Francoise - take a swig

I cant tell if im missing the boat on this ability, but it seems quite bad. Here is what it says:

(Level 21): Stops to take a drink, this Hero restores 3,892 Health per second, and gains additional beneficial effects the longer the ability is channelled.

This Hero gains 19,454 Health at 2 seconds, 2,684 Attack Damage per second at 5 seconds, and a 10% chance to evade enemy attacks at 8 seconds.

These effects each last 1 seconds.

So first off, this ability it designed to be channelled for a full 8 seconds. This makes her really vunerable, kills any kind of dps or damage benefit shes getting, and just seems really…long. Second, these abilities that she has channel for 8 seconds to get only last 1 second? Am I missing something or does this ability just plain suck?

Maybe im just not getting it, but it feels really slow for such a sub par result. If she channelled the ability and gave it to the whole team then it would make sense, but the only way she can transfer it is if she follows this up with her bronze ability to give it to 1 other ally and even then, its still only for a second.

Can someone shed light on this ability? It seems interesting and designed to be flexible but its overall ineffecient, impractical, and bad. Especially for a natural 5 star unit.

Take a swig is pretty adaptable, but i agree overall its a little bit too niche. I generally dont channel the whole duration as the bonus health alone is usually more than enough. Just roll out of the channel to cancel it early.

Im 100% sure the effects last longer than 1 second, they last closer to at least 15 seconds.

Her first skill also shares buffs she gained from other heroes and also refreshes their durations. It also chargee faster than take a swig so, just sorta throw them around on cooldown. I like using it to share butters team shields or phalanx gold team shields. Its great when you have a gold francoise as it can share her unique buff, which is pretty strong.

Yea i do appreciate how quickly she can chew threw ammo and has a fast reload time. It definitely helps to refresh her bronze ability really fast. I guess i just assumed she would have a more obvious utility or playstyle. Seems shes best manually controlled vs AI.

She is thee absolute worst. Waste of a purchase to me. Always puts up thee least amount of dps… terribad.

I dont know if I’d say shes the worst, but for a nat 5 she certainly is lack luster. Compare her to another nat 5 dps or Heimlock and shes quite poor. Personally i think Take a Swig is all that needs an adjustment. Her bronze abillity is good support healing and her gold ability works nice with it. Take a swig is slow, boring, and just plain dangerous to use since it leaves her vulnerable. If the pay off was better like team wide buffs that channel and do more as you upgrade it, then i could see the benefit. Currently she feels like a slightly better operator.