Overwatch Roadhog Guide, the One-Man Apocalypse

Some tanks in Overwatch are better than others in situations where you are playing alone. One of the best examples is Roadhog, the hero that’s capable of ripping through his enemies with little to no effort. Find out all the details in our Overwatch Roadhog Guide.

Since this hero has the ability to heal himself, he is one of the best options when you are queuing alone. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Roadhog isn't great when you play with friends because the hero excels in many situations. He is great for aggressive plays and has an ultimate capable of doing insane amounts of damage. What’s even more impressive is that Roadhog also has a skill shot. 

There are several important things we need to know about this character, which is why this review will focus on them.

Overview

Despite not having any shields, Roadhog is easily one of the tankiest heroes in the game. He has 600 HP, which means he can tank many of the big ultimates.

Aside from his HP, Roadhog is dangerous because he has some of the most interesting abilities in the game. Starting with his Scrap Gun, this is a weapon that has two fire modes. The first one fires short-range blasts of shrapnel that are devastating in close-range combat. This ability’s maximum damage is 165 per shot, making it one of the best in the game. However, the gun only has 5 ammo and takes 2 seconds to reload.

Hog’s secondary fire mode launches a shrapnel ball that will detonate in a short distance. This thing also does a lot of damage and has more range. As for the projectile speed, it “flies” at a rate of 80 meters per second.

Interestingly, this secondary fire mode will explode at the end of its range and it will deal the same damage as Roadhog’s primary mode. This makes it dangerous, as long as you can use it to its full potential.

Skills

The big reason why Roadhog is so strong when it comes down to solo queue is because of his abilities. Starting with Take a Breather, this is an ability that restores 300 HP and gives the hero a 50% damage reduction. This ability’s total casting time is 0.5 seconds, and it has a 1-second duration plus an 8s cooldown. Needless to say, this is what makes him really powerful.

Speaking of being powerful, the hero has another ability called Chain Hook. This is one of the few skillshots in the game, and it allows the hero to hurl his chain at a given target. If he hits an enemy, he will bring it into close range and deal 30 damage. As for the cooldown, Roadhog can use this ability every 8 seconds.

Whole Hog is the hero’s ultimate ability and his most dangerous weapon. Even though the hero has a -25%  movement speed penalty while using this ability, Roadhog fires 128 pallets per second and deals a total of 4928 damage. This makes Whole Hog one of the most dangerous abilities in the game, but it doesn’t mean you can land all of it because you will probably miss loads of your shots.

Unsurprisingly, the hero can’t use any abilities during his ultimate, which lasts for 5.5 seconds. It is important to know that this ability has a 0.5s casting time, so you need to be careful when using it.

Once Roadhog hits someone with his ult, the unit will be knocked back.

Roadhog is a DPS in the body of a tank

One of the things we’ve mentioned earlier is that Roadhog is a different kind of tank. The fact that he doesn’t have shields means he is very susceptible to damage. Needless to say, he is not the best when defending, which means people who want to play with him need to have a different approach.

Roadhog’s strongest weapon is the ability to create space for his team. After explaining his abilities, it is not difficult to see why he is one of the best damage dealers in the game. He is extremely deadly at close range, which means that his opponents will try to run away from him. 

Needless to say, you should use this to your advantage and create space for your team by pushing. This will give heroes like Bastion and Widow plenty of opportunities to score kills because the opponents should be busy with Roadhog.

The “One-shot” combo

Since this tank relies on his damage to be effective, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise he has a one-shot combo. Even though it does not work against tanks and units with more HP, this method should be enough to kill most DPS and lower-HP units.

In order to land your combo, you need to use your hook, followed by your primary fire mode and a melee attack. Depending on how many pellets you land, you will deal up to 165 damage with your attack alone. 

Speaking of one-shotting, almost every Roadhog player experienced a situation where a hooked target escapes on super low HP. One of the things you could do to prevent that is to use your primary fire mode, hook, and fire again. This will shorten your fire animation, and it will seem like you get an extra attack. Of course, this is not the case, but you might deal just enough extra damage to kill your target right away.

Conclusion

Roadhog is one of the tanks that you can’t rely on to soak damage and stay near you the entire game. Instead, this hero excels when he gets the chance to deal damage and bully his opponents. He is capable of killing almost any hero in the game and can create enough space for his teammates to use their full potential.

Despite his strengths, Roadhog also has a lot of weaknesses because he struggles a lot against multiple setups. For example, Reaper is one of the heroes that can absolutely crush him, so you should be careful whether he is in the game. He is also not that great against the likes of Symmetra because she can slow him down and make him an easy target.