Coming Soon to Overwatch: Nerfs to Roadhog

[ffronw]

Coming Soon to Overwatch: Nerfs to Roadhog

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1371/1371664.jpgThe next patch coming to the Overwatch Private Test Realm will include nerfs to Roadhog, and maybe some buffs for Sombra.

Changes to multiplayer-focused games are pretty much par for the course. There's always a tweak to be made here, or an adjustment needed there. Developers make these changes in an attempt to keep games balanced, fair, and fun. As you'd expect, Blizzard's Overwatch is no different.

In this post [https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20752659040?page=3#post-58] on the Overwatch forums, principal designer Geoff Goodman talked about plans for the next patch planned to hit the Public Test Realm, specifically those related to how Roadhog's hook functions.

First up, Blizzard plans to make anyone hooked always move to a position in front of Roadhog, so he can no longer hook you and then spin around to force you off a cliff. Next, the hook will also perform a line-of-sight check, so if Roadhog can't see you, he can't hook you, even if the hook hits you.

Finally, once the hook hits you, there's another line-of-sight check. If it fails, the hook returns to Roadhog without pulling you in. That change means if you get hooked and move out of line-of-sight quickly, you can make the hook break early and you aren't pulled in.

I'm sure there will be complaints about the changes, because they will certainly make Roadhog a bit weaker. That being said, I do think that always appearing in front of him will lead to a much lower chance of hooked players escaping from that deadly blast of scrap. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out on the PTR.





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[RaikuFA]

All I can say about them nerfing Roadhog again for the 10,000 time is this:

 

[Bobular]

Its good that they try to balance like this, I'm sick of seeing Roadhog in every game I play and the same was true with McCree and Genji before they were nerfed, now they're still seen but not all the time in every game.

 

[major_chaos]

All I can say about them nerfing Roadhog again for the 10,000 time is this:Snip

Roadhog has never been nerfed. Unless

Increased the volume of Roadhog's "Want some candy" voice line.

somehow counts as a nerf to you.

OT: I'm not even sure this counts as a nerf. It's more like a consistency and fairness fix to a ability that has behaved in unintentionally erratic ways since beta. And if the changes fix the bug where hooked players sometimes end up farther away than they should, or worse, behind Roadhog, then this will be good for both Hog players and their victims.

 

[MCerberus]

I do wish though that he'd get something that lets him function better as a tank. Other than the health bar he super doesn't belong in that category.

 

[RJ 17]

Roadhog gets nerfed...but Graves still can't have a cigar....

Oh wait, wrong game. :^)

OT: So basically they decided to make Hookhog's hook obey the laws of physics and - just throwing out a hypothetical that DEFINITELY HASN'T repeatedly happened to me and create a necessity for anger management therapy - not pull people through the 2nd story floor and outer wall of a building overlooking the first point on Hollywood when the Hog throws his hook while jumping off the 2nd story balcony of a building on the other side of the point.

Yeah, this isn't a nerf...it's a fix. It just so happens that this fix means that Hookhog can no longer pull off some of the ridiculous bullshit that he's been able to in the past since his hook will be behaving like a solid object that's actually from our plane of existence as opposed to some strange alien device that phases through matter at will without any explanation.

Its good that they try to balance like this, I'm sick of seeing Roadhog in every game I play and the same was true with McCree and Genji before they were nerfed, now they're still seen but not all the time in every game.

Unfortunately the 4 Tank Meta isn't going anywhere until they nerf tank damage across the board[footnote]Except for Winston since, at the moment, he's the only tank that's an actual tank - deals light damage, meant mostly to soak up dps and peel for his squishies - while I'd say that all the other tanks are actually "Bruisers" considering how much damage they dish out.[/footnote] and/or nerf Ana's healing grenade. Seriously...why bother playing DPS characters when you can just roll out with tanks, still deal perfectly acceptable - even good - amounts of damage, and have much better survivability?

 

[RaikuFA]

All I can say about them nerfing Roadhog again for the 10,000 time is this:Snip

Roadhog has never been nerfed. Unless

Increased the volume of Roadhog's "Want some candy" voice line.

somehow counts as a nerf to you.

OT: I'm not even sure this counts as a nerf. It's more like a consistency and fairness fix to a ability that has behaved in unintentionally erratic ways since beta. And if the changes fix the bug where hooked players sometimes end up farther away than they should, or worse, behind Roadhog, then this will be good for both Hog players and their victims.

He was a few times in the past. First one reduced his ult charge speed. I think another decreased his alt attack power.

Also they should nerf Hanzo.

 

[major_chaos]

He was a few times in the past. First one reduced his ult charge speed. I think another decreased his alt attack power.

Also they should nerf Hanzo.

The ult charge speed was a necessary trade off to a global change in the same patch where self-healing now builds ult charge so the overall charge time was hardly reduced unless you are somehow never getting hit as Roadhog. And I can't find any reference to his RMB getting nerfed, nor do I have any recollection of that happening. Could have been something they gave a whirl on the PTR that never made it to live.
So less "10,000" nerfs and more 1/4th nerf.

Hanzo doesn't need a nerf, projectile hitboxes need a general nerf. Mei's icicle and Hog's hook have the same problem as Hanzo's arrows where the projectile's hitbox is ungodly massive.

 

[RaikuFA]

He was a few times in the past. First one reduced his ult charge speed. I think another decreased his alt attack power.

Also they should nerf Hanzo.

The ult charge speed was a necessary trade off to a global change in the same patch where self-healing now builds ult charge so the overall charge time was hardly reduced unless you are somehow never getting hit as Roadhog. And I can't find any reference to his RMB getting nerfed, nor do I have any recollection of that happening. Could have been something they gave a whirl on the PTR that never made it to live.
So less "10,000" nerfs and more 1/4th nerf.

Hanzo doesn't need a nerf, projectile hitboxes need a general nerf. Mei's icicle and Hog's hook have the same problem as Hanzo's arrows where the projectile's hitbox is ungodly massive.

I was more referencing his ult charging too damn fast. And maybe weakening it the farther it goes.

 

[meiam]

The fix I really want for him would be to remove the stun that accompany his hook, there should be some risk in hooking someone.

 

[Rednog]

Depending on how this falls we could see Roadhog dumped into the pit for a while until they "rebuff him".
This feels somewhat like a knee jerk reaction to the community constantly shouting "omg broken hook!". Honestly Blizz really needs to make a hard decision on what should and shouldn't be the result of a successful hook and then tell the community that it's working as intended. A game with so much verticality, dashes, and knock around effects the physics are never going to be perfect.

For every "bullshit hook" people forget all those pulls that they walked away from. Anna, Lucio, and a handful of the thin model characters that get dumped randomly outside Roadhog's kill zone, while characters like Mercy and Zen are pulled up point blank. It is an issue that never got fixed so that good Roadhogs had to start adopting the pull and turn technique to try and ensure kills.

If they fix up what should be kills in exchange for fiddling with the terrain hooks fine, but if they only fix the terrain stuff Roadhog is honestly going to go straight into the trash.

 

[MerlinCross]

The fix I really want for him would be to remove the stun that accompany his hook, there should be some risk in hooking someone.

Okay I have't played a lot of Overwatch, but question. Who could he Hook without a stun? Most people have a movement or CC. McCree flashbangs, Mei just Mei, Lucio blasts him back, Reaper bails same with Tracer, and several different characters suddenly get the BEST Initiation for their ults.

Roadhog needs a stun somewhere in order to lock them down for himself or his team to actually deal with.

 

[meiam]

The fix I really want for him would be to remove the stun that accompany his hook, there should be some risk in hooking someone.

Okay I have't played a lot of Overwatch, but question. Who could he Hook without a stun? Most people have a movement or CC. McCree flashbangs, Mei just Mei, Lucio blasts him back, Reaper bails same with Tracer, and several different characters suddenly get the BEST Initiation for their ults.

Roadhog needs a stun somewhere in order to lock them down for himself or his team to actually deal with.

The hook could still work regardless, ie drag the person in, but it just wouldn't be essentially an instant kill on some character. McCree could interrupt the pull (would need a flashbang on CD and be quick about it, so nice skill check), Mei would still be pulled even as an ice block, Reaper could start his teleport but he still has stand still, he could use his invincibility but would still be pulled, Lucio could blast roadhog back but that still leave him in a very vulnerable position and dragged away from his team so no more buff for them, tracer blink wouldn't break the hook but her time revert would. Most other character wouldn't really have anything, but they could at least shoot him so a low health roadhog couldn't use it, movement ability wouldn't break the hook,

The point of the hook is imo to pull the character, but as it is the pull is almost secondary to the stun effect. Hook would be something roadhog would need to use with the rest of his team in mind rather than something that can be effective in 1 v 1, or hell even 1 v many since if he grab a squishy there dead before anyone can do anything.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

This isn't a nerf.

This is just making his hook obey the laws of space and time, which is what it needed to do in the first place.

 

[MerlinCross]

The hook could still work regardless, ie drag the person in, but it just wouldn't be essentially an instant kill on some character. McCree could interrupt the pull (would need a flashbang on CD and be quick about it, so nice skill check), Mei would still be pulled even as an ice block, Reaper could start his teleport but he still has stand still, he could use his invincibility but would still be pulled, Lucio could blast roadhog back but that still leave him in a very vulnerable position and dragged away from his team so no more buff for them, tracer blink wouldn't break the hook but her time revert would. Most other character wouldn't really have anything, but they could at least shoot him so a low health roadhog couldn't use it, movement ability wouldn't break the hook,

The point of the hook is imo to pull the character, but as it is the pull is almost secondary to the stun effect. Hook would be something roadhog would need to use with the rest of his team in mind rather than something that can be effective in 1 v 1, or hell even 1 v many since if he grab a squishy there dead before anyone can do anything.

If there's no stun the moment they are at Roadhogs location they CC or bolt. That was my understanding or am I recalling how the hook works.

I admit I don't play Overwatch as much as I play Dota. And I have more experience with other 'hookers'(HA that joke is old), in the form of Pudge from Dota and Blitzcrank from League.

Both are akin to Roadhog in the fact they pull someone away from the team. However both have ways of supplying CC once they are pulled in one way or another. Roadhog has to use his ult to do so and then if he doesn't move right ends up pushing them back. Or just outright kills them. Either leave the Stun or replace it with a slow. Or put a stun elsewhere.

 

[Shadefyre]

The fix I really want for him would be to remove the stun that accompany his hook, there should be some risk in hooking someone.

The risk in hooking someone is you can't move while doing it. There've been plenty of times I've hooked someone and got sniped by a Widow/Hanzo because I can't avoid. Plus the stun is so short that you've only got about a second to kill the person before they use an ability like Mcree's flash or Reaper's wraith to escape.

 

[Frankster]

Next, the hook will also perform a line-of-sight check, so if Roadhog can't see you, he can't hook you, even if the hook hits you.

Finally, once the hook hits you, there's another line-of-sight check. If it fails, the hook returns to Roadhog without pulling you in. That change means if you get hooked and move out of line-of-sight quickly, you can make the hook break early and you aren't pulled in.

HELL YES

Finally, death to those BS hooks that goes through objects and drags my sorry mercy butt through two different sets of walls.

 

[Paragon Fury]

This isn't a nerf.

This is just making his hook obey the laws of space and time, which is what it needed to do in the first place.

You know it's bad when the character designed to break space/time makes more sense than the fat Aussie with a grappling hook.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Part of this is actually a buff and part of it is a nerf.

You won't be able to jump over cover, hook someone, and pull them through the wall now.... but you also won't have heroes somehow going above, below, to the side, etc. when you hook them.

You won't be able to real in that Genji you caught mid-dash if his momentum carried him behind cover a split second later.... but you also won't have to worry about Anna being some kind of Anna repellent who never hooks her close enough.

I think it's a trade off that will make games with Roadhog feel better, regardless of which side of the chain you're on.

 

[MeatMachine]

Roadhog's hook is finally getting the fair adjustment it's so desperately needed? You gotta be...
...yankin' my chain!