Sombra is killing the Support class

Competitive Discussion
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I thought based on all the complaints and feedback on the old forums about the New Sombra, that she wouldn’t be hitting live in her current state. Boy was I horribly wrong.

I think the Sombra changes are unfair for most Tanks and DPS, notably Rein, Hog, Pharah, the Shimada Brothers and so on, but I want to highlight the Support class in particular. There’s not a good consistent Healer option to deal with Sombra, plain n’ simple. If the enemy has a Sombra, the Support is just a punching bag the whole game. So let’s break down every Support VS Sombra and Hack and go into why the new Sombra has to be fixed.

Ana: Sleep dart is hit on Sombra is one of the best options to deal with her, but since the ability is a skillshot, it’s inconsistent. Plus with its start up, if Sombra gets the jump on Ana 9 times out of 10 in my experience, Sombra can hack and cancel the sleep dart’s channel before it’s fired. Ana can still heal and damage but without her abilities to keep her team or herself up, she’s very weak. Her gun is very good, but not great at hitting Sombra’s out of her blazing fast hack. Hacking a Nano’d target also renders Ana’s ultimate useless 99% of the time.

Mercy: With the new Hack passive change, Pharmercy got a big nerf. I think while that hack on Angelic Descent is fine, it doesn’t change the fact that a hacked Mercy situationally is a sitting duck. Out of all the Supports, Mercy is the second best pick verses a Sombra, just because if she’s in a safe position when she’s hacked, she can still heal and damage boost. In other instances, hacking away her hover or GA is a free pick and can completely lose games.

Moira: By far the best Support to deal with Sombra, but still not a match-up in her favour. Fade can break line of sight from both Sombra and Hack, but in my experience playing Moira, there are times when Sombra can hack Moira through Fade, which not only feels horrible for Moira, but mechanically shouldn’t happen. Damage orb or Biotic Grasp is the best Support damaging move to keep Sombra from hacking Moira, and if hacked Moira only really loses her Fade value, or her Ultimate. With how strong Sombra is VS Supports, Moira is a must-pick by default if Sombra’s in the game, even if Moira doesn’t work with the Team comp or map.

Zenyatta: Everyone’s favourite Omnic Monk has been getting screwed over by EMP for a long time. EMP effectively killing Zen instantly was never something I agreed with, even before her buffs. Forcing a Zen to trans before EMP is not right, and almost guarantees that a Soldier or Genji can pop their ult after Trans and get a free teamkill and win. This means you need two defensive ults, and Sombra completes removes Lucio from the game (we’re saving the best for last). Hack also ensuring Zenyatta can’t reapply an Orb of Harmony if an ally exits line of sight feels terrible, as Zen has no way to heal anyone for a total of 6 seconds, effectively slowing down his already slow charging Ultimate.

Lucio (RIP): Out of all the Supports, Lucio has it the worst. Previously with the old Sombra, Lucio already had a rough time. She could hack or EMP Sound Barrier during it’s 0.8 second channel, or EMP could remove the shields, and Hack could lock him on speed song when he needs heal song. I have over 160 Hours on Lucio and I’ll admit, I always thought it was weird when I got hacked by the Old Sombra and he could still wallride. Before the 1.20.03 Patch, Sombra would hack Lucio and keep him locked on his current song but disable wallride, and while it was slightly annoying for the Lucio, it made sense and wasn’t OP. Current Sombra kills Lucio, who just got the tiniest glimpse back into the game after the Mercy Meta shunned him out, and now he’s gone again!
The current Hack disables his song completely. This means Lucio hack/EMP counterplay where the Lucio stays on heal song and Amps before the Hack is gone, there’s no longer a way to keep your teammates alive while being hacked anymore. Without his Crossfade, Amp, Ult or Boop, there’s no denying, Lucio is the worst Hero in this game, weaker than D.va out of Mech. He’s nothing without his entire kit.
One of biggest problem in my eyes about Sombra VS Lucio is that hacking Lucio over and over can win games, easily. A Sombra can get ZERO value as far as damage, elims, objective time, or anything like that, she can win her team games just by right clicking one hero. Hack/EMP disabling his healing means Lucio’s ult charge in general is staggered, constantly. Sound Barrier (for whatever reason) is the slowest charging ultimate in the game in every aspect. Slowest for damage, healing, headshots, etc. Lucio’s AOE healing is one of the only “quick” ways he can build Ult, which with hack disabling the song completely, means his best method of gaining ult is gone. Not to mention, once he FINALLY gets Ult, Sombra can either hack him out of the slow channel of his Ult, or EMP the barrier away and roll the team for free with her team. Lucio’s ult does not exist if Sombra is played, PERIOD.
Sure, there’s an argument to be made that the player should just swap off Lucio, but with all the Supports being weak VS Sombra there’s not a real good option besides Moira, who’s already instalocked every game and approaching near must-pick status in matchmaking for her insane value in every aspect.

At the end of the day, playing Support feels awful in the current patch all because of one Hero, and thus with more people trying to avoid playing Support as a result, Tank play is suffering and with Tank play suffering so will DPS play. Sombra is ruining how the game fundamentally works. Supports should definitely be counterable, but not to the point they’re useless, the way this game’s designed, they have to be relevant in the game at all times. Pharah counters Lucio, but Lucio can still play the game if there’s a Pharah, for example. The same can not be said for Sombra. The only good option is Moira and any other Support in hopes that Sombra won’t just target out one support and target both. The meta is Moira and another Support to be Sombra’s punching bag so Moira can stay alive and heal her team.

Please, change this, QUICKLY! I love this game, I love playing Support, I play for hours every day, and this change has completely ruined my experience, more so than the Mercy meta where picking anything other than Mercy/Zen was a “throw pick”.

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Got to say, I haven’t struggled against a single Sombra I’ve played against yet.

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The affect on lucio has got to be my greatest disappointment in the sombra buff :frowning:

I was hopeful to see a little lucio use after the mercy nerf. I was hopeful to play a little lucio this season after pretty much hanging it up for almost 3 seasons. Just not going to happen. At this point lucio looks like a character that should be deleted instead of played.

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I tried her out.

Stealthed in behind supports and dps, hacked them and started shooting, dead within half a second.

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Another whiny Sombra thread. Dude, Sombra is just as effective as she’s always been. She’s just easier to use now so more people are able to play her effectively.

She doesn’t need to be nerfed.

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she kills the hell of out of tanks esc reinhardt

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Aside from the Lucio matchup which I think is now a bit too one sided, none of her support matchups have changed in a significant way. She’s better against Pharmercy, but Mercy alone is the same.

Also if your tracking is good enough to wipe supports in one clip with Sombra then you’d be better off playing Tracer because you don’t even have to hack them first and you’re just as good against Zen/Ana and better against Moira.

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I’m with you man. I played Lucio all throughout the Mercy meta and it was really rough, but he’s the Support/Hero I have the most fun with. I can be flexible, I can play any Support and most Tanks but like, Lucio’s the guy I want to climb and improve with and like you said, the past 3 seasons you get punished for playing Lucio rather than rewarded for your skilled play.

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Brig will counter her.

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Honestly, this post is terribly accurate at how bad this somber buff is to lucio. Phara, Genji, and Hanzo can all still do there jobs as DPS heroes, albeit, not effectively, but they still have value in their basic attacks. Lucio becomes a literal punching bag. The only option I have, while hacked, is to hide away in a corner and hope the somber doesn’t decide to follow me so she can chain hack and kill me. This is unfair and not fun. I honestly can’t stand playing this game now. I could handle the uber meta mercy. I can handle dealing with a moira EVERY game. This is not OK, by any standards. Somber is ruining every aspect of the game, and how matches should progress. This needs to be addressed ASAP.

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You should be putting down your TP before you stealth in, so that you can peace out as soon as too many people notice your flank and move in to kill you.

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I have always thought hack was really super wonky in how it was implemented and have never wanted sombra to be a popular hero

the sad thing is that the ppl who are so excited about the change thought it would make them more powerful… but no, they are still completely terrible and have built the same reputation for themselves as Hanzo mains: useful if you are not bad, but do not have the word “switch” in their vocabulary

she may be strong in high ranks, but down here sombra players are the same window lickers that they were prepatch

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You said it perfectly. I main the main tanks in the game do rein, Winston, and orisa and literally the past 5 games since I’ve placed I have felt worthless as I’m always hacked and am just an ult charge for the other team. There is nothing I can do to to stop her from doing this. This Sombra buff has taken all fun out of the game for me

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Brig hacked is as useless as doomfist hacked…

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You must be new here. It’s common for Blizzard to ignore PTR feedback. In fact they’ve admitted it before. They state that maybe 1% of the players try PTR at all and thus see it as a reason to ignore the feedback.

They did it with nearly every other ptr change so far. Sad thing with Sombra ones is I know pro players were saying it too on their board and it was still ignored.

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A Contenders coach noted to me that Sombra makes it hard to even justify running tanks at all. And if you do it probably should be just one.

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So the Hacker/Cheater character puts the opponent at an unfair disadvantage if she attacks you while you don’t see her? Huh, sounds like a character whose personality is perfectly reflected into the gameplay.

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she destroys tanks too 1 hack and 1 clip is enough to kill any tank with half decent aim. Poor orisa gets absolutely annihilated by her since her base health is so low and her head hitbox is so huge.

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[quote=“Gustu-1551, post:18, topic:15760”]
Poor orisa gets absolutely annihilated by her since her base health [/quote]

and the idea is your team should be near the tank and wiping her out or at least shooting away Sombra when she goes for a hack on the tanks.
I took a break from playing the game for a few months, pretty much missing out on on the entire Mercy insta-rez play meta. I come back and it’s like the player base has forgotten how to play with heavy shield tanks.

teams are running way to many flanking heroes that roam around or flanking + sniper so there is no one with the tanks/supports near the OBJ. I get that works for OWL teams where the sniper is popping heads the second anyone is seen and tracer is getting a pulse bomb every 40 seconds or whatever. Average players? It doesn’t work like that, at all.

I think Sombra is going to be a problem unless the player base gets back to covering each other way more.

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Exactly, the game is basically a fancy call of duty right now