Overwatch 2 Fans Discover Hilarious Detail About Sombra’s Removed Stealth Passive

Overwatch 2 Fans Discover Hilarious Detail About Sombra's Removed Stealth Passive

Key Takeaways

  • Sombra’s Stealth ability in Overwatch 2 was not removed but has a 999-second cooldown.
  • Players can still experience Sombra’s Stealth in Custom game modes by setting Ability Cooldown to 0%.
  • Overwatch 2 likely increased the cooldown to simplify programming, not eliminate the ability completely.

As a seasoned Overwatch 2 player with countless hours under my gaming belt, I’ve seen characters evolve over time, but Sombra’s recent changes left me scratching my head and muttering under my breath more than usual. The revelation that her Stealth passive wasn’t removed, but rather hidden behind a 16-minute cooldown, felt like the game developers playing an elaborate cosmic joke on us.


Some enthusiasts of Overwatch 2 have found an interesting twist concerning Sombra’s Stealth passive: Instead of completely eradicating it, the developers increased its cooldown to such an extent that players rarely get to witness it. While Overwatch 2 has technically made Sombra’s passive Stealth inoperable in a practical sense, there are certain Custom game modes where you can still see the original ability.

In Season 13, the character Sombra from Overwatch 2 underwent a major overhaul that substantially altered most of her abilities. Previously a hacker in the FPS genre, Sombra regained her Opportunist passive, yet this came at the expense of adjustments to her Hack, EMP, and Translocator. Among the most significant changes was the removal of her Stealth passive, whereby the Translocator now conceals her for five seconds following teleportation, rather than immediately and permanently cloaking her during brief periods out of combat.

It’s been found by some players of Overwatch 2 that Sombra’s Stealth passive is still in the game, though it may not appear so at first glance. A fan of Overwatch 2 named Dulcetbunnie explains that instead of being removed, Sombra’s passive Stealth has had its cooldown increased to a staggering 999 seconds, or approximately 16 minutes. As a result, if players manage to stay out of combat for an extended period (about half an hour) or set their ability cooldown time to 0% in Skirmish or Custom Games like NixLupus31 did, they will still see Sombra enter Stealth much like she used to before Season 13.

Sombra’s Stealth Passive is Still Around in Overwatch 2

16 minutes is simply too long to wait during an Overwatch 2 match. Most game modes don’t have timers lasting more than 10 minutes, and even those that do feature critical objectives that are often fiercely contested. Consequently, a player would likely depend on their teammates to extend overtime for multiple minutes just to use Sombra’s passive Stealth once. In essence, due to the fast-paced nature of Overwatch 2, Sombra’s stealth ability is practically non-existent in regular gameplay.

It’s likely that Overwatch 2 made changes to Sombra’s Stealth passive by increasing its cooldown to its maximum instead of completely removing it, because this approach was more straightforward from a programming perspective. This way, the developers avoided having to eliminate the ability altogether, which might have taken more effort or caused issues in Overwatch 2. If changes are reverted in the future and Sombra’s passive Stealth is restored, it can be easily done by lowering the cooldown once again.

It seems that Sombra’s recent update in Overwatch 2 hasn’t gone down well with many of her fans. They are disappointed because Sombra, who used to be a flanker, is now more of a frontline pressure DPS character. These players feel that the unique character trait of Sombra as a damage hero has been lost in this rework. It remains to be seen if Overwatch 2 will make further adjustments or possibly revert some aspects of her redesign in future updates.

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2024-10-19 23:03