Brightwing Build Guide “You don't want to be my enemy!”

Last updated on Dec 08, 2021 at 21:45 by Derenash 41 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Brightwing, a Healer in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1.

Brightwing's Overview

Brightwing is a ranged Healer with strong global presence. She is capable of continually healing nearby allies without using Mana and protect them against enemy crowd control effects, due to her Soothing Mist Icon Soothing Mist Trait. Her ability to teleport to an allied Hero across the entire map makes Brightwing a very mobile Hero that excels on large battlegrounds, like Cursed Hollow.

2.

Brightwing's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
  • -Cannot use a mount
  • -Requires a lot of map awareness
  • -Her burst or sustained healing takes time or channeling to be applied
  • -Fairly high skill cap compared to other Healers
  • -Requires good positioning
3.

Brightwing's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Critical Mist Build

Recommended
Level 1 Hyper Shift Icon
Level 4 Magic Spit Icon
Level 7 Critical Mist Icon
Level 10 Blink Heal Icon Emerald Wind Icon ?
Level 13 Safety Dust Icon
Level 16 Critterize Icon Hush! Icon ? Phase Out Icon ?
Level 20 Invisible Friends Icon Faerie Protector Icon ? Intensive Winds Icon ?

Brightwing's Critical Mist Build, thanks to Critical Mist Icon Critical Mist, focuses on denying crowd control engages from enemies while providing good healing for your team. It is a great option against compositions with many different area of effect Stuns (like Blaze and E.T.C. have) or Roots.

Teleport Build

Situational
Level 1 Hyper Shift Icon
Level 4 Unstable Anomaly Icon Dream Shot Icon ?
Level 7 Peekaboo! Icon
Level 10 Blink Heal Icon Emerald Wind Icon ?
Level 13 Safety Dust Icon Pixie Power Icon ?
Level 16 Critterize Icon Hush! Icon ? Phase Out Icon ?
Level 20 Invisible Friends Icon Speedy Dragon Icon ? Intensive Winds Icon ?

Brightwing's Teleport Build focuses on providing great global mobility, which becomes particularly useful on larger Maps like Cursed Hollow, Garden of Terror, or the medium-sized Infernal Shrines.

At Level 16, we mention Critterize Icon Critterize as the main Talent, since it will greatly enhance Brightwing's capabilities to kill any targeted Hero. However, Hush! Icon Hush! is a great option if your team is more focused on dealing sustain damage, instead of on blowing up a target. Phase Out Icon Phase Out is not necessary, but is an option if you are being the target very often.

Arcane Flare Build

Situational
Level 1 Hyper Shift Icon Pixie Charm Icon ?
Level 4 Dream Shot Icon
Level 7 Sticky Flare Icon Peekaboo! Icon ?
Level 10 Blink Heal Icon
Level 13 Safety Dust Icon Pixie Power Icon ?
Level 16 Hush! Icon Phase Out Icon ?
Level 20 Invisible Friends Icon

The Arcane Flare Build emphasizes Brightwing's unexpectedly strong damage and crowd control when combining several Q-based talents such as Dream Shot Icon Dream Shot at Level 4, Sticky Flare Icon Sticky Flare at Level 7, and Hush! Icon Hush! at Level 16. Phase Out Icon Phase Out can be a helpful defensive talent to pick up at Level 16, since casting Blink Heal Icon Blink Heal may sometimes cause Brightwing to get too close to the enemy team.

4.

Brightwing's Synergies and Counters

V Brightwing synergizes with

Since Brightwing's Phase Shift Icon Phase Shift heals based on the target's maximum Health, she is excellent with high-health Heroes, like Diablo, Stitches, or Cho. Furthermore, through her global mobility she provides good support for dives, being a good pick with Heroes that excel at that, like Genji or Tracer.

X Brightwing is countered by

Brightwing gets countered by crowd control heavy Tanks that cannot have their engages canceled by Polymorph Icon Polymorph, such as Anub'arak, Johanna, or E.T.C..

5.

Brightwing's Maps

Brightwing's stronger maps
Alterac Pass Cursed Hollow Sky Temple Towers of Doom Warhead Junction
Brightwing's average maps
Battlefield of Eternity Blackheart's Bay Braxis Holdout Dragon Shire Garden of Terror Hanamura Temple Infernal Shrines Volskaya Foundry
Brightwing's weaker maps
Tomb of the Spider Queen

Brightwing does particularly well on larger Maps like Towers of Doom or Warhead Junction, on which she can use her global mobility to great effect. On rotation-heavy maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen, Brightwing's inability to use a mount can often slow her down, making her a liability against aggressive pushing compositions.

6.

Brightwing's Tips and Tricks

  • Phase Shift Icon Phase Shift allows Brightwing to split-soak experience very efficiently while also allowing her to join team fights in time.
  • Blink Heal Icon Blink Heal can be used to juke enemy Heroes and abilities.
  • Arcane Flare Icon Arcane Flare's casting range is larger than the shooting range of enemy Towers, Forts, and Keeps. Always follow Polymorph Icon Polymorph with it; the slow can guarantee the hit.
  • Pixie Dust Icon Pixie Dust becomes a crucial ability against Assassins like Jaina or Kael'thas to reduce their spell damage potential. Considering Pixie Dust's low cooldown, it is recommended to use it to mitigate spell damage at the start of the fight, because you will still have it available at the end.
  • Against dive heroes like Zeratul or Genji, hold Polymorph Icon Polymorph until they dive towards an ally, since it will greatly reduce their effectiveness. However, it can also be used to guarantee kills of tanks with mobility, like on Muradin before he jumps out or on Anub'arak before he uses Burrow Charge Icon Burrow Charge to flee.
  • Even though Soothing Mist Icon Soothing Mist's range relatively small, try to not be very close to your teammates to heal them. Always stay in a position in which the target you want to heal is close to the edge of your healing range, so you do not get damaged or controlled with them.
7.

Brightwing's Role in the Current Meta

Brightwing is the only Healer that is capable of joining a team fight from any location on the battlefield, thanks to Phase Shift Icon Phase Shift. This allows Brightwing to separate herself from the rest of her team and soak more Experience in lane than any other Healer. What also makes Brightwing stand out are her unique healing mechanics. Brightwing does not actively heal her allies with Abilities. Instead, Soothing Mist Icon Soothing Mist heals nearby teammates for a small amount every four seconds. In terms of crowd control, Polymorph Icon Polymorph poses a serious threat to enemy Heroes, especially on Heroes that rely on their mobility (such as Zeratul) to stay alive while dealing damage. Combined with the Critterize Icon Critterize Talent at Level 16, Polymorph Icon Polymorph allows your team to focus fire a single target very efficiently.

Because of her strong Talent Tree, Brightwing's power level increases the longer the game lasts. This makes her a particularly valuable pick on larger Maps like Cursed Hollow, Sky Temple, or Dragon Shire. The correct usage of your mobility and crowd control Abilities enables you to heavily influence the outcome of a game, which makes Brightwing a force to be reckoned with.

8.

Changelog

  • 08 Dec. 2021 (talents page): Invisible Friends' description updated to reflect recent balance patch.
  • 08 Dec. 2021 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
  • 28 Sep. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated after recent balance patch.
  • 28 Sep. 2021 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
  • 25 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
  • 25 Jun. 2021 (abilities page): Abilities section updated after recent balance patch.
  • 25 Jun. 2021 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
  • 26 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to reflect current meta.
  • 26 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated to reflect current meta.
  • 20 Jan. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated after Safety Dust changes in recent patch.
  • 20 Jan. 2021 (this page): Guide update after Safety Dust changes in recent patch.
  • 03 Dec. 2020 (talents page): Updated Invisible Friends' description.
  • 03 Dec. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Polymorph's description.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed after recent patch and no changes are necessary.
  • 20 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Updated Talents recommendations.
  • 20 Nov. 2020 (this page): Guide updated.
  • 27 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Updated Talents recommendations.
  • 27 Oct. 2020 (this page): Updated Builds.
  • 25 May 2020 (this page): Updated Teleport Build.
  • 01 May 2020 (this page): Updated guide to reflect current meta.
  • 19 Dec. 2019 (talents page): Revised Brightwing's guide. No talent changes needed to be applied despite the most recent Balance Update.
  • 09 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
  • 25 Nov. 2019 (talents page): Revised Brightwing's guide. No talent changes needed to be applied despite the most recent Balance Update.
  • 06 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Applied a major update to the Brightwing guide.
  • 28 Sep. 2018 (talents page): Updated Brighting's guide in accordance with her latest rework.
  • 28 Sep. 2018 (this page): Updated Brighting's guide in accordance with her latest rework.
  • 29 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Fixed a small wording issue in the Manic Pixie description.
  • 13 Oct. 2017 (talents page): Completely revamped the predefined talent builds.
  • 21 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Updated Brightwing's talents in accordance with the latest balance update.
  • 03 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Updated Shield Dust's description.
  • 07 Aug. 2017 (this page): Guide moved to new format.
Show more
Show less