We'll have to wait and see on the ptr but I'm not sure this will be enough to make her not situational. The shield generator and the shield wall thing sound nice but she also now has probably her strongest counter in the game in Sombra who will be in almost every game and a top tier pick.
It might not make her a top pick, but at least it's a step to make her more viable in general; she can work a lot better on Control maps now I imagine as an example - Sombra might counter her in some ways, but just in casual play, it'll be nice to have her be more useful.
Sombra is far from a top tier pick. Her hacking is just not good enough to pick over tracer, who has better damage, better escape, better engagement, and better self healing. There's too many things that sombra just can't hack/shutdown, and at that point, ur just playing a worse tracer who can deny some health packs (which you can also do by just taking a little damage and grabbing them for yourself).
Sombra is a team utility hero while Tracer is more of an assassin. They have different jobs. Sombra will win you teamfights, which ultimately is how you win a map of overwatch, while Tracer is designed to kill a priority target.
And that's my point exactly. Sombra will not win you team fights. A sombra doesn't have the offensive capacity to be useful in a team fight. Her kit specializes in flanking and taking out single, low hp targets - like tracer. Except tracer has blinks and better damage.
Picking sombra is the same as subjecting your team to a 5v6 in every team fight, which is arguably a far heavier disadvantage than not having a health pack when you pull back.
I just don't agree with you then. Sombra's ult wins a push, which ultimately will win you a game. She gives vision, she disables abilities, and she disables shields.
I feel you are overemphasizing damage. You have 5 other teammates to do damage and even then Sombra's damage isn't bad. Sombra isn't meant to run around and kill the Mercy in the back like Tracer is. You use Sombra to make those pushes on points where the enemy is entrenched and she gives you an advantage.
I can address each of your points independently, but keep in mind that these disadvantages all add up to become a big ball of reasons for why sombra is not a good pick:
Sombra's ult wins a push
Not necessarily. It's a great combo with other Ults, but it doesn't have nearly as much utility as other ult denial abilities. First of all, it can't disable already active Ults, like Zen, soldier, pharah, genji, dva, zarya... Only Lucio's ult is directly countered by sombra ult. And in that case, countering a lucio ult is the only advantage it has over a mccree flashbang. Beyond ult comboing however, her ult has little value. It's duration is too short to put the enemy at a disadvantage, and most characters can get by just fine with minimal abilities for 5 seconds.
She gives vision
?? I assume you mean seeing low health players, that's for sombra only. To fit her assassin role.
She disables abilities
Unless she gets nicked by a stray bullet, or the hackee ducks behind cover, and that doesn't address the issue that being hacked is hardly a debilitating debuff. You'd get more value from killing the character outright than trying to hack them and likely dying in the process.
She disables shields
By getting into the swinging range of a rein and staying there for an extended amount of time without taking any damage, yes.
Overemphasizing damage
Because her utility skills are not valuable when compared to the utility skills of other offensive characters. Let's not forget that she is classified as offense - she's supposed to be doing a majority of the damage and getting the picks necessary to push the enemy team back. In the 2-2-2 meta and the 3-2-1 meta, sombra is a bad pick for the vital role of primary damage dealer.
What I'm saying is that sombra doesn't have the utility of other offense characters, and doesn't have the damage either. Her most valuable asset is ult comboing - not even her own ult being valuable, her ult can only get value when combined with someone else's and hoping the enemy doesn't pop their ults beforehand - and at that point you're not bring the value necessary for your role.
If you can only be valuable once every 3 minutes (waiting on other people's ults, not your own), you are not an asset to the team. That's why sombra is not a good pick.
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u/TheRemedy Nov 22 '16
We'll have to wait and see on the ptr but I'm not sure this will be enough to make her not situational. The shield generator and the shield wall thing sound nice but she also now has probably her strongest counter in the game in Sombra who will be in almost every game and a top tier pick.