Leather Face and His Potential
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic! Thanks to the all-to-real, terrifying, tall cannibal, Leather Face.
When Dead by Daylight started, it was almost unknown, with only 1 killer, The Trapper. The eight or so devs at the time made another killer, then another named The Hillbilly.
The Hillbilly is an obvious stand in for Leather Face, with a messed up face, wielding a chainsaw, being scary af, and even The Thompson House is similar to Leather Face's house in the original. Now, I'm not sure if the devs tried to get the rights to Leather Face before (unsuccessfully might I add) so decided to make their own, or if they never tried to reach out, but what I do know is that Leather Face had so much potential and that The Hillbilly is now irrelevant.
I am aware that A BUNCH of people play Hillbilly and that tier wise he is MUCH better than Leather Face, thanks to his insane map pressure and ability to insta-down. So why is The Cannibal/ Leather Face worse than The Hillbilly? They both have the ability to insta-down, break pallets at a fast rate, share some of the same add-ons, and charging up the chainsaw is relatively the same speed (same thing with the cool down). Heck, Leather Face's chainsaw is even easier to USE than Hillbilly's AND can hit multiple people at once! So why is he so bad? Is It because he "tantrums" after hitting an object? is it because he can't zoom across the map in 3 seconds? I honestly don't know. But killers don't need insane map pressure. Take a look at Ghost Face and Huntress. They are slow (or can be slowed) but they're still both really good.
I really wish the devs did more with the Leather Face "chapter" (it's really a paragraph). Don't get me wrong, I think all of his perks are great! (Knock Out, Frankline's Demise, Barbecue and Chili) But I would have liked to see Sally Hardesty (the final girl) and Leather Face's house as a map (extending to the woods, the road, and the barbecue joint). I guess you didn't put them in because you didn't have the rights to Sally, but still...
Maybe in the future we'll see SOME changes, but my hope is strangled every time I see a killer that's NOT Leather Face is on the chopping block. In fact, I don't think I remember ANY changes to Leather Face since he came out.
Comments
My personal opinion after roughly 3500 hours. Hillbilly is MUCH easier to use than Leatherface. You even named a reason why so.
As Leatherface you have to learn how to effectively maneuver around objects in order to down someone WHO ISN'T EVEN TRYING TO DODGE THE CHAINSAW ATTACK (unless you're one of those no-skill "instasaw" players who basically hug survivors before revving the chainsaw) otherwise you will get punished with a TANTRUM that literally allows survivors to run 20meters whereas as Hillbilly you basically just look at them and charge the chainsaw and it's up to their experience in dodging the chainsaw whether the attack will connect or not - so in terms of actually just using it the Hillbilly's chainsaw is actually much easier.
There's only ONE thing that requires "SOME" practice as Hillbilly which is curving but even then that's way easier
https://youtu.be/MWGoPeL-VOIthan maneuvering Bubba's chainsaw around (weirdly shaped) loops without touching the wall while at the same time being close enough to the walls to actually catch up to the survivor within Bubba's highly limited chainsaw range:
https://youtu.be/29RMFtVznvwNow as for the topic: Actually Bubba got a small QoL change a few months ago. Successfully hitting a survivor with the chainsaw now reduces the chainsaw cooldown. That was a really good step in the right direction although it still doesn't change the fact his basekit needs to be buffed.
Without addons there is 0% chance of downing a survivor by successfully chainsaw-routing after them through buildings, tiles, around objects etc. so good chainsaw control isn't rewarded in the slightest.
You can only use it up close which is boring and allows them to avoid the chainsaw everytime they find a window or pallet making him a killer with no power if the survivors play remotely well.
I've posted multiple ideas to change his basekit using "high risk/high reward" ideas but since the devs neither have time nor interest in Leatherface none of the ideas will ever come into play so all I'm personally asking for is increasing his chainsaw movement speed "during the last 3 swings" of his chainsaw allowing him to chainsaw-route without speed addons and rewarding good chainsaw-control.
Leatherface is fun to play
It would be nice if they removed or reduced the slowdown when charging the chainsaw