I feel like a majority of players would agree with a slight increase to Roadhog’s hook. 
8 >> 10
Would make it much more fair.
2 Likes
This is for the cooldown?
1 Like
I feel like it should be tweaked in some way, coming from someone who used to main Hog for tank queue.
It’s meant to punish poor positioning, but it just punishes positioning in general, and sometimes its so janky. You either hook someone behind a wall or directly hit someone with it and it breaks.
5 Likes
No, it would make hog even bigger trash
1 Like
I don’t really mind it. He doesn’t do anything else. Just discount wreckingball in terms of annoyance and threat.
i agree. that ability is much more stronger than mccrees flashbang but lesser cooldown.
Several heroes have the potential to quickly eliminate another player primarily with low skill ceiling abilities. Though not an all-inclusive list, this includes heroes such as Roadhog, McCree, Doomfist, or Brigitte, to name a few.
A great balance problem has always existed for these heroes, since relative to other mechanics in the game, ability executions do not require a considerable amount of skill to perform. Thus, they offer a disproportionately high amount of value to a low skilled player that he or she cannot obtain through other means.
Most of the attempts to balance this inherent problem have involved mistakenly emphasizing the ability-combo-kill aspect of each hero’s kit while making them relatively weaker in other areas. This is indeed a mistake, because it results in the hero being balanced effectively at lower skill tiers, but consequently results in a sharp drop-off in viability at higher skill tiers. Many of these heroes often end up having little to offer a high SR team besides the aforementioned ability-kill combos.
Like most characters that have this rapid ability-based kill potential, Roadhog needs to have his power shifted AWAY from his hook into the rest of his kit if he is ever going to be both balanced AND viable.
Since they have recently taken steps to make his combo more reliable (and thus making it harder to execute is not likely to be the preferred method) this means any change must be some combination of
Longer cooldown
Shorter range
Lower direct ability damage
It could also be changed to make it easier to dodge, which would involve either
Slower activation
Slower speed
However I strongly suggest either of the last two options to be among the least favorable of possible changes since it would disrupt the timing many players have practiced for hundreds of hours and force experienced players to completely re-learn the new timing.
Therefore, as a tank player, and also as a player for whom Roadhog is the hero I have played the most hours on, I propose the following change:
- (-) Reduced hook impact damage from 30 to 15
- (-) Increased hook cooldown from 8 to 11 seconds
- (-) Decreased hook maximum range from 20 meters to 18 meters
However, since his current state of balance is a direct consequence of how much value hook eliminations can offer, we cannot simply weaken this portion without making other adjustments to his overall toolkit, or he will lose significant viability as a tank choice.
Consequently, some other adjustments are necessary.
Three major possibilities exist
Increased durability
Increased damage
Increased utility (including non-self utility)
Since Roadhog has a relatively simplistic toolkit, an offensively focused design, and given that the current direction for new hero design favors more complex functionality, I have been an advocate of some form of passive ability that causes his durability to temporarily increase while he is in combat.
The flavor of this passive ability that fits him best would be a direct (temporary) increase in damage resistance as a result of either
- The damage he deals
or- The number of additional enemies near Roadhog, not including the first.
Either would allow him to excel at a very “head-on” offensive style of tanking that increases his threat potential without increasing his burst damage or completely re-inventing his playstyle.
However, considering that the second possibility would reward aggressive front-line tanking more than “solo maneuvers” such as flanking, and would also reward him for staying in the middle of teamfight action, similar to the cleave mechanics of Reinhardt or Winston, this feels like a more teamwork-friendly style. It has the added benefit of fitting remarkably well with existing canon story material, which frequently displays Roadhog winning fights in which he is greatly outnumbered.
So, assuming that the value of 1 armor is approximately equal to 1.33 health, and given that D.Va is intended to have the highest numerical durability (at approximately 700 hp) the goal for a maximum durability increase from damage resistance should be roughly equivalent to 700 hp, keeping in mind that while the maximum under ideal conditions may exceed this, the average would be somewhat lower.
Therefore, in addition to the proposed changes intended to weaken the over-emphasis on hook based eliminations, I propose the following:
(+) New passive - Roadrage: gains a percentage reduction on all damage he takes based on the number of enemy heroes surrounding him
- The first enemy hero provides no damage resistance, but for every additional enemy within 10 meters, Roadhog receives a 5% reduction in all damage he takes, up to a maximum of a 25% reduction in damage taken when all 6 enemy heroes are within 10 meters of him.
This would likely not have a noticeable effect on smaller skirmishes until most or all of the enemy team is near him: very few damage breakpoints are changed by a 5%, or even a 10% reduction in damage, while many significant breakpoints would result from a 20-25% reduction (meaning when he has full health it would now require one or more full additional hits from burst damage weapons to kill him).
I would argue that this approach would maintain most of his current playstyle, reduce his over-emphasis on rapid single-target eliminations, and would allow him to perform a uniquely offensive team-centric style of tanking that actively rewards his enemies for staying away from him (thus allowing him to effectively create “space” by sheer physical presence), and finally, also serves to dampen his longstanding inherent weakness - how much total ultimate charge he inevitably provides to the enemy team.
I hope that you can appreciate the arguments I have presented.
I know this has become a rather long post, so if you managed to read this far, I would like to thank you for taking the time to do so.
1 Like
so you can hit every hook?
To clarify - low skill ceiling does not mean it requires low skill or does not require any skill.
It means that there is a point at which any improvement in skill offers a lower overall improvement in effectiveness. Any mechanic which has a low skill ceiling thus provides comparable results in the hands of both an average skilled player and a highly skilled player.
Ideally, any game mechanic is most balanced if this point is close to the limit of what the most highly skilled players are capable of. While a hook combo-kill takes some skill to master, it is something that can be mastered far more easily than many other methods of securing eliminations.
And to answer your question, my career average over ~500 hours is 79% hook accuracy, with an average of ~27 hooks per 10 minutes.
How is Brigitte in that list 
This is mostly referring to how Brigitte was at release when bash still did 50 damage and she could instantly eliminate tracer with a swing, bash, and whipshot.
I apologize if this was misleading.
i do kinda see
i should probably work on my hook acc lol
Nerf Rein’s damage, or buff roadhog’s damage.
One of the two.
Hog is a few small changes away from becoming trash, so pass
Yes, sorry I didn’t clarify haha. It is for the cooldown.
Players who want cooldown times increased are generally not playing fast enough so it seems the enemy players always have their cooldowns ready.
Only if it gets a direct damage buff in exchange
This doesn’t solve anything. He’ll still one shot everything and survive ults with his overpowered 50% damge reduction + heals take a breather move. Fix those two main issues by nerfing them hard then he can be considered balanced.
Already one-shots his direct counters, why would he get a damage buff?
I don’t know, Roadhog isn’t exactly oppressive outside of death match. Why does it need nerfed exactly? Without it Roadhog isn’t exactly what I’d call dangerous… that’s like saying to nerf Reaper’s shotguns to make them “more fair”. That’s like… the only thing he has going for him.