Brigitte

 is a Support hero in Overwatch.

Overview
Brigitte specializes in armor. She can throw Repair Packs to heal teammates, or automatically heal nearby allies when she damages foes with her Flail. Her Flail is capable of a wide swing to strike multiple targets, or a Whip Shot that stuns [sic] an enemy at range. When entering the fray, Barrier Shield provides personal defense while she attacks enemies with Shield Bash. Brigitte’s ultimate ability, Rally, gives her a substantial short-term boost of speed and provides long-lasting armor to all her nearby allies.

Strategy
Brigitte is a versatile support hero who specializes in providing armor to allies. Unlike other supports, she is a front-line unit who provides protection similar to tanks rather than staying on the backline. The large healing aura generated by Inspire makes her most useful when her team stays together. Despite her strength in close combat, she has little to no means of harming the enemy at range. If hacked, she has almost no means of helping her team at all.

Weapons & Abilities

 * Inspire (Passive): Brigitte's passive ability. Whenever she damages an enemy with Rocket Flail or Whip Shot, a healing aura will be created around her which heals allies over time. Every attack will refresh the passive.
 * The ability has a short cooldown before it regenerates again.
 * While the healing aura is very large, it has the weakest healing in terms of its raw numbers. Because the nature of the ability requires her to attack the enemy, this can sometimes be inconsistent when there is no enemy to attack.
 * Keep as a group with your teammates, as the healing won't go through walls and centers around Brigitte.


 * Rocket Flail: Brigitte's primary weapon. Her primary fire is a melee attack with the flail. The attack is extended forward and can hit multiple enemies, although it deals low damage in contrast to its fast attack speed.
 * Much like Reinhardt's Rocket Hammer, the Rocket Flail replaces Brigitte's melee attack.
 * Unlike Reinhardt's Rocket Hammer, Rocket Flail doesn't create any knockback to the enemy. It is best used in terms of an offensive tool rather than a defensive tool, especially combining with Shield Bash since she can rush to the enemy and combo them with the flail.
 * To keep her healing aura consistently generating, position yourself in close-quarters to the enemy and protect yourself with your barrier. Whenever you get a chance, attack them with it to create the aura. Note that you don't have to continuously damage the enemy, since Inspire has its own cooldown and doesn't stack.


 * Repair Pack: When activated, Brigitte will throw a repair pack toward the targeted ally. When it contacts the target, it will heal a large amount of health over 2 seconds. If the healing reaches the target maximum threshold, it will apply armor instead. The armor gained from Repair Pack will be depleted after 5 seconds or when fully damaged.
 * This has a moderate cooldown, so it is best to use it on half to critical health allies, as if used wrong, it could cause important allies to be eliminated.
 * Prioritize this ability for characters with a lack of a self heal ability as it allows them to keep pressure on the enemy to begin a team fight.
 * Since the armor will disappear after 5 seconds, avoid using it to randomly give armor on allies like Torbjorn's Armor Pack.
 * Using this ability when Inspire isn't active is recommended due to its large maximum range.


 * Whip Shot: When activated, Brigitte will throw her flail a long distance, dealing a decent amount of damage and knocking an enemy away. Her movement speed will be heavily decreased during the cast time.
 * While it is a bit hard, this ability is useful to do an environmental kill when the enemy is standing around a cliff.
 * Whip Shot creates a strong knockback compared to Shield Bash. You can increase the knockback from Shield Bash by activating Whip Shot immediately and sending the target off of a cliff or the objective.
 * This ability also activates Inspire. This is useful as a kite tool to heal her teammates, as it has long range and short cooldown to compensate it.
 * Try not to use it on an open area, as her reduced movement speed will make Brigitte easily headshot by the enemy.
 * Her Rocket Flail has a very long second half animation; you can easily cancel this into a Whip Shot to increase your DPS.
 * Brigitte is most vulnerable while using Whip Shot, as it cannot be cancelled with her shield. The animation duration varies depending on the distance at which the Whip Shot makes contact (if at all).


 * Barrier Shield: When activated, Brigitte will deploy a frontal energy barrier to absorb any incoming damage. The barrier is only the size of Brigitte herself and can receive a limited amount of damage. Her movement speed will be slightly decreased when holding a shield. When not in use, the shield will begin to regenerate its health until it is redeployed. When broken, the shield can't be used for a short duration.
 * Due to its small size, it is best to be used as a personal barrier or use it to protect a key teammate such as Mercy beginning Resurrect.
 * Switch between primary fire and barrier mode more frequently when you are closing the gap with an enemy, as you can lure them to unleash a strong attack which the barrier can absorb.
 * Much like Reinhardt's barrier, her Barrier Shield is extremely useful when playing mind games with strong enemy ultimates such as Reinhardt's Earth Shatter or McCree's Deadeye.


 * Shield Bash: Only available while holding the barrier. When activated while holding the barrier, Brigitte will dash forward and stun an enemy away from herself. She will receive a short burst of movement increased during the cast time and has a slight delay after it contacts the target before it undeploys the shield.
 * Much like other stun effects, this is extremely useful to stop ultimates like Reaper's Death Blossom and to some extent Reinhardt's Earth Shatter. Because of how quick it is, it is a good ability to stop a cast-time ultimate.
 * Since this ability is only available with your barrier deployed, it is best to always leave a sliver of health on the barrier.
 * It is one of the safest abilities in the game, given how the barrier is still deployed while moving forward to stun the enemy.
 * In conjunction with Rocket Flail and Whip Shot, you can deal a large amount of damage before knocking the enemy away. Note that contacting an enemy with Shield Bash will have a slight delay before you can undeploy.


 * Rally (Ultimate): Brigitte's ultimate ability. When activated, she will generate an aura which slowly gives herself and teammates around her armor. The armor will be increased over time until reaching its cap or until destroyed. Unlike Repair Pack, the armor gained from the ultimate won't be depleted by time until it is damaged by the enemy. Only Brigitte moves faster while the ultimate is active.
 * Her ultimate gives 300 armor over its duration, but is capped at 100 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 a third of its potential compared to having it running during combat.
 * The speed boost Brigitte gains is very useful for her to get important melee hits in and to stun key targets.
 * Unlike Zenyatta's Transcendence and Lucio's Sound Barrier, her ultimate is more proactive, as it's often better to use it a little bit ahead of a big fight so it has some time to stack up. Since there is 15 armor given per half-second tick, it takes 3 seconds to replenish 90 armor.

General Strategies

 * Brigitte is a great addition to a team, but should not be a solo healer or even paired with Lúcio. Brigitte is a great substitute for Zenyatta.
 * Inspire is Brigitte's main source of healing, so go after low-health enemies or enemies with low damage output such as Moira.
 * Her Rocket Flail is a great weapon to attack many enemies. Whip Shot is useful for knocking enemies off a cliff, or keeping them off a choke point.
 * Whip Shot is quick, but still requires Brigitte to lead her shot carefully.
 * Be careful when using Whip Shot, as the time it takes to retract can leave Brigitte vulnerable. The speed decrease can make her an easy target for snipers.
 * Brigitte's Barrier Shield is a good defense for protecting herself from low-health enemies, and can block some Ultimates entirely.
 * Shield Bash can be a great stun on enemy Ultimates, and combined with a melee and Whip Shot, can do massive damage quickly before knocking the target away.
 * With a quick reaction time, Shield Bash can save teammates who are hooked, flashbanged, and frozen by enemies.
 * Brigitte should always help friendly healers, especially when they are being harassed by flankers. In addition, use your shield to cover Mercy while she is resurrecting a teammate.
 * Rally can be a push tool or a protection tool. Her Repair Pack is a great way to heal allies, but be wary of its cooldown.
 * Brigitte can be a decent counter to Genji, her shield bash being one of the few ways to interrupt his deflect.
 * Try to avoid Sombra, as Brigitte's abilities are almost entirely her source of usefulness. However, unlike Lucio, her passive still activates while hacked.
 * While she is labeled as a support hero, Brigitte is somewhat of a Tank/Support hybrid. She has the highest amount of total health points among Support heroes (50 armor/200 HP), and her Barrier Shield can be a useful damage blocker.
 * There are three main threats to Brigitte: Heroes that can output a high amount of damage quickly (such as Junkrat or Bastion), snipers (as she has a larger hit-box than other supports), and Tanks. Be wary of these when playing, as they can easily take her out.
 * Along with Reinhardt, Brigitte can do damage from her Rocket Flail to enemies around her. PC and *Console players can quickly move around while her attack animation is playing ("*" = Sensitivity value above 85% is required).
 * Between her standard Rocket Flail attacks, Shield Bash, and Whip Shot, Brigitte is capable of devastating burst damage that can take her opponent off-guard and kill them before they can react. Low-health heroes such as Tracer, Moira, and Genji are her best potential targets.
 * Thanks to her self-healing and high health, Brigitte can handle herself rather well against Roadhog. However, Roadhog's Take a Breather can make a prolonged fight difficult; this can be counteracted by waiting to perform Shield Bash until Roadhog begins to heal himself, as this will not only stop his healing, but also cut off his defensive buff, making it easier to finish him off.
 * While it's tempting to use Whip Shot as the final move of a combo, it's important to be aware of whether or not your opponent will survive the attack. If they do, they'll be sent flying away from you and your team, making it easy for them to escape and recover. In this situation, it's best to position yourself so Whip Shot will knock your opponent into a desirable location (such as towards your team or off a cliff), or if necessary, or refrain from using Whip Shot altogether and try to finish them off with standard attacks.

Story
Brigitte is the youngest daughter of Torbjörn and Ingrid Lindholm, and is a traveling companion of Reinhardt Wilhelm. No longer sitting on the sidelines, Brigitte Lindholm has taken up arms to defend those in need of protection. She is very stubborn, a trait inherited from her father.

Brigitte spars with Reinhardt every day. Afterwards, she and Reinhardt go to a pub or tavern to relax. She likes doughnuts, and loves semlor.

Pre-birth
"He has been bothering me insufferably at my bedside. Half in jest, I suggested that if it would shut him up, I would allow him to name our daughter, as he has been badgering me about it these past months. He, of course, took me at my word. Truth be told, I had been considering making him her godfather, and I hope you'll forgive me for making this decision without your consultation. We can only hope she doesn't take after him too much."

- Torbjörn in a letter to Ingrid

Brigitte was conceived many months before the events of Operation White Dome, where her father lost his left arm and right eye in battle. He would have lost his life as well, if not for Reinhardt's actions. As he recovered in hospital, Reinhardt wouldn't leave his side. Torbjörn became so frustrated that he told Reinhardt that if he left him alone, he could name his daughter. Torbjörn also decided to make him the godfather. Hence, Brigitte received her name, and her godfather.

Early Life
Brigitte was the first of Torbjörn's children to show an interest in mechanical engineering. Brigitte spent much of her spare time in her father's workshop, learning the trade and honing her skills. Her aptitude for engineering mirrored that of her father's, but Brigitte's primary interest was in armor fabrication and defensive systems, unlike Torbjörn, who was world-renowned (and perhaps infamous) for the weapons he created. As a child, she made a suit of armor for her pet cat (much to its disgruntlement).

Everyone expected that Brigitte would continue her apprenticeship and follow in her father's footsteps. But her plans changed due to the influence of another prominent figure in her life, her father's close friend and fellow Overwatch agent, Reinhardt Wilhelm. A close friend of the family, Brigitte's godfather told her tales of heroes and chivalry as she grew up. When Reinhardt was forced into retirement from combat operations due to his age, Brigitte would learn of it through her father. While she may have wanted to join Overwatch before, she didn't want to now, disgusted as to how Reinhardt had been treated.

After Overwatch's fall, Reinhardt declared that he would become a knight-errant on a quest to bring justice. Before he left on his adventures, Brigitte surprised him by asking to join him as his squire. Interested in adventure, Brigitte wanted to travel around, do good, and getting a chance to make the world a better place. Reinhardt accepted her request. She considered traveling alongside him to be a great honor.

Travels with Reinhardt
"Reinhardt. I don't approve of you dragging that poor girl around on your adventures. Brigitte has made her choice. I would have her at my side."

- Mercy and Reinhardt

As a squire, Brigitte had many responsibilities, the most important of which was the upkeep of Reinhardt's Crusader armor (a design she was familiar with as the current version was designed by her father). On occasion, they would get into scraps. More and more, she found her main job was taking care of Reinhardt himself, trying to protect him from his over-enthusiasm even as his body was breaking down from years of combat. Eventually, she realized that serving only as a mechanic wasn't enough, and that the best way she could aid Reinhardt was to become a warrior in her own right. While Reinhardt trained her in combat, Brigitte began to build her own suit of armor in secret. Her initial suit was a prototype, made from whatever materials she could find.

Dragon Slayer
"We need new parts. Your armor can't handle another battle in this condition. When has that ever stopped us before?"

- Brigitte and Reinhardt

Low on fuel and money, Reinhardt and Brigitte stopped off in a town to obtain some of the former. They discovered it to be akin to a ghost town, and it was revealed to be due to the Dragons, a group of armed scavengers. They encountered the Dragons soon afterwards, and Brigitte was held back as the thugs assaulted her friend, leaving only after Reinhardt had been soundly beaten. Brigitte rushed over to help him as the Dragons headed off to loot another town. Returning to their transport, Reinhardt remained set on helping the people, despite Brigitte's warnings that his armor couldn't handle another battle. Nonetheless, they got to work on its repair, and Brigitte located the Dragons in a factory outside town. Reinhardt engaged the criminals in combat, returning with the declaration that they would not bother the town any longer. Using scrap retrieved from the factory, Brigitte gave Hanna's stuffed toy lion an 'upgrade.'

Their job done, the pair returned to their original goal of picking up fuel.

Reflections
That same year, Brigitte and Reinhardt spent Christmas at her parents' home, with the latter reading stories to the Lindholm grandchildren.

Honor and Glory
"I thought we talked about this. You don't have to do this anymore. Winston's message wasn't meant for you. This isn't your fight. Papa told me, after so many years of service. You gave Overwatch everything, and then they pushed you out. Why would you go back to them? What are they still fighting for?"

- Brigitte

Brigitte and Reinhardt were in Eichenwalde when they discussed the issue of Reinhardt returning to Overwatch, per a recall order from Winston. Brigitte was against the idea, telling Reinhardt that Winston's message wasn't meant for him. She also expressed a dim view on Overwatch, given how Reinhardt had been forced to retire from the organization in his fifties. Despite her pleading, Reinhardt resolved to heed the recall order. Realizing that Reinhardt believed that he had no choice, she resolved to support her mentor as best she could.

Taking Up Arms
"In stories, the heroes get the honor and glory. But their gleaming armor, their mighty weapons, the people who built them were heroes in their own right. And I thought I was going to follow in their footsteps. But a hammer and tools can't fix every problem. There are some things that can never be repaired. It's not enough to wait until the battle is over to fix their armor and bandage their wounds. If you can fight at their side, you can try to keep the blows from falling, and maybe even protect them from themselves. I am Brigitte Lindholm. And I will be their shield."

- Brigitte

Brigitte finished work on her armor, though continued to refine it. At some point her father added to the design. She began to fight at Reinhardt's side, accompanying him in his return to Overwatch, and any others in need as knight and squire journey to make the world a better place, one battle at a time.

Zero Hour
"Hi Lena. Brigitte? Oh my gosh, you've grown."

- Brigitte and Tracer reunite

Null Sector launched an attack on Paris. Brigitte and Reinhardt arrived in their truck, running over numerous Nullifiers to join the fight alongside the Overwatch agents that were already there. The Null Sector Titan fired an energy weapon at the group, but by interlocking their shields, the two of them were able to cause the beam to arc upwards, diverting it away from the Overwatch team. This gave the others enough time to destroy the Titan. In the aftermath, Brigitte greeted Tracer, who commented how much she'd grown. Brigitte was less enthused about Reinhardt saying how "ice" it was to meet Mei, though. In light of their victory, Winston declared that Overwatch had returned.

A New War
Following the battle in Paris, the team traveled to Watchpoint Gibraltar, where Brigitte took advantage of Winston's technical expertise to enhance Reinhardt's armor, upgrading it to version 09. It would be needed, as Paris wasn't the only target Null Sector had attacked. Brigitte commented that what they'd faced in Paris was only just the beginning.

Rio
"Right. So we fly up there, smash through anything that gets in our way, and put them out of business. Is that dude serious? You know, we can never tell either."

- Brigitte and Lúcio discussing Reinhardt's plan

Overwatch deployed to Rio de Janeiro in response to an attack by Null Sector on the city. They linked up with Lúcio, and were able to temporarily repel the attacking omnics. However, Null Sector's command ship remained in the sky, and Lúcio warned them that as long as it remained airborne, Null Sector would be able to keep deploying its forces at will. Brigitte and Genji were assigned to distract Null Sector, while Reinhardt, Tracer, Mei, and Lúcio fought their way into the command ship.

The plan worked, and the ship's core was destroyed, sparking a chain reaction that spread throughout the ship. By this point, Echo had picked up all the team in their shuttle sans Reinhardt's team. Brigitte and the others watched as the others were able to get on the shuttle before the command ship was destroyed, Brigitte helping Mei make a safe landing inside the shuttle's bay.

Trivia

 * Brigitte is Hero 27 and the sixth new hero added to the game.
 * Like her father, Brigitte has an Ironclad Guild tattoo on her shoulder. Hers is on her outer left shoulder, while Torbjörn's is on his outer right shoulder.
 * Brigitte's favourite drink is Beer.
 * Michael Chu has commented that Brigitte "probably looks at a lot of holo-cat gifs". He has further confirmed that in an arm-wrestling match between Brigitte and Zarya, Zarya would win.
 * Brigitte also sports her father's old wrench from his Overwatch days, on her Engineer/Mechanic Skins, which is located hanging under her pack. Her Mechanic skin has the original color scheme.
 * Brigitte's name may be a reference to Saint Bridget (or "Birgitta") of Sweden, a fourteenth-century nun and the patron saint of Sweden. Despite the fact that most Swedes consider themselves non-religious, Saint Bridget still maintains a level of popularity as a national and cultural icon; in other words, the name "Birgitta" is to Sweden what "George" is to England. Because of this, the Overwatch character may have been named "Brigitte" simply because it is a common Swedish feminine name, rather than as a direct reference to Saint Bridget.
 * Brigitte's favourite ride at Blizzard World is Flight to Duskwood.
 * A hero with a spear and a shield charge with range similar to Reinhardt's was in development at one point. This eventually was put into Brigitte's kit.
 * When asked what was the most overpowered balance change the team has ever made, Geoff Goodman replied, "I'd say at this point its pretty clear Brigitte's initial balance was pretty far off the mark. She has been nerfed multiple times since then and she is still very strong."

Development
Brigitte was originally designed by Nesskain. When Reinhardt was being developed, the developers "wanted a character who would play Sancho Panza to Reinhardt's Don Quixote." As a result, the concept for Brigitte as a character (if not a hero) existed more or less from the outset.

Because she already existed in lore before work began on her as a hero, the designers already had a good idea as to how to approach her character design. A rough sketch of her as an engineer was submitted. Another design for her was as an actual paladin (nicknamed "the pally") with armor motifs more akin to the fantasy archtype. In this version, a sun crest was on her shield rather than a lion. The lion crest was chosen to look like Reinhardt's, inspired by the idea that a squire bears the arms of the knight they serve. The shield and flail combination was previously conceived as a weapon kit for Wildebeest, Reinhardt's prototype design. The canceled hero concept known as Troy also shared similar abilities. Swords and a more traditional mace were considered for Brigitte, but the developers went with the rocket flail because of its connection to her hammer-wielding inspirations.

In her final design, elements of the paladin remained, but Ben Zhang made the aesthetics a bit more akin to her mechanic design. He reasoned that as Torbjörn's daughter and Reinhardt's squire, her design should take elements from both. Likewise, her role as a tech-based healer also influenced the final design.

Brigitte was announced and added to the PTR on February 28, 2018. When her official page on the website was made public, her age was listed as 28. Lead writer Michael Chu notified fans on Twitter that that version of the bio was outdated and had some incorrect details, including her age. The age was later changed to 23 on March 1, 2018. This makes her the second hero in the cast to have a publicly known age adjustment, the first being Mercy.