Overwatch Season 5’s Biggest Change Is Sombra Leaving Damage

Overwatch has reworked heroes before, but shifting Sombra out of the Damage roster changes the basic arithmetic of team-building. Season 5 removes one of the game’s signature stealth-flank DPS options from that role and turns her into a utility Support, while adding Doctrine as the 54th hero.

Doctrine arrives after a limited trial held from September 12 through September 14, ahead of the October 6 season launch. The vampiric Support uses a staff and a swarm of drone-like bats, combining ally healing with enemy damage and vitality-draining pressure. Her design points toward aggressive backlines rather than a passive healing slot: players who can balance damage windows, resource use, and positioning should get the most from her kit. Doctrine is also tied directly to Doomfist and the closing chapter of the Dominators of the Empire story arc, which ends in Season 5.

Sombra’s conversion is the wider competitive disruption. Translocator and EMP remain central to her identity, but she now gains ally-healing tools and enemy damage reduction. That creates room for a Support pairing built around disruption, scouting, and tempo instead of pure sustain. It also means former Sombra Damage mains must either remain in Support queues or find a replacement among the DPS flankers. Teams should expect her value to rise with coordinated dives and fall sharply when teammates cannot capitalize on hacked or weakened targets.

Roadhog’s overhaul targets his old hook-combo certainty. His new Trash Compactor can absorb incoming damage and turn it into a burst of scrap damage, giving him a more deliberate defensive-to-offensive cycle. The trade-off is less reliable instant elimination potential, so Roadhog players will need better follow-through from their own aim and their team.

The new Escort battleground, Watchpoint: Grímsvötn, is set in the isolated Icelandic volcanic prison where Doctrine was held before Doomfist freed her. Practice its choke points, vertical routes, and long prison sightlines early; Escort coordination will matter as much as hero experimentation.

Season 5 is a genuine roster reset: prioritize learning Support Sombra and Doctrine first, because the new meta will be decided by utility pressure, not another conventional damage race.