I’m not sure if this is a hot take or anything, but Hog needs his damage output. It’s how he puts pressure on an area - the threat of getting hooked and obliterated is what allows him to hold space, or at least make people think twice before trying to take it. That’s his playstyle: rather than making space safe for his allies with protective abilities, he makes the space around him dangerous for enemies. I’m no game design expert by any means, but in my opinion I think nerfs to his sustain would be better than nerfs to his damage output. Having an ability that not only heals you by half but also gives you 50% damage reduction for its duration is a lot for someone as damaging as Roadhog, and the reason Roadhog got the damage reduction and the ability to walk during it was because he lost a huge chunk of his damage potential. I think now that he has his damage potential back, it would be OK to reduce or even remove the damage reduction, and have him stop moving or at least slow down during its use. That could help discourage flanking (which I personally don’t think Hog should be suited for) or at least make it riskier, since if you mess up a flank, you can’t tank everything while healing as you run back to your team.
If you have other thoughts or ideas, I’d love to hear them.
I agree 100%
It also raises the skill cap of Hog as well
Take a breather is an amazing ability but heavily countered by stuns and anti nade so it doesn’t show as much.
I think we could nerf it in increments. 50% to 30% damage reduction, then 30% to 20% and so on
I agree as well. It’s not his damage that’s an issue, it’s the fact that he’s so impossible to punish when he’s out of position.
Ana and Zen are meta right now not because they are particularly good, but because they are literally the only things that can punish an out of position Hog.
Honestly… all you need to do is stun Roadhog during his heal and it’s 100% negated, healing, damage reduction, all of it. Either that, or antinade him. There are plenty of stuns in the game.
Personally, I think it’s way too early to say he needs nerfs considering we’re in a transition period & are likely to see even more balance changes in a week or two. Other heroes may be buffed, and others may be nerfed, so I think we should wait to see what is in store before we change Roadhog again.
That being said, I wouldn’t be too bent out of shape if they reduced the heal to 250 or 200, but they definitely should not change the damage reduction. That is the only thing that allows him to occasionally survive antinade, but he still usually dies.
True, it is a little early to say if he needs nerfs, and with time, maybe a month or two, we’ll see where everything ends up. I’m just saying that if Hog does end up in need of nerfs, I hope they don’t take away his damage.
His ability to kill 250 HP targets are really breaking it
He can only do that if he hits headshots. Most Roadhogs can’t consistently kill 250hp heroes. Those that can deserve those kills. It’s about time Roadhog was respected, he’s been considered an ult battery for a long time
The damage would be fine at a shorther range. Rein will also demolish anything within hammer range but it isn’t an one-shot nor it’s 20m - which used to make Hog obsolete because tanking resources were so powerful and damage was redundant but now the shoe is on the other foot.
Dude, he hooks people to his eye level so his headshot are basically guaranteed.
his old output was fine. i used to get insta hook kills all the time. he didnt need more damage that wasnt his problem
This is upsidedown world.
The very criticism roadhog used to be lambasted with, being so easily punished, being an ult battery, is now used to say how overpowered he is?
With no changes to that aspect of his kit since 2017? 2017.
Clown world, honk honk.
That is definitely not true. I have seen countless Hogs that can barely consistently hit all of their pellets on the body, nevermind hit headshots.
Not only that, but most Roadhogs aren’t consistent with their hooks either.
Look at Roadhogs winrate in every rank…his highest is 53.5% in Diamond. That is not reflective of an overpowered hero, Genji was near 60% when he got all his buffs. Brig 1.0 was around the same as well. Roadhog is nowhere near that
My opinion: Now that the result of a successful hook is more consistent we should make the ability to land hook a little less so.
Just slow down the projectile of hook from 40m a second to 35m a second.
Result? It would take 0.9 seconds from cast to reach the full range of his hook instead of 0.8.
Making corners and defensives a little more effective at avoiding at mid to long range.
Edit: at the original op idea.
I don’t really agree. How can he be a consistent threat if he cannot hold his own at the front?
You can stun him but he will have a little more health due to how fast take a breather works. It doesn’t work most of the time for me personally because he just hook you again and one shot since his hook is off cool down again…
Bull. Crap.
His damage was all over the place before the buff. He could do a little over 200 damage one shot, barely 50 damage the next, back to 100 on another and so on. He was even more useless than D.va cause at least she can make up for her lack of damage with actual tanking
If you say his damage was fine before the buff, you are lying through your damn teeth.
so it’s my fault you cant aim?
if you say hogs issue was not enough damage “you are lying through your damn teeth”
A hero can receive few changes and still have their viability changed depending on the meta around them. Some strengths are a boon in some metas, some are useless in others.
Though considering Hog is Australian, upside down world is pretty fitting.
Hogs pellets are not entirely a fixed pattern. How can you “aim” pellets that don’t go to a specific spot but rather a random spot within a cone?
^This
What good’s a damage tank if he can’t deal consistent, good damage?
I think with slowed/no movement on breather, he’d still be able to hold his own at the front, and even if the healing he gets from it is reduced, he’d still theoretically have supports to aid his healing. The key here is at the front. The changes I came up with are intended to make him inconsistent at holding his own in the enemy backline… where I personally don’t think Hog has much business being in, design-wise.