If you were playing Overwatch 2 back in competitive season 2, you probably remember him as a nightmare. He was an absolute one-shot machine that felt unkillable between his own take-a-breather ability and Kiriko’s suzu which gave Hog just enough immortality to never die. That’s when Blizzard decided he needed to be nerfed into the dirt while they started building the Roadhog rework.
Now the rework has been out for few days and, as it always happens with these things, people are playing a ton of Roadhog to get a feel for his new kit. The question is, does the rework bring us back to nightmare Hog or is he still a throw pick?
What Did Roadhog’s Rework Change?
Before we get into whether the rework saved Hog, let’s talk about what it changed. I’d say generally, this rework pretty solidly matches the degree of change we saw with Sombra’s rework recently. They both got one new ability and then a shifting of their already existing abilities with some minor changes.
For Roadhog, the rework left his ultimate and his hook alone. However his scrap gun and take-a-breather got some pretty big changes. Then of course there is his new ability, pig pen. If you’d like to check out the patch notes yourself or see what the devs had to say about the changes, here’s the link.
Scrap Gun
Let’s start with how the rework changed his primary weapon. Hog now only has one firing mode for his scrap gun. There is no more worrying about which trigger to pull depending on your enemies range. The damage per shot is up. However that isn’t because they increased his pellet damage, but because they’ve added 4 new projectiles they call shrapnel that shoot in the center of his shot.
The new spread of Hog’s scrap gun
Take-a-Breather
Roadhog’s signature heal got quite a significant change. They lowered the cooldown from 8 seconds to 1 but before you panic, this is because they’ve changed the ability to be resource based. Breather now comes with enough resource to heal for 450 health over 3 seconds. However to refill the meter completely takes 12 seconds.
Breather also doesn’t fortify Hog as much anymore, nor does it amplify his healing received at all. It also replaced the secondary fire in terms of controls.
Pig Pen
Finally the newest addition to Roadhog’s post-rework kit is pig pen. Hog joins his partner in crime, Junkrat, in having a deployable trap. Thankfully the CC on it, while it unfortunately does exist, doesn’t completely immobilize you like Junk’s does. It does however slow you and do constant damage over its duration. It also does damage and boops the enemy into air when triggered.
A Reaper standing in Hog’s pig pen
How the Rework Feels
In terms of playability, this rework definitely helped Hog. He doesn’t seem as week as he had since the massive nerfs he suffered due to his season 2 infamy. The changes to scrap gun make him a force to be reckoned with. It feels a lot easier to deal heavy damage at a distance because of the shrapnel volley. He’s also a lot better at melting shields.
The new changes to Breather feel good. They don’t make him feel unkillable but they don’t make him too squishy either… if the resource managed well. However, it’s very easy to mismanage which can make you feel unkillable one second, and then like your standing at the end of a bastion firing range the next.
Pig Pen is an interesting ability. Sometimes it feels impossible to squeeze into the mid-fight, but personally I’ll chalk that up to human error. It is quite useful though in dealing damage, especially when used in combination with Hog’s other abilities.
Pig Pen before being triggered from Hog’s view
On the flipside, it doesn’t feel too punishing to play against. It only has a slow so you can use movement abilities to escape and the damage it deals doesn’t feel too brutal. It’s also easy to see and can be destroyed before being triggered.
The Final Verdict
The Roadhog rework is fun to play. At points it feels like it’s dealing a bit too much damage and using a full meter worth of Breather makes you feel invincible for a moment but it never felt like a free steamroll playing him. He also never felt like he was a throw pick either. Even against his bad match-ups, he feels more playable then he used to which I think is a good thing.
However I’m a bit torn on whether or not to say the rework was good. On one hand in made the character feels better to play. On the other the result isn’t much different then what they had before they nerfed him. It feels almost like this level of playability could’ve been achieved with his old kit, without leaving him at the bottom of the barrel for as long as they did to do a rework.
The initial problem they had was the he was one-shotting people too often and that he didn’t feel like he had enough utility. This rework fixed half of that. He still can one-shot combo you. In fact, it feels a bit easier to do so now. Now he just has a mildly annoying slow similar to Ramattra’s ravenous vortex.
I don’t dislike the rework, but I wouldn’t say it’s a great rework either. Overall, it’s decent. He’s not a pushover anymore and he doesn’t feel overpowered, but it is just a bit disappointing given how long he had to be a bad character just for them to warm back up to his one-shot potential. Gameplay wise there really aren’t major problems so I guess Blizzard can take a small w for it.
