Sombra's actual DPS: Warning MATH (Comparisons Included)

General Discussion
1

Here’s a compilation of some math I did for Sombra with some testing done for theoretical buffs that the community has suggested at one time or another.

I feel like fundamentally the character is too reliant on how her team reacts to interactions with her ultimate and after some more testing on my own personal end I can tell you the following feel’s great if you’re playing Sombra but not OP (These are numbers from Custom Games I’ve Run):

What I’ve found out so far:

+5% To her Attack or putting her to 168 DPS instead of 160 feels good without being broken. (Literally no one on the lobby noticed much of a difference)

+20% Damage is Broken so the idea of hacking Targets and then them taking anywhere near that large of a damage increase is ridiculous.

-15% Movement Speed makes people feel too slow and has too large of an impact (Assuming that that would be the debuff on a hacked target)

The pixel distance on Sombra’s spread is about 76 Pixels in 1920 x 1080 and Soldier: 76’s Spread is about 54 Pixels (or 30% less spread) so I suggest reducing her spread by 15% or putting it to around 65 Pixels

Theoretically Sombra’s DPS would become about the following assuming you hit 42% (Or about 15% Higher than the average assuming she got the buff) of the time with around 3.75% (15% Less then the average Soldier: 76 Critical Hit Accuracy of 4.4%) of those shots being Critical Hits

Buffed DPS Math with assumed 15% Accuracy Buff and 5% Damage Boost and the assumed improved crit rate based on Soldier: 76’s Average Critical Hit Rate -15% to account for the still higher spread of Sombra’s (54 Pixels vs 65 Pixels)

(168 - 58%) = 70.56 - 3.75% ( or 2.64) = 67.91 + 2.64(2)[This is the number we subtracted earlier times two]=
73.19 True DPS

Current Sombra Stats with assumed -30% off of Soldier: 76’s Crit Rate

(160 - 63%) = 59.2 - 3.08% (or 1.82) = 57.37 + 1.82(2) =
61.01 True DPS

So Theoretically your DPS after receiving a 5% Damage Increase and 15% Spread reduction is only around 10DPS Higher or not really that broken at all

And for those that want to see Soldier: 76’s damage (using average Stats) in the same “True DPS” format here you go.

(180 - 60%) = 72 - 4.4%(3.16) = 68.83 + 3.16(2) =

75.15 True DPS

Please note that none of these are accounting for damage falloff which still makes Soldier: 76 do more damage in the long run even if Sombra was buffed

12 Likes
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Not a huge stats nerd so I wasn’t bothered to ever look into that kind of thing.
Makes me wonder why Blizzard have never done anything like this, thanks for this! :heart:

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I’m currently doing the math for every DPS character, it’s taking some time mostly because I’m lazy and I need to calculate ability uptime and maximum theoretical damage variables for damage-based abilites.

I appreciate your reply! :heart: Thank you! :smiley:

2 Likes
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So who are you working on next?

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Handsoap, I think it’d be interesting to see just how much of his damage comes from Storm Arrow and how much comes from peoples ability to hit things with his standard arrows.

I’ll be calculating the average burst damage that the ability actually does and comparing it to his standard left click.

I can’t do this for every hero as I don’t have hit % for every ability in the game

Technically Speaking the actual DPS for Soldier is far greater than Sombra but I simply cannot account for how Often Tac Visor is used nor his rockets

But technically speaking a characters average DPS would be a mix of their abilities and their primary fire

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I promise you blizz is doing this to an even higher degree. The permutations are ran regularly. Or at least I have faith that they are.

I was an early contributor to rogue theory crafting in wow, many moons ago. Basically once elitist jerks came about we were all but told our math was spot on, and they appreciated our enthusiam.

I used to sit in math class and figure out my raids and my paper dps with new gear, way before recount and such. Good times

As a nerd.

Cool.

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I’m mostly just using a simple equation to account for the % of Missed and Critical Shots in characters primary fires, I used to theory craft armor and ability sets for SWTOR what seems like almost a decade ago now lol

Math is fun when applied to video games

It also lets me one-hit people in MMO’s so there’s that too…

4 Likes
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Cheers to that!

It’s my favorite thing about rpgs.

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As a hanzo main, I do way more damage with standard arrows than storm arrow.

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Yeah, I just need to see what the actual burst potential of that ability is and see how it affects Hanzo in particular.

It’s one of the few abilities in the game I can actually reliably calculate with a characters normal Hit% variables

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Interesting, but Blizzard would just ignore this because they can’t accept Sombra player feedback

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I’m just hoping that once I’ve gathered the complete DPS set of every character people can make more informed decisions about DPS potential.

I’ve seen people say Soldier: 76 sucks this meta and I’m just like

“But he doesn’t though…”

1 Like
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They’ve scrapped so many original concepts for the talon heroes that honestly sound much better than the version they decided on :man_shrugging:

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I still think that instead of the current hack visual Sombra’s hacked Targets should have that + A Giant Purple Sugar Skull rotating above their heads all Sims style.

3 Likes
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In theory soldier doesn’t suck. In practice though…

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There’s a bit of nuance to doing well with Soldier: 76

People just hold down left click and run into combat anxiously but what they should be doing is rapidly tap firing the weapon so as to sustain the smaller spread and the larger damage %

Takes practice but it brings his Actual DPS up massively

17

Yes. This is a team game. Let’s just stop with the “Sombra’s dps is too low” threads. She’s a utility hero. The impact of totally disabling an enemy’s abilities is substantial. Is it going to be a guaranteed kill once you hack someone and start attacking them? No, and it shouldn’t be. If you have good enough aim and they don’t respond properly, then you’ll win as you should.

They ALREADY reduced her spread not that long ago. Sheesh.

Edit: PS - you should also be thankful that hack now totally disables passive abilities too, such as Lucio’s wall ride and crossfade. It didn’t always do that.

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How about you don’t comment in such a horrendously rude manner?

Sombra’s DPS is too low that is not a debate it simply is the case and unlike almost any other character Sombra needs her team to be effective in 90% of engagements.

Reducing Sombra’s spread is an issue still to this day it’s hardly reliant at all and they only decreased it by 5% which is almost nothing.

I’m thankful for the hack change but until LoS checks are properly fixed for Sombra Hacks reliability is very much in question.

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because she has the most powerful cc, and true invis.

If she could kill she’d just be a no fun assassin who deletes people from behind.

I mean, that’s fine btw she’d just have to have all her cc taken off and a complete rework of her entire kit,