Brig: An Analysis of Her, Her Power, and Overwatch

General Discussion
1

Tdlr could be basically: Brig’s great. If you think she’s OP . . . Git Gud. If you think she’s Useless. . . Git Gud. And if you think she’s the sole aspect of GOATs… lmao

Author's Note

But seriously, To Start, I want to disclaim that this is long . It covers many aspects of not only brig but Also Her role in GOATS, the overall Structure of the Game, her power, the power of heroes, etc… I did exclude the workings of her mechanics and play structure because… that would just add to the current beast, but I tend to see things holistically so separating everything into different posts seemed like half-baked :baby_bottle: baby reasoning. So I wrote out most of what I thought. And thus It’s large and lengthy and genuinely my thoughts on what Brig encompasses. So if you comment and say “this was too long”

Dude I know. I wrote it. Think I didn’t realize how long it took to edit on my tiny phone screen? Like… I actually cut stuff out. I know.

So If you comment and didn’t read the whole thing but I addressed it… I’ll probs just quote it back. I get it, you don’t want to read an essay on a forum. But let me say this: You don’t have to. There’s a thread I saw about how Overwatch has too many Daddys, I have a thread asking for more non-canon skins including Concept art Male Mercy. Feel free to not torment yourself with almost 4000 words of Brig Analysis. I happen to like her enough to type this on my phone in the in-betweens of work and going home. But It’s not changing lives here.

Additionally, if you do read it, obviously I have my own thoughts and opinions and you might not agree. But I do genuinely appreciate that you read it. And if you comment, even better. That’s just my own thing about… discussing art and media we consume in our cultures. I think promoting discussion is pretty great. So… Thanks.

So … A large thing with Brig hate comes from GOATS :goat: hate which isn’t just on her ( and I am more than over discussing because most of the forum isn’t even dealing with GOATS). The thing is, because of how GOATS only affects a select few, the majority of people still don’t see where or how a Brig can fit into their games. It’s GOATS or nothing else. And that’s because the general playerbase runs a 222. And in a 222, she isn’t any more strong than other heroes, but she also doesn’t have a high visible output. The only thing players can “see” is her stun and armor at select times. But then, outside of that, it can feel like she isn’t offering her team anything at all. But that isn’t true, nor is it inherently bad design. Brig is different. Not bad. Brig’s power comes from a niche output of moderation.

Brig: Moderate

A 222 really shows where Brig is weak. She isn’t fast, she has limited range, and her healing is entirely conditional on positioning between both her own allies, and enemies. That is, Brig can’t support her whole team, if she can’t dish out damage, And she isn’t out as the only hero with friendly fire.

This aspect is a fair weakness because of her benefits of moderation. Her healing is limited but is a moderate amount of healing for everyone in a large AOE. She has a limited range, but has moderate dmg without a high aim requirement. And her own utility of a shield can protect moderately when enemies are out of her range. Brig is moderate. And that’s totally fine. She doesn’t have a strong heal like ana/moira because she also doesn’t have their hard weaknesses. She doesn’t have strong dps because she also doesn’t have zen or lucios hard weaknesses. And Vice Versa. She doesn’t have some crazy weakness because her output is moderate. She has moderate weaknesses and moderate strengths.

And that isn’t bad.

Consider this. Why is 222 run the way it is? You can run 2 shield tanks, 2 primary healers, and 2 snipers. You can run 2 off tanks, 2 off healers, and 2 close range heroes. But why not? Why isn’t the Pro Scene full of just dps heroes at all times? How does GOATS work?

Let’s explore:

Exploring the Power of 222

A 222 in normal play runs generally with a Shield, Primary healer, Off tank, Off healer, close and distant dps. But why? What is the goal? Well… play power and intuitiveness.

Let’s look at a moderate comp: Rein, Zarya, Moira, Lucio, Reaper and Ashe. This is a pretty fair comp right? Is it any inherently stronger than this opposing comp: Orisa, Dva, Ana, Zen, Tracer, and Mccree

Well… no. Not in ladder. And that’s because of how the power is spread. This is where comps are formed. Let’s look at heroes on a power level. Of course this is my own ranking but I think it’s pretty fair:

Rein:

Tank : - - - - - - - - -
Dps : -
Support :

Zarya:

Tank : - - - - -
Dps : - - - - -
Support :

Moira:

Tank :
Dps : - -
Support : - - - - - - - -

Lucio:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - -
Support : - - - - -

Reaper:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Ashe :

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

And let’s compare Team #2

Orisa:

Tank : - - - - - - - - -
Dps : -
Support :

Dva:

Tank : - - - - -
Dps : - - - - -
Support :

Ana:

Tank :
Dps : - -
Support : - - - - - - - -

Zen:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - -
Support : - - - - -

Tracer:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

McCree :

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Now, I consider “support” to be… beyond just “healing” so much as… outside healing dependency. Tracer can recall, and McCree can stun to add to their survivability.

It’s pretty much the same. But what happens if we switch Team #2 Tracer with Sombra? Or Mei?

Well…How do Hybrids look?

Sombra:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - -
Support : - - - -

Mei:

Tank : - - -
Dps : - - - - - -
Support : -

The power overall is the same. But where it falls differs. So as a team, you need to play to the strengths of where your power is falling and adjust for where it has shifted away from.

So what happens when you have a comp outside of 222? Let’s look at a 321, with 3 DPS

Rein:

Tank : - - - - - - - - -
Dps : -
Support :

Moira:

Tank :
Dps : - -
Support : - - - - - - - -

Lucio:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - -
Support : - - - - -

Reaper:

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Ashe :

Tank :
Dps : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Mei:

Tank : - - -
Dps : - - - - - -
Support : -

We dropped the tanking from Zarya in favor of less tanking from mei but higher DPS. So it it viable? Sure. But it’s a much different play. What if we change Mei for a standard DPS like Tracer? Well now we lose a lot of the tanking at all. This is why a 321 with one tank is harder.

A way to think of it is like when a coworker is out sick, and so everyone else has to pitch in to make sure the boat stays afloat. You spread where the work is. For power, if you lose an expert, but gain someone new with different talents, you might need some minor restructuring of your work. It doesn’t have to be more… it just might differ.

Sharing the Work

So here Mei offers some tanking, and so the tank pressure points is lost by only 2. So mei and Rein can split the 2 point difference of tanking between them. Rein is now only having to make up a small amount of lost tanking. And this is easier because mei offers her own DPS, and her own support so healers actually have less to worry slightly less than with Zarya. The burden is spread. Replace Mei with Tracer though, and yes, healers have less to worry about, but Rein is now burdened with an entire 5 points of tanking on his own. The dps power is much higher, so it can work.

So what has that said about other metas less structured for general play like Dive? Lucio Zen as a supportive pair doesn’t read inherently standard. Well let’s look at a typical Dive setup:

Power Structure of Dive

Winston:

Tank : - - - - - - - -
DPS : - -
Support :

DVA:

Tank : - - - - - -
DPS : - - - -
Support :

Lucio

Tank :
DPS : - - - - -
Support : - - - - -

Zen:

Tank :
DPS : - - - - -
Support : - - - - -

Tracer:

Tank :
DPS : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Genji:

Tank :
DPS : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

The Set up is highly dps oriented, and the kits of each hero makes it intuitive for everyone to focus on the DPS aspect. We took out the healing power of ana, so heroes more reliant on healing had to be dropped. It’s not just that mobility was needed, it was mobility and less reliance on healing itself. This is why if you ran dive, it was much harder to replace zen or lucio or Winston. Winston gave the tanking needed that rein CAN provide, but rein didn’t have the mobility to make up for a lack of healing. The mobility is what was needed to cater to the DPS power.

So where does that Put Brig? Why is she so trash at 222 and why does she somehow get the brunt of the blame for newest Meta Baby GOATs?

Well… Let’s look at Brig Power:

Brig

Tank : - - - -
DPS : - -
Support : - - - -

Brig is a lot more spread out in where her power lies. So where does that put Brig? Well, let’s look at a 222 but with a Brig:

Brig in a 222

Rein:

Tank : - - - - - - - -
DPS : - -
Support :

Zarya:

Tank : - - - - -
DPS : - - - - -
Support :

Ana

Tank :
DPS : -
Support : - - - - - - - - -

Reaper:

Tank :
DPS : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

MCree:

Tank :
DPS : - - - - - - - - -
Support : -

Brig

Tank : - - - -
DPS : - -
Support : - - - -

Brig’s power isn’t adding to the DPS a zen or lucio would by 3 points. And she drops the support power by 1. The power is more spread out. This line up is more tank oriented and it’s not intuitive to play that way. We don’t have Winston and Rein at the same time. We run orisa Rein only to cheese. Brig is very odd in this line up of power because as players, tanking, isn’t what is intuitive.
That is, you rely on one shield, and moderate off healing to offset where a primary healer can’t always do both. Doubling down on tanking means playing a less direct way.

Her Power Spread and Impact

Moreover, this is why she feels like she is not as impactful. Her power is split so much. Remember when your coworker left and you had to make up their work with the rest of your team? It’s not that they aren’t needed. You can just move the weight around so the boat doesn’t tip over. Spreading it out means you sink evenly, and when she comes back and the boat is whole, you can properly float again.

If Brig dies, DPS only has to make up for 2 points of power… and between them, that’s one point. Ana can split her 4 points between Reaper and McCree so she only has to make up for 2 points of power of pure healing, and Mccree and Reaper are making up for 1 point support each. And her 4 points of tanking can be split between her 2 tanks. So when Brig dies, each other hero only takes a load more of 2 points. This doesn’t happen when Ana dies. Ana has a mere 1 point of dps. That can be split between everyone. But even with McCree and Reaper taking a point of support, Brig has 7 points of support that suddenly falls on her. There’s no room for restructuring.

It’s not that Brig is so much lower than lucio or Ana in terms of support power. 1 point for Lucio and almost half of Ana which is fairly standard looking at off Supports (don’t look at mercy). It’s that she isn’t 100% Specialized. And clearly that isn’t bad. Why?

Well let’s talk about the Goat :goat: in the room.

Brig, GOATs, Dissecting the Structure and Power

GOATs as a meta is fascinating because it shows the unique way that you can use abilities in different stats. That is, you aren’t tied to any form of normal power implied in a standard 222. Mei isn’t popular even in 222, because she’s like brig in a 222 making tanking redundant for the normal player. This extends to sombra. They enable a non-intuitive comp where you stack abilities in one area or make up where lacking like in a 321. Which is all GOATs is.

Goats is the stacking of abilities to securely enable another’s strengths and make up where each lacks.

I’ll explain: How is Goats set up? It’s not just any tank or support set up. Goats isn’t being Run on Moira Mercy Ana and Winston Rein and Orisa. It’s not just dependent on Zarya because of Grav. The only meta ever had over a single ultimate was Mercy. And Note, it’s pretty funny how hated the Mercy meta was considering it was only locked to one hero in one specific role. But even Brig wasn’t chosen for her armor ult. Or else torb would have been meta before brig ever existed. Symm Torb would have been meta ages before and never was. And Let’s be clear: No. Symm has had low pickrates even in lower ranks. Bronze players weren’t using her just like GMs weren’t and aren’t.

So why does Brig work? How does GOATs work? It’s not just… stacking any ol’ abilities or else Ana Mercy Zen would have been Meta long before brig enabling increased dmg. Or Orisa Hog Winston with CC.

This is where Brigs non-specialized nature is very good. She can be anything. And that means where the other heroes lack, she can make up for it. Brig adds tanking where Zarya can’t. Brig adds DPS where moira can’t. Brig adds tanking where Zen can’t. She adds healing where rein Can’t. Suddenly, Zarya can more fully utilize her DPS because Brig can cover where Zarya isn’t. Suddenly Lucio can enable more dps from his dva and both can drop their other role because brig can fill the split that normally would have fallen to someone else flat. GOATS works with the Off natures of multipl heroes to make up for what they usually lack, and form it around tanking.

The power is more tank oriented and that’s more intuitive when you have more healing unlike when you simply fill Brig or Mei into a standard 222. This is why Goats is about the Brawl. Because no. Zarya doesn’t do too much dmg in a 222. No, healing stacking isn’t an issue or else Mercy Moira, Moira ana or even Brig Lucio would be meta.

How many of you are running a Brig Lucio comp in your 222s?

It’s about the Brawl because Rein suddenly can use his points of DPS. Zarya is less reliant on her tanking. Lucio can spend less times on healing… and since none of them are flat DPS based, they need more time given by the healing and tanking being made up for by their teammates.

The Problems GOATs Exposed

Well Maybe It’s not on Just Brig. I mean, you can see the new GOATS comps out here replacing Brig. Doesn’t that mean that it is just a healing Issue? Some Goats are replacing Dva for Hog or Hammond. Doesn’t that mean it is a tanking issue? Sometimes a support is replaced with Doom or Sombra…. So it’s still tanking right? Wait… what if the Dps replaces the tank… it’s healing???

Well… Not really. That’s just what comes when you get better at playing in a different manner. That is, in dive, towards the end, we started to see more Ana and Mercy. And that’s because they bring a different power that after weeks of knowing where dive’s power lies, you can use another hero to fit the same narrative. Mercy is mobile and has dmg boost. Ana has anti and sleep dart. It’s not impossible to use the kits in a more mobile, dps oriented manner.

The same with GOATs. If you don’t think of GOATS as pure tank and healer…. It’s stacked ability’s power. Doom, is a more tanky Dps. Sombra is a more supportive Dps. It’s not GOATS as in tanks and supports ROLE. It’s GOATS as in Tanks and Support POWER.

And this won’t go away with AOE limits, healing limits, or anything else. We already know this. How?

Stacking, Structure, Power

Remember… way back when… There was a Winston Lucio Meta. Not Winston Lucio and 4 other heroes. No. Just Lucios. Just winstons. So, we got rid of Lucios AOE stacking… and what happened? We still had Lucios. We still had Winstons. It didn’t go away until we fixed the structural issue of the game. Stacking lucios, even if you didn’t stack the auras was still very strong. Stacking Winstons, was very strong. And that comes with the power being still heavily support and tank based. The only way to fix this was by fundamentally changing where the game was being pushed. We had to change the structure of Overwatch and disallow hero stacking. And since then, we added more heroes and more power given to lucio and Winston and a new design of the game. Thus… Goats. GOATS with 3 Winstons and 3 Lucios is GOATS as we know it… but it simply isn’t allowed anymore.

Okay so what if we address this structural issue? Either with a 222 or whatever (my personal favorite is a Hero role requirement but I thought this since launch), doesn’t this just leave Brig as flat bad? She can’t work in a 222!

Well… that’d be a fair point… if she couldn’t.

222 And Brig :shield:

Personally, I disagree with the… format of brig. I think it’s too “flat” to be intuitive for most people (I have my own ideas, feel free to check them out). However, Brig is fine. You just have to actually… use…her?

As in, not an armor bot. Old Torb was better. Not an AOE bot… Lucio is better. Use… Brig. All of her.

Brig fits for the off comp. Brig fits, when power is unstructured. Brig allows new, previously unviable comps for your normal 222 or 321. Brig fits fine if you use her power appropriately.

Let’s look at 222’s. Rein, Zarya, Reaper, Tracer, Zen, Moira. Well what if no one can play Rein? What if you can but you feel like You have better synergy elsewhere so…. What if you have a Hog instead? Well… With 2 off tanks, Brig works fine! Hog and Zarya have higher DPs, so Brig can fill that lacking tank power. Brig enables the Offs. Zarya, Sombra, Mei… If the power is elsewhere, brig can fill appropriately if you player her as such. Zarya Dva, Dva Hog, Hammond Hog and Hammond Off Tanks… Brig can offer something the Off nature lacks.

What if you Run into que with Two mercy Mains? Well… you can’t stack the Mercy’s. But Brig Offers good utility and moderate dps so you can run a 321 with 3 supports, but it isn’t overbearing in either it’s GOATs with Doom manner, or 1 tank and 2 dps… It’s not too powerful in any one way.

Brig and the Flex- the 321 Dream

And then there’s the oh so common in ladder, 321 putting flex players previously, at a total loss. But…Brig is perfectly designed for flex needs. She’s a flex hero. How many times have you tried to set up 222 and the 3 dps spawns in 1 tank and 1 support? A flex player previously simply couldn’t do both. You either sacrificed a large chuck of tanking or a large chunk of healing. Well, Brig BRIDGES that gap (That’s a pun I am quite proud of).

For example: A 321> A standard 321 might be Winston, tracer, genji, Pharah, Lucio, Mercy. You don’t often want a slower heroes. But what if we changed that? Now we have Winston, tracer, genji, McCree, Mercy and Brig. Well, suddenly, McCree isn’t on his own. He has a Brig to help make up where his mobility lacks. Or what about our earlier example? Rein, Reaper, Ashe, Mei, Zen and Ana. Well, you can switch Brig out for Zen or Ana and use her to both tank for zen and ashe or ana and ashe. Brig stacks up the tanking power with Mei so Rein has less burden, and between Mei, Ashe, and Brig, they can split the burden from healing for ana/zen. It can work if you aren’t forcing brig to keep up with tracer sombra pharah Dva and Mercy by herself and tank as if she were rein and instead …play as a team?

Because if you use her for all of her… suddenly… even a New Dive can be formed. Consider a Winston Hog Tracer Reaper Lucio and Brig. Brig offers tanking and can pocket Reaper and Hog. Or a Dva Zarya Lucio Brig genji and Soldier. Where Brig can pocket Tank her Zarya and soldier for Tanking, and soldier and brig combined allow decent healing. Or a Split Comp With a Hammond, Zarya, tracer Widow Zen and Brig? Brig pocket tanks her zen and now a Widow to bring that previous dive-ish comp seen with Soon on tracer and deadly widows but now, widow doesn’t have to rely on distance alone.

If you remember that Brig fills a different purpose instead of forcing her to be Mercy or Ana or Lucio or Rein or Zarya, and instead play her as Brig… She’s fine. With Strong healing and utility, Brig offers a lot for her team if you work that way. Brig Doesn’t force anything any more than a rein or Mercy or ana or tracer does. Your decisions and way of playing comes from you. That’s not on brig.

If you use Reaper as McCree, or mei as Tracer… it also won’t work. As players, we have to work with a brig for her output and way of playing. A shield is a good ability. A stun is a good ability. Armor, boop, healing…. It’s good. AS a WHOLE. Zen has the same output as mercy if he doesn’t ever shoot. That is, Mercy has a strong solo beam at 50 but guaranteed value of 50, and dmg boost of 30. Zen has it flat at 30 30 but disc orb can be up to potentially 150% if he isn’t shooting. That seems fair. Are you going to ignore the entire extra 30% of dmg potential and play him like mercy a whole game? He Isn’t Mercy. If you use him that way… it’s wrong. Same applies to Brig. If you use her like Lucio, Ana, Rein… it’s wrong. Flat.

A Conclusion to let you go about your day

Brig is designed fine. Yes. She was a bit overpowered at launch. But friendly reminder that no one noticed because mercy was still meta. And Being overtuned is not the same as being poorly designed. Ana had higher dps than healing for most of her iteration. She has since been tweaked. A 100% nade made a lot more sense when her design was based around a mere 8 then buffed to 10 shots. She has since been tweaked. If lucio did 100 dmg a boop, if mercy did 80 dps a pellet, if Soldier did 70 hps in his field, if Rein did 145 dmg a swing…. Yeah… but that’s all numbers that can be tweaked. Brig was tweaked in power to be more in line with other supports. Her design itself is fine. Just because she isn’t the best at everything doesn’t mean she’s bad. And no, she isn’t the best at everything for some people who want to act like her measly mace dmg swing is op. It’s not. Relax.

Brig’s problems aren’t her own based on her tank hybrid nature anymore than a dps support or a tank dps. Brig’s problems are simply that she isn’t an intuitive hero. Tank and support are separate things. And it can be hard for some to remember to balance that in play with your own style, and your teammates. So it’s easy to want to flat frontline as brig or only armor pack and shield. But that doesn’t mean that’s any different than watching your poor moira 1v1 reaper or reaper try and line up headshots on Pharah. But if your Winston is constantly dying to the enemy Reaper… is Winston poorly Designed? No! If Tracer is constantly dying to McCree, is tracer poorly designed? No!
Brig is fine. She provides a new option for many players and many comps. And if that’s not your cup of tea… then… don’t… play her? Like it’s fine? I personally am not fond of playing Bastion. I love playing Sombra. I highly dislike tracer’s, soldier and Ashe’s style (direct with minor get out abilities) but they are probably my strongest heroes. I love moira but play Mercy much more… it’s FINE. ISSA GAME

No one is going to give me a raise at work for hours on Ana… And you don’t get fired for not liking Brig.

She’s fine for some. And for a game that’s inclusive… That’s a good thing.

Thanks for reading.

12 Likes
2

Great points.

I believe she is in an okay state. I think she can definitely benefit from some improvements. Or perhaps even a rework.

I believe that the problem currently with Overwatch is a lot deeper than we give it credit for. Brigitte, her VA, and Brig mains don’t deserve to be treated like a scapegoat for those issues.

~Sincerely Yours xoxo,
a Lover of True, Fair, and Fun Balance.
xavvypls :blue_heart:

1 Like
3

I think she’s fine, just not intuitive. Any rework to her, I would hope would be more like lucios changes than mercy’s or *shudder* Symm’s

4

Personally I’m hoping that Blizzard implement a forced 2-2-2.

It’s too hard to balance hybrids like Roadhog or Brigitte without the assumption that an enemy will be able capitalize on Brig’s weakness by running a comp that can rain damage from afar, or by running a comp that can capitalize on the huge amount of ult economy Roadhog grants his enemies and lack of protection he grants his allies.

Because historically, whenever we’ve seen Hybrids be REALLY good, it’s because they can be run in a comp that allows you to mitigate those weaknesses.

With Reinhard and/or Dva to take up the duties of damage mitigation, in the old Triple/Quad Tank, Roadhogs offensive emphasis was a massive boon because his team didn’t need the defensive capabilities (outside Roads personal survivability) and they weren’t hindered by them.

And likewise in GOATS, Brig doesn’t have to choose between struggling to close the gap without a Lucio, or struggling to provide high ST throughput in a fight and lacking a large defensive ultimate* as an off-healer, because pairing her with a TWO healers renders that weakness completely irrelevant.

*Not that pre-nerf Rally was terrible, but it definitely couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with Sound Barrier or Transcendence when things like Dragonblade get pulled out.

With a forced 2-2-2, it allows Blizzard to make characters with emphasized strengths and weaknesses without having to worry about stacking additional tanks or healers to mitigate if not straight out nullify them.

5

I agree with how balance can play. But personally, I think flexibility should be allowed as long as the hard weakness is evident.

But for Brig, I think she works fine in a 222 now, if the structure of her team allows it. Zen lucio worked fine in Dive, but it’s not how you run orisa and bastion. Brig works fine when you play with her and not against her like any other support. She isn’t lucio. But if you treat her like it… yeah she might seem a bit weak. But if you run her like, brig… it’s fine.

6

I haven’t sat down to read all of your post yet, but I just wanted to leave this here as a support main: I pick each individual support because each one does something the best that others cannot do. Each one except Brigitte that is.

  • Mercy has the best mobility and lowest stress healing mechanic
  • Lucio has the best map traversal and boop
  • Zen has the best damage output and ultimate
  • Ana has the best main healing range + value and utility (nade and sleep)
  • Moira has the best AOE healing
  • Brig has…? A single stun with NO followup damage to capitalize on catching someone. The best ability to survive by slowly backing away while holding a shield up? That’s not a lot of value if you consider having mobility could get you out of harm immediately instead of wasting 20 sec while your teammates die
7

I would trade some offensive pressure for more tank or more heals, preferably more tank. Ide even replace sheild bash with a more tanky ability, maybe it makes her shield have more health and be larger

8

Brig offers tanking none of the other supports offer. She has the best direct survivability if you can’t take the time to aim or separate between jobs: mercy can’t heal and dps , Lucio can heal and dps but needs more aim orientation.

Brig offers a tanking utility not only limited in supports, but even the off DPS roster with only mei torb and bastion offering such ability and bastion and torb are… A bit of a stretch. Moreover, unlike mei, brig offers this consistency of tanking utility more on par with zen or Lucio for DPS enabling.
I personally pick brig for

9

I guess But brig doesn’t have that much offensive power to begin with. And bash is a good tanking ability . It allows her to hold space and restrict enemy movement

10

If brig suffers of meta shift Reinhardt will suffer more I think. But as we seen long ago Rein was still used in certain maps so Brig might be used sometimes too since she have more utility.

I think this might be a similar to when NANO speed boost was nerfed and Reaper was cast out.
Reaper is still suffering from his low range and mobility.

11

That’s more hero design than power. And I don’t think reaper is bad. I think the game still has structure and design issues that need to be solved. Shadowstep imo was for an earlier version of the game. It’s purpose is no longer needed.
But reaper, brig, rein…everyone has strengths and weaknesses equivalent to their output. Widow has high dmg output from afar, and lower survivability up close. Tracer has moderate dmg up close but moderate survivability up close for it. Reaper has faster dmg output to close range so he himself is slower.
Brig is moderate so her weaknesses are moderate. Rein is high tanking output, so his other outputs are weaker. If rein could be a mobile shield, high dmg, and fast… No amount of balance could make other tanks compete

12

True, i just want more shield power and to do that maybe take away some cd on bash idk

13

Well, just theorycrafting here, but… isn’t that value in itself?

She can’t kill anybody by herself with her stun, but her stun does serve the same effective purpose at countering enemy ults as things like Sound Barrier and Transcendence.

A stun will straight up stop things like Whole Hog and Death Blossom, and it’ll force a dragonblading Genji to hold still for a second so more CCs can be landed on him or he can be killed. An extremely well-timed stun can counter Earthshatter, and I’ve even gotten lucky with it and prevented Sound Barrier and EMP before during their extremely brief wind-up period.

Additionally, you holding up your shield and falling back means the enemy is theoretically shooting you. Damage put into your shield is damage not put into your allies, which is still effective healing.

14

Brig is just an antifun hero though and thats most people’s problem. Her sheild stops dps from doing the job and her stun zones them to china, the armor prevents tracer, soldier, dva, and winston from doing any damage at all, and ontop of that the cc from her left click is just really annoying. Its like her whole kit was just meant to annoy players and ruin dive (which it did). I personally don’t care about a hero’s power level or how op or bad they are (unless they are very much of those), and most players don’t either they really care about how fun/not fun they are to play as or against. This is why brig players think she is terrible and literally anyone who plays heroes that don’t counter her, hates her.

15

anti fun is subjective. I quite enjoy hybrids of all sorts including brig.

16

My problem with her is that she shuts down high skilled heroes and is one of the easiest brain dead hero of the game.
Literally unkillable while rallying.

17

I mean, she doesn’t shut down anyone outside of range and …if she’s hard to kill in her ult… It’s her ult?

18

This post is hilarious

Rein:
Tank : - - - - - - - - -
Dps : -
Support :

To say that Rein is low on DPS is actually OMEGALOL

Rein does 12.9k damage on average and outdamages Mei, Widowmaker, Tracer, Sombra, Doomfist in GM. He does 800 damage less than GM Genji.

Across all ranks, a similar pattern holds. To call Rein a low DPS hero is hilarious. Especially given the teamwipe capability of his ult.

DVA:
Tank : - - - - - -
DPS : - - - -
Support :

Actually does more damage than Tracer.

About dive:

The Set up is highly dps oriented , and the kits of each hero makes it intuitive for everyone to focus on the DPS aspect.

IT IS NOT HIGHLY DPS ORIENTED

Dive is a very low damage, low healing composition. Probably the lowest there is out of all metas that existed. Any other meta typically will have higher healing numbers, higher total damage number, higher shieldbreak power and higher tanking capability.

As for Brigitte being replaceable, she is not actually replaceable. No other 3-3 has the capability of being so versatile and universal as OWL has shown. Teams very quickly regressed back to regular Brig GOATS and top teams just mirror each other. Even Sombra “GOATS” which was initially thought to be somewhat of a counter to it, teams figured out how to use regular GOATS to ruin it.

Reason why Brig enables 3-3 and why disabling Brig would basically make 3-3 a non-viable general meta (it would become more of a niche meta, something that is played on certain points or as a surprise tactic - instead of being played basically everywhere):

Non-Brig 3-3 compositions are vulnerable to dive

They are also vulnerable to having a huge chunk of healing denied with defense matrix at critical opportunities.

That’s why Ana GOATS will never be a regular strat - everything in Ana’s kit being denied by D.Va means that there will be a lack of healing and at key opportunities both her healing darts and her nade will get eaten by matrix and blocked by bubble which means that someone dies, at which point, the fight is likely over.

Baptiste doesn’t cut it because again, he has his healing eaten by Matrix and even tho he has immortality field, it won’t live long enough for Baptiste to get his healing back and actually heal someone even if he gets the opportunity. So far, in OWL, Baptiste GOATS seems very inferior to regular Brig GOATS. Much better usage in a bunker.

And that’s pretty much it. No other healer can work in the 3rd slot of 3-3. And even if these 2 somehow didn’t have these fatal drawbacks, Brig brings a lot more to the table. Everything in Brig’s kit is non-matrixable. That’s why Brig’s 5k damage is actually quite a lot - it’s non blockable damage that goes through barriers and through matrix - meaning at key times, tanks won’t be able to keep someone alive. Zarya maybe but the remainder of GOATS cast has plenty of power to burn the bubble down quickly. Matrix is the real important ability to bypass. Typically, heroes that are vulnerable to matrix won’t become meta in pro-play because they will get their abilities matrixed at key times. That’s why Ana is basically broken in ladder but completely fine in pro-play - because pro players are well enough coordinated to actually consistently exploit that weakness.

Even more important thing that Brig brings to the table is - Repair pack. It is non blockable - goes through matrix - goes through barriers. It is what allows tanks to efficiently cycle defensive cooldowns. Regular AOE healing wouldn’t be sufficient to keep someone alive. But 150 burst heal will. And then another cooldown comes online and AOE healing helps. But AOE itself wouldn’t be sufficient without the burst heal. But if the burst heal itself is blockable or conditional then it’s exploitable. But for Brig, it isn’t conditional.

As for posts concerning Brig’s range, people who write that either forget or just intentionally refuse to acknowledge that all 4 game modes revolve around chokepoints and objectives, both of which typically mean that Brig will get in range when it matters and that she will have her healing up when it matters. Brigitte actually is the highest output healer in GOATS. 9k of healing + 3-4k armor on average puts her above Moira, which is the highest heal per 10m according to OWL stats. Even in the uncoordinated environment of ladder, she outheals Zen and heals only slightly less than Lucio. But if you work in the armor, she heals comparable to Mercy or even higher, depending on how much you valuate armor. The utility that she brings to GOATS while also bringing raw healing and killing power makes her non-replacable. She is not a 50-50% tank-support hybrid, she is a 50-50-50% dps-tank-support hybrid. Oh, the numbers add up to 150%? Yes that’s because she still does too much. She still brings too much utility in terms of strong burst heal and CC while also outputting decent damage (5k damage is more than enough because it’s non-blockable) and healing 80% more than Lucio in pro-play.

Often on these forums you will see posts such as “quad tank existed” or “slambulance existed” and it’s true. But those strategies were played less than 10% of the time and they were not an actual meta. They were point specific strategies with questionable value - other than maybe surprise. Because they had the weaknesses defined above. Brigitte is what removes those weaknesses and makes it into something that you can run pretty much everywhere with great success.

#deleteBrig and fix Overwatch

19

It’s function design . Not played. Rein to shield, etc
But okay

By this logic, goats is not a meta since it doesn’t affect most players. No meta is meta and none effect most players

You also ignore how goats is fairing today and how and why it succeeds or fails
And where brig stands outside of goats.

And how baptise works well in high but not lower ranks.

Utility function, playstyle, and motivations all fold into a strat and subsequent “meta” in overwatch.

Brig is great. And judging by her 222 performance
#buffbrig #savethetankplayers

20

They are not separate from each other. And no, even with that you are wrong. Rein is equally important as a brawler as he is as a shielder.

By this logic, goats is not a meta since it doesn’t affect most players. No meta is meta and none effect most players

No, I am speaking mostly about pro-play where GOATS is played 90% of the time. In pro-play, slambulance and quad-tank were played less than 10% of the time and even that is likely an overstatement.

You also ignore how goats is fairing today and how and why it succeeds or fails
And where brig stands outside of goats.

It succeeds

Brig likely doesn’t work too well outside of GOATS but the only solution for her is to hard-rework her and take away one aspect of her entirely.

Brig is great. And judging by her 222 performance
#buffbrig #savethetankplayers

2-2-2 is irrelevant. The devs never said that she was intended to work in a pure 2-2-2 environment. Quite a few heroes struggle to work in 2-2-2. The issue is that she is too oppressive in 3-3.