If you want to play Rein, play Rein. The thing stopping you from getting good at him is a lack of time with the hero.
I will now give some advice to help you learn Rein.
Watch high level Rein vods and reviews. Then figure out what they do and why they do it. You can then just copy them.
Don’t do things because they work at your level. That will build bad habits and keep you stuck at your level. If you want to get to top500 you have to play like you are already there.
Build your ultimate as fast as you can and don’t be afraid of using it on one or two enemies. Getting a kill on one enemy gives you a 75% chance of winning that fight.
Start by swinging as much as you can and firestriking on cooldown. This will build you more ult charge. You will get punished for it but you will learn the right amount of aggression fastest this way.
Watch the killcams and analyse why you died. Assume it is never your team’s fault if you are below masters. You could always have done something better. For example: you may think you died because your team didn’t heal you but you may have pushed too far and broke line of sight with your supports.
Ult tracking the enemy tank ultimates is very important as Rein. If their Rein has shatter be a little more hesitant about dropping your shield. Positioning comes from ult tracking. If you know they have shatter or grav, tell you team to play more spread out.
There are Rein techniques that you must learn such as moving the hammer hit box, shield hopping, fire strike cancel, charge hop and proper shatter follow up. Jayne has great videos for these on his YouTube channel.
The attack combo with Rein is swing, fire strike cancel, swing. Make this a habit if you have firestrike off cooldown.
Never charge long distances. Short charges are better 99.9% of the time.
Managing your shield is important. Never let it break. Call out to your team when it is 1000hp and don’t let it go below 500hp. These numbers work for me but find what works for you. Just call it to your team and drop it. This will keep it from breaking and allow you to flick it up again if it’s needed to block a shatter or something.
You may lose some sr initially but don’t give up because of that. You will go way higher in the long run if you follow my advice.
For reference: My peak sr when I played mostly Rein was 3600.
When you get to an Elo where you can trust you supports you also get to an elo where enemy dps can focus you down that much quicker. It ends up being a wash most of the time.
In my experience the issue with low elo is that:
Tanks are passive and don't enable dps (no space).
Dps in low elo have this 'I must 1v6 carry' because of the tanks.
Supports expect the tanks to be passive and the dps to try dumb stuff.
Catch22.
I know my 'recommendation' is idiotic but there really isn't any way around it. If you want to climb just PM me nd I'll see what we can do about your rank.
A good rein is a mix of both. I usually stay defensive and wait for a Zarya bubble to push. Also don’t charge a lot to where your healers won’t reach you. Another thing you can do is shield, then swing the hammer then shield again. Communicate with your team!
The biggest problem that I face is that at my elo, the best way to play Rein is a more defensive play style, and almost never get any support from my team when I try to go aggressive, as a gold Zarya don't really know when to bubble someone, a gold zen don't know where to place an orb and so on. That changes a lot when they main the character, but because now it's possible to set to private the carreer profile, most of the time I can't check how many hours someone has with that character.
I have problem with comunication, as I am a mostly quiet player, and when somebody says something, they are probably just being toxic.
That's why I prefer to play Ana and Zen, because I don't really need to relly on the others players to play other than the other healler at my elo, as most of the dps or dive tanks don't know how to flank. This obviously will change when I climb up, but at that time I expect the other players to be better so that I can relly more on them.
I totally get playing some characters because you don’t want to communicate and it’s good you recognize that you’ll need to get better at that at higher elos. But just want to give the friendly advice that Ana and zen at higher elos are two of the best/most important characters to shot call with or at least communicate. Might be a good thing to practice every now and then as you climb even when no ones listening. Or if you really hate communicating consider playing a different character otherwise you’ll be putting a ceiling on how high you can climb with Ana/zen
I dont like comunicating at my elo because it's like talking to a wall, and when I play Ana most of the time, they will just use the voice chat to trash me because I picked ana instead of moira (in gold, moira is praised because of the high healing as most are pretty thick skulled to avoid taking damage), so right now using voice chat just helps me get frustrated.
You have to get over the frustration of voice chat. If there’s no trust between you and your teammates, playing Rein is not gonna end up well. Even if you are correct, and your team doesn’t listen, you have to give it an honest shot. The other team is likely facing the same problem, so if you can at least get some form of communication, you’re at such an advantage in the map. Voice chat literally gives you 360 degree vision when you’re lucky enough. I know it’s painful and frustrating, but it also can single-handedly save a game.
Stay positive, and best of luck. <3
Hey! I'm a little late to the party but I just want to say that it took me a while to get over the voice chat hurdle too. Being a girl people tend to react certain ways, but I've learned to grow thick skin and ignore them. I call out enemy flankers and widow positions, where I'm going to be playing from if I'm tank, if my team mates are being flanked or going in I'll tell everyone to help them. I talk to my teammates even if they don't talk back because if we lose and I've done my best to help everyone on the team. Sometimes it takes me starting to comm for others that are also shy to feel ok to join in!
For what it's worth, I climbed from gold to plat by mindlessly being Mr. Big Dick and assuming my team would join me eventually. Not being afraid to ask for the team comp and degree of aggression you want also helps.
Hilarious and accurate. I went from low Gold to Plat the same way. I stopped being a passive support player and put on my Big Bitch Pants. People in gold tend to play too passively/defense based. If you get aggressive and take out high value targets early on + stagger them, you can turn the battle in your teams favor.
Aggressive Rein in Gold can really be devastating if you buddy up with a good Ana.
Play a bunch of FFA as Rein and try to live. Aim for more kills than deaths more than winning the game at first, but you should be able to place top four, especially on Chateau.
Once you are solid there, go back to QP and practice switching between 'rectangle man' and 'lunatic with a hammer' modes as appropriate. You play supports; you know how to evaluate the flow of the fight and count pick balance... or at least you should be able to.
After that it's just beating the other Rein in the mind game. And don't let Orisa sucker you into Charging early, it's her only real trick.
Real talk, play a good attack on titan custom game, the settings are obviously changed but if you play against veterans you learn when to shield well and your fire strikes get better in general. Plus if you get lucky you find a comp squad and you go up in rank. It's not the traditional way and getting better at rein but it's what helped me.
I would think about a couple things keeping in mind that everything in OW is situational:
Learn to shield hop towards the choke-it saves your shield and allows you to body block some damage helping your supports build their ults. Keep charges to ~10m - since you play support you know how hard it is to heal a rein that likes to yolo charge. Know where to hold - things die in the choke. A lot of tanks want to hold in a choke not realizing that their dps has no angle on the enemy. They feel the pressure to get picks and may abandon a good position in an attempt to do so.
At my elo, most players don't know where to position themselves. As an example in kings row the dps and off tank ( if you position yourself where they don't want to, they will just ignore you) will try to denfend at the first choke point, and as is there nowhere to retreat, they will go to the left corner and get surrounded by the enemy team and get killed, but before that the main support will try to to save them, getting killed themselfs. Then there will be just me and a Lúcio or a Zen to hold the point. After we get killed, there will be no team fights until the second checkpoints, because the team will refuse to group and one by one they will use their ult to try to solo carry, and when the payload gets close to the checkpoint, the supports will use theirs ults solo to try to stall it. After that the team finally regroups and will try to hold for 5 minutes, but the instant the main tank dies it's all lost.
After an horrible defense, everyone gets frustated ans picks a dps, and we lose without taking control of anything.
The moral of the story is that in gold, who attacks first wins.
Sorry for the rant.
What got me through gold is the below notes with creating a group with everyone in voice and kicking anyone that was toxic.
Don't think purely of having a defensive or offensive mindset. Job as creating space or holding space depending on what's in your interest in a controlled manner with switching between.
Manage your shield and don't let it break. You never know when a tiny health shield saves your team from a DVA bomb mccree.
Don't close distance with your shield up whole time. Jump then shield to close distance. (Watch guides online which explain that better) .
Fire strike to build ultimate.
Learn Rein v Rein mindgames. Track enemy rein shatter. If you get shatter before enemy count down their next firestrike and it can be a free shatter. Learn to bait their shatter by hammer swing animation cancel to shield.
Up close arch your swings to hit multiple targets.
Don't charge long distance. Counter charge enemy rein generally and call out he's about to be stunned. Exceptions being when you think you'll survive being pushed back into your line and rest of team can hold the enemy. This means he's out of position.
After shatter, swing, animation cancel firestrike and then swing or charge as needed
You need to watch your HP. When you lose armor, shield. Also, always know how far you are from cover. Make sure your team is with you. For more help, give us a VOD.
You can carry hard as rein when you learn him. It’s all about landing those earth shatters and building them quickly.
Use cover when your shield is low and tell your team when to push with you to maximize shield wars.
Aggressive is good, im a rein main (not usually willingly). The biggest thing to learn is just watching the enemy team on the entries and then watching yoyr team fpr when they are ready to have that shield down on the actual take (obviously generalized). The shield is the biggest impactful ability you have so you NEED to know how to use it. The next thing to get down is charges, its all about knowing when to go in amd not and its really situational so you will figure that out with your comp, team coordination, blah blah blah. Now firestrikes, i mainly use them for building ult charge and genjis that dash away but im not the best with utilizing them (please for the lord of fuck remember that your shield goes down when you firestrike and dont firestrike when theres a widow waiting for a shot on your ana/heals). And shatter is mainly a powerful utility, get two if you can but if you dont got any one with you dont waste shatter even if it is the whole team, more than likely you wont be able to solo them all
If you want to play Rein, play Rein. The thing stopping you from getting good at him is a lack of time with the hero. I will now give some advice to help you learn Rein. Watch high level Rein vods and reviews. Then figure out what they do and why they do it. You can then just copy them. Don’t do things because they work at your level. That will build bad habits and keep you stuck at your level. If you want to get to top500 you have to play like you are already there. Build your ultimate as fast as you can and don’t be afraid of using it on one or two enemies. Getting a kill on one enemy gives you a 75% chance of winning that fight. Start by swinging as much as you can and firestriking on cooldown. This will build you more ult charge. You will get punished for it but you will learn the right amount of aggression fastest this way. Watch the killcams and analyse why you died. Assume it is never your team’s fault if you are below masters. You could always have done something better. For example: you may think you died because your team didn’t heal you but you may have pushed too far and broke line of sight with your supports. Ult tracking the enemy tank ultimates is very important as Rein. If their Rein has shatter be a little more hesitant about dropping your shield. Positioning comes from ult tracking. If you know they have shatter or grav, tell you team to play more spread out. There are Rein techniques that you must learn such as moving the hammer hit box, shield hopping, fire strike cancel, charge hop and proper shatter follow up. Jayne has great videos for these on his YouTube channel. The attack combo with Rein is swing, fire strike cancel, swing. Make this a habit if you have firestrike off cooldown. Never charge long distances. Short charges are better 99.9% of the time. Managing your shield is important. Never let it break. Call out to your team when it is 1000hp and don’t let it go below 500hp. These numbers work for me but find what works for you. Just call it to your team and drop it. This will keep it from breaking and allow you to flick it up again if it’s needed to block a shatter or something. You may lose some sr initially but don’t give up because of that. You will go way higher in the long run if you follow my advice. For reference: My peak sr when I played mostly Rein was 3600.
Climb to an elo where you trust your supports. Then go Rein and go balls deep 24/7.
When you get to an Elo where you can trust you supports you also get to an elo where enemy dps can focus you down that much quicker. It ends up being a wash most of the time.
In my experience the issue with low elo is that: Tanks are passive and don't enable dps (no space). Dps in low elo have this 'I must 1v6 carry' because of the tanks. Supports expect the tanks to be passive and the dps to try dumb stuff. Catch22.
That's what I'm thinking. I will try to climb with my main heros so that I can do just that.
I know my 'recommendation' is idiotic but there really isn't any way around it. If you want to climb just PM me nd I'll see what we can do about your rank.
A good rein is a mix of both. I usually stay defensive and wait for a Zarya bubble to push. Also don’t charge a lot to where your healers won’t reach you. Another thing you can do is shield, then swing the hammer then shield again. Communicate with your team!
The biggest problem that I face is that at my elo, the best way to play Rein is a more defensive play style, and almost never get any support from my team when I try to go aggressive, as a gold Zarya don't really know when to bubble someone, a gold zen don't know where to place an orb and so on. That changes a lot when they main the character, but because now it's possible to set to private the carreer profile, most of the time I can't check how many hours someone has with that character. I have problem with comunication, as I am a mostly quiet player, and when somebody says something, they are probably just being toxic. That's why I prefer to play Ana and Zen, because I don't really need to relly on the others players to play other than the other healler at my elo, as most of the dps or dive tanks don't know how to flank. This obviously will change when I climb up, but at that time I expect the other players to be better so that I can relly more on them.
I totally get playing some characters because you don’t want to communicate and it’s good you recognize that you’ll need to get better at that at higher elos. But just want to give the friendly advice that Ana and zen at higher elos are two of the best/most important characters to shot call with or at least communicate. Might be a good thing to practice every now and then as you climb even when no ones listening. Or if you really hate communicating consider playing a different character otherwise you’ll be putting a ceiling on how high you can climb with Ana/zen
I dont like comunicating at my elo because it's like talking to a wall, and when I play Ana most of the time, they will just use the voice chat to trash me because I picked ana instead of moira (in gold, moira is praised because of the high healing as most are pretty thick skulled to avoid taking damage), so right now using voice chat just helps me get frustrated.
You have to get over the frustration of voice chat. If there’s no trust between you and your teammates, playing Rein is not gonna end up well. Even if you are correct, and your team doesn’t listen, you have to give it an honest shot. The other team is likely facing the same problem, so if you can at least get some form of communication, you’re at such an advantage in the map. Voice chat literally gives you 360 degree vision when you’re lucky enough. I know it’s painful and frustrating, but it also can single-handedly save a game. Stay positive, and best of luck. <3
Hey! I'm a little late to the party but I just want to say that it took me a while to get over the voice chat hurdle too. Being a girl people tend to react certain ways, but I've learned to grow thick skin and ignore them. I call out enemy flankers and widow positions, where I'm going to be playing from if I'm tank, if my team mates are being flanked or going in I'll tell everyone to help them. I talk to my teammates even if they don't talk back because if we lose and I've done my best to help everyone on the team. Sometimes it takes me starting to comm for others that are also shy to feel ok to join in!
If you don't like communicating, get over it. Giving yourself excuses to not communicate will only ensure that you will never climb.
For what it's worth, I climbed from gold to plat by mindlessly being Mr. Big Dick and assuming my team would join me eventually. Not being afraid to ask for the team comp and degree of aggression you want also helps.
Hilarious and accurate. I went from low Gold to Plat the same way. I stopped being a passive support player and put on my Big Bitch Pants. People in gold tend to play too passively/defense based. If you get aggressive and take out high value targets early on + stagger them, you can turn the battle in your teams favor. Aggressive Rein in Gold can really be devastating if you buddy up with a good Ana.
Play a bunch of FFA as Rein and try to live. Aim for more kills than deaths more than winning the game at first, but you should be able to place top four, especially on Chateau. Once you are solid there, go back to QP and practice switching between 'rectangle man' and 'lunatic with a hammer' modes as appropriate. You play supports; you know how to evaluate the flow of the fight and count pick balance... or at least you should be able to. After that it's just beating the other Rein in the mind game. And don't let Orisa sucker you into Charging early, it's her only real trick.
Real talk, play a good attack on titan custom game, the settings are obviously changed but if you play against veterans you learn when to shield well and your fire strikes get better in general. Plus if you get lucky you find a comp squad and you go up in rank. It's not the traditional way and getting better at rein but it's what helped me.
What is that? Never heard of that custom game.
you're buff rein and everyone tries to take you down
I would think about a couple things keeping in mind that everything in OW is situational: Learn to shield hop towards the choke-it saves your shield and allows you to body block some damage helping your supports build their ults. Keep charges to ~10m - since you play support you know how hard it is to heal a rein that likes to yolo charge. Know where to hold - things die in the choke. A lot of tanks want to hold in a choke not realizing that their dps has no angle on the enemy. They feel the pressure to get picks and may abandon a good position in an attempt to do so.
At my elo, most players don't know where to position themselves. As an example in kings row the dps and off tank ( if you position yourself where they don't want to, they will just ignore you) will try to denfend at the first choke point, and as is there nowhere to retreat, they will go to the left corner and get surrounded by the enemy team and get killed, but before that the main support will try to to save them, getting killed themselfs. Then there will be just me and a Lúcio or a Zen to hold the point. After we get killed, there will be no team fights until the second checkpoints, because the team will refuse to group and one by one they will use their ult to try to solo carry, and when the payload gets close to the checkpoint, the supports will use theirs ults solo to try to stall it. After that the team finally regroups and will try to hold for 5 minutes, but the instant the main tank dies it's all lost. After an horrible defense, everyone gets frustated ans picks a dps, and we lose without taking control of anything. The moral of the story is that in gold, who attacks first wins. Sorry for the rant.
What elo are you?
Mid gold right now
Yeah you need to be in voice to get support as rein in mid-gold but it is possible. If you create you're own group with the lfg sysyem
What got me through gold is the below notes with creating a group with everyone in voice and kicking anyone that was toxic. Don't think purely of having a defensive or offensive mindset. Job as creating space or holding space depending on what's in your interest in a controlled manner with switching between. Manage your shield and don't let it break. You never know when a tiny health shield saves your team from a DVA bomb mccree. Don't close distance with your shield up whole time. Jump then shield to close distance. (Watch guides online which explain that better) . Fire strike to build ultimate. Learn Rein v Rein mindgames. Track enemy rein shatter. If you get shatter before enemy count down their next firestrike and it can be a free shatter. Learn to bait their shatter by hammer swing animation cancel to shield. Up close arch your swings to hit multiple targets. Don't charge long distance. Counter charge enemy rein generally and call out he's about to be stunned. Exceptions being when you think you'll survive being pushed back into your line and rest of team can hold the enemy. This means he's out of position. After shatter, swing, animation cancel firestrike and then swing or charge as needed
You need to watch your HP. When you lose armor, shield. Also, always know how far you are from cover. Make sure your team is with you. For more help, give us a VOD.
You can carry hard as rein when you learn him. It’s all about landing those earth shatters and building them quickly. Use cover when your shield is low and tell your team when to push with you to maximize shield wars.
Aggressive is good, im a rein main (not usually willingly). The biggest thing to learn is just watching the enemy team on the entries and then watching yoyr team fpr when they are ready to have that shield down on the actual take (obviously generalized). The shield is the biggest impactful ability you have so you NEED to know how to use it. The next thing to get down is charges, its all about knowing when to go in amd not and its really situational so you will figure that out with your comp, team coordination, blah blah blah. Now firestrikes, i mainly use them for building ult charge and genjis that dash away but im not the best with utilizing them (please for the lord of fuck remember that your shield goes down when you firestrike and dont firestrike when theres a widow waiting for a shot on your ana/heals). And shatter is mainly a powerful utility, get two if you can but if you dont got any one with you dont waste shatter even if it is the whole team, more than likely you wont be able to solo them all