The Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma is quite an odd beast since he hasn’t followed the schedule Blizzard has been faithfully sticking to for over three years now. While we don’t currently know the Overwatch Sigma release date on the live servers because of this newfound deviation, we can look at what Blizzard has said as well what class this character is going to be. Here’s everything we know about the new Overwatch Sigma hero.
Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma | PTR release date and live server release date
The Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma release date is right now on the PTR. As always, console players will have to wait until he hits the live servers to try him out.
But we don’t know when that will be. Ana was teased on July 6, 2016, released on the PTR on July 12, and then the live servers on July 26. Doomfist was teased on July 4, 2017, came to the PTR on July 6, and then came to live servers on July 27. Wrecking Ball (Hammond) was first teased on June 21, 2018, hit the PTR on June 28, and then rolled his way to the live servers on July 24. There’s not a straight pattern here but Jeff Kaplan did say this hero would be different.
ALSO: Overwatch Role Queue might be the best thing to happen to the game in years
“We’re going to do some things differently this summer,” said Kaplan in a developer update video. “You’re probably anticipating a hero release sometime very soon. Well don’t worry. We are working on a hero. Hero 31 is going to be awesome. But he is going to be released a little bit later than you’re used to. But he will be here soon enough so don’t worry. And we think a little bit of extra time is going to make the hero even more awesome.”
“Soon enough” sounds like he will be still coming within the next month. But it is Blizzard so a “soon” could be two months from now. But his actual release date is a mystery.
Baptiste was officially unveiled in the game on February 26 for PTR players but didn’t come to the live servers or consoles until March 19. That’s a long longer than usual and, given Kaplan’s words, we may not see Sigma on the live servers until mid-August or so.
Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma | Background
This recent leaks for Role Queue by the official Overwatch Team Mexico Twitter account may have teased Sigma’s existence but we didn’t know his story. Now we do. Sigma was a Dutch astrophysicist. Like some sort of Marvel supervillain, an experiment that went wrong gave him the ability to manipulate gravity.
However, he also suffered massive psychological damage especially after he was imprisoned by the government for years. This was until Talon, the shady organization Widowmaker and Reaper are a part of, freed him and used him as a weapon. And the weirdest part is, he doesn’t know he’s being used. The teaser also hints that he has multiple personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You can see his teaser video above.
Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma | Class
Sigma is a Talon Tank, which makes sense, given his bulky stature and how the game doesn’t currently have a evil Tank role yet. He fills the roles since Talon has plenty of Damage heroes as well as Moria, a healer. Baptiste was even an ex-Talon member. Blizzard has only added two Tanks since the game has come out as opposed to the many Supports and Damage heroes.
Overwatch Hero 31 Sigma | Abilities
Sigma has a ray of unorthodox abilities. You can see a quick GIF of a few of his abilities below before scrolling down to learn more.
His main “firearm” is called Hyperspheres where he shoots two little balls that do a ton of damage and bounce off surfaces. It has a medium distance like Roadhog’s alternate fire. You don’t have to reload them and they also do a tiny bit of splash damage.
He also shoots out a barrier called Experimental Barrier like Orisa but he projects it and also must manually stop it. It goes out where he is looking, meaning you can shoot it above you if you’d like. You don’t get your shield HP energy back by recalling it. You have to let it recharge, like a Reinhardt barrier.
There is also a Kinetic Grasp (shown above) that acts like a mix between the Wrecking Ball shields and D.Va’s Defense Matrix where he puts out a field in front of himself that eats projectiles that give him extra dark blue shields (like what Doomfist gets for landing physical strikes).
The next move is Accretion where he picks up rocks from the ground and toss them forward. The farther that it goes, the farther the enemy gets knocked back and the more damage it does.
His ultimate, Gravitric Flux, is quite visually impressive. He jumps up in the air and summons an anti-gravity field that throws the enemies within the circle in the air like Doomfist’s ultimate. They float up in the air (leaving them vulnerable) and slam back down, knocking out 50% of their max HP. Sigma can also glide around for a bit after he uses the ultimate.
New Overwatch game modes that Blizzard NEEDS to make
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New Overwatch game modes that Blizzard NEEDS to make
It's been just about two years since Overwatch added in any new game modes. Blizzard's FPS already has a pretty large collection, from Low Gravity to the ever-popular Mystery Heroes. However, there are still plenty of FPS staples that could use the old Overwatch touch. -
Assault
Sometimes known as Reverse CTF, this mode tasks a team with bringing a bomb into a base defended by an opponent. Overwatch has a shaky relationship with CTF as is, but the maps Blizzard has created could work if the focus is placed on the offense/defense dynamic that already exists in the base game. -
Crazy King
Overwatch is all about controlling points, but what if the points weren't so straightforward? Instead of pushing forward, what if the hill moved around a more arena-esque map? Having a control point that jumps around could let some heroes shine in places where they otherwise don't. -
Kill Confirmed
Overwatch does finally have a collection of deathmatch modes, but it's still primarily focused on objectives. What if one map had a new objective that combined the two? Originating in Call of Duty, Kill Confirmed has you grabbing "dogtags" from killed players and recovering your teammates to denying their score. -
Medieval Mode
Taken from Team Fortress 2, what if you only had access to a specific subset of your weapons? No firearms, no tech, just scrapping with melee weapons. While this might require adding some new tools to the game to fill out the roster, even a game full of Reinhardts swinging hammers could be fun. -
Singles Deathmatch
Speaking of, what if deathmatch was tweaked a bit? What if everyone had to make do with a single style of character each round? We could see grenade spam parties with Junkrat, long-range Bastion fights, or just straight up shooter warfare with Soldier: 76 -
Singles Mystery Heroes
If that's too extreme, what about combining the idea with the best mode in Overwatch? Singles Mystery Heroes would automatically compose two random teams and set them off. No switching, no complaining, you just have to make due and devise a strategy with your teammates on the fly. -
Total Mayhem CTF
Another favorite in the arcade is Total Mayhem, a playlist where every power is popping off at all times. What if we brought that mayhem into other objectives? In CTF, we could really see crazy movement capabilities take center stage. It might even be broken, but that's why it's in the Arcade. -
VIP
Another mode from the history of Team Fortress, this is basically Payload but with a human player instead of a point. The VIP is a weak player who's barely able to defend themselves, so you need to do it for them. It would solve the issue of heroes not camping on the cart and potentially add another character or two into the game's lore. -
Horde Mode
This one is a bit of a cheat, as Overwatch has already had several Horde-type experiences during events. However, there's no regular way to take down waves of robots with friends. A regular horde mode with a few new or recycled maps could even be a third way to rack up weekly loot boxes. -
Campaign
The ultimate addition that Blizzard could add to Overwatch is a story campaign. Several years into its life, the players who remain are diehards who can name every minor character in every trailer. Blizzard is full of master storytellers, and the two PvE events it has run more than prove that a full campaign could be amazing.
