Sigma ult is just broken

about orisa fortify and roadhog vaping , i do not see those 2 options as a counters simply cause those 2 abilities are what makes them tanky , and after taking dmg and having this 2 abilites on cooldown it just make orisa and hog weak sponge bullets as now you can just take down orisa or feed on hog fast .

about heroes with mobility case , as long as gravity flux isn’t exponential in nature like meteor strike i still see this quite problematic . a genji can be trapped inside gravity flux like a fly even if only his leg touches the edge of gravity flux area of effect , so as long as distance from the center isn’t a factor for gravity flux ult effectiveness mobility wont play much role here as wherever a walking orisa or a dashing genji use their mobility to doge it they both in the end will face the same result as it does not matter if they are far or close from the center.

you also mentioned what i would nickname ‘‘private sustained hero abilities’’ like for example mei ice block and reaper wraith that let a certain hero to be invulnerable , however this invulnerability is only applied to the caster and can’t be shared . those ‘‘private sustained hero abilities’’ in a way isn’t a good solution as this is a very situational and it wont save their team mates , and also what will happen if in a great team fight reaper wont have his wraith? , and if perhaps reaper use wraith but his two team mates that got full ult charge ready got wrecked because of gravity flux and the team fight is over before it even started . Being dependent only on private sustained hero abilities is problematic as it decrease hero pick pool as it direct players to pick only those situational heroes .

what makes gravity flux so problematic is that the only consistent counter to it is lucio so as a result everything is on lucio shoulder and this can hurt hero pick diversity . unlike grav that force everyone together in a very tight space so the rien can at list shield and both zen baptiste can mitigate its effectiveness , gravity flux force the enemy team to be in a position where everyone can’t be close to rien and be shielded .

in compression to grav , grav doesn’t suffer from the three points i mentioned (shiled-counter ineffectiveness , counter abilities ineffectiveness, unexponential area of effect). so to short it out i list the possible counters to zarya graviton surge and sigma gravity flux .

zarya graviton surge counters

  1. shileds
  • rein shield blocks incoming dmg well

  • orisa shield block incoming dmg well

  • symmetra photon barrier can mitigate graviton surge in addition to rein and orisa shield and can outlast graviton surge duration for a counter attack .

  • mei ice wall wont cancel graviton surge effect but will it shield team mates well .

  1. heros ability and counter ults
  • most ‘‘private sustained hero abilities’’ works on graviton surge

  • zenytta transcendence works well

  • lucio sound barrier works well

  • bapriste immortality field works well

  • ana bionade (situational)

  • mercy valkyire and and moira Coalescence are situational as this two ults healing can be applied in an area of effect to the whole team that is in a cluster , it can potentially mitigate graviton surge dmg but not at the same extent as transcendence .

-zarya projected barrier can shield multiple heroes in a cluster .

area of effect

  • zarya graviton surge isn’t being cast immediately the ball have to hit an object and can be eaten by defense matrix or deflected by genji

  • small and more concentrated AOE so only in very situational cases a whole team will be sucked into a grav .

  • graviton surge wont instantly suck heroes that got into it edge of AOE ( area of effect) but will slightly pull them into the more concentrated AOE layer .

sigma gravity flux counters

  1. shileds
  • not any kind of shield in this game counters gravity flux in the same effectiveness as zarya graviton surge including Winston .

  • in winston case his barrier projector bubble might not be as limited to height as other shields however the bubble just drop down and before the player is being tossed to the ground a macree can just high noon after the bubble drops down . and lets not forget that winston bubble is quite small in comparison to other shields in this game .

  • its worth mention that also shields wont block gravity flux AOE as team mates who stand in either sides of the filed will be tossed to the air .

  1. heros abillity and counter ults
  • some private sustained hero abilities wont work on gravity flux , most notable are sombra translocator and tracer recall those wont work i tested it .

  • as i mentioned baptiste immortality field wont counter gravity flux

  • zenyatta transcendence wont work , as transcendence AOE is quite small and wont reach his team mates that are way farther then him in the air because transcendence AOE is much smaller then gravity flux AOE. another reason transcendence wont counter gravity flux is that it cannot counter the two notable follow ups which are high noon and dva bomb .

  • ana mercy and moira can’t do anything that will save their team mates .

  • doomfist meteor strike wont work . what that will happen after the player hits q is that doomfist will cast his meteor strike only after he was tossed to the ground and got half of his hp down , so basiclly doomfist gets the full punishment gravity flux can give him and only about a milisecond after he got tossed to the ground and damaged he will cast his ult .

  • ana sleep dart wont be effective against gravity flux , the interaction with gravity flux is separated into 2 stages : sigma floating in the air , sigma casting his ult . if sigma press q he floats in the air in that stage if ana sleep dart him the ultimate will be canceled however if sigma pressed right click it will start the casting of his ult at this stage if ana sleep dart him , sigma will go to sleep but it wont stop the casting of his ult .

  • zarya bubble is somewhat ineffective here as most likely zarya will protect herself and another team mate when gravitic flux is applied , in comparison to shielding a team mate in a case of an enemy graviton surge as in this case she is being able to protect all her team mates by just pressing e and shift in the same time . while zarya bubbles are protective abilities in nature those bubbles are more designed to boost a diving team mate that is way ahead like genji, tracer,doomfist so its interaction with an enemy gravitic flux isn’t as effective as it seems . zarya bubble duration is a little bit shorter then gravitic flux duration and the bubble pops out if 200 dmg is made to it , so when you consider those stas lets try to stimulate what will happen during a gravitic flux . zarya will press e and shift in the moment she is tossed up into the air later a dva bomb or a high noon follow up will come and the bubble will pop however zarya will be tossed down to the ground with half of her hp left and with no other ability to protect herself , and an 80% charge up wont help her as well cause the main purpose of her energy charge is to gradually and slowly make her stronger instead of getting it very fast without any ability to negate dmg done to her or her team mate .

so in conclusion its seems that in a game with 31 heroes only one hero (lucio) can counter gravity flux with a buggy interaction , 2 heroes can mitigate its effect but not stop it completely (symmetra , zarya) without a lot of effectiveness , and 4 heroes (brigitte , mei , moira , reaper) can use their ‘‘private sustained hero abilities’’ to protect themselves or evade gravity flux effects , that’s only 7 heroes in total which makes it only 22.2 % of the total hero pool that can do anything about gravity flux . in comparison to zarya graviton surge there is a lot more abilities that can counter it which makes it more balanced . in order for an ultimate to be balanced three counter elements should be look at: shield protection> ability mitigation > area of effect . shield protection is perhaps the most important of the three as it puts more weight on one of the most notable mechanics of the game so heroes that not necessarily have abilities counter play can be put into play in the game . graviton surge balance this three elements pretty well but gravity flux lack 2 of those element ( shiled protection and area of effect) and have abilities counter play in a limited amount that makes this ult broken and unbalanced .

and about mei wall i tested it out right now and her ice wall doesn’t block the effect of gravity flux in the same way that it doesn’t block the effect of grav . grav effect can go though walls and the best place to test it is in oasis city center next to those short walls next the control point circle . if you stick a grav or use gravity flux next to a wall it will effect enemies from both side of the wall as it seems that gravity flux is programed to effect an area instead of a center point that lunch heroes into the air like hammond piledriver ability , this also proves that gravity flux is environmental in its nature .i really think that mei walls and structure walls should be able to block gravity flux effect .

to sort it out i just find it really not fair to the enemy team that perhaps the most cc ult in the game have the poetical of a follow up that can team wipe a whole team with little of them to be able to counter it .

and i really want to play sigma in comp , however if i mange to do a big play i wish to do this because of my skill and not because i press q in the same time with my team mate .

Perhaps its worth to mention that gravity flux is strong vs bunker comp that might feature baptiste in it , that is actually a good thing if only gravity flux wouldn’t counter any possible team comp in the game by just being broken and unbalanced . i advice that gravity flux will be changed and nerfed so it will be more situational toward bunker comp only , it can be really interesting if sigma will have 2 ultimate option in a similar way that 2.0 symmetra could press q for a long duration of time in order to choose between teleporter and shield generator . so in the same way sigma can have gravity flux in order to counter bunker comps and in a case he face a more traditional team comp he can switch to another ultimate option i was thinking that a swirl wind that spin around him is a good ideas for a second ult option but there is a lot more idea people can come up with as a second ult option. also a total rework of sigma ult is also an option .

Treat it like riptire, as soon as you hear him about to ult, scatter. At most he should only be able to get one.

imo it’s great since its the only real answer to Baptiste bunker other than EMP, since Immortality field is useless while they’re suspended.

  1. when i mean gravitic flux i also means the follow ups to gravitic flux , as gravitic flux alone isn’t that strong but the follow ups is the biggest concern of this ultimate , a Reinhardt can’t block an incoming high noon or dva bomb if he is stuck in a fixed position in the air without his team mates to be close behind him as they are stuck in a fixed position as well .

  2. support ults - as i mentioned only lucio ult is effective against gravitic flux and its follow up because zenyatta cannot mitigate dva bomb or high noon , those ults cause burst dmg that zenyatta can’t mitigate in any way .

  3. i mentioned it before immortality field is left on the ground so its not effective against a dva bomb or high noon follow up .

u can shield and move while in the ult stopping a lot of dmg from high noon or kills from bomb, and if u have orisa then rip but with rein zarya or winston both can block high noon and dva bomb. Also you would be using 2 ult to do that so it should have the same effect as things like grav dragon. Also most of the time sigma wont get that many people in his ult at a time because it is pretty easy to dodge.

i made comparison between zarya grav and gravity flux you can check it out

I wish I could relate to this.

#consoleplayer

You have some air control doing it, aim for the field guys!

Not only does stunning him in any way not stop it, but I’ve consistently killed him or seen him killed and his ult still slams everyone down for the damage.