I Have Concerns: A Rein-First Tank Main

General Discussion
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OW2…

I’m starting to get really concerned regarding how gameplay for us tank mains will be. Don’t get me wrong, more damage - being a big bad that everyone has to respect - sounds fun and all but looking at how my main man (Rein) fairs these days in retail makes that all seem very “so what”.

Look at Rein now. Without a Lucio, even on his strong maps, he’s useless if the enemy team is all mobility (Lucio, Mercy, Phara, Legs meta, hello?). On top of that, healing throughput is getting a chop so if I manage to get into the enemy team, will I even be alive long enough to be a problem for them?

So how am I supposed to be excited by this new vision for how OW2 will pan-out? I’m not a Rein OT, I play most of the tanks; even as Winston I feel like things just aren’t going to be fun. I won’t have a DVa or Zarya to cover me on dives and - again - the healing won’t be as capable of keeping me alive once I’m in the mess of it all.

So what’s my secondary role? Support lol. I’m hearing CC is getting the “prune” (any other long-time WoW players here?) as well. So, I’m not as powerful at my main job and I won’t have as reliable protection from CC. That sounds like a lot of the power from my kit is going to be channeled towards - just like the tank role - more damage. I mean, it could go to more team utility but looking at that ability stack as-is in retail, my hopes aren’t very high.

In all, I’m very very worried playing tank is going to be a nigh pointless job unless I’m playing the DPS-tank roadhog. I’m worried playing support is going to be more about helping frag and healing will just be a passing luxury in a fight since each team fight will be predicated by who kills better, not which team can manage their group utility better.

I hope there’s an open beta a good while before the launch that doesn’t require a pre-purchase…

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If you are really a rein main, you’re going to be fine. Rein is going to be an even more “dominant” and requested tank

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Well if it’s really an issue, they could just reduce the slowdown when he has his barrier up.

Imagine if it was 15% slowdown, instead of 30%.

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Watching this sty vid on ow2 and generally have a bad feeling shield tanks are going to be required while other non-shield tanks will be spam reported for throwing.

The dva looks like she’s feeding 100% of the time trying to contest, not looking good.

Overwatch 2 Brigitte REWORK & Support Healing NERFS?! + More Dev Communication! - YouTube

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That’s why they are making Rein’s charge cancel-able and Firestrike is getting a second charge.

Well, characters gotta have some weaknesses, and even then we can see how pros are able to form combinations of heroes that cover each other’s weaknesses in metas. Rein’s weakness is against mobile and/or ranged spammy heroes, he is a team reliant character and he will be just a little less team reliant on OW2 (in regards to making offensive plays I’d say).

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I will be 100% surprised if it isn’t a respawn simulator for a few months while everyone lies to try and convince people “no, you’re just playing wrong! Y-you don’t need a shield stronger than 1200 HP! Just use natural cover! There’s no cover near the payload and you’re too big to hide behind it? Well, health tank until your shield’s back, but don’t feed! Just get off the payload even though you’re the 500 HP character that’s supposed to front line!”.

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So? What’s that going to do when you get lasered down by Hog, two DPS, and two supports? Actually, charging and using fire strike is the last thing you’re supposed to do there.

Right, but that’s most of the heroes. Plus, there adding at least one hero that can shoot through shields. A character is supposed to have upsides and downsides, but Rein just seems like downsides.

For a character like Reinhardt, typically the upside would be a meaty shield and meaty health too. Why? Because they have no range, two skills that can directly lead to their deaths, and a requirement to be kissing every enemy you have to fight in a game where range is king. Why would you use fire strike when you’ll get deleted before the animations done? What are you charging to when the same thing’ll happen?

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Well, Hog and D.va could be converted into basically barrier tanks, pretty easily.

Hammond? No clue how to balance him in a way that he’s not OP in GM, but also not an extreme throw pick below Diamond.

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ult charge from tanks or shields could be adjusted, rather see this than giving everyone a barrier.

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That’s not really going to do much to stop ranged poke damage from killing the people behind Hog or D.va.

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Balance changes aside, it’s their new balance philosophy that worries me the most. They want TTK to be faster and the game to feel more FPS-like. That’s just bad news for close-range heroes without guns, ergo tanks.

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that’s not the problem, it’s free ult charge while dva or anyone with no shield rolls around gives vs rein, orisa, so on. This will make picking a shield tank over the others more viable for contesting and not feeding there brains out.

@zekki
You’ll have close range every time, the game is obj based.

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How is your team being wrecked by snipers, antinade, and earthshatter not a problem?

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I just don’t think you can have overwatch with a fast TTK. How in the world are melee characters like Reinhardt and Brig supposed to get close enough to do damage in that kind of game? Two fire strikes for rein means nothing when rein dies extra fast now when he fire strikes and puts his barrier down.

A weaker barrier, two fire strikes and a charge he can stop on his own means absolutely nothing. Unless people really expect Rein’s to play in some suicidal “charge the point and hope you hit at least one person before you die” playstyle. Which, if they do, I’ll just drop the character altogether.

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That would be another topic all together, I was trying to emphasize on how bad it looks and theory craft how bad it’ll be for say a dva main vs a rein. The topic is coming from a rein main.

An my main point was about shields vs none along with tanks being bullet sponges and feeding.

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Well, incidentally here’s what I’d do with OW2.

[OW2] Balance Design Blueprint

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The main concern for rational people is that rein is going to have 100 percent pickrate < 4k

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I watched some of the vods from the time Blizz gave pro players the controls for an OW2 map and the Rein play was… abysmal. He was just… there, wandering around, not getting much value other than moving the payload. Zarya was much in the same boat. Her beam is too short range for the dynamics of the map which means all of her value will likely be bubble saves and skill-shot right-clicks - which isn’t all bad, it’s just a very limited playstyle.

The Winston play didn’t look horrible but there’s still the fact that when his bubble is down, he’s free ult charge.

I haven’t seen the DVa gameplay. I’d imagine she’ll fit in pretty well though, given her ability to get close to and finish-off week targets. I mean, DVa’s main role has always been denying kills/big ults (that she can eat) and running assassin missions on low targets.

Hammond should fair well enough for the same “get in the backline and kill” reasons he plays well now. Also, he’ll still be very disruptive, especially with less CC.

Orisa, might be okay. Posting on/near the objective with a bunker up for herself and a ranged dps/support shouldn’t be too bad of a playstyle seeing as that’s how she plays best now.

Sigma, might be okay. Having a mobile barrier could be very useful for peeling, mitigates his need to walk to where people need his barrier, and his mid-range poke should more reliable value than Rein/Zar/Winston who have to be face-to-face.

Hog is Hog, he’ll always be able to flank and frag.

Having more HP and shield HP is helpful but ya, my three favorites (Rein, Winston, Zarya) look like they’re in tough spots. Hopefully there’s more to the ‘final’ product of OW2 that we’re not seeing right now.

The low TTK is a good point too… The game already feels far different than when I started playing which was around s6 if memory serves, just after mass rez was reworked and dive was becoming king. On the dive meta note, I’m guessing OW2 (from current information) is going to look a LOT like that at all times meaning the first pick that doesn’t trade will likely win the majority of engagements with less ability to recover than there is in current OW.

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Hot take, but I think rein will be in the best spot in 5v5 than he’s been in since march this year. And he was only strong because he got several buffs, and orisa/sig hadnt been buffed yet

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Don’t you always wanted to be a DPS?
/s

But I know exactly what you mean. And just wait for a match were you unfortunately lose, and your team mates blame it on the tank.