Sombra, throughout her existence in Overwatch, has always been a see-saw when it comes to her balancing. Sometimes she sits at the bottom tier of DPS heroes and other times (like in the current patch) she is almost a must pick on each map. In our current patch, Sombra has gained infinite stealth as well as a translocator that lasts forever. The downside to the translocator is that it is now destructible, meaning any enemy who happens to come across it can destroy it stopping you from being able to translocate. These changes, along with the buffs she has gotten in previous patches, have made her one of the best DPS picks in the game today. Today, I will go through her new playstyles as well as what you can do when you come across a Sombra in ranked.

The Sombra Playstyles

If you’ve been watching Contenders in Overwatch, you’ll know that there are two types of Sombra playstyles. The first is a more frontline oriented playstyle in which the one playing Sombra stays towards the tank line. Sombra can then use her hack to silence the cooldowns of the tanks leaving them susceptible to taking a lot of damage. For instance, D.Va is an incredibly valuable hack target. If D.Va is not able to Defense Matrix any incoming damage, you and your team can blow her out of mech in an instant. Even if you aren’t able to de-mech the D.Va, you still gain value as you can get an enormous amount of ult charge from doing damage to her (almost 50% if your shots are hitting). This is the most valuable aspect of this type of playstyle. Hacking tanks and bursting them down will ultimately result in your EMP charging at a rate where it might as well be a cooldown ability. While I have been covering Chinese Contenders, I saw a player have an EMP almost every fight by playing a more frontline-oriented Sombra and bursting down the enemy's tank line.

On the other side of the coin, we have the stealthier Sombra who waits for the perfect moment to strike into the backline. This Sombra takes full advantage of the infinite stealth using it to get into the backline of the enemy team undetected. Patience and positioning are key for this type of style. You don’t want to attack your target when they are crowded by their team. Your goal is to wait until someone is relatively alone before you execute your hack. If the hack is successful you and your team can pounce onto the hacked target and take them out. The other side of that coin is you need to be positioned at a safe enough distance from the enemies as to not get detected out of stealth. You don’t want to be close enough to hug them. Ideally, you should be at max range for a hack. This way the enemy team has less time to react to stop your hack.

Both of these playstyles share one common thing - your use of translocator. One of the most important things is to be cognizant of your health and how far you can go before you relocate. It’s usually best to air on the side of caution so if you are sub 30 health it might be a good time to hit that E button and get yourself a hacked health pack.

Countering Sombra

Sombra is in a weird place in the meta currently. With her kit being so new, there are few direct counters that have cropped up. One of the most obvious ones are heroes that have CC in their kits like Brigitte or McCree. These are what I would consider “soft counters” to Sombra meaning they can have an impact on the Sombra’s play, but not enough to shut her down completely. Brigitte, for instance, has her Shield Bash/Whip Shot combo which can do 155 damage. While this combo is able to one-shot characters like Tracer who has 150 hp, Sombra has 200 hp and will be able to Translocate if there is no other follow up. While you aren’t able to outright kill the Sombra yourself, the main thing you are doing is making her aware of your presence and putting pressure on her. This limits Sombra’s ability to freely hack away at your teammates and might force them to adopt a new playstyle or switch altogether.

McCree is much like Brigitte although McCree does have one-shot potential against her with his Flashbang/Fan the Hammer combo. McCree though is a much riskier pick than a Brigitte and you have to be supremely confident in your abilities to duel off with a Sombra. If you end up getting hacked, there is nothing besides your raw aim that can save your skin. So if you decide to pick McCree to counter a Sombra, make sure you’re putting on your Pine jersey because you’ll need all the help you can get.

As it is with a few Overwatch characters, the best counter to a hero is to match them and play the same hero yourself. Sombra versus Sombra is a game of invisible chess played between both players. Hack is the ultimate counter to a Sombra. Ironic, isn’t it? Like many of the heroes Sombra preys on, she suffers greatly from not having her cooldowns available to her. You can take away her safety net of Translocate forcing her to be in the fight which then puts pressure on the enemy team to make a decision if they want to help the Sombra or take the next fight down a player. Speaking of Hack, the best thing to counter an EMP from an enemy Sombra is your own EMP. If both Sombras have EMP and the teamfight is about to begin, the Sombra who EMPs first is most likely to win. Not only do you negate the enemy Sombra’s EMP but you negate the cooldowns and ults of everyone around you as well giving your team a few seconds to secure kills or use their own ultimates.

Sombra in the Future

Sombra, at this point in the meta, is a pick you can’t go wrong with. Infinite stealth gives you the ability to have a variety of playstyles which you can change depending on whatever scenario you are in. As she is still new to the meta she has yet to be figured out. Sombra, however, is a hero that doesn’t offer a lot of carry potential. You will still need some help and follow up with your teammates.

Remember, Hack the Planet!

Until Next Time, Kenobi.

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