Is it time for yet another Sombra rework?

Sombra has lengthy been one among Overwatch’s most divisive heroes, beloved by stealth fans however despised by those that discover her gameplay irritating. Since her 2016 debut, she has undergone a number of reworks, but she stays a balancing nightmare. 

In Overwatch 2, her newest package changes made her stronger but additionally extra polarising, abandoning her utility and shifting into an murderer archetype. Her near-permanent ban standing in aggressive reveals that the neighborhood is completed along with her. So the query arises: does Sombra want one other rework? 

Arriving in Overwatch on November 15, 2016, Sombra’s introduction was not like every other hero’s. Blizzard teased her with cryptic ARG puzzles, together with hidden skybox messages on Dorado and encrypted messages, earlier than her grand reveal at BlizzCon 2016 with the Infiltration cinematic. But, regardless of the hype, her launch was tough. 

Her first iteration had an on-demand stealth referred to as Thermoptic Camo that lasted six seconds and allowed her to contest aims. Her signature Hack additionally lasted six seconds on a six-second cooldown, which means she may preserve a goal completely silenced.  

As a utility-based disruptor, she struggled with clunky mechanics, low harm, and an overreliance on teamwork. Even in professional play, her debut was underwhelming. Esca of Lunatic-Hai famously tried her in competitors, solely to substantiate she was, on the time, a legal responsibility.

Early on, Sombra discovered area of interest use on 2CP (Assault) maps, the place gamers exploited her Hack for quick EMP cost on maps like Anubis’ second level. Blizzard eliminated that interplay on February 2018.  To compensate, they tightened her weapon unfold, lowering the forged time on Hack, and buffed her Opportunist passive so she will see enemy well being bars beneath full.

Then, in July 2018, she acquired a significant buff: Stealth and Translocator grew to become infinite, permitting her to lurk unseen indefinitely. Builders justified this as giving her time to choose and select engagements, however this was the beginning of her problematic feast-or-famine design.

Regardless of her rocky begin, Sombra carved out a spot in professional play. Rascal (Kongdoo Panthera) was the primary to showcase how efficient she might be in opposition to tank-heavy staff compositions. Shanghai Dragons swept the Overwatch League 2021 with their variation of GOATs comp, incomes Sombra a championship pores and skin for LIP’s masterclass efficiency.

Component Mystic pioneered “Hackfist” solely on the talent of SP9RK1E’s Doomfist and Doha’s Sombra to win in Contenders Korea. Los Angeles Valiant would run a triple DPS comp that features Sombra to interrupt the Vancouver Titans’ 19 win streak. Sombra was the most influential hero in Stage 3 of the 2019 Overwatch League, so execs embraced her, but ladder gamers hardly ever did.

Sombra acquired another rework on Overwatch 2’s beta in April 2022. The essential bits to those modifications are additional lowering the unfold on her Machine Pistol, lowering the power lockout on Hack from 5 seconds to 1 second, and permitting her to make use of Hack whereas invisible. 

She would additionally deal further harm to hacked targets from her Opportunist passive. With these modifications, Sombra has traded off her assist and utility for lethality, making her a correct flanker who can discover extra solo kills. 

Blizzard would go on to make a number of rounds of tuning for Sombra, together with buffing the Hack lockout to 1.75 seconds earlier than deciding on 1.5 seconds. An enormous nerf to Sombra eliminated her skill to rehack targets who’re presently silenced, eradicating her skill to maintain problematic heroes like Wrecking Ball and Doomfist in test. Different modifications like rising EMP’s final price and lowering the harm on Hacked targets noticed her at her lowest.

On October 10, 2023, Sombra acquired yet one more rework for Overwatch 2’s seventh season. Sombra’s Stealth was reworked right into a passive, robotically cloaking her just a few seconds out of fight. Opportunist was utterly eliminated. Moreover, Translocator now teleports the participant after throwing it, which implies that gamers can now not depart a tool as a fast escape. 

Her largest change was the introduction of Virus, a brand new skill that damages enemies over time, faster on hacked targets. Her divisive modifications formally killed her identification as an infiltrating, stealthy disruptor in favour of a hyper-mobile DPS akin to Tracer. The designer’s thoughts behind the rework had been to make her extra lively and dedicated to the struggle, hoping to make her enjoyable to play and fewer irritating to play in opposition to. 

These modifications had been so polarising that high-level gamers couldn’t agree whether or not it was a web buff or nerf. This was the period when Sombra was despised by the neighborhood since her invisibility and burst harm led her to spawn tenting helps.

Sombra remained comparatively untouched all year long, receiving small changes to Virus and EMP. Regardless, Blizzard wasn’t happy as a result of she acquired her fourth rework a yr later in October 2024 for Season 13. Stealth was eliminated as a passive and prompts with a five-second period after utilizing Translocator. Opportunist was added again in, rising her harm in opposition to hacked targets. Lastly, hacking doesn’t take away her from stealth anymore.

Giving gamers company on when to make use of stealth was a step in the correct course, however tying it to her repositioning instrument makes it unintuitive to make use of. As a substitute of translocating across the struggle like a reduction Tracer, gamers would quite wait to interact on the tail finish of their invisibility. It’s additionally clunky to hack an enemy in stealth, then wait to decloak to ship Virus.

Each Sombra rework brings heated discourse, the place one facet would constantly say that she’s superb and gamers ought to adapt, whereas some say she’s infuriating to go in opposition to, regardless of how weak she turns into. Former Overwatch director, Jeff Kaplan, gave his thoughts on Sombra way back, saying that the neighborhood and design staff’s imaginative and prescient on Sombra isn’t aligned. 

They believed that “Sombra is a backline disruptor, not a vicious murderer”. Her distinctive identification as an infiltrator who was the core of establishing performs is changed with the package of a bursty flanker. However ought to preserving hero identification matter when the unique design is flawed? Sombra has been the recent goal of the newly introduced hero bans, and gamers will hardly ever see her in aggressive play due to it.

The Overwatch 2 staff does its finest work when it’s allowed to design from the bottom up, like with Orisa and Doomfist’s rework. Sombra wants the identical drastic therapy in the event that they need to see her in play once more. Sure, Sombra wants one other rework, one which doesn’t give attention to tuning or rearranging her talents, however impactful modifications that focus on her ache factors.

Sombra is inherently annoying to play in opposition to; that’s the position of a disruptor in any case. However what makes her problematic when heroes like Tracer do the identical job? Her package is comprised of historically irritating mechanics in aggressive multiplayer video games, all packaged in a single hero.

Her stealth, fast escape, skill lockout, and burst harm all work in tandem to play the sport on her beneficial phrases, which makes each engagement in opposition to her really feel like a downhill battle. Virus is a mistake that no one requested for within the first place. 

Placing most of her harm into this skill implies that she’ll decide to the simple kill when she lands it and disengage when she doesn’t. There’s additionally nothing she will do in opposition to targets who obtain any quantity of therapeutic because it’s a damage-over-time impact.

Hack’s skill lockout is the largest level of rivalry for the hero. Though Hack is interruptible, it’s not a skillshot and might be forged from stealth. However the extraordinarily quick skill lockout time is nearly irrelevant and solely good for interrupting channelled talents or amplifying Sombra’s combo. One potential rework to maintain its efficiency as a disable whereas making it interactive for the enemy is to make it work like Silencer’s Final Phrase from Dota 2. 

Making use of Hack doesn’t instantly lock out talents, however begins a countdown that silences enemies after it ends or after they forged a capability. To make issues extra fascinating, casting a capability whereas below this impact may harm them or apply one other debuff. This transformation permits Sombra to have extra energy over Hack because it offers the enemies ample time to mess around it, whereas nonetheless being advantageous for Sombra.

One other wild concept is remodeling Sombra right into a assist, and Overwatch is not any stranger to transforming kits for various roles. There have been glimpses of Sombra working as a assist. It’s been experimented on with Mirrorwatch, the place hacking allies will increase their assault pace and overhealth, and along with her White Hack perk, the place hacking allies heals them over time. If Blizzard can’t discover a candy spot for Sombra of their nth rework for the character, then enabling her staff as a assist could possibly be a greater different.

Sombra stays a thorn in Blizzard’s facet, the place it doesn’t matter what they do, a big a part of the neighborhood is outraged. Sombra has garnered a lot ailing will all through the years that there’s an virtually not possible process of constructing the neighborhood understand her as wholesome and truthful.

Overwatch 2’s design staff is simply too caught up in preserving Sombra’s hero identification that they need to first ask themselves why earlier than drafting up a brand new rework. With hero bans, the neighborhood made it loud and clear how they really feel about Sombra, and it’s as much as Blizzard now to reply.