A guide to using Sigma in Overwatch

A brief note: at the time of writing, Sigma isn't yet live. All of the following information is taken from test servers and is subject to change.

Who Is Sigma?

A brilliant astrophysicist working on the manipulation of gravity, Siebren de Kuiper suffered serious psychological damage following an experiment on the International Space Station which resulted in him coming into contact with a black hole.

Bestowed with volatile gravitational abilities, De Kuiper was quarantined but eventually broken out by the nefarious Talon organisation. Growing in confidence in his new powers, his mind has been fractured by the black hole - making him just as dangerous as he is powerful.

Sigma's Abilities

Hyper Spheres

While Sigma's primary ability lacks range, they deal damage to an area. Firing pairs of spheres, direct hits can deal a total of 120 damage. They can bounce off of walls too, which makes them ideal for ricochet kills (and trick shots) in cramped objective areas, and can be great for crowd control, too.

Experimental Barrier

Not dissimilar to Reinhardt's shield, Experimental Barrier is sizeable enough for multiple players to take cover behind. Unlike Reinhardt's version, the shield shoots forward while the button is held - making it ideal for making progress along a corridor protected by a character like Bastion. It takes some time to account for the pace of it, but it soon becomes second nature.

Sigma can recall the shield too with the same button, and has 1500 HP which recharges when not being used.

Accretion

Almost two abilities in one, Accretion flings rocks at an enemy but has different properties depending on the range of the attack.

Throwing the rocks at close range deals significant damage, while opponents further away will be knocked back similarly to Lucio's pushback attack.

Use it in conjunction with the Hyper Spheres to force enemies back with ricochet attacks before pushing them off the map where possible.

Kinetic Grasp

One for the Pro players to use to swing a match in their favour, Kinetic Grasp allow Sigma to gain up to 400 shield for himself by absorbing incoming damage.

Gravitic Flux

Sigma's Ultimate Ability is like something ripped straight from superhero comics - or in this case, a supervillain.

Sending him up into the air to float, Sigma deploys a black hole which sends enemies upwards. While there, enemies are vulnerable to your teammates attacks (and Sigma's own Hyper Spheres).

What goes up must come down of course, and enemies are slammed to the ground which deals considerable damage.

Needless to say, this works best on bunched up enemies - so if they're congregating on an objective be sure to use Gravitic Flux. Just remember to let teammates know so they can help dish out some damage while enemies are in the air.

Strategies

Sigma feels analogous to Reinhardt in many ways, and that's not a bad way to think of him. Between his bulkiness and his versatile shield, he can take plenty of punishment and can be instrumental to any significant push at any stage of a match.

His attacks have more range than Reinhardt, and while they don't deal as much damage, the ability to bounce Hyper Spheres off of walls arguably opens up more avenues of attack.

Pairing him with a nimble healer like Lucio to increase his survivability (and speed) makes him a real force to be reckoned with - and using Accretion alongside Lucio's own pushback move could be devastating in skirmishes near the edge of a map.

With all things considered, Sigma is definitely a tank many people are likely to gravitate towards.