Many people have been complaining about Brigitte due to her being very powerful close-quarter-combat, and this is often met with “Don’t stand near her”. The obvious response to this that has been given out time-and-time again is “This is an objective based game, not going near her is impossible if you want to capture the objective.”
The problem with the “Objective-based gameplay” argument is that it’s inherently flawed: It precludes the game’s dynamic nature, which is the fundamental basis by which it’s designed, with the assumption that all fighting must occur on the objective irrespective of map layout, team composition, or the employment of strategy. Brigitte excels only in close-quartered combat, which is something that is not actually required for the acquisition of the objective or the space immediately around it. This is obvious simply by way of the game’s design: There are numbers team compositions, all of which have their own strengths and complement and counter each other in many ways and favor long-ranged fighting, or simply not approaching her.
Even beyond that, Brigitte herself is very reliant on her team capitalizing on openings she makes: Brigitte herself is very weak in team fights due to her low DPS, and this weakness is compensated for by having a fairly decent amount of CC, allowing her not to outright eliminate enemies but rather to create openings for her team to take advantage of. This, however, relies upon several factors on both her own team’s part, as well as her opposing team’s part: Her own team is required to seize upon an opportunity given to them, and the enemy team must collectively fail to prevent her from creating such an opening.
As a tank main myself, who has encountered her in almost every conceivable situation with every tank, I understand (And it is obvious that) Brigitte alone cannot defeat tanks. She requires follow up from her team to do that, and that can easily be defended against. This particular argument is assuming Reinhardt (Who, from what I’ve seen, is almost always the center of the topic in this regard) is the anchor tank with a secondary tank assisting him: D.Va can eat incoming spam with Defense Matrix. Roadhog can use “Take a Breather” and body-block. Zarya can negate CC entirely with barriers or use barriers to block incoming damage. Orisa can use barriers. Winston’s bubble can be used to block incoming fire as well.
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Assuming Reinhardt isn’t the anchor, Orisa directly counters Brigitte via displacement methods and is able to shoot down her shield. Orisa’s barrier also isn’t affected by stun, and Fortify gives her direct resistance to any CC.
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Winston’s barrier isn’t affected by stun (Though you probably shouldn’t be using him against her, since she’s meant to counter him specifically)
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Zarya directly counters CC with her barriers
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Roadhog can break her shield and displace her via hook, and is able to fight her 1v1.
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D.Va can defend affected teammates via Defense Matrix and is able to shoot down her shield relatively quickly as well.
None of these situations even take the effected Tank’s healers or collective team play into consideration, but rather assumes the enemy team is attempting to capitalize on the opening. Consider the rest of the effected tank’s team, and Brigitte herself appears fairly weak overall. The biggest exception is Brigitte’s allied Roadhog using an opening to hook the enemy, which in my opinion is just good synergy.
The fact of the matter is that Brigitte, though very strong in 1v1 situations, is actually weak in team fights, as her utility is reliant upon her teammates making use of it. Something she excels at in team fights is calling attention to people’s mistakes when they make them, such as making bad judgement calls or failing to maintain proper situational awareness. She’s really good at punishing people for it as well. It can easily be misconstrued as being “overpowered” when ego gets in the way: Mistakes that didn’t exist before, exist now, and it’s easier to say the design is flawed than it is to admit one’s inability to cope with the change.
She seems OP (Specifically against DPS) because she calls attention to people’s lack of skills outside of strictly aim: If you lack the spacial reasoning, distancing, positioning, multiple object tracking, situational awareness, good judgement, foresight, team coordination, etc. etc. that basically every other hero in the game outside of DPS requires to excel in their respective roles, she will punish you, and punish you hard. This usually comes out in the form of a player being singled-out during a team fight, which is truly a culmination of several mistakes on that player’s part.
This argument is typically met with “But those are skills everyone needs to be good at a game!” True, but every hero requires them to very different extents, and for very different purposes. Maintaining situational awareness for Reinhardt is a very different beast than maintaining situational awareness for Doomfist, which is a very different beast than maintaining situational awareness for Mercy, which is different than for Lucio, which is different for Zarya, etc. etc. Every hero requires all of these skills, but the demand for these skills varies drastically depending on the hero you play. Mercy may need the proper foresight, situational awareness and good judgement to know how she’s going to approach her teammates and where to land for cover when she’s making a risky flight to a teammate so she doesn’t get shot immediately upon entering the arena. She also needs to know if she should stop short, immediately upon, or overshoot her targeted hero to maximize her own safety. Tracer needs to know where she should enter from, who to target, and how long she needs to stay in the fight to get the most out of recall and most effectively cripple the enemy team. D.Va needs to figure out who she can single-out and how to get to them, and which enemies are likely to capitalize on her making herself vulnerable before she can make a judgement call to dive them and therefore maximize her own utility.
This holds true for every single hero: If there are 27 different heroes, then there are 27 different ways to be skilled.
The fact of the matter is, Brigitte is new, and people are simply having trouble coping with what she brings to the game. You can’t play many characters in the same way as you could before, and that’s fine. It’s therefore your responsibility to adapt and find new ways to be strong. That is, after all, what growth and development is about, which is something we all never stop doing.
Other thread by me: “Brigitte is OP” thought experiment -
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/brigitte-is-op-thought-experiment/71479
