In this part of the Spotlight series, we’ll take an in-depth look at Sombra’s abilities and what professional level players may be able to do with them. This article was written November 4th-5th. Any changes on data, numbers, etc. after this time frame are not accounted for. Opinions, analysis, and speculations are those of the author and are concerned with top-tier, professional-level play unless otherwise noted.
Sombra is an Offensive class hero with 200 HP. She has a Primary fire, Secondary ability, two special abilities, an AOE ultimate, and a passive effect known as Opportunist. Opportunist lets Sombra see any enemy hero under half their HP anywhere on the map in a way similar to Widowmaker’s Infrasight. In the next issues of this series we’ll cover Sombra’s interactions with other heros, counters, synergies, team compositions, how she stacks up with other DPS heros, and potential balance changes for her. But in this article, we take an in-depth look at her abilities. Let’s dive right in!
Primary Fire: Machine Pistol
With a conal fire type that looks similar to Tracer, Sombra sports 60 rounds per clip with one round per shot. The clip size feels generous and the spread isn’t as bad as you might expect. Without damage drop off numbers we won’t be able to define the effective range accurately. On stream with Unit Lost Gaming’s Stylosa, a developer mentioned that her effective range was meant to be like Soldier: 76’s but with a larger spread. Killing a standard 200 HP hero is easily possible in 1 clip. Sombra’s primary is very effective against Tanks as well, often being able to shred a Reinhardt in 2 clips. The weapon literally feels and sounds like you’re mowing down opponents due to the superb sound design.
Sombra’s primary attack rewards solid tracking skills akin to Soldier: 76. Expect to see legendary Soldier: 76 players like Bromas potentially pick Sombra up in the future. Surefour's stellar Soldier play in the doubles meta, most notably on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, and formidable Tracer mechanics should translate well to Sombra. Excellent Tracer players like Soon should find themselves at home with Sombra's mobility especially.
Secondary Fire: Hack
Sporting a 12 second cooldown after succesful use (decreased cooldown when your channeling gets interrupted), Hack temporarily prevents enemies from using abilities, but can also make health kits spawn faster and be unusable for enemies. As shown above, it takes just over 1 second to hack a target and has about a 9-10 meter range. This is around the travel distance of one of Tracer’s blinks. The Hack lasts for an insanely long 6 seconds on enemies and a full minute on health packs. Taking damage interrupts the Hack charge-up. Hacking a target will also show you if they have their Ultimate ability ready. Though high-tier players already track their opponent's Ultimates, the utility of this ability is an added benefit. Anything with a cooldown can be disabled with this ability. It does not, however, affect secondary fire options like Lucio’s or Soldier: 76’s. This means that if Sombra Hacks another Sombra, the Hacked Sombra can still use her Hack ability.
In general, Hack feels like a very balanced ability. It’s difficult to pull off correctly since damage stops the progress and it has a fairly short range. The reward for pulling it off is a punishing 6 second debuff or a minute of exclusive, fast spawning Health packs. I wish I could say Sombra’s other abilities feel anywhere near as balanced.
Uses for Hack could include Hacking a Reaper or Mei to prevent them from using Wraith or Cryo-Freeze abilities respectively, when delaying a point. You cannot Hack a Hacked Health station to revert it to your control.
Hacking will be something to abuse in the midst of a battle. Hacking is something akin to using Ana’s Sleep Dart and Grenade, but easier to use as no real aiming is involved. When to use it in the midst of a battle will become apparent after practice. If you’ve killed one support and Lucio is left, Hack him so he can’t Amp It Up. Genji has used DragonBlade and is diving into the team, so you Hack him to prevent him from using his Swift Strike before he can secure too many kills. Your Lucio can Amp It Up to speed boost away from the Genji, who is now stuck walking, jumping, and aimlessly swinging his sword out of range. If Pharah is within range, Hack her and severely gimp her mobility.
Hacking is also extremely strong if used preemptively. If your team’s play is Graviton Surge, make sure their Zenyatta or Lucio is Hacked and can’t help out with their ultimate. You can easily accomplish a flank in most areas of every map by using both Themoptic Camo and Translocator, which will be covered in a bit.
As stated before, Hacking a health pack results in a full minute of effect. Also note that you can Hack multiple Health packs, which means you can take control of all of the Health packs around a point if on Defense and have a good advantage of sustain. Many flanking heros depend on Health packs and this will limit their efficacy, as well as prevent enemy Sombras from abusing Hacked Pack Hunting (discussed later).
A specific example could be Sombra hacking the above Health pack on Hollywood behind point A. If things get dicey or your healers go down, teammates can go to that room or the small Cafe Health pack and get healed up quickly. It would be particularly useful for a defending team, as they can stall out points by going in and healing up from the Health packs to burn time on the clock. The possibilities are endless.
Shift: Thermoptic Camo
This ability is perhaps the most interesting. We’ve seen teleports before, we’ve seen debuff abilities before, but stealth? Combine that with Sombra’s passive ability Opportunist and you’ve got yourself a Hero that’s potentially a better assassin than the Cyborg Ninja. Excuse me?
Sporting a ridiculously low six-second cooldown, Sombra is invisible to enemies and moves at a speed similar to a sprinting Soldier: 76. While she is invisible, she is still audible. If Sombra attacks, uses offensive abilities, or takes damage her camouflage is disabled. No professional player is going to use Thermoptic Camo (Camo) and charge blindly into enemy fire. By using safe flank paths, Sombra will quickly and easily be able to access the enemy backline for free. The constant threat places pressure and stress on enemy Supports as they could be ambushed at any moment in a whole new way. It will be up to the frontline Tanks and DPS to notify the team when they see Sombra sneaking away.
Using Camo opens up opportunities for the enemy team as well. If you see Sombra disappear, that could be an engagement condition. Sombra will be forced to reveal herself to help immediately or choose to continue moving to the backline to attack supports. A well coordinated assault by an enemy team could wipe a significant portion of Sombra’s team before she is able to begin her assault on the backline and supports.
I believe that Camo has massive utility to reposition and is exceptionally valuable in professional-level play for the speed boost alone. The invisibility is great, but I expect professional players to, given a bit of time, learn to handle an invisible enemy.
To sweep or scan an area for Sombra, you need a weapon that has a high rate of fire or has a large spread. Shotgun-style weapon wielders like Reaper, Torbjörn, and Roadhog have large spreads and a pellet will likely catch a hidden Sombra. Roadhog and Torbjorn have a slower rate of fire and much larger spread that make them less ideal, but in medium ranges the pellets will catch Sombra. Tracer and Dva have similar spread style weapons that shoot consistent pellet streams with a good spread that can sweep an area. Bastion, Sombra, Soldier: 76, Mei, and Zarya output a constant or near-constant damage stream that can easily be swept across an area to reveal a hidden Sombra. Zarya and Mei are range limited but still effective.
If you want to engage Sombra and prevent her from using Camo to escape, Winston is one of the best heroes. His Tesla cannon AOE damage will prevent her from escaping using Camo. Winston will be effective when sweeping small areas for Sombra, but his range prevents him from being a good preemptive sweep hero like those mentioned above.
E: The Translocator
The Translocator is a projectile that can bounce off of walls and allow instant teleportation to areas. You can teleport to the Translocator at any point in time after it is thrown, which includes while still in the air.
This is the ability that changes what 'movement' means in Overwatch. As of now, its the most versatile and flexible movement ability. Its quick, has good range, a low cooldown, a long duration, and can be bounced around corners. Once thrown, Sombra has a 15 second window to teleport back to the Translocator location; this is 5 times the window for Tracer's recall. The cooldown is also short at 6 seconds.
A certain comparison can be made between Tracer and Sombra, both have low health pools but make up for it with mobility. What Tracer makes strong is her constant use of mobility, whereas Sombra will have to focus on more creative use of her E.
You can use the Translocator to get to the same elevation as your target, wait the very short 6 seconds for it to be usable again, place another Translocator, use Camo, and go assassinate your target. Get in trouble? Translocate to safety. Basically, a character somewhat similar to Tracer is now in the game but with vertical mobility. While her mobility in combat is not as high as Tracer, her ability to access backlines and retreat is comparable if not greater.
As seen in the animation above, the range for the Translocator throw is quite large. “Backline Harassment" is given a whole new meaning with a 15 second escape window and an abusable 6 second cooldown. I may go as far as to say that Sombra is the new great choice for Payload maps, and Tracer will retain her throne on King of the Hill style maps.
Sombra brings a new strategy to the game: Hacked Pack Hunting. Find and Hack a health pack, throw down your Translocator, activate Camo, and speed towards your prey. For example, you can Hack the large Health pack in the Hangar phase of Watchpoint: Gibraltar and use that as your “Base of Operations" for Hacked Pack Hunting. Simply translocate back to the pack when you need health or the timer is up. This will most likely be game changing for quick play and competitive modes as Sombra will be able to go in and out as she pleases with a quick escape tactic to fully heal. In professional level play, the Translocator can be placed near your backline and supports: the supports act as the "Health packs" in this case. This prevents a 5v6 situation in favor of the enemy if Sombra is away attempting to set up a Health pack for Hacked Pack Hunting. The Translocator location will depend on the area of the map, but the strategy is viable almost everywhere.
Professional players known for excellent Tracer play, like SOon, may find themselves wielding Sombra to deadly effect.
Translocator and Camo together can also be used to quickly run back to the point to contest it. Throw the Translocator far, teleport to it, activate Camo, and by the time Camo ends you pretty much have another Translocator. The massive amount of distance covered and very short cooldowns will allow Sombra to get back to points very quickly.
The Almighty Q: EMP
The EMP is an instant-use AOE about the size of Mei’s Blizzard ultimate. This is basically an augmented form of the Hack secondary ability in an AOE. I am unsure if health packs within the AOE are also hacked (seems likely), but we know for a fact that it shuts down casted ultimates, destroys barriers (Reinhardt/Winston/etc), and disables a variety of turrets. It does require line of sight. The best comparison for EMP is to think about McCree’s flash bang; if a Lucio is stunned he cannot switch songs but the effect of the current song persists.
EMP changes the game.
Overwatch at the professional level is a game dictated by ultimates. Teams constantly communicate about which ultimates the enemy has used, which ultimates to use in the next engagement, etc. We now have an ultimate that cancels ultimates and can prevent them from being used. From footage and using the length of Hack’s duration, we can see that it lasts about 6 seconds. 6 seconds is an eternity.
An ideal scenario I can imagine is throwing your Translocator, teleporting into the enemy, using EMP, and getting a Zarya barrier which lets you run away with Camo. I do not know at this time if friendly Zarya barriers will reveal a Camo’d Sombra, but if it does not (it shouldn’t as Mercy beams aren’t visible on a Camo’d Sombra) it’s a game changer. You can even take that time to move further into the backline supports and pincer the enemy with your team.
Sombra’s EMP is the number one new engagement tool. It’s almost a guaranteed team fight in your favor. Teams usually have a chance to counterplay big ultimate engagements (unless it’s a Nano-boosted Death Blossom (Beyblade) and everyone dies in less than 2 seconds), but EMP will guarantee they cannot counterplay. In fact, EMP can be used in place of many other ultimates in current wombo-combos and have a greater effect on the outcome.
Let’s say the enemy team, for whatever reason, has a Zenyatta and you know he has his ultimate. Your team wants to use Graviton Surge. If Zenyatta uses his ultimate, he’s invulnerable and therefore EMP won’t cancel his ultimate. Use Lucio’s speed boost to get up close or throw your Translocator into the enemy team to simply teleport and EMP at the same time your team uses Graviton Surge. What can the enemy do? Nothing. They have no Reinhardt barrier to block damage. If you have an Ana, they’ll all be debuffed from healing. Zenyatta won’t be able to use his ultimate.
In fact, it may be better to Graviton Surge and bait the Zenyatta ultimate. If you use EMP and the Reinhardt barrier (if they have one) breaks and you toss in an Ana grenade, you’ve now also wasted their Zenyatta ultimate. The same baiting applies to Lucio’s sound barrier since EMP will remove it.
Sombra could also bait enemy teams and use EMP to great effect. If teams begin engaging when Sombra disappears, Sombra can make it seem like she is going for a flank by using Camo. Simply remain with your team, and when the enemy team engages hit them with EMP and leave the enemy in your midst severely debuffed.
Regarding the questions of using Sombra to counter Nanoboost, we know that EMP will not take the Nanoboost off of a target. The most effect EMP will have on the current Beyblade combination is preventing Reaper from using Death Blossom or cancel it mid-use. It is inadvisable to always use EMP defensively to stop a Beyblade however, as the massive amount of damage it does occurs extremely quickly. Your team is likely to suffer extreme damage and a few deaths before you are able to EMP - even at professional levels. If the speed nerf to Nanoboost goes through, it may be plausible to EMP as soon as you hear the Nanoboost if Reaper has not positioned in a drop down perch or flank. Expect teams to only use Beyblade when Reaper is able to position to drop down or is flanking and it can be pulled off quickly if Sombra is present and has her ultimate.
Many Reinhardt players have begun to save Earthshatter specifically for when the enemy uses Beyblade to stun the Reaper. If you use EMP, you further guarantee the safety and efficacy of Beyblade. While using 3 major ultimates isn’t optimal, it is an option if the match or round is nearing completion. It also means the enemy Reinhardt won’t be able to charge your Reaper away or use his Barrier to block the damage.
One of the reasons Nanoboost on Reinhardt isn’t always viable is because it leaves the team vulnerable to an enemy Earthshatter. With Sombra’s EMP, that’s no longer the case. Enemy Reinhardt players will have no barrier, they cannot Earthshatter, they cannot charge your Nanoboosted Reinhardt away, and they cannot block any damage.
I do not believe EMP will push Reinhardt out of the meta. One ultimate temporarily negating a hero’s effectiveness is not enough to push them out of use. In fact, I expect Reinhardt and Sombra to have great synergy: EMP and Earthshatter will be a deadly combination. I do expect Sombra to be the perfect addition for the flex DPS spot in the current favorable composition of Reinhardt, Zarya, Ana, Lucio, and Reaper. This composition also counters triple tank compositions more severely than ever as Sombra’s damage output is quite high.
Concluding Thoughts
This article has only begun to brush the surface of what Sombra entails. Vertical mobility, short cooldowns, Overwatch’s first experience with stealth, high damage, and the ability to disable enemy abilities amount to a hero with the potential to make Overwatch much more chaotic. Players will begin to truly fear an enemy hero like never before. Sombra stands to have one of the highest skill ceilings in the game. In the next article, we will explore Sombra’s potential effects on the other heros in the game, synergies, and more.
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