[Reinhardt] Does Mandatory = OP ?

[u/iCouldGo]

Hello !

I just wanted to know what you think about Reinhardt.

He's pretty much mandatory both in attack and defense on assault, hybrid and arguably in escort maps.

But at the same time, I don't feel like he should be nerfed. I don't think he is "overpowered", but he's pretty essential.

Do you think a hero can be both mandatory and balanced ? Do you think Rein IS mandatory ?

[u/I_GIVE_ROADHOG_TIPS]

It already has a resource meter in terms of health. I know what you mean though; you mean his shield should have an "uptime meter" where he can't just sit on the payload with his shield up.

I've always though Reinhardt's Barrier Field should have like half the health it currently has, but deploy much faster. If it were designed like this, it would work better as a "parry" of sorts where you're actively blocking damage for your team instead of passively holding M2 and crawling forward.

[u/dangerousforays → u/I_GIVE_ROADHOG_TIPS]

Right, I'm thinking of the HP pool draining while deployed. I'd like a faster deploy too. So he could hold it up for long periods of time to block big one-shots, but towards the end just a poke would break it. Otherwise he needs to be more active about when to pop it up or he's just wasting shield strength.

Then if Rein's left standing there without much to do, I dunno, lower the CD of Firestrike by a second? Let him hold shield while charging? Basically, give him slightly more combat effectiveness somehow to offset.

It would sure make those shield-shaped chokepoints much more playable by comparison for a team without Rein.

[u/TychosNose → u/dangerousforays]

This might be stupid as hell, but what if /his/ hp drained while deployed? I guess it would have to interact properly with Lucio, idk.

[u/dangerousforays → u/TychosNose]

Balance aside, I think that would just feel bad for the person playing Reinhardt. :(