Balance adjustments for Roadhog will be coming to the Overwatch test server “hopefully this week,” game director Jeff Kaplan said on the Overwatch forums today.
The adjustments, which were first mentioned by Kaplan in late September, are already late—even if they come this week. Roadhog’s changes allegedly required an animation adjustment that was not ready in time for the latest Overwatch PTR update that went live on Sept. 21.
Kaplan said Roadhog “is not getting a ‘rework,’ but some tuning/balancing.” It makes sense to leave his core mechanics intact since he is a character that is played quite often in online matches and sometimes in professional Overwatch. Roadhog generally fills the role of an off-tank in the professional scene. It is common to see pro players using him paired with Orisa for a Halt!-and-hook combo.
Unlike recent hero updates, such as the Symmetra and Torbjorn full reworks, it is unlikely that Blizzard is trying to change Roadhog’s playstyle completely. He has a place in the Overwatch meta, unlike the other two before they were reworked.
Roadhog’s latest update was on Sept. 14. His primary fire fall-off range with Scrap Gun was increased from 15 to 30 meters, up from 10 to 20 meters, while his alternate fire received its first-ever fall-off adjustment to be in the same range of 15 to 30 meters instead of no fall-off.
Overwatch players should expect these bigger Roadhog changes to hit the test server sometime this week. Blizzard usually releases updates by Thursday, so players might not have to wait long for the details and other possible PTR adjustments.
