I think, if Reinhardt is going to be the only tank with no range outside of easy to dodge CD skills, its more healthy for him to be a beast in the game. Even if he did 10000 damage per swing, there’d be characters who perfectly counter him just by standing on a ledge and shooting him while he can’t do anything about them.
Oh. Flats said it, so it must be true/ /s.
why is a community manager coming out as blue post in forum?
shouldn’t it be reserved for actual people doing balance and not for community managers?
because it’s misleading
you likely do not have any say in balance and yet when people see a blue icon they will crowd the thread because they think they are likely talking to some balance important person
That’s how the game feels though. For the players not playing Hog on either team, who is having a fun, engaging teamwork orientated game? He’s a selfish pick that forces the other tank to another selfish pick.
Whether you like it or not, Flats is a great tank player. He’s popular for a reason. And, also whether you like it or not, a competitive-based game depends on top-down balance for longevity and survival. In GM, Hog is too strong a pick (due to Ball, of course), and that’s not healthy for the game.
Blue means they work for Blizzard. That’s it. Nothing misleading about it.
It is what it is
There are other ways to avoid Earthshatter… Splitting up is Number 1
Using Rein is Number 2
Winston Bubble
Zarya Bubbles
Mei’s Icewall and Cryofreeze
ETC…
Short answer: No. 
Long answer: Blue posts track Blizzard teammates on the forums, which would include Community Managers on the Overwatch Team! However, there’s no need to worry because I am in very close contact with everyone on my team. We talk every day!
It’s actually very encouraging how collaborative and respectful everyone is on Team 4. I haven’t met anyone who gatekeeps or knocks people out of a discussion because they aren’t a “balance important person”. I love this game, and I am super passionate about engaging with the community and representing the community to my team (and vice-versa)!! You will continue to see my name pop up on the forums to provide discussions, share information, and maybe engage in some light to moderate trolling. 
I thought this was super sweet when I joined, but we close out every Team 4 standup by saying, “Let’s make a great game!”
That applies to all of us-- even the Community Managers.
I wish this were true in my games. I decided to one trick Dva this season. Nearly every game the other tank is Hog. Oddly, the other team tends to be Rein/Zarya.
My biggest fear for OW2 is that Rein will become even more mandatory than he already is and outshine the rest of the tanks by a country mile.
First of all, the tank who has received the most changes for OW2 (that the community has been made aware of), is Rein. He got a lot of new things added to his kit, whereas the rest of the tank cast got some partial reverts that don’t even bring them in line with how good they were when OW launched in 2016. And that was when you could have any number of tanks on your team.
But my biggest concern is barrier health. The player base doesn’t know how to play without barriers. And if I recall correctly, Rein’s barrier has a pool of 1600. As far as I know, no other tank in OW2 has even close to this amount of health. I think it’s like, 600-800 tops.
I hate Rein. I don’t want to play him - ever. I feel that because OW2 is just one tank, that he’s going to be essentially the only tank.
It’s not you need to block earth shatter,
It’s just you suck at the game and all group up as if you had a rein.
Rein is the Reaper of tanks. He should never be meta at a high level.
He’s popular for playing a game. What does that have to do with him knowing about game design? Regardless, its not Flat’s that’s the issue; it’ll always be the “this streamer with no game design experience said it, so it must be true and now I’ll repeat it” that’s the problem.
Back to your initial question though
The overwatch community doesn’t want a fun, engaging TEAMWORK ORIENTED game; they want to shoot stuff. Like it or not, the game is only going to reward hog MORE because he’s the easiest tank to turn into a brawler for 5 v 5.
Its not the overwatch I want, and its not the overwatch the community wants. All signs points to everyone wanting OW to have tanks that play like traditional tanks, but no one wants to come out and say it.
She is only the worst because they refuse to trade her dmg and or range for some more defensive capability.
Its holding her back rn. range or dmg must be sacrificed for a defensive buff. Unless they go all heavy handed and just a pure buff into outrage like per the usual. 8 months later tho of course.
See I kinda prefer slow melee weapons cos it feels like it has weight and impact too it 
perhaps it could be faster swinging but have a longer backswing to compensate.
Tbh I wish the melee only heroes had a bit more effort put into how their melee behaved. Let me do Siegfried like moves from soul calibre or something 
but if you don’t group up in this game it’s literally GG 9/10 times
Shatter works if you’re grouped up to the point of basically being single file. You can be grouped enough to help each other, but not enough to have shatter ruin your entire run.
Most consistent to die first
I used to love playing Rein when I first got the game. I have over 160 hours on him, but I no longer want to play him at all.
You know what did it? Solo queue.
Rein is made for premades. But if you’re not on a premade, he’s just terrible to play, because you will never ever ever get the support you need to be successful against a Rein of similar skill in a premade.
You’ll have Hog, and they’ll have Zarya or Dva.
If you both have Zarya, they’ll have Ana and Lucio rammed up his backside 24/7 and you’ll have a Zen who never healing Orbs and a Mercy too busy pocketing their friend to heal you and you only see them when they do a suicide rez.
You feel helpless, it feels hopeless, and it only gets worse when you’re the sole target of enemy fire and your team just refuses to shoot the enemy Rein as he walks wherever he wants.
If I have Hammond I can escape and reengage when I get a chance. If I play Hog, I can at least provide a little sustain for myself. As Rein? You either have all the agency in the world or you have none. And I hate it.
If you were to have the overall stats of EVERY region (Overbuff doesn’t have Asian stats) and looked at GM, you’d find Rein would be down the bottom with Orisa in terms of PR
The reality is, Rein doesn’t offer much, Sigma provides a shield AND keeps damage at the same time, Rein can only provide one and has to be right in-front of a target
Don’t get me wrong Rein can seem strong, in low rank games he doesn’t get a lot of pressure put on him so he can walk right up to a team and shatter, in higher ranks you have to be more creative or you will just get melted, as you higher in Diamond you will start to see Rein’s weaknesses more and more and while climbing to Masters on Rein is definitely feasible, you probably won’t go much higher than that and will start to feel his weaknesses big time
assuming you are PC and If stats are correct, At diamond Rein and Roadhog are the most picked tanks and beyond you might start noticing Rein not being as viable and the game being dominated by Sigma, Dva and Ball.
so it might be best to not play Rein and learn to outplay with those 3 at lower ranks otherwise you will hit master+ and get demolished by the people playing them.
Back in the day when i was playing every day tank, i could block rein ult as orisa or winston well enough to make other team rein swap or leave game. It will take time, maybe even you playing rein a little more, but you can notice at plat-diamond lvl when rein want to shatter a lot of times. People for example try to get best value out of it, so they try to place themself in middle, or push out of blue more forward than before, small hints of potential ult going in.
I think people overreact with how you “need” rein to block his ult, there are others who if they time it right can do it, at least thats plat view on it.