Brigitte Lindholm has been added to Overwatch as the newest hero, and her playstyle is quite different than many of the characters in the game. Like the tank Reinhardt, she is a melee hero that can use a shield to block damage, but she has other abilities, too, such as healing, stunning players, or knocking them back.
Learning how to use her effectively can be a bit tricky, but fear not, we have a short guide to help. These three tips will help you understand how to play with her and increase your chances of victory in-game.
1. Use your shield to help out the tanks
It's true that shielding allies from harm is the job of your team's tanks, but they can't always block everything. The fact that Brigitte, a support hero, is equipped with a shield of her own means that she can act as a sort of psuedo-tank.
While it's true that her shield is much weaker and smaller than, say, Reinhardt's, 600 hitpoints is still a decent amount of protection, and good positioning can mitigate the shield's small size. You can't protect multiple people at once like tanks can, but when allies use abilities that make them vulnerable (such as Mercy's Resurrection or McCree's Deadeye ultimate) you can shield them with your own barrier until they're finished.
2. Use your abilities to shut down flankers
Fast-moving flanker heroes like Tracer and Genji have always been strong choices in Overwatch because of their speed and small hitboxes, but abilities that stun or move them away from their targets can be a nightmare for them. Two of Brigitte's own abilities, Whip Shot and Shield Bash, can be used to do this.
When using your shield, you can bash enemies with it in order to momentarily stun them and lock them in place. This makes it much easier for allies to hit them, and because flank heroes have low health to balance their evasiveness, they'll drop like a sack of potatoes when immobile. Whenever your bash ability is on cooldown, you can opt to use your whip shot to knock them back. This doesn't make killing them easier, but it keeps them away from you and your allies.
3. Always be active in a fight
Brigitte's Repair Pack ability heals allies by 150 hitpoints, but it can only be used every six seconds. Thankfully, she can passively heal teammates in a large aura around her whenever she does damage with her rocket flail weapon. Because of this, you should be trying to hit enemies whenever you can.
Brigitte is unconventional in the sense that she's the only support hero in the game that needs to be on the frontlines, but because of that, she's also one of the most durable supports. It can seem counterproductive to put yourself in harm's way as a healer, but choosing not to do so means you won't be healing as much as you could be. She has 200 health and 50 hitpoints of armor (which reduces incoming damage) and is equipped with a shield. In addition, her weapon is fairly powerful, so don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.
Your thoughts
What do you think of Brigitte? Do you have strategies that you like to use with her?
Overwatch is available on Xbox One for $59.99.
