This is just some spitballing. Clearly Sombra will never again be allowed to be viable, and part of it is because Hack is such a divisive ability. So let’s change it. Give Sombra some versatility. This does involve some CC, for which I would never normally be a proponent, but since Hack is already CC in a sense, it’s just replacing it.
First thing’s first: Hack now has several different functions. How we choose this Monado Sombranado art, I’m not sure, but bear with me here.
Hack
Sombra hacks enemies to disrupt their abilities, either reducing their damage or utility for a brief time. She can also hack health packs to make them useless to her opponents, and recharge faster for her allies.
Using any of these options still disables traits, as it does currently.
- Damage: Hack reduces the enemy’s damage by X% for its duration.
- Shields: This disables the target’s shield, whether a deployed shield or a passive shield. (This might need adjusting so as not to hose Zen too much.)
- Healing: Hack reduces the enemy’s ability to heal targets and also healing received by X% for its duration.
- Movement: Hack slows the target and disables movement abilities for its duration (a la Graviton).
The idea is that Sombra can switch on the fly to target different key elements, but doesn’t get to target every button at once. She also can’t switch the type of Hack right after hacking someone; she’d have to wait for the cooldown and switch it then. Or probably could switch the option during the CD, but couldn’t use Hack until it was off CD.
I’d probably lower the cooldown to 5 seconds, to match its duration, but there are some options here as well. We could have it so the hack effect ends immediately when Sombra dies. Or maybe she can sustain it by channeling in a sense, by keeping hack tracked on the target–which also means avoiding as much fire as she can while everyone tries to murder her.
The change is meant to reflect Sombra’s ability to dig into her enemies’ details and turn that against them. She has to specialize, and while she can switch on the fly, she must target specific areas rather than taking everything at once.
The flip side is that it’s meant to give us some room to adjust Sombra here. Since she’s not taking an entire kit away at once, she could afford some positive changes for once. It also is a bit less oppressive–yes, it sucks to get your damage lowered or movement taken out or shields taken out, but you still have the other stuff. As it is, right now you lose damage abilities and movement and ult. With the change, Rein could still charge and Fire Strike, and ult.
Or if you lower Soldier’s damage, he still has his healing and mobility. Instead go after Genji’s mobility, he can still Deflect, etc.
EMP would still disable everything, as it currently does, and would be her only way to counter/disable ults as well. At least in the initial draft here.
This is the first stab at an idea that occurred to me a little while ago. Give Sombra some versatility in exchange for making Hack less all-or-nothing. Take away some of the frustration of playing against it while also giving Sombra some power budget so that she can be cool.