Overwatch 2 Sombra rework: Virus ability added, Translocator nerfed, and more

In the ever-changing landscape of Overwatch 2, Sombra, the elusive hacker, has been a subject of continuous evolution since her debut in 2016. With Season 7 on the horizon, the development team has once again reimagined her gameplay. These changes promise a more engaging experience for both Sombra enthusiasts and their adversaries.

While her core mechanics remain familiar, the introduction of the Virus ability adds a potentially game-changing element, offering significant damage potential.

This article delves into Sombra's reworked ability set featuring a faster Translocator, a passive stealth mechanic, and the deadly Virus ability, amplifying her lethality on the battlefield.

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Sombra's abilities receive reworks in Season 7 of Overwatch 2

The Sombra rework in Overwatch 2 was driven by several key design goals. Firstly, the goal was to make Sombra more committed to engagements, encouraging players to actively participate in fights. Secondly, the focus was on the overall feel of Sombra's ability kit, making her gameplay more dynamic and engaging. Lastly, the rework sought to maintain her identity as a hacker while evolving her playstyle.

In the Overwatch 2 Sombra rework, she undergoes a significant transformation into a damage-oriented hero. Her stealth ability now operates as a passive skill, enhancing gameplay fluidity when out of combat for a certain time. This change empowers players to engage enemies more effectively by leveraging her Virus ability, which inflicts damage over time.

By combining the new virus ability, hacking, and her machine pistol, Sombra can efficiently secure kills, making her a more potent force on the battlefield. There are counterplay options against her Virus ability, as it can be blocked by shields and matrix abilities.

Overall, the rework has amplified Sombra's burst damage potential, making her a formidable threat not only to support heroes but also to tanks, providing more versatility to players in their tactical choices.

Virus

• This is a new ability assigned to Ability 1 by default.
• Fire a projectile that damages an enemy over time. Damage is dealt faster on Hacked enemies.
• Impact Damage: 10 (20 on hacked target).
• Damage over time: 100 over 4 seconds (100 over 2 seconds on hacked target).

The "Virus" ability functions as a projectile that deals damage over time and aligns with Sombra's ranged playstyle. A bonus interaction was added, causing the Virus to inflict faster damage over time to hacked targets. This adjustment struck a balance between player engagement and enhancing Sombra's abilities in Overwatch 2.

Stealth

• Ability reworked to be a passive. Sombra automatically becomes invisible after 3.5 seconds while not shooting, using a damaging ability, or receiving damage.
• Stealth movement speed bonus was reduced from 60% to 45%.
• Fade Out duration of Stealth was reduced from 0.375 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
• Fade In duration from Stealth was reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.375 seconds.
• Updated the UI messaging to the Sombra player when hacking Health Packs to "Revealed" instead of "Detected." Now, the message "Detected" is only used when an enemy player is in the detection radius.

Sombra's Stealth ability, a powerful tool, underwent changes in Overwatch 2 for better balance. Initially, it allowed hacking while in stealth, activated at any cooldown availability, and had infinite duration. To address concerns, her stealth is now a passive ability, automatically activating after a period out of combat, allowing smoother transitions.

Hack

• Cast time was reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.65 seconds.
• Now cancels Stealth when hacking an enemy hero.
• Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
• Hack has a reduced cooldown of 3 seconds if Hack is interrupted or if a non-hero enemy is hacked.
• The "Hacked" warning text will now only appear while you are silenced and not for the remainder duration of the hack debuff.

Sombra's Hack ability has undergone multiple changes in Overwatch's history. During the rework, the Hack ability underwent several changes. Ultimately, developers decided to retain the same Hack debuff but made hacking an enemy cancel Sombra's stealth, emphasizing her commitment while engaging with the enemies.

Translocator

• Can no longer be manually activated. Translocator will now automatically teleport Sombra after 0.25 seconds from being thrown or when impacting the environment.
• Reduces the Stealth passive cooldown after teleporting.
• The projectile speed increased from 25 to 72.
• Cooldown was reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Cooldown now begins after Sombra teleports to the location of the Transponder.
• Projectile launch initial vertical offset removed.

In the Overwatch 2 rework of Sombra, changes to Translocator were made to reduce its "get out of jail free" nature, promoting more active combat usage. Counterplay involving hunting the Translocator was rare, especially with reduced stun frequency in Overwatch 2.

As the Stealth ability turns into a passive ability, Translocator now becomes a fast teleport, enabling quicker combat maneuvers.

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More changes to Sombra's kit in Season 7 of Overwatch 2

Sombra's previous passive ability, Opportunist, has been removed and replaced by Stealth, as mentioned above. This now-removed passive ability allowed her to deal more damage to hacked targets and detect critically injured enemies through walls. As a consequence, Sombra's Machine Pistol received buffs.

Changes made to her Machine Pistol and EMP are as follows:

Machine Pistol

• Damage increased from 7.5 to 8.
• Minimum Spread was reduced from 0.5 to 0.
• Number of shots until max spread has been increased from 3 to 6 shots.
• Reload time was reduced from 1.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds.

EMP

• Ultimate charge cost increased by 15%.
• Health percent damage decreased from 40% to 30%

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That covers our foray into Sombra's rework in Overwatch 2.