Overwatch: We Tested Sigma Against Every Hero and Here’s What We Learned

ESTNN's Overwatch expert Cole Ricke tested Sigma against every hero in the Overwatch roster, and here's what he found out.

Sigma's release onto the Public Test Realm afforded us the opportunity to pit the gravity-wielding character against every single Overwatch hero, and we found out some interesting tidbits and interactions that we didn't expect. After playing and dissecting Sigma for over nine hours, the general feeling of the character is pretty spot-on for his lore and background. Let's do a deep dive into some of his abilities and some of the ways they interact with the other characters.

Hyper Spheres and Accretion are underwhelming at first, but pretty useful

Firstly, Hyper Spheres, Sigma's primary fire, is really where the character feels limited. The ability itself has an extremely limited range, and, when watching someone play the character, it can quickly feel like they aren't doing well or are utilizing him outside of his effective range. But, given his ability to bounce his projectiles and constantly relocate his shield ability, Sigma has the freedom to push and, more importantly, kite by throwing out and replacing his shield rapidly.

This process is enabled by the fact that Sigma's shield has no cooldown and is only limited by whether or not it has health remaining. When the shield breaks it starts a five-second cooldown, but most of the time that cooldown is negligible. In fact, the cooldown doesn’t even impact a fight too heavily since the shield has a hefty 1500 HP. If Sigma doesn't have a shield up, this normally means that Sigma is dead, the fight is over, or the shield blocked an important enemy ultimate.

Sigma's E ability, Accretion, is a chargeable projectile stun. It’s a nice addition for crowd control and damage, but it’s something that Sigma players should use whenever it’s off CD in most situations. The longer the projectile travels the longer the knockdown time is, making the target defenseless and ready for follow up damage. It's mostly useful for setting up easy kills for your DPS or keeping the enemy at bay while retreating.

Sigma's Kinetic Grasp Can Counter Shield Break

Since Sigma has a shield akin to Reinhardt’s, how effective is shield break like that from Junkrat or Hanzo? Well, while it's not a perfect response, Sigma’s Shift ability, known as Kinetic Grasp, helps with controlling shield break and does a ton more.

When activated, Sigma raises a small shield in front of him, similar in effect to D.Va’s Defense Matrix, and eats projectiles, turning them into shields. During the reveal livestream, Jeff Kaplan mentioned Kinetic Grasp only eats damage but does not negate enemy ultimate abilities themselves. What this meant is that if a Sigma were to use this Shift ability on a Graviton Surge, the initial low damage would be negated, but the ultimate would still go off. Well, this certainly isn’t the case.

Kinetic Grasp Eats All Ultimates, Too

After extensive testing done by ESTNN, Kinetic Grasp completely negates ultimates, just like Defense Matrix. We tested every character, and Kinetic Grasp blocks important ultimates like Zarya’s Graviton Surge, Hanzo’s Dragonstrike and Mei’s Blizzard. On top of that, Grasp also completely negates Brigitte’s Whip Shot and Roadhog’s Chain Hook. While Kinetic Grasp doesn't have as large of a hitbox as Defense Matrix, it seems it may be just as powerful if timed correctly. This ability alone is enough to raise eyebrows, but Sigma's true power lies in his defining ability: his ultimate, Gravitic Flux.

Gravitic Flux is Insanely OP and is the Perfect Counter to Bunker Compositions

Let’s get one thing straight: 2-2-2 role lock is set to have fans seeing a ton of bunker compositions in both the Overwatch League and in ranked play due to its heavy damage output and survivability. That said, Gravitic Flux alone may be enough to counter the entire composition.

Gravitic Flux kicks off with Sigma floating in the air and choosing a large area akin to Doomfist’s Meteor Strike. After Sigma chooses an area, it creates an impact zone in red that enemies can see for a short time before going off. Once that time is over, however, Gravitic Flux lifts everyone still in the area into the air and deals 50 damage instantly. After a short floating period, the ultimate slams enemies back into the ground, dealing damage equal to half of their maximum HP. The slam damage takes into account any extra shields or armor the enemy character has, like that from Briggite’s Rally. This counters bunker several ways:

• Enemies lifted into the air allows an opportunity for the rest of Sigma's team to pump DPS into the helpless enemy team
• Players can combine Gravitic Flux with McCree’s Deadeye, Soldier: 76’s Visor or even just Widowmaker and her headshots for a few quick and easy kills
• The damage itself is enough to put a Bastion to 50 HP from full, meaning a few more shots will end him and push the Bunker towards a wipe

What Counters Gravitic Flux?

However, players shouldn't fret when going up against Sigma. In fact, there are a few ways that his opponents can counter Gravitic Flux. For one, Orisa can fortify and simply walk out of the area of effect. Additionally, Zenyatta can use his Transcendence to save all friendly heroes who do not immediately die from the initial damage and Lucio can use his Sound Barrier in midair, saving his life and the lives of any allies in the ultimate.

Sigma is also susceptible to Sombra’s Hack during the targeting phase of his ultimate. That said, once Sigma chooses an area, no one can do anything about it.

Jeff Kaplan stated yesterday that he hopes to have Sigma make the transition from the PTR to Live Servers by September 1st, so players have a little over a month to wait before they can play the gravity-controlling mastermind in competitive play.

Image VIA: Shacknews