Overwatch is getting even more Roadhog, Ana changes after Hook 2.0
Hot on the heels of the Roadhog Hook 2.0 changes last week, Blizzard is still tweaking some of Overwatch's most played, and least played, heroes. Continuing to reflect player concerns, the latest batch of changes to come to the Overwatch PTR fixes problems with Roadhog, while also nerfing Ana once more, and giving Sombra a slight buff.Posting on the Overwatch forums, Principle Designer Geoff Goodman details changes coming to the three heroes. The notes read:
Hot on the heels of the Roadhog Hook 2.0 changes last week, Blizzard is still tweaking some of Overwatch’s most played, and least played, heroes. Continuing to reflect player concerns, the latest batch of changes to come to the Overwatch PTR fixes problems with Roadhog, while also nerfing Ana once more, and giving Sombra a slight buff.
Posting on the Overwatch forums, Principle Designer Geoff Goodman details changes coming to the three heroes. The notes read:
- Roadhog Hook
- Added some more line of sight checks towards the left/right of a potential hook target. This means it should be easier to hook someone who is sticking halfway out of a doorway, or behind a thin pole, etc. These checks are also used for the persistent line of sight check, so if a hook target moves behind a slim object like a stump or a lightpole, they won’t be released anymore.
- Hooked targets are now slowed heavily while they are stunned, even if they are in the air. This means if someone is strafe jumping away from you and you land a hook, they are a lot less likely to slide out of line on sight, breaking the hook.
- Fixed a bug that could allow you to hook someone and pull them behind you if you spun around before the hook landed.
- Ana
- Biotic Grenade duration reduced from 5s to 4s
- Sombra
- Hack cooldown reduced from 12s to 8s
Beginning with the big man himself, the new changes look to address many of the problems players have had with Roadhog’s recently altered hook ability. Roadhog can throw out a hook and pull other heroes towards him. Originally, the ability was programmed in such a way that it was the line of sight from the hook itself that determined if the move caught a hero, allowing players to hook enemies they could not actually see. Following the recent Hook 2.0 changes however, which made the ability dependent on Roadhog’s line of sight, everything from stumps to lamp posts began causing the move to fail. The newest changes will help iron out some of these issues.
Meanwhile, Blizzard is still working to balance Ana’s biotic grenade. Arguably the strongest healer currently in the game (and therefore a near mandatory character for any match) Ana has the ability to throw out a grenade that stops healing to enemies and doubles healing to allies for a certain amount of time. While a recent update reduced that ally affect to only 50% more healing, the latest tweak reduces the time during which the effect is active.
The primary perpetrator in what many players complain has become too stale of a meta-game in the past few months, Ana previously was able to almost instantly heal multiple large tank characters with very little effort. These continued changes are part of an effort to change that without losing the character’s more unique aspects.
And finally, struggling to find a role in most games since she was released late last year, Sombra is receiving a slight buff, lowering the cooldown of her hacking ability. A relatively weak character in terms of not only her health pool, but also the damage she is able to do, Sombra’s main contribution to a team is to hack health packs, disabling them for the enemy team, and hack enemy characters, disabling their abilities for a short time. While a reduction of the time you have to wait in between hacks is beneficial, we will have to wait and see if it makes her a viable choice for most players.
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