The problem is Sigma himself, who enables the comp due to the flexibility of his entire kit, and the intense Synergy between Sigma and Orisa who can have a strong shielding presence while also providing utility, ranged shieldbreak, and brawl capabilities.
Rein, for example, can only shield. If he’s shielding, he’s shielding.
So here’s what I think needs to be tried:
Swap Sigma and Orisa barrier HP (This is a Sigma nerf and Orisa buff for those keeping score)
The thing about buffing Orisa’s barrier like that is it would make it very strong. As it is cooldown based and not a recharge. And also if you nerf fortify AND halt you end up with Orisa feeling kind of weak because now she has weaker special abilities. Perhaps if you nerfed them you could make it so halt now does 30 damage or something but has less range. Or just add 1 damage to her primary to make her powerful.
As for sigma I’d remove the cooldown and give his barrier less HP, Then buff accretion dmg and put it on a 12 second cooldown. Now he has his 1 shot combo back but if he whiffs he is more punishable and also his barrier protects him less
Or…just get rid of Sig’s shield entirely. He’s already got a second defensive ability, that swallows ults and heals him. Why they felt the need to ALSO give him a repositionable, mobile shield on top of everything else he gets is beyond me.
Double shields are always going to be a possibility when his kit is as overloaded as it is. He makes all other offtanks obsolete.
His weakness is that you can flank him. His Hp being low with the lowest Armour and shields amongst the tanks too. However Orisa covers these weaknesses and he covers hers. His Shield is a fundamental part of the kit.
You could increase regen rate but decrease health on it and it will have to be used more sparingly but more frequently. Maybe if it breaks it regens slower on top of the 5s cooldown.
Tbf though Sigma also works great with Rein. I think it might be because he has a lot of the sustain of an off-tank so he can cover that area as well. The devs might have to choose a direction with sigma. Either nerf his kinetic grasp/dmg and buff his barrier so he can only function as a main tank. Or nerf his barrier a lot and buff his kinetic grasp so he can only function as an off tank.
It’s really not, though. He has other ways to protect himself and the team, and he has the offensive strength to push for space still.
I’m not asking to nerf him to the ground, they’ll almost certainly have to give him something like more health to compensate for the change. But right now, he has too many options compared to other tanks, and it’s ruined tank balance trying to keep him as-is without major changes to all the other tanks. Orisa is garbage without him covering her, and the other off-tanks are garbage compared to him.
https://imgur.com/g7KyWA6
double shield was a thing before sigma existed
there are 3 issues with double shield outside of shields
Halt is a better grav on a short cooldown, allowing it to be combod with other abilities and other ultimates similarly to a grav. Halt dynamite, halt firestrike, halt dragon, etc
Fortify and Grasp.
Heroes with shields should not have a second means of mitigating damage than their shields. Winston without his bubble is defenseless. Rein without his shield is defenseless. This is what keeps these heroes balanced and unoppressive. With orisa, you break the shield, then have to burn through an effective 900 HP of health in her own healthpool, likely being healed, then she puts out another shield.
With sigma you have to burn through 900HP of shield, then stop shooting completely to negate him from gaining health from his shift, by then he has his shield ready to deploy again momentarily
it was rein zarya and rein dva for late season 21 and early season 22
