Brightwing

Brightwing, the Faerie Dragon, is a ranged Healer Hero from the Warcraft universe. The Faerie Dragons of Ashenvale are known for their playful demeanor, seemingly disappearing at a whim. The mischevious Brightwing is no exception, often materializing out of nowhere to save her allies or just to mock her foes by some sort of faerie trickery.

Brightwing is a Healer who can teleport to allies, excelling on large battlegrounds.

Background
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Faerie Dragons (also known as sprites, sprite darters, blink dragons, fey dragons or fey drakes) are diminutive, intelligent creatures that look like flying lizards (much like a chameleon with butterfly wings). Though not actual s, these mystical looking creatures police the from magic. As such they are immune to magic.

The Faerie Dragons of are known for their playful demeanor, seemingly disappearing on a whim. The more mischievous ones will often materialize out of nowhere to save their allies, or simply to mock their foes. One wouldn't know it from looking at them, but the lovely faerie dragons can be truly fearsome if trained properly. They can do amazing things to magical energy: absorb it, redirect it, even nullify it entirely. They're nearly harmless alone, but in large numbers, they can have a stunning effect on a battle. Faerie dragons can speak, but few of them choose to do so. The faerie dragons that dwell near in  can see through enemy illusions. They are quite intelligent and able to speak, albeit with broken grammar.

This creature resembles a dragon in some respects, but feathery antennae sprout from its head and its wings are moth-like. Its turquoise scales shimmer in the sparkles that dance from its body. It turns its head to look at you with a beady black eye before emitting a small keen. They have a powerful natural defense against magic and the unique ability to phase out of reality. Their defense seems to work by the dragon encasing itself within a strong energy shield that repels most magic and conventional attacks. While in this form they can siphon the unused magical energy wasted in basic spell casting, and then focus, amplify, and direct it back at the unfortunate caster in a sort of "feedback" attack. This ability is very powerful but requires a great deal of effort, and can only be used sporadically, requiring the dragon to rest between uses. For this reason, the faerie dragons often travel in packs.

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Development
The developers wanted from the beginning Brightwing to be about mitigating damage rather than traditional healing. When they examined the Warcraft III Faerie Dragon, they decided to focus on the fantasy of whimsical powers and pixie dust. The abilities ”Polymorph” and “Pixie Dust” quickly became two staples to build the rest of her kit around. To really push the envelope, they debated and experimented with some complicated mechanics, like mana burn and giving her the ability to fly to allies, but eventually had to tone it back because the extra mechanics got really complicated.

Designing "Phase Shift" as a replacement for a traditional Mount ability was also something that struck the developer team as something special. The goal was to create an omnipresent hero similar to Abathur, but with a stronger tactical presence. The developers wanted Phase Shift to require an ally to play off of and support her trait's design. Brightwing's trait was then purposely designed to be simple, allowing Brightwing players to scan the battlefield constantly. They also wanted to give Phase Shift global range so that there were more opportunities to cast it and to play up soft split pushing strategies.

During development, there were thoughts about giving Brightwing an ultimate where you would "draw" a path of healing with your mouse for a few seconds. Unfortunately, complex systems that sound really cool on paper often either end up with not-so-cool gameplay or a bottomless pit of technical problems to overcome. That idea was pared down and refined until it became Blink Heal.

Trivia

 * Brightwing represents the faerie dragon unit from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (July 2003).
 * After being introduced in Heroes of the Storm, Brightwing went on to appear in World of Warcraft: Legion (August 2016).
 * Brightwing is voiced by Amber Hood.
 * Brightwing was one of the four heroes revealed at PAX East 2014.
 * Brightwing's "Polymorph" Ability randomly turns the target either into a pig, a squirrel or a crab.
 * The "Flying Monkey" skins cause the Polymorphed enemies to turn into little monkeys instead.
 * There is a Brightwing's model update that was shelved after the backlash due to Murky's model update. Both Murky and Brightwing were built in ways that made them difficult to alter, and the art team wanted to address the issue by fixing these problems internally before release. Their schedule didn't permit them to complete the updates before going live. The visual differences are primarily intended to bridge the gap between the current in-game Brightwing and Samwise's concept and improve Brightwing's presence from game-view.
 * The Monarch blurb is a reference to the Venture Bros., whose arch nemesis the Monarch insists the butterfly of the same name has a deadly sting.