Overwatch: Sigma Ability Overview, Competitive Release “by September 1st”

Sigma is live on the PTR, and ESTNN is here with his kit breakdown.

Overwatch's 31st hero, Sigma, is now live on the PTR. Sigma's kit revolves around manipulating gravity and controlling areas for his teammates. He has the ability to project a barrier, and his ultimate is a huge, circular, area-of-effect stun. Let's break down his abilities.

Sigma Ability Overview

• Hyper Spheres: Sigma launches two gravitic charges, which implode after a short duration, dealing significant damage in an area.
• Experimental Barrier: Sigma propels a floating barrier to a location of his choosing. He can recall the barrier at any time.
• Kinetic Grasp: Sigma stops incoming projectiles in mid-air, converting them into shields.
• Accretion: Sigma gathers a mass of debris and flings it at an enemy to knock them down.
• Gravitic Flux (Ultimate): Sigma manipulates gravity to lift nearby enemies into the air and slam them back down.

Sigma Abilities Explained

Sigma's primary fire, Hyper Spheres, is a ranged attack that explodes after a short duration and does area-of-effect damage. The spheres themselves can be bounced off walls and around corners until their timer runs out or they hit an enemy.

Experimental Barrier is a projectable barrier that travels a certain distance before stopping. The barrier itself can stop in mid-air and can also clip into terrain. Additionally, Sigma can recall the barrier at any time and redeploy it at will.

Kinetic Grasp is similar to the Titan Shield ability from Respawn's Titanfall games. Upon activating the ability, Sigma holds a small, shield-shaped barrier in front of him that blocks enemy attacks. When blocking an attack with Kinetic Grasp, Sigma regains shields, giving the character a semblance of self-healing.

Accretion is a charged ability that sends out a larger and larger projectile the longer a player charges the ability. During Seagull's reveal stream today, it seems as though Accretion can also interrupt enemy abilities, but don't take that as fact.

Finally, Sigma's ultimate, Gravitic Flux, is a wide area-of-effect stun that lifts enemy players into the air before smashing them back down into the ground.

Sigma looks to be a fairly static tank, however, but he's clearly more mobile than Orisa or Reinhardt but lacks the mobility of D.v.a. His ultimate will combo well with DPS play, as it has the ability to lift players out from behind barriers like Reinhardt's Shield or Orisa's Barrier.

When Can Players Expect Sigma in Competitive

In the reveal stream today, Jeff Kaplan mentioned that he hopes to release Sigma to competitive play by the end of summer, saying, “I'm hoping to get Sigma in [competitive play] September 1st.” Unfortunately, Kaplan did say that there's no guarantee on Sigma's release date.

Image VIA: Blizzard Entertainment