Because a lot of Brig’s weaknesses are “carried” by highest level players being in comms/have actual communication/followup on her bashes, where mid or lower tier you’re lucky if people even use the communication wheel, Brig’s so much more on her own in mid-low ranks
And a pro could dominate on any hero if they were put in low ranks, not just Brig. That’s just hardcore smurfing
They do
They balance for end of ladder, while considering if it will make gameplay awful feeling for lower end. It’s just too bad they didn’t remember that second part for Brig when nerfing her 22x
We all know Tracer and Ana are in the “untouchable” category, they are favorites of Blizz and will never really get nerfed even when reigning supreme for years on end
I think Pharah is a good example. I think she’s balanced around mid ranks. But as you improve into highest skill tiers, she becomes virtually unplayable due to godly hitscan/snipers unless you are a savant with a slave Mercy
It’s literally why I stopped playing competitive. I started the game as a Pharah main 5 years ago. Could play her in gold matches and it was a decent match up. But as I improved, I went up to mid diamond and she got very hard to play. I peaked at masters and she was unplayable, entire matches are no-fly zones and all of team is yelling at you to swap the nanosecond she gets sextuple countered because team swaps to dva-winston-ashe-widow-ana-zen
If she was balanced around endgame ranks, she would perform decently and be a regular viable pick alone, in GM, but then she’d hyper-dominate the lower ranks. If she was balanced around bronze players having a decent matchup against her, then she’d be unplayable as early as getting into plat
This is the logic I’m talking about with Brig. She’s balanced for GM and OWL GOATS so she doensn’t dominate. They nerfed her 22 times so far to make sure of it. But everyone below those ranks now have an underpar healer. Her pick and winrate reflect this, for as long of timescale as you’re allowed to look back on overbuff. I made topics a year ago with the same data, looking 6 months before that point, and it was still the same case back then too
We agree on this, but I think she’s underpowered currently with how they chose to design her current iteration, especially the 5 seconds between shield breaking and starting HP regen again (that’s ridiculous and shouldn’t match Rein) Also she shouldn’t have -30% speed reduction when shielding just like Rein.
And then the final nail was her going to 200HP. Every other melee or close range hero in game has more than 200 (Doom, Mei, Reaper, Sym). Even other big hitbox hitscan now get more than 200 (McCree). But not Brig, the slow bulky shieldmaiden.
“But she has shield” Doom has shielding-gain for doing damage and ultra mobility, reaper has lifesteal and wraith, Mei has iceblock and walls, Sym’s hp pool partially regenerates and she has tele
I do agree though if they majorly buff her, she’ll take over high ladder play in an unhealthy way, so they’re stuck currently and backed themselves into a design hole with her kit.
She’s a fractured shadow of her former self and I just hope her OW2 kit will feel better, for everyone at all ranks
I’m just pushing back against claims that “she’s still OP and needs nerfs/she is too stronk/she does too much stuff!!”