u/SykosisMitosis

Honestly, Translocator and Stealth being separate again felt really nice with how flexible it was. However, Hack on Virus is disgusting. I was on the train that Hack should be on Virus, but after playing it, it's actually so broken. There is practically zero counter play against it unless you miss the shot. Even then, since you can go invisible, you can literally just walk up to someone from behind and smack them with it. At least before, you heard Sombra beep booping the Hack before it actually happened.

I've seen people say remove/nerf the damage from Virus, and even heard the idea of adding a wind-up, or making the cooldown longer. And these are all terrible ideas.

>Remove/Nerf the damage from Virus

• It doesn't change the fact that there's no counter play from the Hack itself.

>Adding a wind-up or Increasing cooldown

• Why make the character feel more clunky? And increasing the cooldown doesn't change how bad it feels when you get hit by the Virus still. It just making playing Sombra feel worse when you miss or have to wait since half your kit is constantly on cooldown.

I understand that there are a lot of people who don't like Sombra in general, but if a character like her is going to exist in the game while retaining her "hero fantasy," surely there is a way to have the community be "okay" with her and not have her be perma banned in the lower ranks or too oppressively in the high ranks. I'm glad to be able to try out this version of Sombra just to see how it feels, but if there's going to be a rework in the future, I'd argue just get rid of Virus altogether and separate Stealth and Translocator again. Stealth on a timer and being able to put down Translocator isn't even that bad.

>Then what about the Sombra players who constantly camp health packs, especially the ones FAR away, and is never in a fight because every time they get tickled, they TP instantly?

• I believe old Translocator went into cooldown right away after you threw it? If that's the case, have the cooldown start 4 seconds after you TP, like the Community Crafted Sombra. Sombra players only camp health packs because it's nice to have the security of heals. Modern day Sombra can be healed outside of that with the global healing and perks, but I think a way to help combat this issue is having Stealth on a resource. Stealth is currently on 6 second cooldown with up to 5 seconds of invisibility. You don't get punished and never feel a sense of urgency because it comes back so quick with almost max uptime. If Stealth was on a resource, a Sombra would likely be more discouraged to TP back to somewhere far away because if they wanted to get back into the fight quicker, they'd have to dump all their Stealth just to get back. Pinning more value on the Stealth as a resource encourages a player to be more mindful of how much they're using. The player shouldn't be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here since it's safe and I can just get back because of Stealth." They should be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here because it gives me the most value with my Stealth." In a way, this can create more of a disparity between good and bad Sombra players, which maybe is a good thing? But if you have a Sombra who still camps a health pack far away, it'd only make the game feel worse because the Sombra would technically be doing even less due to having no Stealth to engage with. However, I think the pros outweigh the cons, because you should be making thoughtful and meaningful decisions when playing a character like Sombra.
• Also, if you have Stealth on a resource, you can change the Opportunist passive by removing the ability to see the enemy's ult charge into gaining some Stealth resource back when eliminating or landing final blows to hacked targets. The Sombra player should be rewarded for committing and doing well, especially since she'll be harder to play with a resource.

I wouldn't be against the idea either of having Translocator be the way it currently is in the live game, but with Stealth separated on a resource, but this is just how I feel and my idea with Sombra's rework following the Community Crafted Sombra. What do you guys think?

Honestly, Translocator and Stealth being separate again felt really nice with how flexible it was. However, Hack on Virus is disgusting. I was on the train that Hack should be on Virus, but after playing it, it's actually so broken. There is practically zero counter play against it unless you miss the shot. Even then, since you can go invisible, you can literally just walk up to someone from behind and smack them with it. At least before you hear Sombra beep booping the Hack before it actually happened.

I've seen people say remove/nerf the damage from Virus, and even heard the idea of adding a wind-up, or making the longer cooldown. And these are all terrible ideas.

>Remove/Nerf the damage from Virus

• It doesn't change the fact that there's no counter play from the Hack itself.

>Adding a wind-up or Increasing cooldown

• Why make the character feel more clunky? And increasing the cooldown doesn't change how bad it feels when you get hit by the Virus still. It just making playing Sombra feel worse when you miss or have to wait since half your kit is constantly on cooldown.

I understand that there are a lot of people who don't like Sombra in general, but if a character like her is going to exist in the game while retaining her "hero fantasy," surely there is a way to have the community be "okay" with her and not have her be perma banned in the lower ranks or too oppressive in the high ranks. I'm glad to be able to try out this version of Sombra just to see how it feels, but if there's going to be a rework in the future, I'd argue just get rid of Virus altogether and separate Stealth and Translocator again. Stealth on a timer and being able to put down Translocator isn't even that bad.

>Then what about the Sombra players who constantly camp health packs, especially the ones FAR away, and is never in a fight because every time they get tickled, they TP instantly?

• I believe old Translocator went into cooldown right away after you threw it? If that's the case, have the cooldown start 4 seconds after you TP, like the Community Crafted Sombra. Sombra players only camp health packs because it's nice to have the security of heals. Modern day Sombra can be healed outside of that with the global healing and perks, but I think a way to help combat this issue is having Stealth on a resource. Stealth is currently on a 6 second cooldown with up to 5 seconds of invisibility. You don't get punished and never feel a sense of urgency because it comes back so quickly with almost max uptime. If Stealth was on a resource, a Sombra would likely be more discouraged to TP back to somewhere far away because if they wanted to get back into the fight quicker, they'd have to dump all their Stealth just to get back. Pinning more value on the Stealth as a resource encourages the player to be more mindful of how much they're using. The player shouldn't be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here since it's safe and I can just get back because of Stealth." They should be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here because it gives me the most value with my Stealth." In a way, this can create more of a disparity between good and bad Sombra players, which maybe is a good thing? But if you have a Sombra who still camps a health pack far away, it'd only make the game feel worse because the Sombra would technically be doing even less due to having no Stealth to engage with. However, I think the pros outweigh the cons, because you should be making thoughtful and meaningful decisions when playing a character like Sombra.
• Also, if you have Stealth on a resource, you can change the Opportunist passive by removing the ability to see the enemy's ult charge (which I think is kind of useless) into gaining some Stealth resource back when eliminating or landing final blows to hacked targets. The Sombra player should be rewarded for committing and doing well, especially since she'll be harder to play with a resource.

I wouldn't be against the idea either of having Translocator be the way it currently is in the live game, but with Stealth separated on a resource. If Translocator is such an issue being thrown down and lasting forever, it wouldn't be a bad idea either to just have it last a certain amount of time before it destroys itself. Anyways this is just how I feel and my idea with Sombra's rework following the Community Crafted Sombra.

Honestly, Translocator and Stealth being separate again felt really nice with how flexible it was. However, Hack on Virus is disgusting. I was on the train that Hack should be on Virus, but after playing it, it's actually so broken. There is practically zero counter play against it unless you miss the shot. Even then, since you can go invisible, you can literally just walk up to someone from behind and smack them with it. At least before you hear Sombra beep booping the Hack before it actually happened.

I've seen people say remove/nerf the damage from Virus, and even heard the idea of adding a wind-up, or making the longer cooldown. And these are all terrible ideas.

>Remove/Nerf the damage from Virus

• It doesn't change the fact that there's no counter play from the Hack itself.

>Adding a wind-up or Increasing cooldown

• Why make the character feel more clunky? And increasing the cooldown doesn't change how bad it feels when you get hit by the Virus still. It just making playing Sombra feel worse when you miss or have to wait since half your kit is constantly on cooldown.

I understand that there are a lot of people who don't like Sombra in general, but if a character like her is going to exist in the game while retaining her "hero fantasy," surely there is a way to have the community be "okay" with her and not have her be perma banned in the lower ranks or too oppressively in the high ranks. I'm glad to be able to try out this version of Sombra just to see how it feels, but if there's going to be a rework in the future, I'd argue just get rid of Virus altogether and separate Stealth and Translocator again. Stealth on a timer and being able to put down Translocator isn't even that bad.

>Then what about the Sombra players who constantly camp health packs, especially the ones FAR away, and is never in a fight because every time they get tickled, they TP instantly?

• I believe old Translocator went into cooldown right away after you threw it? If that's the case, have the cooldown start 4 seconds after you TP, like the Community Crafted Sombra. Sombra players only camp health packs because it's nice to have the security of heals. Modern day Sombra can be healed outside of that with the global healing and perks, but I think a way to help combat this issue is having Stealth on a resource. Stealth is currently on 6 second cooldown with up to 5 seconds of invisibility. You don't get punished and never feel a sense of urgency because it comes back so quick with almost max uptime. If Stealth was on a resource, a Sombra would likely be more discouraged to TP back to somewhere far away because if they wanted to get back into the fight quicker, they'd have to dump all their Stealth just to get back. Pinning more value on the Stealth as a resource encourages the player to be more mindful of how much they're using. The player shouldn't be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here since it's safe and I can just get back because of Stealth." They should be thinking, "Let me put my Translocator here because it gives me the most value with my Stealth." In a way, this can create more of a disparity between good and bad Sombra players, which maybe is a good thing? But if you have a Sombra who still camps a health pack far away, it'd only make the game feel worse because the Sombra would technically be doing even less due to having no Stealth to engage with. However, I think the pros outweigh the cons, because you should be making thoughtful and meaningful decisions when playing a character like Sombra.
• Also, if you have Stealth on a resource, you can change the Opportunist passive by removing the ability to see the enemy's ult charge (which I think is kind of useless) into gaining some Stealth resource back when eliminating or landing final blows to hacked targets. The Sombra player should be rewarded for committing and doing well, especially since she'll be harder to play with a resource.

I wouldn't be against the idea either of having Translocator be the way it currently is in the live game, but with Stealth separated on a resource. If Translocator is such an issue being thrown down and lasting forever, it wouldn't be a bad idea either to just have it last a certain amount of time before it destroys itself. Anyways this is just how I feel and my idea with Sombra's rework following the Community Crafted Sombra.

Now that Icons exist, is there even a point in Stride Decksets anymore? Icons are just much stronger and faster than the Encounters with the crest.

Not only that, but all Stride decks that appeared during the G era had a user who played a deck that represented the main Stride decks of each clan, with some clans having two or more representatives, ex. Luard/Claret and Fenrir/Amaruda. I think G era did a pretty good job tying the characters to their respective decks, which is why I can see almost every, if not all, Stride deck as an Icon deck.

I personally like Strides as Icons more than how they are as Encounters, because I just don’t like how the crests were handled. But it leaves a bitter feeling knowing that Encounter Strides exist and are basically going to be left behind. I mean, there’s no point (besides money) printing new Stride decks as Encounters then reprinting them later as Icons, right?

Do you prefer Strides as Encounters or Icons?

What's the most efficient way to farm Sortie? I've been doing LV65 Hardcore because the outcome of the loot is showing more than LV80 no Risk/no Hardcore and I can consistently clear it without failing. I can clear LV80 with some Risks on Hardcore, which does upfront yield the most loot, but the chance of failing is higher, resulting in even less loot, and I don't want to fail runs just to eat up my time. So what difficulty would you say is the most efficient?

Everything I say is more so an opinion, but I just wanted to throw it out there and see if some people feel the same way. This is a long one, so-

While I'm open to new mechanics and gimmicks, I personally don't like Icons, or at least how they were implemented. Generally speaking, I like that Bushi is reimagining these older units to fit more of the current standard, but while it's normal that new support will always push out older cards, it feels a bit weird that you're more so replacing your deck with the same deck, but a better version with more restrictions due to the Fighter's Icon. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I feel like Icons should've been an addition to the Encounter decks instead of outright replacing them.

This is how I personally would've implemented Icon cards, using the recent Phantom Blaster Dragon as an example. Icon cards would have these ruling:

>- Icon cards cannot be in the ride deck.
- Cards in your Ride Deck do not count towards the 4 card limit of Icon cards that share the same card name. (Basically you can run 4 Icon PBD in Main Deck and 1 Encounter PBD in Ride Deck, this would also apply to Blaster Dark)
- During your Ride Phase, instead of normal riding from your Ride Deck, you may remove a card from your Ride Deck that shares the same card name as the Icon card in your hand, and normal ride it.
- During your Ride Phase, you may normal ride an Icon card from your hand on a non-Icon card, as long as the vanguard shares the same card name as the Icon card. (Persona Ride will activate)
- When you ride a card with a Fighter's Icon, you cannot ride/stride units that do not have the same Fighter's Icon until end of this fight.

The reason why I'd prefer this method is because it gives value to your original card. I don't know about you, but it's nice to be able to still have a memento of your original vanguard and use it as a way to ride into a newer and stronger version of itself. You're telling me I'd have to bench my SP/High Rarity vanguard? At least let me use a copy of it to mog my opponent.

What I find cool is that this method of riding into an Icon card would be a combination of using the Ride Deck of Standard, but normal riding from hand, like back in the old days, giving that nostalgic feeling of riding up. Compared to how Icon cards are currently implemented though, my version of them does have a downside. Using PBD as an example again, you might get unlucky and not have an Icon PBD in hand during turn 3. While you can normal ride from your Ride Deck into the Encounter PBD, then Persona Ride into the Icon PBD next turn, it's definitely still a feels bad moment. But think about it, it'll be a walk down memory lane of having to ride into the wrong grade 3 because you didn't get the one you wanted, but at least it's not as bad this time around-

In regards to rear-guards with Fighter Icons, I don't like how they were designed as well. They should've been designed with a 50/50 in mind. Using PBD as an example once again, basically half of the rear-guard's skill should be for PBD, but the other half is restricted to the Ren Icon. This would allow the new cards to be used in the Encounter PBD, if you prefer them over the original Encounter rear-guards. Here's an example with Charon:

>Black Sage, Charon (Original)
[ACT][Drop]:If your grade 3 or greater vanguard has a Ren icon and all of your rear-guards have a different name from this card, COST [Soul Blast (1)], call this card to (RC), and if your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
[ACT][Drop]:If your grade 3 or greater vanguard has a Ren icon, COST [remove 2 cards with the same name as this unit from drop], and Counter Charge (1).

Black Sage, Charon (My Version)
[ACT][Drop]:If you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Blaster" in its card name and all of your rear-guards have a different name from this card, COST [Soul Blast (1)], call this card to (RC), and if your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
[ACT][Drop]:If your grade 3 or greater vanguard has a Ren icon, COST [remove 2 cards with the same name as this unit from drop], and Counter Charge (1).

What I don't like is that in regards to Icon PBD, you have a choice between Encounter Charon or Icon Charon, which let's be honest, Icon Charon is stronger, but Encounter PBD doesn't have that choice. At least with my version of Icon Charon, if you prefer playing Encounter PBD, you will now have a choice between the two, granted, you won't be able to fully utilize Icon Charon's abilities, but an upgrade is an upgrade. I strongly feel this way because I'm a big fan of Nirvana and overDress. When Nirvana transitioned into Jheva and X-overDress, I was disappointed. Even if Jheva was the stronger deck, I had way more fun with Mahar and overDress. It just sucks when a variant of a deck you enjoyed playing gets all their support cut. It's obvious that Icons are meant to power creep their original Encounters, but I don't think they should be forgotten.

Also, real quick, I honestly think Icon Chronojet should've been how Stride decks were designed in general. Now we're going to have a mess of Encounter Stride Decksets and Icon Stride Decks, unless they just decide not to do any more of one or the other.

Again, this is just my opinion and me wanting to share an idea. At the end of the day, while I do have preferences, I am very in the "It is what it is" zone with Icons. What do you think about my idea or Icons in general? Thanks for reading.

TL;DR: Icons should've been an addition to Encounters, not a full-on replacement.