I think I’ve cracked the code, before roadhog was buffed he was quite underwhelming, but after roadhog was slightly buffed, he is Over-preforming, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
So what else could be the cause? If you look into it, what else happened in and near the patch that made hog more powerful?
They nerfed Shields. Shields are a hogs main counter, with a shield up a hook cannot land on anything behind it and Hog lacks shield shredding ability, but when you remove shields then hog becomes a balanced hero (Before he was buffed). Now that we both lost shields and he was buffed he is over preforming.
Here’s my theory. Revert the roadhog buffs and see what happens, if he becomes low tier again then buff him slightly again. If he’s balanced then, keep him there.
Nothing will happen with us all saying: “He’s OP” and “Just don’t get hooked” and “He’s fine”. We need to actually test to our best ability. One minor buff to roadhog could NOT have done this to him, it has to be a combo of things.
Let’s find out what the causes are.
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its the shields, if they kept hog the same and nerfed shields then hog would still be extremely powerful
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That’s the theory. I too believe this.
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i agree with you, i mean the experimental card exists for a reason so there is nothing wrong with trying things in there
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You can’t put all the blame on shield nerfs for this, only Orisa and Sigma were changed. This leaves Reinhardt/Zarya deathball, and Winston/D.Va/Wrecking Ball dive untouched.
Despite this, and despite Roadhog never pairing with Zarya in prior metas, Roadhog stands on top of it all. It’s likely that his damage buff pushed his hook combo over the edge and made getting one-shots too easy.
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I’m not putting all the blame in one spot, I do believe it was a combination of shield nerfs and Hog Buffs.
Only Sigma barrier was nerfed this last patch.
His damage was the buff that pushed him into “too effective zone”, it made him an excellent barrier breaker and hook combo insta-killer.
Now he is still very much survivable for being
that much effective.
Alternatively they could increase the hook cooldown since now it is very reliant.
If they wanna keep him this effective, they could give him nerfs to survivability (nerf breather).
If they wanna make him less reliant, but keep the survivability, they can revert his buffs.
I guess it’s best to keep his effectiveness, but nerf his survival, there’s always 2 supports per team to help him out.
Sometimes to kill him it feels like spamming with low success while he keeps breaking barriers and insta-killing squishy teammates.
i swear orisa’s barrier got nerfed, maybe i just imagined it
Or you know… They could make shield tanks playable again
Yeah increasing roadhogs headshot damage by 20~ surely didn’t help
It’s the shields for sure but even with them I don’t think hog should be about kills, he’s a tank not a dps, he’s damage should be used for punishment and only if the enemy keeps on refusing to leave your territory you should get a kill, instant kills on a tank is just not ok…
But yeah, it’s the combination of hog’s buff with the shields nerf that made him that strong.
Hog deserves a buff just not the one he got… he should have a protection buff not a damage buff.
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and then people will just complain about barriers again…
at least the game won’t feel like sniper simulator anymore, where if you’re not one you’re not just one of the target dummies
And then people will say damage is too weak, then they will nerf barriers and buff damage…
All its going to be is a back and forth endless loop
Oh well! To all the dps and Support mains getting sniped, and complaining about lack of shields:
Remember, this is what you asked for! Enjoy!
Honestly, I think people are just sheep and following what they heard to be true. 
Looking at Overwatch Contenders (which is playing on the new patch as far as I know) and the data we have from OWL scrims, no one is playing Roadhog Zarya, in fact Roadhog doesn’t see much play at all.
Roadhog was always pretty popular on ladder because he’s very independent and “DPS-like”, and now people just have an excuse to play him more often. ^^
Roadhog is better on ladder than in pro play, because he’s harder to punish if you’re not very well coordinated with your team, but even on ladder, I don’t think he’s actually the best pick in any rank. In most cases, compositions like Winston + Zarya, Hammond + Zarya, Reinhardt + Zarya or Reinhardt + Sigma are all more powerful compositions than Roadhog + Zarya IMO.
I expect that - even without changes - his pickrate will steadily drop over the next month until it’s in a more reasonable spot.
That’s just my feeling, I guess we’ll see if there’s any truth to it soon.
And then they complain about not having shields and needing to deal with an off-tank meta again. Why does Blizzard even listen to these bipolar people here? Nothing good comes out of here.
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Thats why i never take the balancing serious anymore, its been a joke for awhile now
I’ll say it for the billionth time again. Make an extra tank roster in the selection screen for anchor tanks, and give them their old barriers back but if you choose to have 2 anchor tanks, give them a -50% debuff for their shields.
This would be a better fix than anything Blizzard has done so far to them. Look where we are right now. It’s not even the meta itself that’s “problematic”. It’s the players constantly whining about everything.
But then again, the devs aren’t really innocent here either. Letting disgusting metas stagnate for multiple months that were clearly unhealthy. They just don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
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Hog now deals 25 dmg more per shot. That is 12.5% more dmg to squishies (200 hp heroes) and 6.25% more dmg to zarya. The reason ia OP now is that all his counters are nerfed and can get value every 8 seconds with his abilities. Now he doesn’t need to waste time on flanks.
His 20m hook range is too opresive. Now, without a shield, you don’t get enought oportunity to put presure on him because you get hooked.