And you know what? This is coming from a Diamond Ana player, someone who doesn’t play Reinhardt as much. But I still know that people in Diamond and below just don’t know how to play him at all anymore. I am a Support main but you can also consider me a flex player.
WARNING This will be a TL;DR. Just warning you beforehand.
So yeah. As you can tell, this long post is going to be about a certain shield tank from Germany.
People can’t play him correctly either because they have hardly played him due to them over-committing to their favorite DPS heroes that require so much AIM, or they just don’t want to play Tanks, or maybe, they actually ARE kind, generous flex players, but even if they are, they still probably haven’t played Reinhardt as much and don’t have much experience. To be fair, the game is very scarce in Tank mains. But that’s not the issue. The issue is that people just don’t even know how to play him anymore.
You know how frustrating it is when I have to play Reinhardt for the sake of my team to win? Why can’t I just play my favorite hero, Ana, and do what I want? Why do I have to be everyone else’s slaves just to gain more SR?
It’s very hard for me to gain SR when I am playing a hero other than Reinhardt and the enemy team has a Reinhardt. PERIOD! Because chances are, if I don’t play him, then NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, will play him when we need him, or some generous player might pick him, but since they don’t know how to play him, my team will still lose.
I have an alternate account, and I went from Platinum to mid-Diamond playing Reinhardt when the other team had one. I hardly got to play my favorite hero, Ana. Or some other hitscan hero.
And I’ll just tell you that I can’t believe what I witnessed during that time. People seriously underestimate the values of what a good Reinhardt player can bring to the team. I was shocked. I’m not even a Reinhardt main, but even I can tell that people are making absolutely stupid mistakes while playing him, or they just go their own selfish ways and don’t play him at all.
Anyways. Enough of that. Let’s talk about why a Reinhardt is so important, when you need him, and so on.
If the enemy team has a Reinhardt on a Payload/Hybrid/Control Point map, just ANY map that’s not a King of the Hill map, then your team will pretty much, 90% of the time, also need a Reinhardt.
Now some of you are gonna say “Oh, Mewtwo, you’re just stupid! I see OWL teams and they can beat the enemy Reinhardts with just a Winston and D.Va, NO TROUBLE!” Well, first of all, let me ask you something. Was the match you were watching a King of the Hill Map? If so, then not having a Reinhardt may be okay. The matches are much more fast-paced on King of the Hill maps and dive comps are much more prominent. So you don’t need a Reinhardt all the time.
Second of all, OWL teams are very, VERY well organized and smart. They work together as a TEAM, and good teamwork is what will beat ANY team in all of Overwatch. So for them, it can be possible, since they know what they are doing.
The next argument that someone might throw at me is, “Oh, if you need a shield tank, then just play Orisa.”
Yes, Orisa is a shield tank. I GET THAT. But to be honest, she’s only viable in the right situations. Otherwise, Orisa is just easy prey. She’s literally one of the most stationary targets in the game, making it so easy for people to kill her. And the worst downside of her abilities is that she doesn’t have a shield that can move around when deployed. And that’s why Reinhardt is so much more important. He can move and angle the shield however he wants, but Orisa can NOT do that. And that’s why, even though you have an Orisa, the enemy D.Va will decimate your team self-destruct after self-destruct after self-destruct.
So, I think you get my point now. Reinhardt is an extremely important Tank, especially on Payload, Hybrid, and Control Point maps. Not as much on King of the Hill maps, as you can have a mobile Winston. And dive comp, as I said earlier, is usually much more powerful.
But we’re moving on.
The next thing I’m going to talk about is the absolutely DUMB, STUPID MISTAKES I see Reinhardt players making. And you know what? Even in high diamond, people make these mistakes. It’s just absolutely unbelievable. Because they don’t know how to play him. There are so many mistakes, but for now, I will mention the TWO BIGGEST mistakes. I will not talk about overextending, as that is a mistake that anyone can make.
Without further ado, let’s start with the first FOOLISH mistake that Reinhardt players make.
Mistake #1. Just holding down M2 for eternity while you’re alone. NONE OF YOUR TEAMMATES are behind you, and yet you’re the only one behind your own shield.
Seriously?
SERIOUSLY?
That’s what you’re going to do?? So, even when you have a chance to recharge your shield, you’re just gonna hold it like an idiot because that’s your duty.
Well, sorry to say, but when you run out of shield energy, then OH HO, YOU’RE CLEARLY NOT DOING YOUR DUTY, THAT’S FOR SURE! Your job is to shield your team, YES! But ONLY WHEN YOU ARE ENGAGING THE ENEMY! If your team is safe and sound, then I don’t know why you have to be all alone holding your shield up just because a single person from the enemy team is peppering you with bullets. First of all, you’re supposed to stay with the team, and second of all, if you’re all out in the open without the team, then you’re just feeding the enemy and that is 100% your own fault.
Here’e the second mistake that Reinhardt players make. And this is the WORST mistake.
Mistake #2. NOT KNOWING HOW TO BLOCK THE ENEMY REINHARDT’S EARTH SHATTER.
You want to build Ult Charge! You put your shield up! You decide that since you want Ult Chage, you use Fire Strike-
Too late.
The enemy Reinhardt would have Earthshattered you and your team by then.
Yup. Ladies and gentlemen, this is by FAR the BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT ALL THE REINHARDT PLAYERS MAKE in my rank and below. PERIOD! You NEVER, EVER use Fire Strike unless you know you are in a safe place, as well as your team. Fire Strike is just one of those abilities that is used to tickle the other team and gain ult charge while you are in a SAFE location, NOTHING MORE!
I can’t even tell you how many idiots used Fire Strike and I Earthshattered them and my team won the game. I CAN’T EVEN TELL YOU. It’s actually just so, SO STUPID.
And here’s the other thing about it. Reinhardt players don’t know how to “bait” the enemy Reinhardt into using their Shatters. Every Grandmaster knows this. They put down their shields briefly, but ONLY for a split second, and swing their hammers to bait the other Reinhardt. And right when the enemy Rein uses his ult, the Reinhardt uses his shield to block it. It’s THIS EASY, and yet NO ONE knows how to do that. I’ve blocked the enemy Reinhartdt’s shatters ALL THE TIME because of how dumb they are.
Of course, as you go up the ranks, this obviously becomes harder. Reinhardts in the upper levels are good and the only time they are outsmarted by the other Rein is if they are forced to look the other way no matter what due to something, or they were eliminated early. It is your team’s fault if they do not help keep you alive, because when your team has a Reinhardt, HE and the healers are the heroes that should be protected the most. DPS have a responsibility to stay alive on their own when everyone else on their team is not with them.
I will now conclude this post by saying that YOU THINK DPS ARE THE ONLY HEROES THAT CARRY ALL THE TIME. YOU THINK THAT SIX-MAN KILL BY GENJI WAS WHAT SAVED EVERYONE.
NO, NO, NO!!!
Everyone works together in a team-based game like Overwatch. Carrying means you killed the entire enemy team 1v6 without ANY of your teammates’ help. No one can do that. Not one single person. You always say you did it alone, but I wonder how you would do if you actually did a genuine 1v6 with all of your teammates missing.
And that cocky Genji or Tracer main on that team of yours that said that they “carried” the team and no one else did *#($? Well, they aren’t carrying ANYONE unless they know how to play Reinhardt correctly. Because their sorry butts weren’t selfless enough to at least try and flex for their teammates. Because their SORRY BUTTS have NO IDEA how to block an Earthshatter. A selfish player is NEVER someone who carries a game. EVER.
And that ends my talk about the stupid mistakes that many Reinhardt players make. I hope many of you learned at least the BASICS of how to play Reinhardt correctly now. I spent about an hour writing this entire thing. So please, PLEASE don’t be that selfish player who NEVER picks Reinhardt when we need one or that idiot Reinhardt who never blocks a single Earth shatter. Every time I play Support in my rank, I always hide behind a block because I’m always afraid that my Reinhardt won’t be blocking the shatter. It’s just stupid.
Do you think I want to play Reinhardt? HELL NO. I hate playing him! I ABSOLUTELY HATE PLAYING HIM! But if I don’t, then none of you fools ever will and they will never know how to play him properly. My favorite hero is Ana. I can be godlike on certain days and sleep every Genji and Tracer I see, get great accuracy, and get great healing, sometimes even outhealing my Moira or Mercy teammate, but my team will still lose. Why? Because no one plays Reinhardt or no one knows how to play him.
Thank you for listening to my angry post, and I hope you’ve learned something after reading this post, if you are Diamond and below. For Heaven’s sake, this should not even be NEWS for people in Diamond and Platinum, but these mistakes happen ALL THE TIME.
