Mace to the Face: A Beginner's Brigitte Guide
Bring your Brigitte play to the next level with this in-depth guide!
Brigitte has been a staple in the support line of every meta since her release. Her kit, although basic, presents many opportunities to outplay the enemy team. Strong CC (Crowd Control) abilities paired with AOE (Area of Effect) healing output makes her a strong pick in nearly every meta. This guide will teach you everything you need to know in order to become a better Brigitte player and climb the ladder.
Ability Overview & Usage
Inspire: When Brigitte deals any damage, Inspire is triggered and given to any teammates within 20 meters of her. It lasts for 6 seconds and heals about 21.6 health and 11 health per second to her teammates and herself, respectively. Maintaining a high uptime with Inspire is critical to maximizing her healing output. Unless you are playing an aggressive style of Brigitte, Inspire will most likely be triggered with the Whip Shot Ability. Just keep in mind how much damage you will take when you look for an opportunity to trigger Inspire. If you take 200 damage to heal 60 health, that is not a good trade for your team.
Shield Bash: This ability is a close-range stun with a cooldown of 7 seconds and can only be performed if Brigitte’s shield is not broken. Shield Bash is perhaps Brigitte’s most powerful ability, so only use it when you get guaranteed value. There are three main use cases for Shield Bash: offensive plays, defensive plays, and movement.
Offensive plays with Shield Bash are best performed when your team uses a brawl composition, and there are no threats to your backline. In this scenario, Brigitte can play up close with the main tank, looking for stuns on close-range targets. Squishy targets such as Tracer or any other 200HP enemies would be optimal. However, stuns onto enemy tanks, such as Reinhardt, can present your team with a small window of time to use their own Earthshatter. The play-making ability that Brigitte has requires thorough communication with your whole team, especially the tanks.
The most common use case for Shield Bash is in a defensive scenario. Brigitte is usually positioned around the other support character because she can deal with enemy flankers easily. Use Shield Bash defensively to stop enemies from aggressing or to shut down enemy ultimates. Because Shield Bash is a knockback ability, it can be used to interrupt Doomfist’s Rocket Punch and Reinhardt’s charge. Try to think when and where the enemy will engage and try to prevent that from happening.
Movement is another valid use case for Shield Bash. It can be used to move around or gain access to the high ground quickly. If you're trying to get back to the point as fast as possible, Shield Bash will get you there a smidge faster. This faster movement could also be useful to gain line of sight of a teammate to give them a Repair Pack, potentially saving their life. High ground access is also possible using Shield Bash. By using Shield Bash at the apex of a jump against a diagonal object, Brigitte is launched into the air. This technique is quite challenging to master but will allow you to play from powerful positions.
Whip Shot: This ability is a high-speed projectile that deals 70 damage and knockback to the enemy. It is on quite a short cooldown of 4 seconds, which means it can be used more liberally than other abilities. Similar to Shield Bash, there are three distinct use cases for Whip Shot: eliminating an enemy, booping enemies away, and triggering Inspire.
Whip Shot is a versatile tool for eliminating enemies due to its range and damage. At short range, a Shield Bash combined with a hit from the Rocket Flail and Whip Shot can burst down enemies, if performed in quick succession. Save this combo for squishy targets or anyone that is low health. You can also use Whip Shot as a finisher for any enemy trying to escape after a team fight.
The powerful knockback effect of Whip Shot makes it an incredibly useful tool for shutting down enemy aggression. If a Winston or Doomfist tries to dive your backline, a simple Whip Shot will boop him away and deny the dive. Much like Shield Bash, this ability is also extraordinarily strong at shutting down ultimates, particularly Genji’s Dragonblade.
Whip Shot allows Brigitte to trigger Inspire from a distance consistently. This will enable her to stay with the other support, be out of danger, and heal her team simultaneously. Learning when to go for risky Whip Shots to trigger Inspire is challenging but will surely elevate your Brigitte play.
Repair Pack: This ability heals 110 health over 2 seconds. 3 Charges can be held, with a cooldown of 6 seconds per charge. Since the recent nerf, this ability no longer provides armor overheal. The best use case for Repair Packs is healing low health targets that your other support cannot heal in time. Try to conserve Repair Packs before a team fight so you can maximize your healing output and impact when the fight occurs. This is not the strongest part of Brigitte’s kit by any means, but it does allow her to charge her ultimate quite fast.
Barrier Shield: Brigitte’s Barrier Shield has 250 health, which regenerates at a rate of 85 health per second. Due to the relatively low health of Barrier Shield, it is crucial to manage it efficiently. Blocking high-impact cooldowns such as Sleep Dart or Accretion is when you get the most value out of it. Besides those scenarios, use it to block damage during a team fight. If your shield takes too much damage or even breaks before a teamfight starts, you will be left vulnerable and unable to use part of your kit.
One important technique to utilize in a 1v1 scenario as Brigitte is shield dancing. This technique involves Brigitte using her melee, followed by raising her shield after every hit. Shield dancing is incredibly powerful because Inspire heals Brigitte passively while Barrier Shield absorbs some damage. The result is a high amount of effective health that many characters struggle to fight on their own.
Rally: Providing 30 armor per second and a 30% movement speed buff for 10 seconds, Rally is an extremely powerful ultimate. The armor Rally provides stacks up to 100 and lasts for 30 seconds. The increased movement speed and AOE healing make this ultimate viable in both offensive and defensive scenarios. Offensively, it can be used to push through chokes and enable your team to take lots of space with relatively little risk. Defensively, this ultimate is an excellent response to an enemy Gravitic Flux or Dragonblade. Your team can kite the enemy with the increased movement speed and survive fights of attrition with the additional healing.
Closing Notes
Brigitte has been a staple of the meta for over a year now, so it’s imperative to learn how to make the most out of her kit. Next time you play Brigitte, keep this guide in mind and actively think about where to position and how to use your abilities. You’ll be shutting down ultimates and climb the ladder in no time!
