Ana & Sombra: What can we learn from hero releases?

It is almost impossible to find a single match where a teammate or opponent doesn’t auto lock in the newest hero. Most of the time, there’s absolutely no problem with this. However, this does present a concern within the competitive mode of Overwatch, which is currently plagued by players experimenting with a limited knowledge of her kit. Using the lessons that both Ana and Sombra brought from their respective releases, Blizzard should take a different approach to new characters that doesn't hinder competitive play so drastically.

The first character introduced to Overwatch after official release, Ana, was added early September 2016, alongside the beginning of competitive season 2. During the first few weeks of her release many players experimented with Ana in Quick Play, but the more consequential players decided to try her out on the competitive side as well. These players were, naturally, often unable to fully utilize Ana’s kit. This resulted in unsatisfied teammates blaming the experimenting players. However, after a few weeks of maturation time and some buffs, players found Ana to be a valuable pick in professional play.

Sombra is a similar but different case. As expected, players are learning the new hero through both quick and competitive play. The difference is that this is taking place during the critical closing weeks of the fall competitive season. Yes, Sombra’s kit can potentially be game-changing, but not in the way the average player will use her in the first weeks of play. While an argument could be made for bad Ana's still being somewhat helpful, an equally bad Sombra will have an even bigger negative impact on your team's performance.

While Sombra offers a lot of enjoyment through her mechanics, only proper use of those abilities can make her an occasionally better pick than offensive alternatives. McCree has great crowd control in his stun as well as burst fire, Reaper has amazing damage at close range, the newly buffed Soldier 76 has consistent damage plus healing, and Pharah has high damage and aerial superiority. Sombra doesn't have any of these in her kit, and her kit in general is far less straight-forward. Some players can justify that her Hack is a great crowd control ability, but it has a one second cast time and a way of being interrupted by taking damage. This can make it hard to use reliably in most 1v1 situations.

Her ultimate, however, can be game changing, but only with a team that can follow up and is well coordinated.

This does not mean that Sombra is inherently an unimpactful hero. With time, Sombra will become a fully realized hero like Ana after her novelty runs out, and will mostly be played by those who can fully utilize her kit. In the first few weeks of Ana’s release, she did not see much play in the professional world. Everyone knew that Ana’s kit was strong, but once players capitalized on her strengths and weaknesses (and with a bit of help from Blizzard) she became a popular pick. Sombra as a character is amazing, it's just her role hasn’t been fully fleshed out. The popular theory is that she is an “Opportunist” character (named after her passive which allows her to see characters through walls if their health is below 50%). With that, she is the character that can surprise low health enemies with her stealth and provide information to her teammates. Along with her surprise factor, Sombra spends most of her time scouting for opportunities, hacking key health packs and denying the enemy team extra health if their healers are down. A perfect example of Sombra play provided by Team FNATIC's IDDQD:

All Sombra needs right now is time for players to understand her before we all can use her to her full potential in both casual and professional play. Blizzard should place a probationary period on new releases to allow time for all players to get used to the character as well as allow Blizzard time to change stats according to feedback, before the new character also becomes available in competitive. This period would be useful for professionals to figure out the character's placement in the current meta as well. Along with that, the developer should try to release characters during the off-season or at the beginning of a competitive season, as they did with Ana, to not affect other player's rankings.

In the next few weeks, look forward to possible balance changes and new strategies and compositions that focus on Sombra. With a fully realized Sombra, she will definitely find a place in the stale, tank heavy meta. Until then, choose your heroes wisely.

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