I have been seeing quite a few threads come up recently claiming that Reinhardt is the strongest tank (and some people even saying the strongest hero) in the game. These threads also, a lot of the time, bash on people who were previously advocating for Reinhardt needing help. I have a metric-crud-ton of thoughts on this. With that in mind, I want to put pen to paper (metaphorically speaking, of course) with those thoughts on this topic.
Introduction
First, I want to discuss why people are saying that Reinhardt is strong. This is because of the sometimes-deceptive nature of statistics. Often, we look to numbers to paint us an objective and neutral picture, and then try to use those numbers as facts. However, statistics often require context to paint the full picture, or else you could end up with a drastically distorted image. I think this is true in the case of Reinhardt. Right now, Reinhardt is the most picked hero in the game in ranked Grandmasters games. While this might lead one to conclude that Rein is the strongest hero in the game, this is not necessarily true when you look at the bigger picture.
Consider this: On the last day of Season 9, Reinhardt was still not considered even remotely meta, at least not at the top end of the ladder. Dive was still king, and Reinhardt was still considered to be unplayable in most situations (save Kingâs Row and Lijiang: Control Center). Fast forward to the first day of Season 10, just 3 days later, and all of a sudden Reinhardt is the most picked tank. Yet Reinhardt nor Winston (the previous most picked main tank) received any changes. So what is the only thing that changed? Brigitte was introduced.
Brigitte, Dive, & the Meta-game
Thatâs right. Everything is exactly the same, but Brigitte is introduced. So why does this impact Reinhardt so heavily? Yes, it is partially due to the fact that Brigitte begs to play in a deathball and that is the play style that Reinhardt brings with him, but it is in truth due to one bigger reason; Brigitte absolutely shuts down dive.
To understand this further, once again, you have to understand the context. For over a year Dive was the king of the hill at the top ranks. It got so bad that there was a ton of public outcry for a hero that would counter dive. And so Blizzard cooked up Brigitte, and she does her job. In fact, she crushes at that role. So much so that Tracer, Genji, Winston, and D.Va (Dive) disappeared overnight.
This is the real reason Reinhardt looks so strong right now. During that entire year or so, where Dive was the sole viable composition, Reinhardt was countered so heavily by Winston and friends that he was almost never played. Dive is what completely shuts him down; it is his âKryptoniteâ. With all of those Dive heroes gone, Reinhardtâs counters are gone with it. He is left unchecked and so he appears unstoppably strong.
That is far from the truth, though. Reinhardt may seem to be the strongest hero now, but his foundation is built on a house of cards. Brigitte is clearly a very strong hero right now, and Reinhardtâs entire place in the meta revolves around her. If Brigitte ever gets nerfed into the ground to the point where she ceases to be played, Reinhardtâs play rate will plummet with it, and we will go right back to Dive meta.
Main Tank Balance: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Please do not mistake me, I do not mean to say that I donât want Dive to be viable; that is not what Iâm saying at all. In fact, it is just the opposite: I want every composition to be viable. I think the game should work on a rock, paper, scissors premise, revolving around the main tanks. What I mean by that is that each main tank carries a play style, or composition, with them. Reinhardt creates deathball, Winston creates dive, and Orisa creates bunker comps. What I believe needs to happen is that these comps need to counter each other in a triangular fashion. For example, dive would counter deathball, deathball would counter bunker comp, and bunker comp would counter dive (or something to that effect).
I believe this would be the most healthy for the game as it would keep heroes who thrive in each comp viable and played, and create a huge diversity of play styles for each player to master. It would also reward deep hero pools, understanding and mastery of strategy, and effective communication/teamwork skills. But is it too farfetched? I do not think so, no. I think balancing the game around just three heroes primarily, and everything else secondarily would be very achievable.
For that to happen though, two things would need to happen first: (1) Brigitte would need to be brought in line to allow Dive to be viable again. (2) The main tanks would all need to be tweaked until their play rates were as close to 33.33% as possible. If Brigitte was tweaked to be played less, Reinhardtâs play rate would fall with it, and so he would likely need some small tweaks to improve his standing.
Overwatch League: Stage 4
Another thing I want to touch on briefly is Reinhardtâs pick-rate in the Overwatch league so far this stage. In Stage 4, currently Reinhardt is not even the most picked tank, let alone hero. Winston still beats him for highest main tank pick-rate (with D.Va having an even higher pick-rate than Winston). If Reinhardt is as strong as people are suggesting, why are the professionals not abusing him? Or do people seriously think they know better than the likes of the New York Excelsior or even the Shanghai Dragons?
Not to even mention that Reinhardtâs win rate right now so far in Stage 4 is a meager 45%, which is the lowest of all of the tanks. Yes, thatâs right⌠all. of. the. tanks. Granted, the patch is not entirely up to date, but that should have nothing to do with anything, since none of the main tanks have been touched during that time. If anything, if the patch were current in the Overwatch League, Reinhardtâs play rate and win rate would likely suffer from Brigitteâs nerf. Just some food for thought.
Codependency Issues
Next, I want to talk about some opinion-based stuff. I want to talk about how I personally feel that Reinhardt is the only main tank that is so closely tied to another hero for viability. Sure, you could make a case for Winston and D.Va, but I do not think that is any more mandatory than Zarya with Reinhardt, or Hog with Winston. Either way, I main tanks are supposed to be the building blocks of the team. You pick them first, then fill around them. Currently, the way it works is that you pick Brigitte, then fill around her. That is not how things should work in any game involving Tank, Healer, and DPS roles. It should always be that the main tank dictates the play style.
That said, in the game right now, you are forced into playing deathball because the strongest hero (I feel) on the ladder is Brigitte, and she demands deathball. This means that you must play Reinhardt to maximize the synergy. All the while, you are a giant punching bag, getting knocked around by everything.
How it feels to play Reinhardt
Which leads me into my last point: how it actually feels to play Reinhardt. Playing Reinhardt feels horrible. It is a never-ending wave of being beaten like a pinata at a young boyâs birthday party. You are booped around like a pinball, and then stunned, into a stun, into a punch into the wall. There is nothing you can do to stop this, as there is no way for Reinhardt to counter a shield bash, which starts the chain CC. You cannot even counter-charge it! Half the heroes in the game can disrupt your charge ability, and a lot of the time you are stunned during your ultimate and lose it entirely. Even when you are not, you have to pray to the bug gods that your shatter and/or charge is not sacrificed to them to maintain their appeasement (which is a topic for countless other threads).
To sum it all up, it sometimes feels like the enemy has more control over your character than you do. That is not okay, especially when you consider that the fantasy of Reinhardt is that he is supposed to be a massive warrior on the front-lines who should be heavy and durable, and able to protect his team from harm. Pretty hard to do that last thing when you are stunned all of the dang time.
How can you all expect players to fill into a role that feels like that?
TL;DR:
Reinhardt is not as strong as people are arguing. Yes, his pick-rate is high, but that is only because he is being propped up by Brigitte, who counters all of his biggest counters (AKA dive). Take her away and all of those dive heroes come back, which in turn means Rein is right back where he was just a few short weeks ago, before Brigitte was pushed to competitive. That speaks volumes to Brigitte, not Reinhardt.
Bonus Content
Here is a bonus video where RichC and I share our thoughts on the current meta and the state of the main tanks + Brigitte:
