Major Sombra rework nerf in Overwatch 2 Season 13 makes her easier to counter

The Overwatch 2 Season 13 update is here and the patch notes have revealed a major rework to popular DPS Hero Sombra that makes her much easier to combat.

Each seasonal update brings new events and a fresh Battle Pass to work through, but it also comes with a ton of Hero buffs and nerfs. Season 13 is no exception, but while other characters have been tweaked, Sombra has been given a much larger overhaul.

The most significant change is that her Stealth ability is no longer passive, but instead tied to the Translocate ability. This has also been given a slight nerf, as its cooldown has been raised from five to seven seconds.

Her other abilities have been adjusted too, with the duration of Hack being lowered to just one second from the previous 1.5 and the cost of her EMP Ultimate being raised by 12%.

There is some good news, though, since Sombra’s Opportunist passive has been restored, allowing her to once again see critically injured enemies, even through walls. She also deals much more damage to Hacked players and her Stealth is only briefly interrupted when using her other moves.

Although some abilities have been improved, overall this rework can be seen as a Sombra nerf. The changes to her Stealth, in particular, will drastically alter the way she operates and make her much easier to manage for the enemy team.

It was clearly a deliberate decision on behalf of the devs, as they said in the Season 13 patch notes: “This is a significant change to Sombra’s playstyle in the hopes of making her more interactive for the opposing team and shifting some of her power from the utility of Stealth and Hack into increased lethality.

“Stealth having a limited duration less than the Translocator cooldown is intended to create brief windows of vulnerability. It still enables Sombra to cross through dangerous areas unseen, but to really hang around in the enemy backline will require moving from cover-to-cover similar to other flanking heroes.”

As you’d expect, the change has been met with a frosty reception, especially from Sombra mains. In a Reddit post discussing the rework, many players feared it could “kill” the Hero altogether.

“She is completely dead,” said one frustrated reply, while another added: “I’ve got about 120 hours on Sombra and this makes me want to stop playing her. They’re making her useless and it’s sad to see. People want her gone and now they’re getting it.”

Only time will tell how these changes play out in Season 13, but on paper, they certainly seem to have made Sombra much tougher to use. The devs have previously admitted that she’s the toughest Hero to balance, so don’t be surprised to see more tweaks in future updates.