Brightwing, the Faerie Dragon, is a mobile and aggressive support, characterized by her high amount of control exerted on the enemy team. Her Arcane Flare can devastate her foes from afar, and can even slow them with the appropriate alterations. Her Polymorph ability turns her enemies into a harmless critter, rendering their spells and attacks useless. Her magical faerie dust hastens and protects her allies, getting them into the fight faster. She's loves to zip across the battlefield instantly to one of her friends, and push away her foes with devastating Emerald Winds.

Strengths

• Polymorph counters many strong Heroic Abilities
• Strong, consistent AoE healing output
• Versatile talent selection
• Global map presence
• Extremely cute

Weaknesses

• Squishy and vulnerable to spells, particularly AoE
• Relatively weak early game
• No mount; moving cross-map without Phase Shift is difficult
• Arcane Flare is relatively useless against strong players

(Trait) Soothing Mist Soothing Mist is where a lot of Brightwing's potency resides. Combined with the talent Regenerative Rains, this will heal for a very significant amount of Health every time you cast a spell, and early game will provide your lane with a ton of sustain. Remember to be relatively close to the people you need to heal, as the range can be deceptively short.

(Q) Arcane Flare Arcane Flare is an obviously telegraphed spell with an easy to avoid visual and a long travel time. That being said, if you're able to get good with aiming it, it's possible to "juke" people into it, just like any ground target spell. Most of the time you shouldn't bother aiming to get inner damage on a Hero, as chances are good they will move out of it. Instead, you can often rely on the outer damage, and thus it is most important to learn how much the outer damage does for the purpose of picking off fleeing Heroes.

(W) Polymorph Polymorph is one of Brightwing's most devastating abilities and one of the primary reasons to choose the Faerie Dragon. This ability is best used as a Silence, to stop a big Hero Ability or mage from doing their thing. Notable Hero Abilities to cancel are Mosh Pit, Strafe, Jug of 1,000 Cups, among others. You can also stop Heroes like Uther from wreaking havoc on your team, at least for a couple seconds.

(E) Pixie Dust Pixie Dust is a movement speed increase with a bonus defensive component, not the other way around. 9 times out of 10, you're going to want to use this to speed somebody into a better position, whether that be your Diablo to get in range of a dunk, or Valla to get out of harm's way. While the extra Block is a nice bonus, it will rarely make a significant difference in someone's chances of survival, particularly compared to the movement speed boost.

(R1) Emerald Wind Emerald Wind is a multi-use tool with at least three great strengths. Its most obvious use is as a very strong disengage tool, pushing the enemy team away from yours and allowing time for escape. The second use is as an initiation tool, separating the enemy team and allowing yours to single someone out. The third is as a simple generic CC, utilizing the time spent being pushed to damage or otherwise re-position your target.

(R2) Blink Heal Blink Heal allows Brightwing to be practically anywhere in a fight, and prevents her from being yanked out of position by things like Hook. Though the heal is rather weak, it can be used to snipe a heal on one of your team mates just before they kick the bucket. You can also position yourself much more aggressively with this spell, as you can simply jump back to your team mates at any time.

(Z) Phase Shift Phase Shift gives Brightwing a terrifying global map presence, allowing her to do things like split push a lane and then join up a team fight later, or go back to base in the middle of a push to regenerate her Mana and return just in time for the enemy team to show up. It's important to note that this ability requires an allied Hero to jump to, and that if the Hero dies in mid-teleport, the channel will be cancelled. Get used to using this ability to its utmost.

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Bribe - Brightwing is fantastic at sneaking enemy mercenary camps with this skill. The fact that she can quickly take Siege Giants and then simply teleport out means that she'll be virtually uncontested in doing so. It's even possible for her to take a Siege Giant camp on her own early by just Bribing one and killing the other. Combine this with the fact that another Bribe on the team means a free Knight camp and you're in business. Bribewing!

ALTERNATIVES Arcane Precision - Pretty much never worth taking. The inner damage is already unreliable at best, and it simply doesn't fit Brightwing's supportive kit. You have better options on this tier. Shield Dust - As we went over in the Abilities section, Pixie Dust is a movespeed increase with bonus defensive component. An extra Block charge does not change this fact. This is occasionally the correct choice against very hard hitting Auto Attack teams, but this will barely help even against this kind of lineup. Scouting Drone - An interesting choice. I still have little respect for this talent, but it has its uses against double Stealth teams, as well as teams that are trying sneaky backdoor strategies, which can be thwarted by a well-placed Drone. This is not necessarily the wrong pickup over Bribe, I just don't respect it.

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Envenom - Envenom is a very strong skill in general right now. Early in the game, not many heroes can deal with this short of tapping the well, and it might be too late for that. Later on, it can be used to add to your team's burst. There's also an instant component to the ability that can finish off fleeing heroes. Overall this is a very solid pickup which personally fits with my very aggressive playstyle on Li Li... I mean, Brightwing.

ALTERNATIVES Anti-magic Powder - Weaker than it sounds, but can be strong against certain compositions. The problem is the same as with Shield Dust in that Pixie Dust is for movespeed, not for Block. This can also get accidentally removed with a single weak spell, preventing it from blocking something more devastating. Finally, there are very few major spells in the game that both deal a ton of damage and are predicatable enough to block. You're better off taking Protective Shield instead for a defensive option. Protective Shield - If this talent prevented double the damage, it would be worth considering as a pickup. However, the shield amount is almost never enough to actually save somebody being focused down, especially when compared to saving a lot more damage across the rest of your team. That being said, it's the only real defensive option in this tier, so if you aren't a fan of Envenom (or your team doesn't need the damage), then you should absolutely pick this up. Promote - You stay away from those minions, Brightwing! Don't inject your weird pixie junk into them! Ugh, you're so gross, Brightwing. You really have to stop doing that. Can't you see they don't like it? Freak.

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Regenerative Rains - This skill is just far too good to pass up. The passive healing from Soothing Mist is already quite good, and the cooldown on Brightwing's abilities are short enough that you will be casting them almost all the time. You will get an absolutely absurd amount of value out of this pickup, and it's really the only no-brainer selection in Brightwing's kit. This is what makes her and her team so annoying to deal with.

ALTERNATIVES Gust of Healing - This is basically 4 extra Soothing Mists every minute, whereas Regenerative Rains will easily come out to more than that, with the added bonus of giving you slightly more control. This is a more burst-oriented option, but you will heal far less overall, making this the wrong choice. Calldown: MULE - MULE is a fine talent, but not really competitive with other choices on the tier, sadly. Poor MULE. Cleanse - Even if this didn't compete with Regenerative Rains, CC in this game is simply too short to really warrant this pickup, in my opinion. If you need a Cleanse for Judgment or something, why not just pick Uther instead?

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Emerald Wind - This ability takes a lot more skill than Blink Heal to utilize effectively, but the added utility is just too good to pass up most of the time. It's hard to get a skill that has both initiation, disengage, AND hard CC in such a neat package, with insane range and decent damage to boot.

ALTERNATIVES Blink Heal - While this looks rather strong, but in practice is weaker than it appears The heal is nothing to speak of, particularly as it no longer activates Regenerative Rains. The real reason take this ability is for the positional element. It's extremely difficult to kill a Brightwing with Blink Heal, as she can escape even after getting Hooked. You can play much more aggressively with Blink Heal, as long as your team is positioned just behind you.

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Rewind - This ability has great synergy with Regenerative Rains, besides its obvious benefit. You can use this for a quick burst of healing on your team, as well as a double duration Polymorph on a particularly annoying enemy Hero. Just a solid choice all around!

ALTERNATIVES Sticky Flare - Gives Arcane Flare some nice chasing potential, and can be great if hit on multiple targets. Might be the correct choice against a particularly slippery team. Phase Shield - Unfortunately, this shield is not strong enough to save somebody who's about to die, and furthermore this will just put you in harm's way if it fails to save them. This also has little utility in a team fight for the same reason as it prevents you from doing anything as you teleport. Sprint - Always a useful ability on any hero for its sheer utility. Can be used as an escape, or to position for Emerald Wind, or just to chase down an enemy hero for that last bit of damage. This is practically never the wrong choice. Ice Block - It's an okay talent, but the other talents on this tier are more likely to save your bacon. However, if you're constantly the only one being focused, it might not be incorrect.

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Critterize - This is a tough tier - everything here has its merits. However, I believe that with Rewind, this talent offers you the most additional utility for your team, allowing you to completely obliterate a single target as quickly as possible. That being said, be sure to check out the Alternatives below, since this is probably the tier with the most personal choice.

ALTERNATIVES Hardened Focus - Now, I personally have no respect for this talent. Even in the rare situations where you can actually take advantage of it (which is usually against bad teams where you won't need this anyway), you'll just run yourself out of Mana extremely quickly with the lowered cooldowns. That being said, it can make a pretty noticeable difference in your team's survivability if you find yourself at full Health often, which is always in the realm of possibility. By the time in the game when this talent rolls around, you will generally have a good idea of whether or not it will be worth picking up. Sticky Powder - Has about the same amount of utility as Sticky Flare, and can allow you to catch up to a fleeing hero and finish them off. Stoneskin - A decent enough talent, but is rather unexciting. Can help you shut down extreme aggression by the enemy team.

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Continuous Winds - A tough choice between this and Bolt of the Storm. Continuous Winds gives you a much longer duration CC on your Emerald Wind, while also slightly buffing the amount of damage it deals. This can be very very annoying to deal with, and slightly edges out the ability of Blink to get you into a better position.

ALTERNATIVES Bolt of the Storm - Has obvious syngery with Emerald Wind, allowing you to get into a fantastic position to initiate with the ability, and also allowing you to use it as an escape. Storm Shield - Decent enough, but it's just not competitive with the other talents on this tier, so I rarely recommend picking up this talent. It has some usage against wombo combo comps, but Continuous Winds can also help you deal with this kind of initiation. Ysera's Blessing - Not worth picking up ever, especially over something like Bolt of the Storm or even Storm Shield. Practically worthless.

Early Game

Brightwing is incredibly strong in the early game. Her abilities are just as strong here as later, and are more difficult to play around. Soothing Mist will negate most of the enemy laner's harass, and Envenom at level 4 will allow you to pick up a lot of early kills, or bully someone entirely out of lane. On a map like Haunted Mines, Protective Shield will allow your allies to be incredibly aggressive.

Be sure to stay in lane as much as you can early game, as you want to be building up your [{Bribe]] stacks. Once you have at least 1 stack, it's possible to steal the enemy team's Siege Giants, particularly if you have an ally with Bribe. You can then teleport out to an ally for a clean steal!

Pixie Dust is actually relatively useful during this phase for its Block component, as Heroes are taking pot shots at your allies rather than focusing on them entirely. That being said, remember that it's still more useful to use this as an escape or initiate or general move speed buff than for the Block.

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Mid Game

During the mid game, it's still best for you to hang around in lanes and split push. Not only can you teleport out whenever you want with Phase Shift, you're also boosting up your Bribe stacks. Note that you should be sticking with your allies if they are roaming, getting kills, and in need of healing, as it's much more useful to be getting Regenerative Rains off with your team and pushing lanes with them than pushing one on your own.

You should get a feel of when it's okay to return to base for Mana, as you will often find yourself running on empty after fights or just in general practice. Since Brightwing is able to use Phase Shift to return to the battlefield instantly, you'll want to return to the fountain often, drink up, then return to the most relevant allied Hero when you're full.

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Late Game

By now you might very well have your level 20 talents. Bolt of the Storm gives you some fantastic initiation with Emerald Wind, and makes you even more slippery in general. At this point you should be focusing on using Critterize to burst down enemy Heroes, if you've taken this talent and it's not necessary for some other purpose. Other than that, your late game is functionally identical to your mid game.

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Teamfights

Your most obvious task as Brightwing is to keep your team alive by any means necessary. Remember to constantly use all of your abilities on cooldown during a fight, in order to maximize the healing provided by Regenerative Rains. However, you should also be looking for key times to use Polymorph, ideally to cancel a scary Hero Ability, but even just to stop someone from finishing off someone on your team.

Also keep an eye on your melee allies, and be prepared to use Pixie Dust to either reduce the damage they take, or to speed them up to get the finishing blow. If you have to disengage, use Emerald Wind or Blink Heal. Your strength lies in AoE healing, so you should be focusing on keeping the lowest health target from going down as much as you can, as they are the most likely to kick the bucket without focused healing.

Brightwing is a fantastic support that fits well into just about any lineup, and is really fun to boot. She has a lot of depth and is hard to master. Plus, she's pretty cute and has a pink skin, so I approve.

If you have any questions about the guide, feel free to post a comment below, and I'll try and answer them as best I can! You can also find me at the following places:

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