As a tank player who has seen it all at nearly every rank, let me explain why the community hates Roadhog, and why the hero needs a rework.
I warn you, once enlightened to the logic of this, you too will find yourself screaming for Hog nerfs, and I do not apologize for persuading you otherwise.
The reason Hog sucks to play with and against is because the entire match then revolves around an 8 second cooldown. Can we engage? Does Hog have hook? Can I drop my shield? Does Hog have hook? Can we Matrix this spam? Does Hog have hook? Can we bubble for charge? Does Hog have hook? Can we deflect? Does Hog have hook? Can Pile-Drive in? Does Hog have Hook? Can we sleep a target? Does Hog have Hook? Can we flashbang? Does Hog have Hook? Can we Halt a target? Does Hog have Hook? Can we use Kinetic Grasp? Does Hog have Hook? Can we use Rock? Does Hog have Hook? Can we Rez? Does Hog have Hook? Can we use Blade/Flux/Shatter/Blossom/Deadeye/Visor/Trans/Beat/D.Va Bomb/Primal? Does Hog have hook?
The ability to one shot any squishy and cancel half the Ults in the game lie in one hero’s 8 second cooldown. And if that player is semi-competent, they can dictate the pacing of the entire lobby with this singular ability.
No other, and mean no one other hero demands this sort control in a lobby over a single cooldown. Sure a good Rein or Ball can run a lobby, but that’s with alot of team input and a variety of ability uses.
Hog? Singular ability that’s mostly independent from his team for high value. And if his team is smart, they’ll play around him, essentially AFKing or corner poking while they ALL wait for Hog’s hook to aggress.
This is why Hog is so hated. You may never realized this was why, but I’m telling you right now, this (8 second cooldown running the lobby) is why so many (rightfully) hate the hero and why he needs a rework.
Nah. I dont like hog because hes the only off tank that doesnt help the main tank. No barrier or eat like sigma. Not bubble like zarya. No movement or eat like dva. Hes quite litterally a giant dps. He needs some sort of defensive ability ir passive like breather heals his team or maybe something like balls shields that make him bigger in size for a couple of seconds that lets him soak damage.
Hogs hook isnt annoying its the fact that he provides NOTHING that a off tank would provide
the thing is how would they fix him. a rework or moving him to the dps role maybe? i hate hog but there is not much you can do to him that would make him just inferior. he is sorta like widow in a way where all he got is his cheap combo trick
His hook is not 100% to blame because, as you said, he doesn’t do anything to help the team – that’s a good reason he’s so annoying, but hook can be just as annoying as having a third DPS
It’s not “flavor of the month”. Plenty of people have adamantly disliked his design from the very beginning of the game, and his rise in popularity over the past few weeks has been bothering everyone - including players who have a Hog on their team.
Your response doesn’t even mention a single thing that the OP wrote. Not one point was brought up or addressed. Do you have anything to say regarding what OP wrote, or?
As a Zarya player, I like Hog. I like bubbling his hooks because it’s really obvious that I’ve saved someone. I also like comboing Grav with Whole Hog. Whether or not you have a shield doesn’t tend to matter unless the other team has snipers. For this reason, I hate Widow because she makes me switch to a shield. No hate for Hog, though. His one-shot is interruptible, unlike the snipers.
Yeah but he hasn’t been changed in a while. He’s not the best tank for multiple obvious non mobile and non barrier reasons.
He’s meta in Deathmatch and in wacky solo unorganized QP.
Oh look you picked someone with a barrier.
Congratulations you just nerfed Hog.
Look you picked Ana, congrats again you double nerfed him.
Oh some other teammate picked another hero with CC
And just like that, Roadhog has become a throw pick in match.
I don’t need to mention anything because if you play the glorious super popular role of tank you understand that unless you have a great tank partner, Hog ain’t that great.
Popular, but still he is a bit weak cause he can get counter played into the shadow realm.
A lot of the complaints aren’t usually “this hero is so OP!”
Rather, they point out the flaw in his design. Even the OP didn’t divulge into “this hero is OP” but rather pointed out how it’s one ability that causes a lot of problems, and doesn’t even call it overpowered.
The other problem is - and multiple people have stated this and this is where I stand - is that this hero just isn’t fun or good to play with or against.
Like you said, you can easily negate him and make him useless when he’s on the enemy team. But when he’s on your team, he’s usually a selfish flanking DPS who likely fails. And then if he’s on your team as your other tank - good luck. You’re basically solo tanking. His rise in popularity lately has made these shortcomings more blatant and obvious.
I feel like you’re under the impression that complaining about a hero must mean that the person feels they’re overpowered, and that’s not the case. More often than not, I can make Hog’s life miserable. But I still have more fun losing vs a team that doesn’t have him, than winning vs. a team that does or winning one where I’m tanking with a Roadhog as my other “tank”. I feel like this is true for a lot of the complaints lately - it’s not that they find him overpowered. It’s that they find his design to just be anti-fun for both sides.
You’ll really love Overwatch 2. Tanks should all be DPS-lites and Blizzard agrees. You should either quit or get used to killing or being killed by aggressive tanks periodically.
Hog’s popularity at least in QP is a “fine I’ll do it myself” kinda thing if you are a frustrated tank player that ain’t getting healed or can’t get the elims.
But that’s neither here nor there.
The not fun to play with or against.
That’s a fool’s errand.
It’s not fun being one shot by Widowmaker.
It also ain’t fun to play with a Widowmaker that can’t hit the backside of a barn.
It’s not fun to get hacked, it’s not fun to play with a mic silent Sombra.
I could go on down the list.
It’s irrelevant because all these heroes changing for Ow 2.
But design is your opinion especially fun. Hog’s design separates his identity from the other tanks.
They tweaked his numbers and other tanks for him to have synergy with.
But his current form he’s a non issue both to play with or against. Like many heroes in the game the better you get the more irrelevant he becomes save a few maps where he can have ceiling cover from long range fire.
The games issues besides matchmaker is how unbalanced 222 is ong with how unpopular the tank role is.
But sticking to Hog issues, not the hero’s fault someone wants to play him horrible like a flanker.
People play a lot of heroes wrong like Yolo charge Rein. Now that’s bad design because some solo player about that 1v 6 charge life?
Your problem with Hog I can state about any hero. Immortality field ruins my fun, so does any cc, being bionaded etc.
Just came from the other Hog related thread and I had an idea.
How about making the Hook’s hit box smaller since that would increase the need for skill.
Here is a handy video of its current hook hit box
As for your other issue what do you think about adding the changes from the 132 experimental where Hog could heal and give damage resist to team mates.
I really just think they need to lower hook range in exchange for some sort of utility that hog can provide for his team.
As it stands, hook doesn’t punish bad positioning, it punishes not hiding inside your Rein’s butt. Hog can grab you from within your own team.
The ability should be used to punish people out of position or as a defensive peel tool. Not to yoink an enemy from the cosmos. If we nerfed the range a bit it would be a lot more fair to play against.
But we aren’t the only ones complaining. People from every rank - even up to Top 500 and OWL - dislike Hog’s design and his playstyle. And they play him according to his design and not.
Yes, playing flank-Hog is unideal in a lot of scenarios, and I fully understand the mentality behind picking him. If a tank isn’t getting the heals or resources he needs to make space, going Hog and being able to provide your own healing + damage + resources is the reason they pick him. But it still comes back down to the hero’s kit and design being based on providing no utility to your team outside of raw damage. And then sometimes Hog-flanking is fine. You still win, your Hog is still doing good. But it still feels bad for both sides.
Yes, fun is subjective and should not be a measurement for changes. Yet, we’ve had so many changes in the game based on that and only that before. I don’t see why Hog should be spared. There are other issues in the game (you also named Bap’s Immo Field and as someone who plays him, that ability ain’t balanced).
When the majority of a playerbase, including the more skillful players, point out a similar issue, I feel like that lends to a bit more credibility. Whether or not higher-skilled players’ opinions hold more weight is a debatable topic and they should never be the sole deciders, but it feels like the Hog-frustration is universal at this point. Every rank has its players divided on it.
I don’t know if that would work. With favor the shooter, latency, etc. it could very well turn out to screw the Hog player over. It’s like when they tightened Sombra’s hack - everything broke it. Even another player who crossed it. Something code-wise makes it nigh impossible for it to have a small hitbox and feel consistent/accurate.
