Hot off the heels of Blizzard’s long-anticipated announcement of Overwatch’s newest hero, hacker-booper extraordinaire Sombra, the expected questions have been raised regarding who she plays well against, and who has the advantage over her. We’re here to fill in those gaps with some preeminent counters and vulnerabilities leading up to her release on the PTR and, after some likely tweaks, her unleashing to the wild.
Note: While we don’t anticipate these matchups changing post-release, Sombra’s stats are not final, so keep that in mind.
Who Sombra Counters
Zarya
Zarya is a hero that absolutely needs her two barrier abilities to be effective. In fact, when hacked by Sombra, Zarya literally has no way to defend herself or build up more energy for her laser than she already has. This puts her at a huge disadvantage, one that Sombra and her teammates can easily capitalize on to take Zarya down without much of a fight.
Tracer
Tracer, in practice, is not all that dissimilar from Sombra. They both have a teleporting ability, wield high-spread automatic pistols, and lack armor and shields, making both dependent on health packs across the map. But through Sombra’s Hack ability, she is able to take away both avenues for Tracer to regain her health.
If she hacks Tracer herself, she can no longer rewind time and regain lost health. If she hacks key health packs on crucial areas of the map, Tracer can no longer pick them up. This has the added advantage of delivering new health packs much faster for Sombra’s team, which gives her a huge advantage in a duel with Tracer around a health pack.
Reinhardt
Another victim of Sombra’s chief claim-to-fame, being hacked would also put Reinhardt in a pretty tough spot. He would not only lose his ability to don the energy shield, but would also be unable to charge or launch a fireball. This eliminates his greatest defense and any chance he has to close the distance or pick off squishy enemies from afar.
Suffice to say, a hacked Reinhardt is suddenly a shieldless, melee-only Reinhardt that could be in big trouble. His only saving grace is that Sombra has to get pretty close to activate a hack, so if she doesn’t immediately teleport back to safety or invisibly run away, Reinhardt has a chance to take out the Sombra who killed his shield.
Torbjorn
Sombra doesn’t counter the lovable dwarf himself as much as his automated baby, the turret. A well-timed hack on the turret will completely disable it for a short time. This opens the window to destroy it completely using her 60-bullet clip machine pistol. However, she still has to be careful around the turret. Her hacking requires holding the input, and with only 200 health and no armor, shields, or way to self-heal, the turret could chew her up quickly if caution isn’t taken.
Bastion
Put simply, Sombra can pretty quickly ruin Bastion’s day for similar reasons to everybody else here. Sombra’s hack instantly pulls Bastion out of his turret form, and to top it off, makes him unable to self-repair. This puts him in a really tough spot, as his subsequent options are to fight in walker mode, or retreat and try again when the hack is over.
Though, chances are Sombra won’t let him get off that easy. Bastion’s walker-mode gun can be very effective, so some well-placed headshots could still easily end Sombra, but the odds are definitely tipped in her favor.
Several Ultimate Abilities
Sombra’s ultimate ability EMP is designed around ruining the best-laid plans of the other team. Not only does it knock out abilities for those in her line-of-sight for a period of time, but it can also completely shut down enemy ultimates.
The biggest ultimates this could effect are that of Lucio, Zarya, and Zenyatta. Zarya’s Graviton Surge, Lucio’s Sound Barrier, and Zenyatta’s Transcendence can all be canceled (even after they activate) with one press of a button from the hacker. This is sure to mix up the kind of matches we currently see that come down to an entire team ulting at the same time to wipe the opposing team.
Who Counters Sombra
Winston
This lovable gorilla is currently the hero we see best in taking on Sombra currently. His tesla cannon can very quickly suss out Sombra trying to sneak by with invisibility, and even if hacked, he can continue to deal significant damage and take her down. The loss of his deployable barrier and leap could be a problem if faced with uneven numbers, but for a one-on-one duel, Winston has the upper hand.
Mei
Mei would be similarly effective against her, as her ice stream could be continuously used to weed out an invisible Sombra in the mix. And once devoid of her sprinting and also slowed by Mei’s ice, she is very quickly out of options to get away beyond a hail-mary teleporter throw. And if Mei can freeze her solid, she can finish her off with a single icicle to the noggin. That said, a hacked Mei would have to be careful with her health bar and count on freezing her to win a one-on-one.
Hanzo/Widowmaker
We’ll bundle these two together since they counter for the same reason. Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow and Widowmaker’s Recon Vision can both see through Sombra’s invisibility, which makes her an open target for arrows and headshots, especially when Sombra thinks everybody is none the wiser. That said, if she closes the distance on the pair, they have a big problem. A hacked Widowmaker negates her best getaway plan, and it’d take a good Hanzo to take her on up close.
Junkrat
Junkrat has an edge for the same reason he does over many heroes in Overwatch: his trap-and-explode combo. Junkrat can lay down traps to cover his exposed flanks, which helps against an unseen Sombra lurking about. Hacking Junkrat won’t do Sombra much good if he’s already deployed his gear, and he can make quick work of her with just a few well-placed grenades and a remote mine explosion.
About the author
