One of the most frustrating (or lovely depending on your perspective) things about Overwatch is getting hit by a Roadhog hook from the around the corner. For those who don't play Overwatch, Roadhog's hook is an ability that allows him to throw it at a character a reasonable distance away. If he connects, he pulls the stunned character toward him and plops them down right in front of him. This usually results in squishy characters being instantly killed. Due to the way that it currently works today, the hook can grab you in ways in which Issac Newton would rip up all of his research and throw his hands in the air in defeat. Many have called the hook broken due to it's inconsistent and sometimes ridiculous nature, and healers and DPS everywhere cowered in fear of it.
But it seems that Roadhog is finally getting looked at by the Blizzard team, and it's going to result in a "hook 2.0".
Geoff Goodman, a Principal Designer on Overwatch, revealed the changes on a forum post recently. In fact, he hints that the changes could come to the PTR soon, possibly even this week. Basically, there are three big changes that are the core of the new hook mechanics. First of all, the hook will move toward the front of Roadhog when it grabs the victim. This is different from before where it would be a straight line towards Roadhog himself, and this was the cause of some crazy plays in hooking a person, spinning 180 degrees, and forcing them off a cliff. The main reason for the change is consistency: that the player would always be pulled to the same spot as opposed to before.
Secondly, there's now a line of sight check regarding the hook. Before, it used the hook itself to determine the check, but now it uses Roadhog. That means if Roadhog can't see you when he attempts to grab you with the hook, then it won't grab you. A lot of the anger regarding the hook before would be players thinking that they were around a corner, only to be pulled AROUND the corner into Roadhog's waiting arms. This may lead to more wall hugging by appropriate classes when dealing with Roadhog.
Lastly, even if it does hook a character on the line of sight check, there's a persistent check that occurs once the hook hits. During the time of pulling, if that check fails, it breaks. So, if you falling off a cliff and being pulled would cause Roadhog to lose sight of you, the hook will break.
Goodman goes on to say that the changes "will likely make Roadhog a bit weaker, but we'll evaluate his performance once we get people playing him and make adjustments as necessary."
