Overwatch 2 Rework Gives Roadhog A Brand-New Ability

Overwatch 2's Roadhog is the latest hero in Blizzard's shooter to receive a rework, and it brings some major changes to how players will approach playing the hook-focused tank.

As detailed in a recent livestream, nearly every aspect of Roadhog, aside from his hook, has been touched in some form. His primary weapon, Scrap Gun, is losing its secondary fire ability. The number of pellets fired with Scrap Gun's primary fire is being reduced as well, but each pellet will deal more damage, and the attack will deal more damage to enemies caught in the center of the shot. Overall, the total possible damage from a single shot has been increased, making Roadhog even deadlier for players who can perfectly land their Scrap Gun blasts.

Roadhog's healing ability, Take A Breather, has been reworked. Instead of being on a cooldown, Take A Breather will use a resource meter, and will remain active for as long as the assigned hotkey is held or until the ability's resource meter has been drained. The ability no longer amplifies healing after use and has had the damage reduction it grants decreased from 50% to 30%. It will take 12 seconds for the ability's resource meter to reach full capacity from empty.

The biggest change is an all-new ability, Pig Pen. Similar to Junk Rat's trap ability, Pig Pen is a trap that can be placed on the ground and triggers when enemies come into contact with it. Rather than locking enemies in place, it will instead slow them by 40% and deal damage to enemies in an area, additionally dealing damage over time to those caught in its blast radius for three seconds after activation. Pig Pen has a 12 second cooldown.

It seems much of Roadhog's new game plan will be to hook enemies into his Pig Pen trap, punishing out-of-position enemies and allowing his team to secure kills. Roadhog's rework will go live on November 14 alongside full patch notes.

Roadhog is the second Overwatch 2 hero to receive a rework as part of Season 7. Sombra received major changes at the beginning of Season 7 on October 10, alongside a Diablo-themed event mode.

Blizzard recently revealed Overwatch 2's next hero, the dual gatling gun-wielding Mauga, at BlizzCon 2023. Mauga will be added as part of Overwatch 2's upcoming Season 8, but players got the chance to go hands-on with Mauga for one weekend following his reveal.