Then again, wasnt that the guy that made HOTS trash for like…Two years?
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For sure, it shows she’s not being played any differently and there’s no “new playstyle” they’re looking to introduce as well.
I dunno, he’s responsible for some very questionable ideas on how to play the game, notably “defend the RIP-Tire”.
No, that’s never going to be left to lie.
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Ehh… I do not know where I sit in this debate. On the one hand not being able to contest stinks as does the fact that Sombra will move slower than ever and can’t really use her translocator as an offensive jump tool.
On the other hand… the infinite stealth could potentially open up Sombra to become a team’s true Shot Caller. Rest of team waits while Sombra is sent forward alone and scouts out enemy comp and locations and devises a plan on the fly to counter it. Maybe take an extra 20-30 seconds before an engage happens, but the actual engagement being more precise and effective.
Totally wrong. The rework drastically increases Sombra’s effective uptime.
The problem with live Sombra is that she contributes nothing if she isn’t in the right place at the right time. When you stealth, you only have 6 seconds to get in position, and then you are forced to act within those 6 seconds - whether or not you actually have any opportunities to act on. Hacking the enemy Reinhardt doesn’t matter if your team can’t follow up, and if that ends up being the case, then you contribute nothing and have to wait on your cooldowns to try again. This is the downtime you speak of, and it’s a problem of being in the right place at the wrong time.
The rework solves this by basically removing time as a factor. Now, when you get in that same position, you have the option to wait as long as necessary until you know you can make an impact. You can hack Reinhardt at the ideal moment instead of being forced to do so immediately and hoping the timing was “good enough.” As long as you know where opportunities will arise, you will always be there when they do, whether that takes 6 seconds or 60 (my average wait time on the PTR is about 15 seconds).
Yes, good Sombras on live can often juggle their cooldowns well enough to be in the right place at the right time - again, myself included - but this minigame is punishing as hell if you misjudge, and annoying besides. Getting to the right place even a few seconds early means you will definitely miss that crucial opportunity, because your stealth times out and you have to wait for the cooldown. Even when you do everything right, your team may not, which makes missing that opportunity even more tilting.
Infinite stealth alleviates the place constraint as well by increasing Sombra’s overall mobility. So long as you anticipate opportunities - which has always been crucial to her playstyle - you can get to the right places much faster and stay there undetected until you see your chance. You can also reposition whenever you need or want to, without waiting for your stealth cooldown or using/waiting out your Translocator.
Crazy talk. Live Sombra has to be careful with her stealth cooldown so she can reposition quickly when it matters, and stay hidden so the enemy team doesn’t anticipate her. PTR Sombra is almost as fast, all the time, and she can position wherever she wants for as long as she wants without any risk of detection. Useless right?
Yeah, how could people who disagree with you know anything about anything?
The other benefit of the infinite stealth is that Sombra is not really adding much damage value sticking with her team waiting for them to respawn after a failed push. She can be the first one to go out there and know that with stealth on infinite she should theoretically never be found out and actually stay there until the team gets closer.
Right now, its suicide pretty much for a Sombra to try to get back into an enemy team backline early because the decloaking that is forced is very loud and once people know she is there they can be extra attentive and know, “Oh, she’s over by that health pack”.
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False. You’re given 6 seconds to get somewhere that’s not immediately in someone’s line of sight. You then have infinite time to do anything you want because walls are not transparent/made of glass so nobody knows where you are. Nobody is forcing you to engage the enemy during this time if you don’t want/need to.
Still doesn’t fix the fact that any amount of damage will stop her espionage. Coming out of stealth? “BEEN HERE ALL ALONG” as you try and hack your victim, only for D.VA, or literally any hero with a gun to shoot at her and force Sombra into a 2s cooldown.
She can be the first one to go out there and know that with stealth on infinite she should theoretically never be found out and actually stay there until the team gets closer.
Or if a stray bullet hits her…
Or if D.Va flies into her direction
Or if she gets hit by rein’s charge
Or if she gets bopped by enemy Brig who was just trying to get to the objective faster
Or if your team’s Mercy, Zenyatta, or Zarya specifically hate you for being stealthed like an idiot 24/7 without contributing anything of value to the team other than telling people useless information because you’re a “scout” and decide to shield you/keep their healing on you in hopes that the enemy team is not stupid enough to ignore a free and easy kill.
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Everyone stupidly keeps assuming sombra will stay stealth’d for like a minute or something. You don’t need a damn minute staying stealth’d. The most it should ever be is like 10-15. 6 seconds is too short, but the 6-15 is more than enough as most teams will engage within that time period.
Besides since no one should no where you are they cannot aim in your general direction. The risk of the abilities you mentioned is laughably specific and rare to occur. The higher risk is getting hit trying to go through a very narrow choke point such as Anubis.
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No, you then have 6 seconds to do nothing while you wait for your stealth cooldown, during which time someone might come along and find you while you’re vulnerable. You could try to set up a flank while you’re slow, visible, separated from your team, and not a big solo threat in the first place, but…why risk it?
It’s barely an option during this time. On the other hand, PTR Sombra has infinite stealth and can be wherever she wants, whenever she wants, and for as long as she wants, with no risk of detection.
So find a safer position to Hack from. You’re the most mobile Hero in the game and have as much time as you need.
They boned her stealth and translocator to make her more welcoming for new players instead of solving the core issue. The end result is players who took the time to learn the hero who could be efficient in the confines suffer because the entire kit just forces you to play slower.
A good Sombra doesn’t hang around in stealth. You may as well not be taking up a player slot if you’re going to “Cloak and Dagger”. We sacrafised a load of really good qualities with stealth and translocator’s consistency for the sake of making her easier for new players, but any Sombra’s worth their salt will tell you these changes benefit good players in almost no way.
Once these people who pick up ez Sombra realise that the old kit was superior, they’ll begin to resent her new kit. That’s where all the “hate” comes from
Why risk it? Because it’s not very risky at all, and I don’t have to settle for a bunch of nerfs in exchange?
Agree to disagree, then. If it helps you out then I’m glad, but this has never been an issue for me.
Glad to hear you speak for everybody, except I’m a high Plat Sombra player with a ton of hours across various game modes/platforms, and I support the changes. Also, making a severely underplayed Hero more accessible is a good thing in terms of both design and balance. Don’t be elitist.
Thats a terrible excuse. For one, Sombra has to be close to get a hack off, meaning if the enemy is away from any corners or elevations, which a majority of the time they are, they’ll hear and notice a Sombra coming behind them 100% of the time unless you’re below Gold, or on console were literally none of them can turn around in time to react.
And even if you do get a hack off, your damage is too low to secure it if the team is grouped up, meaning your team has to go in and intiaite upon it.
And thats IF you get the hack off. If you’re waiting for the perfecy moment to get a hack off in a game thats so fast paced, you’ll be losing time and wasting your efforts when you could have done something else on another hero and get better results.
No, Sombra is not fine. This “hide n hack” is extremely similar to Mercys “hide n rez” and we all saw how that turned out. They’re both boring, except Sombras is much weaker.
No its not good because an easy hero is harder to balance because every following buff will apply to everybody and not just people being able to use the hero properly.
They not only made her easier, but weaker in return, which means she stays underpowered.
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You forgot three or four.
Or if a Widow ults.
Or if a Hanzo randomly uses his vision arrow.
Or if a Torb or Sym’s turret randomly auto locks on even though you are stealthed.
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I’m not being elitist. I don’t care if Sombra is made easier to play, but nerfing parts of her kit that players genuinely have a lot of use for in exchange for giving her a utility that’s seldom utilised by anyone who can perform quickly just isn’t worth it.
What annoys me about Sombra development is that she never gets any straight buffs. All of her changes she’s sacraficed one thing for another thing.
You wanna hack people faster? Well whoops you can’t charge ult off hacked healthpacks now!
You want to disable passive abilities? Welp, here’s an arbitrary cooldown you get if your hack gets cancelled by someone throwing an ant at you! Also here are some really wonky LOS mechanics which don’t really work properly!
You wanna sit in invis for longer than 6 seconds? Welp have a slower movement speed and not have the ability to contest objectives anymore, even though most players never said stealth was an issue.
You want to be able to destroy your own translocator and have it last longer than the already generous 20 seconds even though most players don’t really get it past 15 seconds? Well here, the enemy can destroy them as well so even though before they at least had to camp a translocator to secure a kill and stay out the battle, now they can just pop it and let you get stuck in a team battle!
The reload cancel with hack is like, one of the few straight buffs we’ve had with Sombra, and all it does is bring her reload up to par with all the other DPS heroes.
This is why Sombra’s power level never changes. The one time they gave her straight buffs and she was actually kinda healthy they just bricked her.
Also it’s not just me saying these things. When I said any Sombra worth their salt I meant literally most of the Sombra players in top 500. I just happen to share the same views.
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Or if one of your healers decides to throw a heal your way, enemy can still see the projectile, and its termination when it hits… Disturbing how often this has got me killed.
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Everything Sombra an do on the PTR she can do live.
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