Sombra balance idea

General Discussion
1

EDIT:

I appreciate the feedback everyone. It sounds like this change missed the mark. Please feel free to use this post to brainstorm on Sombra ideas. Maybe someone will come up with a really good idea that sounds good to both Sombra mains and people who don’t play Sombra.

Original post

So, I think we can all agree that Sombra at most ranks is underwhelming. But at the highest levels of play she can really find value and even be oppressive if there is enough coordination. But even at the lowest ranks where she is trash, it still feels terrible to be hacked.

This is the dilemma with Sombra. How do you buff her to a really good place without causing a revolt by people who main ability centric heroes? And how do you make her good at Silver without making her OP at GM?

I have an idea. It is a bit rough around the edges and would really need input especially from Sombra players to refine it. My idea buffs some parts of her kit while nerfing others, but the end goal is a much stronger Sombra who is also less frustrating to play against.

1. Add the ability back to gain ult charge from hacked health packs.
2. Increase the time a health pack is hacked to 90 seconds, currently 60.
3. Reduce her max spread to 2, currently 2.7.
4. Increase her damage from 2.4-8 to 3-10.
5. Change her damage falloff from 15-25 meters to 20-30 meters.
6. Increase her stealth speed to 60% currently 50%.
7. Decrease her silence time from 6 seconds to 2 seconds.
8. Leave EMP exactly the same.

These changes are intended to help her earn ult faster and do more damage while taking the offensive power out of hack and encouraging more health pack play.

What do you guys think?

2 Likes
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this aint it chief

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What ain’t it? You think she’s really good at gold?

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The last thing she needs is more EMPs… dear gods that would be the call for me to peace out

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Even in exchange for her normal hack being significantly nerfed?

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Your overall crippled time would triple if she got all those buffs and ult charge from health packs while only sacrificing 4 seconds off of regular hack.

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So, like I said, it’s an idea in progress. Let’s iterate on it. What if #1 about the health packs was removed. Would you be ok with those damage buffs in exchange for a crippled hack?

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I think if you are coordinating with teams as you should be shes good everywhere.

shes team reliant, not wanting to use teamwork isn’t an excuse to give her more damage

the last thing this game needs is a tracer who can take away your abilities appearing behind you and deleting you

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If you look at her pick rates and win rates at lower ranks, she isn’t good. That’s just following the stats.

In my idea though, I am taking a lot of power out of hack. That significant of a nerf would require a pretty significant buff. And since she’s already underpowered, I am trying to make her better.

I think I agree with InkedHulk though that making EMP charge too much faster defeats the point.

2 Likes
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you mean the unreliable ones from overbuff? cause literally no sight is a good source for these stats since the implementation of private profiles.

you know what else isn’t good at low ranks? communication.

maybe its the rank not the kit

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The kit is frustrating. She’s bad at low ranks and borderline OP in pro play. She needs a balance change that increases her general effectiveness while making her less annoying. A 6 second hack is OP, but Sombra on the whole isn’t.

Overall I think she needs a buff, but hack itself needs a nerf. The buff has to be big enough to make her better not worse.

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I’m curious what a couple Sombra mains I respect feel about this, so I invited them.

1 Like
13

So basically make her a pure shooter.

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She’d still be a stealth hero with a lot of movement, but her silence would be closer to the length of a stun except when caused by EMP which would still have the full duration.

I know a lot of Sombra players feel she doesn’t do enough damage while tank players like myself feel like hack has little counterplay and is basically a death sentence.

I’m trying to solve both of these problems at the same time.

1 Like
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I don’t think these are bad suggestions.

The only one that I’m not too keen on is the hack silence lasting 2 seconds. I’m not a fan of lowering her hack duration to 2 seconds, because at that point it’s such a high risk, low reward when I could switch to a hero that stuns and get better results, faster, without the risk of it failing the way that hack can.

Unless, by silence you mean stealth? If so, ignore the above :sweat_smile:

I’m not too unhappy with where she’s at. Especially with the Doomfist nerfs and Brigitte nerfs incoming (though I’m unhappy they’re both getting butchered because of pro players crying).

The only change I’d give her at this moment in time is just…something to make that coordination easier to work in ladder. Currently, hacking a target will give them a little cybernetic wave effect. The problem is, that effect is the same color as the enemy outline. Most of the “hey, team! This is a GOOD thing for our team!” effects that happen (i.e. allies hit by friendly Ana grenade, Orisa/Reinhardt barrier, Lucio’s sound barrier, Zenyatta’s transcendence) are all in a different color than your enemy team’s to clearly distinguish it. But, hack doesn’t do that.

IMO hack should either:

  1. Create the cybernetic effect in your team’s color instead of the enemy’s

or

  1. Create a sugar skill over the enemy

Your team would clearly see that the enemy is hacked and who to capitalize on.

I’m glad you highlighted that coordination is what makes her really find value. I’d rather focus on minor adjustments - instead of buffs or changes to where her power lies - to assist with that before anything else in her kit is touched.

But - again! Not bad suggestions. My only concern is that I don’t want her to be too similar to Tracer, too, but these would be neat to test out just to see what it’d be like.

2 Likes
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Thank you for the invite Lumin. I was at work when you sent the invite so I couldn’t provide my feedback sooner.

I agree with you when it comes down to Sombra, as she is really tricky to buff as that small buff can make or break her. The thing is with Sombra is that she is really really team dependent on her team, meaning she is only has good has her team to a certain degree.

Here are my changes that I would make,

Sombra’s Machine Pistol is fine honestly, all it needs is a reduce in spread. I proposed a reverse bloom where the longer she hold the machine pistol the more accurate it gets.

Sombra’s Hack to me is also fine, just need some QoL changes such as Sugar Skull above hacked enemies. They added to B.O.B and in the PvE events, why not add it in the rest of the game.

Picture Below for the image.

I honestly do not understand why the devs are taking there time with this changes, as many Sombra and non-Sombra Players are requesting this as out of all the de-buffs indicators, Sombra is very very lack lustering.

Example:

Sombra’s Stealth All that is needed is a cast time reduction from 0.7 seconds to 0.5 seconds. I want them to increase the speed, but I have a change that will indirect effect this.

I also seen ideas of putting this on a resource meter. Not a bad idea honestly, and let her use this at free will, I mean she can no longer contest.

Sombra’s Translocator, I am fine with how it function now. It has counter plays… something that people was complaining about before. I know, and yes people was complaining about her having a “get out of jail free card”

Sombra’s EMP, like you said, it is fine, as soon as they add the Sugar Skull icon above hacked enemies, this ultimate would be golden.

Sombra’s Base Movement Speed need to be increase from 5.5 m/s to 6.0m/s to match Genji and Tracer. I made a mega-thread explaining why, as I will link it here. [MEGA-THREAD] Sombra's Base Movement Speed Changes 💜 (Click Me)

Other than that, Sombra is in a pretty good spot, as she is not OP nor a must pick.

2 Likes
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Hack has to go. It needs to be replaced with something, but it is the worst mechanic in the game…by far

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Yeah yeah, we know how you feel about hack.

But it’s not going to go. :man_shrugging: And there is sufficient counterplay to it whether you choose to accept that or not.

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Really Jaxtaro, you really think being hack is the worst mechanic in the game?

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Yes, I do, it is predicated upon the fact that another player has the ability to eliminate the specific choice of character that I made for long durations by transforming them into a generic character.

That, and the astounding fact that it literally prevents one support character from performing their primary function and not any others makes it absurd.

Insta kill abilities are vastly preferable to having your choice removed from you.