Developer Comments: This is just some fine tuning for the barrier health and regeneration rate as it had become slightly too tough to break through.
Developer Comments: One of the core design goals for Reinhardt is to be the hero that shields his team. In the past we've reduced the barrier health significantly in order to improve other offensive aspects of his kit to better fit the fast-paced gameplay of Overwatch 2, but perhaps it was too much. We still want to avoid barriers feeling mandatory due to how useful they can be and keep tank diversity at a healthy level. However, with this patch looking at the tank role in particular, we're increasing Reinhardt's barrier health again and will evaluate further.
Reinhardt Comment: HAHA! THIS IS JUST LIKE PING PONG! WATCH THIS, BRIGITTE! I WILL BE ENTERING THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR!
Added the hero-specific option:
Developer Comments: We are increasing Reinhardt's barrier uptime to help him better protect his allies. We'll be keeping an eye on this, as we want to avoid situations where players feel like they are always shooting at barriers.
Added the Hero-Specific Options:
Developer Comment: Reinhardt has been overperforming after the recent increases to his offensive capabilities. Those changes have been playing well, so to adjust his overall power, we’re reducing his overall health through this armor reduction.
Developer Comment: In similar fashion to Roadhog's Chain Hook combo changes last season, we'd generally like to avoid heroes in the Tank role from killing enemies in one shot. Earthshatter direct hit damage is being reduced with that goal in mind. In most cases, targets on the receiving end would die anyway during the knockdown stun, but it does open up some potential for their allies to intervene.
For now, we're fine with Charge pin staying lethal to many characters due to the difficulty and risk involved. The Fire Strike damage increase does mean it could once again one-shot when combined with Baptiste's Amplification Matrix, but that requires an ultimate combo with another hero. We'll see how it plays out and adjust if necessary.
The Rocket Hammer knockback reduction sounds like a loss of power though it is actually aiming to reduce the number of times Reinhardt accidentally knocks enemies out of his melee range.