As part of ongoing changes to Overwatch, Blizzard is currently in the midst of reworking Sombra, the Damage class hero that specializes in infiltration and hacking. Although Blizzard hasn’t finalized how they’re changing the character, lead designer Geoff Goodman has revealed the direction they’re taking her.
Posting on the Overwatch forums, Goodman said that Blizzard was currently “seeing how far we could push the duration of her Stealth and Translocator abilities.” The former ability allows her to become invisible for a brief period and quickens her movement, making it useful for slipping behind enemy lines. The latter enables Sombra to throw out an item which she can teleport back to, which facilitates quick retreats to safety.
According to Goodman, the version of Sombra Blizzard is currently working on has no limit on the duration she can remain concealed using Stealth. However, the bonus her movement speed receives while in this mode has been reduced from a 75% increase to a 50% increase. Additionally, she cannot contest objectives while invisible. Currently, Sombra reveals her location if she fires her guns or is hit by an enemy, and this doesn’t seem to have changed.
Your Translocator device, meanwhile, can now be destroyed from a distance. Previously, once you had thrown out there was no way to move or destroy it. With this ability, Sombra players can effectively keep her Translocator in an ideal spot to ensure it is always useful for her.
“These changes are really interesting for her as now she is in complete control over when she reveals herself, [allowing] her to time her hacks better for her team or go for a back line ambush during a critical moment in a team fight,” Goodman explained.
These changes are currently only being explored internally at Blizzard, and are yet to go onto the public test realm, where they are tested further before being introduced to the live version of the game. It could be that, following the various testing phases, these changes are tweaked or abandoned entirely.
Blizzard recently added new functionality to Overwatch that encourages players to give others accolades and endorse them. Alongside this, it also added Looking For Group, which helps teams fill roles quicker. Blizzard has also revealed a new hero for Overwatch. However, thus far all we have is a suspicious-looking boulder to speculate over.