Overwatch’s Mexican hacker will see her Hack ability nerfed in the next patch, according to lead Overwatch designer Geoff Goodman.
There are two big changes coming for Sombra, both of which address problems with Hack. The first change is a Hack cooldown for an interrupted Hack. It’ll force Sombra players to be more careful in choosing when to use the ability, instead of trying to just get a Hack off on anyone. The new Hack cooldown is two seconds for an interrupted attempt.
Related: Sombra’s hacking ability is about to get stronger on the Overwatch PTR
The second adjustment will address how Sombra’s enemies can respond to being hacked by the hero. A fraction of a second before Hack completes, there’s a time frame where line-of-sight and other effects can’t cancel Hack. “This exists so it doesn’t constantly get broken by very small line of sight blockers such as light posts and signs,” Goodman said.
But this window is going to be removed in the next patch. Blizzard will add “multiple line-of-sight checks” to make sure the ability isn’t canceled by something tiny. When the update goes live, heroes that are able to get out of view will successfully be able to break the Hack. Players that felt they were able to be hacked through walls will be happy to see this change go live.
“In addition, we’re speeding up the update rate of her hacking so that it is more responsive in checking for these fail conditions,” Goodman said. “The combination of these things means it should be much more reasonable to respond to a hack targeting you.”
Though these are definite nerfs to Sombra’s Hack ability, Goodman said Blizzard still wants her to feel stronger than before she got the Hack buff. “We’re keeping a close eye on her to make sure she lands in a good plan,” he added.
Goodman did not give an estimated time frame for the Overwatch update.
