Blizzard is about to fix Roadhog’s ridiculous hook

Cancel the apocalypse

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If there’s one shared hatred in Overwatch we can all bond over, it’s gotta be Roadhog’s hook.

Whether you’re on the receiving end and are snatched straight through what should be solid walls, or are playing as Roadhog himself, and hook a target only for them to be pulled behind you, there’s a lot of frustration going around. The hook just doesn’t feel right in its current form. It lacks consistency.

Blizzard had previously mentioned that it was looking into updating the mechanic. Thankfully, the wait shouldn’t be much longer now, and we might even see a change pop up on the PTR as early as this week. Principal designer Geoff Goodman detailed the planned hook rework in a forum post:

“Firstly, the hook victim will now move in to the position directly in front of Roadhog, rather than just a straight line towards him. There is a cap on how far ‘to the side’ you can be pulled, so you can’t just hook someone, spin 180, and dump someone off a cliff. This part (along with some other bug fixes) should generally make the hook feel more consistent as to where the victims get pulled.

Secondly, the line-of-sight check to see if a hook should connect or not is now checked from Roadhog’s position, instead of the hook’s position. This basically means the hook can’t connect to targets that Roadhog himself can’t see.

Lastly, there is a new persistent line-of-sight check back to Roadhog once the hook has landed. If this check fails, the hook breaks off and returns to Roadhog. This means if you get hooked and move out of LOS quickly (either you dashed, were falling, were pushed, etc), the hook will now break early and not pull the target.

Overall these changes will likely make Roadhog a bit weaker, but we’ll evaluate his performance once we get people playing him and make adjustments as necessary.”

My most-played characters in Overwatch are Zenyatta, Mercy, and Lúcio. I’ve developed a sixth sense for knowing if and when a Roadhog is on the prowl, but even staying out of sight isn’t always enough to keep that damned hook off me. That said, if I’m playing a tank, I’m likely picking Roadhog, so I can sympathize. I know that without his hook, he’s not getting much done, so it needs to remain powerful for him to make sense. These changes sound like a step in the right direction on both ends.

With this business out of the way, it’s time to give Ana another pass.

Where’s “Hook 2.0”? [Overwatch Forums via reddit]


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