Overwatch Overwatch Sombra Guide and Overview

Sombra Rework for Season 5!

Sombra’s Season 5 rework completely changes her role, moving her from Damage to Support, but she retains the mobility, disruption, and off-angle pressure that have always define her playstyle. Instead of being a solo flanker, she’ll focus more on enabling aggressive teammates and weakening enemies during engagements. However, even as a Support, she's still capable of hunting isolated targets and engaging with dives.

Hotfix replaces Hack as her main utility. She'll no longer be able to hack heroes outside of EMP, but is still able to hack health packs and enemy deployables, and gains the ability to heal allies over time.

Cyberspace replaces Virus, and adds AoE healing and enemy weakening, giving Sombra much stronger teamfight presence without forcing her to play like a traditional backline sustain focused Support. Translocator and its stealth, Machine Pistol, and EMP are essentially unchanged.

Sombra excels at disrupting the enemy team, and enabling high mobility allies with Hotfix. Her rework along with the introduction of Doctrine has been a major component in the prominence of dive meta after Season 5.

Overall, Sombra to retains her core identity as an aggressive and independent hero with strong flanking capabilities, but now she has more emphasis on enabling teammates, and going for assisted plays rather than wandering off in search of solo kills.

TLDR Support Sombra Guide

Playing As

• Translocator first to get into position, stay invisible for the max duration, attack, then immediately Translocate out to stay alive.
• Hotfix is best utilized by heroes who flank or dive aggressively. No matter where they move, the healing stays available to them for the full 12 seconds or until the max amount has been used.
• EMP is best used as a combo with another ally’s ult. Check the scoreboard to confirm another offensive ult is available for your team, then wait until that hero is in position to follow up before you ult.

Playing Against

• Be on the lookout for Sombra if you haven’t seen her for a while, assume she’s in position to flank you. Be ready to turn around and counterattack. 
• If she Translocator TP right above your team: EMP is coming. Stun her, dash away, or get to cover so you don't get hacked.
• Heroes with mobility like D.Va, Anran, and Lúcio can chase after Translocate and shoot Sombra out of Stealth for the kill.

Strengths

Weak Status Effect

Cyberspace is the core of Sombra's team utility. Weakening an enemy to cut their damage output in half is massively valuable. For example, shooting Cyberspace on to a Reaper using Death Blossom will allow squishy allies to tank the full ultimate.

Anytime an enemy thinks they have the opportunity to go aggressive and secure an elim, getting hit with Weak can completely shutdown their attack.

Ability lockout

EMP's Hack effect prevents affected enemies from using any abilities and cancels channelling abilities. Is the enemy Sigma catching your teammates in Gravitic Flux? Hit him with EMP to cancel his ult before the slam comes out.

As abilities are the most important aspect of any hero's kit, it goes without saying that being able to prevent their use is extremely powerful. Some heroes like Doomfist are left completely helpless by a single Hack.

Backline assassin

Sombra’s entire kit is perfectly built for assassinating backlines. Supports or Sniper DPS are easy to sneak up on and burst down. Even better when doing so with an ally on a single targeted enemy.

Even if Sombra is securing the elim, disrupting the enemy and forcing out their cooldowns is still a meaningful interaction. The threat of her existence in a backline requires constant attention and makes the enemy hesitant about resource use.

Weaknesses

Limited Healing

Although we've already mentioned how impactful Sombra's passive healing can be when paired with dive heroes, her healing is quite limited compared to most Supports. If her team is frontline heavy brawl or rush comp that requires constant sustain, she'll struggle to keep them alive.

Additionally, choosing an unoptimal target for Hotfix, or accidentally hitting the wrong target or the same target twice can lead to the death of another ally and steam roll into losing that fight. Unlike other Supports who can easily switch between healing targets, Sombra's healing is more committal.

Stealth Duration

Unlike the Sombra of yesteryear, the current iteration can only remain invisible for a few seconds. This means she has to Translocate close to her desired Stealth target. Since Translocator has an audio cue, enemies can be alerted to her presence and know she only has a few seconds before her location is revealed.

Inconsitent Value

Sombra is primarily effective at close to mid-range engagements. Machine Pistol's range damage is quite low, and she needs to be within the limted range of Hotfix to assist her allies. Her big burst value ability, Cyberspace, is on a long cooldown, and if she doesn't get perfect placement or timing, the ability essentially does nothing.

Primary Fire: Machine Pistol

Tips for Machine Pistol

• Best at close range
  • Even though it is a hitscan, the spread and damage falloff makes Machine Pistol weak at medium to long ranges.
• One-clip
  • When she sneaks up to only a few meters away from her target, Sombra can one clip all 250HP DPS and Supports. You have to land most of the bullets, so the closer the better.
  • If the enemy is still alive by the time you run out of bullets, it's generally going to be smarter to Translocate away and not stand there reloading. 
• Ranged poke
  • Don’t spend too much time trading poke damage with the enemy from a distance. Only do so when protected from damage by your frontline, or when off-angling and minimizing damage taken. 

Secondary Fire: Hotfix

Tips for Hotfix

• Hotfix is best utilized by heroes who flank or dive aggressively.
  • No matter if they go flying across the map and out of your LoS, the healing stays available to them for the full 12 seconds or until the max amount has been used.
• Ideally, focus on DPS and Supports as Hotfix targets. Your fellow Support should generally be the one to focus on Tank sustain.
  • The exception is if your Tank is at critical health, or they are about to dive like Doomfist, Winston, or D.Va.
• Hack mega health packs
  • Every control objective has a nearby mega health pack, and all payload paths have a few along the way. Take the extra few seconds to Hack the mega closest to the enemy to prevent them from using it.

[SHIFT]: Cyberspace

Tips for Cyberspace

Cyberspace is the core of Sombra's team utility. Weakening an enemy to cut their damage output in half is massively valuable. Although it can be tempting to use Cyberspace off cooldown to spam healing into yourself or allies, using on the enemy holds significantly higher potential.

Anytime an enemy thinks they have the opportunity to go aggressive and secure an elim, getting hit with Weak can completely shutdown their attack.

Additionally, when your team is going for a hyperaggressive attack or ultimate (e.g. Dragonblade) hitting the enemies attempting to counterattack with Weak allows your ally to keep attacking relentlessly without fear of dying.

• As an example of the impact of an defensive use, shooting Cyberspace onto a Reaper using Death Blossom will allow squishy allies to tank the full ultimate.

[E]: Translocator

Tips for Translocator

• Translocate often
  • The short cooldown starts as soon as you teleport and is ready again just after coming out of invisibility. So use it liberally.
• Dive
  • Translocate above, to the side or behind your target to set up your attack. Remember you have time to run around while Stealthed and don't need to start attacking right away. Make your opponent guess by mixing up your timing and positioning.
• Escape
  • Never commit to a fight while Translocate is on cooldown. You need it to survive. If you do not have translocator available, stay close to an ally who can help protect you. Also try not to unnecessarily expose yourself to the enemy team until the cooldown refreshes.
  • Anytime the enemy gets you to low health, focuses you, or attempts to CC you, immediately Translocate away.
• Double Translocate
  • Use Translocator and stealth’s movement buff to get to the closet hiding spot near your target. By the time you attack and need to disengage, you should already have another Translocator available.

(Passive): Conspirator Tactician

Tips for Conspirator

Communicate enemy ults

Enemies who are currently at full ult charge will have a check mark floating above them. Let your team know which heroes have ults ready. Consider these enemies as high-priority targets. Try to take them out first, or pressure them to use ult early.

Your team having certain knowledge of which enemy ults are available can make a huge difference in your teams decision making of when to use their own ultimate. If you have a Genji and Ana wanting to combine Nano Boost and Dragonblade, and you see the enemy has a defensive ult like EMP or Transcendence available, make sure your team knows not to use their ults until the enemy has used theirs or that particular enemy is not with their team.

Ultimate: EMP

Tips for EMP

• Translocate EMP
  • The easiest way to get a multi-hit EMP is to Translocate above and between the enemy team. 
  • This is also the most dangerous method, so you should still try to run in while stealthed from an off angle.  
• Without Translocator
  • Stealth has a short recovery period before Sombra can use another ability. If the enemy has been countering EMP, set up without stealth.
  • Set up on an area above the enemy team, then drop down and immediately activate EMP.
• Shutdown enemy ults
  • A countless number of ults can be directly countered by EMP. Deployable ults like Symmetra’s Barrier get destroyed or disabled, channeled ults can be cancelled, and just preventing ability use essentially counters the rest.

Minor Perks

Life Hack

• Recommended Minor Perk.
• You are typically going to wait for moments where both teams are packed closely together before activating EMP. The duration of Hack only leaves a short window for your team to secure the win, so applying Hotfix's healing will help them to have the sustain needed to attack aggressively.
• Think of EMP as a win condition for every fight you have it available. Hitting the right target at the right time should be enough to secure the fight win without needing a bunch of additional ally ults. Anything you can do to make it better, such as adding healing, makes it easier for your team to get full value out of each use.

CTRL ALT ESC

• Situational
  • Most of the time, you are engaging with Translocator, so you already have full health, or you’re getting away from the enemy so you’re not in danger of dying. Therefore, you won’t need the self-healing too often.
  • Moreover, you can just wait for the universal healing passive to kick in for a similar effect.
  • Does decrease down time between engages.

Major Perks

Data Packet

• Useful in map areas where a health pack is very close to the objective or payload path. Some examples are Illios "Control" mega healthpack in the hole in the center of the objective, or the third point of guventsavin FIX, where a minipack is right next to the payload path before the final corner.

Cybersecurity

• Recommended Major Perk
• As one of Sombra's notable weaknesses is lacking both burst and consistent healing, gaining the ability to burst heal with Cyberspace will give you the option to save low HP teammates.
• Also very useful against enemy dive because you can shoot Cyberspace at your feet to heal yourself whilst dueling.

The best maps for Sombra have lots of side rooms for her to set up in. Translocator’s versatile movement enables her to access just about any area on any map, so high ground or flat ground areas both work well. Sombra struggles on maps with large, open areas that cannot be easily crossed using Translocator and stealth. These areas impede her effectiveness as a flanker, and make it difficult to simultaneously support her team with healing and pressure the enemy with damage. Likewise, if a sightline is too long for her and doesn’t offer enough side paths, she can get sniped during her approach.

Best Maps

• Esperança
• Route 66
• Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Worst Maps

• Circuit Royal
• Nepal
• Lijiang Tower

The way Sombra wins games is by harassing backlines and going for sneaky assassinations, then Translocator away to survive. This is the main thing you need to stop if you want to beat her.

Equally as important is to watch for her retreat. You can see the line of Translocator and immediately dash or fly to it and attack. When you hit her she'll be revealed for an easy kill. Heroes with mobility like D.Va, Winston, Echo, and Anran are especially good at this.

Be on the lookout for Sombra if you haven’t seen her for a while, assume she’s in position to flank you. Be ready to turn around and counterattack. 

If she Translocator TP right above your team: EMP is coming. Stun her, dash away, or get to cover so you don't get hacked.

Heroes with mobility like D.Va, Anran, and Lúcio can chase after Translocate and shoot Sombra out of Stealth for the kill.