judging the gameplay and feedback from pro players in the new pvp, i think we can finally touch Brigitte’s real problem: she has no rhythm, and this is not decided by her shield. let me explain, the bash was undoubtedly a resolving ability, but it is limited only to temporarily blocking opponents, even in a slightly more clumsy way than the Flashbang. second, the REAL problem that Brigitte’s design presents is what no one comments: the multitasking of inspiring, her passive. no aiming, no selection, no alternation.
- brigitte is a melee hero, but she doesn’t have the same short range as doomfist and reinhardt to justify passive effectiveness, and with a boop, armor and shield … she definitely has better defenses
- Brigitte actually has a selection mode for teammates (the armor module) but not the passive. this makes her extremely unaware of what she needs to notice around her, excluding the use of personal bash and boop.
- total lack of a real break: mercy goes into healings / boosting or personal attack, Moira of healing for others or for herself (attacking), Baptiste goeas in healing or attack, Ana goeas of useful grenades for others / for herself or harmful to the opponents, Lucio has to alternate healing with speed … Brigitte does not know this compromise in almost no case towards her teammates.
in my opinion for this it is useless to continue to blame the bash as the cause of Brigitte’s ills, but it is due to the total lack of a pause between what she does in attack and what she does in recovery. here is a random example (I want to clarify that it is not a 100% solution suggestion but it serves to explain what would happen):
brigitte has a slightly stronger shield in HP than she does. when she raises it she activates the heals towards others, but when she attacks she only heals herself and recharges the health of the shield to reactivate faster.
what has changed? that now there is a compromise between when she attacks and when she defends. she must decide in the compromises that are granted to her, which exists only in the bash in the presence of the active shield. I don’t claim to have given the best example, but at least the point of view on where Brigitte’s problem: the passive, not the bash.
and I would really like to know if others also find that the problem lies in the multistasking of the passive rather than the rest.
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As Brigitte is my main support, I agree with your post. Brigitte’s ability to heal herself is harder to pull off than any other support/character with healing.
Your point was worded really well!
I feel she’s become very boring to play, besides when my friends wanna work together for plays. She mostly has to stay back, and provide not so great healing around her, keep people away with bop, and hopefully not get instantly toasted by soldier’s missile and one clip for example. Pharah and Junkrat also make quick work of her. She hates explosions. Also hates tracer I guess, who she was designed to counter, but now sadly gets countered by.
With you saying she has no rhythm, it all makes sense. She needs more decisions besides relying on when her shields off cooldown for a stun or mobility.
Besides that, she just bops, and auto throws heal packs (not fun, and dreadful watching people die after investing all your healing into them). Sometimes she gets to go in swinging, but mostly to help clean up, not to damage people in an impactful way.
Having your healing tied to shield would feel a little bit more fun. More tactile than bop and hanging around tank. People might actually care to group up knowing when her shields up, she provides you healing, compared to wondering if she has triggered inspire or not.
Oh man, and her voice line “get behind me” will actually have some relevance when she raises her shield!
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Good post, and well-worded.
I do like how current Inspire rewards/demands bold Brig plays, but I think some way to focus/control the inspire would be an improvement.
I could definitely see a system like you’ve proposed going over well.
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Brig’s whole character is a walking contradiction, especially without the Stun on Shield Bash in OW2.
She needs to get close to get into whip range in order to get inspire active, but if she’s in the front lines she gets shredded. Or if she survives, she literally has to turn around and put her back towards the enemy in order to throw repair packs back to her team. And given OW2 has 1 Tank she’ll probably get shredded a lot faster
Or if you stay in the back lines of your own team, you probably won’t have enough range to ever activate inspire, even with Whip Shot. And since she doesn’t have the Stun she won’t be able to fight flankers even if she is in the back lines of her own team
Her whole kit contradicts itself
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I admit that voiceline was my main inspiration 
but I’m not a game designer, and I guess I haven’t considered other unknowns in this example 
I add that in reality all this automatic passive potential is extremely evident in PvE. it just feels boring to play, with no actual moment of relevance. on the contrary, the elimination of the bash (how we can see in the last OW2 pvp) could make her gameplay in general boring even further. 
this is an interesting point to consider. assuming that the bash eliminates it in order not to cover too much the single tank (Brig being a “bodyguard”) the fact remains that she has been extremely weakened in the last nerfs.
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