How come deathslinger hasn't been reworked?
His power is not necessarily overpowered by any means because he has no map pressure, which is where he needs buffed, but his chase interaction is so insufferable. This was said a lot when he came out and people still don't enjoy playing against him because there isn't much counterplay to his power in open maps and at small loops. It's similar if not worse to how pyramid heads power was when he came out but that was changed whereas deathslinger remains untouched. I hope the devs are aware of how frustrating his power feels to play against.
Comments
It seems like him and Oni are considered the best balanced killers from release since neither has had any real changes. (Although I think oni could use a slight nerf)
deathsligner is fine... here is why.
Although deathslinger doesn't have map pressure, He is great in the 1v1 scenario. You should be able to down someone within 1/2 shots 3 at most, if they gave him a like cooldown/warmup to aiming his gun, then yes getting around the map faster would be a great idea.
Originally I've been told he was supposed to get around the map faster by shooting and reeling himself in, but limitations to the game didn't allow this.
In my opinion, he is by far the best ranged killers and one of the top tier killers if you get good with him, no buffs needed, just practice.
This video is quite a decent demonstration of why The Slinger’s power is balanced or at least not overpowered/too oppressive when out in the open or at smaller loops.
https://youtu.be/35vBSv7zPGw
Demo, also is one of the better killers, his shred is a great power, and map mobility make him strong.
His addons however have always sucked, with the rework we can expect cool new builds and much more lethality.
I honestly believe he is far better than pyramid head, and most people just don't know how to play him.
I agree 110% with absolutely everything that you've said. Deathslinger needs FIXED not NERFED
A thread about deathslinger that's over 1 page and nobody has said the flawed "He just missed"? New record for the forums :o
As much as I would like survivors to enjoy versing slinger more, you cannot remove the quickscope or he becomes the worst killer in the game.
I would say he's fine as he is now as he has a LOT of drawbacks when it comes to the game in general.
Everyone who says his power isn't balanced is wrong because the devs themselves haven't changed his power. If you want to go off of the devs intentions why look at another killer they changed? They haven't changed deathsliner who, by the way, is a completely different killer from pyramid head. Seeing as the deathslinger was out when pyramid head was nerfed, the devs obviously felt he didn't need the same treatment. So YOU are the one who is wrong by your own logic.
He needs no Rework
Or maybe, just maybe, they don't think he's a problem?
I don't think they're playing the long game here, he's been like this for a year and there aren't that many complaints about him aside from people like OP.
Do you not remember GF, Legion, Spirit, Clown and many other killers that were getting changes either from their respective PTBs or soon after ?
Devs revisit all killers that have problems that need adressing, deathslinger just isn't one of them in their eyes it seems.
If you nerf his ADS then he will have the WEAKEST chase power in the game, and no amount of mobility will make up for that. He will be weaker by default. Only way to circumvent this is by making his spear hitbox the size of huntresses hatchet hitbox, which is wildly unrealistic and only lead to more frustration.
He just missed is flawed because it implies that the survivor cannot dodge it which is wildly untrue. I've had good survivors predict me correctly and dodge my shot. That's not me being bad that's them predicting correctly similar to a TL wall. Both the survivors skill and the killer skill matters in a chase and any good deathslinger player will tell you that.
Also, his balance in 1v4 is only fine because his 1v1 is good, nerf his 1v1 and as i said he becomes the weakest killer in the game similar to trickster.
And if you look at how oppressive iridescent heads and OoO are, it makes complete sense why those things are being changed. The same can't be said about deathslinger. There are some complaints on the forum, sure, but definitely nothing like a community-wide outcry. It's just a vocal minority that hopefully the devs are smart enough to ignore.
I reallly dont think he needs a rework but something simple they could do is give his ads a little slowdown if he doesnt shoot. This means that you still aim fast, and you can still quickscope if needed, but if you dont shoot, he puts his gun down slower. This way he doesnt get free pressure to make survivors dodge repeatedly.
If you want to twist my words, sure. I could also say that by your logic anything that hasn't been changed is just lower priority. Literally anything that hasn't been reworked is just waiting for it's spot in the priority list.
How has the feedback been loud and clear? I've seen more threads complaining about dead hard than deathslinger and I don't think that needs changing either. People will whine. If it becomes a community-wide outcry like with moris then that means there should possibily be a change. An occasional complaint thread isn't 'loud and clear' feedback, it's just whining.
I don't necessarily think that he NEEDS the ability to zone, but I also don't think it's an issue and if changed would probably make him feel more awkward to play like overheating did for billy.
The cons of changing him could be massive. The pros of changing him means a few people will be happy until they find the next killer to complain about. It's a lose-lose situation if he's changed.
*sigh................. Here we go again.
It's not a matter of "complaining" about a killer and begging for them to be nerfed, it's the fact that slingers power is poorly designed and quite honestly unfair in 1v1. The argument "but he lacks map pressure" is all the more reason he needs a rework. He needs map pressure. He needs counterplay other than hoping he commits to his shot and misses it.
Okay, so by your logic every single thing in the game will be reworked, regardless of whether it needs it or not. We're just working our way down the list. And the ONLY reason a thing hasn't been reworked is because it hasn't had its turn yet. Really weird assumption to make. At the very least it would mean that the devs don't think changing deathslinger is important.
As far as the win/win thing is concerned, you're assuming the deathslinger plays perfectly. If we assume everyone plays perfectly, EVERY situation in the game turns into a 100% for one side or the other. Either the survivor or killer will always have an advantage. So I'd argue that the win/win situation you describe is not a win/win in actual gameplay. It is completely pointless to base things off of perfect play because that just doesn't happen.
And if you think the skill of a survivor is irrelevant when playing against a deathslinger, that's starting to make me think you're just delusional. You also said that no killer power should be dependent on a survivor making a mistake. Well, what other option is there? If there's counterplay to the power that works consistently then the survivor would HAVE to make a mistake in order for the power to do anything at all. If we're assuming everyone plays perfectly and no one makes mistakes, one side WILL win.
I think the real reason people dislike deathslinger is that the person who has to make the mistake is usually the survivor. Against most killers, if the survivors play perfectly, they'll win. So yes, the deathslinger can create some situations in which perfect play will guarantee their hit. But if they don't make mistakes, why shouldn't they get that hit? Is being rewarded for playing well just a survivor privilege?
It's not unfair. There are things you can do to help avoid getting shot.
Also not every killer needs map pressure. We don't need every killer to have the same strengths.
Variety is good. Deathslinger isn't overpowered and just because you don't like getting shot by Deathslinger does not make it a problem.
Difference between huntress and slinger is that his projectile is the size of a needle, and huntresses is the size of a train. You cannot "aim better" when the survivor can dodge the bullet if they predict correctly in the travel time it takes for the spear to reach the survivor from the gun. Meaning no there is no chance for the slinger to readjust, especially considering the slingers reaction time as well.
You should be always predicting when he will and wont shoot. That's not a bad thing. People don't seem to understand that he might not shoot sometimes.
About the prediction thing, if the slinger predicts you right most of the time, chances are he's the better player as he could read you more times you could read him. Think of it like a nurse who just reads you every time because they're good.
Actually spamming a d a d is how you counter slinger in the open, it is borderline impossible to hit a survivor who is completely random in their movement and if you do manage to spear them it was a complete guess.
The job you have as a survivor is to spam a d a d enough to make it to another loop, but not as much to get zoned for free. This requires predicting when he will and wont shoot. If you got over zoned that's your own fault. That is literally EXACTLY how you counter slinger in the open.
Having some Killers good in the 1v1 but minimal map pressure and some Killers good in the 1v4 but lacking in 1v1 strength is a good thing. I'm sure some Survivors would get very bored if every Killer was a 1v4 king like Legion.
Also... this might be a weird take... but have you considered that you aren't supposed to be able to dodge Deathslinger's shots? It is a freaking gun, it'd be weird if you could react to it. However, to balance it that's why the harpoon cannot down by itself. The counter play to Deathslinger is supposed to be get speared in a position where you can prevent the follow up swing. The one aspect of Deathslinger that is actually broken is that if Deathslinger walks backwards while reeling, it basically prevents Survivors from moving. It shouldn't do that. Nothing else about him is broken.
Hes balanced and decent. Not every killer has to be nurse tier.
Mettle of man is his counter.
We're you high whan going against him or was your internet trash or something. Because hes the funniest killer to loop
Have to ask... how many do you kill when those matches come up and you get that message?
Reading through this is laughable and shows how many only play survivor. But I'm willing to bet those complaining about not fun are the same types to be on a toxic gen rush squad and play heavy survivor sided maps. Like seriously, both sides have tools and playstyles that are less than desirable.
Do yourselves a favor and stop trying to loop and mind game every killer the exact same. It will not work.
Use walls to block LoS, keep distance as it's harder for Deathslinger successfully reel you from a distance, fake your direction (i've caused a few Deathslingers to miss by pretending to take a window or pallet), when take advantage of safe pallets and pre-drop unsafe pallets when he's not in LoS. If Deathslinger has missed his shot take advantage of the reload time to get distance or move to a safer area.
All chases are interactive. Some killers just demand different actions from the survivors to avoid being caught out. Complaining that Deathslinger is uninteractive just means you don't want to adapt to play against his power.
If at the end the day the only take away is that YOU can only escape a bad Deathslinger, then you just need to get better.
What I would Do
1 he has to be aimed for .3s in order to shoot holding it for 2s will increase the range cap from 18 to 22m he will hear a noise indicating that he can shoot that range
2 he can shoot breakable walls and pull them down by realing his gun for 1s.
This is optional he can search lockers to get 2 spair scraps reloading with one of these will cut reload time in half but consume one the reload addons will increase the limit he can hold if he reloads without one it will take normally time
Guess right. How is a situation in which one person wins, one person loses not fair?
Not to intrude into the heated discussion happening here but I got to ask. What skillful action do you do exactly to counter huntress ?
Her biggest counter is to abuse high wall loops that you tight loop so that her wind up doesn't allow her to throw at you, basically you use loops that favor you because low wall loops are free hit for her just like slinger. Not much all that different skilful interaction there, you just force M1 or make a 50/50 guess at pallet if she's going to throw.
If you're in the open or just a bit out of position so that she has time to throw, she's much harder to dodge as good huntress who know how large the hatchet hitboxes are won't miss you right, that's just her missing, not you dodging. At least I never see any survivors actually dodging mid thrown hatchet without predicting good huntresse's shot before it's thrown.
The biggest difference between these two in terms of chase counterplay is literally that slinger has more chances to shoot and outplay even the high wall loops thanks to the fast ADS forcing more predictions then huntress does. You do the same vs both, stay out of loops that favor them and gain as much distance as possible while prediction their shots.
Ah and I bet you're the same person who thinks it takes skill to fake using a power in order to get a free hit. Deathslinger is not loopable unless you're staying at a main building and abusing the same window vaults that he has no line of sight shots on.
Huntress you can punish for pulling up at every loop. Deathslinger can fake hit power at every single tile and gains distance because of it. Huntress is significantly slowed
Also Deathslinger has 1 shot vs Huntress 5. Meaning he misses a shot and he has to reload giving you time to get distance.
Huntress can miss a shot and start up another hatchet.
But that's what bad huntresses do, good ones just throw when they are in range, you don't have any control over when she decides to do dumb stuff. If she's got LOS on you be it open space or low wall loop, good huntress will hit unless you predict her.
Slinger can shoot you whenever with quickscope if he has LOS and no obstacles between you, spam raising M2 is just to make you think he's going to shoot so that you slow down and give him easier shot or even M1, you're better of making a dodge based on your own prediction then slinger's faking at that point. And in loops if you're at a low walls loops, half the killer roster can down you there easily so that's not slinger specific issues either.
Not true at all. DS has to guess if you are going to go around a corner or swerve out. He has to take the shot or he will lose his chance.
Interesting views but most things you listed as counters are imo misplays on account of huntress not properly managing her cooldowns and distances, winding up when she should not have, going for unnecessary risky shots when she could have gone for a safer one etc.
Thank you for the detailed answer, good day to you sir.
2-3 usually. i tend to let the last person go if they played well. and due to the wonky matchmaking it's commonly people from all ranks
Y'all guys seem to forget he has way more cool-down than anyone else.
From the moment a Deathsligner aim to the moment his harpoon launch there's a 0.65s delay. add the traveling speed and you're almost at 1s delay for max range.
The only change I can see is:
With this lifting his gun is useless unless he's shooting at you.
So tell me, what cool-down would you change on him without adding even more cool-down to hit kit.