Sombra's ability Nerfs are blatantly unjust (200+ likes!?!)

General Discussion
70

Oh just sit back and enjoy the ride. I am about to name you some downside.

Of course I did, and others Sombra Mains and including myself consider some of these buffs more so QoL Changes. The only thing that was noticeable was the hack disable passive other than that, everything else was a QoL to me as It only enhance my already skillful abilities with Sombra.

So from someone who had many hours on Sombra, these changes was in the right direction, and it DID NOT make her overpowered at all.

It’s actually 6 seconds, but who is counting?

Anyways, yes it is a lock on ability, that is on a 8 second cool down, that disable the enemy for 6 seconds. The thing is that you forgot to mention is that it can and will be neglected by 1 damage. Literally, if you sneeze on a Sombra, then you will neglect her from that hack. What people fail to realize is that, only a bad Sombra will continue to try and get the hack off after many multiple attempt of failing.

But in return her health pool should be fairly low, if you are shooting her, and notify the team that the Sombra is trying to hack you.

This was the only thing that needed a tweak to, as it SHOULD HAVE WENT THROUGH THE PTR, but it didn’t. Blizzard already explained that hack had a 0.1 grace period at the end that remain locked on and favored the Sombra, however, during being of the cast time, there is also a grace period that favored the enemy as he or she can still use abilities out of reaction.

The fact that you said this, makes me wonder and assumed that you don’t know to properly counter a Sombra, especially with Solider 76.

You have burst damage, and healing station that you could placed down as you are getting hacked. during the animation. That is if you didn’t know that the Sombra was behind you… which means that she out-played you, but if you did, then that is where Helix Rocket comes into play, as burst damage will either kill the Sombra or have her translocate away. Which is a counter. Not only that, but since you know the enemy team is running a Sombra, communication is key as you will reduce her effectiveness, by simply working as a team, and literally just shoot her to neglect her whole kit. I know that sounds pretty bland, but it literally that simply.

If you are still having issue with Sombra, then that Sombra literally manipulated you…

There was and there still is downside to it, as again I listed above, if you shoot her and she keeps on trying to hack you, then by the time she completes hacks, which is typically during reload animation, then her HP should be below 150 or even lower.

  • Communication is again KEY
  • Working as a team is again KEY

As both of these alone will reduce her effectiveness, by a lot.

Not only that, but if you know that there is an enemy Sombra, call her out when you see her. I can go on and on, but again there should be no reason why people are complaining about Sombra when all she does is bring you on her level, which is a primary versus primary fight.

Please notify me which heroes you play, and I will provide a video on how to counter an enemy Sombra with that per say hero.

8 Likes
71

How to counter Sombra as Tracer. Just shoot her.

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72

Hack on paper is such a strong ability but I honestly just find myself rarely using it, theres so many situations on paper where you just think “oh this would be a great time to hack” but then you think of all the repercussions that would come from it then you snap into reality thinking "I probably should just shoot instead. I don’t often get the 2 second penalty from hack being interrupted because I rarely use it but when I do even when the 2 seconds are up I don’t even need to use it by then because the ability I was trying to prevent has already been used. Oh well.

2 Likes
73

It has one, but the way it is colored makes it almost invisible, hacked enemies have a reddish “Sombra hack” effect which makes it blend with the natural red enemy outline, meanwhile hacked teammates have the “friendly colors” hack effect which is a little more visible, what Blizzard needs to do is amp up the hack effect brightness at least so you can see a bright white Sombra skull with the current particle effect.

4 Likes
74

This just made my day! I would like it, but I am out of likes for today. :blue_heart:

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75

If you haven’t yet, come to the Sombra Wars thread.

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76

I have, I even posted saying Zenyatta standing on his two legs is pretty scary!

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77

I mean, I think you kind of missed my point, I meant before the nerfs, during the buffs where people considered her OP. Nevermind.

It felt extremely un-fun when hacked, there was barely any counter-play ESPECIALLY on console, where it takes time to turn around. Her relatively slender hit-box is fairly hard to hit (kind of).
Were you ever on the receiving end of a hack? As anyone, not just the people she is meant to counter. I felt helpless when she came in out of nowhere (all you need is to come out of stealth 15 m away to be completely undetected, then just scoot over to your target (it has a fairly decent range) and hack them. After the nerfs you could shut it down, but before that if I tried to flick shot them, she just kept on holding the hack button and I got hack most of the time. The grace period probably played a big part in this.

Now yes, spam damage ends it. I have already stated that she needs a small damage threshold, so stray shots don’t affect her, but proper shots do. And 6 seconds is a bit much IMO for making someone useless with a lock on ability. It can end team fights if you look at the right direction. Yes bad Sombras did that but you can’t deny that it was incredibly easy to do. Hack should somewhat require a BIT of skill, for its effects, but never-mind that.

We both play on console So I’m sure you know that there is no-one in voice chat half the time. Not to mention that even if I did (I did) they couldn’t care less. Also by the time II react, make a coherent sentence, the hack is done. yes they can save me afterwards, they didn’t and I couldn’t fly away. Also her spread (at least for me) is not bad, with the buffs, I can finish kills with it, so not too sure what the fuss is about.But I have’t dedicated so much time to her , so I’m not one to judge.

I know they removed it and was very happy when I saw it. But again, It is hard for me to turn around and calibrate the shot and taking it in 0.55 secs (that’s including the GP). Once again, I can react, but the controller is what seals my fate. Also I wish the sound effect was a teeny bit louder.

I’ll just be honest here, I don’t play Soldier 76 I find him band and I’m bad with him. It served as an example more than anything. I explained the communication issues console has. Either way I play tanks and healers (I know they are countered by her, but it’s a bit too easy don’t you think?)

“Just Shoot her” is hard when she appears behind you, and has a relatively slender hitbox. Communication does not work. And I do whip out the pistol an pop her in the head a few times. ( I have achieved many golds with mercy in QP and Mystery Heroes).

I am not against buffs to her, just not the removal of the 2 CD punishment. I say put a small damage threshold and give her damage buffs and make her as fast as Tracer/Genji. Possibly decrease stealth delay when going out.

I mean I will but I WILL sound biased when talking about balancing her, as he does counter some of the heroes I play. Rein, Orisa, Zarya, Roadhog, Zen, Lucio, Moira, Mercy, Brigitte,Bastion, Torb (I know how to kill her with him) and tracer. So basically I just fill for the team unless I miraculously get 2 healer and tank players, so never.

78

I was going go through and provided evidence for each reply you made, but I don’t want to derail too much, so I will just say this.

Those heroes that you name, all depend on abilities so it is natural feel the way you do. Not to mention that her hack speed hasn’t changed at all, so it still as fast as before.

I do understand your frustration with hack on console, but even when I play Mercy, I counter a Sombra just fine. I have videos to prove so.

Anyways, all I have to say is just practice against her, but that is hard to do because none really play Sombra…

3 Likes
79

Such as “you could just hold RMB until hack went through”. You know, contributing nothing while literally dying.

Like that was an actual problem.

80

Oh, that time when she peaked at 2% pick rate the day of the buffs then collapsed into decline from that point on?

Massive buffs, very viable. Yes.

5 Likes
81

Yes, she was so OP with that mind blowing 2% (and falling) pick rate. For context current Hanzo, after nerf mind you, is at 6%. (10% at high competitive).

She was so OP nobody played her. That is one sneaky hacker.

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82

After they reduced the cast time of hack, it had no counter play whatsoever. There was no way of being sure that you were going to be hacked until Sombra popped out of stealth.

Raising the damage threshold on the interrupt would make it mostly impossible for most of the roster to stop it if they were the target. Do you have a suggestion for changing it other than that? It has to have some kind of realistic counterplay because of how strong an ability it is.

83

Heck even doomfist is in a good spot now adays, Sombra is just bad.

1 Like
84

Okay, here we go again. Sombra 101.

If Sombra have superior positioning or drops you from stealth she is supposed to land the hack. That is her entire character. If she can’t land the hack she is a very very bad Tracer.

We most stop with this notion that Sombras hack is something that should be casually countered. It’s her main “attack”. That’s like demanding you should be able to dodge Widow bullets la Matrix style.

Sombras entire kit is built around consistently landing hacks. If you don’t like that you must significantly increase her DMG, Movability or Survivability.

I should make a macro reply for this.

10 Likes
85

If she really had superior positioning or dropped somebody from stealth, the damage interruption wouldn’t affect her at all. In reality, people were just holding down the hack button until it went off.

86

Honestly thats why I’m kind of glad that Sombra is F-tier, feel bad that she can’t be played, but my god is hack awful, it being reliable just sounds ungodly unsatisfying. Hope they do another rework on her honestly.

87

Yes, because as we all know there’s no stray DMG in OW. Pinpoint accurate bullets only. And what other hero can you totally shut down by dropping one bullet in her general direction every 2 seconds?

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88

Unlike getting killed in 2-3 seconds from any other DPS class I suppose? That’s much more fun than being hacked. At the end of the day that’s what we are comparing it to -Soft CC vs High Burst DMG.

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89

Superior positioning includes not putting yourself where random damage would be directed. There’s no other hero that needs to be shut down that hard. Hack is too strong to be that easy to use.