Blizzard Overwatch‘s latest 27th hero (or known as Hero 27) has finally been revealed after all the leaks, speculations, and hints.
The latest Overwatch Hero 27 is indeed Brigitte Lindholm, the daughter of Torbjorn that we’ve seen in Reinhardt’s animated short video. There were already some hints about her but the most recent one was when Overwatch Japan Twitter account referred to an image with Brigitte’s name in the file name, which silently confirms her as Overwatch Hero 27.
Brigitte is all up now in Blizzard Overwatch PTR (Public Test Realm) server to test and play (we’ll have to wait and see if she’ll receive any buffs or nerfs) before going to the live server.
Brigitte is a Support Hero with an Easy difficulty. She can heal team mates and/or give armour when already fully healed by giving out armour packs (Repair Pack ability – but similar to a Zenyatta’s Orb than Torbjorn’s armour pack where you “send” the pack to someone far instantly), and also heal team mates when she damages enemies with her Flail (Inspire passive ability).
With her weapon (Flail), she can strike multiple targets or stun enemies at range with the Whip Shot ability. For her own personal defense, she can deploy her personal Barrier Shield (though she can protect a team mate behind her at the same time). Once she deploys her shield, she can use a Shield Bash which will stun the enemy she hits in front of her at a short range. This will be quite useful to stop Reaper’s Death Blossom, or Genji’s Dragonblade during crucial moments if done correctly.
Or as Jeff Kaplan puts it in the Developer Update video, if you are a Support player and get tired of being harassed by a Tracer or Genji and none of your teammates help you out (hint: pick Zenyatta or Moira), you can either deploy your shield as Brigitte, or stun them with your dash.
Her ultimate, Rally, gives her a short-term boost of speed and armour over time to all her nearby allies.
When should you use Brigitte? It’s similar to Lucio in a sense as your allies will benefit most from her when they are positioned around Brigitte (for her Inspire passive skill and Rally ultimate). However, like Zenyatta, she should still be able to support a flanking Genji or Tracer by giving out a Repair Pack in a distance.
Developer Update Video on Overwatch Hero 27, Brigitte:
Brigitte Origin Story Video:
Brigitte Skills or Overview Video: None from Blizzard but you can see the rundown from your favourite YouTubers:
Brigitte Gameplay Videos:
Overwatch Hero 27, Brigitte, Impressions
Brigitte is an interesting new Support Hero. She definitely has a good sustain, thanks to her personal shield and Inspire passive ability. She does not sound to be a Hero with 1 Star Difficulty though (more like 2?) because she has a lot of things on her kit to use. Damage wise, she’s just alright (she’s not a DPS anyway), but considering she’s like a mini-Reinhardt when she’s swinging her flail around, she can get the finishing job done pretty easy.
She seems to be weak on big maps as you are required to hit enemies to heal your allies (when your Repair Pack is on cooldown), probably similar to Moira which requires her to charge her healing stream by damaging enemies. At the moment, her cooldown seems to be generous (which is good for her), so we’ll have to play and see if it needs a nerf or just at the right place.
Whip Shot can knockback enemies to a pit, hold Winston’s leap, etc. Does not interrupt enemies’ ultimate though. For that, go for Shield Bash’s stun.
Her Ultimate increases your allies’ armour gradually so it cannot really be used as a “Clutch Heal” reliably like Lucio’s or to save an ally from a critical wound (as it might be too late). It’s great for a push off a choke point or when you are contesting on a point.
As Geoff Goodman puts it in the forum:
“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.”
You’ll most likely be at the front line as well as Brigitte, so make sure to look back every now and then, and heal/throw your Repair Pack to a wounded ally.
Brigitte Stats (based on OverwatchCentral video and Reddit):
- Primary Attack/Flail: 40 damage per swing within 5m range, generates 2% Ult Charge per enemy target.
- Inspire passive ability (heal people while attacking): about 16 healing per second over 20m radius over a period of time, generates 1% Ult Charge per person it heals.
- Whip Shot: 70 damage within 20m range and generates 4% Ult Charge. Knockback enemies
- Repair Pack: 30m range. Heals for 150 health, and if the target is already fully healed, adds 75 temporary armour instead. Generates 8% charge per heal or 2% per armour.
- Shield: 600 health
- Shield Bash: 40 damage + stun
- Rally (Ultimate ability): 8-10m range. Adds 150 permanent armour in total to her and nearby teammates (25 armour per second).
