5/29/2025
Developer Comments: The interaction between Feeling the Burn and effects that triggered off Rocket Hammer damage proved to be too strong, so we're removing it while giving some small improvements to some underutilized powers and items.
Barrier Reconstruction - Power
- Increased Barrier Health Restoration from Damage to 15% (up from 10%).
Feeling the Burn - Power
- No longer applies to Smashing and Dampener Grip.
Dampener Grip – Epic Weapon Hero Item
- Increased Ability Power to 15% (up from 10%).
5/16/2025
Developer comments: To compensate for the buff to Reinhardt's Fire Strike in Core Overwatch, we're decreasing the burst potential of Reinhardt's Fire Strike build and normalizing the max projectile speed Fire Strike can reach. We're also tuning down Reinhardt's Melee build to be a bit more counterable, which is performing too consistently given the high payoff of the build.
Smashing - Power
- Reduced Move Speed per stack to 1% (down from 2%).
- Reduced Life Steal per stack to 3% (down from 5%).
- Increased maximum stacks to 10 (up from 5).
- Reduced duration to 2s (down from 3s).
To Me, My Friends! - Power
- Increased healing based on Max Life to 4% (up from 3%).
Wilhelmwagen - Power
- Decreased healing from damage mitigated to 5% (down from 15%).
Rocket Strike - Epic Hero Ability Item
- Decreased Fire Strike Projectile Speed to 25% (down from 50%).
- Decreased Ability Power to 10% (down from 20%).
Chimera's Maw - Rare Hero Ability Item
- Decreased Ability Power to 5% (down from 10%).
5/9/2025
Developer Comments: Reinhardt has been overperforming, especially at lower levels. We're tuning down some of the powers that are most difficult to counterplay, such as Melee Reinhardt feeling inescapable due to his crazy amount of Move Speed or being one shot by an Impact Burst Fire Strike. As an important known issue with this balance change, the Move Speed per stack is currently not represented correctly on the tooltip but it is functionally set to 2%. This will be fixed in a future update.
Impact Burst – Power
- Reduced bonus damage to 15% (down from 20%).
Smashing – Power
- Reduced Move Speed per stack to 2% (down from 3%).
5/1/2025
Developer Comments: Reinhardt had a higher rate of earning Cash from damage and healing due to his range. However, Reinhardt has been overperforming and making a bit too much Cash so we’re pulling this back a bit.
- Reduced the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 13.64%
4/22/2025
Fiery Uptake
- Removed.
Crusader’s Fire
- New Minor Perk
- Refund a charge of Fire Strike when you stun an enemy, overfilling up to 3.
Shield Slam
- Shield Slam distance increased by 50%.
4/1/2025
Developer Comments: Reinhardt recently saw some street racing anime and has become so obsessed with it that he has learned to drift.
Charge
- Cooldown reduced from 7 to 3.5 seconds.
- Turn speed increased by 150%.
- Charge lasts until you collide with a wall.
3/18/2025
Developer Comments: We’re making improvements to several of Reinhardt's perks to increase their usability in various situations.
Crusader's Resolve
- Passive Regeneration trigger rate increased from 50% to 75%.
Shield Slam
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
2/18/2025
Crusader's Resolve
- While using Barrier Field, your passive health regeneration triggers 50% sooner.
Fiery Uptake
- Barrier Field is healed for 100% of Fire Strike's damage dealt.
Shield Slam
- While Barrier Field is active, use Secondary Fire to damage and knockback enemies.
Crushing Victory
- Charge damage grants temporary overhealth for 50% of the damage dealt.
12/17/2024
- Base health increased from 250 to 325.
- Base armor reduced from 300 to 225.
- Now has the Steadfast passive again, reducing knockback by 30%.
Barrier Field
- Health increased from 1500 to 2000.
Charge
- Cooldown increased from 7 to 10 seconds.
- Steering reduced 50%.
Fire Strike
- Ability charges reduced from 2 to 1.
Earthshatter
- Distance reduced from 25 to 20 meters.
10/15/2024
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.
Barrier Field
- Barrier Field health reduced from 1600 to 1500.
7/5/2024
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.
Barrier Field
- Maximum health increased from 1400 to 1600.
- Barrier regeneration rate increased from 140 to 160 health per second.
Charge
- Wall impact damage increased from 275 to 300.
4/16/2024
Earthshatter
- Knockdown duration increased from 2.75 to 3 seconds.
- Shockwave range increased from 20 to 25 meters.
4/1/2024
Reinhardt Comment: HAHA! THIS IS JUST LIKE PING PONG! WATCH THIS, BRIGITTE! I WILL BE ENTERING THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR!
Barrier Field
- You can now press Primary Fire to reflects projectiles.
- Health decreases by 20% every second while reflecting.
- Barrier size decreased to 50% while Reflecting.
- Camera Lock input now bound to Quick Melee.
3/8/2024
- Armor increased from 275 to 300.
Fire Strike
- Damage increased from 100 to 120.
2/13/2024
- Health increased from 200 to 250.
- Armor increased from 250 to 275.
Rocket Hammer
- Damage increased from 85 to 100.
Charge
- Wall impact damage increased from 225 to 275.
10/10/2023
Added the hero-specific option:
- Charge Cancel Input – Ability 1 by default, with Primary Fire, Secondary Fire, or All as additional options available.
7/11/2023
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.
Barrier Field
- Maximum health increased from 1200 to 1400.
5/9/2023
Added the Hero-Specific Options:
- Relative Aim Sensitivity During Barrier Field - 100% by default
- Relative Gyro Aim Sensitivity During Barrier Field - 100% by default (only available on gyro-supported platforms)
- Hold To Use Charge - Off by default
- Hide Charge Cancel Text - Off by default
4/11/2023
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.
- Armor health reduced from 300 to 250
- Base health increased from 175 to 200
2/7/2023
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.
- Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 325
- Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 325 to 175
Rocket Hammer
- Knockback impulse reduced from 10 to 6
Charge
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds
Fire Strike
- Damage increased from 90 to 100
Earthshatter
- Direct hit damage reduced from 250 to 170
- Knockdown duration increased from 2.5 to 2.75 seconds
- Ultimate cost increased 7%