OverwatchOverwatch Brigitte Guide and Overview

Daughter of Torbjӧrn and squire to the knightly Reinhardt, Brigitte combines the best of their abilities into a unique melee Support kit. Armed with her Rocket Flail, she swings away at her enemies and whips them back when they get too close. As a Support, her kit pairs best with heroes who don’t demand a ton of healing, but instead, look to make fights quick and decisive. 

Depending on team comps, objective mode, and map, she’ll either sit back to protect her backline or position up front with her Tank and press ahead while pushing the enemy back. Brig players need to master decision-making rather than mechanics. Her abilities are easy to use, but knowing when and where to use her abilities can be quite challenging in this fast-paced and highly mobile era of Overwatch.

TLDR

Playing As

• Protect your backline. Don’t let your other Support die because they are the key to keeping the rest of your team alive.
• Whip Shot off cooldown to maximize Inspire uptime. When in range, use Flail to proc Inspire and save Whip Shot.
• Primarily use Shield Bash as a movement tool. Use it to either quickly advance on the enemy or escape to a safer position.

Playing Against

• Poke. Brig can’t directly deal with poke damage, and it's a great way to pressure her Shield and keep her playing passively. 
• Soft engage to get Whip Shot out, then use movement cooldowns when she can’t knock you away.
• Target her allies. Brig’s healing is pretty slow, so often the best strategy is to kill the rest of her team first, then her last.

Strengths

Backline Protector

Brig specializes in keeping her fellow backliners safe from flanks and dives. Between her healing, a ranged knockback, and a Shield, Brig creates a second line of defense that the enemy must fight hard to break through. When paired with a high healing Support, Brig protects while the other Support pumps out endless healing.

AoE and ranged healing

While she doesn’t heal as quickly, she can heal indefinitely. Inspire and Rally have large AoE healing that the entire team can simultaneously benefit from, and Repair Packs are great for healing allies deep in enemy territory. Also, unlike many other Supports, Brig doesn’t have to swap between healing and damage.

1v1 dueler

A Shield to block damage and high damage in close range makes her someone you do not want to end up in a 1v1 with. Other than Tanks, Brig can outduel any hero as long as she has a healthy Shield.

Weaknesses

Brawl range, but squishy

Unlike early release Brig in the days of GOATS, the current Brig gets quickly punished for bad positioning and being overly aggressive. Her attacks have limited range, but if she tries to brawl with her Tank, she’ll get deleted.

Lacks burst healing

Aside from the tiny 25 instant health from Repair Pack, all of Brig's healing is slow. When an ally is on the verge of death, Brig is not the Support to heal them back to life. Be prepared for plenty of games where people ask you to swap because they think the answer is always, “more healing.”

Struggles against poke comps

Brig has very advantageous matchups, but she also has multiple hard counters. She can’t contribute anything to the poke phase of fights. She has a limited number of Repair Packs and would be much better off as any other Support if she’s gonna sit back and heal-bot. Also, there’s not much she can do on her own to counter poke comps, and she ends up spending most of the match hiding.

Primary Fire: Rocket Flail

Tips for Rocket Flail

• Cleave damage
• • Against closely grouped enemies, be sure to hit multiple enemies with each swing to maximize damage and ult generation.
  • Rotate your camera in the same direction as Brig is swinging to widen the area Rocket Flail hits.
• Proc Inspire
• • Even if you can only get in one swing between Shielding, it's worth it to keep Inspire up.
• Not a Tank
• • Brig isn’t a Tank, so don’t get caught up trying to brawl the frontline all the time. You’ll just die over and over.

Secondary Fire: Barrier Shield

Tips for Barrier Shield

• Corner Peek
• • Brig goes into 3rd person when Shielding. Stand at a corner and use this to look around and gain information about enemy position and cooldown usage without having to take any damage.
• Safe approach
• • Use Shield to walk up or across the map while being protected. 
• Block CC
• • Against enemies with CC, watch them and reactively block their attack with Barrier Shield.
• Don’t Break
• • Breaking your Shield puts it on a long 5-second cooldown whereas you can normally activate it over and over with no cooldown.
  • Even a 1 HP Shield will protect you from an instant kill ability like D.Va Bomb. 
  • You also can’t Bash for movement without Shield, so always try to leave some health.
• Don’t flash

The Shield's health only regenerates after not being deployed for a full 2 seconds. If you needlessly flash the Shield, you’ll keep resetting the timer and never recover health for when you really need it.

Alternate fire: Shield Bash

Tips for Shield Bash

• Movement
• • Believe it or not, the main use for Shield Bash is movement and not damage.
  • Here’s your primary gameplay loop: walk up, proc Inspire, then Shield Bash back to safety.
  • Against full dive comps, always save Shield Bash to escape. You can Whip Shot one enemy away, then Shield bash away from the other.
• Bash Jump
• • Find vertical structures that are slanted backward like broken walls. Jump and Bash, then Brig will ramp off them and gain extra vertical height.
  • Useful to get to the high ground for attacking or escaping.
• Countercharge
• • Abilities like Doomfist's Rocket Punch and Reinhardt’s Charge can be countercharged, resulting in both of you being hard knocked down.
  • Tanks have way more health than you and are far more likely to survive the knockdown than you are. Try not to countercharge unless you have team resources to help you live the stun.

[SHIFT]: Whip Shot

Tips for Whip Shot

• Proc Inspire
• • Your first focus with Whip Shot is keeping Inspire's uptime high.
  • Tanks are typically the easiest target to Whip Shot as they play more forward and are large.
• Protect yourself and your team
• • Brig is a backline protector. Whip Shot is her first line of defense against attackers. Knock enemies out of position, off high ground, or away from your allies.
• Combos
• • Flail → Bash → Flail → Whip Shot: your fastest burst combo. Deals 210 damage. 
  • Flail (x2) → Bash → Flail → Whip Shot will kill any 250 HP enemy who doesn’t have any healing.
• Keep ‘em close
• • When you’re trying to kill someone, don’t Whip Shot unless it knocks them into a wall or is the final blow. Otherwise, they’ll be out of your range but still able to attack you.

[E]: Repair Pack

Tips for Repair Pack

• Healing priority
• • Most of the time, you’ll be paired with another Support like Ana with way higher healing output than you. Let them focus on keeping your Tank alive.
  • Brig’s first priority is keeping her 2nd Support alive, then healing DPS, and only heal Tank when there is no one else who needs it.
• Travel time
• • At max distance, it takes approximately .5 seconds for Repair Pack to get to your ally. Don’t wait too long, as soon as they are taking damage, give them one pack.
• Doesn’t stack
• • Only the instant 25 healing is added, so never double-heal the same target.
  • Once the 2-second duration has expired, you can use another Repair Pack on your ally. You’ll heal them for way more using this strategy. 

Ultimate: Rally

Tips for Rally

• One-time armor
• • Brig heals all her allies during Rally and continually gives them overhealth, but only gives herself a single burst of 100 armor. However, the armor pool can be restored by ally healing.
  • Coordinate with your other Support and keep your over-armor up.
• Ally overhealth
• • In between fights, Rally's overhealth lasts up to 30 seconds. So even if you use Rally early, or suddenly win the fight, your allies can still benefit from the extra health whenever they start taking damage.
• Defense or offensive ult?
• • Unlike other healing ults, Rally isn’t necessarily a defensive ult. It can save your team, but many offensive enemy ults will kill through its healing, where Transcendence or Sound Barrierwould keep them alive.
• Respond to the enemy’s commitment
• • A great time to Rally is when the enemy team has already committed to the fight by pushing way up into your team, or using their long cooldowns and ultimate abilities.
  • Rally can turn the tide in your favor and win your team the fight.
• Go signal
• • The burst of healing and speed from Rally also functions as a signal to attack for your team. When you see your team has an advantageous opportunity but they're sitting still, Rally them together and push forward! 
• Stay alive, you’re not a raid boss
• • Most importantly, don’t die during Rally. 10 seconds duration makes it one of the longest Support Ults. But that doesn’t matter if you’re dead.
  • You still have to play safe and apply the same positioning principles you use without Rally. Push up a bit, go for realistic kills, and remember you’re far from invincible.

Passive: Inspire

Tips for Inspire

• Low healing per second, with large AoE
• • Inspire has the lowest single-target healing output of any Support ability. Its strength lies in its large AoE and high uptime when managed correctly.
• Requires LoS
• • Even if an ally is in range, Inspire’s healing won’t activate for them if they are behind an enemy Shield or some type of wall. 
• Persists once activated
• • Once an ally is being healed by Inspire, they can leave Brig’s LoS and still get the full duration of healing.
  • Useful when paired with dive or rush heroes that move faster than Brig can keep up.
• Proc Inspire off Ult deployables
• • Wrecking Ball Mines, B.O.B., and even Junkrat Tire all can be used to proc Inspire.
  • Standard deployables do not proc Inspire, however.

Minor Perks

Barrier Restoration

• Best Minor Perk
• Movement
• • Bash movement is one of the most important tools Brig has in her arsenal. Gaining even more movement just makes her that much stronger.
• Increased aggression
• • Brig can be more aggressive with Barrier Restoration because she can dive and rush down enemies faster. The instant 100 Barrier health restoration also makes her tankier in the duel. Furthermore, she can disengage more efficiently with the boosted Bash.

Morale Boost

• Pick when struggling to keep Inspire up.
• Whip Shot and Inspire
• • Inspire lasts four seconds, and Whip Shot is a four-second cooldown. Therefore, if you land two Whip Shots in a row, you won’t even be benefiting from Morale Boost.
  • If you find your Inspire uptime is low or are struggling to find consistent opportunities to proc Inspire, Morale Boost can be a good choice.

Major Perks

Quick Fix

• Good when the team needs extra healing
• • The 35 instant heal for low health allies stacks on top of the base 25 burst heal of Repair Packs for a quick 60 healing. When you see the other Support struggling to keep your allies alive, Quick Fix is the way to go.
• Save DPS and Support
• • An extra 35 healing is more impactful on DPS and Supports than it is on Tanks. Give extra focus on using Repair Packs on DPS and Supports when running Quick Fix

Whiplash

• Situational, but clutch
• • You won’t be benefiting from wall damage every time you Whip Shot, but when you do, the extra damage can secure kills or create the pressure needed to win the fight.
• Best on enclosed maps
• • Maps with lots of structures and walls give you more opportunities to line up wall slams.
  • Try to strafe and line up enemies with any structure to get more wall slams in each game.
• Unique breakpoints
• • The extra 50 damage creates new “one-shot” combos against 250 and 300 HP heroes:
  • 260 damage combo: Flail → Bash → Flail → Whip Shot wall-slam
  • 305 damage combo: Flail (x2) → Bash → Flail → Whip Shot wall-slam

Best Maps

Brig’s game plan can adapt to most scenarios because she combines close-range offensive capabilities and medium-range healing. Maps that favor poke comps, however, give her a lot of trouble. Long sight lines are the opposite of what Brig wants. Close small maps, corners, and natural cover are map features that best enable Brig.

High ground is a double-edged sword for Brig players. On one hand, she lacks vertical mobility and has a hard time approaching enemies set up on high ground positions. On the other hand, once she is on the high ground, she can force the enemy to give up the space. Also, on defense, Brig’s Whip Shot is incredibly strong for keeping enemies off and her team firmly in place.

• Samoa
• New Junk City
• Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Worst Maps

• Havana
• Midtown
• Colosseo

Team comps built around Brigitte have heroes who struggle to survive on their own but have strong offensive or utility kits. Brig is great at protecting her allies, so if everyone has a lot of their own survivability, she doesn’t bring her maximum value. She’s also great at enabling heroes through her ranged healing and Whip Shot. Brig needs at least one hero to position with, so she doesn’t fit well into teams that want to play spread out or reposition too quickly.

Example of a team comp built around Brigitte:

• Tank: Zarya
• DPS: Symmetra, Freja
• Supports: Brigitte, Ana

Individual Hero Synergies

Zarya

• Zarya performs best when she can keep her targets near the outer ranges of her primary fire. When the enemy Tank can get right on top of her, she can struggle in the match-up. Brig’s Whip Shot helps Zarya to control space and maintain her ideal range. Once Rally comes online, the speed boost and armor enable Zarya to rush down the enemy team and wipe out their backline.

Symmetra

• Symmetra and Brig pair extremely well together because of similar brawl-hybrid playstyles. Sym gives Brig much-needed mobility through her TP. The range of Repair Packs and TP is nearly identical as well, which enables Sym and allies to be on opposite ends of the TP from Brig and still receive her healing. Anyone who gets TP dove by Brig and Sym is instantly dead because of their high damage and sustain combo.

Ana

• Ana is one of the best healing and utility Supports in Overwatch. Her only weakness is being everyone's favorite dive target because she lacks a lethal threat outside of landing Sleep and Nade. Brig makes up for her weakness by being her protector. If Ana is safe to pump healing and cooldowns into her team, her team will not lose. This is only possible with Brig, however, because she is the best Support at keeping Ana alive while Ana keeps the rest of the team alive.

Coming Soon!