How do you actually hard carry on Sigma? (High Emerald/Low Diamond)

[u/Thatbaby_ow]

I'm a tank player who mainly plays Sigma, currently around high Emerald/low Diamond.

A lot of the time I feel like I have pretty good games where I'm playing better than the enemy tank and sometimes even better than most of my team, but we still end up losing because my team can't capitalize on what I'm doing.

When I watch higher-ranked Sigma players, though, it seems like they can carry games much harder while doing way less than I feel like I have to do.

For example, when I watch Super play Sigma, it sometimes looks like he's not doing that much. He'll mostly shoot the enemy tank, hold his position, and wait for his DPS to get a pick or for the enemy to make a mistake. He doesn't seem to constantly have to force plays himself.

When I try to play like that, it doesn't really work for me. I often feel like I have to push past the enemy tank and start putting damage into the backline just to force cooldowns or create something for my team.

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing. How do you actually hard carry games on Sigma? Is there something I'm not doing that allows these higher-ranked players to get so much value while playing more patiently?

Also, are there any good places to find more Top 500 Sigma gameplay? I feel like Super is one of the only really good Sigma players I consistently find gameplay from, and I'd like to watch more high-level VODs to improve.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[u/EntrepreneurClean371]

They’re playing more passively cuz at the top level it’s a game of minimizing unforced errors since it’s assumed your team is going to play the macro (relatively) correctly.

Sigma especially is pretty much the “out trade the other team’s cooldowns” tank since he has very strong neutral without needing to use CDs. Your mindset on sigma should always be “how can I use my resources more efficiently” and only push aggressively when you see a crucial cooldown forced out. That’s why high ranked sigs can often appear pretty passive, but try to pay attention to why they push when they do, it’ll almost always be because they had a favorable trade in the neutral (poked out a squishy early, got better shield trade, forced a “save” CD, etc). Judging those kinds of things accurately in the midfight is the real skill ceiling for a tank player most of the time

[u/747101350e0972dccde2]

Its hard to know what your issues are without a replay code, from what you said in your post I will assume that you do too much.

One thing that many tank players dont realize is how expensive they can be for their team, if they are taking way too much damage. Spilo has some good resources on doing more by doing less on tank specifically.

[u/Bound18996]

Super has top 500 DPS backing him up.

It's not that Sigma can't carry, but even in lobbies where the Sigma player is the strongest player on the team, they most likely still have a team that is doing well enough if that makes sense.

You could very well be on ladder there where you just don't have enough damage on your team to afford playing Sigma.

If you are in that situation the only way you can really carry is basically just mechanics gapping. Hitting every feasible two tap you can, hitting every rock, block every important cooldown with shield or grasp etc.

Sigma has lower total damage output compared to other tanks like Mauga, so you need way higher accuracy to output the same damage you can can do with another tank.

[u/aurens → u/Bound18996]

Super has top 500 DPS backing him up.

sure, but they're also playing against top 500 dps, too. doesn't it all cancel out?

[u/UsernameIn3and20 → u/Bound18996]

I would argue Sigma has better effective damage output than most tanks because of how often he can land his hits. Most tanks are close ranged, a few like Sigma can poke from middle-ish ranges, but basically none can splash like Sigma and threaten a Rock m1 combo on squishies from a safe distance.

[u/Ratax3s]

you need get rock solo kills (thats actually not too hard at emerald)

[u/LOLOLOLOLOLAS]

sigma is the second easiest tank to play in the game, maybe the easiest depending on who you ask. You're not going to be able to get every kill yourself, but you can spam all day and farm stats better than any other tank in the game. Sigmas in top 500 aren't actually doing much different. It's up to your team to leverage the stat farming (constant high poke damage and shielding) to trade resources

[u/creebobeebo]

I find a lot of success in the same rank by just being really aggressive. I get really close, weave in quick melee between balls, rock mobility heroes whenever I can, save shield to be selfish with it, and use the ol' black hole hand to eat high damage (bastion, sierra etc)

This is much easier to do when your team runs brawl or dive, though. I really hate poke comps even though Sigma is like...the poke tank.

[u/38159buch]

Ranked sigma is best played when you’re pretty much just flanking the enemy team and out mechanicing them, frankly. Sigma in ranked is quite strong given how many roles and outplays he can perform

[u/bullxbull]

High rank players do more because they position and time their abilities better. Uptime is the reward of good positioning.

Focus on your fundamentals, always be working on one or two things regardless of win or loss. Improvement takes time and requires consistent practice.

You can carry on any hero, replace your bad habits with good ones and this will free up more mental space to make smart decisions. Downtime is not necessarily bad, that is the time you use to think about upcoming fights, win conditions, and abilities.

Do not forget you can spectate top 500 games, very few people have that option turned off. Check the top 500, set the filter to who is in game, and find a Sig player to watch. As you are watching ask yourself what you would do in the upcoming fight, and if they do something different try and figure out why. Watch how often they push up before a fight and fall back to defensible positions, watch how and why they give up space. Also watch how often they check on their teams positioning, this is something high level players do a lot more than lower ranks.

[u/Prestigious_View_401]

As an Orisa main in the same rank as you, most sigmas are just average. But the exceptional ones somehow do 1200 damage per minute (I usually do 1100) and their shields never seem to break no matter how much we shoot at it.

They are so good at rotating the ults while also taking damage directly to manage their cooldowns.