats why I play dps.
if shes moved to support the only way I would like it if she was even mlre lethal than kiriko.
I should like it because moving to support should make her fully ok and acceed even if busted beyond repair.
but nah, no reworks needed, she’s barely banned.
playing against her feels like free wins ao I wouldn’t mind some buffs here and there.
playing as her, she works if the enemy don’t peel otherwise its a nice challange.
That’s exactly what I wouldn’t want. The idea of Sombra loading up her uzi with healing bullets is… ugh.
Now, if she was a support with ability and/or passive healing… that would be right up my street.
She would be a completely different hero. There’s not enough health packs in the game on any map to justify leaving her kit the way it is now. She would need a reliable way to heal a full team of players and she doesn’t have that capability right now.
Honestly I feel the best direction to go for Sombra is her Mirrorwatch form with some changes making her the Support she should have always been since day 1.
My ideas:
so hack is basically useless if the enemy didn’t use a cd?
sounds quite garbage to me at a first glance.
I would rather we move one of the hitscan copies to support than one of the few flankers who actually plays different than others.
image we do the same to cassidy nade, only hinders if you where using a mobility ability.
0 risk anymore ro attack him
Useless if you time it wrong yes but that’s what I mean for the payoff of longer CD the Sombra has awareness with her Invis checking for CD’s and if she spots one goes in for a Hack and boom that Hog hook is now on longer CD
sounds more like ow1 kit than ow2, ow2 we don’t want players ro think.
so my ability is useless but an ana can just yeet a nade for full effect?
are you Willing to one trick this sombra exclusively forever?
i would drop her and never ever touch her again. (3rd most played hero)
not becau6I would have to think, but because she would be pretty much mercy. useless if your team doesn’t carry you.
She’s the king of self sustain. you cannot just make her 100% team Dependand.
I was a Sombra main back in her OW1 release state where from memory she barely had a 0.47% pickrate, I’ve always wanted best for Sombra and to be quite honest her current version I don’t like at all.
I only really suggested the Mirrorwatch version as well next to no one had issues with her so that alone is a step in the right direction and add in changes here and there. i just thought the CD on hack would be more interesting if it actually benefitted your team rather than just extra damage + virus combo.
Lil fun fact too, Sombra as a Support in 5v5 means you can do a full Talon team
Doomfist or Sigma, Reaper/Widow, Moira/Sombra
Mirror watch, white hack hacker, health pack hacking, theoretical tools that give bonus health to allies near your hack target including sombra.
Honestly I quite like the idea of utility dps, or a third support archytpe in the dps slot.
Shame they got deleted post perk reworks, or had mechanics removed where sombra couldn’t gain ult from health packs which honestly only needed a remove self health charge to break that annoying playstyle and or limit the number of active hacked health packs.
Mei is the only one with a perk like that now.
it depends on the iteration but yea i didnt like mirrorverse support sombra since she really didnt have a main heal (that event that happened some seasons ago)
it was like a dps trying act like a support. i know it was popular tho for some reason
video:
I think the “supports have to heal” idea was one of the biggest bashes to the shins that Overwatch took in terms of interesting design. Supports have to follow a specific formula, there’s no room for innovations, no way to have heroes that are all utility with no heals because people want all the characters to follow a predictable script.
Anyway, I don’t think Sombra needs to be in the support role to be a support. She could just be heavily focused on buffing her team, debuffing the enemy team and using her SMG for extra damage onto the enemy. Her gun wouldn’t be “weak”, but it’d be clear that her strengths rely in powerful debuffing tools or tools to buff her team.
wouldn’t do anything, you could delete her ability to shoot or even kill people and people will still cry and ban her instead of learning to counter her
The counter isn’t the issue, it’s her whole tool kit is designed around being as toxic and boring to play with or against. They should just retire her for the health of the game.
So maybe I should clarify something!
When we talk about support Sombra, we’re always talking about a Sombra that actually occupies the support role. A Sombra that stays in the DPS role would be a utility Sombra — and that’s exactly what the old Sombra mains want back!
What you’re describing in terms of implementation already existed in OW1 as the debuff version.
That version was removed with OW2 because the 5-second hack was too strong against a solo tank, but unfortunately a lot of mistakes were made in the process. For example, Blizzard didn’t understand that reducing the general duration of the effect doesn’t change how valuable hack is against tanks.
If I can hack everything for 1, 2, or 3 seconds, the tank still remains one of the most important targets — and with the solo-tank system, the tank is even more important. Reducing the duration from 5 seconds to 1 second was the right idea, but because it was implemented incorrectly, it ultimately achieved nothing.
It’s difficult to give Sombra both debuffs and buffs, because we only have three ability buttons, and two of them are already used for engage and escape — unless you invent a really solid ability that can do both at the same time.
The only option that comes to mind for building both buff and debuff tools into her kit would be some form of weapon swap, or in this case an ability swap.
If the debuff and buff even shared the same cooldown, both effects could actually be quite strong.
theres heroes that fit this bill more and are super popular especially ammong the supports that also encourage you to not really learn the game.
There is no hero in overwatch thats whole design is to be as toxic as possible like Sombra. Maybe Mercy could be close, but still not really the same as Sombra.
They had that perk that healed people with her hack. They could definitely make it work for her to be a support if they really tried.
Support Sombra would give players ample opportunity to troll teams. Sombra is fun and challenging at this moment.