Suggestions for Sombra buffs

1 - against removing Opportunist ; it’s very valuable IMHO. Yes wounded opponents are usually not alone, but even just knowing their location is worth a lot.
Countering armor would be nice, but I’m not yet convinced the current “armor meta” requires such a buff. It may also be too powerful against heroes that have armor as part of their regular health pool.
2- Stealth seems balanced to me. In any case, it should never be usable on its own as an escape tool during a fight ; this would be too OP. Your proposed change lean in that direction, which is risky.
3- this would be nice, but it’s merely a QoL change, not sure it would have an impact on gameplay
4- yes

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I don’t agree with the Translocator “buff”, that would actually be a nerf, all the other ones I agree with though.

The reason why is because so many times I throw my Translocator and use the Stealth Combo with it and the enemies see the beacon go all the way behind them but I actually teleported infront of them but they don’t know it since I’m invisible and a lot of people think where ever that beacon flies to is where Sombra is, when it’s actually not.

Or in a 1v1 situation I throw my Translocator on the ground a bit infront of me and on the enemies screen it looks like the beacon/trail went behind them, so when I teleport they turn around and try to stun/shoot me when I’m actually still in front of them still either allowing me to escape, finish them off, or hack them or the healthpack thats right under me once again.

There’s a lot of useful mind games you can use against the enemy due to this, and although it does sound logical and would seem like it would be more useful, it’s really only nerfing her if you take that away.

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More likely I’m in a team fight and I want to get out to high ground, I don’t feel good standing around for a couple of seconds waiting to be absolutely sure it’s landed before I TL up and away, rather than risk rushing it and landing 3ft ahead of where I started.

In that respect, I don’t feel like relying on a visual glitch heavily effected by latency, and caused by latency, as a reliable method of confusing my opponents, particularly when it can confuse me as much, or more.

  1. I like Opportunist, but it’s of very niche value; I honestly can’t say I’d miss it and switching it would offer more design space for something of more general value. I wouldn’t necessarily expect my idea to bypass armour altogether, rather just mean it had a reduced effect against her Ingram.

Armour clearly is, and will continue to be a problem, as Brigitte is being used less; but the heroes countered by her armour are still being avoided simply due to the threat of Brig being picked - she had has that profound an effect on the game.

  1. Stealth like I say is a glorified sprint right now; such is map design that flanking routes are there that allow anyone 100% cover from one side to another, particularly those able to exploit 3D movement - which actually includes the Dive Tanks - So if D.Va and Winston can effective ‘sneak’ a flank, what real additional value does Stealth itself confer? It definitely needs improving.

If they reduce the stealth delays and remove the 2 second cooldown for breaking hack she should be in a pretty good spot, along with bug fixes. It would also be nice if she could throw her translocator slightly faster and maybe slightly farther.

I just want her bugs fixed. We can talk buffs and nerfs after her kit is reliable.

Shameless link to the 6th bug report I’ve made on her A list of Sombra's Many, Many Bugs (6), Now with more LOS Bugs!

Aside from bug fixes, I’d like to see

  • a decaying sugar skull near or above hacked targets (just like it is with health packs) + (maybe a highlighted outline?)

  • the audio cue to be reworked: not as loud to enemies and a SECOND aoudio cue only for Sombras team mates, a unique audio cue (higher pitched?) so every one of her team mates hears when anyone withing ~15m is hacked.

  • IF that’s not enough, make hacked enemies be visible through walls for ~0.1-0.2 seconds when hacked, so everyone is alerted of the hacked enemy.

  • (Hack should also cancel Sombras reload animation. i don’t know of any ability that is diabled by reloading, this seems to be an overlooked bug to be honest (QOL)).

The crucial need of follow-up (communication) is one of her greatest flaws, while providing information about the enemy is one of the most interesting part of her kit and, aside of obvious bug fixes, should be tackled first in my opinion.

From there on, it’s up to Blizzard to decide if she should be better in team fights (look at her gun) or at infiltration (look at her stealth).

Not sure how latency has anything to do with that, but I’d much rather use that as a tactic like lots of other Sombra players do rather than give it up for the rare occasion of wanting to land on the high ground to get out of a fight without having to wait an extra second.

And considering Sombra’s Translocator already makes it very visible as to where she’s going, when you need to be sneaky with it having Sombra teleport exactly where the beacon is makes it much easier for someone to know where you are or knock you out of stealth if you do the Stealth + Translocate combo all they’d have to do is aim at the huge beacon that’s flying and just shoot it when the particles show up.

Sombra seems to be the new doomfist. They should fix her bugs first before buffing her. She has SO damn many.

Or, stay with me here, just fix her bugs. Then we can see where she is really at. Every hero not doing well in this meta doesnt need buffs, we dont need a bunch of buffed non meta heroes to be broken once the meta changes. Fix her hack bugs, then we will see if she is in a good spot or not.

At this point just make her gun good :man_shrugging:t5:

So we wait another how long? Already been 18 months.

I’m really fed up of this ‘wait and see’ attitude with her, if they buff her and she ends up another Hanzo, so what? People can actually get used to playing with and against her while they look at how to dial her back. Beats another eternal wait. And maybe, maybe it won’t feel so bad playing against her when she is balanced.

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I dont control how long blizz takes to change things, ideally they would have fixed her bugs by now but they havent. And how can you say so what about having another OP hero, you might be fine with it cuz you like to play her but id rather not have another meta defining OP hero on our hands. Fixes are needed not buffs, and that will take as long as it takes blizz.

And no, I dont think your suggestions would put her into a spot like hanzo is, just to be clear.

The point is, she’s been so bad, so long, that it seems pretty clear that I don’t think bug fixes are nearly enough.

Armour piercing rounds is the main thing.

I still think she’s vastly underperforming as an anti-barrier hero too. EMP farming was a bad mechanic, and so was hacking through walls. I think hack should be able to do something to barriers directly.

Well before she was reworked she was very good on specific maps, specifically 2cp defense. Also mainly at higher ranks where people would know to pick up the health packs to charge her ult, and follow up on emp etc.

Then they buffed her and she was pretty OP for that little period of time while hacking people through walls and invulnerability skills. Now she is still decent but only at the top, where she has always been much better. Fixing her hack to be more consistent would be great. Also like many other heroes this meta doesnt favour her, soldier has a lower pick rate than sym in gm, mad times we are living in. We wont exactly know if bugs fixes are enough for her, but even in OWL they have used her a decent amount last stage and this one, with her nerfs in place. I mainly think people dont play well with a sombra on their team and the bugs dont help. I still think we need to wait and see where she lands after she is eventually fixed, and when the meta changes.

Only on one point for these maps; it wasn’t a significant niche, and her win rates weren’t exceptional meaning you could pick most other heroes and still do as well. It was a factor not of her strength particularly, so much as things would favour her enough to bring her up to other heroes’ levels.

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Sure you could pick other heroes and still do well, but that doesnt mean she wasnt great on those maps, and like you said, specifically the 2nd point. As someone who played at the top ranks it was a pain when nearly every fight there was an emp when attacking the 2nd point. By no means was she a must pick, but a team working with the sombra there made it very hard to get the point. Dont have any data on it but would be willing to be she had one of the highest win rates on 2cap maps then. But youre right, overall her win rate has never been exceptional, but nor has the win rate of many heroes. I would just like to see her bugs fixed to see just how good she is with the 2 sec interrupt on her hack if dmged.

‘Great’ implies she was a superior choice. She was never that, it was just maps she could match others on.

In GM she was great, she was a superior choice if someone was good with her and the team worked with it, I cant speak for low ranks but thats how it was in gm.