Reinhardt has a statistically average pick rate and win rate, despite this many players feel Reinhardt to be in a lousy state. I think the main issue here is a low damaging uptime. In order for Reinhardt to get into hammer range reliably, he needs his team to have a Lucio or Symmetra and the enemy team to not have an Orisa or Doomfist. Reinhardt needs to be able to get in melee range more reliably on his own.
To fix this, I look to the most similar hero, Ramattra, for inspiration. Ramattra received a buff shortly after launch giving him a 20% speed boost during Nemesis Form. This change made it so enemies cannot simply walk away from him, they must have a movement ability, or crowd control, or deal enough damage to force him to block.
Giving Reinhardt a 20% speed boost all the time would break his design and balance. What we can do however, is empower his engagements.
I propose a 20% speed boost for 3 seconds after ending Charge. This makes Charge a much more powerful movement ability, especially for engaging. Right now even if you get right in the middle of the enemy team with Charge, if you get hit with a single knockback ability you have no way of closing the gap again, this change fixes that.
Additional possible buffs for Reinhardt:
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Fire Strike projectile speed increased.
It is simply too easy to sidestep Fire Strike at any significant range for it to be an effective poke tool, increasing the speed will make Reinhardt not completely unthreatening at range. -
Fire Strike applies a slow to enemies hit
This would do something similar to the proposed Charge change. This way landing a Fire Strike allows Reinhardt an opportunity to engage on that target -
Convert 125 health into shields
Reinhardt is the only rush tank that does not have any ability that gives himself temporary extra health or healing. While Reinhardt’s shield is great at blocking damage, it’s mostly powerful for protecting Reinhardt’s team. When sustaining himself, Reinhardt is possibly too reliant on his supports in when his shield is down, or he’s taking damage from melee abilities, or multiple angles. Giving Reinhardt shield hp would give him greater self sufficiency and uptime in a way that compliments his shield. When Reinhardt is low, he could hold up his shield while his hp regenerates
Thanks everyone for reading - a humble game designer