#i ahve a lot of opinions abotu playing sigma sorry. hes my babygirl

[tauforged]

Do you have any pro sigma tips

i’ve answered an ask like thsi before i’m pretty sure, but it was a looong time ago and i can’t find it and i’m sure my opinions have changed so! here ya go!

disclaimer that i’m by no means a comp-level player, nor do i put in particular effort to keep up with whatever’s #meta nowadays. these are just my observations from the [checks career profile] ~106 hours i’ve racked up on him in the past year or so. i also tend to play sig fairly aggressive, but he’s also a decent tank for hanging back and sticking on point and holding the line, so don’t feel like you have to be throwing yourself into the fray with reckless abandon like i tend to do. he’s fairly flexible. get sillay with it.

also, this will be long. sorry.

- BOUNCE. THOSE. BALLS!!! this one is sooooo important seriously. take the time in practice range and vs ai to practice ricocheting your hyperspheres off walls, off the ground, off ceilings, off random map props, the possibilities are endless. you can shoot people around corners, trap them in a hallway, or even angle your shots around shields and damage-absorbing abilities like kinetic grasp. even if you don’t make a direct hit, they have a small aoe that will pull enemies inwards - i’ve even knocked people off cliffs with em on occasion! the wonky projectile physics CAN be weaponized. use them wisely.

- don’t forget that your hyperspheres AND accretion mass do self damage in close quarters - it’s not significant, but it’s enough to be mindful of in a team fight because there’s not much more embarrassing than not realizing how low your health is and accidentally killing yourself with your own balls. do keep in mind that you CAN weaponize this against other sigmas by sticking a barrier in their face or even just getting real close.

- if someone’s getting a little close for comfort, pocket boulder accretion mass will be your best friend. it DOES do self damage, but it also interrupts a LOT of abilities (genji and orisa’s deflects, sigma’s kgrasp, hog’s healing, and soldier’s ult to name a few off the top of my head) and knocks them back JUUUST far enough to give you some breathing room or let your teammates swoop in to finish them off

-accretion has a lot more range than your hyperspheres, although it’s a slower projectile and has a lot more weight to it. taking the time to practice arcing it over walls or shields will pay off. you can also use it to knock down a pharah, kill or seriously damage a riptire, or interrupt a resurrecting mercy or an ulting enemy sigma, so don’t be afraid to be trigger happy with it. one click of your primary fire and a shot with accretion can one shot lower health heroes like tracer, so keep that in mind if you’re dealing with flankers.

-use your melee. use your melee. USE YOUR MELEE. people will get all up in your business to take advantage of the self damage from your hyperspheres - almost nobody expects sigma to punch them in the face. i’ve chased flankers back into their spawn just by beating the shit out of them when they got too close. i’ve gotten into the habit of just punching between shots on reflex. most of the time i’m not actually sure if it actually cancels my reload or not, but it feels like i’m doing something productive (his reload is so short that it’s almost negligible in my eyes, but if you time it right you can shave a second off i guess)

- always manually withdraw your barrier to let it recharge instead of letting someone kill it if you can help it, because when it’s destroyed by an enemy it’s on a longer cooldown and takes longer to regen to full health. if you aren’t actively using that barrier or you can see that it’s not taking damage, pull that baby back in and let it fill up again. you can also use it for cover while backpedaling in a pinch, but keep in mind it's only got like, 700 health, so it can't take sustained heavy fire for very long.

- if you have a hard time focusing on the actual numbers of your shield, keep an ear out for sigma's voicelines - he'll ALWAYS call out when the barrier is starting to break. unless it's the only thing standing between a teammate and a potentially life ending incoming attack, take that as your cue to reel it in and let it recharge

- that said, you dont have to wait for your barrier to be at full health to use it. even if it's barely functional, sometimes it can be all you need to protect yourself or your teammates in a pinch. it's better to use it and lose it than keep it tucked in your back pocket but never actually protect anyone with it.

- your barrier has RANGE, but cannot phase through walls or objects. if you’ve got a clear shot down a hall or street but can’t catch up to your team at your frail old man speed, clicking and holding will send your barrier as far as it can go directly in front of you, so you can send it ahead to buy your team some time. i’ve yet to actually reach a point where it runs out of range as opposed to bumping into something or hitting the ground, so don’t worry too much about it not reaching anyone.

- don’t be afraid to throw your barrier around just to disrupt people and then pull it right back in, either. it’s a good blocker for hog hooks or boulders from enemy sigmas just to name a handful. i’ve been experimenting with obstructing damage from orisa’s ult with it, with mixed results - sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. good to keep in mind but don’t depend on it being foolproof

- if you’ve got other heroes on your team with mitigating abilities, try to communicate with them and coordinate your kinetic grasp around their cooldowns and vice versa. it’s not fun when half your team is so busy scrambling to nullify that incoming cassidy ult that nobody notices the sojourn picking off both supports and backcapping the payload. communication is key for sig especially because most of his ability cooldowns exceed ten seconds, so coordination will be very important to make sure your team isn’t vulnerable if all your abilities are used up for the moment.

- i like to wiggle back and forth with kinetic grasp up to catch as much as possible. spinning around will help with people trying to hit your back while it’s up, too, but can leave you vulnerable. don’t be afraid to ‘waste’ it - i’ll often pop it just to swallow a moira orb that’s bounced behind our team or to intercept someone going after our healers. absorbing a ton of damage and getting those overshields is very nice! but ultimately your job is to mitigate incoming damage to keep your team safe

- if you time it right, kgrasp can absorb cassidy, mei, hanzo, reaper, pharah, and hog’s ults, although hog’s duration outlasts yours so be prepared to handle those last few seconds. you can also eat incoming concussion mines, sleep darts/ana nades, biotic orbs, and junkqueen’s knife. keep in mind that kgrasp will NOT make you invincible. it only covers your front and can easily be angled around, and it can also be interrupted by any of the things that will interrupt your ult.

- ACTIVATING ANY OF YOUR OTHER ABILITIES BEFORE KINETIC GRASP IS DONE WILL CANCEL IT AND NULLIFY ANY OF THE OVERSHIELDS YOU GENERATED!!! try to avoid mashing buttons in a team fight for this reason especially because kgrasp draws attention to you and if you accidentally cancel it the enemy team will likely punish that

- on a related note, almost EVERYTHING can interrupt your ult. cassidy’s bomb, a sleep dart, a hook, a boulder from an enemy sigma, a smack from brigitte, i’m almost positive junkrat’s mine was doing it not too long ago but i’m unsure if it still does, but those are all the ones i can think of off the top of my head. when you ult, use that extra mobility to duck behind cover so you can finish it. going straight up is generally a bad idea, and holding down crouch will keep you on the ground.

- combo your ult when you can. ive had especially good results stacking ults with sombra to prevent anyone else from interrupting the flux, but anyone who does damage in an area will do excellently if you time it juuuust right. it doesn’t do too too much damage on its own (usually not enough to one shot most heroes), but it’s VERY good for keeping enemies stuck in one place or finishing people off in a sticky situation. it also removes them from the objective for a little bit, so it can help buy time while contesting. it also works really nicely with ramattra’s vortex and other aoe slowing or damage abilities that AREN’T ults, too.

- you can, in a pinch, use gravflux solely for mobility. i’ve slipped through the window on that one point on lijiang and hopped over walls with it just to get on point and contest while my team catches up - i don’t recommend burning an entire ult just for that, and you DO run the risk of getting interrupted or shot down, so make sure you’ve got a game plan once you get there. keep in mind it also makes you a giant floating target and everyone will be falling over eachother to headshot you while you’re up there, so don’t just float ominously at the enemy in a straight line if you can help it.

- there are some heroes that will just beat your ass mercilessly. symmetra still strikes the fear of god into me. don’t be afraid to fall back and ask your teammates for help. you are very slow and easily outmaneuvered, especially by beam or melee attacks, so having someone a little slipperier cover your back can be really helpful.

- sigma is a good solo tank, but he also works VERY WELL with a buddy if you arent in a role-locked gamemode. i personally really like pairing him with someone more mobile and who can dish a little more damage like junker queen or ramattra, that way i can focus on keeping our supports safe and pushing the objective while they cover the front lines and pull attention away from our dps by being big and scary and intimidating.

- you are a very large target, and the fact that you hover instead of walking means your head is usually in a very stable position, so snipers can get an easy pick on you if you aren't careful. jumping around, wiggling back and forth during kgrasp and gravflux, and ducking in and out behind obstacles between shots can help mitigate this, but it can also make it VERY hard for your healers to keep you alive, so try to be mindful of this. don't be afraid to seek and destroy a widow if theyve got one. boulders are good for this.

- because you float, you don't have ANY footsteps! if you're really feeling cheeky, you can use this to your advantage to sneak behind enemy lines, catch a sniper off guard, or support a teammate trying to backcap. your abilities and melee are all VERY loud though, so if you're really committed to the stealth sigma bit, be careful with em.

- if you are in the same game as me and you autolock him before i can even load in and youve got the asylum skin equipped im fuckin stealing something out your house!!!!!!!