I don’t feel like writing an essay, so I’m going to try to make my point relatively brief, but this may turn into a rant. Don’t really care.
Sombra’s ban rates are astronomical. Absurd. Ridiculous. She’s effectively been removed from competitive play across all ranks despite not being particularly good.
Banned because she’s strong? No. She’s annoying. Making a character that disables other people’s toys can be frustrating, one that’s invisible even more so. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that this character shouldn’t exist outright.
Sombra has been reworked and adjusted more than just about any other hero to appease the player base, to make her stronger and more consistent at times, and other times to capitulate to people who don’t like having to deal with her. Her current iteration was born out of eliminating the “get our of jail” translocator and perma-stealth. This was praised as sufficient, until bans.
No changes can possibly be made to Sombra that will lower her ban rate.
Buffs? out of the question.
Nerfs? relegated to a throw pick with a low winrate, still banned because nobody will want her on the team.
Rework yet again? Banned out of spite. Even if they eliminated stealth, they’d ban over hack. If they eliminated hack, they’d ban over stealth. I don’t want to hear anybody suggest a “virus/hack skill-shot combo” because that sounds good on paper, realistically a bad idea resulting in people mad about getting their ultimates interrupted from “halfway across the map” when Ana does the same thing, she’s just slower.
I’m at a loss for words and have come to the conclusion that there’s only one radical solution that doesn’t involve another rework that will fail yet again.
Giga buff other characters to take the heat off. Radical, maybe a bit dumb, but it’s something that could work. I’m just tired. Nobody is happy. I’m hiding out in stadium with Ashe dynamite builds with cybervenom (I am a sadist after all) until something happens because I don’t want to load into a competitive game and have the character I primarily play just be automatically removed.
I make do with Venture, kit is relatively similar in some weird ways, and have won. But it’s frustrating to load in and know you won’t be able to play your hero. Just because the players don’t like having to think just a little bit more critically about how they play. Honestly, it’s kinda lazy to just perma-ban somebody. Before somebody else says “learn another hero, that’s lazy” I do, I’m not a one trick. She’s my main for a reason though because I like her. Point is, perma bans are excessive an lazy on your part.
I like the purple/pink invisible lady and like her tactical style that she has had in the past. But she’s cooked, we all know it, and the only thing I can think of is buff other heroes to take the heat off because no amount of reworks will work.