Overwatch: Blizzard is looking into Roadhog’s hook problems

If you’ve played Overwatch, chances are you’ve felt the sudden pain on the receiving end of Roadhog’s hook, or the shot of elation when you hook someone as Roadhog yourself. A satisfying, powerful move, Roadhog can throw out a hook, grab an enemy player, and pull them into perfect shotgun range. Unfortunately, the move is a bit… finicky.Sometimes the hook will grab players through walls, and other times it will rebound unsuccessfully even if it looked more than close enough to connect. Fans have debated the best way to use the hook since before Overwatch even released, more than a few wondering if it might in fact be a hitscan weapon.

• Sean Timm
• October 6, 2016
• in Gaming

If you’ve played Overwatch, chances are you’ve felt the sudden pain on the receiving end of Roadhog’s hook, or the shot of elation when you hook someone as Roadhog yourself. A satisfying, powerful move, Roadhog can throw out a hook, grab an enemy player, and pull them into perfect shotgun range. Unfortunately, the move is a bit… finicky.

Sometimes the hook will grab players through walls, and other times it will rebound unsuccessfully even if it looked more than close enough to connect. Fans have debated the best way to use the hook since before Overwatch even released, more than a few wondering if it might in fact be a hitscan weapon.

Blizzard has clarified in the past that this is not the case, but players have still questioned it. If the hook were a hitscan weapon, it would mean that the hook would hit, or miss, wherever the player is aiming at the exact moment they use the ability. If the enemy character is visible in that single moment, but then goes behind a wall, the hook would track and hit them anyway, because the hit had already been calculated and the animation is simply playing out to catch up.

Again reiterating that this is not what’s happening, and recognizing that there are problems with the ability, Blizzard issued a statement to Kotaku. “Under the hood of the Overwatch engine, Roadhog’s hook is basically a sphere that he throws out and searches for targets as it moves. If the hook finds a target, it will pull them back to you. We’re talking about various improvements to the hook to help solve odd edge cases, especially where the target is out of line of sight or unable to reasonable be moved back to Roadhog. It is not a hitscan attack.”

Though it’s not a lot to go on, players can rest assured Blizzard at least has Roadhog’s signature ability in the back of their minds.