Lore:
Sombra, Spanish for "shadow", is a perfect description of this new hero. She lurks hacking not only health packs, but other players. She speeds through the map with the ability to become invisible at her will with a slight speed boost, and can cause chaos for all throughout a match. Not only is Sombra a great hero to use, but her lore is quiet interesting to read about. A summary would be that she was an orphan left homeless by the Omnic Crisis who excels in hacking almost anything and everyone. She was unnoticed for most of her life, but finally got caught forcing her to switch to this anonymous identity, "Sombra", she created for herself. You can read her backstory more in detail on the Overwatch website here. Sombra was teased in a short video dealing with a team of Sombra herself, Reaper, and Widowmaker to eliminate the defense head of Russia on the PlayOverwatch YouTube channel. She was officially released on November 15, 2016 in an update with not only herself, but various other features that were either fine tuned or added to the game itself.
Abilities:
Machine Pistol
This of course is just Sombra's basic attack, it is a short range pistol that has 60 ammo until you need to reload. The damage output of this gun is extraordinarily nice and isn't awfully short, unlike D.Va's basic attack. You can distance yourself quite a bit from the opposing team while you prepare to shoot.
Hack
This is one of my favorites of the abilities given to Sombra. With this you can hack a first aid kit anywhere around the map making the spawn rate increase BUT only your team can collect the first aid kits from this point for a solid minute. I find this ability to not only be useful, but downright sneaky. The cooldown for this is 12 seconds, which isn't that rough when you really consider what this ability is capable of.
Thermoptic Camo
While under Thermoptic Camo, Sombra is invisible and gains a substantial speed boost. I always go ahead and activate this ability once I get in and the timer countdown is done, just to give me a light speed boost to my desired location and the safety net of invisibility, just in case I were to locate an enemy team member. Now, this ability isn't only good for getting a head start, but for positioning as well. It will allow you to sneak by the opposing team to maybe lock in a certain angled location. You can then shoot with cover nearby. The cooldown for this ability is 6 seconds and the period of invisibility and speed boost also last 6 seconds.
Translocator
Now, I haven't actually used this ability too much in the game I've been playing, but that doesn't mean it isn't incredibly useful. This allows Sombra to throw out a beacon. She can teleport to the location of the beacon at any time, including mid-fight. The beacon will only be active for about 15 seconds before it goes back into cooldown. The cooldown for this ability is only 6 seconds, so you could use this quite often throughout a match.
EMP
This is Sombra's Ult. When activated, every character within range's shield or barrier will be destroyed and all heros will experience a period of hacking from Sombra. This ultimate ability does come in handy many times during a match. One example is, when you and your team are trying to defend a payload and keep it from pushing towards a checkpoint, but Reinhardt has his Barrier Field active. If your ult is charged and ready, you could an activate Thermoptic Camo to get in range and then hack the world with EMP taking down the barrier and allowing damage to come through to the opposing team. It's a brilliant ult and I'm a for-sure fan of it.
My Opinion:
I am not an Overwatch expert myself, I'm sure the only people who can claim the title of experts are those who have personally created the game itself. Even though I am no expert, I do have a rough knowledge of the game and would call myself decent when it comes to play. All around, I've played around two or three hours worth of Sombra matches and I've honestly fallen for the character. Her mobility is great due to her ability of Thermoptic Camo and the overall damage of the hero is satisfying. I myself would rather a ranged hero above close combat which just made it easier for me to like her. I like that she can disable a shield or barrier which will really come in handy with those annoying Reinhardt matches where they just seem to always be blocking. She's not too complicated, even though Overwatch ranks her a 3/3 stars hero for complexity. With all low health stealth heroes there comes the task of just knowing when to go in and when it's time for you to stay back. You've got to be aware of your surroundings and where your health bar and team members are at, at all times. She's enjoyable to play and simple to pick up. So my friends, lurk in the shadows and hack the helpless with Overwatch's newest addition: Sombra.
