For months, Blizzard has been teasing Sombra, the 23rd hero in "Overwatch," through hints and clues revolving a hacking, invisible character. This entire time, we have only been able to speculate what the new hero would be, what they would do and how good they would be. Well, it's been a little over a week since Sombra's trailer made a debut, and boy oh boy, she looked very overpowered. But hey, Blizzard put Sombra into their Public Test Region servers, and we've all been able to get our hands on her abilities and, to be honest, she's fairly decent. So let me take you on a trip through some misconceptions on Sombra.
1. "Invisibility is too strong!"
If you've ever played "Team Fortress 2," then you know how aggravating the Spy can be. He can sneak behind your team, get behind you, land his signature "backstab" and insta-kill you, all because he has invisibility. Well, yes, the Spy is a sleazebag, but that's because he has a way to instantly kill any enemy. Sombra can go invisible, but has to do damage in an honest way. "But-but she runs faster while she's invisible!" Very true, but if she were to take damage or deal damage while invisible, the cloak instantly wears off. She might be able to go unseen, but being able to check the areas around you every now and then could ruin the enemy Sombra's day.
2. "'Honest' damage? Her gun is too strong!"
One of my very first concerns about Sombra was her firearm. It deals a significant amount of damage while also having 60 bullets in one clip. But one thing that you begin to feel once you start playing her is that the bullet spread on her gun is actually wider than it looks. Yes, you can do pretty good damage, but you have to be right next to the enemy. And with Sombra's kit lacking defensive abilities, you won't be able to stay there for too long.
3. "She won't stay there; she can teleport too!"
My one other gripe with Sombra used to be her teleport; she throws a grenade-like thing that sticks to floors and stays up for 15 seconds. She can then teleport to wherever the grenade is so long as it is still up, and the cooldown is only six seconds. Well, it turns out there's one thing I didn't factor: the grenade needs to be tossed, meaning it takes time to get somewhere. It's not like Tracer's blink, which puts her forward instantly. It is possible to kill Sombra before she teleports, which makes it so her teleporter should be planned as a retreat. Place it down somewhere, engage the enemy, then when you're about to die, teleport away!
4. "Ok, but what about her hacking?!"
Sombra can hack an enemy either by targeting a single enemy with one of her cooldown abilities or in an Area of Effect through her ultimate ability. Hacking an enemy prevents them from using their abilities for a certain amount of time and gets rid of all shields and barriers, which is very useful. But hacked enemies still have guns. And if Sombra takes damage while using her single-enemy hack, it gets interrupted. Hacking an enemy can be worth it, but for the most part, why not just deal damage to them and kill them? But hold up, it's not like her hacking is situational to that extent; she can also hack health packs! Hacked health packs respawn faster for your team and prevent enemies from using them for an entire minute, which is also pretty great. Sombra's hack is very useful, but it's nowhere near broken.
All in all, Sombra seems like an area-controlling hero that can make enemies easy targets for teammates. Her abilities require her to be running around all over the place while also letting teammates help her out in sticky situations. She seems very hard to master, but I'm guessing she'll be played a lot in both casual and competitive play. After all, what's there not to love in a teleporting, disappearing, sassy, anti-hero hacker?
