Brigitte PTR: Third Impression

General Discussion
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Here are the links to my other threads about Brig PTR.

First Impression
Second Impression

In summary, I really like the new repair pack. It gives me more reliable healing. Whipshot is good too, especially comboed with Bash. I think the buffs these parts of her kit justifies the severe nerfs she’s received.

I can reliably say that 200 shield is just way too low. After 23 games so far, she really needs a stronger shield, imo.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the challenge. And I’m doing really well with Brig. I can keep my shield from breaking if I play really smart. But it’s hard to ensure the shield doesn’t shatter. Shield at 300 would go a long way to giving Brig a bit of her tankiness, but won’t increase her TTK by a significant amount.

The half heals hurts, but not impossible to workaround. In long fights I do end up dying often, but with a good Moira I am not afraid of dying. And everytime I come back, the moira is alive, but a bit hurt. One game I came back and she was literally 1 hp.

Repair pack Triage will be the difference between good and bad brigs.

Brig with Sym seems to work really well.

Brig with DF is awesome! Run it with a friend. I can’t stress enough how powerful repair pack is on DF. You can pocket all RP on a good Doom, and will probably win.

But all in all, here is my third impression of Brig.

She is too weak to ever venture off alone. And winning with her in 3250 support SR is not easy. She is really under tuned to be as weak as possible, but just enough that pros can make it work. And this is justified, considering she was released on the opposite spectrum. Just OPAF! Blizzard will tweak Brig’s numbers to balance her. I trust them.

And if they do keep it at 200hp, well I’ll adapt. I might cry at night, but I will pull in those tears, swallow the phlegm, and keep on Brigging.

The only thing I’d change is putting her shield to 300hp.

37 Likes
Brig PTR: Fourth & Last Impression + My suggestions for Shield
Notice how all the nerf "Brigitte/Moira"
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The shield needs to stay at 500, but 400 absolute barest minimum. With more than twice the survivability on live, she is still the least survivable support, which should tell you something. If she’s ever to thrive as a real healer (though she does this fine on live), she needs the shield where it was. 200 health is just too ridiculous a nerf combined with everything else.

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I’m starting to think the easiest fix is to put her barrier back up to 500-600 hp and remove the stun from Shield Bash (or make it 0.1 sec). Maybe with some damage on the bash. Then it’s just a gap closer.

The stun is an irksome part of her kit, so it removes some of the anti-fun from her too, which is an added bonus. I’d really rather see her concept maintained. Being able to body block effectively is more important than a stun to me. Besides, Overwatch having fewer stuns isn’t a bad thing.

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“underpowered” for brig players means actually having a 50% win rate. not suprised she works well with df, another character who the players cry and demand an over 50% win rate in order to function.

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Honestly now, why should anyone pick her over another healer though? Who does she pair with now? She doesnt have the consistency or reliability of a main healer and doesnt have the burst of an off healer.

I just dont see the point of her anymore.

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I’m sure she’ll be playable, the same way good sym players have made her work in all states by their gamesense.

But I don’t get why they didn’t just nerf whip shot if they were worried about her brawling? She doesn’t have a defensive ult like lucio/zen, so without goats she’ll always be a less desirable pick on paper. I don’t really get it, tbh. Discord/trans and speedboost/sound barrier are just superior to her repair pack and armor heals.

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I think its pretty stupid that a winston can reliably kill you over and over pretty quickly in a 1v1.

The ttk at the very least needs to go up.

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200 health is low, but 400 is too high.

On ptr, my brig shield is on the cusp of breaking like so much. At 200hp, you start to find Brigs that know how to conserve shield hp. This should be something that differentiates between good and bad brigs. the mechanical skill floor of brig needs to go up.

I don’t know, I feel these changes are too drastic.

irrelevant, but that’s ok.

She pairs with Moira or Ana very well. And she brings CC, which can swing fights if timed properly. I know you don’t see the point, but if you stick with her you might.

I want the shield buffed, but the number has to be right. Too high and she can spam shield infinite, preventing it from breaking is easy on live.

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I know how to manage her shield just fine. I’m an expert Brigitte, and I’m telling you, she needs at least 400 to even do her job. Unlike the other supports, she is required to position more aggressively in order to heal. She has to mix it up. Her kit is designed so she can heal, peel, and buy herself and/or a beleaguered ally a few precious seconds to get to cover or get into range. She cannot do any of that on the PTR.

500 HP shield goes fast against Junkrats, Roadhogs, Hanzos, McCrees, Ashes, etc. etc., and that’s managing it well. Try playing Brig and straight walking to any DPS or tank. They will shatter your shield in an instant and blow you up. Live Brig has to play smart to do what she does (haters don’t and will never get it) well, but on PTR, that option is taken away. She’s already the least survivable support. Then they took away over half of her durability. She’ll never be viable.

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Reliably is not an apt description of the Winston/Brig interaction. Sure, he can jump me and burn me down pretty quick, but it’s still dangerous to dive Brig.

I’ve had the enemy run dive on me a lot, and even though I end up dying, it ends up a trade. We end up killing the winston or demech the d.va.

And if I hit my whipshot on a jumping monkey, I just bought a lot of time. If I have a Mei though, I can survive getting dove a lot easier. I just stick with Mei and she freezes whoever comes close.

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Even a 250 HP shield would be a huge improvement. Most things would 3-4 shot it instead of 2-3 shot.

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Brig should not be a prime dive target to begin with.

Kinda defeats her entire existence.

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Salty DPS main-sense tingling!

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On live, that is true. We have a new Brig, but not that new. I would call her Brig 1.5.

This brig has a better repair pack and whip shot. She doesn’t need to position aggressive anymore. She can, and should, stay in the backline more often. This is the trade off. Brig lost her self-sustain, but gained a lot more team sustain in return.

I would never walk in a straight line, on any hero.

I am not happy with 200 hp, but we disagree with the number. Would I like to see 400 tested? Absolutely! But she will be viable. I believe it.

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I agree with you, all I’m saying is dedicated brigs will stay loyal to her out of love of the character. Same as sym, she’s always had a cult following. So in that sense people will continue to play her.

But I agree with you. Making her less tanky just seems like taking the fun out of her design. Lucio can self peel or team peel, too. And with her shield nerf, she can’t. At least not like lucio can. So I just question what they were thinking with the balance changes.

Lucio just seems like better overall utility. Brig can work, but without a defensive ult, I don’t think anyone except the brig will want a brig on their team. You don’t need two engagement/sustain ults. So I question why they destroyed the thing that set her apart from zen/lucio (tanky-ness and peeling strength) and didn’t just nerf her 1v1 brawlability.

I’m not disagreeing with anyone here I just think that it’s a weird direction they went in.

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Not weird at all, but kind of logical.

They are balancing with 2/2/2 in mind. Live brig can’t reliably go double support. She needs the third support. They acknowledged it.

So the changes to Brig were to offer more team healing, but it had to come at a cost, which was self-sustain.

The numbers do seem drastic though, especially with shield health. But I think there is a purpose with putting her survival so low. I think Blizzard wants to know how low they can go with Brig, and start tweaking upwards.

Think about it, they did the opposite when they released her. Brig 1.0 was OPAF! And after so many nerfs, they were finally able to get her to a better balanced state. So now that they have 2/2/2 enforced, they want to do the opposite. Make Brig as weak as possible, and adjust numbers from there.

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Brig’s kit didn’t really change. The changes to Repair Pack make her less able to save allies (no burst healing) and more able to pocket them a little, and Whip Shot is nice, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the ability or its viability. I land it all the time, anyway. She still has to position aggressively to trigger the bulk of her healing. Whip Shot, even a little faster, is not enough to do it, especially as unreliable as it is—barriers, jukes, corners peeking out juuuust enough, etc.

Brigitte is meant to be moving from the backline to the front, wherever she’s needed. She has to block for herself or a damaged ally, she has to dash to where the action is, in order to do what she does. That means shield, swing, shield, swing, look around in all directions for enemies and damaged allies in need of Packs, be ready to block shots here or disrupt an ult there, use corners and the environment wisely as she buys a critical few seconds for herself and/or an ally, etc.

Playing Brigitte well, against players who do more than run straight into a hallway at her at half health and expect to win, requires a lot of awareness, flexibility, and strategy. It also requires durability. She needs that shield.

A lot of the rabid Brig haters think she can do just that. But it doesn’t work against any actual good DPS or tanks. Brigitte requires a lot of skill that the haters won’t see because they’re bad, refuse to accept that they’re bad, and blame the hero and everyone else for their misplays. In order to win any sort of duel, Brigitte has to outplay the DPS or tank, or they have to misplay, or both. And that’s with her full live durability.

Even then, she has the most deaths. She’s literally the least survivable support, while Mercy is the most (and a few others are close seconds). Even with full self-healing and 500 shield. So with half self-healing and 200 shield, she’s gonna be even more ridiculously squishy, which is exactly how she plays. Tracer no longer has to think about how she’ll approach the backline. She can shred the shield and kill Brig and the other supports easily. Winston, Genji, McCree, Reaper, can all get into the back easily. Neither can PTR Brig move toward the front without getting instantly blown up; she can’t survive at the ranges for which she was designed.

She would be fine with the other changes if she doesn’t lose the shield. That one element is so key to her kit that it must remain at 500 (or at the very least 400) for her to remain viable.

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I’d rather they convert more of her health into armor and reverse the self-healing nerf. Maybe bring her bash back to 5s as well since it doesn’t hit for 50 anymore and she should be about protecting others not bursting ppl down.

I don’t think a 300 HP shield would do much, even though for a while I was advocating that (assuming no other nerfs that is). 250 would be OK, as it’s just enough to get her out of the 3-shot threshold from McCree but even if they leave it at 200 as long as she herself is personally tankier (and not able to just block for others with the shield all day) then it’s fine.

I do however, think her shield should recharge a little faster and not slow her down anymore when drawn. I like the idea of her using it as an emergency button rather than a crutch to force her way into close range - Brig should be scary in CQB but it shouldn’t be as simple as putting her shield up and charging forward, she’s not Rein.

I just don’t like how they guttered her brawliness, that’s what I loved about her and made her fun to play :frowning:

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I still believe she is our first genuine throw pick. I will need to test it myself once it hits live. And boy oh boy am I excited.

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Keep in mind that a mere 3 shots from McCree, Ashe, or Hanzo Storm Arrows (just two of his regular shots), two shots from Widowmaker, two shots Roadhog up close, two Junkrat grenades, and so on, will break her current shield. Most DPS can literally break it in a second or less, whereas before, it could sometimes buy her just enough time to do what she needed to do—if you were smart about managing it.