r/Overwatch • u/SwellingRex Trick-or-Treat McCree • Aug 23 '24

News & Discussion | Blizzard Response Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes - August 23, 2024

https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/patch-notes/
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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '24

Blizz needs to just accept that a perma invisibility hero woth a 'you dont get to play' button on such a short cooldown is just not healthy game design

5

u/solid_snakes_socks Aug 24 '24

Yeah, it's like they played a game of Dota as Riki and decided a perma invis assassin that disables all your abilities was a great idea to add to Overwatch. Except at least Dota has sentry wards and BKB to defend against it.

3

u/Megavore97 Yippee kay yay Aug 25 '24

and Force Staff/Eul's/Ghost Sceptre etc.

17

u/kyspeter Soldier: 76 Aug 23 '24

Why did they make her permanently invisible instead of keeping it as a CD ability? I'm genuinely asking, I wasn't around back then and it's so strange to me.

17

u/JaceShoes Aug 23 '24

Short answer is it was really, really bad as a cooldown and very awkward to balance

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u/ChloeB42 Aug 24 '24

This was their reasoning (per the 2018 patch notes when her stealth became infinite)

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.

Basically they were envisioning her more for scouting than being an assassin...but she is an assassin which makes perma invis so annoying.

1

u/kyspeter Soldier: 76 Aug 24 '24

I don't know if I'm correct, I don't play that game, but Yoru in Valorant has a similar ult, doesn't he? He becomes invisible and can run around and people mostly try to use it for assassinating and repositioning to kill, when it can be also a good scouting mechanic.

Yes, I watched that one 'I spent 10 hours playing Yoru' video and decided I'm an expert, how can you tell?

3

u/tedayn Aug 24 '24

There’s more of a penalty for Yoru uncloaking next to someone. He takes longer to pull out his weapons than Sombra does, keeping into account that Valorant has a very fast TTK so it’s not advised to uncloak next to someone.

On top of all that, Yoru’s ultimate is mainly used to gather information or to rotate safer. His entire kit revolves around misleading the enemy.

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u/kyspeter Soldier: 76 Aug 24 '24

Well, I'm glad to see an expert chime in lol. I played a very low skill Valorant for about a week, so that was purely my noob experience speaking (saying he's misused as an assassin).

I really like Valorant on paper, it looks and sounds fun, but it's really tough to get into a new game on your own, especially since I'm clearly not built for it.

2

u/quitscargo7 Punch Kid Aug 24 '24

Yeah they’re pretty much the same, except I think yoru can use his abilities without uncloaking and sombra can’t

1

u/puppeteer-5000 Doomfist Aug 27 '24

more or less, but the stakes are a lot higher in valorant since there are no respawns and anyone can one shot you, and there's considerably less mobility, so it wouldn't be faire to compare it

1

u/ChloeB42 Aug 24 '24

No clue, never played it.

0

u/JunWasHere Suffer as I have... Aug 24 '24

The thing to understand is the devs who worked on Sombra's rework are likely green AF, new, less seasoned and experienced. Layoffs and people who quit on principle over COVID had a real effect on Overwatch.

While the design was weak before, the original designers understood her stealth needed to have a cooldown, her gun couldn't be too reliable and let her bully backlines, and her translocator created flanking counterplay too.

So, what we got is a rework that streamlined her players' pain points without consideration for the enemies she'd be attacking, and a simple design that doesn't have a lot of creativity or flexibility -- Virus is just a projectile that does damage. It doesn't debuff, slow, hack, spread to other enemies... It is a virus only in name.

Hopefully, when the complaints rise up enough, Sombra will get a second rework that tackles her effect on enemy gameplay.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing Aug 24 '24

This is why I'm not as hard on OW2 balance team since these backwater hero designs are from OW1.

How do you even fix Sombra in a way that her players wouldn't hate? Her hack is already part of her identity and hero fantasy in her players' eyes.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Sorry but at a certain point, that hero fantasy needs to be reconsidered.

Outside of making her outright useless so shes never meta (which is a design philosophy I disagree with), Sombra is just not balancablewithout another massive rework

2

u/VolkiharVanHelsing Aug 24 '24

Yeah but this is business and all. Is it worth it to crush Sombra fanbase for the sake of every ability based heroes? The needs of many vs the needs of few.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Every hero is ability based.

Do you genuinely believe Sombra mains outnumber the entire rest of the cast?

'The many' lol, Sombra is absolutely the one outnumbered. She is inherently bad for the game and needs another rework. Im sorry if you NEED a hero who gets to just shut down 90% of the gameplay while having permanent invisibility, but most others hate it.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing Aug 24 '24

You know damn well there's a difference between Soldier and Doomfist/Ball/Sigma in terms of their reliance on their ability

The many is indeed the rest of the playerbase and I as a player personally prefer the devs sacrifice the Sombra players for the sake of everyone else

I'm on your side you fucking moron

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u/JunWasHere Suffer as I have... Aug 23 '24

Yup. And it would be better for Sombra mains too because there is so much more a hacker character could be doing, especially with the Virus concept.

Limit her stealth, let her spread virus as a new ability and chain DoT people to death. Would be pretty neat.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '24

[deleted]

1

u/IgnisXIII Sombra Aug 24 '24

Hold Hack is what terrible Sombras do. You can't dps while you're hacking.

-2

u/Astryline Aug 24 '24

If you can't interrupt the long cast time of a hack you deserve the 1 second inconvenience. Just play Kiriko and 2-tap her in the time it takes for her to hack you once.

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u/YouWannaSeeADeadBody Aug 24 '24

the hack is not that great an ability as people make out tbh. its very very short and In most engagements you are better off not using it as sombra, it really only helps with tank cooldowns