My Opinions On The Coming Changes

NullEXE · February 24, 2020

The Deathslinger

I am loving the new killer! Not gonna lie. The whole cowboy aestitic, and how unique his power is - is incredible. Also an awesome way to add FPS aspects to the game without adding an actual gun. Not to mention - ITS A COWBOY! A Wild West horror film is added to the game! I also can't get enough of shooting that teabagger at the exit gate, and reeling them back in for an extra hook. Finally I can punish survivors for being toxic when they gen rush me and abuse broken perks. I don't even care when I lose with this guy, just because i'm laughing all the way to the entity's depression.

I agree with many of the big players by the way, the killer can be easily compared to Huntress. I find that it's the huntress, but a higher skill cap ability to use. Like Clown, I compare the Deathslinger to Huntress. It's the same concept of having a throwable power giving you a unique effect. The Huntress has flat damage (Easy), Clown has status effects that make visuals, and looping difficult (Hard), and Deathslinger (Medium) who can make trick shots throughout the map, over obsticles, and try to reel your game in for a hit - or Deep Wound forcing them to heal before focusing on any other objective.

At this same time I also agree with others when they say that he needs buffs, because he is too weak in comparison to other killer - like the Huntress. Though I don't agree with changes that makes his shots flat damage, as in my opinion, not only would that make him very broken - because taking shots would take less skill than a hatchet that arc's. I do agree, however, with giving him more movement speed. He would be so good (but not too good), as a 110% movement speed Killer. Honestly it would just make it so I don't lose 3 gen's before I get to the other side of the map. This is a much needed buff he needs added before hitting live.

The killer is amazing, and I love him. I'm even bad at FPS games, but I love this guy.

Zarina Kassir

I can't give enough of my appreciation for the diversity of characters in Dead by Daylight, and i'm really glad to see a Lebanese survivor join the roster. I don't know if enough people have mentioned it, but do you know how rare you see Lebanese characters in video games, or at least onces that are not mentioned as Lebanese and just simply considered of some other nationality? I have a few friends that are Lebanese, and when the info dropped that the next survivor was Lebanese they were extremely happy. So thank-you for that. Her whole backstory shines light on hardships that many foreign children face in western society for places that's still trying to get used to diversity. I gotta give credit where credit is due, and this character is spectacular. It doesn't even stop there. Her backstory even goes into things that many younger people deal with in minimum wage jobs. Like it doesn't go into great detail, but the fact that it's added gives the story that extra flavor, and makes it relatable.

I could go hours about her backstory, but I gotta start talking about her perks;

Off the Record - Everyone keeps saying this perk is bad, but I don't know how many tried using this with Object of Obsession? Or against Killer's running BBQ, Rancor, Nemesis, HT, or Bitter Murmer? It's deadly. Thank god it requires you to get unhooked, or else it would be so broken - 80 seconds is also a really long time when consider how short games are now. The fact that it removes grunts is just an added bonus, so you can hide near the Killer without being heard. I would say it's balanced - because it requires to be unhooked. It's been helping me greatly in matches, and I never even notice it when I play Killer, so it's not ruining the fun for anyone - which is the important part.
Red Herring - I love Diversion. Funnest perk I play with. Not that I run it when i'm being serious, or playing solo, but I deffiently run Diversion when i'm on a SWF and messing with the Killer. Red Herring is literally the same, and so much more useful, because I don't have to aim for generators anymore. I run this with my friends, if someone get's put on hook. Someone else goes for the save, I jump into a locker with Head On, and the Killer goes to my gen confused as to where the survivor gone. If he does choose to check my locker, I just stun him and loop him while my friends heal, and jump back on generators. I don't see it getting used in solo, and I don't see it getting used as a big meta perk, but i'm deffiently going to have a hard time choosing if I am going to run Red Herring or Diversion on my meme builds. If you wanted this to be used by solo players, I would make it's ability secondary button to activate, over getting into a locker, and add more seconds to how long you have to activate it. 6-8 seconds wouldn't be too powerful, but give you enough time to get far enough away from a generator without having to rely on a locker.
For the People - Why... Why did you bring back insta-heals? This perk is so powerful, I can't even begin to explain how frusterating i've been having facing it. Let alone almost all of my meta builds (except the selfish ones) are taking this perk. I am even replacing BT with this, because it's just so powerful. Killer's can't focus down the weaker survivors on my team anymore to have a chance at winning, i'll just drop an instaheal on them, and if you go for the injured survivor now - they are going to loop you for the rest of the match. Like what. Mind blown. Why? No. Just no. Survivors never needed this kind of buff. Also the audacity that people are having saying this perk is weak, that the 90 second broken status should be removed or made less. I would make that longer! The broken status effect is what is even keeping this perk remotely balanced. I would drop a one use per trial rule on it - maybe that will make it balanced, but at the same time you are giving survivors the ability to insta heal again, so the Killer is going to find it nearly impossible to finish chases entirely. To be entirely honest I have no idea how to balance this at all, just because it's an insta heal. Do you even know how many times it's EGC, and I just got unhooked (DS is active), I go running, unhook the other guy, give him that insta heal, he get's hit, speed boost out the door, and then the killer's only option is to down me. Welp here's DS, and I go out the door too. How does a killer even counter that? He can't - that's the point. There is no counterplay around it with the addition of other meta perks. BT? If the person who unhooked me, gave me BT. Then that's 2 hits, and my DS the Killer goes through to have a chance to get me. Imagine that in a SWF - well I have tried it in a SWF. It's not pretty.

Toolboxes

After the ruin changes, I had it in my mind, that for future updates that game would be balanced back into the Killers favor, so they are the killer role again, like they knew getting rid of ruin generators would be repaird too quickly. They knew that the matches would go too fast. They knew the game would be extremely in the survivors favor - not including SWF. Boy how I was wrong. Toolboxes, never needed to be touched in the first place, we all know the issues with gen speed are not the generators, items, or add-ons themselves. We all knew it was entirely because of map sizes, amount of pallets, amount of safe loops, and map layouts. Why did you have to go and BUFF toolboxes? Yeah, the changes are not a nerf to toolboxes. They are a buff. To put it simply, look at the toolboxes, not how long you have a toolbox for, but how much progression you get out of a full toolbox. When they said "We increased the repair speed of toolboxes, but reduced the charges" I was confused, because therefore there would be no difference how much progression a toolbox would get. What I didn't expect is them to reduce the charges, and at the same time making toolboxes much faster! So now you get more progression from toolboxes, in less the amount of time. You would think that with reduced charges, then - okay - more progression, but at least they won't be able to use the same toolbox again, as the rarer toolboxes are relatively hard to get out of the Bloodweb, but NOPE! You also added that you keep items at the end of the match, so there is no fallback to using all the charges of a commedius, or engeineer's toolbox. There is no watching to aim for the last tick, and there is no 'lack of progression' by just leaving 1/8th of a toolbox. Just use the whole thing, and keep the box after the match. Grab a couple add-ons (you don't even need add-ons for toolboxes to be broken) from the bloodweb, and your ready for the next match. So let's get this straight, your resolve for making the game less stressful and more fun to play for killer, is by making it easier for survivors, and ending the match faster? Me and my team tested your new toolboxes, and by the time it took Clown to walk across Thompson House 3 gen's were done. Know why? Because that's 2 on one gen, 1 on another gen, and 1 going to a fourth gen - sneaking around the killer. The 4th gen didn't take much longer. Normally the Clown will only lose 2 gens, or 1 gen, and most of a second gen before finding survivors.

Was the goal that Franklin's becomes another required perk every Killer has to take all of the time, like so many other perks already? Is there a plan to give Killer's more perk slots that I have yet to hear about? Because once you take Franklin's on a killer that is fast, like Legion, Billy, Spirit, or Nurse these toolboxes are not much of an issue. One hit from Franklin's pratically makes the toolbox unusable. Though what are slow killer's supposed to do when they are losing 3-4 gen's at the start of a match? Is there a plan to make Franklin's basekit for all killers?

Here's a better idea, scrap the toolbox changes, and just forget about them. We all know that toolboxes never were the issue in the first place, so don't go making more problems in the game before you fix the ones that are already there. That's my best suggestion.

Sabotage

0.0... What? I don't think I have ever had so much power as one survivor than I ever did when i'm running Saboteur, and an Alex's Toolbox. I get that you want to make the perk more accesible to solo players, but giving solo players the ability to perform what took 2-3 survivors in a coordinated SWF was really the worst way to go. I can literally play the game following the killer - remaining hidden the best I can, and if he downs any survivor: good or bad. I drop the 2-3 nearest hooks, in less than a second each, with sprint burst. The killer is forced to drop the survivor to chase me. Now my fun, is I combo this with breakout, so most times they just straight up wiggle out. They can chase the survivor off carry, or chase the guy who's been sabotaging hooks. I am relatively good at looping, so I am going to loop you for 3 survivors to finish the last of the gens (because 2 have been working on gens this whole time). You choose to chase the guy who just wiggled off, i'm still following you and by the time you catch the guy - I got my Sprint Burst back. How many gen's are down now? 2 for the first chase, 2 for the second chase. That's you losing another person from being hooked, we body block, and we're out the door.

I dont' think I ever had this much power as one survivor in this game. I literally have full control over the killer's entire objective with just 1 item and a perk. It doesn't matter if the team is good, and doesn't matter if they are bad. If I am playing with friends then any time the killer hits me or someone else, we know buddies coming in to drop us a For the People, before scurrying off back to doing gens. Chase the guy who healed? Doesn't matter - i'm still just gonna destroy any hooks near you.

I wanna be really dirty? Alright i'm taking Hacksaw, and Wire Spool, relatively easy to get from the bloodweb - I won't lose my toolbox anyways. Really rub in the salt, and put a layer of ice on it when I take Object of Obsession or Petrified Oak. I really hope the killer wasn't planning to have any fun this round.

Finally a mechanic that I can get bm'd by the killer just as much as I get bm'd for playing killer. In the PTB of all places i've forced Killers to dc, tunnel, camp, afk, slug, and flame in the worst ways in the end game chat.

Here's a good deal, keep the toolboxes, and For the People, but please don't let the Sabotage changes hit live.

Breakable Walls

I LOVE BREAKABLE WALLS. Finally! A mechanic in the game that really brings the fear in playing survivor again. Even if my Spine Chill is going off, and i'm indoors. I'm looking at the doors/windows to see the killer coming, and then boom - Myers bursts in like the Kool-Aid man and smacks me harder than a truck. That's how I imagine it anyways, right now the only breakable walls are in the new map, which is really open, so they don't have much of an effect, but I imagine this is gonna be game changing and so much more fun for the game overrall.

As far as balance goes, I don't think they are strong enough. Yeah I said it. I know most people have been saying that they destroy a lot of the mind games for loops, and makes it easier to play Killer, which I agree with for the most part, but it takes too long to make that kind of effect. It takes as long to break a wall as it takes to break a pallet, and right now in the game you are losing a whole gen if you stop to break a pallet in a chase. So every time you break 1-2 walls you lose a gen. That's a really long time when you only got 5 gens to worry about. I would make breaking a wall faster, and then EVEN faster with perks that speed up breaking things. I want to see Myer's come through that wall in Killer Shack like a train, and too too my as- . Ahem.

However I have another opinion to nerf them a bit. I don't like how noticable they are. I can understand the need for them to be clear for Killers to see, but survivors can see them just fine with the red/blue boards. That removes surprise, I am looking at a breakable wall just as much as i'm looking at doors and windows for the killer to come through and since it takes him as long to break a wall, as it takes to break a pallet. The moment I start hearing that bang i'm making a run for it in the other direction. Make them even harder to see, so the survivors can't see them. Maybe make it so the red/blue boards are straight up not visible to survivors - it would be hard to code/design into the game, but it would make a world of a difference.

Also reduce the amount of breakable walls in a map. I don't need to be able to break a wall at every single loop and pallet. I also don't want to destroy survivors chances of looping entirely. Getting rid of god loops is a definite, turning the Killer Shack into the killers favor is expectable, but to keep it fair and within reason - Not every strong loop needs a breakable wall. I really just want them in places where a survivor is hiding around a corner, or on a generator. Then BAM! Oh ya! Stabby Stab! Also Kool-Aid man for next Killer please.

Final Thoughts

Aestically. I absolutely love the update. The amount of work the story and grapic design teams put into this is amazing. The story writing is amazing. I've always been loving the lore and story of this game, and you guys just keep making it better - take my money, give me more lore.

The new killer is unique, add's so much more flavor to the game. You found an amazing way to add a cynical cowboy to your roster of killer's. The game has fishing now, which is awesome - I can see myself in Haddonfield leaving a dying survivor in the street, and sitting on a rooftop waiting for some fish to take the bait, and reel them in. I can finally punish teabaggers without running ghostface - which is a huge bonus. Make him 115% and I think he would be perfectly balanced - regardless what anyone else says.

There are many balancing errors, and things that shouldn't of been touched. After recent updates to the game, I can expect to see them in the main game, because it doesn't seem like you make any big changes from the PTB to the live game other than minor bug fixes, but please. I am begging you don't let those Toolbox, and sabotage changes go live. We will be facing a slug only meta, and no one wants that. It's boring to play as Killer, and even more boring to play as survivor. At the same time, Survivors NEVER needed any buffs since the ruin nerf. I had high hopes that from that update we were going to see more buffs for killers to balance the game better in their favor, so they are less stressful to play, and more fun, but that seems to just not be the case - or not in the plans at all. I'm not sure if I should just assume that killers ability to have fun is not a concern in game balance. I would really hope that it is, though I don't mind switching to only playing SWF and giving up on playing Killer. At the same time other aysymetrical games are coming out - quickly, so Dead by Daylight will be seeing some real compitition in the near future, like Capcom's Resident Evil Resistance which takes the killer role and makes him more of a powerful entity over the entire match than just a single aspect for survivors to focus on - already they are gonna have an easier time balancing that for an aysymetrical game in addition to that it's a triple A company developing it. Big competition. So I hope to see better updates for dead by daylight in the near future.

And that's all my opinions on the updates. Thanks for the read. Tl;dr below

tl;dr

Deathslinger is awesome and unique, make him 115% MS killer, and he would be balanced.
Zarina is an amazing addition to the game, her story is amazing. Her perks needs work.
Off The Record is strong, but balanced
Red Herring is fun, but not very useful to solo's
For the People is broken, and Insta Heals never should have come back, no matter how much you seem to try and balance it.
You buffed toolboxes, not nerfed them. I'm not even sure why toolboxes got touched at all, when they weren't even the issue.
The Sabotage changes gives too much power to a single survivor over the Killer's objective, turning one survivor into a literal god. Ruins the fun for the Killer, and the Killer still has just enough power to ruin the fun for survivors as a result.
Breakable walls are amazing. Make breaking the wall faster, make survivors ability to see what walls are breakable more difficult, and have less breakable walls in a single match so survivors still have a chance to use loops, make plays, and participate in the mind game.
Big competition is coming, and the game is going to do very poorly if they don't make the game more fun and balanced for Killers. They need to stop tunnel visioning on the survivors fun in the game, and stop Killers from leaving, or resorting to unfan strategies in the game that makes the game unfun for survivors - else they will start losing players to these other competitors.
Sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes.
gg wp!