I've come around to agree Hog needs adjusted

General Discussion
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With all the anti-hog threads I’ve been dipping in and defending Hog, mostly because I play him whenever I’m on tank. But now I’m thinking I was wrong.

I’ve just had a few games on tank where I didn’t select Hog and the other team did and he really is too strong against the other tanks now. In reality you need to counter him by also going Hog. If he lands a hook on just about any other tank they are probably going to die, but from their point of view they would have to do a ton of work to kill hog.

There’s a real imbalance in the matchups and to survive against Hog needs another hero to intervene, like a Zarya bubble or Dva DM, but for Hog to survive against other tanks he doesn’t need any help.

I think he’s fine against supports and DPS because they can keep away from his hook range and use cover more, but against tank he is currently uncontested and disruptive to the game. They have no choice but to get into his hook range to take ground.

As a Hog main even I now have to agree something needs to change. The t500 Hog player Cyx has even been saying that Hog is too good just now and it is not healthy for the game. I now agree.

I was arguing that it is healthy to have a fun tank to get people to stay in the tank role, but in reality only the Hog player is having fun - the other tanks in the game aren’t.

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Ayyy, thank you for changing your mind, huge respect for that. I agree with your post entirely. It’s just not fun to play against hog on tank, and while I’m sure he’s very enjoyable for hog players, when I’m trying to play any tank but sigma (playing against or with him)… I just cannot have any fun.

How do you as a hog player think hog could be adjusted?

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lots of them have shields to stop his hook, a few of them have ways to escape even IF hooked and that’s just in a 1v1 vacuum. Being in hooks range does not doom you to being hooked, it just means you now NEED to know when it’s on cooldown and keep LOS to it.

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I think Zarya can neuter him just fine, but unfortunately she’s not good at much else right now.

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I’m convinced they will leave us with hog meta until OW2 comes out because nobody plays anymore and they desperately need people to play tank and hog attracts people that would never otherwise touch the role. Notice how 99% of hog mains are one tricks.

About a year ago they buffed hogs dmg to one shot every hero outside of tanks. That apparently wasn’t enough so they buffed his dmg again to two shot every tank and took away his one weakness with passive which was him being an ult battery. This on top of recent patch where 2 meta dps were buffed and ball nerfed that had 0 effect on his top level strength and was only a bronze ball/quality of life nerf, leaves me with no faith in this team moving forward. I’ve moved on to apex.

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LOL keep out of 20 meter los that goes through walls and doesnt care about balcony

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Hook is weird, I’ll give y’all that. But sometimes it breaks with a lamp post, so that’s more of a fix thing than an OP thing.

EDIT: also note that for every “wow that hook should have broken” I’ve had a “wow that should have worked” hook that snaps for no reason.

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So the answer is to give them choices, not nerf Hog.

Hog isn’t a great tank on his own for most of the playerbase, and Ana can completely and singlehandedly rob him of all value, plus it’s not like she’s scarce these days.

I’m pretty sick of the state of tanks, and the Hog whining has little to do with him and much to do with years of DPS pandering.

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sometimes hook magically goes through stairs, making it look like its clipping through 6 feet of solid ground

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At this point I guess people just want Tanks to have no weaknesses apart from squishes avoiding their effective range to deny them value and maybe ranged spam/poke.

If all tanks are moving towards Hog’s direction in OW2, that’s how I think it will go:
1- Avoid the tank’s range.
2- Avoid the sniper’s LoS.
3- Deal with flankers.
That’s probably gonna be it all the time if you are not playing/doing one of those.

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I feel you. I always thought Hog was annoying but didn’t appreciate the sheer magnitude of it until I started playing mostly tank the last couple months. The effort it takes your team to punish him is much higher than the effort it takes him to pressure you.

My only hope is to play Sig and land every single rock on him just to try keeping him at bay. Meanwhile he makes space by existing, constantly forcing me back because I know that once he gets in my face, I’m done.

It’s not that he can’t be punished. It’s just that the effort and coordination it takes is disproportionately high.

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Yeah well, don’t nerf all other tanks into oblivion then that issue won’t exist

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This also just goes to show how tampering so much with Mei’s slows and freezes destroyed the balance match ups since she used to be able to keep him and his crap in check (and same for Ball) so DPS had a reliable answer, nowadays it’s just Ana who can shut him down (or DPS who can do massive damage in open LOS outside of his 20m range). And as a result they have to nerf these selfish tanks who make the game unfun for everyone, but nerfing tanks too much isn’t a good idea either because of people playing them less and less…

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You don’t sound like you play a lot of tank. Playing tank against Hog feels like facing a selfhealing raidboss you will not be able to beat on your own. You are in any situation at an disadvantage, unless you play everyones favorite strat of double shield and play very defensive with someone playing Ana.

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Hog player with like 500 hours here: most people on here don’t really offer any Solutions other then the nuclear option whey it comes to hog. Some personal thoughts:

  1. In the chaos of battle it’s a lot harder to get off ones hook then you would think. I miss all the time. I’m proud of my 56% hook percentage though. It’s harder ability to hit then forums cry babies think.

  2. Anna… some days … even I just run into a literal buzz saw with the hero. Frustrating is putting it lightly.

  3. If the pace of combat just a smidge out of hogs liking the roll ever potential is pretty bad . Happens to me every now and then

  4. Teamwork teamwork. Sometimes no matter how many successful hooks I hit smart teams just focus me and I get melted pretty hard lol. No much you can do. People who complain seem to not understand that concept :rofl::joy:

My Solution? Reduce his health to 400 and 5 meter reduction on hook. A genji like hook reset for PURELY solo kills

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Hog abuser detected: opinion rejected

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I have over 990 hours on the tanks, including 230 on Hog (and more on other tanks). It looks and sounds like you don’t play that much tank from the profile you’re posting from. IDK what tier you play in, but Hog is very easy to whine about, and can often require a bit of teamwork to face. Sombra can 100% fully shut him down, though. Mei often can, too.

Incorrect. A good Zarya can ruin Hog’s day, and bubble every single one of his hooks (including pre-emptive ones on her, or even after-the-fact if she didn’t get exploded during/just after the pull). She can completely outrange Hog if she wants to, and even mess up his hook combo aim with her right click boops, to say nothing of charge she gets from his damage.

Ball never has to play in Hog’s range unless he’s enforcing the backline, in which case he’s not enforcing the frontline (and thus your main/other tank and DPS should have a bunch of threat-free space on the front). If they’re a deathball, even better for Hammond.

Orisa can just flat-out outrange him (and deny Hook), no shield required, as well as Pull Hog out of aiming his combo.

You don’t need double shield to deal with Hog (I play Hog when my team isn’t shield-breaking enough), and so many heroes can shut him down or farm him (including Ana, Sombra, Mei, Brig, ranged), and many opponents can easily gain value equal or greater to what he’s giving to his team.

Rein and D.Va are currently popular in many ranks, and Hog can mangle either (though a smart Rein will shield-flash his Hook and D.Va will Matrix the pull after baiting Hook from outside his range, or just dive where Hog isn’t… he’s not mobile).

Yes, engaging Hog 1v1 as a tank is often a stupid idea, but it’s a stupid idea for most of the roster because that’s Hog’s entire value besides being fat and body-tanking. All you need to negate a Hog is a tiny bit of teamwork (or one Sombra/Ana), but that’s seemingly hard to find in this lifecycle and low population of where the devs have left OW1.

Hog isn’t a good tank, he’s a lulzy accessible one when you can’t trust your team. I feel like there’s been an identity tug of war between teamwork and (often selfish to play) self-sufficient heroes, and this is why you see a lot of Hog complaints (as he is self-sufficient while requiring teamwork to deal with, almost exactly like Ball).

Since tanking these days is so often a miserable, fragile, thankless role that seemingly nobody wants to play (nevermind many people already leaving the game for a slew of reasons), I think Hog is more than fine where he is. I think most of the tanks need more damage reduction/survivability buffs, or some other engaging reason attracting people to the role/game. But OW1 seems to not care about retaining tank players (see 5v5 for OW2).

Edit: grammar + updated stats.

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Good question. There are the usual tweaks like shortening hook length, perhaps to 18m, or reducing damage reduction or increasing CDs or reducing damage per pellet and so on. I was trying to think of something different as none of them really change Hog to be less oppressive.

Here is my suggestion which is intended to stray from the normal tweaking. I’m not saying it is a good suggestion, but tries to address the main complaint that you get hooked then you die almost every time even from the other side of the point.

Suggestion: hook still has 20m range but pulls targets a fixed distance but

  • for tanks hook pulls the target 10m towards hog
  • for non-tanks it pull them 12m

These numbers could obviously be changed.

Hook would pull no closer than where the current target lands (1.5m from Hog?). Meaning that squishes over 13.5m away will land further away from Hog than normal and tanks more than 11.5m away.

The idea here is that if you play too close to hog you’ll get the same fate as you do now. This is much more in the “out of position” camp. But if you play a bit further out but still within his hook range (which covers the whole point on most maps) then you get displaced towards him and his team. This would hopefully also encourage Hog to play a bit more with his team.

Not sure how the Hog turning during the hook would work if the target is further out, but I guess it could still just pull them in line with Hog’s hook hand so not have as much impact.

Ok, so probably a terrible idea, but worth suggesting something a little different.

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I always thought Roadhog had a fundamentally terrible design.

He is a damage hero wannabe that doesn’t assist his team in any way a traditional tank would. Every time I’m playing tank, and I have a hog on my team, I always just sigh and think to myself, “damn I have to tank alone again”. Even if there is away for hog to tank that is not how 99% of the playerbase plays him.

I understand that he was designed to hook people that are out of position, but that just hasn’t worked out. His kit allows him to just waltz anywhere he wants, go into positions that would be fatal for any other hero, and hook a poor support that would otherwise be in a good position if the hog didn’t play like a flanker. The irony is so strong. He became what he swore to destroy.

And I also need to say, the hook is one of the most annoying abilities in the game to deal with. Nothing feels worse than getting hooked through the floor down from high ground when the enemy Roadhog threw his hook above your head, and the massive hitbox still registered it as a hit. It is a 1-hit body shot ability, and I think it’s unacceptable how forgiving it is. Not only do you not have to crit to 1-shot someone, but you also don’t even have to hit their body. “Hook is a skillshot” people say, but I don’t think most of them have even experimented with it to check how huge that hitbox is. Hog players complain about hooks breaking, like it’s at all difficult to hit people with hook. If it was so difficult to use, it wouldn’t be his primary way of getting kills.

Roadhog wins every single 1v1by default, and if you don’t you’re just seriously outskilled by your enemy. Even for a game where people fight as teams and not 1v1s for the most part, that is unacceptable.

I never enjoyed playing hog either. Not when I’m queueing for tank anyway, because I don’t look at him as a tank. Even if I look at him as a damage hero, his playstyle is too one-dimensional. He is literally just a hook bot. Everything he does, he just does while waiting for the hook to come off cooldown. It’s like you only really get to make a play once every 6 seconds. He’s also super forgiving, and if you don’t mess up too much, you’re never really in any danger and it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. He is the most sleeper hero in the tank role IMO. ZzZzZzZzZ

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If you take away Hog’s one shot, he will be entirely useless.

I don’t know why people still can’t grasp this. Hog has a weak ultimate, he has no mobility to get in range (but his damage requires extremely close range), he has no utility, no team defense, no armor, no way to deal with any sort of ranged threat.

The ONLY thing he has going for him is the 1-shot. Take that away and he is utterly doomed.