I spent way too much time on this yikes

Aight, so I'm gonna divide this to a few different parts in order; my perception of Shield Bash's role as an ability, how that role plays out in practice, and how it might be adjusted to better suit the role.

Why Shield Bash is a thing

Fundamentally, at least from my examination and testing of her kit, Brigitte is a support heavily centered around being able to hold her own against divers and flankers and avoid getting picked off in general, at the cost of having less raw damage, healing power, range or speed than other healer options.

Personally, I think this comes through really well with her kit; Whip Shot is fantastic for moving enemies out of the fight, the shield allows you to move with an extent of safety when heroes like Widow are guarding choke points, and the multiple different healing options keep her output solid, if not quite as consistent as other options.

The crown jewel of her anti-flanker kit, though, is Shield Bash. It's a super-consistent CC effect that allows you to bring squishy flankers to a low amount of health if they get too bold and try to impinge on your space. It makes her an interesting counterpart to Zenyatta; where he wins fights by destroying the enemy, she instead is a hero that focuses on not losing fights, which is a really cool thing that we hadn't yet seen in a support.

Shield Bash in practice

In the real world, though, Shield Bash has proven to be a bit off from the role that it serves in the design. While she is a good counter to Tracer and Genji (as she should be), a stun available every five seconds makes her disproportionately powerful against any heroes that utilize channeled abilities; two heroes particularly affected by this are Reinhardt and Roadhog.

Reinhardt's kit heavily depends on channeled abilities; both his Barrier Field and Charge leave him completely vulnerable to Shield Bash, and Shield Bash is far and away the most effective counter to these. It ignores barriers (like Doomfist's punch) and can be used from behind effectively 850 health (making it very safe to pull off, unlike Doomfist's punch), which combined with the cooldown is massively frustrating to interact with.

As to Roadhog, I dare say he's countered worse by Brigitte than Reinhardt is. Shield Bash effortlessly disables not only Take a Breather but Whole Hog as well - her health and barrier together are strong enough that she can simply waltz up to Whole Hog and stop the ultimate before it breaks her barrier - and by cycling between her shield and health to soak your damage and stunning you whenever you try to heal, she's insanely difficult to kill.

Balancing the Bash

A key thing I tried to remember when contemplating the bash is that it doesn't serve as just a stun. It's also her only source of mobility and a bit of extra damage as well. With this in mind, I very much dislike the idea that her cooldown on Shield Bash be raised; the utility it provides outside of stun doesn't deserve to be ruined for the sake of the stun.

Hearkening back to the beginning, I reexamined what Shield Bash's purpose is as a part of her kit - it's a tool to discourage flankers, or outright win against them in the right scenario. I thought about this a fair bit, and came up with a possible way to address it without unduly reducing her power against them.

Instead of inflicting a full stun, Shield Bash would instead inflict a "daze" for the same duration as the current stun (one full second), with the following effects:

• Their movement speed is reduced to 50% of normal, irrespective of any speed boosting effects like Lucio's aura or Rally.

• They cannot activate any abilities. This works similarly to Sombra's Hack, but is unable to interrupt channeled abilities like Barrier Field or Take a Breather.

It's a bit different than what one might expect, but it has a few consequences I really, really like:

• Brigitte retains nearly full power against Tracer and Genji. Blink, Recall, Deflect and Swift Strike, the source of those characters' defense, are still entirely disabled, and while they'll still be able to use their primary fire, Brigitte has sufficient health to come out of the bash-whip combo alive.

• Players struck remain in control. The most frustrating part of Shield Bash is being rendered unable to do anything about your impending doom; while the new effect is still a powerful CC, it should feel far better to play against.

• Teamplay potential. A 50% slow, while not a standstill, should make it far easier for an attentive DPS hero like Widowmaker, Hanzo or McCree to line up a shot and take out the dazed individual, and retaining the current cooldown keeps the effect relevant in a proper brawl.

• Reduced power against tanks. While Roadhog and Reinhardt can still be disrupted heavily by Brigitte by way of a good Whip Shot, her ability to deal with tanks shifts from winning the fights to not losing them.

Brigitte outside the Bash

Now, with this proposed change in mind, I'd like to make a bit of a note at the end. Besides Shield Bash (and maybe Rally but that's a diatribe for another day), I really like Brigitte's kit overall. She fills a fantastic role in the game and makes for a good complement to the 5 DPS teams you inevitably get in Quick Play, so you don't feel so helpless trying to prop those dumbasses up.

I feel like she could use a slight boost to skill cap (my random idea is letting Whip Shot headshot enemies past five meters), but on the whole the combination of burst and sustain healing and the ability to hold her own is something that the game didn't strictly need but benefits from nonetheless.

TL/DR Brigitte's cool, shield bash is dumb, nerf shield bash but nerf the stun not the cooldown