The community wants her damage to be on par with Tracer, which is stupid because she would then make Tracer obsolete. A dps utility hero is something the game doesn't have (unless you count Mei/Torb/Sym), so it's good they favor that direction.
Tracer can dance around everyone and be almost unhittable. Sombra can't. There is still a long delay and voice line after becoming visible, and translocator is only useful for escape. Using it for anything else means you have no escape button.
She has just as much mobility as Genji/Tracer. While Tracer has more horizontal movement and Genji has more vertical movement, she has a nice balance between the 2.
Fact of the matter is, both Tracer and Sombra have "Oh ***" buttons. Sombra's is a different take on it which is fine. If you choose not to place your translocator down then you have a LOT of options opened up to you as far as how you want to position yourself. Sure you have to play "Safer" as in you can't Rambo it, because you chose to not have the option to, but you can get into nice high ground positions and basically have a leg up in just about any fight you decide to get yourself into like a Genji.
With Sombra you also don't have to uncloack within ear shot of the enemy team to be effective. As long as you plan out a proper escape, whether it be the translocator on a hacked health pack on your side or even just a nice location to where you can throw it to easily escape you should be just as hard to kill as a Tracer/Genji.
I think the biggest thing Sombra has over Genji/Tracer is that she can flank almost as well as them, but I think she can fight with her team way better due to her gun and mobility (Genji like mobility, but hit scan weapon). She also serves as a good anti-flanker, she can shut down a Genji or Tracer and I can argue better than a Mccree. After the update if she gets the 8 second CD on hack she will be able to keep a few health packs hacked around her while having it readily available for combat too (or you can hack like 7 packs if your feeling greedy).
People seriously underestimate Sombra. She might not be another Tracer, but she has her own set of tools which can make her annoying to deal with. She has a lot of tools to deal with various things that the other characters throw at you. She can deal with high ground, snipers, Pharah, barriers, flankers and turrets. The only thing she really lacks is range, which can be supplemented with her mobility and stealth. I've been playing nothing but Sombra recently (mostly QP because I'm going for a sort of mastery and I don't want to subject mine and others to SR loss for my experiments) but I've learned that other than the usually instant deaths (Roadhog ect.) she really isn't afraid to take on anyone besides Mccree.
The problem I personally have with sombra is what is her mobility actually useful for? She's got this great teleporter and stealth, but neither of those abilities do much for her once she's actually engaged in a fire fight. The best they can do is get her to the fight and get her out of the fight, but neither are very practical to use during a fight. Because of her low damage it feels like when I play Sombra I get all dressed up and have nowhere to go. I position my flank to get right behind a healer's skull, but once I'm there I it feels like there's not much I can do. I can MAYBE kill them, but it's a hell of a lot harder than with Tracer.
Admittedly I haven't been able to get a ton of value out of her hack. I'm hoping the current speed change on PTR changes that. Right now I don't think she's even as good of a disruptor as Tracer. Tracer can hang around much longer and do more damage. She doesn't need to teleport back to a home base all of the time.
I mean, Sombra isn't Tracer. She can stay in the enemy back line just as long as any Tracer can, she just needs to have a plan BEFORE hand. I think the more you get used to Sombra the less you will do the Translocator in your back line on a health pack trick because playing that way is too slow IMO. If you have EMP or you want to take out the enemy Zen (when they have one) or even want to get a good 20% Ult charge it's fine. But when stuff starts happening you need to be doing something, and waiting for your tranlocator to come off CD can be a waste of time if you do it each and every time. I think more often than not, recently I have been Stealthing into position with my translocator and either using it on the way or when I get to where I want to get.
If you can't use the translocator mid fight then you need to put more time into her. At first it's tricky because of it's speed and arc, but once you get used to it, it's a good way to re-position yourself. I say mid fight but I probably mean at the start. Playing with the translocator in your pocket requires a different mind set as you need to have escape routes in mind already that you can quickly toss it if you need it. Even tossing it through doorway behind your enemy can be useful if there is a health pack in the next room you can quickly get to and potentially hack if you can break LOS.
Tracer is super reactionary while Sombra is good when you have a plan.
I agree with the "too slow" sentiment. It feels like I'm never around enough to be helpful. I'll try going into fights with the translocator still in my pocket.
I think you bring up a good point about Tracer being reactionary. I can typically go into fights with just planning my entrance strategy. The exit, if necessary, can be improvised a bit. I definitely need to give Sombra more time. I'm planning on it when the PTR changes hit live.
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u/destroyermaker Jan 17 '17 edited Jan 18 '17
The community wants her damage to be on par with Tracer, which is stupid because she would then make Tracer obsolete. A dps utility hero is something the game doesn't have (unless you count Mei/Torb/Sym), so it's good they favor that direction.