EMP is just not a very good ult at the moment—which is fine since the rest of Sombra’s kit is much better than it was during previous time periods in Overwatch history where EMP was an incredible ult.
The best use of EMP is probably just to cancel various ults that it can cancel. And a 10% charge rate buff on it is actually a pretty big deal for using it for that purpose. It doesn’t cancel everything, so chances are decent you may only have one ult on the other team that you can cancel with EMP. And if that’s the case, then you really need to be able to charge your ult as fast as that person, otherwise they’ll get it off without you being able to cancel it. A 10% charge rate buff helps ensure that.
If you cancel another ult with it, then the other stuff EMP does is just gravy on top. Your value is mostly in negating another ultimate, and you just happen to do 30% health damage and apply a 1.5 second ability lockout on enemies on top of that. At that point, EMP becomes strictly better than whatever it negates, because it’s eliminating the value of that ult and doing some more on top of that. If there’s no ult on the other team that you can cancel or you could’ve canceled the ult with normal hack anyways, then EMP is bad though.
This simply isn’t true though, which is why she’s struggling.
Hack? Gutted
TL? Gutted
Stealth? Significantly worse and clunkier, with double the detection radius.
Opportunist? Removed entirely
SMG? The exact same damage it’s had practically her whole history, with the same mag size, fire rate, and falloff. Spread is a bit better though.
So the game before had the Lucio wait out an ult to maximize his but apparently Sombra players can’t wait until after tree to Emp and do the same, cool.
So did you choose not to read this or did I hallucinate and not actually type it out.
Wait until Tree is gone, then EMP. If the game was Lucio waiting for Sombra, then Sombra can wait for Lifeweaver. It’s a tad bit longer of a wait but it allows you to coordinate your efforts for the aftermath
I’m not emp-ing the tree. I’m saying the interaction is dumb and they should change it back.
Also to correct you, lucio woyld wait until sombra cast her emp to beat, thus nulling the value of the emp and winning the team fight.
See how that’s an interaction? Whereas if I emp before tree, tree counters it. And after it is still countered by tree. Not to mention in a single pulse undoes the damage of the ult.
That’s why you wait until the Tree is gone, effects are depleted, and then EMP. Overwatch has been a game centered around counter to counter, even moreso in Overwatch 2. Is the interaction healthy? Not one bit. But that’s how I feel with counterpicking as a whole because one hero shouldn’t make another hero unplayable and the same goes for how an ultimate shouldn’t nullify an ultimate. I was a firm believer that EMP should’ve reduced Lucio’s ult effects by 60% not just destroy it entirely and the same can be said for Tree, maybe a good change would be that EMP damages Tree but doesn’t destroy it entirely, like drop the HP from 1200 to 600 with EMP
My bet is that they figured Sombra already countered enough ultimates with her own. That, and technically EMP only destroys technology-based ultimates. The fact that it destroyed Tree of Life didn’t make sense, since it’s not technology. It’s a tree.
It’s not even the same thing as what Vishkar uses. Lifeweaver literally discovered a new form of life called biolight. A form of light that is alive, self propogating biomass as heroes call it in game (Sojourn, Sigma and Mercy). It’s not technology at all anymore. It’s alive.
So, yes, although Tree of Life used to be deleted by EMP, it no longer is because for Sombra’s EMP it made no sense for her own adjustment in Overwatch 2.
Tree of Life isn’t technology, therefore it should not be cancelled by EMP’s activation.
It still takes the damage from the initial EMP burst anyway, and Bastion, Roadhog, McCassidy and other heroes can eat it alive in seconds. It’s too easy to counter. It doesn’t need more.
What needs to be done is for their ultimate gain to be reversed.
Sombra needs to get hers faster, Lifeweaver needs to get his slower.
Yeah, it’s true that hack is a lot less good than it was in OW1. Which means that, even outside of EMP, she’s probably less good now with a lot of coordination (which could leverage hack’s value) or against certain heroes (Ball, Doomfist, etc.) that are most affected by hack.
But she has a lot more killing potential now than she ever did. And ultimately that is an extremely big deal. I’d wager that reworked Sombra probably has the highest win rate overall across ranks than she’s ever had—despite EMP being at its weakest ever. Her win rate was typically quite low, even in OW 1. And the recent dev update suggests that the win rate for reworked Sombra is actually close to 50% at most ranks, which I’m not sure it ever was in OW1 (though I don’t know for sure). At the very least, the fact that her win rate is higher than normal despite EMP being way weaker than normal is strongly suggestive of her being better outside of her ult.
Lifeweaver’s ultimate shouldn’t be impactful or valuable against someone else’s ult? I mean, you describe the Lucio interaction with EMP which was NOT fun for Lucio to go hide till hackerlady ran out of patience, but you fail to recognize that Zen can and was always able to heal right through EMP.
It’s ok for Zen but a much weaker version which you can still kill people through is not ok because…reasons?
The hard counterplay for Tree is Whole Hog. Sombra no longer counters it. She no longer hard counters beat either as shield health isn’t hacked away anymore. But still it takes the 40% hp dmg but so does tree.
She still has that mind game counter play with Sym ult.
But yeah EMP went from one of the strongest fight winning ults in the game to… an decent ult I guess. Use it to net 1 kill and then win the 5 v 4 is usually the best use of it. Or counter other big ults like Sig, Ilari, Pharah, Reaper, Bap etc…
Hey she got a buff to ult charge rate though. That’s good.
McCassidy can Fan the Hammer it to death.
Bastion can go into turret form and mow it down easy.
Roadhog can either ultimate or just shoot it normally. (I think it was alt-fire I saw tearing it down?)
Yeah, lots of people already counter it. Sombra doesn’t need to, too. xD
Not true. Support (and Tank) were my favourite rolls in OW1, where enabling your team was more important.
I hate immortalitites. That’s it. Can’t play tank anymore, it’s the least fun role of all, and IMO it’s because of immortalities that completely screw up your hard earned plays/ults.
You’re not permitted to have any dopamine on tank.
I don’t mind them as ultimates (Lucio/Zen) but as soon as they gave it to Bap on a cooldown, Pandora’s box was opened, which led to Suzu then grip. It was even ok on Zarya before double bubble.
Incidentally, Tree is anything but immortality, it’s best use in my experience is offensive, allowing both supports to go full offense without worrying about normal heals for its duration.