I wish to keep Sombra a character that is skill based, not assasination based. I play sombra for the team play, the value other than dps.
Why remove the skill in her kit and the team play to just replace it with ineffective assasination?
The tried changes:
- The hack makes you see the hacked player through walls and u do 30% more damage to the hacked target. She could hack while invis but would be visible while hacking.
Hack is A hard ability to use. Getting a hack through is very risky and just seeing them through walls and having 30% more damage isn’t enough. Hanzo/widow get good value from seeing through walls. But they can one shot people and Hanzo can see EVERYONE in that room/behind a wall. When I shoot at people and they are below 50% and run away I can see them through the wall anyways. I cannot really kill the enemy dps without the damage buff in a 1vs1. So hacking them would simply make it a 50-50 fight, but there’s a high risk involved just so that I can have a fair fight? Because the enemy still has all their abilites and now Sombra’s damage is at the same level with other dpses. I’m very likely to get killed by the enemy’s abilities.
And who does sombra counter like this?
Lucio? Does absolutely nothing, I can no longer kill a lucio because he has too much heals. What does a sombra do against a pharah? A doomfist? A Tracer? Genji’s just gonna dash her so she needs to translocate out instantly without being able to capitalize on the hack.
I can no longer hack the rein for grav… the zen so that our team can ult… i cannot hack a beatdrop or an ulting genji so that we can easily kill him and save my team… I cannot hack the rein so ours can shatter or so that we can kill the rein and win the fight. All the counterplay with enemy ults would be gone… And hacking the person out of position? They’ll have punch/dash/speed boost anyways. My only job would be to assasinate the healers/dps. Just another Tracer but way worse.
How does a sombra bring team play value like this? She doesn’t and this is what is the most important part about her to me - hack is the core of her kit, the value, the ability I have spent 800h on Sombra to perfect. Her hack is the reason why I play her. This kind of a change would completely change the way she is played and I would hate to see my fav character get ruined like this 
A second change was also tried but they said that this wouldn’t be implemented… but the fact that they even thought that it would be an idea worth testing…
- Sombra doesn’t have hack, But gains 50% dmg when shooting the enemy from the back
This is just a bad idea. A hack is a powerfull ability with huge team play capabilities and just replacing it with with 50% damage ONLY when the enemy has their back turned to you seems reasonable? The enemy will just turn around in 1 sec and the damage boost is gone… cmoon blizzard. The enemy still has their abilities and what do I have? I can translocate out of the fight for huge value.
14 Likes
I prefer the assassination route because that is how I play her now. And in 5v5, it almost has to happen.
11 Likes
In the higher ranks she can’t really kill the enemy dps in 1vs1 unless they are not full hp. :c And that isn’t really her job. Sombra is the reason I play this game and probably won’t be playing this game if they make sombra mostly assasination based
5 Likes
it’s crazy because I just made a post about how I don’t want sombras kit to change that much, i said that the hack duration would be lower on tanks and normal on other nontank players. I love sombra I’ve always had and she’s a very fun character that tbh kinda revived my over watch interest. getting rid of her hack completely isn’t the way to go as it would literally make her useless. I’d rather they delete her than give her that change
7 Likes
Why remove the skill in her kit and the team play to just replace it with ineffective assasination?
gunning down a target in the .05s before they turn around and shoot you back and potentially securing a pick? Lame easy and useless.
Hack is A hard ability to use. Getting a hack through is very risky
holding right click in someone’s general direction and maybe getting a 0 to 2 second cooldown if you mess up or get interuptted?v ery difficutl nd skild.
1 Like
You have plenty of time to 360 and look at her, and then shoot her, or if you get hacked, 50% of the time you can win the duel if you’re someone who doesn’t depend that much on their abilities.
Or you just get hardcore pocketed. Sombra does next to no damage if the enemy is getting healed.
Hack IS a pretty hard ability to use. It’s not as easy and looking at someone’s general direction and they automatically can’t play the game.
13 Likes
Hack can be interrupted by less than 1 damage and it’d leave me against an enemy player with barely any damage capabilites AND no extra damage with the second change! I need to worry about positioning, getting hooked, flashbanged (or stunned otherwise) , slept, the right timing of hack, the right target - picking a fight that I can actually win etc etc
Also, I do not wish to only do damage as Sombra as that has never been the way sombra has been played.
And an enemy player can often instantly turn around to shoot at me when I uncloak… or even before I shoot since they can hear me shout “looking for me?” :s Sombra coming out of invis is very loud.
4 Likes
Agree, lets make Sombra the Caveira of OW.
2 Likes
As said in the AMA, we will most likely get a beta.
We should really try to provide good Feedback then.
I know, Blizzard never listens, yadda, yadda, yadda
In order for hack to be successful you have to have the game sense to know who to target that won’t get interrupted or just get you killed. In addition you have to have very good ability tracking. You need to know what every hero has on board at every moment. Hacking a Mercy that just rezzed or a Reinhard who’s shield was about to break and was gonna back off are useless.
And then ontop of that you gotta know what your teammates can follow-up on too.
Sombra is like Winston. Deceptively simple but actually pretty hard to master. That’s one contributing factor to her abysmal winrates across the mid and low tiers. The other is how much teamwork she requires.
The developers actually cited her as the prime example of how the enhanced skillset of league brings out differences in characters in huge ways, because she is one of the most dramatic examples of it.
2 Likes
Wall hacks is a buff they should add to hack like it is tbh. Lack of follow up is her issue on ladder.
Just making it a full hack replacement was kinda silly.
1 Like
Wait, who tested this? You mean these are changes that Blizzard actually considered?? That’s awful. Both of these completely destroy what Hack is and does. I’m really starting to get a bad feeling about this.
3 Likes
yeah. They only added the wall hack and 30% more damage if the target is hacked… as if it is good enough to try out and considered a good rework?.. 
Quite often the hacked enemy is not even behind a corner/cannot get behind it because of my positioning.
And what about if the hacked enemy is in a room where it would be actually be usable? Hack is impossible to get off because the enemy can just easily cancel it so is not even worth trying
And for example if the enemy is peaking from behind a corner I can’t really get it
through because I’m getting shot at. And besides… discord orb way easier to use since it is a no risk ability. Sombra can easily die when she tries to hack and zen’s orb is a no risk ability and the enemy it’s being used on can be changed to a better fitting one. I do not think that this is enough and wouldn’t wish for hack to be changed to something that requires so little tactical thinking. Going for the enemy that we need to be dead the most sounds very boring. With the current hack and her abilities I need to think about what target I need to hack, when, and what brings the most value. I have a lot of different things to do that I need to choose the most valuable to do in the moment. I would change such a diverse gameplay to something as boring as +30% damage dealt to the right target and assasination 24/7.
Did anyone ask for owl sombra nerfs?
(btw where did you get this info. Reddit AMA?)
Yeah I wonder about that too. If these really are changes that Blizzard is looking at, then we (Sombra mains) are in deep trouble.
1 Like
Yes, from the reddit AMA.
The issue with hack in a one tank scenario is even if the ability in question is hard to land, whenever it does your basically giving your team free rein to focus down the tank or a target behind them. (If using it on the tank)
The status as an ult is fine as is, do to the large breaks in between each use. Not to mention the fact that it can be counteracted via another ult. For instance a d.va can launch a bomb right before hand, and in turn limit the enemies ability to approach your team for it’s duration.
Be it that hack by it’s self makes the character rather boom or bust, as sure when it goes off it can be a huge benefit to your team. And because of that she has to be balanced around that scenario. Otherwise you would have a character that is just below par of most others on a miss, while an absolute monster when it lands.
While swapping that ability out does allow her to be more of active threat with her base kit, being able to get behind the enemy is of little issue for her. So being able to get back Crits and force the enemy to split their attention away from their front line, would in turn have a similar effect overall.
As you are still limiting the enemies options via keeping the healing or dps attention away from the rest of your/their team. Be it a way that doesn’t make the enemy team a sitting duck.
Ok. So Blizzard is officially looking at removing the ability disabling effect from Hack? Then I am officially looking at uninstalling the game when this change hits.
If Sombra’s “Hack” just makes targets take more damage, or visible through walls, or reduce their firing rate or ult charge generation or anything stupid like that, then there’s no point for me. It’s less fun, less interesting, less useful. It destroys one of the most enjoyable and unique characters I’ve ever played in an FPS.
And no, I don’t care if she gets a bit more damage or criticals from behind or whatever in return. I’m not interested in playing slow Tracer.
Phew. REALLY hope they don’t actually go through with this.
5 Likes
Sombra is fun. She is my second most played hero. She is also hard as heck to make work consistently in ranked. She requires follow up and team coordination. A lot of Sombra’s power comes from making opportunities for teammates to make plays. It is impossible to rely on randoms from match to match to exploit those opportunities. Which is why playing her in ranked can be such a journey and in many many many situations it is just plain better to choose raw dps out put. I for one welcome changes and believe assassination Sombra is the way to go. I want to roam the back line and flanks hunting for picks. I don’t want to camp off angles and be an EMP bot. Because the current iteration of Sombra that is how she is played - camp a off angle and farm EMP as fast as possible. Don’t concern yourself with picks or individual hacks, farm EMP, always be farming EMP. It’s actually not that fun compared to what she can be.
So while we would be sad to see you go, I think your opinion is in the minority, and I suspect it comes from places like quick play and arcade. Not that there is anything wrong with those modes, I play them myself. Its just that isn’t how Sombra is actually utilized in ranked.
1 Like