Reinhardt Mains Just Got Their First Overwatch 2 Win In A Hot Minute

To a lot of people, Reinhardt is still the quintessential tank character in Overwatch 2. The shield-bearing, hammer-swinging old man is one of the original 21 heroes, has some of the most straightforward and comprehensible utility of any character on the roster, and he’s overall just a fun character to have in your team composition. He’s also become a lot less useful than he once was as Overwatch 2 has introduced so many new characters and reworks that hard-counter just about everything in his kit. Ramattra’s Pummel attack pierces his shield, Sombra’s hacks can shut it off long enough to steamroll him and his team, and Kiriko’s Protection Suzu, a cooldown ability that cleanses status effects, essentially hard-countered his Ultimate to the point of uselessness. But Overwatch 2’s eleventh season is throwing our boy a bone, and Reinhardt players are stoked.

Kiriko is getting a slight nerf in season 11 that will remove Protection Suzu’s ability to undo “hard knockdown stuns.” This refers to any stun that knocks an enemy onto the ground, such as when Doomfist and Brigitte clash and cancel out each other’s charge abilities. The most prominent example of this is Reinhardt’s Earthshatter Ultimate ability, which knocks down enemies in a decent-sized area in front of him. This gives players a window to get in some free attacks and can be used to quickly wipe out at least a couple enemies standing between you and the objective. Originally, Kiriko’s Suzu could pretty much wipe away Earthshatter and get teammates back on their feet with little risk. That’s no longer the case, and as you might expect, Reinhardt mains are celebrating the change.

Ultimately it is frustrating for Kiriko fans, as it creates an arbitrary inconsistency in how Suzu works. But that’s hardly new for Overwatch 2. Sombra’s hacks can shut down some hero ultimates but not others and the reasoning has always been questionable. But Suzu has been a contentious ability since Kiriko debuted at Overwatch 2’s launch, so what’s more controversy and discourse after all this time? At least Reinhardt gets to swing his big hammer around with reckless abandon.

The rest of the season 11 balance patches read as follows:

HERO UPDATES

General

Knockdown time when two charging abilities collide reduced from 2 to 1.7 seconds.

Developer Comments: This stun time reduction applies to the knockdown that happens when two charging abilities collide and result in a tie (with Reinhardt, Doomfist, Brigitte, Mauga, Bob). The counterplay and interaction of two charging abilities impacting each other is great, but it took both players out of the fight a little too long.

TANK

D.VA

Developer Comments: These changes will improve D.Va’s effectiveness against smaller targets as she became less effective against armored enemies in the previous patch.

Fusion Cannons 

• Weapon spread reduced from 3.75 to 3.375 degrees.

Boosters 

• Impact damage increased from 15 to 25.

JUNKER QUEEN

Developer Comments: The Tank knockback resistance passive was affecting Junker Queen’s pull effect more than intended. The distance can be affected by their movement, but Tanks are now pulled in about 5-6 meters instead of only 3 meters or so.

Jagged Blade

Rampage

• Startup time reduced from 0.75 to 0.5 seconds.

ORISA

Developer Comments: Orisa’s survivability was reduced more than necessary in her last round of changes so we’re partially reverting the cooldown increase to Javelin Spin.

Javelin Spin

• Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds.

ROADHOG

Developer Comments: Roadhog’s already-powerful survivability increased significantly with the headshot damage reduction from the tank role passive so these changes are to help bring that back in line.

• Base health reduced from 650 to 600.

Take a Breather

• Damage reduction reduced from 50 to 40%.

DAMAGE

CASSIDY

Developer Comments: We’re reverting the Magnetic Grenade ability to be deployed like Cassidy’s previous Flashbang ability, but it will keep the Hinder effect instead of a full stun. We’ve heard feedback surrounding the Magnetic Grenade ability and agree that while the fantasy of a homing grenade was fun, the moment-to-moment gameplay of it often felt too unpredictable as to whether it would land or not. The Hinder effect has been a useful tool to act as a counter to highly mobile heroes without going back to a full stun and the enemy player losing the ability to fight back.

The Deadeye ultimate is getting an adjustment to increase its flexibility toward the end of its duration, enabling it to get value outside of buying time for Cassidy or his allies, though it may be riskier to hold it for a long time as the damage reduction will fade away along with the movement speed penalty.

Peacekeeper

• Secondary fire “Fan the Hammer” damage reduced from 50 to 45.

Combat Roll

• Damage reduction reduced from 75 to 50%.

Flashbang

• Magnetic Grenade ability is now Flashbang.
• Hinders enemies instead of Stunning them for 1.2 seconds.
• Movement speed reduction increased from 30% to 50%.
• Hinder now prevents crouching movement.
• 45 explosive damage.
• 12 second cooldown.

Deadeye

• Movement speed penalty now scales down over time, from 70% to 35%.
• Damage reduction now scales down over time, from 40% to 0%.

MEI

Developer Comments: Mei’s damage output over time is intended to be on the low end for a Damage hero, as she offers strong utility and survivability through her ability kit, but we would like to make the secondary fire icicle more rewarding by increasing the damage and slightly more difficult to land consistently.

Endothermic Blaster

• Secondary fire base projectile size reduced from 0.15 to 0.12 meters.
• Secondary fire damage increased from 75 to 85.

REAPER

Developer Comments: With the previous patch change to how armor reduces damage, shotgun weapon heroes like Reaper lost some value since much of their gameplan revolved around pressuring large tank heroes. To help shift Reaper toward being more effective against smaller targets we’re tightening the weapon spread on the Hellfire Shotguns and reducing the amount of time enemies have to react to his Shadow Step teleport.

Hellfire Shotguns

• Weapon spread reduced from 6.5 to 6 degrees.

Shadow Step

• Cast time reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds.

SOJOURN

Developer Comments: This change is reducing the burst damage potential of the secondary fire Railgun shot to both lessen frustration from playing against that burst damage, and to shift power into her sustained primary fire damage. This should smooth out the feast-or-famine nature of Sojourn consistently hitting the secondary fire shots.

Railgun

• Secondary fire damage scaling reduced from 30-130 damage down to 1-100 damage.
• Secondary fire projectile no longer requires Overclock to pierce enemy players.
• Primary fire shots per second increased from 14 to 16.

Overclock

• Energy charge rate increased from 100 to 120 per second.

SYMMETRA

Developer Comments: To help solidify Symmetra as a close-range threat, we’re increasing her health to better survive in that range, along with how quickly her primary fire beam damage ramps up.

• Base health increased from 100 to 125 (Total health increased from 250 to 275).

Photon Projector

• Primary fire charge rate increased 25%.

SUPPORT

ILLARI

Developer Comments: Illari’s Healing Pylon is intended to be useful for healing her team in relatively safe positions without much focus required, which enables her to either apply pressure with her primary fire or spot heal in bursts from her more limited secondary fire healing beam. To encourage this, it now has improved health and healing output, but is less effective when Illari uses it to heal herself.

Outburst

• Damage increased from 10 to 25.

Healing Pylon

• Healing per projectile increased from 30 to 40.
• Pylon healing is now only half as effective when targeting Illari.
• Max health increased from 100 to 125.

KIRIKO

Developer Comments: “Hard knockdown stuns” refer to most all of the existing knockdowns where the player is stunned and laying on the ground (such as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter), with the exception of Ana’s Sleep Dart effect, which is removed upon taking damage or Protection Suzu’s cleanse.

Swift Step

• Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.

Protection Suzu

• No longer cleanses hard knockdown stuns.