The problem is Rein is way too much team enabler and team reliant.
He needs changes to offer more risk to his team while individually the Rein player can offer more value somehow else.
All the other tanks offer more risk to their teams when picked, but the player have more individual autonomy to deal with situations and benefit (or not - it will depend on the player skills) their teams.
This goes with the principle of OW being too much team reliant. By making Rein more risky to his team, but individually skillful rewarding somehow, it opens up space for other tanks viability as well.
Reinhardt is really hard to change. He’s got a kit that’s kinda like zenyatta where it’s either very good or very bad… But basically always a safe pick
If you want him to be more risky it’s gonna need a big rework
He’s a melee hero, It’s hard to change him.
IDK, maybe something more like Fire Strike 5 seconds, Charge is now cancel-able by the player, but the cooldown starts at the beginning of the animation, things like that in trade-off for less barrier? His abilities are more leaned towards individual play, maybe they should work on that.
His barrier isn’t even that strong (only compared to the other main tanks whose barriers are now pretty useless unless they’re running double barrier), I don’t think this would be a good idea.
The idea is that no tank should be a main tank, the responsibility of enabling an entire team push shouldn’t be attributed to one barrier alone, it should be a divided responsibility of both tanks coordinating their defensive abilities.
Leaving barriers as solo viable ones, in the way the game is right now, only creates advantages for some tank picks over others, and after Orisa and Sigma nerfs Rein was left a “must pick” because of it.
It creates “must picks” because it’s a bonus to enable your entire team to rely consistently on your barrier. It needs to be more precise and time limited, as a trade-off for buffs in other areas.