Reasonable and civil discussion about Freddy and his skill ceiling
WARNING! Long post, TLDR at the end.
Hey everyone,
I'd like to start by telling the amount of experience I have with this game. I have played since April 2018, have over 1.5K hours (I'm PS4 player so it is just an approximated amount), I'm devotion 8 level 80 and have a platinum for this game. I play about 65/35 survivor/killer, play both roles every gaming session and have played all the killers but mostly focus on 9 of them. Even tried to learn nurse three times on console (over 50 matches). I'm red rank on both sides. I have followed the forums for over a year now, reading a lot of threads and upvoting comments i agree on, even if I haven't been very active with commenting myself.
I'm a solo survivor, have been doing fine with all the balance changes and I am overall happy about the direction the game is going. I'm glad the devs started reworking/buffing weaker killers and finally balanced some of the maps. I find the survivor side being easier and killer being more stressful and that's the reason for playing more survivor. Now I don't like being spoonfed in games. I have always liked challenges, that's why I have played all the soulsborne games multiple times and am addicted to roguelikes like The Binding of Isaac. If I'm having difficulties I go to youtube and find a video to learn to get better. I have learned the counters to nurse, to spirit, to new doctor etc.
Now, finally to the topic after this lenghty introduction. Freddy is the only killer I have a problem with playing against. I have tried different playstyles and tactics but nothing seems to work. I'm starting to come into conclusion that Freddy has too much going for him. Most Freddy players I have played against aren't that good, they can't get the first hit while survivor is awake but it does not matter since Freddy can just wait the survivor to fall asleep and spam the snares. Trap the loop, go through the pallet. If Freddy has difficulties, just camp with inbuild counter to borrowed time. If you are doing well, just go dominate even more with good map pressure and pop. Most of the time the Freddy players I have encountered have proxy camped and tunneled and at the end swept the floor clean with NOED if the match reached end game.
Now as I wrote that paragraph I realise it might seem like an unreasonable rant. But no, my intention is not to yell "I LOST, NERF FREDDY!" I have no problem with camping and tunneling because there is time and place for those tactics in some games and most killers don't play like that anyway. I have no problem with NOED. My experience just is that Freddy has all the tools with no downsides and barely skill required. It feels you are doomed no matter what. I bought the Nightmare on Elmstreet chapter after Freddy's rework and got the adept on first try, without sweating like with every other killer adepts. In one of the last streams last year the devs said that Freddy is the most lethal killer, it was around when everyone wanted spirit nerfed. So if the Spirit was overperforming then, my experience is that Freddy is starting to be at the same level. Also as a solo survivor I have no way to tell my teammate who is asleep being chased that what pallets are real if I'm awake or what area I triggered all the snares at if I'm asleep. This is one of those cases that SWF have clear advantage compared to solos.
So I would like to discuss about Freddy. What would be a good solution to rise skill ceiling with Freddy? Should some counterplay mechanism be added? Do you have tips for me and others who struggle against Freddy? Is there a good compromise to be found so that it feels skillbased playing against Freddy without robbing him his power?
My suggestions are:
1. Have the alarm that wakes the survivor up be random or change it to be not the one farthest away and not the closest one but some of those in middle range.
2. When a snare or dream pallet is triggered give a bubble notification to other players same way the doctor's shock gives. That way even solos can work together to counter Freddy's power.
3. Maybe lenghten the time it takes to fall asleep a bit, maybe 15 seconds or something. This would reward Freddy players that can mindgame awake survivors and punish those who just wait survivors to fall asleep.
4. Revert the change that makes the survivors oblivious when asleep. That was unnecessary addition to his already powerful toolkit.
Please keep this discussion civil and I hope that everyone who contributes gives reasoning behind their suggestions/claims.
Even if Freddy will never be changed again I will keep continuing to try getting better at playing against him and not giving up. Thank you for reading.
TLDR: Freddy has a very diverse power that works even when the player playing him is not that good. Could there be a way to rise the skill ceiling when playing Freddy? What would be a reasonable way to add counterplay against him but not nerfing him back to weak level?
Comments
The only change Freddy needs is for the snares to be reworked. You can't balance a braindead easy power like that because if you nerf it, then it becomes too weak.
Pretty much. Yes, it feels smooth as hell to be able to just lay traps quickly without compromising vision or speed, but it's probably not really fair, either.
I suppose the dev intent is that it's balanced by only affecting sleeping people. Which is fine for really good survivor players, but newer/worse players are basically perma-sleeped until I hook them. It's just one of those things that's a huge pubstomper.
I could go in depth about why Freddy is too strong comparatively but I think this sums it up perfectly:
no other killer can spam their power without some risk involved
"Chainsaw go vrooom"
Honestly I'd say that's largely irrelevant considering the effort required on those he vs to negate his abilities temporarily..there are 3 ways to wake up and one does it for 90 seconds , which means he has to hit you or your not being pressured for almost 2 minutes..either way it's kind of a give and take..to get the most out of freddy isnt a mechanical skill ceiling..much like trapper it's about strategic trap placement and planning ahead of time..so its completely different from huntress or nurse which requires more mechanical skill
Just because he isnt grossly underpowered doednt mean that's a bad thing