Yeah and reverted all of it.
I have the magical ability to always catch the hook with my face, behind tanks, around a pole or corner, or even just flying by to say “hi!”. So much so, he carved “I <3 Mercy” on the end of it. If you look really close you can read it, just before he punches you to death.
I love that big lug. I’d not change a thing.
… there’s plenty of counterplay.
As any individual:
Stay out of range/pay attention to the cd
Hug corners/terrain and as hook comes duck to cover even if it hooks the cover breaks it.
Use unpredictable movement
Character specific:
Once you notice hook animation use defensive that block or avoid hook (deflect, wraith, shields.)
If you have rapid mobility (blink as an example) can avoid hook completely if you just watch for the animation or if you dash outside of hogs field of view even breaks the hook if you do it as it connects.
Team specific:
If you’re someone that can protect hooked targets, watch for hooks then protect them (dm, bubble, deflect)
If you’re someone that can disrupt/cc, watch for hooks then bail them out (boops, stuns, retaliation hook)
If you can heal, watch for hooks and heal the target, a big part of the combo is the initial hook damage putting people low enough to finish with a shot or shot + melee, them being full HP greatly increases their chance of survival especially on hero’s over 200 hp.
If you’re a healthy boi (or girl) body blocking or intercepting the hook (while risky) greatly improves the odds that your team doesn’t go a man down.
Because he is useless without it. It’s how he makes space.
Been saying this for years. Hog’s killing potential right now is about the same as it’s been for a long time. After the 6 weeks of giga hog, hog’s pretty much been fine.
Hog’s not even the problem, he just got his niche back. (Even in ball/hog, it was the double sniper that gave it the real lifting weight as the tanks job was to disrupt the enemy.
Double shield on the other hand, that’s the real issue right now.
It’s really not. It’s just Sigma being a little too versatile. He is a main tank and an off tank in one hero. He doesn’t need to choose between shielding and damaging either, and his more obvious dps counters aren’t seeing much play (Mei and Doomfist). So he is “the pick” right now. You want a Sigma on your team. The other tank doesn’t matter as much, you probably just don’t want it to be Winston.
True, Sigma is the lynchpin for double shield ATM.
Man, I miss bunker comps. At least those feel winnable, double shield is just tedious.
No, but they made it 100000x easier now that he pulls people in closer. It’s fairly hard to not one shot a 250 hp hero or less with it now. Especially 200 hp heroes.
Pulling in half a meter closer is what made the biggest difference.
Oh yeah I forgot about that buff.
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Yes…you could say I’m aware of that.
That said, I wouldn’t really categorize reliability vs pure RNG, as “easy” vs “difficult”.
That’s like using a gambling machine is a “skill”.
I don’t think hog is op or anything, but what skill i hardly have time on hog but i can consistently one shot nowadays. Wasn’t like this before all the buff nerf buff hoopla.
It feels cheaper.
It’s 30% faster shooting, 1 more ammo, and while the cooldown is 2s longer, it now starts when thrown instead of when its completely done, so depending on the hook distance the cooldown is equivalent to a 6-7s cooldown of launch hook. And it’s definitely not 70% less damage lol.
Hog used to be able to oneshot a D.va mech with a discord
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Discord used to be significantly stronger. Hog did not lose 70% damage. Also I think that’s just straight up untrue. At launch he did 9 damage per pellet and 25 pellets per shot, for a total of 225 damage. There’s no way he was one shooting a dva mech even with discord. Scratch that, if he lands every single pellet as a headshot with max strength discord, he could.
Actually it’s not. They buffed Hook to bring in the targets a little closer because with the pattern, bloom, and random hero models many heros could not be combo’d.
So when they did that it essentially brought back the combo BUT the pattern and bloom remain. So this means outside that Hook range hogs guns spread reduce the amount of damage he can do in his optimal range.
The old randomness of his gun sometimes sucked but it was far more effective. Now it’s more consistent dmg but its less damage. This is amplified when you also remember he also received a fire rate nerf and ammo nerf.
Yup, people complain about Hog so much but as a Hog player and tank main I pay extra attention to enemy Hogs. I count ammo and watch his Hook arm. He swings his Hook arm back in a very exaggerated motion so jumping behind corner will break Hook even if it lands or using a defensive ability. Counting ammo also knows how vulnerable Hog is. Pushing in when a Hog has 1 clip means he is no real danger, reload takes 2 sec and add another 2+ sec if he needs to take a breather.
It’s really not. It’s not being played outside top Elo’s and even there it’s not dominate. It exists and people have an issue with that which I find crazy.
If Hog can’t one-shot squishies he is useless garbage. Idk what you guys want here.
Would you guys feel better if Hog were put into the damage category? How about if they reduced the range on the hook by 5 meters and buffed him else where? Would that be better? Like what do you even want? For him to just be trash?
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The correct question is: why does hog even have a 1hko combo?
He’s a threat tank. Tanks have no burst, not life threatening burst anyway. Hog fills that missing hole for the tank category. This makes him an effective threat and shield breaker.
In a game where half the dps are flankers, having a deadly peeler comes in handy.