OverwatchOverwatch Sombra Guide and Overview

The sneaky backline assassin known as Sombra is a menace to the unprepared. As soon as hero bans were introduced, she immediately took the #1 spot as the most banned hero. Her ability to become Invisible and prevent her enemies from using their own cooldowns makes her frustrating to play against. Sombra excels at disrupting the enemy team and forcing out resources to deal with her. Her viability has a bit of a reverse bell curve as lower rank players struggle to deal with her, but her full potential is only seen in coordinated pro play.

Most players have her in their hero pool as a counterpick rather than a starter choice. This is because her kit serves a niche function of interrupting abilities with Hack, but against heroes who rely on those abilities to play the game, Sombra shuts them down and often forces them to swap to another hero.

TLDR

Playing As

• Translocate first to get into position, stay invisible for the max duration, attack, then immediately Translocate out to stay alive.
• Hack is equally good for initiating a solo attack or for interrupting an enemy attacking your team. Don’t forget to use Hack defensively to help out your allies.
• EMP is best used as a combo with another ally’s ult. Check the scoreboard to confirm another offensive ult is available, then wait until that hero is in position to follow up before you EMP.

Playing Against

• Be on the lookout for Sombra if you haven’t seen her for a while; that means she’s in position to flank you. Be ready to turn around and counterattack. 
• If she Translocates right into your team, assume EMP is coming. CC her, dash away, or get to cover.
• Chase after Translocate and invis check.

Strengths

Invisible annoyance

Whether or not Sombra is getting elims, she’s always being disruptive to the enemy. The threat of her existence in a backline requires consent, attention and holding onto resources. Against Tanks, getting Hacked is very disruptive so Tanks hate having to play around Sombra.

Ability lockout

Both Hack and EMP briefly prevent affected heroes from using any abilities and stop them if they are channelling an ability. As abilities are the most important aspect of any hero's kit, it goes without saying that being able to do this is very strong. Some heroes are completely shut down 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 will generally not be moving too much, and looking straight ahead. The classic, Hack, Virus, shoot combo from behind makes quick work of these isolated enemies.

Weaknesses

Low damage

Although Sombra can burst down a single target, her overall damage output might be the lowest of any DPS hero. This is partially because she spends so much time out of the fight while invisible and Translocating around. If she’s not Hacking the right target at the right time, she’s holding down her team because her damage certainly won’t be carrying.

Limited 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 invis 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.

Poor range

Sombra is only effective at close-range engagements. Hack’s ranged is only 15 meters, and her gun barely deals any damage at that range anyway. Virus can be shot across the map, but its slow speed gives the enemy plenty of time to dodge or block.

Primary Fire: Machine Pistol

Tips for Machine Pistol

• Best at close range
• • Even though it is a hitscan, the wide spread and damage falloff makes Machine Pistol very weak at medium to long ranges.
• Opportunist damage
• • Because you deal more damage to Hacked enemies, you should try to Hack before firing. 
• One-clip
• • When she sneaks up to only a few meters away from her target, Sombra can one clip all DPS and Supports without needing to Virus them.
  • 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 poking the enemy from a distance, you aren’t Soldier: 76. But, when you do, it’s better to fire in short bursts because your bullet spread is all over the place after 6 rapid shots. 

Secondary Fire: Hack

Tips for Hack

• Begin with Hack
• • You’ll want to begin almost every engagement with Hack. Whether you're coming out of invisibility or not, you want to ability lock and trigger Opportunist before using your gun or Virus.
• Hack cancels channelled abilities
• • Examples include Orisa charging up Terra Surge, Junker Queen when she begins Rampage, and Simga as he flies around for Gravitic Flux. 
  • All these abilities can be cancelled with Hack. When you suspect the enemy has their ult ready to use, try to stay within the distance to react with Hack.
• Communicate enemy ults
• • Enemies who are currently at full ult charge will have a red check mark floating above them. Let your team know if you Hack someone and see that they have ult available.
• 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]: Virus

Tips for Virus

• Hack before Virus
• • Virus deals extra impact damage, then faster damage over time to enemies currently Hacked. Therefore, you’ll ideally only use Virus after Hacking the enemy.
• Use without Hack
• • Sometimes you don’t have time to get out an uninterrupted Hack. You should still use Virus anyway. It’s very fast and still deals over 100 total damage.
• Destroy deployables
• • Torb’s turret, for example, is a nuisance to your sneaky flank play style. Shoot Virus at it before Translocating in to help your team destroy it faster.

[E]: Translocator

Tips for Translocator

• Translocate often
• • The short 6-second 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 get into close range and begin attacking immediately.
• Escape
• • Never commit to a fight while Translocate is on cooldown. You need it to survive. 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. Then use another Translocator in place just to activate stealth and run up to your desired target.

(Passive): Opportunist

Tips for Opportunist

• Target critical health enemies
• • They’re literally glowing targets, and you should prioritize attacking enemies revealed by Opportunist.
• Communicate enemy location
• • When enemies are retreating with low HP and your team can’t see them, call out their location so your allies can pursue and secure the elim.
• Echo Duplicate
• • If an ally Echo Duplicates Sombra, both of your Hacks activate Opportunist.

Ultimate: EMP

Tips for EMP

• Translocate in
• • The easiest way to get a multihit EMP is to Translocate above and between the enemy team. 
  • This is also the most dangerous method, so you should still try to approach 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

Encrypted Upload

• Best Minor Perk
• Extra sneaky
• • Use the extra stealth to Hack an enemy, then reposition when they try and turn to attack you. Only commit to revealing yourself with your attack once they're disoriented trying to find you.
• Infinite Invisibility
• • Encrypted Upload increases stealth’s duration to 7 seconds and Translocator is on a 6-second cooldown. So technically, Sombra can Hack and Translocate repeatedly without ever becoming unstealthed. 
  • Good for Hacking healthpacks because you make up for lost time with the increased uptime.

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.

Major Perks

White Hat

• More Ult Charge
• • Healing allies generates ult charge and poses little danger to you, so this is literally free ult charge. More EMP is always good.
• Duo dives
• • When diving with a teammate, Hack-heal them first, let them go in and benefit from the heal over time, then you engage with Hack and attack.

Viral Replication

• More ult Charge
• • Although not as free or consistent, you can deal high amounts of AoE damage through Viral Replication, which also results in faster EMPs.
  • Especially good against closely grouped team comps like brawl comps.

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 doesn’t matter too much. 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. 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

• Nepal
• Lijiang Tower
• Circuit Royal

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!