With a knack for lassoing foes and blasting them apart, Roadhog's a very formidable fighter. Boasting the highest base health in the game and a niche set of abilities, he’s a powerful brawler with surprisingly high damage capabilities.

Playstyle

Roadhog is an atypical tank, lacking any form of defensive abilities to protect his team other than meat-shielding with his large hitbox. What he lacks in supportive ability is made up for with high offensive potential and disruption capabilities. Roadhog can hook and burst targets with an extremely powerful shotgun and a low-cooldown hook. To top it off, he’s got a potent self-heal which can prolong his skirmish potential.

Unlike defensive front-line tanks like Reinhardt, Roadhog should instead be looking to gradually pick off enemies with Chain Hook, prioritizing high-value targets. Roadhog’s Chain Hook + Scrap Gun combo can one-shot many heroes, including most Offense and Support heroes. While he may struggle against tanks, look to reel them in while you’re backed up by your allies to quickly take them down together, but know that your hook is blocked by shields.

Roadhog’s presence alone is enough to deter opposing carries from pushing ahead, as a successful Chain Hook can mean certain death. This will dissuade opponents from attempting any solo flanks, as a skilled Roadhog player will be able to deny and pick off lone stragglers.

Due to his lack of direct means to support and protect his teammates, you’ll be wanting to land many hooks each match to create continual advantages. If you fail to constantly land most of your hooks, you’ll serve as little more than a battery for charging your opponent's’ ultimates, and you may be better off switching to another tank for the time being.

Pros:

• Hook + Scrap Gun combo can kill most non-tanks
• Highest base HP (600)
• ‘Take a Breather’ helps Roadhog keep in the game
• Can lock down hard-to-kill targets
• Chain Hook can disrupt channeled abilities
• Whole Hog ideal for clearing capture points

Cons:

• Slow, large and lacking any form of escape
• No shields or defensive abilities
• Bullet-sponge nature makes it easy for opponents to charge ultimates
• Short-range, typically single-target damage
• May not fulfill the supportive tank criteria that a team requires
  

Ability Breakdown

Scrap Gun (Primary Fire)

• 4-9 Pellet Damage (Lowered with distance), 25 Pellets per Shot
• Maximum 225 Damage (9x25) at close range

You’ll be looking to maximize your pellet coverage against targets by getting as close as possible to chunk them down. The Scrap Gun is headshot capable, so aiming your shots around the torso/neck area will maximize your damage output in most circumstances.

Scrap Gun (Alternate Fire)

• Undetonated damage: 50
• After detonation: 4-9 Pellet Damage (Lowered with distance), 25 Pellets per Shot

Roadhog’s alternate Scrap Gun shot fires a weak projectile that detonates after ~20 feet, at which point it explodes with the same properties as the primary blast. Maximizing efficiency with the alternate fire takes practice, landing a perfect hit will one-shot targets at a range.

Chain Hook

• 30 Damage
• Briefly immobilizes Roadhog
• Stuns and pulls first target hit towards Roadhog
• 6 second cooldown

Roadhog’s core ability has a low cooldown and is able to disrupt channeled abilities. Successful hooks should be followed up with a shotgun blast. Abilities that Chain Hook can interrupt include, but are not limited to:

- Bastion’s Sentry Mode
- Pharah’s Barrage
- Reinhardt’s Charge
- Reaper’s Death Blossom

To minimize the time between landing a hook and firing, the primary fire button can be held down after throwing your hook, and your scrap gun will immediately fire the instant that it’s available.

Take a Breather

• Heals 300 HP
• 8 second cooldown
• 1 second channel time
• Immobile while channeling, can rotate

A fairly linear and self-explanatory ability, enabling you to heal 50% of your HP at frequent intervals. Be aware that while healing, you immobilize yourself, so you may need to find a safe location to heal while at the forefront of combat.

While using Take a Breather, you become an easy target for headshots. Be sure to turn yourself around during this ability's channel so that opponents won't land headshots on you so easily.

Whole Hog (Ultimate)

• 2000-3000 damage total, varies greatly with range and distance
• Sprays damage in wide horizontal spread
• Blows enemies away, force increasing with proximity
• 6 second channel time, cannot be cancelled
• Can be disrupted

Roadhog’s ultimate is a superb tool for sweeping capture points and blowing enemies off ledges. While this ability can deliver massive damage, its main strength lies in its displacement potential. Whole Hog can melt targets very quickly by pushing foes against walls or corners, effectively pinning them to surfaces.

Animation Cancelling

Roadhog’s heal, hook and ultimate can all be used to cancel portions of ability animations, maximizing your efficiency by shaving away unnecessary frames of inability.

The most important animation to cancel as Roadhog is his slow reload animation, since you’ll be reloading frequently due to his small ammo capacity. To minimize this, pay close attention to the ammo count in the lower right. The moment the number updates, you can use an ability to essentially half his reload animation and begin another ability. A video of this process can be seen here.

Roadhog's Scrap Gun blasts can be followed up immediately with a hook to cancel the post-firing animation of the gun. The moment the gun fires, launch your hook and you'll be able to shoot and hook simultaneously! Be wary that if you time it incorrectly, you may accidentally cancel your firing animation too soon, and your scrap gun won't be fired at all.

A niche but powerful animation cancellation is your Chain Hook + Whole Hog combo. The moment your hook hits an enemy, begin your ultimate, and your hook animation will end but your target will still be pulled along the hook’s path. Your enemy will take damage from Whole Hog as they fly towards you before being blown away. This technique will improve the effectiveness of Whole Hog, opening your ultimate with an easy kill.

Damage Combos

Roadhog's main damage combo will be Hook + Shoot, which can be immediately followed by a melee strike to tack on an extra 30 damage if necessary. While the Chain Hook + Scrap Gun combo is usually enough to kill weaker foes, there’s also longer, trickier combos that can be executed to burst down tankier or shielded targets.

At short range, the best way to burst a tank is:

Scrap Gun (Primary) > Chain Hook > Scrap Gun (Primary) > Melee

At a medium range, your initial shot can be substituted with a blast from your alternate fire like so:

Scrap Gun (Alternate) > Chain Hook > Scrap Gun (Primary) > Melee

In an optimal scenario, your alternate fire will detonate just before your hook lands. Remember to launch your hook immediately after shooting to shorten the firing animation!

Roadhog’s a menacing, durable tank with high offensive capabilities and a skillset like no other. While he lacks direct supportive traits like other tanks, he can disrupt and blow up targets near-instantly, wreaking havoc as a hard-to-kill death machine. Learn to master his playstyle, hook accuracy and animation cancellations and you’ll find yourself reeling in victories!

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