Overwatch 2's Sombra rework includes hack changes and new abilities
It's all change for Sombra going into Overwatch 2, and whilst her hack will be nerfed a bit, the other changes seem pretty well thought through.
Blizzard Entertainment has revealed what new changes it will be making to Sombra in Overwatch 2 as it starts to lift the lid on some of the changes it'll be making to the game's established heroes going forward.
If you can ignore the on-going, all-consuming its sexual harrassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard at the moment, you may be excited to learn that Sombra is getting some changes when the next game launches.
In a new video posted to Overwatch's official YouTube channel, game director Aaron Keller and lead dero designer Geoff Goodman gave detailed insight into Sombra's suite of abilities for the next game.
First up, her hack has been reworked: it now takes between three and four seconds of cooldown before you can use it again, making it more deployable in engagements with enemy teams. Ability Lockout only lasts one second, but you'll be able to see enemies through walls for eight seconds – and damage against them is raised by 50%. You don't need to exit stealth to hack anymore, either, making her far more dangerous.
Long story short, the devs want to make her less disruptive and more of a direct threat. “We’re reducing her CC abilities in line with larger changes to Overwatch 2 and giving her more potential damage,” notes Keller in the video.
“She’s so tied to this crowd control effect, but we didn’t want to take the hack away from her — she’s a hacker after all. We wanted it to still be core to how she played,” Goodman added. “We started looking at other effects that are still impactful but aren’t as brutal as just locking players out of their abilities for so long.”
This news follows the departure of Overwatch 2's executive producer, Chacko Sonny, who left Blizzard Entertainment last week. Sonny was overseeing development on Overwatch 2, a game which also lost its director, Jeff Kaplan, some five months earlier.
Sonny is the latest in a line of staff that have left the company since the investgiagtion by the State of California was announced publically. Blizzard president J. Allen Brack has already departed the company, and HR executive, Jesse Meschuk (who had been at the company for 12 years), also left in August.