I don’t mean to start any unnecessary altercations or any accusations towards anyone, but the fact that Sombra is bottom-tier again is something that really bothers me. One of the main things that I’d like to say is that many players of the Overwatch community are quick to claim a hero is OP when a hero is buffed or when a new hero is released, whether or not they are actually are.
Let’s first make some explanation on Sombra’s journey in the past few months. She received buffs that focused on trying to make her kit more reliant on her hacking and less on her acting as an EMP bot.
They were:
- EMP (no longer blocked by small objects)
- Hack (health packs no longer give ult charge, reduced from .8 to .65, disabled more abilities, like Genji’s climb)
- Machine pistol (spread reduced from 3.0 to 2.7)
- Enemy health bars visible when health drops below 100%
- Translocator (length increased from 15 to 20 sec)
Now, whether Sombra was actually OP or not when she got buffed (which, in my opinion, I don’t think she was), the fact that so many people were quick to claim Sombra was OP was, to me, simple-minded and just plainly annoying and aggravating. Most people, when I observe people play OW after a hero is buffed/released, hardly take the time to consider or understand that they need to get used to buffed/released heroes, where they instead complain that a hero is OP when that buffed/released hero kills them. Here’s the thing: just because a hero is buffed, or a new hero is released, that kills you, does not mean that they are OP. I find it frustrating that many players don’t consider that,
- maybe you just happened to lose the duel
- you need to get used/adjust to the hero before you make claims that a hero is OP
When it comes to this mentality of “this hero is OP,” I think it is especially more common when it comes to off-meta heroes. Sombra was always bottom-tier, yet when she was suddenly buffed, many were not used to seeing an off-meta hero finally get a stable and solid position, and thus believed she was unnecessarily powerful. In addition, given that Sombra was often depicted as a support hero and EMP bot, many people, in my eyes, were less concerned/annoyed with pre-buff Sombra killing someone because she was not depicted as an offensive hero. Now that she got into a position where she was explicitly depicted as an opportunist, assassin, and offensive hero, many players were not used to that and thus saw Sombra as OP whenever she successfully killed someone. Yeah, I get that she got her machine pistol buffed, but that does not completely justify many people claiming OPness.
Because many people claimed that Sombra was OP, she eventually received some nerfs, which included:
- Hack (goes on cooldown for 2 sec if interrupted, more easily is interrupted when target breaks line of sight)
Obviously, this made me annoyed, as I believed they were not necessary. The nerfs, I believe, resulted mainly from players who merely complained from Sombra’s “OPness” and that they died from post-buff Sombra. Many players in the OW community lack any sort of patience, understanding and humility when it comes to heroes that are buffed/released because:
- they want to justify why they died from a buffed/released hero by claiming that the hero is OP, when it could have merely been from the fact that they just happened to lose the duel
- do not want certain heroes to be top-tier—mainly off-meta heroes
and other things.
Now that she had gotten nerfed, her pick and win rate declined again, resulting in her residing in the bottom-tier AGAIN, going against the intention of Sombra’s buff. As of May 7, 2018, her pick rate is now .67% and win rate is now 46.38%, listed in the “last six months” tab on Overbuff. She is only above Bastion and recently released hero Brigitte. And this week (as of May 7, 2018), under the “this week” tab on Overbuff, she is the least picked hero at .53% with a win rate of 44.69%. Although there could be many factors that resulted to her win/pick rate decline (such as the fact that people do not want to play her, people do not want to learn how to play her, difficult hero to learn/play thoroughly and quickly, new meta/other changes, etc.), I believe it is mainly from the nerfs that resulted from people’s complaints. These rates, in my opinion, describe how she really was not OP before those nerfs. Rather, she was fine and the nerfs just put her down, and into bottom-tier again.
Now, Sombra is completely silenced, AGAIN bottom-tier, only to the demands of players who will not cooperate, or unwilling to cooperate, with playing against/with buffed or released heroes.
Sombra’s situation is similar to Bastion’s situation when Bastion was buffed. Of course, Bastion is very situational, but it is same situation where people were quick to claim OP, but look at them now: they’re bottom-tier.
Of course, this was different when Mercy got her rework. I get that that was an example where a hero was OP, given that her pick rate was over 90% and given that she was depicted as a must-pick. I get that at that time nerfs were necessary.
And this is not to say that buffed/released heroes are completely void of being OP. But the fact of the matter is that many OW players are quick to simply call out a buffed/released hero is OP whenever they get killed by that buffed/released hero, or something, whether or not it is actually true. It is honestly very frustrating when an off-meta, bottom-tier hero—Sombra—finally gets love with buffs, but is completely shut down because people complain and claim OPness.
I understand it is Blizzard’s courtesy to listen to players’ feedback and opinions on heroes that buffed/released, but the fact that Sombra was completely shut down and is now bottom-tier AGAIN, should get Blizzard’s attention that some, or a lot, of people’s complaints are mainly from personal annoyances, rather than a hero, like Sombra, somehow becoming completely unstoppable in any way, shape, or form.
Now, when it comes to Brigitte, we will see what happens.
But for Sombra, she was unnecessarily nerfed and put down to the bottom of the heroes, something that the buffs were initially supposed to get her out of.
I hope, in the future, Blizzard will be more careful about thinking whether or not heroes are truly OP.