You’re right, and disabling someone on the other team from effectively gaining their ult time or enabling your team an advantage at gaining theirs is a total waste of time, my apologies clearly I’m out of my mind. Also that interaction you described with decision making, that’s risk vs. reward and counterplay which is a healthy thing. I won’t argue against the people that make idiotic assumptions like “sombra just needs to hold rmb” there’s difficulty and much more depth to her, but I can’t help those people and they’re the same people that make the other comments like how Rien just needs to hold shield and press w, I don’t agree with those people, but I also don’t agree with people that completely under value hack and feel there should be little to absolutely no counter play to it.
She’s a hero that needs support to kill other heroes, in a game where most other heroes have little trouble doing a 1v1. And killing an opponent is a much more effective means of taking them out the fight than silencing them.
When she was just about functional as an EMP bot, she could disable enough of the enemy team that it made it nigh impossible to keep key players up with their secondary abilities. Hack isn’t enough on its own to do that, because the backup is there and its fully functional.
A Hacked player still gains ult charge, because they can still shoot, heal, move, etc. So I don’t know where you’re getting that from? Further, if they’ve already used abilities and they’re on cooldown, those cooldowns aren’t stopped.
Also Geoff if you read this, heres a small tip. You dont wait for your team to push in and then time the hack. You let your team wait for you and your hack is the signal for them to push in.
You’ll hate me for this, but that’s fine to need help in a team game, also that’s not true as she can solo skill Squishies and finish targets effectively granted I’ll give you with more difficulty compared to other dps. And yes getting kills is important, but control and the advantage to gain those kills is more important, if kills were the deciding factor 1 pick would mean the end of a team fight, and I’ll give you in some cases that can be true but not often. EMP is one of the best ults in the game and yes was what she was in the past an EMP bot because of that, but also mainly because farming ult with health packs was much more efficient than anything else she could do, for instance if zen could get trans more effectively by tbaging his teammates for a massive heal, do you think he’d be so focused on dishing out damage or following his team around to tbag them? Also you misunderstood once again, I didn’t say hack stops ult gain, I said it stops them from gaining it effectively, and yes being limited does stop you from gaining ult charge effectively unless you’re widow or something, pharah isn’t going to be as effective grounded and be able to get her shots at that angle, mercy can still heal but doesn’t have the mobility to get to heros that may need it and leaves her much more vulnerable, and Lucio ffs can’t heal nor get much use out of his wonky projectiles because he’s lost his movement (yeah you turned Lucio into his gun, how very effective he is). Also this doesn’t stop sombra from getting her ult charge? She can shoot right after, hacking a Rien doesn’t help your team gain ult charge? There’s no barrier blocking them from landing shots on the enemy.
technically the enemy gets just as much ult change as sombra does by only using primary fire for 6 seconds, all sombra has is primary fire too. Hacking a target does not give sombra ANY advantage the enemy doesnt have, few choice exceptions are reinhardt and brigitte since they are limited by melee range.
Sombra only has SMG to farm, which all the changes/nerfs shes had im not even too sure she gets Ult charge for assist by hacking a target these days. Sombra and her SMG thats it, Soldier and his pulse rifle thats it, Reaper and his shotguns.
Hack is powerful in the sense it limits abilites of ONE player for 6 seconds, but it doesnt do anything for sombra then make it a fair match for her, her team gets the advantages out of a hack mostly not her.
Doesn’t do anything for sombra, but does do a lot for her team. I’m still explaining this.
Edit and even then still does a lot for sombra, tell me df, tracer, Lucio,genji,mercy aren’t easier to kill when hacked, again unless the enemy team play well and defend them.
It’s fine to need backup, if the impact is otherwise sufficient. Again, EMP bot was almost there in effectiveness.
She lost the EMPs, and became a worse hero - even with a better Hack. The stats are right there.
You’re talking about mildly inconveniencing some heroes on ult charge like it’s a match winner?
Sure, some heroes who can and will switch if you give them a hard enough time are more effected than others. But that’s the nature of the game, it’s not just Sombra who’s on that; others do it better, either by straight up killing their opponent (Tracer, Genji), or stopping them dealing damage (Tanks, Brig).
Sombra buffs would be making her weapon more effective or making hack more reliable mid-fight. Haven’t seen that in the PTR yet, just QOL changes
Well, according to “Lead Designer” Goodman the “community just don’t understand how powerful new Sombra is” so…
Yes. She’s a mess and needs help. Even after the supposed “major buffs”.
I’m talking about removimg their effectiveness for 6 seconds not a minor inconvenience (exception being heros like widow) yeah those heros do have an easier time out right killing or protecting their team, sombra removes that. The ult charge crap is an added bonus and only mentioned because you brought it up that she has this decision to make about if I should hack or build ult charge.
I’m sure you mean REDUCING their effectiveness. Few heroes are effectively removed while Hacked.
Sombra can only reduce that for one of them, then her team need to follow up to secure the damage because she’s only at that hero’s level. Meanwhile, the rest of the enemy team is free to follow up themselves to keep that player up and prevent anything coming of it. And that happens frequently, because it requires less coordination and communication than Sombra’s own team.
It is so easy for tracer to counter sombra there a meme for it
ht tps://i.imgur.com/VNFrIDt.mp4
doom is not as easy to get, he often puches or leaps out of your range and if you tried hacking him now you got his full attention. Honestly I’ve been killed by many mercys and im not the only one you think she’s a free kill then the RNG gods play against you and your shooting every part of her thats not a hitbox. Genji is easier but often times he sees you or hears your voice line the focuses you.
Yeah they are all easier, but no harder to kill then sombra. Sombra can only fight tot he death or escape. And when she’s fighting she’s at a bad disadvantage usually. Even a grounded pharah can kill a sombra before sombra can kill her. 2-3 shots if sombra has full hp and a has armor.
There wasn’t any statistical evidence to support the idea that it was ever OP. Sombra never got out of F-tier, even when the pros were flipping out about her buff being crazy good.
yeah, her pick rate went up for a couple weeks, look at sym always happens new is new. People are so used to the new hack time now i doubt they would notice if the 2 second penalty was removed. People were just frustrated before.
The statistical data we got was OWL players saying “we dont want sombra in the meta” great justification for a crippling hot-fix nerf 
Fair enough, reducing their effectiveness, and that second point I could argue with you on all day because it’s a case by case basis. Yeah sometimes you’re right depending on the circumstances and who is hacked, other times I’d be right in saying not at all and it’s actually harder for the enemy team, like hacked Rien, or if pharah is flying out ahead and is suddenly grounded in your team, or a genji that’s in your backline. It’s all circumstancial at that point
On a phone, but I’ll view that later. I still feel sombra isn’t easier to kill than a hacked df, tracer, genji, and certainly not mercy but I’ll give you that I can very well be wrong that’s just my opinion, still it doesn’t change the fact that those heros are easier to kill for your team than sombra is for the enemy as she has translocator. Also if this is the case I’ll that’s a different problem with sombra (which I’ll add I never said couldn’t use a buff but argue that any buff to her needs to stay away from hack unless hack is made weaker again).
and now that translocator can break, 5hp. and she got nothing useful in return to help her team. just a way to avoid conflict longer
Wasn’t that what translocator did? And no she also got more stealth capabilities. And no I’m not referring to infinite stealth (which is also strong) but less noticeable audio cues and faster stealth break allowing not only sombra to have all the set up in the world, but a much more reliable jump on her enemy.
yeah but 20 seconds is a LONG time, u lose alot of valuable strats now too. The decoy traslocator was great for lure flankers away, they would camp it waiting you to show up and waste 20 seconds for nothing. Now if they find it they can just shoot it and regroup with their team. The translocator was more then a exit plan it had side uses Sombra players learned to survive the harsh nerfed world they live in. 5 hp, wtf is that? not 25 like sym turret, not 50, not even 15… 5
just look where i start this up. I used the decoy to confuse the hanzo and get the jump on him i needed to win that fight. PTR sombra he’d just shoot it and rush me around the corner
No, it isnt quite that universal, there is no alternate term for “acceptable use of unintended behavior”, and quibbling over terminology is silly anyhow. The fact is that there is no evidence that Sombra was intended to use the speed boost for Parkour, and the fact that the staff has never mentioned it or acknowledged that it was a feature makes it pretty clear that it has no bearing on the design or balance of Sombra, making the claim that the staff doesnt understand the balance of the character they created because they dont continue to enable a “nice guy exploit” ring hollow.