Reinhardt Guide
Reinhardt Biography
Reinhardt Wilhelm, takes on the appearance of a knight of a lost age, who lives by a code of valor, including justice and courage. Covered in powered armor, swinging the rocket hammer, he uses his rocket propelled charge to join the fray, and defends his squadmates with a massive Energy Shield/Barrier.
He is a highly honored soldier, and has been with military forces from a young age, as he was seeking fame and glory. Young and reckless, Reinhardt disobeyed orders and charged headlong into battle instead of staying with his unit. He was hell bent on destroying every enemy, and that’s what befell any in his path.
Reinhardt was inducted as part of the original Overwatch Strike Team, which then grew into a global institution.
Reinhardt Abilities:
How To Best Use Rocket Hammer
Rocket Hammer is Reinhardt’s primary weapon. Pressing the primary attack button will cause Reinhardt to swing the hammer, damaging all enemies in a cone in front of Reinhardt. The damage dealt by this hammer is quite impressive, so start swinging when an enemy is close by, look for any chance to hit multiple targets per swing, to maximize the DPS ( Damage Per Second).
Rocket Hammer is also best used when it’s swung 360 degrees, this is achieved by rotating Reinhardt mid-attack, Dealing damage in a 10 yard meter radius, rather than just 5 meters. Now knowing this is a Melee weapon, it has a longer range than the typical quick melee attack sported by other heroes. Reinhardt on the other hand only has this Rocket Hammer, no quick melee attack is available for this hero. Also depending on how the direction of the hammers arc, it’s possible to knock enemies away, so if anyone is airborne, environmental kills are in play.
How To Best Use Barrier Field
This energy barrier is powerful, rectangular, and Reinhardt carries it like a shield, stopping almost all projectiles and bullets that smack into it. This awesome ability is used by hitting the secondary fire button and holding it down continually, releasing the button will take the shield down. The Barrier Field has its own Healthpool, and it is also disabled when the health pool hits 0, it will start to regenerate a few seconds after it’s no longer active.
Use Barrier Field to stop incoming projectiles, to protect your team. It allows your team to move through a contested area without taking a beating, and to counter attack safely. This is all achieved through positioning, so stay in front of your team, and lead them to victory. Always check around you to see if your team is behind your cover, you can look all around while it’s active to make sure you are as effective as possible.
As you watch the health on Barrier Field, when it starts to get low, start to look for cover so you can let Reinhardt regenerate it’s health pool. Since this ability only stops attacks from the front, keep your eyes open for attacks from above or behind.
The next thing is a higher level way to use Barrier Field. Which is to deactivate it, jump or move quickly and while in mid air reactivate the Barrier. If you are mid jump reactivating the shield will not slow your movement. This is to help out your team, if you are out of position, though it can be very dangerous, but if executed quickly, there should be no issues.
How To Best Use Charge
When Reinhardt uses charge, the rocket booster on his back launches him straight forward faster than Usain Bolt. Now since the speed increases insanely fast, being able to turn left or right becomes impossible, veering slightly one direction or the other is the best you can hope for. Charge will stop after a period of time, or when he collides with a solid surface, preferably there is an enemy between you and the wall to deal massive damage. Also it’s very satisfying to be a rocket powered Semi, and your enemies are crash test dummies. Only one enemy can take the pinned damage from Reinhardt, all others are knocked away, also stuns will stop charge in its tracks.
Now it may sound pretty awesome to enter a battle with a Rocket powered Leeroy Jenkins type of charge. But remember turning is basically impossible, which makes it very easy for enemies to dodge, so using it at a short or medium range is easily the most effective way to land this ability. The cooldown on this ability is relatively short, so after respawning, using it to get closer to the current contested points is a great way to cover more ground.
Reinhardt Gameplay Preview
Now when a pinned enemy hits a wall it will take all the damage, seriously all of the damage. Landing this ability, will basically insta kill almost every non-tank hero. But also be sure to watch your aim before turning on your rocket booster, as Reinhardt can’t really stop charge short of hitting a wall, on a ton of time has passed by. So falling into pits, running of ledges, other environmental deaths are very common. Also when you catch an opponent and pin them to you and run them off the map, you will die before they do. Unfortunately this means most flying heroes like D.VA will be able to fly away to safety and avoid the damage or insta death of going off the map.
How Best to use Fire Strike
When activated a flaming projectile is catapulted forward from Reinhardt, that deals decent damage to whoever is struck by the ability. This Flaming shot has a piercing effect, it will go through enemies and barriers alike, it only stops when it hits a wall or solid surface, much like Reinhardt’s charge.
This is Reinhardt’s only ranged ability, though most enemies can dodge it, it is good to chuck it stationary opponents like Bastion. Or having it launch down a choke point to deter the enemy team from coming forward. It’s easy to think of it as a ranged ability only, but don’t forget it deals damage at any range, so launch it in melee combat as well.
Fire Strike can also be used to cancel the animation of Rocket Hammer. So to deal quick burst damage to squishy evasive targets like Tracer. All you have to do is use Rocket Hammer, and as soon as the hammer hits, use fire strike immediately for all that satisfying burst damage, and crushing a squishy annoying enemy.
How To Best Use Earthshatter
Reinhardt’s Ultimate, when used he swings his hammer into the ground at a high rate of speed, which creates a cone AOE (Area of Effect) of damage in front of Reinhardt. The force of this blow is so great, it stuns any enemy who is hit by it. This Ultimate is very simple, not that flashy but absolutely devastating when it is used correctly. Any enemy who is stunned is very easy to kill as they can’t perform any action, which leaves them helpless as your team swoops in for the easy kills.
Hit as many enemies as possible when Earthshatter is used, it has the ability to turn any fight into your team’s favor. The skill is a great compliment for Reinhardt’s AOE Rocket Hammer, or a potential charge to really deal some focused damage on the enemy team’s biggest damage dealer. Now since this ability works on a line of sight principle, you can’t hit what you can’t see essentially. So use Reinhardt’s Ultimate in a part of the map without a ton of cover and is fairly wide open. If Earthshatter is activated while Reinhardt is jumping or is in mid air for some reason, he will not use the ability until he lands, as he needs some ground to slam his hammer into. One additional tip the cone of damage, will not pass through Barriers, so other tanks tend to be able to dodge the ability.
