Discraft Buzzz vs Innova Roc: The Two Classic Midranges Compared

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The Buzzz and the Roc are the two midranges that defined the category. Innova’s Roc has been in the lineup since the 1980s and was, for a long time, the midrange — the disc pros beat in for a season and then guarded like treasure. Discraft’s Buzzz arrived in 2003 and became the best-selling mid in the sport by doing something simpler: flying straight for everyone, straight out of the box. They’re within a few dollars of each other and they solve different problems, which is why so many bags have both.

This comparison covers how they fly, how they feel, plastics, wind, and which to buy if you’re only buying one. We’ve reviewed the Buzzz in full here.

Head-to-head

Flight: straight vs. fade

The numbers tell the story, and owner feedback confirms it.

Buzzz (5/4/−1/1): thrown flat, it flies flat and straight and finishes with a small, soft fade. Thrown on a hyzer it holds the hyzer; on an anhyzer it holds that without flipping over. For a beginner it goes straight; for a strong arm it goes straight, farther, with a touch of right drift at the top. Its weakness is headwind, where the −1 turn shows up and the disc lifts.

Roc (4/4/0/3): thrown flat with enough power, it flies straight for the first two-thirds of the flight and then fades left — hard, and reliably. That reliability is the whole appeal: on a windy day or a hyzer line, the Roc goes where a Roc goes. Thrown without enough power, the fade arrives early and the disc hooks left and short, which is why it isn’t a first-set disc.

A note on the beat-in Roc: a DX Roc that’s hit a hundred trees loses most of its fade and becomes a straight-to-gentle-fade disc that old-school players consider one of the best mids ever made. That’s a real phenomenon and a reason many players still buy DX Rocs. It’s also not something you can buy off the shelf — you make it.

Feel: rim and profile

The Buzzz has a low-profile, slightly rounded, beadless rim and a slight dome. It’s one of the most comfortable mids for forehand and for smaller hands.

The Roc has a beaded rim and sits a millimetre deeper. Players who like a mid they can really wrap their fingers around tend to prefer it; players who like a low, sleek profile prefer the Buzzz. It is a hand-fit question, and on these two discs it is the only physical question — see the next section.

The difference nobody mentions: the bead

On paper these are the same disc, and that surprises most people. Infinite Discs lists both at 21.7 cm diameter, a 1.2 cm rim width, a 1.3 cm rim depth and a 180 g maximum weight. The Buzzz is one millimetre shallower — 1.9 cm tall against the Roc’s 2.0 cm — and that is the entire dimensional difference between them.

What separates them in the hand is one small ridge of plastic on the inside edge of the rim: the Roc is beaded, the Buzzz is not.

That matters more than a millimetre of height, because it changes which grip works. One of the more useful owner reviews on Infinite Discs puts it bluntly: beaded discs do not perform well with a power grip, and a player who power-grips their midranges will usually not get on with a Roc. That is not a fault in the disc — it is the reason two players can throw the same Roc and come away with opposite verdicts, and it is worth knowing before you spend $9 finding out.

If you have never paid attention to beads, this is the comparison to start with, because here it is the only physical variable.

Wind and shot shaping

This is where the Roc earns its place. In a headwind, the Buzzz’s neutrality becomes a liability — it lifts and turns — while the Roc’s 0 turn and 3 fade keep it on line. The same applies to forehand approaches (where a little extra stability prevents flip) and to hyzer lines that need to finish left, not straight.

Discraft’s answer to that is the Buzzz OS (5/4/0/3), which is essentially a Buzzz with Roc-like numbers. If you love the Buzzz rim but need the Roc’s fade, that’s the disc — and it’s the reason some players never buy a Roc at all.

Age, and what it tells you

Innova got the Roc PDGA-approved on 1 January 1987. It has been in production, essentially unchanged in mold, for thirty-nine years — longer than most people reading this have played disc golf, and longer than Discraft has sold the Buzzz (approved in 2003) by sixteen years.

Innova’s own description is unusually blunt for marketing copy: “the best, most versatile mid-range disc ever made… If you’re not sure what disc to throw, choose the Roc; just like most pros.” They also say the thing that matters most for a beginner: “It ages slowly, becoming an excellent slow turning disc as it wears.” A worn Roc doesn’t become useless, it becomes a different, straighter disc — which is why players keep three of them at different stages of beat-in.

The Buzzz’s two decades are hardly a short record either. The point isn’t that older is better; it’s that both of these discs have outlived every trend in disc design, and neither is going to be discontinued or quietly re-tooled under you. Whichever you pick, you’ll be able to replace it with the same thing in ten years.

Plastics

Buzzz: ESP (grippy, durable, the favorite), Z (most durable, slicker), Pro D (cheap, wears fast), Big Z, Jawbreaker and FLX blends for cold weather. More than forty variants over the years.

Roc: DX (the legendary beat-in disc), Pro and KC Pro (softer, grippier), Star (firm-grippy), Champion (most stable and durable), GStar. The Roc3 comes mainly in premium plastics.

One practical difference: the Buzzz flies nearly the same in every plastic. The Roc changes a lot — a new Champion Roc and a beat DX Roc are different discs. If you buy a Roc for its fade, buy Star or Champion; if you buy it to beat in, buy DX.

Price and availability

Close, but not equal, and the Roc is the cheaper disc. Checked at Infinite Discs on 4 October 2026: the Roc runs $8.99 to $19.99 across its plastics, the Buzzz $10.99 to $27.99. Part of that gap is the Buzzz’s much larger special-edition market (Ledgestone, tour series), which inflates the top of its range and affects collectors more than players — but the bottom of the range is a real difference too. A DX Roc is the cheapest way into either mold.

Both molds are in our price index, where every figure carries the date it was read. Disc prices move by plastic rather than by shop, so what it tracks is the bottom and top of each retailer’s range.

Which one should you buy?

Buy the Buzzz if:

• It’s your first or only midrange.
• You want a disc that flies the same for you now and in three years.
• You play wooded, technical courses where straight is everything.
• You throw a lot of forehand mids.

Buy the Roc if:

• You already throw a mid 200+ feet flat and want a reliable fade.
• You play windy courses.
• You want a disc for hyzer approaches and forehand flicks that won’t flip.
• You want the beat-in DX Roc experience (and the patience for it).

Buy both if: you carry two mids. Buzzz for straight and turnover, Roc for hyzer and wind. It’s the classic pairing for a reason.

Our pick

For one midrange: the Buzzz, and it isn’t close for most players — its neutrality is a feature at every skill level. The Roc is the better second midrange and the better disc for specific jobs.

If the Roc is the one you are weighing, it is worth seeing it against Innova’s own straightest midrange rather than only against Discraft’s: in Roc vs Mako3 both discs’ owner numbers come in under the published figures, and they do it in opposite directions. For the wider brand picture see Innova vs Discraft; for where mids fit in a bag, disc types explained.