As notorious Overwatch hero Sombra makes her support class debut in Season 5: A Grim Doctrine, Blizzard is well aware that the former DPS losing her Hack ability is going to leave some players "upset," but insists the change is "better for the game."

Sombra's big support rework was announced last month, and basically comes in an attempt to make her less annoying for both her foes and allies. As you'd imagine, the rework means big changes to her abilities and perks. She's now got a new ability called Cyberspace, for example, replacing her damage-over-time Virus ability with a new projectile that weakens foes and heals allies.

Perhaps most notably, though, Sombra's Hack ability has been replaced by Hotfix. Rather than being able to mess with opponents by temporarily removing their abilities from them, it instead can be used to heal allies over time.

It's certainly a choice considering that Sombra's whole shtick is that she's a hacker – especially after game director Aaron Keller previously said that the rework wouldn't change "her identity" – and the devs are obviously aware that not everyone is a fan.

"We've seen a lot of reception about the Sombra rework, and one of the things people have talked about is the hacker losing hack," senior hero designer Leo Robles Gonzalez admits in a new dev livestream.

Robles Gonzalez reveals that Blizzard "tried a lot of different versions of Sombra where she still could hack enemies," but regardless, even with her lower damage output "there was always that feeling of Sombra appearing out of nowhere, turning off my abilities, and then outputting damage that I can't really do anything about."

Source link