The PTR community frequently says that Roadhog is now dead and that if all of the changes made today go live, the hero will simply fall off the meta. But is it actually true? Well, today, we're going to show you the definitive comparison between the live and PTR version of Roadhog's hook and make you decide whether or not Roadhog actually is or isn't viable in the current meta.
Overwatch Roadhog's Hook: PTR Changes
We've recently covered all recent and updated PTR changes on Roadhog's hook. You can check for the updated details here. Now, in order to make a definitive comparison, here are the highlights to the significant changes that hook had received:
Hooked victims now gets dragged in front of Roadhog instead of going straight towards him
Roadhog won't hook targets he can't see (No more wall hugging)
Hooked targets can now break free from the pull if they move quickly upon hit (dash, fell off the cliff, etc.)
The above rule also applies on Roadhog. If the hero falls off the cliff while dragging a hooked target, the chain breaks.
Now these are the changes that are currently active on PTR. It sounds more like a tweak than a nerf right? After all, who would want to get hooked by a Roadhog constantly hiding behind a wall? As mentioned by Geoff Goodman, the principle hero designer, the team wanted to balance out the hero - which they had done so remarkably well.
Now some may argue that Roadhog has had an astounding nerf. Well, The Matrix 64, has shown the difference between the live and PTR version of the hooks and it revealed the reason for all the Roadhog mains' disappointment.
As shown in the video down below, you can clearly see that the problem stem from the unfixed glitch on the hook which prevents it from hooking targets when they're in front of solid objects. Moreover, the lingering check on line-of-sight on the hook is still currently bug and is not working as intended. More details on Hook's LOS here.
Lastly, the hook would simply break once the target is jumping midair and halfway through disappearing from Roadhog's LOS, instead of dragging the target upon the successfully landing the hook. The breakage should only happen once the target uses escape mechanism (Tracer Blink, Genji Dash, etc.) instead of simply jumping over or sidestepping across the corner.
The changes are definitely on point but all of these still need some fine tuning. It's imperative that players make intellectual feedback instead of simply whining over the changes that had dropped on the PTR. If we wanted to make Overwatch an even better and more balanced game, we should start by giving out critical reviews and feedback about the current issues instead of simply stating what works and what does not.
