But… that’s how it should be… & she’s still fulfilling her role. She isn’t supposed to just be able to 1v1 and kill every flanker or be unkillable by them…she’s supposed to be a deterrent that helps her team survive them with her whipshot, & stun if they get close to secure a kill on them. That forces them to play at a distance where they are much less effective. Genji, Tracer, Doom, Wrecking Ball, Dva & Winston are not good at a distance.
She’s not really fulfilling her role, though. Brigitte’s extreme effectiveness against flankers was offset by the fact that she had no range outside of whipshot and Rally is a pitiful defensive ult vs any team that runs Ana/Genji, Zarya/Whatever, or is otherwise playing for Ultimates for big teamwipes. She has also been devoid of mobility outside of shield bash, which means she’s nearly as cumbersome as Ana and Zen (two heroes who, it bears mentioning, are good at long and medium ranges).
In her current form, she still has no range, still doesn’t have great mobility, she’s easier than ever for flankers to kill, and her ultimate continues to be a rather poor choice against teams that use offensive ults. Brigitte was extremely specialized, and she’s only so-so at her specialty now. There is hardly ever any reason to run her because Lucio synergizes way better with Ana and Moira, is nearly as useful at peeling, is much better at 1v1s (Lucio can and has been able to repel flankers on his own), has a speed boost, and Sound Barrier is a far better ult than Rally. Please note that I don’t think Lucio is OP. Lucio merely does what he’s supposed to do.
The shield nerf was entirely unnecessary. At no point have I thought “Brig shield has too much HP” because 500 HP isn’t a whole lot, and without her shield, ranged damage obliterates her since she can’t retaliate in kind. That aside, serious consideration should be given to her lack of mobility and Rally, especially the latter. It’s just not a very good ult. Seldom do I see it turn the tables in any pitched teamfight. The duration is nice and all, but burst damage cuts through it like a hot knife through butter.
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Well let me tell you why I think she is still great against dive, I’ll go through each parts of her kit & why they’re particularly good against it compared to other supports.
First, her being melee is why she’s good against flankers because she doesn’t need to aim against very high mobility heroes, and Dva can’t eat any of her damage. Also because, Genji, Tracer, Doomfist, Wrecking Ball, Winston, &Dva don’t do any meaningful damage (or damage at all) if they aren’t in close range, so her being melee is perfect.
I’ll start with Whipshot. The reason it’s good? Because it’s a 20m ranged boop. If Brig uses whipshot against Winston mid leap, he can’t leap for another 6 seconds, and her whipshot is only on a 4 second cooldown so she can effectively always keep Winston away from her & her team. If it’s Dva, same story, her thrusters are on a 5 second cooldown, though she can still kinda get in since the boop doesn’t completely stop her thrusters. Doomfists rocket punch is on a 4 second cooldown so she can always have it up for that especially since it has a 1second cast time to fully charge & his slam has a 6 second cooldown so same story. If you mess either rocket punch or seismic slam up Doomfist essentially can’t dive because he has no escape if he does. Genjis dash is on a much longer cooldown so if he uses it & she boops him there’s no way for him to quickly get in after that. Wreckingball can still roll in somewhat easily, but she can boop him while he’s slamming making him hit fewer or no targets, this is especially good when he’s trying to minefield slam combo. Now Tracer, her mobility is probably the best against Whipshot, but she also has the least HP and whipshot alone does almost half of her HP (70), that will usually make her recall or if it doesn’t, she’ll be looking for a healthpack. And that’s all just whipshot.
Her armor packs overhealing is also very useful against dive in general because dive likes to kill a target as fast as possible to get a man advantage in the fight and having 75 armor makes that harder, but also because it specifically lets her allies survive things they otherwise wouldn’t, I’ll give some specific examples.
Doomfist rocket punch does 250 damage, but with 75 armor all her 200hp allies can survive it. 75 armor also makes his slam/uppercut/shotgun combos require more damage from the slam or for him to shoot more times/hit full shots to be lethal (and that’s also assuming you didn’t whipshot him during his dive, ruining it, or stunning him when he slammed so he couldn’t uppercut)
Wrecking ball, Dva & Tracer all have their damage cut in half against targets with armor due to their weapons doing 5 damage or less per bullet.
&An ally with 75 armor can survive Genjis nanoblade/swift strike combo, he’ll have to slash twice to kill them (and remember, booping him away after he swift strikes in gives your team some distance from him, and if he gets close you can stun him to give your team a chance to kill him)
Now her shield. Yes, there is no doubt it’s much weaker than it was. But 500hp was absurdly high, particularly because of the buffs she received to compensate for it being lowered. If she has a 500hp shield and got 3 armor packs & an inspire buff, she’d be OP, no doubt. Her shield is really just for temporary protection. She shouldn’t be using it to push in front of her tanks & expect to come out unscathed anymore. It is just to protect herself from big abilities like hook, antinade, sleep, ults like dva bomb/tire etc. and to protect herself from some damage if they’re shooting at her, but realistically she should be using her tanks shield the majority of the time & only using her shield when absolutely necessary. As it is, if they want to break her shield they have to pump enough damage to kill most of the heroes in the game just to break it, then they have to deal with her 250hp (with 50 being armor). It would be a little ridiculous (and it was) if McCree has to shoot 8 shots into her shield just to break it, wouldn’t it? She can just press W towards him that entire time, and that just isn’t balanced, and wasn’t. She should need help from her team to kill people & a 500hp shield just makes her too hard to take down alone.
Lastly, rally. There’s no doubt rally isn’t an ult you’d pick to survive some kinda teamwipe ult like grav/dragon because it’s a pre/midfight ult. You use it to push. You & your entire team are gaining 15 armor per 0.5 seconds, or 30 armor a second. That is extremely hard to take down without an ult like grav dragon, meaning if you don’t have a teamwipe ult to use, you more than likely lose that fight. Also, with the inspire buff & her having 3 charges of repair pack, Rally actually charges quite fast now, definitely faster than Lucios or Zens assuming each hero is getting the same amount of fight exposure. She’s about on par with Nano, but Mercy/Moira/Baptiste still charge their ults faster. It’s also worth mentioning that when played correctly brawl comps, especially with Brig, are very good at winning fights without ults. So if all you have to worry about is getting teamwiped every 3 minutes by grav/dragon, you’re probably going to win the match.
Feel free to tell me why you disagree with anything I said.
How you believe Brigitte should be, and how she was designed, are two very different things. Blizzard designed Brigitte as a tank hybrid support hero, that could one shot Tracer with a combo. You might have wanted her to be something ells, but that’s not what she is, and nerfing the mechanics that makes her unique doesn’t change this, it just makes Brigitte a worse version of the same hero.
It would be the same as changing Mei, by giving her Ice Wall 200 HP and removing the healing from her Cryo-Freeze, because she isn’t suppose to be a tank hybrid anymore. Or changing Zenyatta by lowering his damage by 50% and only giving Orb of Discord a +5% damage increase, because he isn’t suppose to be a damage hybrid anymore. That would just make them worse heroes, because you’re not changing the original design, you’re just making the design worse by removing the aspects that makes them unique.
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No, Doomfist is twice as tanky. Instantly regenerating shields >>> 200 HP slowly regenerating barrier that only protects your front hitbox, on a 3 second cooldown.
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She is good at mid/close range healing, sure, but half of her healing abilities (inspire) is limited to her close range damage or mid range whip shot every 4 secs successfully hitting enemies.
She’s the most conditioned and limited healer there is just to provide average healing.
She is playable and has her value, sure, but it’s just less autonomous than any other support.
It comes to the question: Would you like to play a very niche and conditioned hero and have fun working her out on her ideal situations or would you like to play a more autonomous support and have fun working it out even in non-ideal situations?
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I always see generalism being better than specialism.
I think they should just buff her shield HP back to 500 (or at least to 300) or make her self healing a bit stronger but right now, she is basically dead…
Shes pretty dead in the fact that now anyone can do what she can do except better. Lucios aoe heal does more than hers and doesnt require people to be hit. Anas shots can do a lot more healing than her sheild packs in a shorter amount of time (dont understand why they made it non-instant). Lucios boop is better than her flail shot because it requires a lot less aim and wont put you in a bad position as much if you miss due to it recharging quicker and it can hit multiple targets at once. Her sheild is more of an asthetic now due to it having as much health as a cardboard cutout (plenty of characters have much better sheilds). Mcc, sig, and others have much better stuns now since she can no longer lunge through sheilds. And her ult is a pretty meh version of lucios ult.