As notorious Overwatch hero Sombra makes her support class debut in Season 5: A Grim Doctrine, Blizzard is well aware that the former DPS losing her Hack ability is going to leave some players “upset,” but insists the change is “better for the game.”
Sombra’s big support rework was announced last month, and basically comes in an attempt to make her less annoying for both her foes and allies. As you’d imagine, the rework means big changes to her abilities and perks. She’s now got a new ability called Cyberspace, for example, replacing her damage-over-time Virus ability with a new projectile that weakens foes and heals allies.
Perhaps most notably, though, Sombra’s Hack ability has been replaced by Hotfix. Rather than being able to mess with opponents by temporarily removing their abilities from them, it instead can be used to heal allies over time.
It’s certainly a choice considering that Sombra’s whole shtick is that she’s a hacker – especially after game director Aaron Keller previously said that the rework wouldn’t change “her identity” – and the devs are obviously aware that not everyone is a fan.
“We’ve seen a lot of reception about the Sombra rework, and one of the things people have talked about is the hacker losing hack,” senior hero designer Leo Robles Gonzalez admits in a new dev livestream.
Robles Gonzalez reveals that Blizzard “tried a lot of different versions of Sombra where she still could hack enemies,” but regardless, even with her lower damage output “there was always that feeling of Sombra appearing out of nowhere, turning off my abilities, and then outputting damage that I can’t really do anything about.”
Now though, the devs are hoping that they’ve successfully produced “the last rework” of the notorious hero, adds hero designer Scott Kennedy, and while “obviously players are going to be upset that they lost this hacking enemies version,” the team reckons that “this overall is going to be better for the game and players will really learn to love and enjoy her.”
It’s not that her hacking abilities are totally missing, either. Hotfix is still able to hack health packs and deployable objects like Torbjörn’s turrets and Ashe’s B.O.B., and human enemies can be hacked when she uses her ult, EMP.
Even so, these changes are definitely going to take some getting used to for the veteran Sombra players. As a support main, though, I’m excited to give the new version of the not-quite-as-hacky hacker a go.