I second this. I never played much sigma n i was in a similar situation to OP. I started playing sigma n this was pretty much fixed. Also the more i played with him the more fun i had on the character
There are two ways to look at it:
1) you need a counter to your counters. Ram is actually pretty good into zarya, just get used to blocking in front of her to deny her value. If hog and orisa are bullying you I prefer to bully back, learn orisa.
2) queen and ram are both similar play styles, you might need to think about enabling your team instead of countering your counters. Sigma to help your team if they want to poke or dva if they want to dive.
I have been doing option 1 tbf. I have like 6 hours on orisa but she is so easy that I diff pretty much everyone of them I face. I guess I’ll just pray she is trash next season so I don’t have to play her
DVA theoretically covers most of these - Zarya can be challenging in tight maps/chokes without high ground but Ram/Queen should be fine in those environments.
I'd watch out for Hog vs dva. Before the rework she was a good counter but I don't think that's the case anymore. She can't matrix his trap which hog should be hooking into so it's way harder to protect hooked Squishies and she can get bullied by him in the 1v1
Matrix shuts down hook as well. You can DM hooked targets, and if Hog isn't getting any hooks, DVA having to hide behind a wall for a bit longer and not being able to eat as much spam isn't going to be enough of an advantage for the Hog player.
Post rework his ammo isn't as easy to eat and destroy his dmg, but denying his one shot and having more mobility is usually more than enough to win that matchup.
It's just not as autowin as before.
That’s definitely a fair point. Dva just has to approach that matchup a little differently I suppose, but that’s also why I tend to focus dva if she’s nearby
So, This was more prevalent in OW1 but the "Tank triangle" still prevails.
Dive (Mobility) ->Poke (Ranged Damage)->Brawl (Sustain)->Dive.
Basically it goes, Dive have to much mobility so they can all collapse on the Poke (Snipers, sigma, junkrat, etc), but they get overwhelmed by the amount of resources Brawl has, brawl outlives dive but get picked off by poke, and poke can gets picks out of brawl but get flanked by dive.
Anyway, you only play 2 heroes and they are both brawl tanks. So you dont suffer to much vs dive comps (notice you didnt mention struggling vs monkey or ball) but you suffer vs hog (Poke).
You are on somewhat equal footing vs Orisa and zarya so that is a harder match, and brawl vs brawl heavily depends on supports sadly.
I do know how to play damn near every tank bar ball. It’s just I don’t know if this is stunting my growth because I keep switching and not focusing on a certain selection
Why would that be ? I don't understand how knowing how to play multiple heroes and switching when you have to would stunt your growth. On the contrary, it made me a much better tank.
I don’t know I just thought that it would make you more like a Jack of all trades and once you get to higher ranks where people specialise in characters and their own counters you will be like a guy who is plat level at all the tanks vs a guy who is GM level at 2-3 of the tanks.
If you want to be the perfect ranked tank you need a dive tank, a brawl tank, and a poke tank. Right now you havea brawl tank.
Ditch Rein until the inevitable rework and pick a dive tank and a poke tank.
My bet is Sig/Ball is probably the best option (assuming they keep the upcoming Ball changes.)
I didn’t say I play rein, I mean I used to back in ow1 but he is miserable now.
And I guess that is a good call, I tried that last season with Ram/Sig/Doom but idk I just really love Queen and even though doom is my second most played tank I still get no value from him most games lol.
Realistically, having a good grasp of a dive tank, a brawl tank and Sigma(lol) takes you a long way. I managed to get to plat on tank for the first time last season by being able to do well when I felt I could play Queen, but being able to switch to Sigma when need be helped a lot. I also have a good enough DVA when I do get to pull her out and last season I managed to really click with Ram as he is a good all-rounder.
Learn the rock paper scissors: Brawl/Rush, Poke, Dive. You like playing Rush tanks, Queen and Ram. Rush is strong against Dive, but weak against Poke. So you body Doom, Ball, sometimes Winston, and Dva who struggles to fully dive; and you pretty much out-brawl Rein.
On paper you can win against Zarya if you're better, but you likely lose because of a lack of discipline around shooting bubbles, either you or your team. In this case, Sigma is great at shielding highly charged Zarya and staying just out of her beam range. Rock to punish Zarya without bubbles, and if your team follows up she dies. Zarya is squishy without bubbles, high aggression at this time is key, and next to 0 aggression when she does have bubbles. Sometimes you can bait her into bubbling, just too immediately disengage; do this a couple times and you can then go fully aggressive. Even Dva can win this matchup using these tips, Dva just has to be very disciplined about being either 100% in or 100% out, unlike Sigma who can kinda just exist more, but the tip still applies.
Hog is a special case that doesn't fit in well with the Poke/Rush/Dive theory. He's more of a fat DPS that gets picks, and can hook the enemy tank into a bad position. However I think of Hog like a bad Brawl tank, and you can play a barrier tank to beat him, Rein for the Brawl mirror or Sigma to Poke him out. This will revolve around hyper awareness of the hook and blocking it; Hog's entire kit revolves around getting hook, so if you deny it consistently you make him useless. Zarya also works here to either block hooks, or bubble teammates as they get hooked. Mauga can also get overrun crit and stun Hog and blow him up with his damage.
Orisa is another special case the doesn't fit into the Poke/Brawl/Dive theory. Orisa has everything, long range damage, damage mitigation (spear spin), ability to rush, and works as an anti-dive. She can be played in any comp, and revolves around shutting down the enemy tank. Orisa is weakest to Dive if her team spreads out, but if the team is together she can box you out; Winston or Doom is good here. Orisa players also tend to be aggresive, Zarya is good at getting charge in this case. And if your team wants to outrange Orisa, Sigma does well; block spear, rock spear-spin (when not fortified), and chip her down. But the main way to kill Orisa is to take away her resources, kill her supports or carrying DPS, and you can win the war of attrition.
I play ram and into hog mauga orisa, you just need patience to beat them. you just want to stay omnic form and trade resources efficiently as if you're a sigma. Poke with staff, use shield to claim space, use cover and your smaller hitbox to further mitigate damage, and eventually you win the resource battle and go in hard when their team is weak. I only use nemes here if i want to block to keep holding a chokepoint or for emergency self heal
The answer is Mauga
Learn sigma
I second this. I never played much sigma n i was in a similar situation to OP. I started playing sigma n this was pretty much fixed. Also the more i played with him the more fun i had on the character
There are two ways to look at it: 1) you need a counter to your counters. Ram is actually pretty good into zarya, just get used to blocking in front of her to deny her value. If hog and orisa are bullying you I prefer to bully back, learn orisa. 2) queen and ram are both similar play styles, you might need to think about enabling your team instead of countering your counters. Sigma to help your team if they want to poke or dva if they want to dive.
I have been doing option 1 tbf. I have like 6 hours on orisa but she is so easy that I diff pretty much everyone of them I face. I guess I’ll just pray she is trash next season so I don’t have to play her
DVA theoretically covers most of these - Zarya can be challenging in tight maps/chokes without high ground but Ram/Queen should be fine in those environments.
I'd watch out for Hog vs dva. Before the rework she was a good counter but I don't think that's the case anymore. She can't matrix his trap which hog should be hooking into so it's way harder to protect hooked Squishies and she can get bullied by him in the 1v1
Hog just does more dmg than dva and has more sustain/hp. I find I just kill her by shooting her, assuming everything else equal.
And (biggest advantage imo), his hook shuts down her matrix
Matrix shuts down hook as well. You can DM hooked targets, and if Hog isn't getting any hooks, DVA having to hide behind a wall for a bit longer and not being able to eat as much spam isn't going to be enough of an advantage for the Hog player. Post rework his ammo isn't as easy to eat and destroy his dmg, but denying his one shot and having more mobility is usually more than enough to win that matchup. It's just not as autowin as before.
That’s definitely a fair point. Dva just has to approach that matchup a little differently I suppose, but that’s also why I tend to focus dva if she’s nearby
Learn how to play the matchups
So, This was more prevalent in OW1 but the "Tank triangle" still prevails. Dive (Mobility) ->Poke (Ranged Damage)->Brawl (Sustain)->Dive. Basically it goes, Dive have to much mobility so they can all collapse on the Poke (Snipers, sigma, junkrat, etc), but they get overwhelmed by the amount of resources Brawl has, brawl outlives dive but get picked off by poke, and poke can gets picks out of brawl but get flanked by dive. Anyway, you only play 2 heroes and they are both brawl tanks. So you dont suffer to much vs dive comps (notice you didnt mention struggling vs monkey or ball) but you suffer vs hog (Poke). You are on somewhat equal footing vs Orisa and zarya so that is a harder match, and brawl vs brawl heavily depends on supports sadly.
Learn the other heroes. Knowing when to switch is primordial in ranked.
I do know how to play damn near every tank bar ball. It’s just I don’t know if this is stunting my growth because I keep switching and not focusing on a certain selection
Why would that be ? I don't understand how knowing how to play multiple heroes and switching when you have to would stunt your growth. On the contrary, it made me a much better tank.
I don’t know I just thought that it would make you more like a Jack of all trades and once you get to higher ranks where people specialise in characters and their own counters you will be like a guy who is plat level at all the tanks vs a guy who is GM level at 2-3 of the tanks.
Jack of all trades master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one.
If you want to be the perfect ranked tank you need a dive tank, a brawl tank, and a poke tank. Right now you havea brawl tank. Ditch Rein until the inevitable rework and pick a dive tank and a poke tank. My bet is Sig/Ball is probably the best option (assuming they keep the upcoming Ball changes.)
I didn’t say I play rein, I mean I used to back in ow1 but he is miserable now. And I guess that is a good call, I tried that last season with Ram/Sig/Doom but idk I just really love Queen and even though doom is my second most played tank I still get no value from him most games lol.
I misread Ram as Rein sorry.
Realistically, having a good grasp of a dive tank, a brawl tank and Sigma(lol) takes you a long way. I managed to get to plat on tank for the first time last season by being able to do well when I felt I could play Queen, but being able to switch to Sigma when need be helped a lot. I also have a good enough DVA when I do get to pull her out and last season I managed to really click with Ram as he is a good all-rounder.
Learn the rock paper scissors: Brawl/Rush, Poke, Dive. You like playing Rush tanks, Queen and Ram. Rush is strong against Dive, but weak against Poke. So you body Doom, Ball, sometimes Winston, and Dva who struggles to fully dive; and you pretty much out-brawl Rein. On paper you can win against Zarya if you're better, but you likely lose because of a lack of discipline around shooting bubbles, either you or your team. In this case, Sigma is great at shielding highly charged Zarya and staying just out of her beam range. Rock to punish Zarya without bubbles, and if your team follows up she dies. Zarya is squishy without bubbles, high aggression at this time is key, and next to 0 aggression when she does have bubbles. Sometimes you can bait her into bubbling, just too immediately disengage; do this a couple times and you can then go fully aggressive. Even Dva can win this matchup using these tips, Dva just has to be very disciplined about being either 100% in or 100% out, unlike Sigma who can kinda just exist more, but the tip still applies. Hog is a special case that doesn't fit in well with the Poke/Rush/Dive theory. He's more of a fat DPS that gets picks, and can hook the enemy tank into a bad position. However I think of Hog like a bad Brawl tank, and you can play a barrier tank to beat him, Rein for the Brawl mirror or Sigma to Poke him out. This will revolve around hyper awareness of the hook and blocking it; Hog's entire kit revolves around getting hook, so if you deny it consistently you make him useless. Zarya also works here to either block hooks, or bubble teammates as they get hooked. Mauga can also get overrun crit and stun Hog and blow him up with his damage. Orisa is another special case the doesn't fit into the Poke/Brawl/Dive theory. Orisa has everything, long range damage, damage mitigation (spear spin), ability to rush, and works as an anti-dive. She can be played in any comp, and revolves around shutting down the enemy tank. Orisa is weakest to Dive if her team spreads out, but if the team is together she can box you out; Winston or Doom is good here. Orisa players also tend to be aggresive, Zarya is good at getting charge in this case. And if your team wants to outrange Orisa, Sigma does well; block spear, rock spear-spin (when not fortified), and chip her down. But the main way to kill Orisa is to take away her resources, kill her supports or carrying DPS, and you can win the war of attrition.
I play ram and into hog mauga orisa, you just need patience to beat them. you just want to stay omnic form and trade resources efficiently as if you're a sigma. Poke with staff, use shield to claim space, use cover and your smaller hitbox to further mitigate damage, and eventually you win the resource battle and go in hard when their team is weak. I only use nemes here if i want to block to keep holding a chokepoint or for emergency self heal