Overwatch 2’s one shot nerf to Roadhog accidentally buffed him

Roadhog got some massive nerfs (and a few minor buffs) in a patch meant to keep him from one-shotting with his hook combo, but some players have figured out that this may have also buffed the hero.

The Overwatch community spent months asking for Roadhog nerfs. The overwhelming feedback from the community has been that being consistently one-shot isn’t fun, something the Overwatch 2 devs plan to address even more in the future.

However, the nerfs are finally here. While he can still one shot with his combo, it’s much harder to pull off. When played in the way he used to be, Roadhog is much less effective.

But players are starting to learn that the way in which his combo was nerfed has some unintended side effects, some of which have given high-level Hog players an advantage over the competition.

Roadhog nerfs came with an unexpected buff

To understand how he may have been buffed, it’s important to look at how he was nerfed. You can find the patch notes for the full list of Roadhog nerfs and buffs here, but there’s one part of his kit that’s looking strong: his hook.

Yes, the impact damage of the hook was decreased, and his pellet damage for his shotgun blast has had its damage decreased. Those are undeniably nerfs, but there’s one more minor adjustment to his hook that’s given him a big advantage.

Upon getting grabbed, players now end up 4 meters in front of Roadhog instead of 3. This was intended to make it more difficult for players to land a close-range shotgun blast (and it has), but that extra distance has given players much more power to displace enemies. Displace them right off the side of the map, to be specific.

Flats put on a clinic in this game by repeatedly hooking everyone he sees right off the map, but it’s still much easier than it was pre-nerf to pull people off the side of the map. That extra meter worth of distance makes it much easier to send enemies to their doom and allows Hog players to play a bit farther away from the edge than before.

Some players are speculating that the ability to flick and point slightly downward with the hook makes it so that some heroes who wouldn’t usually die from getting hooked on a map like Illios’ Well won’t have time to respond to being thrown off.

Hog is still much weaker than before, but what was meant to be a nerf has made him better in a few specific situations.