Sombra has been out a whole two days on the PTR, so it’s time to jump to a bunch of conclusions that will obviously all be proven correct. I’ve spent a lot of time the past few days playing her on the PTR as well as watching streams and analysis of her gameplay. While the following will be nothing more than speculation based on all this early information, I think there is a good sense forming around how Sombra will fit into the current game.

While Sombra is a “cleanup/flanker” in the vein of Genji and Tracer, her damage output is lower than either. She occupies more of a DPS/Support hybrid role, and this might be the key to understanding her. Her mobility allows her to dominate horizontal space the way Tracer can. But whereas Tracer commits to repeated attack runs, Sombra gets one shot to go in before having to retreat to safety. Her Machine Pistol has a larger effective range, but is limited by its bullet spread. While invisible, she’s one of the fastest characters in the game. Her most impactful use as a flanker comes from combining her abilities to surprise an enemy from behind, fire a full round directly into a character’s head, and then teleport back to safety.

The key to effective Sombra play comes from causing chaos. The simple worry about where Sombra is and who she’s out to flank/Hack is enough to move opponents out from their traditional bunched up formations. While Hack is a threat, it takes time to pull off and any damage Sombra takes will cut off the Hack attempt. On the other hand, there’s little you can do about EMP. When properly executed, it is more devastating an ability than even Graviton. With all Ultimates and abilities cut off for six seconds, it’s an almost guaranteed team wipe should you catch five or six people in it.

But how does this all come together in the larger picture of the game? In the more traditional 2/2/2 Meta, Sombra will likely struggle to justify a DPS spot on Defense and Control. Genji and Tracer already struggle on Defense due to their lower damage output, and Sombra is likely to run into the same issue. On Control, Tracer is just too good at what she does for Sombra to likely displace her, and Reinhardt is much less of a concern than in other modes. On Attack and Escort though, Sombra is likely to shine. This is especially true on Attack where an attacking team needs to only win two team fights to take the map, and defensive teams are almost always bunched up around Reinhardt’s shield.

That being said, what if instead of a 2/2/2 comp we consider a 3/2/1 comp with three DPS picks and either one Tank or one Support. After all, Sombra is a counter to every tank but Winston based on evidence thus far. My early impression is this might be where her true potential could be unlocked. Comps such as Genji/Soldier 76/Sombra/Winston/Zarya or D.Va/Lucio or Ana have some serious potential if they work the way I think they could. Static comps reliant on shields and crowd control now cut off from the abilities that sustain them could get bull rushed by faster dive comps.

Let’s start breaking this down in terms of what characters Sombra will most impact:

Who Stands to Lose From Sombra?

Reinhardt: Sombra may as well have been introduced as the Death Ball Buster. Between Hack and EMP, Sombra is going to be the top threat to a team reliant on Reinhardt’s Barrier. Even teams continuing to employ Reinhardt will need to consider spreading out to avoid a potentially game-ending EMP.

Zarya: For everyone complaining that Zarya lacked a hard counter, say hello to Sombra. If EMP poses a threat to Reinhardt, it’s actually fatal to the Russian. On top of losing access to her Barriers, EMP immediately halves her HP, leaving her as vulnerable as any other squishie. While her Barriers will block Hack and EMP, good Sombra players can just wait these out. And Zarya can hardly afford to just spam her Barriers in the hopes of avoiding EMP.

Mei: Mei has become a staple in Defensive lineups due to her ability to stall out a point while her teammates respawn. With one well-timed Hack or EMP, all that stall potential is removed. The idea of Mei being an off-tank is centered on always having Cryo-Freeze and Ice Wall at the ready, meaning she’ll be one of the most tempting targets for Sombra players to Hack.

Lucio: To be honest, I don’t think Sombra is going to impact Lucio much on Attack, Escort, or Control. Even with the threat EMP poses to Sound Barrier, his Speed Boost remains too valuable, and he always has the option of waiting for EMP to be used before popping his Ult. However, it may mean the end of picking Lucio on Defense. Between EMP’s team-wiping potential and the inability to rely on Sound Barrier at a moment’s notice, Mercy starts to make a lot more sense here.

Pharah: You know what Pharah didn’t need? The answer is yet another counter.

Who Stands to Gain from Sombra?

Soldier 76: For some time, McCree has kept Soldier 76 largely out of the Meta due to his superiority in the mid-range game. If the current buff to 76 on the PTR goes into effect, we’re poised to see 76 come back in a big way. His Tactical Visor will now have 1050 damage potential, and the Nano-Boosted version will eclipse 1500. However, Reinhardt’s shield, Mei’s ice walls, D.Va’s Defense Matrix, and Zarya’s shield bubbles all serve as deterrents to his Ultimate.

And that’s where Sombra comes in. With one well-timed EMP, all of those deterrents go away. The Wombo Combo potential between EMP and Tac Visor alone is enough to create some serious synergy between 76 and Sombra, but 76 may enable Sombra comps in other ways. His Biotic Field helps solve the issue of how to build a comp around Sombra, as 76 can serve as a pseudo healer. And just to top things off, 76 is one of the stronger Sombra counters in the game.

Winston: Every comp in pro Overwatch involves either Reinhardt or Winston. With Sombra being a strong Reinhardt counter, it stands to reason Winston will gain from Sombra. Winston also happens to be one of the game’s strongest counters to Sombra. She cannot hack through his Barrier, and Winston’s constant movements make it more difficult to catch both him and his team together in an EMP. As the icing on the cake, Winston is the best enabler in the game for Cleanup/Flanker characters to finish off weakened targets. Do not be surprised if Winston owns the highest pick rate (after maybe Lucio) in pro Overwatch in short order.

D.Va: While Sombra will counter D.Va to some extent, she may enable D.Va to finally occupy a larger role in the Meta. Reinhardt, Zarya, and Mei currently serve as the three biggest counters to D.Va. Well, if you look at the above list, those are three of the characters that stand the most to lose from Sombra. Combine this with the potential PTR buffs to D.Va’s movement speed while firing, another 100 HP in her already sizable health pool, and the fact Self-Destruct into an EMP’d team is a potential death sentence and D.Va is starting to look like a pretty attractive pick.

Mercy: As covered earlier, Sombra may finally loosen Lucio’s vice-like grip on the primary healer spot in every pro comp. It only stands to reason Mercy has the most to gain from this. But there are other reasons Mercy starts to make more sense in a post-Sombra world. Mercy players already hide when Resurrect is up, meaning she’ll be in relative safety from EMP in these cases. In addition, a long-standing issue with Mercy has been her lack of damage output, making it feel like it’s a 5 vs. 6 game when you take her. But if you’re using a combination of Mercy and a higher damage output character like a Reaper or Mcree while the other team is employing a Sombra and a Lucio, the damage potential of the two teams is a lot more even.

McCree: All that stuff I said earlier about Tactical Visor? That applies to High Noon as well. Like McCree really needed to be in a better spot in the Meta…

You're Taking This Very Seriously

Again, this has all been a lot of early supposition about what will happen once Sombra drops. We still don’t know what other changes currently being tested on the PTR will make it into Season 3. But from what I’ve seen so far, I personally am in love with both Sombra as a character and how she could potentially open up the game to a multitude of new comps and strategies. If you get a chance, I highly recommend downloading the PTR to give her a try. And if you’re a Reinhardt player, well, maybe you should start learning to love Harambae.

Thanks for the early rundown. I haven't played any games on the PTR yet, so my only hands on knowledge of Sombra was the few minutes I spent with her in the practice range. I watched a youtube video of what she can, and cannot hack. The list seemed very inconsistent and hard to digest. My immediate thought was that I hope they make Hack a more intuitive ability, but again, I haven't had any real experience with or against Sombra. I can imagine some pretty gnarly ganks on maps like Hollywood. Hack the big health kit behind point A, and beacon near it. Then go harass/emp during a push, teleporting out when you're in trouble to the hacked health kit, out of los. I'm excited to see how it shakes out.

Yes I'm looking forward to the effect Sombra will have on the game, however from what I've seen she seems like the kind of hero I'm likely never to play. I occasionally will run Ana as second support on attack if we have reaper/Reinhardt but please Blizzard, make the next hero somebody that I'll love to play lol.

@trilogy:She can basically disable any character's cards from further use, but Hack only stops Ultimates that are maintained by the character such as Rocket Barrage. It's pretty consistent once you wrap your head around it, but yeah, it's a little weird at first. Some friends of mine helped compile a list here of everything Hack affects that's in progress of being used.

There are some definite health pack shenanigans you can get into with her. I think that's going to impact Escort maps the most.

@frodobaggins: Doomfist should be next, which will most likely be some form of Tank. It's pretty easy to guess what type of character they will be.

@cav829: yeah I would love another new fun tank to play. I enjoy playing 4 out of the 5 we currently have but another primary tank would be great, a little more variation in the meta.

but Mei is one of Sombra's best counters

@dragonzord: Not really. I know why some people think it's going to work that way in you can just mindlessly hold down the left mouse button to move around and scan for invisible Sombras (invisible Sombra moves what seems like slightly faster than a sprinting Soldier. It's really fast), but the range isn't really that big and it's not like Sombra can't see you doing that. And if Mei is sweeping for Sombra, she's not doing her job timing Ice Walls to cut off the enemy team. There's just no reason for Sombra to ever bother engaging Mei in an actual fight. She'll always be able to just teleport away. Now, against normal Hack, Mei will be able to go into Cryo-Freeze to stop her hack attempt, but it still is going to force out the Cryo-Freeze. More importantly, there's no way for Mei to stop a Hack attempt when she's rushing to the point from spawn to stall for time, as she has to make a bee-line there and can't afford to blow her Cryo-Freeze. The important part to understand about why Sombra is bad news for Mei is because so much of Mei's value lies in her abilities creating stall and crowd control.

I think it's kind of one of those "Mei counters Genji" things." The entire theory behind that requires Genji to actually engage a Mei on her terms, which is not how it ever goes against a good Genji player.

I'd say the top counters to Sombra are Winston, Torbjorn (she can't hack the turret easily as her hack is interrupted while she takes damage), Soldier 76, McCree, and Tracer from what I've seen so far.

Great rundown Cav829! I think the game could use more heroes like Sombra that could negate certain strategies.

Might help make the hero switching aspect of Overwatch more intriguing

Zenyatta and Zarya will be significantly hit by Sombra's ultimate. That ultimate removes ALL barriers, which to my knowledge includes shields. That drops Zarya to 200 and Zenyatta to a measly 50HP. Though that may actually not make a major difference. If an enemy Sombra just ulted chances are the enemy team will be looking to clean everyone up anyway.

I suspect her ult will the cause of a lot of rage and may have been a motivator in the ultimate charge rate nerf across the board. Being almost useless as certain characters just because you happened to get caught in the AoE of an ultimate triggered by an invisible super fast small hitbox character does not sound like a fun time.

I still want to know how her passive wall hack impacts the game. It seems very weird to give her that kind of ability on top of everything else she can do. Does it track a critical Tracer through her recall? I love the idea of someone who can run down weaker opponents and supports, but that was a role Tracer filled pretty well.

I also see the potential for baiting out Lucio ults by letting them build up from a distance with basic chip damage and then negating them hard when used.

I really like her tossing up the meta but I don't like how she might always secure a slot in the lineup.

As someone who is a big fan of booping peoples noses this has convinced me I finally need Overwatch in my life.

@adequatelyprepared: It's certainly going to suck as Zen to get caught in an EMP, but I don't think it will impact him too greatly because getting caught in an EMP is already going to be a death sentence in higher level competitive play. But Zen is going to be a pretty low priority target to Hack as it doesn't cut off either of his Orbs. So Sombra as a whole I don't think impacts him on quite the same level she could potentially on Lucio. Overall though, while getting caught in an EMP against a well-coordinated team is going to be annoying, I am not sure she's going to impact the game for a lot of solo queuers who already don't know how to work with Ults like Graviton. Though I'm sure you're right that she's going to cause some serious rage in some players.

@burncoat:I wouldn't worry. If anything, so far most people seem to think she's underpowered more than overpowered on the PTR. That passive is really cool from playing with it so far. I don't know if it tracks Tracer through Recall, but to be honest, it doesn't matter. If you've played the game enough and have a good headset, you pretty much know where the Tracer Recalled to or approximately to. I would think though since her health immediately goes back up when you hit Recall that you won't see where she popped off to.