In Overwatch, some hero abilities are more contentious than others. Players cry out about unbalanced and overpowered heroes, the same ones that others adore. Brigitte, one of Overwatch’s newer heroes, is one of those characters. Overwatch fans either love or hate her. Her tank-style of support play is unique in the game—but it’s her Shield Bash that really riles people up.
Those that hate her say that the ability is unpunishable, while others say there’s ways to play around it. There’s no coming to an agreement between players, but Overwatch’s governing body has spoken: She’s getting a nerf. Overwatch developer Geoff Goodman wrote on the game’s forum yesterday that Blizzard has a Shield Bash change in play-testing right now, which will probably hit the test server with the next patch.
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So what’s it do? Shield Bash will no longer bust through barriers, Goodman said.
“This means it is a lot more tricky to land a clutch stun on an enemy Reinhardt, for example, but you can still use the ability to close distance and land melee hits to trigger Inspire,” he wrote. Previously, Brigitte has been able to use her Shield Bash ability to stun Reinhardt players through the shield, rendering the shield itself useless.
And as usual, it’s a mixed bag of responses on the Overwatch forum. Melee abilities traditionally work through shields, and fans think it’s weird to have one exception for Brigitte. Others are excited to see a world without Brigitte—or at least, a world where she’s less dominant.
Goodman didn’t outline a timeline for the Brigitte nerf on Overwatch’s test server.
