Hello, I'm a Sombra Main since her release.
So by now, at this point in time, we've all heard about the new Sombra Nerf. So I would like to discuss the problems with this nerf.
PREBUFF ERA:
The thing about Sombra was she was a risk/reward hero. She could dominate if the person knew what she was doing. That said, the skill bar to play with her was also pretty high. A lot of Sombra Mains took a lot of time to learn everything about her character from her kit to her play-style & knowing who & when to hack. The problem was with the rest of the community. Because that skill gap was high, not a lot of people took the time to learn how to play the character effectively. So whenever you had someone pick Sombra on the team, everyone automatically assumed it was a throw pick. Then suddenly, the pros started using the health pack farm abuse where they could get damage & charge up her EMP faster, something we'd been abusing before it was a thing but I digress. Ever since that, Sombra was only viewed in the eyes of the community as an EMP Farm. Even if you played her incredibly well as a disruptor who could take down supports, the community, who a lot of people didn't even bother touching her, assumed the only thing you should be doing with her is hacking health packs & farming for EMP, to which I say if you needed to rely on this strategy, you weren't really a good Sombra.
BUFF ERA:
The Overwatch Team wanted to move Sombra away from the EMP farming strategy & make her more useful in mid-fights by making her more into an assassin. So the Overwatch Team announced at the cost of no longer being allowed to farm for EMP, there would be buffs coming to Sombra. The biggest one was coming to hack which not only was the time decreased from 0.8 to 0.65 seconds, but would also disable certain passive abilities. (Genji Double Jump & Wall Climb, Hanzo Wall Climb, Pharah's Jetpack, Mercy's Hover, & Lucio's Speed/Health Aura & Wall Ride.) In addition, the spread of her weapon fire was decreased from 3.0 to 2.7, meaning she can hit more accurate shots. A lot of people were saying this would make Sombra viable, but the Sombra Mains saw all of these changes & all of us agreed these buffs were too much & would make her insanely powerful & everyone would be calling her OP. When these changes went live, we were right. These changes made her incredibly powerful & everyone including the pros was already complaining about her.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE NERF:
The main nerf I wanted to focus on was the 2 second cool down for interrupted Hack by damage. Sombra is a character who needs to rely heavily on her kit & using the right timing. Hack is an incredibly powerful tool, but the downside is it cancels out through the slightest bit of random damage via slight explosive damage or D.Va shot from across the screen, the hack would cancel out. This was a big deal since if Sombra couldn't get her hack off, she was useless, meaning she was incredibly hard to play against heroes like Torbjorn or Symmetra. By giving her this cool down, they made the problem even worse. They claimed they want her to be more useful in the mid-fight, but this nerf is doing the exact opposite.
MY PROBLEM WITH THE NERF:
So just to clear the air, Sombra Mains are usually one of the most loyal mains in the game & we'll still play her regardless. The problem I have with this is the stances Blizzard has taken. Look back at past heroes that needed nerfs:
Triple Jump Combo Genji
Practically Instant Heal Nano Boosting Ana
Dimensional Hook Roadhog
400 Armor D.Va
Scope Cancel Body Shot Widowmaker
The list goes on.
Now how long did it take them to finally fix those issues. Many of them were months, even multiple seasons. Even Junkrat, who's had many questionable buffs, still hasn't had any drastic changes despite the community asking for them. It took the team 2 weeks to announce they were going to nerf Sombra. The problem with this is we don't know Blizzard's priorities when it comes to making decisions like this. A large majority of the Overwatch Community talks about giving a nerf or buff to certain heroes who need them, yet it takes them months to finally announce some kind of change to them. But the difference between those changes & the Mercy & Sombra changes was the "pros" were the mains ones who were outraged by Mercy & Sombra. Think back to Season 3 during Triple Tank meta. Ana was always a must pick in those games with Lucio & Zen as side healers. Mercy was rarely played during the time. But no one ever had a complaint about her Rez during the time. All of a sudden in Season 6, the pros started talking about how Rez was too powerful when it wasn't really a problem in the past. Right after that we end up getting the Mercy Debacles.
Same thing with Sombra. A lot of these problems people were having with Sombra she was able to do before the buff & no one had a problem with it then. All of a sudden, when the pros started complaining about it, the team suddenly decided to give her nerfs. It seems the Overwatch team has been trying to force Overwatch League into something & is mainly prioritizing the opinions of the pro players, less than 1% of the community. The problem with this is something that mainly affects the pros doesn't always mean it will affect the ladder. On top of that, the pro opinions aren't always right because I remember when they were talking about how Sombra would be OP when she came out & she was horrible at launch.
ENDING THINGS
Look, Overwatch team, I understand that you don't want to create a situation where a hero is a must pick like in the past. But listening to less than 1% of your base over the rest of it is not the right way to go. Look at Overwatch League now. How many times have we had the same heroes with the same comps. D.Va, Tracer, Genji, & Winston have been picked in practically every match. You're already creating a "Must Pick" situation. If you aren't playing any character who isn't considered meta, that non-meta hero will more than likely never see the light of day.
So if you feel I missed anything or you would also like to add input. I'd like to know what you think & have a discussion in the comments.
