Reinhardt Synergies and Matchups

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Role in the Current Meta
  • 2. Reinhardt Synergies
  • 3. Reinhardt Counters
  • 4. Reinhardt Is Strong Against
  • 5. Reinhardt TL;DR Tips
  • 6. Reading Further for Reinhardt
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Reinhardt TL;DR Tips
  • 2. General Playstyle
  • 3. Rocket Hammer
  • 4. Barrier Field
  • 5. Charge
  • 6. Fire Strike
  • 7. Earthshatter
• ×Synergies and Matchups
  • 1. Synergies
    • 1.1. Ana
    • 1.2. Soldier: 76
    • 1.3. Mei
  • 2. Counters
    • 2.1. Doomfist
    • 2.2. Pharah
    • 2.3. Sombra
    • 2.4. McCree
  • 3. Strong Against
    • 3.1. Soldier: 76
    • 3.2. Torbjorn

On this page, we list the good and bad matchups for Reinhardt. More specifically, we list the heroes that Reinhardt synergizes well with, the heroes that counter Reinhardt, and those that Reinhardt is strong against.

The other pages of our Reinhardt guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

Ana and Reinhardt form an excellent team that compliment each other in almost every way. Reinhardt can shield Ana from enemy damage dealers, allowing her to free heal without worrying about being picked off. They both have very similar ultimate charge times, so you will often find them ready to combo in fights. Despite Reinhardt not being the best choice for her ultimate when compared to a Soldier: 76, he is certainly still a good choice.

If your Ana uses Nano Boost on you, push into the enemy team and start swinging. Do not waste time by using your Charge ability, since the travel time associated with it will often just waste some of the Nano Boost damage that you could have benefited from. Keep an eye out for whoever Ana uses her Biotic Grenade on, since they should be an easy kill. When the Nano Boost expires, check your HP and, if needed, put your shield up and allow Ana to recharge her ultimate on you.

If your Ana calls that someone has been hit with Sleep Dart, check the enemy's placement and decide whether you can survive a Charge on that enemy. It is an excellent way of guaranteeing someone is removed from the fight, but it is not worth it if you die as well.

Soldier: 76 has some of the highest sustained damage in the game currently and, when uncontested, he can become a serious issue for the enemy team to deal with. By working together with him as Reinhardt, you can ensure that he is well protected and able to pile pressure onto your enemies.

When Soldier takes the high ground, make sure you follow him up when possible. This is obviously not possible when he takes the roof position on Hanamura, but you can certainly stand on the first roof with him on Dorado, for example.

Try to make sure that you stand with Soldier on your left, otherwise your hammer will block his view and he might be unable to finish off enemies due to lack of vision. This applies even more so to immobile heroes, such as Bastion, that you are protecting.

The combination of Mei and Reinhardt is incredibly powerful if executed well on a choke point. Reinhardt's biggest issue with his Charge is that it places him in a dangerous position where he can be quickly killed off by the enemy team. You can fix this by planning well with your Mei.

When your shield is starting to drop, let your team know and start to move to safety. Leave the choke point open to be pushed and inform your Mei as to what is happening. As soon as the enemy team pushes through, your Mei can use Ice Wall to block off a priority target, such as the enemy Reinhardt. As soon as you see this happen, use your Charge on him. The Ice Wall will stop you from going to far into the enemy team and ensure a kill on the enemy target.

By the time the target is dead and the wall has dropped, you can simply get back into position with your shield and wait for another opportunity to do the same thing.

Reinhardt's defensive capabilities rely entirely on his ability to block shots that are aimed at his teammates with Barrier Field. As soon as a hero steps in and starts moving Reinhardt out of position, it becomes a huge problem. Doomfist is absolutely perfect at forcing Reinhardt away from the front lines and ensuring a pick is made on one of the squishier heroes.

The key to stopping this happening is in your movement while holding your Barrier Field. As soon as you see Doomfist start to charge his Rocket Punch, you will need to decide if he is going to use it on you. If so, call it out to your team immediately. As Doomfist prepares to release it, drop your shield momentarily and use the freedom of movement to jump the side. If this is timed correctly, you will simply jump out of Doomfist's way and then have the barrier back up without anyone dying.

It is also worth noting that, when using Rocket Punch, Doomfist moves in a straight line. This means he is an incredibly easy target for your Fire Strike.

Pharah is a huge issue for Reinhardt in almost every single way. She can harass him effectively from range and, given the nature of her movement, she can pick off targets behind him easily. Her Concussive Blast also means that a Reinhardt can very quickly find himself in a dangerous situation without the aid of his teammates.

As Reinhardt, there is very little you can do to actually stop her. You are, unfortunately, completely at the mercy of your teammates here. Communicate with your hitscan damage dealers and ensure you protect them long enough for them to put some pressure on the enemy Pharah.

At the start of a match, when you are positioned on high ground, try to stand further away from the edge until she has used her Concussive Blast. If you get knocked off, call for support from your healers and move backwards with your Barrier Field up to safety.

Sound is key when fighting Sombra, since she has a number of audio cues to alert you to her presence. As soon as you are aware that the enemy team has a Sombra, inform your team so that they can quickly shut her down.

If she does get her Hack off on you, call to your team that you are hacked. Move away from the enemy team quickly so that you do not feed them ultimate charge.

McCree mainly becomes an issue when he has the support of his team behind him. His damage is too weak to be considered as much of a threat to your shield as Roadhog or Bastion, but his Flashbang is a major problem. McCree can run up to you as Reinhardt and throw the Flashbang directly over your shield. This will stun you for a short time and cause you to drop your shield, allowing the enemy team to take advantage of the situation.

In order to prevent this happening, you have to keep watch on the enemy McCree. As soon as he moves forward for a Flashbang, you need to tilt your Barrier Field up to the sky to catch the effect of the Flashbang and prevent it from hitting you. This will take some practice to get right, but it can end up saving your teammates from being picked off.

Your shield can also be excellent at stopping McCree's Deadeye, but it is worth noting that a fully charged High Noon will still kill people behind your shield if there are enough of them. McCree shoots his ultimate in multiple bullets. This means that, if there are more than 2 people hiding behind your shield, a third would die since the shield would be broken by the first shots.

Soldier functions incredibly well as a sustained damage dealer and often positions himself to ensure that he is as difficult to kill as possible. By playing Reinhardt, you can allow your team to push in behind your shield and either eliminate the enemy Soldier or simply ignore him and push onto the point. Soldier is most effective at eliminating particularly isolated targets and, given that his Tactical Visor is tailored towards ensuring accuracy rather than increasing his damage, Reinhardt's Barrier Field is a perfect counter to it.

It is important to note that, despite what you may wish to do, do not drop your Barrier Field to throw a Fire Strike at a distant enemy Soldier. You are unlikely to kill him with it, he can simply heal up and you may be giving him a window to pick off a weaker teammate of yours.

One of the biggest issues when dealing with a well-placed turret is the inability to kill it before it kills you as a flanker. Normal damage dealers normally cannot get to the turret fast enough without being detected. Reinhardt makes this a huge deal easier by giving his team a shield to push directly into the turret with.

Communicate with your team so that you know exactly where the turret is placed and then push the point so that you can shield your damage dealer, such as Soldier, while he destroys the turret. It is important to maintain your shield until the turret or Torbjörn are dead. Only drop it once either is dead and use your Fire Strike to finish the other one off.

About our Author

Blainie is a Grand Master Support and Tank player, with a focus on analysis of gameplay and the meta surrounding Overwatch. He regularly streams his ranked games on Twitch, where he can answer any questions you may have about the game or guides.