Nobody likes a BW as a healer because she’s notorious for having bad healing and lacking good burst healing. Grubby even listed her as Tier 3 next to Morales saying that she’s very situational. I’ve been raged many times for picking BW by my tryhard teammates who, let’s be honest, don’t know how to position well so they demand healing like a baby demanding candy.
Personally I think she’s the true definition of being underrated. In the situations she work well in she works very well. VERY VERY well.
To start off, BW is the only healer in the game who has a) mobility, b) baseline cleanse, c) damage mitigation, and d) hard CC. And there’s more; she can soak, take camps, and take talents that provide her with EVEN MORE CC with the 40% slow at level 7 or silence at level 16. She’s the only healer in the game who can keep an enemy team CC-locked for 2.5 seconds AND slowed for 40% after AND be able to do that again 5 seconds after when taken the level 1 talent. Not even Malfurion’s root and Uther’s stun combined can compete with something like that.
Also, I personally think BW is the hardest healer to kill in the game. Her survivability is absolutely insane. I was able to survive as BW after being Stitches hooked and gorged right in the middle of their team. Not even Uther and Whitemane can do that. Why? Because BW has blink heal, cleanse, and spell damage mitigation. You can cleanse when being rooted. You can E yourself when being targeted by spells. And your mobility is instant meaning if you can get away you will get away. You think Lucio is very mobile? How about an INSTANT blink?
When do I draft BW? In a team that can take care of themselves. A team where one member need my teleport and heals and CC but the rest can take very good care of themselves. Cho’gall teams are a perfect example. Cho’gall and BW, and the other two characters being self-reliant characters like Fenix or Orphea.
Yes, her healing is something to be left desired, but to me Brightwing is to healers, as Stitches is to tanks. She plays very differently than other healers, but in situations where she is good, she is amazing.
What? I like BW, she has decent healing and brings one of the best utility for a healer to the game. Sheep, magic armor, Anti-Dive-Ult or Jump’n’heal while being global.
Against dive heroes for example, because polymorph or anti-dive-ult is annoying to deal with.
I played with a Cho’gall pair once and they lost their sh!t when I picked BW as my healer. I tried to convince them - look, I have a level 40 Brightwing and I know for a fact she works VERY well with Cho’gall.
brightwing has the best burst heal, you just gotta get hyper shift at level 1 and peekaboo at level 7. 35% HP heal + shield + vision (very valuable) on your Z, and you recharge it quickly by killing minions.
too many people get the bribe talent at level 1 cuz muh bribe, but it’s really not the best choice for brightwing. reducing cooldown of Z on minion kills is invaluable.
BW heal is surely decent, but the best burst heal? I highly doubt it, because we have Lucio and his E or Soundbarrier.
In addition that Chogall who cried about BW, I would say he is just a simple minded dude, who probably thinks only Auriel is good with Chogall and all the other healer sucks… but it’s too simplyistic to be honest.
that’s not healing.
If we want to count “preventing damage to HP” as healing, Polymorph is pretty good at negating a targets damage.
only thing I would bring up here (as it is situational and on a fairly long CD) is that her Safety Dust +75% healing works on her blink. Which gives it a sizable boost.
Not saying it fixes things, but it allows her a decent burst heal later on if you picked it.
BW would not raise eyebrows so much if her spells and heals didn’t take 10 years later than the rest of the cast to be active.
At least medivh (and old tass) is very rewarding when i have the same level of prediction BW demands.
The problem with BW healing is its unreliable and triggers on the first hero in range of it. Unlike lucio that heals everyone in a big circle
Also Lucio is more safe then BW when it come to stacking his healing on everyone while BW have to get in facecheck range of enemies to heal someone with both her trait and Blink Heal.
But on the other hand BW has one of the best lockdown spell.
Depends on which MMR we are talking about? Last ten patches, in master and diamond she is just fine at 51%, sitting slightly below Alex and Tyrande. Ana and Lucio have considerably higher winrate than her in this division in last 10 patches.
But as a sustain healer or second healer, she can be a decent pick. IMO, 51% winrate is good. Compare to Li Li in these top MMR’s in the last 10 patches, who struggles at 48%.
I wouldn’t call her a “burst healer” just because of Z though (plus it is delayed and very easily interruptable). Sustain healer is the category she’s in.
wha…
Brightwing is my main healer pick (Mainly cause I don’t have any other healers besides her, Auriel and Whitemane). Her passive healing and phase shift’s healing are great. Not to mention the stealth she gives with her Invisible Friends talent is pretty useful.
So idk how underrated she is.
Brightwing is a hard hero to play that doesn’t really pay off the time spent learning.
She’s also god awful to play and feels like driving a clunker just for giggles. I have played her alot bc i love her voice lines and Polymorph is so fun to use, but she needs another rework.
Tying her entire kit into a q skillshot that doesn’t do much damage just makes 0 sense and i preferred her last iteration. Though her numbers right now after buffs are fine. Shes not as niche as people make her out to be but her skill floor in her niche is much lower than her skill floor as a generalist.
Brightwing is in a very good spot. Safety Dust makes teleport heal insane (follow up Blink + passive also possible). She can safely escape by targeting friendly NPCs and has three interrupts in total (Poly, extremely long range Hush and EW).
Though her healing isn’t spectacular or reliable, she has many useful tools for the late game where fights sometimes end in mere seconds.