I've been a Reinhardt main since season 2 so there's my credentials for this guide.
Charge only in tight spaces. Never charge through a choke point, it's more important to keep your shield up and hold the choke than to charge in and try and get a kill. More often than not you will get picked off and the choke will get taken by the enemy team
Do not charge the second your shield goes down. Instead, retreat and recharge your shield. The only time I ever recklessly charge is when I am completely surrounded and fucked then if there is a ledge I try and take someone important with me off the ledge.
When attacking use your shield as a huge plow and slowly advance forward. Nothing pushes a team back more than an advancing Reinhardt with a full shield. If your team doesn't push with you, you're fucked so be sure to tell them what you're doing and retreat if you feel as if no one is pushing with you.
Use your firestrike liberally
Earthshatter despite the allure is often best served to kill one or two important people rather than stunning as many people as possible. If you can earthshatter a healer or a very good DPS then do it and make sure they die.
When you earthshatter prioritize your kills. Don't go swinging at tanks if there's a healer behind them, just push past them and kill that little shit before they all get up and just start healing the tank you need to hit 5 times to kill.
Don't be afraid to lower your shield early in the game to take some damage for your supports to build ult charge. About 200 damage is what I allow before throwing up my shield and letting them heal me back up.
Also, this is the proper ult combo.
Earthshatter>firestrike >swing/charge. Swing in large groups of people, make use of the cleave. In smaller groups or if you know you'll get a healer charge then swing.
If a Zarya ults do not earthshatter the people caught in the gravaton, Firestrike them and swing like a motherfucker. Then if they all manage to survive eathshatter them and finish the job.
