Dev Update: Introducing Brigitte - back story and abilities
Jeff introduced the 27th OW hero, Brigitte Lindholm, describing her back story, abilities and strategies. The hero is now available on the PTR client.
Below, you can find a summary of the video.
Brigitte Lindholm is the daughter of Torbjorn, who is Overwatch master weaponsmith. She has grown up with her father in the workshop and wanted to follow his footsteps.
Her father is a big friend of Reinhardt, and eventually she decided to serve as his squire. At first, Brigitte only did routine works such as fixing his armor, but then she understood that to make the difference she had to fight alongside Reinhardt.
Primarily, Brigitte is a support character, but she also shares different traits with a tank, thus we can consider her a sort of hybrid. Jeff Kaplan explained her abilities in detail.
Rocket Flail
A melee weapon with a considerable range that can extend and hit characters even far away.
Whip Shot
It can send the Rocket Flail even further out doing a lot of damage and knocking back enemies.
Barrier Shield
Similar to Reinhardt’s, but it smaller and only covers her. Occasionally she can protect a teammate that is immediately behind her.
Shield Bash
When the barrier is deployed, she can do a Shield Bash, which launches her forward a short distance very quickly, damaging and stunning whoever she hits. It is great to deal with annoying heroes such as Tracer or Genji as it can disable them.
Repair Pack
A targeted big heal on a cooldown. If the target is at full health or you overheal them, it will apply armor to them for brief period of time. It is useful to add extra armor to an ally when he is just about to receive some big damage.
Inspire
A passive ability. Every time she hits someone with Rocket Flail or Whip Shot, it applies a heal over time to all heroes in a large area around her. Brigitte is very strong when fighting alongside her team.
Rally
Her ultimate. It has a big radius, such as Zenyatta’s one. All teammates in that radius gain armor that persists over time and stacks up to a certain amount. She also gets a bonus to movement speed, thus can swiftly move on the battlefield helping those in need. It is a great ability to push together on the point.
“Currently her ult gives 300 armor over its duration, but is capped at 150 total over their health.
This means if you use it out of combat to just generate armor for your team, you’re effectively only getting half of what its potential if you had it running during combat. Also the speed boost Brigitte gains is very useful for her to get important melee hits in and stunning key targets.
That said you don’t really want to pop it in the same way that Lucio or Zen use their ults. For those heroes, its often about using it in reaction to big incoming damage to save allies nearby. Brigitte’s is more proactive, as its often better to use it a little big ahead of a big fight so it has some time to stack up a little bit.”
According to Jeff, Brigitte counters many heroes so could bring a massive change to the meta. Also, she is an excellent character for those who wish to play a healer, but are tired to always be tormented by flankers, while the rest of the team doesn’t look after them. Now, you can protect yourself, stun the harassers, and disengage.
Header and all images: Blizzard
