Sigma’s kit revealed, now available on the PTR

Overwatch’s upcoming 31st hero, Sigma, is now playable on the public test realm.

Sigma is a 62-year-old astrophysicist named Siebren de Kuiper who is conducting experiments on black holes to try and harness their power. Unfortunately for him, his latest experiment goes horribly wrong, causing him “serious psychological damage” and leading to him having “weird gravitational influences” around him. Naturally, he is locked away inside a government facility where he stays until Talon bust him out to use his powers for their own benefit.

Sigma is a ‘Barrier Tank’, which effectively means he can utilize a shield. Sigma’s shield is known as Experimental Barrier, which is a floating barrier that can be deployed to different locations at different angles. In a developer update describing the character (which you can see below), Jeff Kaplan uses an example of using the Experimental Barrier against an enemy Pharah who is using their ultimate, with the barrier able to be deployed into such a position as to block all incoming damage and cause the Pharah to kill herself due to the splash damage. Sigma can also make use of his main weapon of attack, Hyper Spheres, which are two-round burst projectiles that have a “slight gravitational pull” and explode after a short amount of time, causing area of effect damage to anybody who is within proximity. Crucially, Hyper Spheres can bounce off any surface once, so you’ll be able to fire them around corners to perform trick shots.

Sigma’s main defensive ability is Kinetic Grasp, which allows him to grab any incoming projectiles and convert them into shields to protect himself. Sigma can currently have up to 400 shields from this ability, which does seem a bit overpowered, but Kaplan says that Blizzard will be keeping their eye on this and fine-tuning accordingly. Sigma also has an ability called Accretion, which allows him to “form a mass of earth” (otherwise known as a rock) out of nothing which can then be thrown at an enemy to cause “tremendous damage” and knock them down, which could buy you a crucial second or two.

Sigma’s ultimate ability is called Gravitic Flux, which allows him to manipulate gravity and lift a group of enemies into the air for a short while, leaving them vulnerable to your teams attacks, before slamming them down to the ground for significant damage. Again it does sound a bit overpowered, but much like Doomfist’s ultimate ability Gravitic Flux will have a radius of effect that he must try and catch people in for his ultimate to be effective, so it will be avoidable by players who are able to telegraph it.

The official descriptions for each of his abilities are as follows:

• 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 is playable right now on PC on the public test realm. There is no date for his full release, but Kaplan promises that he’s coming to the live servers on PC and consoles “very soon”.