Overwatch Targets Winston and Roadhog for Tweaks in Next Batch of Changes

The hook gets a nerf again, and the gorilla gets less damage to his head.

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Overwatch has significantly changes some mechanics for D.Va, Mercy and Bastion in the latest version of the game on the Public Test Realm. Once those go live, expect some modification to Roadhog and Winston in the next build.

In a post on the official forums, Principal Designer Geoff Goodman said the dev team was again going to make some changes to Roadhog's hook. Targets will be pulled to a location 3.5 meters away, up from the previous 2 meters, while the cooldown has been increased from 6 to 8 seconds. But as a tradeoff, his gun will be a bit more effective, as the spread will be decreased by 20% The hook was also nerfed back in January to add line of sight limitations and other changes, with players dubbing it Hook 2.0.

As for Winston, Blizzard wants most of the damage the big gorilla takes not going to his head so much. "Winston's head hit volume was just abnormally big, making him take more damage than he otherwise should,".Goodman said. So the critical hit voulme has been reduced by 15%, "bringing the damage "more in line with other heroes."

The new build will be "coming soon," likely after the current PTR patch goes live next week.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 10, 2017 8:51 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Overwatch Targets Winston and Roadhog for Tweaks in Next Batch of Changes

    • reply
      February 10, 2017 9:19 AM

      Interesting. It looks like the Roadhog hook change will make the combo slightly harder to execute.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        February 10, 2017 9:43 AM

        It was definitely imba after the last patch. The target positioning change made the post-hook shot do such insane damage, he was practically one-shotting tanks. And on the flip side the spread on his primary fire has always been really excessive, I rarely ever used it in normal combat. So this seems like a fair tradeoff.

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          February 10, 2017 10:09 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            February 10, 2017 10:19 AM

            Yep, Winston feels way too squishy right now.

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            February 10, 2017 10:37 AM

            I don't think that's possible.

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              February 10, 2017 10:43 AM

              It's possible with a zenyatta debuff or mercy buff and a head shot.

              • reply
                February 10, 2017 10:50 AM

                Oh yeah. Good point. I was just thinking maximum pellet damage + critical + melee wasn't enough but even then I'm not 100% sure.

              • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                February 10, 2017 12:09 PM

                Even just if you take a little damage on the way in, that's probably enough to make it a one-shot kill.

      • reply
        February 10, 2017 9:48 AM

        Yea, not sure I like that change. I guess we'll see how meaningful it is in practice.

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      February 10, 2017 9:53 AM

      The new hook is amazing right now. Before, I was not able to reliably kill ana or mercy because they are super small and skinny. Now it's guaranteed kill every time.

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      February 10, 2017 11:10 AM

      Nice to see they are acting a lot quicker on balance issues than before.

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