Blizzard has moved Sombra out of Damage and into Support, and Hack has gone with her. The retail patch notes dated October 6 list the role change as “Moved from Damage to Support role” and, under Hack, a single word: “Removed.”
Virus is removed too. In their place Sombra gets Hotfix on Secondary Fire, which heals an ally over time, and Cyberspace on Ability 1, a projectile that leaves a zone weakening enemies and healing allies.
What the Sombra Support rework changes in Overwatch’s October 6 patch
Blizzard’s developer comment puts the move down to a mismatch between the hero and the role she sat in:
Sombra is being brought into the Support role with this latest rework. In the past, her identity as a disruptive mastermind was at odds with the value a Damage hero was expected to bring.
On Hack itself the notes are blunter, saying most players found being locked out of their abilities “jarring, frustrating, and difficult to deal with” even though it created moments the Sombra player enjoyed.
The replacement is a status effect called Weaken, which Blizzard says halves an enemy’s own damage and healing output instead of switching their abilities off. For anyone who queues by role, Sombra now fills a Support slot.
The notes are dated October 6 and are not broken out by platform.
Hotfix and Cyberspace replace Hack and Virus on Sombra’s kit
Hotfix heals an ally for 65 instant health and 25 health per second, and lasts until either 175 total healing is done or 12 seconds pass. It has two charges, an 8 second cooldown, a 0.5 second cast time and 17 meters of range.
Hacking has not vanished completely. Hotfix can still hack health packs and most enemy deployables on a separate 6 second cooldown, and a hacked health pack lasts 30 seconds rather than 45.
Cyberspace’s explosion deals 40 damage and 40 healing, then leaves a 5 meter zone for 3 seconds doing 25 damage per second and 30 healing per second. Enemies inside it take the 50% Weaken penalty.
Sombra pays for the kit elsewhere. EMP’s ultimate cost is up 67.5% and its damage falls from 25% of current health to 20%, Machine Pistol drops from 8 to 7 damage per projectile, and Translocator’s cooldown rises from 6 to 7.5 seconds.
Roadhog’s Chain Hook and Scrap Gun change in the same patch
Roadhog’s Scrap Gun now fires two bursts per volley. Ammo goes from 6 to 12 and total damage per volley from 175 to 204, while the critical multiplier drops from 2x to 1.5x and the pellet count from 25 to 16.
His secondary fire is replaced by Trash Compactor, which absorbs projectiles for 2 seconds then fires an explosive shot scaling from 75 to 200 damage. Chain Hook’s cooldown falls from 7 to 6 seconds in 5v5.
One line touches every hero: global “large” hitscan projectile size drops from 0.07 to 0.04 meters, and “small” from 0.04 to 0.02.
The same patch adds an Escort map, Grímsvötn, and fixes a sightline through a door near the first chokepoint on Eichenwalde, the map Blizzard revealed at Gamescom 2016. It also opens the season’s Halloween event and its Graveyard Games arcade mode, which Blizzard says runs “for four wicked weeks”.
Halloween versions of Hollywood, Lijang Tower and Château Guillard are in all queues through November 3.
