Deep within the more elusive regions of Azeroth, like Feralas and Ashenvale, faerie dragons thrive amongst lush fields of green and dart between towering trees. Brightwing and her brethren originate from the realms of the Emerald Dream and they're very playful and fun-loving creatures. They have a strong sense of magic, and are intelligent enough to speak common tongue. While not actually being 'dragons', faerie dragons are still a force to be reckoned with and Brightwing is no exception.

Talent Tier Choices

Before her rework, Brightwing was able to optimize her Phase Shift at crazy lengths, but now she's been given more tools in her kit to better improve her overall gameplay. She now has a lot of talent choices that excel in diving compositions when paired with characters like Greymane, Raynor, Kerrigan, or even Sylvanas. However, she can also excel in more passive builds when paired with a Bruiser or other Assassins that don't benefit from disabled targets. Below, I have given an example of both of these builds and how other talent options could also be effective.

Level 1

At level 1, Brightwing gets three choices and these choices easily lay out how your game is going to go. Greater Polymorph is one of her weaker talents, depending on your composition, because it relies heavily on how your team plans on playing and how effective they are at securing kills. If you're not able to secure repetitive kills, it can feel like you didn't choose a talent at all. However, if you're going with an aggressive composition filled with dives, this is going to be the strongest talent choice for you.

Hyper Shift is another very strong talent of this tier and I, myself, rarely go a different route. This gives a huge boost to Phase Shift by granting her that extra maximum Health percentage and optimizing her ability to soak lanes for her team. This talent can be a huge game changer when used on characters like Cho'Gall and Garrosh, because it will give them a quick refresh during a teamfight, usually turning the entire encounter around. This talent also gives Brightwing a higher chance to quickly teleport in and save a teammate who's being chased down at low health.

Pixie Charm isn't as effective as Hyper Shift, but it can still be valuable on maps with a large amount of mercenary camps, as it can offer unexpected advantages. Keep in mind that going this route can hurt your early, and even late, game effectiveness when it comes to your healing output. This is best used if you plan on stealing the enemy's own camps, given that you're careful when doing so. This isn't the best talent against characters like Sylvanas and Zagara, since they can clear camps very quickly. However, this still denies the enemy team their camp, even if it gets cleared fast.

Level 4

Level 4 brings some interesting options that really start to direct your game play. Dream Shot is a strong talent and I understand why one might go this route. Arcane Flare (Q), since her rework, rewards skillful play in a way that optimizes her healing output, and this talent makes it even more effective. However, it can be hard to throw out Arcane Flares often enough to increase your Soothing Mist procs without depleting your Mana too quickly. This talent leaves a lot of room for error, and compared to the other choices, it can lack viability.

Unstable Anomaly is my favorite pick here, because it really shuts down Polymorph targets and gives your team an extra advantage in killing the disabled enemy. This talent synergizes really well with level 7 talent, Sticky Flare, and level 16 talent, Critterize, which both come together to give your team the perfect shutdown. If you don't plan on playing this way, or if your team isn't able to follow up on your Polymorphs, then this talent won't be as effective. This talent works best if you're running with a dive-heavy team that can constantly act on your targets.

Magic Spit is a talent that works well if the other options don't really work with your team composition or team playstyle. This talent gives Brightwing a more effective Basic Attack and grants the ability to more frequently proc Soothing Mist. If you're running with a team composed of Bruiser types, or characters that just can't follow-up on Polymorph, then this will be more effective than Unstable Anomaly.

Level 7

For level 7, we have a continuation of Arcane Flare and Phase Shift boosts, along with a perk for Soothing Mist. Sticky Flare gives multiple opportunities for your team to isolate and focus down targets or catch the enemy team together in one slowed area. This talent synergizes well with dive-heavy compositions that include characters like Greymane and Kerrigan, or characters that are optimized by disabling effects, like Raynor.

Peekaboo! is a talent I go very often because it gives an extra boost for Phase Shift, which is one of Brightwing's key abilities. It offers a small shield to your chosen ally and grants vision of the area, both being useful tools in many situations.

Critical Mist is also a very useful talent. It excels in situations where Brightwing is able to save multiple allies from a large crowd control, as long as she isn't caught up in it herself. If you're having trouble using this ability to its fullest, it's a good idea to try the other talent options, so that you're still optimizing your game play. This synergizes with Magic Spit to really lock down on healing your lower-mobility Bruisers.

Level 10

Brightwing has two very strong Heroic choices at level 10 between Blink Heal and Emerald Wind. Both talents here can be better in different situations, but Blink Heal doesn't require any sort of composition to be effective. Here you should always keep in mind of what sort of opportunities the two Heroics can bring. Blink Heal offers an extra amount of healing output as well as a small, quick escape tool, as long as an ally is in close range and safely positioned. Brightwing can use this to catch up to the team in fights, quickly assist an ally, and blink to safety when being focused down or caught in large attacks. However, this can backfire if you have no one to blink to in dangerous situations and might only come down to having an extra heal rather than having an escape, but, keep in mind that you can blink to allied minions in addition to allied heroes. Blink Heal is going to be the best option in more situations than Emerald Wind and should be effective against any composition.

Emerald Wind is a talent I go quite frequently, and it can create game-changing plays when done at the right time. This talent offers interesting methods of escape, since it knocks back all surrounding enemies. It also can turn around key objective fights, whether it's for capturing a Boss or getting that final percentage on Braxis Holdout. You can even save your teammates by Phase Shifting to them and using Emerald Wind to help get them to safety. It can deny the enemy team when they try to secure kills and objectives and offers a very effective method of escape that doesn't rely on having allies nearby. Emerald Wind will also cancel any channelled abilities, but it can also backfire by pushing an enemy to safety. This particular talent relies heavily on the right situations and the right positioning and can hurt your gameplay if these opportunities don't present themselves.

Level 13

The choices for level 13 can be completely situational, and each of them can see play. Pixie Boost is very effective if you plan on rushing your allies to safety and can be ideal against dive-heavy teams. Increased Movement Speed is a huge boost throughout teamfights and increasing how much Brightwing is able to give out is always a good choice.

Safety Dust is a talent that isn't the most effective, as it relies on how often Soothing Mist occurs and doesn't give a reliable increase in healing output.

Finally, we have Pixie Power, which is the strongest talent choice of this tier. Besides having the Spell Armor, this reduces the cooldown of Pixie Dust and increases your healing very effectively. This will be the best option in most situations, and it doesn't entirely rely on team compositions.

Level 16

Level 16 offers some very useful perks, and all three of these can be effective. Hush! is a very strong addition to Brightwing's kit and offers an extra boost of crowd control to help your team secure kills. If you're planning on optimizing Arcane Flare to its fullest potential, this could be an effective choice. However, keep in mind that this will be hard to land, and could end up being useless for you and your team.

Critterize is my most used talent here only because the playstyle of my team relies on the perfect shutdowns. This talent offers a higher chance to isolate a target and remove them from the fight. If your team has been able to follow-up with your Polymorphs, this is the perfect tool to guarantee kills. There have been many times in a game where a key member of the enemy team is doing a whole lot more than the rest and is presenting a huge problem for your team. Being able to focus down this target can lead to winning teamfights more effectively and, if your team is low on crowd control, optimizing your Polymorph is a huge advantage.

Stasis abilities like Phase Out are never a bad option, but this particular ability works a lot different than others. Phase Out is a short-lived Stasis with a low cooldown and offers a very quick moment of relief. Since it only puts Brightwing into Stasis for 0.75 seconds, this won't save you from dives if your team isn't able to react and come to your rescue. However, this can be very effective if the enemy team has a lot of damage-over-time heroes, like Nazeebo and Lunara, because going into Stasis will cancel out their harmful effects. This also prevents huge Health-stealing Heroics like Kael'thas' Pyroblast, Xul's Poison Nova, and Mal'ganis' Dark Conversion, because Phase Out will cancel the incoming damage, when done at just the right time.

Level 20

At level 20, Brightwing has some very neat talent options that can be good in multiple situations. Keep in mind that at this level the final, most important teamfights happen, and you want to make sure your talent choice here optimizes how these fights play out. Invisible Friends grants a unique form of protection through Stealth and also offers opportunities to ambush your enemies. It can help protect your allies from crowd control and large burst damage, because of the Unrevealable granted right at the beginning of Stealth.

Intensive Winds isn't as strong as what it used to be before her rework, but it can still offer some extra advantages in fights when denying the enemy team that final set of kills. However, this isn't always what you want to go if you went Emerald Wind earlier on, depending on how much the fights are actually counting on this ability.

With Speedy Dragon, it is easy to see the benefits it offers, but you have to consider how useful this is compared to the other options right at the end of the game. If you went Blink Heal as your Heroic, you already have pretty decent mobility and giving you even more isn't as effective as the advantages the other talents give.

Faerie Protector is an extremely useful choice here, especially if you went with Emerald Wind earlier on and need a boost to your healing output. Being able to grant Brightwing's main healing ability to all nearby allies, along with the perks Pixie Dust brings, can be very ideal when trying to sustain during those final teamfights. Overall, Faerie Protector is going to be your most effective pick in almost any situation.

Synergies and Counters

There are many situations where Healers like Alexstrasza or Deckard might excel in, but it can be easy to forget the viability of a certain faerie dragon. Brightwing is unique because of her global with Phase Shift and her area healing with Soothing Mist. She excels in aggressive compositions that can follow up on her use of Polymorph, like Greymane, Raynor, or Kerrigan.

Brightwing can be easily chased due to not being able to mount, so Polymorph and Blink Heal give her an extra boost of survivability. However, this can be almost useless against dive-heavy characters like Genji, Varian, Valeera, and Kerrigan, because Brightwing can't outrun her enemies for very long, especially if her team isn't there. Further down the talent tiers Brightwing gains extra escape boosts, but it can still prove to be a challenge against a team full of divers, since Brightwing doesn't have much protection on her own after that first Polymorph goes off.

With that being said, Brightwing still counters these characters herself, given the enemy team is only comprised of one of them. She can easily disable a single dive, but multiple per teamfight can shut her down fast. Brightwing is most successful when she can disable a key member of the enemy team at the right moment, like right before Genji can use Deflect to save himself, or before D.Va can re-enter her mech. Brightwing now has even more viability since her rework, which gave her trait an activatable area Cleanse. This counters large shut-down Heroics as long as Brightwing hasn't been caught up in them herself.

Healers that can deliver large bursts of healing can outpace Brightwing, and Assassins with large burst damage can make her healing seem very ineffective. Brightwing synergizes well with Tanks that can quickly protect her, like Diablo and Anub'arak. Other heroes with globals, like Falstad and Dehaka, create instant teamfight opportunties and are very synergistic picks. She counters other Healers when she's able to shut down their key abilities, like Li Li's Jug of 1,000 Cups, and when she's able to go in and out of tea fights with Phase Shift to top-off her Mana. Brightwings best maps include Dragon Shire, Sky Temple, Towers of Doom, and Braxis Holdout, because she can quickly teleport to her allies to help hold down a global objective.

Brightwing also offers extra experience opportunities for your team, since she can Phase Shift in to join a teamfight right after she's soaked a wave of minions. She even offers protection from Spell Damage with her Pixie Dust and is crucial against Assassins like Kael'thas and Li Ming.

To Summarize

Brightwing is an elusive Healer that uses a unique global ability to be there for her allies when in need. Her kit can be extremely useful when played to perfection, and she is often overlooked. She can help her team shutdown key targets and use her global to soak lanes, go back for Mana, and fully rejuvenate a team member for the fight. Brightwing is a key addition to a dive-heavy team that can be right there with her to shut down enemies and protect her from incoming attacks.

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