Overwatch: Roadhog guide – Tips, tricks and strategy advice

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Roadhog’s abilities and strategy tips

Roadhog’s abilities aren’t too difficult to wrap your head around at all, but it’s certainly important that you use his primary weapon in the correct manner, which will largely depend on how near or far away the target of your aggression actually is.

Here’s a quick look at all of this Hero’s signature abilities, along with some important strategy tips to help you make a massive impression from your very first match.

Scrap Gun [LMB | RMB] – Roadhog’s Scrap Gun actually works in two different ways. If you choose to hold down the left mouse button you can rattle off slivers of shrapnel in a spread, which is pretty good for inflicting short-range damage. Given Roadhog’s mobility issues though, you’re actually more likely to be using the alternate, right mouse button fire instead though. This sends out a largely cluster of shrapnel that detonates around 20 metres in front of your Hero.

Chain Hook [LSHIFT] – Every Overwatch hero has their own signature skill, and if there’s one ability that marks Roadhog out from the rest of the pack it’s his Chain Hook. If you manage to land this ability on an enemy, they’ll be dragged towards you and your teammates. You’ll find this tactic particularly effective against Support heroes who are sustaining the enemy in battle. One thing to keep in mind is that you are completely immobile as Roadhog until the chain has returned to you – and regardless of whether or not you even hit your target. You should also be aware that the Chain Hook will not pass through any shields or barriers that are standing between you and your prey.

Take A Breather [E] – Just like Soldier: 76, Roadhog can make use of an ability that tops up his health over time. Be aware, however, that in this case the effect is channeled, rather than provided as an aura. It takes a little while for the entire process to finish, but the good news is that it won’t be interrupted if Roadhog himself comes under fire. It doesn’t have a long cooldown either, so you should be chugging away at this ability pretty freely – in total, it’s good for topping up a whole half of Roadhog’s impressive health pool.

Whole Hog [Q] – Truth be told we’re not that excited by Roadhog’s Ultimate ability – not compared to some of the others in Overwatch, at least. While activating Whole Hog will turn your shrapnel gun into a roaring minigun temporarily, your movement becomes ungainly and you’re committed to using only this ability until the effect has worn off. It’s more effective against short-range opponents, but watch out for reticule drift while the ability plays out – you’ll need to keep compensating for it over time if you want to keep landing shots.

Roadhog’s a relatively simple Overwatch character to play – and Blizzard itself rates him as an Easy category of hero – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t mastery to be had regardless. Here’s a quick look at some of the best tips the community has accumulated over the last couple of years.

• If your RMB weapon damage doesn’t actually explode, the cluster itself lands a pretty weak chunk of damage all things considered. Practise makes perfect here, but if you don’t think there’s enough time to guarantee a detonation, stick to the LMB firepower instead.
• Even if an enemy target is up in the air, you can still use your Chain Hook to drag them towards your team (hi Pharah!). Just make sure you try to aim slightly ahead of your target’s direction of travel, as the hook itself takes a little while to arrive at its destination.
• You need to also bear in mind that one of Chain Hook’s most powerful uses is for interrupting channeled abilities that threaten to completely overwhelm your team. You have the health pool required to get in there and stop the chaos, so don’t be afraid to get stuck in!
• So you’ve hooked an enemy and they’re now in your clutches – what next? A popular combat combo here involves using your primary weapon fire, followed by a melee whallop to the face, followed by another LMB blast. If you can keep cycling these abilities it shouldn’t take long for your target to drop to the floor.
• You should prioritise dragging healers and other Support characters into range with your Chain Hook, as this will cause the maximum amount of disruption to the enemy team. Once these characters have been taken care of, you’ll find it much easier to pick off the rest of their friends, who’ll now be finding life a good deal trickier.
• As we’ve already mentioned, make sure you compensate for the recoil effect of Whole Hog to ensure your aim remains on target. Only practise can help you out here, so don’t give up!
• Even if you’ve only taken a relatively small amount of damage, you should drink deep if your Take A Breather is off cooldown and you have somewhere to hide for a moment! The cooldown is really quite short on this ability, and so you can afford to chug away pretty freely. You’ll need to make the call on whether it’s better to take more damage and finish a fight first though.
• Whole Hog can take a little getting used to, but if you can try to use it when enemies are in an enclosed space, then you’ll find that the knockback effect increases the amount of damage they take overall.
• We find that Whole Hog is particularly effective when it comes to disrupting the enemy team from taking an objective. The rattling knockback effect of this Ultimate should make life extremely difficult for them. Every little helps anyway, especially if you’re waiting for your team to catch up to the action.

Roadhog counters and match-ups

If you can land your Chain Hook reliably, Roadhog excels at dealing with just about any squishy Support hero, pulling them away from their teammates and into the clutches of your own. His immense health also helps him emerge from a one-on-one encounter with Offense heroes like McCree in pretty good shape, while Pharah can be plucked from the sky with a good aim.

He’s pretty good at peeling tanks away from their team as well – a team dependant on their Reinhardt for protection is going to be in a whole lot of bother once that shield provider’s been ripped away from them.

Conversely, if you can’t grab Pharah from the skies, then she is capable of peppering you with rocketfire until you collapse in a heap. If Reaper gets to fight you on his terms then you’re in a spot of bother – regardless of your health pool – while a Genji that blocks your Chain Hook is most likely about to rip your face off.

For help with other Heroes, make sure you check out our complete Overwatch: Counters guide.

Map-specific advice for Roadhog

Here’s some helpful advice for surviving on the many maps of Overwatch. We’ll be updating this section regularly.

Roadhog: Assault tips (Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries)

Roadhog can be used as the frontman of an extremely aggressive attacking force on these maps, pushing with his flankers to pick off the other team’s defenses. You will want to take the road less travelled with this character though, as in the wide open he presents the defending team with a huge sponge with which to charge up their Ultimates.

When defending, Roadhog again wants to be roaming through the corridors and side areas of these maps in order to obliterate any attackers hoping to flank past the defenses. A switched-on Roadhog can leave an attacking team feeling absolutely paralyzed, and scared to make a meaningful push towards their objective on their own.

Roadhog: Control tips (Ilios, Lijiang Tower, Nepal)

Coming soon!

Roadhog: Escort tips (Dorado, Route 66, Watchpoint: Gibraltar)

Coming soon!

Roadhog: Hybrid tips (Hollywood, King’s Row, Numbani)

Coming soon!

Roadhog Skins, Victory Poses, Emotes and Voice Lines

Fancy adding a little cosmetic flavour to your Roadhog games? Here are all of the customisation options that are currently available for this hero.