I’m so disappointed guys.
I enjoyed old hog as much as the next guy but his pig pen iteration was so much more solid. More utility, more survivability, hell even more reliable dps output.
The only upside this change brings is the extra distance on his alt fire. Yet it comes with its own new problem in creating a damage deadzone if you’re not perfectly distanced away from the enemy or right on top of them for using your primary fire.
That’s just not a good trade off? We’re losing self speed boost and one of his only tools to actually prevent brawl tanks from running him down. His pig pen primary felt SO SOLID compared to his old firing options.
And if you’ve seen Cyx’s video - you’ll see that the overhealth hook perk is a bit gimmicky too. It’ll help prevent getting blown up on Max distance hooks but outside of that will provide very little benefit. You can spin your mouse like a madman on mid distance hooks to get extra overhealth, but at the cost of most likely losing your follow up damage.
We’re going back to the days of the incredibly inconsistent oneshot. I sincerely hope the breather changes are an option and not forced on us as well. Frankly I think the speed boost was an incredibly useful addition to his kit, he felt so much more fluid. He’s now the only tank in the game that has 0 mobility options. The only other tanks with limited mobility are Sigma and Zarya but at least he has his levitation perk and Zarya has her alt fire jumps.
I just don’t understand why they thought this was a good idea? They moved away from his normal hook combo oneshot because it was too frustrating to play into but they’re basing his reverted kit around that again just without the ability to reliably oneshot and with very little compensation buffs? They even took away the one shot gimmick of his alt fire so what exactly are we getting here other than a categorically worse roadhog?
Hog wasn’t overperforming, or even remotely meta relevant. Nobody was asking for this change. There are a bunch of characters that need/ deserve reworks well before hog. How about we go back go the binned reaper rework that he’s needed since the onset of OW2?
There is a reason they reworked him in the first place and I realllllly hope we don’t have to spend the next 3 years with this garbage before they realise their mistake.
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Honestly, I don’t understand either side. No, I seriously don’t, I find both iterations good. One is more flexible, the other adds more methodology. I like pig pen as much as I like the unique secondary fire. I don’t know what people find so problematic about Pig Pen either. I find more problematic that Pig Pen was neither pig nor pen. To me, he was, is, and will always be a very independent juggernaut, that makes space through both fear and force, a classic and popular staple in Mauga’s smokehouse.
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He’s still functionally going to be doing the same thing in that he makes space through threat and force. I’m just terrified about how feast or famine he’s going to be now.
Your only added survivability is from a gimmicky overhealth perk and your damage at midrange has been severely reduced as well.
He’ll have an easier time chunking tanks down at longer ranges but the moment they close the distance he has next to no tools outside of praying vape damage mitigation is enough to save him.
I’m going to miss the speed boost so damn much.
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Are you referring to the speed boost while using breather perk? That’s still available. They replaced the AoE heal perk.
This was the only thing they gave him that was a small help against Ana. This combined with overfilling TaB meant he could try to speed to cover.
They gave doom protection against Ana when he already has mobility. The tank that is most countered by her gets nothing to help deal with her ruining most games you pick hog.
To piggyback on this (no pun intended), his pigpen brought dimension and fun to his playstyle. Without it, he’s just a click and point hero with now even less strategy plays.
For those complaining that it’s not fun playing against a hog, what about Junk’s trap or Ana’s sleep dart? If Hog’s “trap->hook->fire->melee” combo was too much explosive damage, just nerf the damage output of his pigpen and replace with extra slow?
Personally as a hog main, im sad to see the pigpen leave and would encourage Blizzard to take a second look at reworking his pigpen as I think it was an intrinsic part to his playstyle.
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That’s so weird, i’d seen pictures from like 2 different sources of his info page saying the speed was taken away. Well i’m glad of that at least.
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I wished they would’ve kept any mechanic for overfill on his TaB. Hazard gets to keep his lifesteal and overfill on block and hog can’t? Also did you realize that other tanks gets perks that basically helps them against hog? Sig basically heals his shield shooting you, haz can just pepper you with spikes with his new major perk, rein gets attack speed from fire striking your big body, winston can throw his shield to maybe block your follow up hook shot, orisa heals 100hps during terra surge which means the ol’ whole hog to her ult trick won’t owrk as much or you’d get old fortify back and mauga basically farms 50 overhealth just by getting you on fire which is not hard at all! Oh and ball gets to have anti cc? Ah yes the tank that probably the easiest to CC doesn’t get one! Fun times…
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Also with pigpen and previous fire hes much deadlier up close. Now with more range hes once again competing with orisa and sigma for ranged poke and he just cant keep up with them.
In 6v6 open queue i was playing hog rein with pent up and hogdrogen exposure combo. Genuinely so much fun. Surprisingly effective too as hog is really good into rein counters and zarya. He really covered reins weakness and with the heals and hook you can enable your rein really well. This rework removes almost all of the synergy and makes hog 100% selfish again. Im very sad to see it go.
Especially since weve only had pent up for a couple of months.
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His rework was a failure as well.
Hog is one of those heroes I’m still not sure why they haven’t fully reworked because his kit makes no sense in 5v5
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I can’t wait for the right click again! Good old Hog right click spam is peak nostalgia for me.
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The idea is to make him more dynamic then he currently is, the problem with hog rn is that he’s too reliant on the one hit kill hook combos and only that. Allowing him to poke with alt fire again will give him more purpose hopefully outside of the ohk hook combos but honestly I feel like he’s so reliant on said combo that he’d need an actual well thought out rework to actually fix this issue.
These devs can’t figure out how. If they had a better idea than just going back to what other better devs developed prior, they surely would have implemented it instead.
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To be direct, I do not like Hog. I have never liked Hog. So I have bias. And when I heard about them reverting the rework, my first thought was that it was a good thing because it makes him worse and I want to see less of him.
So, I say that just to say this. If I, a self proclaimed Hog disliker, thinks this is a good thing then it probably isn’t. If I actually played or mained Hog, then I think that this would upset me. I do know some Hog mains who are excited, but IMO that’s the nostalgia talking.
Now, on the flip side, this will increase the skill level required to play Hog. And the reason for that is precisely what you mention regarding dead zones. It’s harder to hit that right click. And he’ll have 1 less tool to help in up close battles. So he’ll take more skill. He’ll also just be worse for the average player meaning I see less of him. 
I empathize with you. And I agree with you that it isn’t the right direction for the character.
4 Likes
Not a fan of the REWORK AGAIN, Pig Pen was Okay for me because when I set it on random areas or hide it near a main Area at least I have an IDEA where my enemy is and it regens my heal as well, HOG cannot function already when there’s an enemy Ana who constantly throws you nades and darts and then youj RARELY get supports who will play Kiriko because mostly supp players only has 1-2 heroes and Kiriko is not one of them
I’m not sure why people keep saying this. I mean, they literally just combined his primary and secondary fire into one. Isn’t that the same thing?
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An auto-battler gimmick added years after the fact is not intrinsic to anything but my irritability…
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To be honest,i don’t play Hog much since the first years of OW1.
And to be fully honest,the rare times i played him again,i totally forgot he had this pigpen ability and never understood why they had given it to him.
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No they didnt work the same way at all. The reworked gun just shot out a volley of 4 projectiles in the center that traveled straight and each did a fixed amount of damage, whereas his original (and now reverted) right click had a explosive round that did less damage on hit but then exploded into shrapnel that if skillfully landed could actually do way more damage, especially at range.