Overwatch 2’s Sombra rework for season 7 revealed

Sombra, the hacker-hero from Game of Thrones is getting a major rework. Overwatch 2’s new season, which kicks off Oct. 10. While other heroes on the game’s roster will be impacted by various balance changes, Sombra’s abilities are being overhauled in some pretty substantial ways. Blizzard says the changes to Sombra are designed to make her “more engaging to play with and play against.”

“Our goal is to allow Sombra to be more committed to the targets she engages with and have a more active feel to her kit, all the while maintaining her character identity and playstyle as the world’s greatest hacker,” the developer said in a blog post.

Blizzard says that Sombra’s Machine Pistol primary weapon, Hack ability, and EMP ultimate are being “tuned,” but that’s not where the biggest changes are.

Sombra gets a brand-new skill: Virus. Blizzard describes it as “a skill shot that deals damage over time to the target it hits and does double damage and at a faster rate if they are already hacked.” Here’s a peek at Virus in action:

Stealth, Sombra’s ability to turn invisible and move more quickly, is also substantially changing. Stealth is now a passive ability that “starts automatically when Sombra is not taking damage or dealing damage or abilities.” In other words, any time she’s not in combat, Sombra will basically be a ghost.

With Stealth becoming a passive ability, Sombra’s other passive, Opportunist, is being removed. The Opportunist passive allowed Sombra’s to view critically wounded enemies through walls, other objects and more. It also increased damage dealt to enemies who were hacked.

It is being worked on to make her Translocator teleport instantly wherever it’s thrown. This should allow Sombra to get out of tricky situations, have greater maneuverability and save time by teleporting her back to the health pack.

Here’s Sombra’s rework in handy graphic form:

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Sombra’s new ability kit arrives alongside Overwatch 2Season 7, Rise of Darkness will launch on October 10. Blizzard says it will reveal more about Sombra’s rework in the coming days. Roadhog’s rework is expected to happen sometime in season 7.

Blizzard added Sombra to the Overwatch roster in 2016, shortly after her debut at that year’s BlizzCon. Blizzard reworked Sombra in 2021 in order to prepare for Overwatch 2’s launch, letting her hack enemies while in Stealth mode and changing her EMP to deal damage.

The seventh season of Overwatch 2 won’t introduce a new hero, it will include a new map and balance changes to Mei and Zarya (reverting recent buffs to the characters), as well as further tuning for Orisa, Ramattra, Wrecking Ball, Cassidy, Torbjorn, Brigitte, and Illari, Blizzard says.

Overwatch 2Now available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Windows PC, Xbox One Series X and Xbox One.