Do what I did, main Psylocke instead.
Sombra had an extremely long preparation time to apply her hack, and it could be interrupted by taking damage, which was a major drawback. As you mentioned, it’s still a shooter, so her mechanics were absolutely legitimate. Also, the time-to-kill back then wasn’t as fast as it is now. Sombra was far too weak when she was released.
As for the so-called “get out of jail free” teleporter—that’s nonsense. Either the thing was placed so far away that Sombra might as well be considered dead, or it was so close that the argument doesn’t even apply. Just because Sombra survives doesn’t mean it’s an advantage.
On top of that, her damage was more than underwhelming, which meant her role was essentially limited to preparing enemies for her team. It was a concept that worked for years and wasn’t overpowered, as some like to claim!
I don’t like the rework so much, but this was exactly her problem.
Her setup potential was absolutely free. Free-staging, or being able to “engage/disengage at will” is what made this hero frustrating, and ultimately what got her reworked.
Other heroes can often decide if they want to take a 1v1, but none of them could freely stage and wait until that 1v1 would be entirely in their favor.
A lack of risk is what made Sombra frustrating to play against, and a lack of risk is what eventually made her feel like trash to play.
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The funny thing is that Sombra used to be played by people who were somehow similar to her. You can tell from the in-game dialogues that Sombra often messes with others, and many Sombra players back then were similar. Just think of the “boop.” It didn’t achieve anything, but doing it invisibly next to the enemy support fit Sombra’s personality so well.
From that perspective, Sombra was 100% an absolutely brilliant concept, and it’s something I definitely want back. “It’s annoying” is not a valid reason to rework something!
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Idc, 6s silence has no business outside of rts, mobas or mmrpg. Also ttk on tanks was literally faster then today.
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Its still a get ouf jail free card even its mid tier. You could place it in spawn and never die. Enemy never gets the satisfaction of killing them and her allies gets a useless team mate that’s barely playing the game.
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I never said she (ow1 sombra) was op, just bs.
Last version of sombra was the best sombra imo.
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I liked the last iteration in the abstract; I didn’t like having a Sombra in EVERY SINGLE GAME. I like the character, I want her in the game, but I only want to see her every 3-5 games (at most) or when there’s a particular need for her to counter someone (looking at you Doom and Ball).
I think current Sombra isn’t super amazing but she is far from bad, old Sombra was so incredibly bad for the game, and I don’t think saying she isn’t a problem in the top 5% of players is addressing her problems, I’ve been using her recently and I’m actually involved in fights and being useful, before she was just overtuned and most of the time she was off doing nothing useful and not interacting. Current Sombra is a stepping stone to a better version of the character,
They just traded invisibility for burst damage, Sombra wins, but she requires a higher skill, that’s what can bother some players.
It’s not a nerf, but a up.
Get PTSD from the unkillable Dead Ringer spy period in TF2.
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Sombra hasnt been sombra since being gutted almost… 5 months ago now… uninstalled all blizzard games about 3 weeks prior, havent played a blizzard game since about 9 months ago now…
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Interesting, you say that silence can be fine in MOBAs, yet Overwatch is a hero shooter, which is a mix of MOBA and shooter.
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Exactly, here is the problem that many people don’t understand. You don’t have to kill someone. It’s your ego telling you that you want to kill them, and that’s not what this game is about. People who could handle Sombra were never useless. So, it’s a skill issue, which is interesting because Sombra was once referred to as the hero that requires the least skill.
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It sounded like that, so it was probably a misinterpretation on my part.
No, the last version of Sombra was bad because Sombra was pushed more towards an assassin role, which doesn’t fit her purpose or identity. Sombra is a sabotage character, there to disrupt the enemy.
Any hero that has invis is always going to be frustrating to the enemy, thats not a valid reason why.
Any hero is able to do those things, again the issue is that you, and many others, dont like the perma invis. But this is not just removing perma invis, this is REMOVING the option of using your CDs at will.
Imagine if you could only boost damage with Mercy to heroes that were 75% HP or less.
Again, my point is that the “all or nothing” rework they did is not only destroying her skill ceiling but 100% removing choice from the player. You can’t TP somewhere, hide, then lurk , then activate invis … do your thing and TP back. Both abilities are tied.
It was as easy as making her TP in the direction she is aiming with double Jump/Space, and leaving her E to invis for 8 sec (for example). And they failed at that.
This is how blizzard deletes a hero from the roster, make them total absolute garbage because the forums cried about her for so long they caved.
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I saw so many posts about sombra being op before they actually gutted her, she’s seen more nerfs since ow2 release than any other hero on the roster. Nobody just wants to play against her and this was a soft buff to Widow and ball and dumbfist when they did this. The management or devs who called for this change are idiots if they thought it was a good idea.
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I said a 6s silence. Both in numerical (6s) and spelled out in caps (SIX SECONDS) and then i said it again in my answer to you. Idk how i can make it any more clear? Having a 6s silence in a game with <1s ttk is ridiculous and that’s why it was removed. But the fact that it was even added to the game in the first place is a joke.
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Idc, it was still a design that encouraged a passive playstyle with people placing it so far back they might as well be dead. But whatever, i really didn’t mind it that much. My orignal comment was mostly jab at the design team. Release sombra was basically x3 troll value (invis, tp and 6s silence) and nothing else.
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Well i liked playing vs her more anyway. But whatever, i think she has been mostly fine in all of ow2. Its just the 6s silence in ow1 that was ridiculous imo.
Her nerf (yes it was a nerf of a rework, not an improvement) was one of the final straws for me that had me quit the game. Imagine spending money on skins for a character you enjoy playing, then they gut it and you feel like you wasted money. She plays horribly now, there was no real reason for it besides some Widow players crying since they don’t want to swap. Personally, I’m not coming back until they fix Sombra properly.
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It is ironic that some people who main heroes like Doomfist allude that Sombra being deleted would be good and that they support it.
Like, okay. Your hero next! 
Sombra is clunky. She’s not great, she’s not strong, and I do not think she is trash. I think the pitfall is that she’s just so clunky to play and that is going to perpetually feel clunky when her engage ability is tied to her escape.
but c’est la vie. They can do any nerf people ask for, and they’ll still complain because they want her dumpstered or deleted. IMO there are heroes who actually significantly impact matches that deserve that fate before she does.
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Oh, I see. Then it’s worth mentioning that the 6-second silence back then did nothing except prevent the activation of abilities for 6 seconds. It didn’t disable abilities that were already active—that only came later with the 5-second hack. Also, the 5–6 seconds matched the time Sombra needed to kill a target. So much for a time-to-kill of 1 second.
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If facts don’t matter to you, then why are you even here? Besides, you admitted yourself that the teleporter was essentially just an easier way to die. So, once again, we’re back to ego and the fact that people were annoyed because their egos weren’t satisfied!
Additionally, there were plenty of other ways to limit the teleporter. They could’ve added a maximum range of, say, 30 meters or implemented the current 0.25-second delay.
- The hack was nerfed too heavily. Originally, the idea was a short silence with a short cooldown. I have no idea why anyone thought the current design was a good idea.
If you take a closer look at Hack and Sombra’s kit, it’s clear that Hack needs to last at least 3.5 seconds—otherwise, there’s a timing gap where Sombra can’t effectively use it. On the other hand, Hack should never last longer than 4 seconds, or else the Hack + EMP + Hack combo would become possible again. Back then, this combo disabled abilities for up to 15 seconds in the best-case scenario. At 4 seconds, that wouldn’t be possible.
Sombra needs to be able to fully utilize her Hack and be lethal enough to kill a target while the Hack is active.
The alternative would be a much faster Hack with a short ability lock but much more consistent ability interruptions—and then everyone would complain again anyway!
Actuhally ok man, totally not a silence then.
6s of prevent the activation of abilities (and the 5s) in ow1 was ridiculous and if you honestly think it was ok i don’t have anything more to say to you. Its just such a ridiculous long time for a game like this. What more can i say? Its a joke. But its the same devs that gave launch bastion a shield and released brig and sigma like they where so its not that surprising.
Bro, touch grass. Your opinions are not facts. All i said was that old tp encouraged a passive playstyle. That’s my opinion. I never claimed it was a fact or that it was even good.
She use to be able to place her translocator in advance for a quick escape. Now you cannot. That’s a nerf as far as I am concerned
I mean half decent sombra could destroy low to mid rank games even before hand. Much like the spy in tf2.
it’s not hard to abuse an uncoordinated team with a flanker in general as long as you know how to kill things.
This isn’t really new, it’s just that people are forced into actually being aggro now. And shock pickachu face, actually attempt to kill things.
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