Introducing new heroes to the Tank and Support roles is always exciting, as they can completely shift the metagame and force players to change their playestyle entirely. Sigma is not an easy hero to play on a top-level, it requires great mechanics as well as game sense to truly excel at with this astrophysicist.

Here are our usual 8+2 no-brainer tips to help you out with the basics and some more specific strategies to use in the battlefield.

General tips

One of the most important aspects of Sigma is shield management. You always have to pay attention to your Experimental Barrier usage, don’t leave it out at one place for too long, use it in quick succession instead to block incoming damage while moving towards the enemy team. Also, make sure you put your barrier away in-between fights as well to recharge.

Practicing your raw mechanical skills, especially projectile aiming with Sigma is useful. Your Hyperspheres deal a 120 dmg total if you manage to directly connect with both of the projectiles (you can instantly kill a Tracer with your 2 shots and a follow-up melee). Get comfortable with your aim and know the range of your basic attack! You can get some longer-range kills on supports with low health just with the explosion of the Hyperspheres, you don’t even have to fully connect.

Accretion can be a fight winning ability, so timing is key! You generally want to use it at the beginning of a fight to quickly pick off someone, or when the fight is already underway and you see an opening for it (canceling Genji’s Dragonblade with the stun, for example). Using it in a 1v1 duel against someone at a close-range can also be good, keep in mind that 200 HP heroes instantly die to an Accretion hit followed up by two Hypersphere attacks.

Sigma’s defensive ability, Kinetic Grasp is similar to Dva’s Defense Matrix but is not that easy to use. Due to it’s fixed duration, you won’t be able to reliably eat big ultimates with it like Zarya’s Graviton Surge. However, it is extremely strong when facing a Whole Hog or Storm Arrows. In fights, you can run in front of your shield, use your Kinetic Grasp to gain some extra blue armor then aggressively move towards the enemy.

Hero specific tips

Gravitic Flux is an insanely strong ultimate. It has the potential to kill a whole team in itself, but it is also great as a setup and combos well with Dva’s Self Destruct, McCree’s Deadeye, Soldier’s Tactical Visor and so on. It will always deal 50% of the targets maximum HP as damage when they drop down from the air, thus you can even use it as an early disruption in team fights for a quick advantage.

We have already mentioned that you should be confident at aiming with Sigma and knowing the Hypershpere’s range, but we want to emphasize the importance of the passive wall-bounce on that basic attacks. Always remember to use this mechanic to your advantage when chasing around corners or setting up a defense. After a while, it will become second nature, and you will be able to reliably kill enemy heroes even without having a vision on them.

You always want to avoid using your Kinetic Grasp when facing heroes like Zarya, Symmetra, Mei or Winston. It won’t absorb the damage and you won’t be able to basic attack throughout the duration. You can cancel it with Accretion ,however but you are already at a disadvantageous position when you waste your Kinetic Grasp.

If an enemy Sigma uses his ultimate on you, you can use yours to counter. As long as you activate yours before you get slammed, you cancel the debuff on yourself by applying your own to the enemy.

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In Overtime situations, you can use your Gravitic Flux to raise enemy heroes above the objective, disabling them from touching the point/cart.

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Whenever an enemy Pharah is using her ultimate, you should instantly push your Experimental Shield towards her and THROUGH her, she will instantly blow herself up with the rocket’s splash damage.

Think of Sigma as more of a weird off-tank, Zarya like a hero who has the potential to be the main tank sometimes…? Oh well, who knows, everyone is still figuring it out. but one thing is for sure, he is extremely fun and challenging to play. Are you feeling up to the task?