Overwatch: Reinhardt abilities have all been slowed down, but it doesn’t look like it was intentional

By Sherif Saed

Reinhardt mains have discovered a major, undocumented change to their favourite hero in Overwatch’s latest update.

With the launch of Overwatch‘s Anniversary event, Blizzard made some adjustments to the game’s netcode that – on the surface – didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect on players.

It now looks like there has indeed been change to how heroes play, at least for Reinhardt. One player took to the game’s forums (via PCGamesN) to explain how they’re no longer able to cancel a hammer swing into a shield. The issue appears to be a change to the particular point in the animation when the hammer actually hits.

The player noted that he plays at a ping of 170ms, and this was never an issue for him before. He’s unable to reduce his ping time, given his location. He also reported a delay after pressing shift to use the charge ability.

Don’t know what a Reinhardt is? Our mega Overwath guide has all the answers.

The video above demonstrates this delay clearly, which players feel is directly tied to the change to netcode in the recent patch. After the patch, the server now sends the client a confirmation after a key has been pressed, delaying the effect. This is why it’s more noticeable for players with higher pings, or at least that’s the theory.

Blizzard’s Bill Warnecke has since responded, confirming that there’s no intentional nerf in place, and promised to investigate further.

This delay will no doubt throw a lot of Reinhardt mains off, especially those with pings higher than 150ms. Until Blizzard changes some values, though, it’s something you should be aware of in case you run into it.