Last month's Horizon Lunar Colony Update brought with it some amazing buffs to McCree and Reaper, but also a Roadhog nerf so devastating it practically deleted him from the game. After Roadhog plummeted to 40% winrate and less than 1% pickrate in competitive Blizzard finally announced that they are working on some defensive buffs for poor ol' piggy, buffs that will soon be hitting the PTR!

The exact numbers still haven't been decided, but according to Principal Designer Geoff Goodman Roadhog will soon have 50% damage reduction while using his Take a Breather heal, and he'll also be able to move around at full speed while inhaling! Here's the full post if you're interested in some of the details behind this change:

"We're actually testing this exact thing right now internally. Currently we have been play testing Roadhog with -50% damage taken while using Take a Breather, and also allowing him to move at full speed while inhaling. These two changes combined certainly make him significantly more difficult to kill, while also allowing Roadhog players to be much more aggressive when trying to find a hook target, knowing they can survive a lot more easily.

We plan on throwing this up on the PTR asap (along with some other hero changes) so you guys can play with it as well. Its possible its actually too strong right now but we'll have time to iterate on it."

While its almost certain this buff will give a significant boost to Roadhog's power, I can't say I'm happy with the direction Blizzard is heading in. Roadhog currently feels boring to play because most of his strengths have gotten heavily nerfed, and buffing his weaknesses is not going to change that, if anything its only going to make him even more bland. So why not rework Roadhog by making him more skill-intensive or by amplifying his weaknesses, rather than making him generic?

That said, the patch notes haven't been revealed just yet, so I'll reserve my judgement until I can get my hands on the PTR. Either way, its going to interesting to see what Blizzard does with Roadhog in the next few months as I feel like he's their first 'real' balance challenge - a hero that can't simply be tweaked by adjusting a few numbers alone.