Shields and elements interact in very interesting ways, clearing a shield off energy heroes with bio damage is a nightmare.
It’s the shotgun pellet changes, I figured it out like 2 days into the December patch when Mandrake started chunking enemies for half their health with his silver. Panzer getting nerfed at range helped too since I was able to have heroes stay alive long enough to get invigorate. I realized that with a proper setup Fran could make a team extremely difficult to kill while also providing an overwhelming offensive option that could blow through any opposing heals. I tried it out in the last Draft Brawl (Gold) and it was undefeated. It all boils down to piloting Francois and swapping to take advantage of the fact that Swig+Shotgun = Sex.