There was a recent Overwatch Roadhog nerf in the latest Public Test Realm patch notes that went largely unnoticed due to being so small and easily missed. It was not focused on at all by developer Blizzard in the notes but it actually does change his character up in a pretty significant way.
While certainly not the worst nerf out there, the Overwatch Roadhog nerf is important enough to definitely change up how some players will want to use him from here on out. Let’s dig into what’s changed with Roadhog and what this means for players who use him from now on.
Overwatch Roadhog Nerf Explained
The latest PTR patch notes went live last week on PC but some are just now discovering the Overwatch Roadhog nerf that arrived alongside the update. While Blizzard is typically great about explaining major changes, this one wasn’t focused on at all in the update.
Instead, it was addressed in a single line. Basically, the Overwatch Roadhog nerf affects his secondary fire. Oddly enough, this was set as a “bug fix” for calculating damage “correctly” but in reality, it’s actually a total nerf for the hero. Essentially, there is now a damage falloff applied to his secondary fire.
This results in reduced damage depending on the distance. Redditor Itsjieyang created a clip to give some exact calculation on how the damage falloff works. The user demonstrated the Overwatch Roadhog nerf by using his secondary fire on Reinhardt’s shield on both the live servers and the PTR.
The same number of shots are fired but the remaining health on Reinhardt’s shield is 1544 in the live server but 1852 in PTR with the Overwatch Roadhog nerf applied. This nerf is sure to change how players will utilize the secondary fire from here on with the possibility of reduced damage at a distance.