Welcome to GosuGamers' introductory Heroes of the Storm informational series. We will cover a particular Hero's basic kit of abilities and their common plastyles to help you quickly get in fighting shape in Blizzard's upcoming Hero Brawler. This is a brief overview of the hero, intended to demonstrate how to play to her strengths and counteract her weaknesses.

Brightwing

Strengths

  • Constant personal-based AoE heal for ZERO mana
  • Can teleport across the map to allies
  • Gains access to the powerful Cleanse talent at level 7
  • Excels at mitigating opponents' damage
  • Grants an important boost to her team's damage with Critterize at level 16

Weaknesses

  • Very fragile
  • Poor local mobility - Brightwing has no standard mount
  • Lacks significant burst healing
  • Short range, and has to position dangerously close to the fray

Brightwing's Trait

Soothing Mist

Brightwing heals nearby allied Heroes for 36 (+9/lvl) every 5 seconds.

This trait is Brightwing's bread and butter - it grants good sustained laning presence in the early part of the match, and it's the reason you'll see Brightwing players with very large healing dealt over the course of the game. Essentially, she acts as a permanent and mobile healing ward. However, unless you talent appropriately, this is the only source of healing that she brings to the table. Even at level 20, when it's restoring above 200 HP per pulse, it will not do much to keep teammates alive who come under heavy fire. Brightwing does very well keeping her allies at high health between teamfights, but in the fray, her healing is not as much of a factor.

Brightwing's Mount

Phase Shift

Teleport to an allied Hero, 45 second cooldown.

Unable to ride about the map on a mount like the majority of her compatriots, Brightwing spends most of the time fluttering at foot-speed. Instead, she relies on Phase Shift to provide great bursts of global mobility. This special mount allows her to spend time soaking experience in distant lanes while her teammates posture and get ready for a confrontation. When the moment is right, she can enter the battle at will and start disrupting the enemy team. The ability to safely split off from your team can be extremely valuable depending on the map and the situation, so while not having a mount is a downfall, Phase Shift's power more than makes up for it.

Brightwing's Abilities

Arcane Flare

Deal 70 (+20/lvl) damage in a small area and 35 (+10/lvl) damage in a larger area, 8 second cooldown.

Polymorph

Deal 25 (+5/lvl) damage. Target is silenced, and cannot attack or use abilities for 2 seconds, 15 second cooldown.

Pixie Dust

Increase target's movement speed by 20% and block 1 basic hero attack for 3 seconds (Block reduces the attack's damage by 50%), 10 second cooldown.

Brightwing is not well-suited to direct combat. If your enemies get a chance to pounce on her, she's already in trouble. Polymorph is an excellent ability, and Pixie Dust is useful both in combat and out, but neither will do much to dissuade an enemy determined to kill. Brightwing shines when her teammates are able to fully capitalize on Polymorph's disable - when an Illidan dives into the middle of your team expecting to wreak havoc, a well-timed silence can shut him down completely.

Until your team hits level 10 and unlocks their Heroic abilities, Brightwing's strongest option is often to stay at the edge of the conflict, soaking experience from lanes and teleporting in when a Polymorph is needed. Stay alive, and make sure you're accessible to teammates who need HP restoration between engagements.

Brightwing's Heroic abilities

Blink Heal

Teleport to a nearby ally, healing them for 108 (+17/lvl). Holds two charges, with a recharge time of 10 seconds (but only a 1 second cooldown when multiple charges are available).

Emerald Wind

Create an expanding nova of wind, dealing 100 (+30/lvl) damage and shoving enemies away from the point of origin, 60 second cooldown.

With the arrival of Heroic abilities at level 10, Brightwing's role shifts dramatically depending on which of these you pick. Blink Heal's power is twofold: her ability to keep a particular teammate alive during combat greatly improves, and her own mobility is suddenly upgraded from awful to excellent. Blink Heal's downfall is that it is entirely dependent on your teammates - you'll sometimes find yourself in a bad situation with nobody in range to help you escape, and when a fight breaks out, healing a teammate in the melee means that you'll be teleporting directly into the line of fire. Blink Heal is powerful, but introduces an element of risk that has to be factored into your play.

Choosing Emerald Wind means your healing potential remains limited to Soothing Mist, but grants another tool that can be used to keep your team safe. Denying your opponents' attempt to initiate a fight, a defensive Wind can buy time for your friends to regroup and counterattack. The nova expands slowly and stuns as it pushes enemies away - if you can manage to shove a healer into a crevice or otherwise split an important enemy hero from the rest of their team, it can afford several seconds to capitalize and secure an advantage. The temptation exists to dive behind the enemy and try to push them all back toward your team - this is powerful and viable in some situations, but please keep in mind how fragile Brightwing is, and don't throw your life away looking for an epic play. It's often difficult to determine which Heroic is appropriate in a given game, and it mostly comes down to personal preference. Give a little more weight to Emerald Wind if the opposing team has several melee heroes, or if they have a scary melee assassin like Thrall or Kerrigan.

Key Talents

Level 1: Bribe -OR- Scouting Drone

 or 

Bribe: Kill enemy minions to gain up to 50 stacks of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to instantly defeat a target Mercenary. Does not work on bosses.

Scouting Drone summons an immobile mech at a target location, revealing an area around it for 45 seconds. Cannot be hidden by bushes or smoke vents, and can be removed with 2 enemy basic attacks. Stores up to 2 charges, 45 second cooldown.

In most cases, take Bribe to help your team win map control. It is a great talent on Brightwing, she can often sneak across the map to an enemy camp, steal it, and teleport to safety. This isn't as effective on the smaller maps like Haunted Mines and Tomb of the Spider Queen - they have fewer camps overall and it's more difficult to invade the enemy's side. Scouting Drone can help keep you safe as you split push, and vision is just generally powerful - if you feel that you won't need Bribe for a particular map, or if another teammate has already opted to take Bribe for themself, Scouting Drone is an excellent alternative.

Level 4: Protective Shield -OR- Envenom

 or 

Activate Protective Shield to shield an allied Hero for 5 seconds, absorbing 185 (+35/lvl) damage, 60 second cooldown.

Envenom poisons an enemy Hero, deaing 180 (+30/lvl) damage over 5 seconds, 60 second cooldown.

As mentioned previously, Brightwing's capacity to keep single teammates alive under pressure is weak. Protective Shield does nicely to mitigate this weakness, and as such it's an important addition to her arsenal. Envenom is sometimes appropriate, especially when you have another support on your team, or when your team needs an additional boost to their early-game killing power. The ability to globally teleport to a friend and add Envenom to their target can take enemies by surprise and ruin their day - but the same can be said about Protective Shield. In most cases, grab Shield - your teammates will thank you.

Level 7: Gust of Healing -OR- Cleanse

 or 

Gust of Healing releases a pulse of Soothing Mist every second for 4 seconds, 60 second cooldown. 

Cleanse removes all stuns, roots, silences and slows fromt he target and prevents their reapplication for 1 second, 30 second cooldown.

It would seem Gust of Healing is the perfect choice for this tier - it grants Brightwing an on-demand burst of healing, which is something she sorely lacks in comparison to the Uthers and Rehgars of the support world. Cleanse, on the other hand, is incredibly powerful. In order to make the correct decision at level 7, you have to take the enemy's team composition into account. If they rely on a chain of stuns to take pickoffs throughout the game, Cleanse can ruin their fun and keep your teammates safe until you can group up and fight a 5v5. In most cases, Cleanse is simply too powerful an option to pass up, but if the enemy is lacking stuns and roots, Gust of Healing becomes more valuable.

Level 13: Sprint -OR- Ice Block

 or 

Sprint increases Movement Speed by 75% for 3 seconds, 60 second cooldown.

Ice Block places yourself in stasis and grants invulnerability for 3 seconds, 60 second cooldown.

This pick basically depends on your Heroic ability choice at level 10. Sprint synergizes excellently with Emerald Wind - it allows you to quickly move into position and blast your enemies wherever you choose, which is not an easy feat at normal walking speed. Blink Heal often requires that you move directly into the enemy's line of fire in order to heal an at-risk ally - the ability to blink in and Ice Block will keep both you and your teammate alive, giving them the opportunity to finish a kill or escape, and allowing you precious seconds to find another, safer Blink Heal target.

Level 16: Critterize

Critterize causes Polymorphed targets to take 25% additional damage from all sources.

Take Critterize. It turns the already-powerful Polymorph ability into a fight-winner. Especially for those circumstances in which the enemy leaps into your team's back line, like with an Illidan or Sonya - Critterize will negate their followup, and if your team is sufficiently quick to respond, you can squash their initiator and follow through with the 4v5 fight. This talent gives Brightwing and her team a significant boost of power at level 16, use it liberally.

Level 20: Rewind -OR - Continuous Winds

 or 

Activate Rewind to reset the cooldowns of all of your Basic abilities, 60 second cooldown.

Continuous Winds causes Emerald Wind to release 2 additional novas, each dealing 25% of its original damage.

Brightwing's basic abilities are on decently short cooldowns, and having an extra Pixie Dust or Arcane Flare won't win a fight for you. Nevertheless, Rewind is the right choice at level 20 and it's all thanks to Critterize. The ability to chain two consecutive Polymorphs on a target, silencing them and amplifying incoming damage for 4 seconds, is insanely powerful. That said, if you happen to prefer Emerald Wind at level 10, Continuous Winds can be a valuable asset for your team - if you can wiggle into an excellent position, the large-area crowd control afforded by this talent can win a fight on its own. If you're confident in your positioning abilities, and the enemy team doesn't have an Illidan or Zeratul messing with your back line, Continuous Winds is a solid choice. In all other matters, take Rewind.

Conclusion

Brightwing thrives in scattered, drawn-out fights. Her capacity to keep teammates alive isn't strong enough to negate a full 5-man burst from the opposition. Wading into the front line is rarely the correct choice. Remind your teammates that you can, in fact, safely soak the far lane while they get ready for a fight, and capitalize on her global teleport when an engagement breaks out. Use Polymorph to keep your squishies safe when Zeratul or Illidan shows up in your back line, and punish them for their overconfidence. Again, Brightwing is not Uther, nor is she Rehgar. If your teammates are playing super aggressively, charging into the enemy team and expecting you to keep them alive, you may kindly direct them to read this guide and be enlightened.