Brightwing
Written By Nicklas 'Scorp' Hansen
1 Hero Introduction
Brightwing is a mobile support hero, who excels at jumping into a fight from anywhere on the map to start protecting her allies with heals and shields. Brightwing features an unique and versatile kit that, once mastered, can have a big impact on the pace of the game. With a Trait offering continuous area-of-effect healing for no mana, Brightwing thrives well in the middle of the team, unlike many other supports who want to be positioned far back.
While her heals are weaker than that of other heroes, her Phase Shift, Polymorph and Pixie Dust make more than up for that. Instead of mounting, Brightwing instantly teleports to an allied hero after a short channel, which allows her to push lanes right up until an objective starts. In fights, she can Polymorph threatening enemy heroes for a short duration, making them unable to attack and use abilities. Pixie Dust is used to protect enemy heroes from attacks, as well as granting them movement speed, which can be used both defensively and aggressively.
Playing Brightwing means you will have a lot of things to watch out for, and the pace of fights can get quite hectic. When in trouble, use her ultimate, Blink Heal, to safely get out of the heat, or to keep allies alive with an extra burst of healing.
While her heals are weaker than that of other heroes, her Phase Shift, Polymorph and Pixie Dust make more than up for that. Instead of mounting, Brightwing instantly teleports to an allied hero after a short channel, which allows her to push lanes right up until an objective starts. In fights, she can Polymorph threatening enemy heroes for a short duration, making them unable to attack and use abilities. Pixie Dust is used to protect enemy heroes from attacks, as well as granting them movement speed, which can be used both defensively and aggressively.
Playing Brightwing means you will have a lot of things to watch out for, and the pace of fights can get quite hectic. When in trouble, use her ultimate, Blink Heal, to safely get out of the heat, or to keep allies alive with an extra burst of healing.
2 Talents
Brightwing has a very diverse talent tree, but it can essentially be broken down to two distinct play-styles, depending on the team compositions. If you are in need of more heals than what her basic Trait and Blink Heal can dish out, you might want to go for a healing-centered build, and if not, her Phase Shift build can offer the team great utility.
The healing build is rather straight-forward: utilize her no-cost Trait to provide continuous, wide area-of-effect healing to the team. Pixie Dust can be cast on allies that need additional healing and (past 16) are prone to heavy burst from abilities. Past 20, Brightwing can do significant amounts of healing with Revitalizing Mist (paired with the other healing talents), which easily makes it a go-to pick in this scenario.
Brightwing’s Phase Shift build is an excellent pick on larger maps, if you can afford to sacrifice some healing. With Hyper Mount, the mobility offered by Phase Shift can be utilized a lot, and the Peekaboo! and Phase Shield talents can very easily save teammates from ambushes throughout the game. If you play against a team with little ability to do so, you may consider switching out Peekaboo! with Manic Pixie. At 16, Critterize is a really great talent to burst down squishy melee heroes like Illidan or Thrall, but again: if you’re not facing such heroes, Bouncy Dust may be a worthy alternative. If your team has low amounts of burst damage, Greater Polymorph may sometimes be a better choice over Critterize.
The Rewind at 20 is a game changing talent in this build, as it allows you to Polymorph the same target twice, completely disabling them from the fight - and you will also have the ability to dish out more Pixie Dust.
Emerald Wind can be a useful pick in rare occasions. If you are going up against a dive heavy team, and feel Polymorph may not be enough to keep them off your backline, Emerald Wind is a great help. You will however turn down the great healing and escape that Blink Heal provides, so a team with some degree of self-sustain is suggested to go with that.
3 Playstyle
Brightwing requires you to pay attention at all times. When laning, you will need to watch out for allies being ganked and fights emerging, as you have the ability to jump in and instantly turn the 2v2 into a 3v2. You should also try to utilize your Phase Shift as much as possible: stay on lanes and soak experience while your team is moving to an objective, and Phase Shift to them right before they need you. If you picked Phase Shield, make sure to Phase Shift and ally who is going to utilize that shield.
During team fights, you should be near your melee heroes in order to support them, but far enough to not get pinned down. Make good use of your Pixie Dust and Polymorph early in the fights, and don’t hesitate to use Blink Heal to heal allies.
During team fights, you should be near your melee heroes in order to support them, but far enough to not get pinned down. Make good use of your Pixie Dust and Polymorph early in the fights, and don’t hesitate to use Blink Heal to heal allies.
4 Tips and tricks
You should often try to keep a charge of Blink Heal if you are likely to get focused during the remainder of the fight - the instant escape is invaluable in such situations. Remember that Blink Heal can be cast on allied minions, so fighting near minion waves make for extra survivability.
When facing heroes with strong ability burst, use Pixie Dust on prone targets to reduce the damage taken by a wobbing 50%.
When facing heroes with strong ability burst, use Pixie Dust on prone targets to reduce the damage taken by a wobbing 50%.