Is Sombra Effective Now?

[GameLegend]

I know after the most recent update a lot of tanks have been de-buffed and buffed Sombra a bit. Is she now considered an effective character in team composition? Also is she better on Offense, Defense, or Both? What strategies do you use with Sombra to make her a game changer?

[Tart]

Shes annoying but i can still dispense of her pretty quickly as Mccree.

[Jessicka]

Yes, she's in a much better spot now. Better on Attack and especially KotH than on Defence. I don't go chasing supports, I don't hunt alone, she can't do it, you use Tracer for that, but you can really get under the skin of tanks and that's every bit as effective at making teams fall apart. She's also a great anti-flanker, since you can Hack them and stop them getting away. If there is a back line problem, you can push out with Invis and Translocate, but it's not something you can habitually get away with but she can do a job against a stubborn Widow, Hanzo or Ana that's keeping out of LOS or range of the rest of your team.

[Gandrake]

to be any good her spread is going to have to be tightened a bit

even tracer doesn't suffer as badly from spread as sombra does but she is not a hero i am really looking forward to being any good

[Woobels]

You need good comms to make her work, more than any other hero.

If you actually want to climb with her you need to understand you are like a pseudo-healer, if you aren't building a lot of ult through healing people with hacked health packs you're playing her wrong, or your team is playing around you poorly in which case you might aswell swap off and try to make things happen with Tracer.

You're not supposed to be constantly killing people, just harass the support and blink back out until you get EMP and then go for a push with your team.

[Jessicka]

to be any good her spread is going to have to be tightened a bit

even tracer doesn't suffer as badly from spread as sombra does but she is not a hero i am really looking forward to being any good

Thing is, if she had less spread to deal damage like Tracer, she'd be better than Tracer at being Tracer. That's not her role, so don't expect it to happen.

[Deleted]

She's effective, as in you can reach GM playing mainly Sombra. But you have to be really, really good. She still is subpar compared to most other DPS picks in almost any situation, but if you can actually master her and play her very, very effectively, you can still win games.

[Gandrake]

Thing is, if she had less spread to deal damage like Tracer, she'd be better than Tracer at being Tracer. That's not her role, so don't expect it to happen.

i dont think so

her gun is already as strong as tracer's and she can't just chuck bombs at people and shit on them out of nowhere. 1v1, soldier should kill sombra just about every time. but 1v1, tracer should kill a soldier just about every time.

additionally a big part of her problem is lack of player knowledge. people still don't know what she does. i have dropped EMP before and my whole team kind of just stood there... at the choke.... and didn't do anything. we lost but enemy players said i did pretty well as I was hacking targets like junkrat trying to 1v1 (he's really good against people at this SR rofl), Ana and Reinhardt as well as taking their health packs from them.

I don't think people are going to realize the utility she provides until she becomes more independent of team play even though more skilled players know how much of a problem she can cause.

I'd like to see the strength of hack scaled back a bit but keep EMP the same so she can be adjusted a bit to be more independent

[minteK917]

Shes not as bad, the real problem is shes taking a slot from much more powerful heroes right now. soldier 76 is just all around too strong to replace, a team healing and the ability to constantly apply pressure on shields and healers in general. A risk free ULT that can be combined with Ana. Genji, mix well with Ana and also combo with one of the most powerful non damage hero zarya. Tracer is a better Sombra and combo with zarya again. Mccree is the high risk soldier 76 with an ult that usually need combo to ever be used. Rein being mendatory usually rain on the high noon parade.

EMP is good, but its potential for combo is kind of redundant when you think about it. EMP can open you the opportunity to start a combo, but that can be done without EMP by say soldier 76 breaking the rein shield. You get the idea EMP doesent exactly have a direct place in the current meta. It does something that can be setup without giving a slot to sombra. EMP itself does nothing to kill the enemy team. EMP will set up a perfect Graviton surge/dragon blade... but its not required to set it up to begin with.

[Mormolyce]

Didn't they just slightly reduce the hack time? That's not enough to make her competitive, not by a long shot IMO.

to be any good her spread is going to have to be tightened a bit

even tracer doesn't suffer as badly from spread as sombra does but she is not a hero i am really looking forward to being any good

They can't tighten everyone's spread, she uses spray and pray Uzis.

If they want to make her more powerful I'd recommend buffs in different areas. Maybe make her enter stealth faster, or give her a second of stealth pop immunity.

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A risk free ULT that can be combined with Ana.

Well, relatively risk free. IMO he's midway between ridiculously high risk (Pharah, Reaper) and zero risk (Mei, Zarya).

[minteK917]

Didn't they just slightly reduce the hack time? That's not enough to make her competitive, not by a long shot IMO.



They can't tighten everyone's spread, she uses spray and pray Uzis.

If they want to make her more powerful I'd recommend buffs in different areas. Maybe make her enter stealth faster, or give her a second of stealth pop immunity.

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Well, relatively risk free. IMO he's midway between ridiculously high risk (Pharah, Reaper) and zero risk (Mei, Zarya).

His risk does not increase when he uses it. It just aims for him. Some people are usually over aggressive with it and dive in the middle of the enemy team with it. But really 76 should always try to position in elevation during his ult, pick off people that arent close enough to get to cover fast. The only reason mei and zarya are even less risk, is that their ult actually reduce normal risk from just moving around lol. I guess you can say soldier 76 ult is neutral risk.

[Mormolyce]

His risk does not increase when he uses it. It just aims for him. Some people are usually over aggressive with it and dive in the middle of the enemy team with it. But really 76 should always try to position in elevation during his ult, pick off people that arent close enough to get to cover fast. The only reason mei and zarya are even less risk, is that their ult actually reduce normal risk from just moving around lol. I guess you can say soldier 76 ult is neutral risk.

He is an obvious target for focus fire though, and relies on good positioning or a Rein shield to survive. He's a bit better off than Reaper who needs to be up close to use his, and a lot better than Pharah who's stationary.

[Gandrake]

They can't tighten everyone's spread, she uses spray and pray Uzis.

and you unlock expressions from a treasure chest or you buy with currency in this game. what's your point?

it's really hard to hit other players with enough of your bullets unless they are a tank, and they are tanks and if you are sombra then you are not tracer.... sooo

[Mormolyce]

and you unlock expressions from a treasure chest or you buy with currency in this game. what's your point?

it's really hard to hit other players with enough of your bullets unless they are a tank, and they are tanks and if you are sombra then you are not tracer.... sooo

My point is, this game is based on diversity of weapons, not everyone can have tight spread.

[Lynarii]

The problem as I see it is that her kit as a whole just doesn't have a really good spot for it's use.

Her stealth and translocator are both tools that are useful in a running battle and flanking, but since she isn't a very good 1v1 fighter, she simply doesn't have the impact that a good Tracer or Genji would have doing much the same thing. Her health kit hacking and EMP are good for entrenched battles around capture points, but she's outclassed by Soldier, Pharah, or even Junkrat's ability to get damage downrange as soon as the firefight actually starts.

If you couldn't change heroes, she probably would be a decent pick for maps that include a significant amount of both types of fighting (like king's row, which starts out with an entrenched fight, has a run and gun section in the middle, then another seige at the end), but as it is you're generally better off picking the best hero for each scenario as it comes up rather than dedicating the whole match to a hero that is merely decent at the whole thing.

For Sombra to be truly viable, she either needs to have a valuable role where she's the 'best' hero for the job, or the meta needs to be in a 4-5 DPS comp where all the best picks are already on the team and you still have a slot to fill. And I don't see the second happening any time soon.