Sombra’s Overwatch PTR rework is getting some more changes

Overwatch’s most nefarious hacker, Sombra, is due for a second rework. This new rework would grant her an infinite stealth and translocator, making her one of the most mobile and sneaky characters in the game. Her hack would remain the same from her original rework, allowing her to drop Pharahs out of the sky and cut off the music of those tricky enemy Lucios. The full rework recently dropped on the Overwatch PTR, along with Wrecking Ball and a few other balance changes.

Here are the initial notes about Sombra’s rework:

Stealth

Now lasts forever

No longer can contest objectives while invisible

Enemy detection radius increased from 2 meters to 4 meters

Telelocator

Now lasts forever

Can now be destroyed (has 5 health)

Developer Comments: These changes allow Sombra to more easily play as an infiltrator and scout for her team, as well as give her time to pick and choose when to reveal herself to ambush her enemies.

While those are certainly an interesting set of changes, they’re not what will make it to live. Geoff Goodman, lead designer, popped onto the forums to update Sombra fans as to the next set of changes that will be tested.

We have another round of Sombra changes coming to the PTR soon as well. This is what is coming:

Reverting the detection radius from 4 to 2.

You no longer need to look at the translocator to destroy it, you can now just hit the interact button and it will be destroyed. If you’re standing on a Symmetra teleporter hitting interact will only teleport you to Symmetra’s other teleporter, rather than destroying your translocator.

Dramatically lowered the enemy sound cue for the translocator location. You need to be nearly standing right on it now to hear it.

EMP now works on Wrecking Ball Minefield, disabling the mines for 10s

You can now interrupt reload by hacking.

We’re still evaluating the changes overall, but shes unlikely to regain the ability to contest objectives or have +75% move speed while invisible. The goal of these changes is to make her stronger overall, even if it means being slightly weaker in some areas.

Sombra likely won’t go live soon—it sounds like they’re still tinkering with the details of her changes. However, this next set of changes should make her even more specialized. (Can you imagine how scary it will be to get hacked as an Orisa when you’re out of ammo?) After Sombra, we can look forward to an eventual Torbjorn rework.