Overwatch 2 tends to create a stir in the community each time a hero is given a drastic rework. The arrival of Season 18 makes yet another drastic change, and this time, Overwatch 2’s old Roadhog is back. That’s right, fellow Tank enthusiasts – Hog’s rework is going bye-bye, and he’s going back to what he once was!
Overwatch 2’s Roadhog Rework Reversion, Explained
As officially announced in the recent Overwatch 2 Patch Notes, Roadhog is undergoing more drastic changes in Season 18. This time, the abilities that were introduced as part of his hero rework a few seasons ago are now being removed, and Hog is being reverted to how he used to play prior to these changes being made.
This appears to be due to frustrations and issues caused by Pig Pen’s introduction, as the ability ended up further strengthening Hog’s hook combo potential and forcing particular approaches, rather than giving the intended freedom of spatial control. Here’s what the dev team had to say:
Pig Pen was originally intended to give Roadhog more spatial presence on the battlefield, but in practice it reinforced his hook combo playstyle and limited his flexibility in engagements.
To address this, we’ve restored the classic Primary and Secondary Fire on Scrap Gun, providing more consistent damage options and letting Roadhog better contest space on the front line.
The Take a Breather adjustments have been successful, offering greater defensive uptime without excessive personal sustain, so its functionality remains the same, but it has been moved to Ability 2 with a default toggle and additional cancel options to keep that flexibility intact.
Key highlights regarding the changes being reverted includes Roadhog’s Take a Breather being moved back into an ability slot, and Scrap Gun’s secondary fire making a return. Essentially, he’s going back to functioning the way old OW1 / early OW2 Roadhog used to play.
Here a complete breakdown of the Season 18 Roadhog changes:
Roadhog Ability Changes in Overwatch 2 Season 18
- Scrap Gun:
- Reverted to classic Primary and Secondary Fire functionality.
- Primary Fire no longer includes a volley of 4 extra large, long-ranged projectiles.
- Number of projectiles for Primary Fire increased from 16 to 25.
- Damage per pellet for Primary Fire reduced from 6.25 to 6.
- Secondary Fire initial volley no longer crits.
- Pig Pen ability removed
- Take a Breather
- Moved from Secondary Fire to Ability 2.
- The option to toggle on the ability is now on by default.
- Added Ability 1, Primary Fire, and Secondary Fire as additional cancel buttons while toggled.
- Minimum time before cancelable reduced from 0.8 to 0.6 seconds.
On top of these new changes / reverted abilities in Roadhog’s kit, the hook-wielding Tank has also undergone some significant changes to his Hero Perks in Season 18. A complete breakdown of Hog’s Hero Perk changes and new Hero perk additions has been included below:
Season 18 Roadhog Perks: New Perks & Perk Changes
- Pent Up Minor Perk removed
- Hogdrogen Exposure Major Perk removed
- New Minor Perk – Shrapnel Launcher
- Extend the range of Scrap Gun’s secondary fire by 50% and tighten its burst spread by 25%.
- New Major Perk – Pulled Pork
- Gain overhealth based on how far you pull enemies with Chain Hook, up to 250.
This has already caused quite a bit of speculation in the community. Now that it has officially been proved that Hero Reworks can and will be reverted under certain conditions, many players are eager to find out if Sombra may eventually follow in Roadhog’s Footsteps and go back to her old Stealth and Translocator functions. It seems only time will tell!
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