Season 13 Sombra Changes

General Discussion
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Continuing the discussion from Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – October 15, 2024:

At first, when I was reading these changes, I thought on paper she would be nearly un-playable, and she received a huge nerf, but the more I look at these changes- the more I realize that these changes would only make Sombra even more lethal for those who actually know how to play Sombra.

I am still hoping that the devs allow chain-hack to be a thing again since that was stripped away from her in the earlier season of Overwatch 2. The reason is that the devs are now reducing her Hack silence (lockout effect) duration from 1.5 seconds to 1.0 seconds , but now applies a 20% damage increase to Sombra’s Machine Pistol. This makes hack more or less of a lockout ability and more of a way to increase her overall damage.

Of course, she can still quickly shut down key ability when time properly, but back in the past when she had the silence lockout duration cut to 1 second, but in the contrast she had 30% damage increase on hack duration, and even that was not enough and I believe they increase her duration back up to 1.5, but reduce the weapon damage amplifier to 25%.

In these changes, you are getting both a decrease in the duration of the silence ability (which I am fine with) and also a decrease from the original concept of damage amplifier on hacked target from Sombra only. With all that being said, I am fine with these changes, but it would be perfect to allow her to chain hack again just for that reason alone.

Sidenote: I wonder if this 20% increase damage to hack targets will be affected by Sombra’s Virus as well, since in the patch note, it says Sombra’s Machine Pistol well it says Somrba 's weapon damage. This would be an interesting and lethal combination, to say the least.

Another key point I think many are not realizing is that she can now Hack while in Stealth.

I am glad that they removed the ability to passively go in stealth and they finally removed perma-stealth, which again, I am completely fine with this since I always liked Sombra back when she had to time her abilities and had a duration to those abilities. To me that is what made Sombra fun.

The one thing I did not like about these changes is that they are combining abilities that had two completely different functions.

An ability that was primarily used to engage team fight, with an ability that was primarily used to disengage from a team fight. I just wish they would just scrap the virus and give us the old Sombra from back from Overwatch 1, back in 2018-2019. But this change does add some complexity to either use her Sombra’s Translocator as a tool to disengage or to engage, just to gain the ability to go into stealth mode.

If Sombra uses this to engage or chase/ close down on a target, then it would be fairly difficult since she has to de-cloak before dealing damage.

One thing to also note is that now taking damage does not knock the Sombra out of stealth, but rather reveals the Sombra for 1 second. This is huge, and many are not aware of how huge this is. You can still keep your speed boost and still reposition to again hack while in stealth mode without having to break stealth mode.

Pair this with her returning passive Opportunist and I can see Sombra being more lethal than she already is right now.

I am fine with the ultimate cost increase, as the 20% more damage on hacked targets kind of negates that nerf slightly, not a huge change, but a welcome to punish bad Sombra.

Though I am keeping an open mind and will be testing these changes out today, I am not too fan of increasing her Translocator cooldown from 5 to 7 seconds, but I understand it is to add a window to punish the Sombra, though 6 seconds could be seen in the future, especially if the devs make any more readjustment to Sombra in the future.

Sidenote Part Two: I wonder since Sombra lost her perma-stealth, now does and can Sombra re-contest the objective now?

TL: DR

These changes are not as bad as I thought when re-reading them, of course, I have to see how these changes are in the game, but this just punishes bad Sombra players, while making the real Sombra players more lethal. She will still be able to essentially do what she is doing now, but better since she can dish out more damage.

I can see people still complaining about Sombra to be nerf once people realize how lethal these changes are.

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This is actually a really good take on her new kit, waiting to try out.

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Exactly, people are look at the numbers and the fact that she lost her permanent-stealth, but in return she gains so much more lethality to her when played correctly. Trust me, I was part of that crowd saying these changes are not it, but I was reading it more and thinking about my play style.

I hardly stay in stealth mode, and I hate the ability where it would go into stealth mode when I did need it to, so I got my sense of control of when I want to go into stealth mode now, which is a huge plus.

She now can hack while in stealth, and not having to decloak- helps with her keep her tempo. The true winner, is the ability to not be de-cloak when taking damage, so I can get the full value of the 5 second duration, and her old passive makes a return, though it is weaker- but keep in mind that she never had Virus at the time, so even though her passive is weaker, her overall damage is still better due to virus.

She will still essentially be doing what she is doing now, but it just requires more set-up, but the overall damage potential just makes this new season 13 Sombra more lethal.

Watch, bookmark this thread as I can foresee people going to be complaining about Sombra.

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my biggest concern is how hard it’ll be to hack at all. her hack time is longer because she can hack in stealth but stealth is fricking 5 seconds I find it hard to believe you’ll ever really be using translocator, going into stealth for 5 seconds and then hacking someone without getting it cancelled while timed perfectly idk.

Seems mickey mouse to me if you have don’t have a shield tank to hide behind or matrix etc.

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Depends how it works. Because if you time hack a little before invisible ends it may feel more fluid. hard to say without trying it first.

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Looking at it I have a feeling she might be on the weaker side, at least immediately, but I do think it’s overall a direction that gives more room for buffs and guts the obnoxiously frustrating aspects of s12 Sombra. She will have a way harder time existing in enemy space waiting for a golden opportunity, but she’ll (ideally) be more capable of securing kills without needing that perfect opportunity for the engage.

I think Spawncamping might still be strong for her, but even that will require more timing from the Sombra if she needs the Invis to pull it off and she’ll be easier to flush out if you notice one is spawncamping an ally as her Invis isn’t permanent.

We’ll see, imo it’s promising on paper though.

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imma be honest I don’t think spawn camping is gonna go anywhere. Instead of waiting in spawn in stealth she just has to wait in a corner to hear the person and use translocator. Sure the person will hear the sombra coming but it’ll probably still be hard for a lot of heroes to really stop her. If sombra messes up she can’t translocate out but she’ll have more dmg so that it’s harder to mess up anyway

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This was my concern, but I was thinking that you could just use her translator just for disengaging, and if you need to hack a key target with you are disengaging then that would help other wise, you just have to hack when you are not in stealth. Which I already do already.

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That’s why I said I think it’ll still be strong.
She does have to contend with Wave Respawn and people coming back to assist more though. Like on paper I can better defend my Zen because I can force her to burn Invis to avoid me instead of having it in her pocket to jump him.

We have to see how it plays out in truth and it’s the distinct area I see the least likelihood of “improvement” in but I guess I’d take a Sombra with enough baseline impact to not want to spawncamp over one with so little that it almost feels encouraged.

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We just have to see, I think when people understand her new play style- well existing playing style I should say… but once people adapt to the changes, they will see how lethal she can actually be with these changes.

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