How to Reinhardt

Competitive Discussion
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Hello, I main Hammond and Sigma as tanks. But with the new patch incoming I feel like I want to learn Reinhardt since I fear Sigma will become trollpick. And I don’t want to onetrick Hammond because he can be hardcountered.

I’m planning to play quickplays with Reinhardt but I’d love to get some basic tips before, I have almost no minutes with him so I need some guidance, and to know the most common mistakes to avoid.

I’ve just reached plat this season if you’re wondering what level I am. I play on PS4 EU (so consider little or no communication with the team).

Thank you guys for your help.

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Don’t be afraid to push w and swing your damn hammer. Don’t charge to narnia. Honestly that’s pretty much all.

Rein is incredibly fun to play, just find a Zarya to pocket you and you’ll just love it.

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Use firestrike to charge ult. You want to have earthshatter up as much as possible.
With the upcoming shield adjustments, you’ll be required to be aggressive. Don’t use the shield to block chip damage, but instead use it to force your way past chokes and block key ults (never let the health go below 500 or so).
Avoid charging. Swing.

Reinhardt is fairly straightforward but takes getting used to. After some practice though, you’ll be able to utilize him to great effect. He’s a ton of fun and is quite viable in the current game environment imo.

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Right click, W, smack prople up when you get there. Use charge for mobility and Instakill short range (stopping ults isn’t a bad idea)

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Sometimes a voice within me calls me to Narnia, and I am helpless to stop it.
My vision goes dark, and suddenly I’m dead in the enemies backline with shift on cool down, but no memory of pressing charge, plz help

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Happens to me as well. But is worth it when you pin a sigma or doom.

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Ok, and what about when your teammates are all over the place and don’t have mic (like 90% of people in PS4 EU)?
What should I do in those cases?

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Don’t play Rein.

Meaning if nobody is using your shield, then you’re better off playing a different tank.

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9

Depends, if you’re brawling and can get on point with rein And have semi competent heals he’s a good pick.

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Be aware of what’s behind you and don’t hold your shield if there’s no reason. A lot of Reins do this and was shield HP for no reason. If your team aren’t currently using your shield don’t put it down unless you need it to live.

Similarly, don’t shield yourself from poke damage if you have a healer paying attention to you. Obviously you don’t want to take a ton of damage for no reason, but taking poke damage builds your supports ult charge. You should be near cover so hop behind cover if you take too much when possible. Shielding low incoming damage drains your shield and you might not have it when you need to.

Use Firestrike to gain ult charge mostly. You only care about firestrike damage when it can score a kill, like after a couple hammer strikes. If you have your ult don’t use firestrike when it won’t help get a kill cause you’re feeding their support ults.

Do short charges. Never use charge to engage the enemy because they’ll all shoot you. You want to charge a short distance to pin an enemy. Use gun safety rules here: Always be sure of your target and what’s behind it. If you miss the charge a bit will you careen off into the enemy and die? I’ve done that, I’ve made charges planning to hit a corner, missed clipping it, and flown off to my doom.

Don’t do the Rein suicide charge off the map unless you’re absolutely sure your team will win the fight after it. If it makes the fight a 5v4 with no enemy tanks then maybe that’s a play to make… but it probably still isn’t.

Pay attention to CC that your team has, it makes great charges. Frozen/stunned targets. Mei walls are great. If your Mei isolates an enemy with her wall, smash them into the wall. You won’t go far and then you’re ready to fight whoever is on the other side of the ice.

For you, Mei is the devil. Put pressure on her so she can’t keep freezing you. Alternate between shield up and hammer/firestrike. It gives a sec for the chill to lower so you don’t get frozen. If you can firestrike cancel a hammer swing on her she’ll probably ice block. If you can force an ice block it burns her CD and gives time for your team to respond to your call out to focus her.

Last thing I can think of, you’re in charge of the fights. You’re supposed to decide where they happen, so hold W a lot. Play aggressive but not stupid. You’ll win more than you’ll lose if you err on the side of aggression. Just don’t pick stupid fights.

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Check youtube guides. Id recommebd youroverwatch to start.
Check ALL the main tank videos and youll understand when and on which part of map you must play with each tank.

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Thanks man, that was very detailed. I’ve already learnt to hate Mei maining Hammond.

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Corners are your best friend. Not just for dodging when your shield is low, but sweet firestrikes and pins that don’t result in your death rely heavily on them too. If you have a Zarya prioritize charging her over everything else as she will do most of your dmg.

If you are solo queuing do not worry about ‘wasting’ shatter, either. If you’re good enough with strikes and engaging you will get it every push. With the amount of barriers you are bound to miss some, so holding it and waiting for the perfect opportunity is a terrible idea.

Do not worry about your dmg not following you. They either will or they won’t. Just make sure they’re somewhere in the vicinity before pushing. All you really need is your off tank and a healer to do God’s work.

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You can still use him to create space. It’s much more difficult, but it’s still possible. Just know that you’ll more likely than not forgo the shield and just swing.

Rein’s biggest strength besides having the biggest shield in the game is that he does a tremendous amount of close-range damage (except for Reaper, Mei, and Doomfist, he’ll kill just about any dps if he closes the distance).

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You are a big boy with a big hammer and shield, you can handle yourself. Shield jump, swing and walk to point. You’ll be surprised to see you weren’t alone after all.

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I mean I don’t play rien, but when you swing you can move with it to increase its radius (IDK someone can probably word this better).

Edit: rotate your FOV that’s it

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Press W to move forward (dont stand still -> your strength is melee range)
Use fire strike to build ult fast.
Dont charge all over the map (high risk, average value ability)
Challenge the other main tank (dont go chasing a tracer or going for a good widow -> not your job on rein, play dive tank instead)
Dont push alone, like when the rest of your team dealing with a flanker.
Dont push with low health
Dont let your shield break, so you can always block ults when needed.
Mind game: Try to lure your opponent out of the line of sight of their healers(around corners) but in los of all your team. And of course the ult vs ult between reins.

Use charge to:

  • escape (out of mei ult)
  • do a 1 meter charge hitting wall and opponent close to you
  • killing like a bastion(suicide)
  • get back to fight fast
  • fight is over/cleaning up/killing last players.

Play Rein when lots of enemies play around the enemy main tank. So your swings and fire strikes will hit lots of people at the same time.
And can get close to the enemy main tank without loosing to much resources
A zarya, lucio and good flex dps, will help a lot.

Dont play rein, if you cant get in brawl range without loosing to many resources.
With your resources also being your healers-> extension to your health.
Like when flankers keep killing your back line. (you dont have a good enough flex dps/ off tank dealing with them -> on sigma you probably are used to deal with them your self. On rein you have to keep focusing on the enemy main tank/ most thread)

Next patch:
Don’t relay to much on your shield. Or try to guard your team with it. Use it to block things like widow shots, hanzo stormbow, dva rockets. Try to avoid most damage by using the terrain(and hope your team does the same). So use it more like DVA matrix with a longer up time. Relay on your armor and your heals.
You create now space around you with your hammer and less with your shield.(so only around you, and not against ranged)
Probably it is better to go dive tanks when the enemy has good insta kill snipers. (you cant block anymore/protect your team against it, shield will break)
If the enemy have high damage heroes like junkrat/pharah, it depends how skilled your snipers are to deal with them. If they aren’t it is probably better again to swap off rein.
Same counts for if the enemy has heroes like mei and reaper.
(sombra will be a lesser threat now, since you should already be relying on lesser shields)

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Try to have a wall behind the enemy when you charge. Don’t be afraid to swing the hammer. If the other team has a Reinhardt, count his firestrike cooldown in your head, it’s 6 secs and you can use that to shatter him. Be wary when the other rein has shatter, he’ll probs start hopping around more and trying to bait you. Countercharging and countershattering the enemy is super helpful. Try to catch dooms punch with your charge. Watch out for stuns when you go to shatter. Once you’re at 200 hp look for heals. Don’t leave your team behind, remember you’re their shield

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My two cents:

One: Pay attention to what’s behind your charge target.
-There are very few reasons you’ll want to charge deep into the enemy team. Ideally, you’ll want either a long charge back INTO the fight after spawning, or a short charge that attempts to pin an opponent against a wall. Either way, you want to end your charge close to your team, regardless if you hit or miss.

-There are exceptions. For example, you can charge an ulting Zen to push him away from his team, leaving his team vulnerable to whatever made him ult inthe first place. You can also charge a dangerous target away from your team, like a Nano-boosted enemy Rein.

Two: Avoid taking barrier damage or recharge delay unless you need to.
-While most people will quickly tell you not to hold your barrier up if you’re not protecting teammates, you also want to be mindful of the fact that your shield doesn’t recharge while it’s up or for two seconds after it drops. If the incoming damage it minimal, say a Reaper spamming from afar, ignore it. Bringing your barrier up and down to block minor damage will only wear down your barrier mitigating chip damage.

Three: Don’t stand still when you are holding your barrier up.
-This is the single biggest piece of advice I can offer. Unless you’re pocketing a Bastion, never stand in one place with your barrier deployed. Your barrier is not on a cooldown like Orisa. Chip damage will wear it down, and then your team is vulnerable. You should be either mitigating damage while retreating under heavy fire with your team, or pushing forward into their team to initiate a fight.

-Even if you’re facing a double-sniper on defense, and their team isn’t pushing, you still want to position yourself constantly to try and give your team better angles they can fire from safely. If you stay in one spot, your ranged DPS can’t adjust their position at all, so the enemy team can abuse LoS to push in close.

Four: When your barrier is close to going down, either push in or fall back.
-Rein can’t do much at range. And if your barrier is going down, there’s no reason to stand in the open. Either retreat behind cover to buy time for your barrier to recharge or force the enemy into YOUR range, or push into them and start swinging. The choice for this comes down to your gut feeling. “Can your team win a fight if it happens now.” If yes, go in. If no, back off.

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21

Some more advanced/technical tips:

Firestrike is mainly used to charge your Ult. And if you have Ult but can’t confirm kills with it you would only feed the enemy’s Supports Ult charge. But if you don’t use Firestrike at all you might as well yell at the enemy team that you have your Ult. Solution: Just miss your Firestrikes on purpose. The enemy team will just assume you suck.

Often times you can tell if a Reinhardt has Shatter just by looking at how they behave. Keep in mind to not give away that you have Ult too obviously.

If you play against another Reinhardt you need to track his Ult Charge. This is usually fairly easy since you normally exchange Hammer Swing for Hammer Swing and Firestrike for Firestrike.
If you think the enemy Rein has his Ult DO NOT Firestrike. It is a very easy opportunity for the enemy Rein to punish you with his Ult.
You can try to bait his Ult by Using your Hammer Swing and immediately cancel it with your Shield but good Reins won’t fall for that too often.

You can cancel your Hammer Swing with Firestrike.
If you do it correctly you can hit someone with the Hammer and then immediately Firestrike him for 175 Dmg.

If you want to Firestrike after an Earthshatter crouch and shoot it in a straight line to hit as many enemies as possible.

NEVER let your shield break except you (or maybe a teammate) would die otherwise.

If you want to get to somewhere quickly you need to Shield Hop. Meaning that you Jump while moving forward but only using your Shield while you are in the air. This will get you a shield uptime of roughly 75% while moving at 100% speed. PLUS your healers get some Ult charge.

Your First Hammer Swing will go from right to left. If you press the Primary Fire button in the correct rythm this will happen all the time. Since this attack has Knockback you can use that to manipulate the position/movement of an enemy by knocking him towards your team or away from his escape route.

The Hammer Swing Hitbox moves with the Hammer. Thus you can extend the Hitbox by rotating in the direction of your Swing.

And last but not least: Rather be too aggressive than too passive when you start learning him. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and die. But make sure you learn what killed you and adjust your aggressiveness accordingly until you get a feeling for how aggressive you can be.
Knowing when to use Hammer and when to Shield as Rein can be more difficult than other Heroe’s whole kit.

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