And I’m not talking about balance, stats, or the “meta”.
As a former Symmetra main (before Symm 3.0), I don’t care too much about the meta because I will simply play my best in a match with my best heroes, regardless of meta.
However, with these recent changes to Brigitte, she simply doesn’t feel fun anymore.
Is there a way to play Brigitte effectively now? Absolutely. I’m a serious Brigitte main. I know how to bring value to her (using WP effectively, shield dancing, etc.).
Is it fun? No, not nearly as much fun as it used to.
This community (and sometimes the devs) are so laser focused on balancing the heroes based on their stats and not how it is to actually play such heroes.
Her identity and playstyle has been altered a bit every single patch due to her flood of nerfs which won’t stop. Again, I don’t care about where she is in the meta, she simply isn’t fun anymore. Whether its playing this Zarya/Hog meta or when I do play with a Rein in my games, its still clear that playing her lacks the enjoyment it used to.
It doesn’t make it any better that large parts of the OW community don’t think Brigitte needs any buffs/adjustments. There is such hate for my favorite hero that I only visit these forums occasionally because I can’t stand the toxic behavior here sometimes.
I just wish Blizzard would actually heed the players that actually play Brigitte and make her more fun to play again.
Literally all they had to do was leave her alone when 2-2-2 came out. She would have had poor healing output but her survivability would still allow her a fun niche in brawl comps.
I disagree. When I play heals I get frustrated by tanks and dps playing the flank game while the healers are easy targets. Zen, bap, ana, brig all have mobility issues. I dislike the gameplay of healers have to be defenseless against the flanking roadhog, gengi, doomfist, tracer, etc.
Why cant healers defend themselves? Why do healers have to be served on a silver platter for dps in order for the game to be “balanced”?
You think only tanks should have that but there are almost no tanks in the game, much less tanks with CC, and most tanks have to play the front line. Which begs the question why should healers be weaker when theres usually no one watching their back to begin with?
I’m kind of a weird person in that, with enough dedication at least, I can salvage honest fun out of almost any situation. Thankfully, as a devoted Brig main, this situation is no different. She’s feeling a little under the weather at the moment, but we’re powering through it and getting things done
What does bug me sometimes, though, is the stigma and the persistent grudge that some people have against her and her mains. To this day. It’s relentless, and it gets really tiring sometimes. And this is coming from an extremely positive person.
I get that she was really, really broken in her early days, but that was a long time ago. Things have changed a lot since then. Still, it feels like she’ll never be forgiven by the community, all because of that disastrous first impression. It’s heartbreaking, because she’s such a sweet character
(PS: For the record, I started playing last October, so I didn’t even play as Brigzilla)
That’s what I think too. And good, real, Brigitte mains would still be a solid off-healer. And she would still provide enough utility for the team.
Now that she can’t brawl at all, it doesn’t feel fun.
Sure, I can effectively use my Whip Shot and repair packs effectively, but the engaging gamestyle isn’t there anymore.
This is why she should have never been reworked with 2-2-2. She was fine as is, an off healer with lower healing but high survivability and peel. But nope, they tried to make her a main healer without getting rid of the off healer aspects, so she basically became both and could everything at once.
I love Brig. Upon her release I said I want to main this hero and bought the golden gun. Granted I didn’t main her but I still played her a TON. I still enjoy her I play her more than ever. Now she feels more demanding it’s fun. But she could definitely use some tuning imo. I’ve made a post and a few replies suggesting these changes (provided she is still weak when the meta changes).
maybe stop ‘‘maining’’ niche charcaters and play the game as it was intended: learn a few heros and switch between them depending on the circumstance.
brig is just fine in her niche. she was literally killing the game before.
I haven’t even touched Brig since the recent nerfs. She makes no sense if she doesn’t have 200 hp + 50 armor. She’s meant to be tanky. Her shield was nerfed to the ground and she barely provides armor now. Just give her back 50 armor and revert her armor pack to the instant 150 health/75 health + 75 armor. Her general healing is good enough at 15hps but it’s pointless if she can’t save her allies in an instant and if she has low health.
Fooling themselves into thinking her support was a result of her healing and not her offtanking abilities that lead into healing is where they went completely wrong with her.
It almost feels like the team thats been balancing her had no clue what her design was in the first place. Her current “design” is so unfun and uninspired.
From what many actual Brig mains like myself think, is that she should have high sustain, lower healing (in line with an off-healer), and even lower damage.
Her identity is this tanky support that acts like a paladin. I would rather return the health and shields to what they were if they kept her healing nerfs (even though Repair packs don’t feel like they have any oomph on them anymore).
All of the supports have tools to deal with flankers. AND they have another healer every game to heal for them and peel for them who also has their own tools. AND you have 2 DPS and 2 tanks every game to also peel. This is a team game.
Zen has insane DPS output to duel flankers, especially since they buffed his orbs multiple times and brought discord back to 30%.
Ana has sleep and nade and her own damage. Even just nading the ground to heal herself, nade the enemy, and damage the enemy is often enough to force a Tracer or Genji to back off or use their mobility CD to escape.
Baptiste has a literal Immortality Field, shift heal AoE, and exo boots to spam superjumps to avoid flanker damage. He also has a solid gun himself.
Brig has 2 forms of CC in a stun and a knockback, a passive self heal, AND she can use shieldbash as a pseudo-escape for quite a significant distance to get closer to her teammates or farther from flankers.
And then we all know how strong Lucio and Mercy and Moira are with their anti flankers tools like boop, amp, multiple self heals, damage orb/beam, and strong mobility tools.
I want Brig just before these recent nerfs. I want a support that can actually brawl.
Same as every other Brig main.
And listing a hero’s abilities in OW doesn’t magically make them viable. Supports, especially in this meta, are particularly vulnerable to flankers and we are frankly tired of being left in the lurch. Any decent DPS can destroy a Zen or outplay a Baptiste. And even Genjis can destroy Brigs post-nerf.
In any event, current Brigitte simply isn’t fun to play as, which is the whole point of the thread.
It’s heartbreaking, because she’s such a sweet character