Roadhog Abilities and Strategy

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Roadhog Synergies
  • 2. Roadhog Counters
  • 3. Roadhog Is Strong Against
  • 4. Roadhog TL;DR Tips
  • 5. Reading Further for Roadhog
  • 6. Changelog
• ×Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Roadhog TL;DR Tips
  • 2. General Playstyle
  • 3. Scrap Gun
  • 4. Scrap Gun
  • 5. Chain Hook
  • 6. Take A Breather
  • 7. Whole Hog
• +Synergies and Matchups
  • 1. Synergies
    • 1.1. Ana
    • 1.2. Reinhardt
    • 1.3. Mei
  • 2. Counters
    • 2.1. Reaper
    • 2.2. Zarya
    • 2.3. Orisa
  • 3. Strong Against
    • 3.1. Winston
    • 3.2. Reinhardt
    • 3.3. Tracer

On this page, you will find a detailed overview of the abilities that Roadhog has access to. We also explain how to best use these abilities.

The other pages of our Roadhog guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

• Use your Chain Hook to eliminate targets from a fight instantly by pulling them off the map.
• When using your Take A Breather, try to move away from the enemy team so that you are not an easy target to feed ultimates from.
• Use your alternate fire to take down enemy barriers quickly.
• Your Whole Hog, when used alone, is better used to try and pin one enemy and kill them than just to spray at multiple enemies and feed enemy healer ultimates.
• Use your melee attack after your hook combo to ensure a kill after the rework to the Chain Hook.

While Roadhog used to be the one-on-one champion, he has since had to start playing slightly more defensively. His damage is not quite as high as it used to be and so you need to start using him in a more precise fashion.

The Chain Hook ability is absolutely key for Roadhog and is going to dictate how you play in every fight. Try to use your hook to eliminate priority targets that might be hiding further towards the back line. If you cannot find an easy pick there, turn to your backline and try to take out one of the flankers that is sitting on your healers.

It is important to remember that, despite having Take A Breather, Roadhog can be very easy to overextend with and then find yourself feeding the enemy team a huge amount of ultimate charge. Stay with your team rather than trying to flank by yourself.

Roadhog's auto attack deals up to 150 damage, but has a huge spread. It functions as a shotgun and, as such, has a huge amount of dropoff from distance. There are 5 shots in the Scrap Gun and they can be used as a primary or alternate fire. The recent increase to the ammo capacity of the gun has also reduced the reload time to 1.5 seconds.

The primary fire of the Scrap Gun is normally used in close quarters combat or after a Chain Hook has been landed. It is normally best to follow up with a melee attack after using your primary fire, since it cannot kill most enemies after a hook without a headshot due to the patches that nerfed Roadhog.

The alternate fire of the Scrap Gun also deals 150 damage, but this time it has a maximum range of up to 9 meters. There is no change to the reload time or capacity of the weapon, but the alternate fire is used in medium range combat. It fires a projectile ball of scrap that will detonate in mid air. The goal of your alternate fire is to make the ball of scrap detonate right in front of the enemy hero, since it will deal the full 150 damage.

You should never use the alternate fire in close quarters combat or after a Chain Hook, since it will be incredibly unlikely to finish an enemy off. Despite this, if the ball of scrap strikes an enemy hero before detonating, it will deal 50 damage to them.

This should be your go-to choice for destroying any form of shield or barrier unless it is directly in front of you and your primary fire is guaranteed to hit it with every pellet fired.

Chain Hook is Roadhog's most impactful ability. It deals very little damage, only 30, but if it hits an enemy hero, it will pull them directly in front of you. The point of contact does count as a stun, so it will interrupt any cast that the enemy has started.

With a cooldown of only 8 seconds, you should be using this as frequently as possible to try and eliminate enemy targets. In order to maximise the potential for a kill, you should follow up a hook with your primary fire and a melee attack. This combo, assuming every pellet from your primary attack hits as a non-headshot, will deal 210 damage.

Your hook can also be used to score environmental kills by pulling enemies off the map. In order to maximise your efficiency with this tactic, it is important to note that the hook will pull an enemy directly in front of you. This means that you can hook an enemy, turn to the side and simply drop them off the edge of the map before returning to safety.

Roadhog's self-heal can be used to heal for 300 HP over a cast time of 2 seconds, with an 8 second cooldown on the ability. After recent changes to Roadhog, you can now use this ability while moving.

When you use your heal, make sure to move away from the enemy team so that they cannot just farm their ultimates on you. If you have to heal during a fight, face away from the enemy and move from side to side, not jumping. This will make your headshot hitbox as difficult to hit as possible, as well as keeping a random set of movements rather than a projected trajectory like you would if you jumped.

During certain fights, it is better to let yourself die rather than try to heal yourself. If it is completely certain that a fight is lost, do not heal yourself while the enemy team kills you. You are giving them free ultimate charge and accomplishing nothing by doing so. Let them kill you and reset with your team.

It is also important to keep an eye on the ultimates of your supports. If neither support has their ultimate and you are not in any immediate danger, allow them to heal you and charge their ultimates rather than using your self-heal.

Whole Hog deals 5000 damage over a duration of 6 seconds, but it has a huge spray radius and it loses immense amounts of damage from distance dropoff. Whole Hog should be used in one of three ways and it will vary depending on the situation.

Firstly, you can use Whole Hog to simply knock enemies off the edge of the map for environmental kills. It is incredibly simple and is an effective way to remove people from a fight immediately. When doing this, pick your targets wisely, since you will end up wasting your ultimate if the enemy can just jump back onto the map.

Secondly, you can use Whole Hog to pin one specific enemy against a wall and maximise the damage dealt to them. This can be incredibly effective against a Reinhardt that is trying to use his ultimate, since he will technically never touch the ground and therefore will not be able to use his ultimate. Another good target for this is Winston after he has used his ultimate.

The last method is to simply clear a point using Whole Hog. This method has no real explanation to it other than to try and catch as many enemies as you can. The goal here is not to kill the enemy, but to simply move them away from a location for long enough that you can achieve something, such as pushing a payload or capturing a point during overtime.

There are plenty of ultimates in the game that keep enemies stuck in one place (such as Mei or Reinhardt's ultimates), but these targets can still be moved by Whole Hog. Do not use your ultimate in combination with others, since it can often just push people away and make it harder to secure kills. Only use it when the other ultimate stops this effect or does not rely on it, such as Graviton Surge or Nano Boost.

About our Author

Blainie is a Grand Master Support and Tank player, with a focus on analysis of gameplay and the meta surrounding Overwatch. He regularly streams his ranked games on Twitch, where he can answer any questions you may have about the game or guides.