Roadhog’s place in the Overwatch roster has been a conversation piece since the release of the game. Despite being listed as a tank hero and having a massive amount of health, his Chain Hook and powerful Scrap Gun have made many players consider him more of a DPS.
In an interview over the weekend, Overwatch 2 lead hero designer Alec Dawson addressed the difficulties associated with balancing a hero like Roadhog as the team looks into reworking one of the game’s more controversial heroes.
While Roadhog is considered a tank in OW2, he doesn’t have any of the shielding or team-centric abilities that nearly all other tanks possess. For this reason, Dawson considered the hero to have a more “selfish” playstyle, but for Dawson and fans of the hefty Aussie, that’s a part of Roadhog’s charm.
Dawson explained that the team has considered some rework options that might make Roadhog feel like more of a hero that fit the tank role in a more traditional sense, but he’s unsure if that’s exactly what players want for the Pachimari-loving bandit.
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“Another question is how much should he fit into the tank role?” he said. “There’s a component with Roadhog and people who enjoy Roadhog where there is a little selfish aspect there that is fun to get into, right?”
Roadhog was struck by a massive nerf to his playability when the team took away his one-shot capability during the Jan. 24 balance patch. The nerf reduced the damage of his Chain Hook as well as his Scrap Gun.
Though Roadhog was hugely enjoyable to play because of his ability to pick off enemies without needing support from his team, he was largely seen as a pain to play against for that same reason. While some DPS heroes have combos and one-shot potential that can feel oppressive at times, Blizzard deemed that to be too much power for a character in the tank role.
Dawson didn’t explain when exactly changes would be coming, but based on his interview response to Karq on Friday, it sounds like the team is still in a brainstorming phase of reworking Hog. He concluded his comments on the matter by saying that changes to him will “take a little bit” of time.
