Reinhardt’s Earth shatter had a pretty simple solution to an otherwise consistent problem.
Earthshatter would only hit at random times. Sometimes going through the enemy and sometimes landing when it shouldn’t have. Make Earthshatter more consistent, tweak it’s hitbox, and make it more reliable.
What we’re left with is a new (arguably uglier) lava animation impact effect, and now “the cone” or “wave” effect that shows where earth shatter travels is no longer visible when used. This makes it harder to predict where to hit, as there is no longer a visual cue as to where the Ult is traveling. Further, this also covers up the visual inconsistencies old Earthshatter has (you know, those moments where it passes through an enemy).
Due to these changes, and the hushness as to why they were done, I question as to why Rein’s Earthshatter got an entirely new visual rework, despite the fact that it was arguably the cone itself that needed to be fixed - Not the way it looks.
AriaRose goes into more detail about this here. I haven’t seen this talked about as of yet, so I suggest giving it a look to see what I mean.
This I believe will just make it harder for Rein mains to utilize reliably, as there is less information being shown. And despite the fact that a lot of people actually complained about this new ult in the PTR, it went live anyway as is, without the suggestions given on how it could be fixed. (No patch notes about it anywhere can be found at the time of this post either.)
But what do you think? Was these changes good or bad for the hero? Do you think this will help or hurt Rein mains in the long run? Post below.