(Sombra Main 160+ hr, Only trying to help)
Look, we understand you’re only trying to help, really we do, but changing things to seemingly fit a playstyle you’re trying to dictate to us instead of addressing documented issues with her feels like a bad idea.
Speed.
The speed decrease is unnecessary and unwanted as is the permanent invisibility, I think we would much rather have the old speed and invis timer back. If you feel as though Invis is too weak then:
Increase the time we’re invisible by 3-5 seconds, if you want to increase the cooldown too then that’s understandable.
Remove or significantly decrease the casting and exiting delay time.
Give Sombra’s stealth a damage threshold of lets say 35hp? Maybe when she’s hit it temporarily reveals her a little but doesn’t slow her speed)
Contesting.
Her Invisible Contest is a key strategy used to pull the enemy team away from the choke when attacking (like Hanamura/Anubis), if she has to be visible then she’s likely to be shot on sight significantly cutting the time gained on the point. Less time contesting means more time waiting on cooldowns and being away from your team. Please revert this change.
This is what people have been getting behind. I’m sorry blizz but you guys are completely in the wrong on this change. Maybe you would have gotten more approval from the community if we didn’t already suspect your changes wouldn’t address the known documented issues but instead introduce new ones, LIKE WITH MOST OF THE INITIAL BALANCE PATCHES. You guys change too much too fast and all at once effectively dictating the meta instead of letting it develop through player performance. I hope whoever is in charge actually listens to the community for once because its getting tiring having to cringe every time you guys announce you are doing something to a hero, and its all because most of the players are feeling that you don’t listen to what the actual issues are.
The reaction thing is fair but I’d still like a significant decrease considering there aren’t delays on every action accept using your translocator. If Tracer had a slight delay on her Blink and rewind, or McCree for his roll, etc. is where I’m coming from with that point.
As for the break it’s not just about running through the enemy, it’s that the stealth has a sub 1 hp to break it, a D.Va bullet from 30 meters away could break it. 35 dmg for the reveal/break is more than enough threshold, Sombra player can’t run through the line of fire because they can still break it easily enough.
I think Hero Specific sub-forum categories would be a great way to filter out issues with characters. A lot of the time players from GM’s to Bronze make good points and show bugs that are hurting the character but get buried by someones hot take post.
The could tie in how many hours spent on our hero as a way to help validate our positions with experience playing that hero in our profiles, then that would be helpful.
I honestly don’t even think it was us that changed their mind. IF we even did so, the blizz post made it clear they are trying to stick to their guns on the THEIR change, not the one we asked for. Kinda doesn’t help community view of the balance team right now.
I think they noticed despite making it very clear that those compensation nerfs were there to stay. I highly doubt they will change their minds despite how much you want to resist it. We shall see, of course. But the entire point of them even mentioning it was to sort of clue as in that this is the direction and it requires Sombra to be slightly different moving forward.
With the Stealth delay as is most people nowadays react as fast as you do exiting the stealth and if not, you have only done like 20-30 damage before they react & either out DPS you or Run/Call for Help Unless you hit some Good Headshots.
Its Honestly not even that much of a buff to remove the stealth delay at this point.
If this happens All the other changes are welcome in my eyes.
50% permanant Stealth With No Contesting is Fair (Changes her Defense Playstyle in those Clutch Stalling Plays… but Fair Enough)
Forever Lasting/Interact Button Cancelable/Destroyable Translocator (The New square on the bottom right is Better… But PLEASE give me back atleast the opaque Grey Circle around my Crosshairs to show me its Active.)
Honeslty IMO the Changes are OK just need a little More Tweaking.
PLEASE TEST NO STEALTH EXITING DELAY.
I Honestly Don’t think it would even make her that much stronger.
Contesting the point as sombra is cool and fun to play. However contesting with infinite stealth is like giving soilder infinite ammo so he can spin 360 to contest her while she is stealthed on the point. It just isnt going to happen. So I can see why they are refusing to move on this issue.
In my opinion, these buffs are more or less quality of life changes as is. She is only going to be different at the highest level where Sombra players had her optimized and now there will be a new optimized Sombra, this change will not affect 90 plus percent of Sombra mains that have no idea what they are complaining about.
(Chuckles) MoreHeroes thinks she’s going to be played on the highest levels.
No but seriously I respectfully disagree, she will be different across all ranges as these changes effect her kit at the fundamental level, just because other players are more mechanically skilled to use her doesn’t mean the changes won’t be felt by all. A car with bad breaks still has bad breaks no matter whose driving it.
Optimization of a character isn’t the sole determining factor especially in such a team dependent game like this. And I disagree that the vast majority of Sombra players don’t know what they’re complaining about.
They happen the same way the Lucio wall riding changes happened, by putting forth valid reasons that they are not reasonable. The audio beacon being too easy to detect was not reasonable, nor was the 4 second detection radius.
However, you are wrong about the speed change. It was only there to give you time to get into position before invis failed. It was never put in to turn you into a Parkour specialist. Nowhere in Sombra’s design is high vertical mobility stated or implied, and the fact that some Sombras were using invis as a Parkour tool was an exploit and counter to the intent of invis.
Under NO circumstances should Sombra get longer invis and 75% runspeed boost, and a Parkour nerf is good for the game. Wall climbing/riding is a part of several other characters’ kits, NOT Sombra’s.
Contesting also is something that needed to go, just like wraithform, and it doesnt take a New Orleans psychic to figure out that ice block is next. Cheese contesting near spawnpoints is the worst thing about 2cp maps. If you want to contest a point, you should place yourself at risk of being killed. Immortal or invis cheesing needs to go.
I agree with this, but 5 damage is also really tiny, and really only accounts for accidental stray damage that’s clearly not intended for you. If you actually chose to run through enemy fire there’s basically a 100% chance that any damage you take will be >= 5 damage.
Don’t get me wrong - I think it’d be a nice QoL change, but certainly not a bargaining chip I would care about. If it were between this and pretty much anything else, I would probably take the anything else.