I've been hooked. What can I do?

Question

It's always a situation like this. I'll be strolling along having a perfectly nice day decimating waves of heroes, and this scumbag Roadhog pops around a corner out of nowhere, hooks me in, then destroys me with his Scrap Gun.

It's frustrating. Whether I'm patrolling the friendly skies with Pharah or sprinting around as Soldier 76, or blinking around as Tracer, one of the few things that frustrate me to all hell is Roadhog's Hook.

Is there any ability in game that can react fast enough to a hook to mitigate the damage that comes afterward? How much time to react do I have before to avoid the face-on damage? Is there a distance visually that I am safe from his wrath, or can he catch me and almost any angle and any range (which really does seem like it when you get caught out of the sky). Is my only chance at escaping a hook bunny hopping madly like an insane rabbit? Or are there other ways to deal with this mess?

Answer 1

The following are all things that I've seen work for me and my teammates, playing from early in the closed beta to now.

Reinhardt's shield and Winston's bubble both block the hook, so if they can be raised before the hook hits anyone, that can save not only the player, but also their teammates.

As one of the other answers has said, using a character that has an "out," like a dash, you can semi-reliably escape from the Roadhog.

Dashing with Tracer or Genji, or using Tracer's Rewind, might save you if the Roadhog isn't fast enough. Likewise with Pharah's Jump Jet. McCree can try and stun the Roadhog and roll away, which might work in his favor.

Reaper and Mei can easily use their invulnerability abilities to help prevent their demise. Unfortunately, Mei's leaves her right there next to the Roadhog, so you have to hope your team can save you. Zarya's barriers both block the hook, if applied before it lands. Also, Zarya can activate a barrier on herself or an ally after they've been hooked to hopefully ensure the Roadhog does not get a kill, and instead gives her a big boost of energy. Call out to a Zarya on your team if you have one, and they might keep you alive.

Winston and Zenyatta can pop their Ultimate to pretty much ensure they survive the encounter, but that's probably a wasted ult.

Lastly, one thing that works for me about half the time, since I play Lucio very frequently, is to use a knockback ability (Lucio's alt-fire) on the Roadhog, which sometimes prevents a killing blow from landing and occasionally disorients the Roadhog. This can also work for Junkrat and his concussive mine. Press shift and right-click immediately. The Junkrat will be blown back, and the Roadhog might even die. If Pharah's Jump Jet is on cooldown, her Concussive Blast would knock both characters away from each other, and might be more effective than Lucio's alt-fire.

One important note with using knockback abilities: Junkrat's and Pharah's abilities move both players, so they usually work a little better in certain situations. If the Roadhog hooks you as Lucio while standing backed up against a wall, trying to blast him away with your alt-fire will be much less effective, if not pointless.

Something that could work against a very slow or just bad Roadhog is Hanzo's scatter shot, fired at the Roadhog's/Hanzo's feet. I've never seen this successfully done, but theoretically it might work.

One final note: Widowmaker's grapple probably wouldn't work, as it is very slow, but poisoning the Roadhog with a venom mine as you die might ensure that he goes down, too.

Answer 2

Normally, you will die. Except if...

Factors outside of your control:

• Roadhog's competence. One that is completely new at the game might not shoot you in time, giving you enough leeway to use a defensive ability.
• Roadhog's lag.
• An ally saved you: you have an armor pack, zarya bubble, a mei wall, another hook, etc disrupting the roadhog combo.

Factor partially in your control:

• There is a bug with fast moving characters that will sometimes have you hooked behind or to the side of the Roadhog. If you are genji, tracer, or lucio, this seems to happen more often if you are moving around very quickly.

Answer 3

There is no skill that makes you escape from a Roadhog hook. He can shoot mid-hook, and therefore will hit you with his shotgun while you are still stunned. Some Roadhogs don't utilize this, and one tip is to hold the "escape" (Mei Cryo-Freeze, Tracer's Recall, etc.) button down, instead of smashing it 10 times a second. Like this, the skill will activate as soon as it can be activated.

You can deal with Roadhog by staying at long range. Due to his big model, he is easy to hit, even at long range. If you can't stay at long range, stay behind your tanks. If you play a fast character like Tracer, you can kite him around or bait out the hook.

tl;dr: Avoid getting hooked. Once Roadhog hits you, you're dead.

Answer 4

As Tracer, Genji, and other heroes with dashes, you can dash as soon as the pull duration is over, and jump to safety out of range of Roadhog's devastating gun. The heroes I have done this with are Tracer, Genji, Mcree, and Widowmaker.

Alternatively using Mei's ability where she turns to ice, or Reaper's ability to phase out, you can avoid getting hit by a shotgun blast if you react fast enough. Although this only really delays the inevitable as Mei, unless you team can get there fast enough.

Zarya is also a good pick, as you can shield yourself after you get hooked, and absorb the damage from Roadhog's gun. The main thing to succeed in countering him with any of these abilities is having quick reactions so you can use the ability before he shoots you and you die.

Note: None of these guarantee that you will live, however if the Roadhog miss-times his combo, you will have a better chance of surviving if you attempt to dash/shield/go untargetable as soon as the hooks disable wears off.