Let's Make Nemesis Feel Better
The Nemesis, Dead by Daylight's upcoming Killer. If you're not relying on the pincer strategy with your zombies, you'll more than likely be very underwhelmed by his Power since it's going to take a long time to actually get it and the benefits aren't really that exciting outside of the ability to break stuff.
But, I want to suggest a few reasonable tweaks to the Killer before launch that're meant to make him more or less an appealing Killer to run even without the zombies. This wouldn't affect his viability much at all, just how you get to play him with more unique and interesting ways to play him. Okay? Let me at least suggest these:
Power: T-Virus
- Change: The amount of Supply Cases is increased from 4 to 8.
- This is a double-edged change since because there's more vaccines available, Survivors will be able to actually get out of Contamination faster and grants it a slight bit of counterplay.
- However, the Nemesis also benefits from this because he can now reach the higher levels of Mutation faster, and will be able to trigger Killer Instinct more often as a result of it.
- Change: The attributes of Mutation II and Mutation III are now swapped.
- Another double-edged change, this grants Nemesis the ability to gain more distance with Tentacle Strike during Tier II Mutation, but it will now take longer for him to get the ability to break Pallets and Walls.
Add-Ons for T-Virus
- S.T.A.R.S. Field Manual, Marvin's Blood and Licker Tongue now all increase Tentacle Strike's range slightly, moderately and considerably, respectively.
- For reference, this is a 0.5m, 1m and 1.5m alteration, respectively.
- Visitor Wristband, Admin Wristband and NE-a Parasite now all reduce Tentacle Strike's cooldown slightly, moderately and considerably, respectively.
- For reference, this is a 10%, 15% and 20% reduction, respectively.
- Jill's Sandwich is changed to now moderately increase the duration of the Hindered Status Effect when hitting a Survivor with Tentacle Strike. The original ability of the perk is removed.
- Depleted Ink Ribbon is changed to have all destroyed Zombies respawn in front of the exit gate instead of behind it.
- Broken Recovery Coin is now changed to remove 4 Supply Cases from the Trial, instead of 1.
- Shattered S.T.A.R.S. Badge is now changed entirely.
- The amount of Contamination points required to obtain Mutation III is considerably increased.
- For reference, this increase is by +10 Points.
- Upon reaching Mutation III, all Zombies will despawn from the Trial.
- Upon reaching Mutation III, you gain a permanent 5% increase in movement speed.
- The amount of Contamination points required to obtain Mutation III is considerably increased.
- Iridescent Umbrella Badge is changed to now cause Survivors' auras to be revealed for 5 seconds upon use, in addition to increasing the Exposed Status Effect timer to 20 seconds (from 12).
These changes would make for a more well-defined Nemesis that could work fine by himself, with add-ons that more directly buff him than just the zombies. This would make an all-around balanced Killer and would give him what he'll need to at least stay relevant past the "honeymoon phase" that everyone is going to have with him.
I think that Nemesis is kind of a weak Killer by himself, but somewhat strong if using the Zombies properly. I want to make sure that he can at least be competent by himself and would be more capable of getting the job done alone. Sure, the zombie plays will definitely be prevalent, but I believe these changes will ultimately give him more depth and well-roundedness that everyone would enjoy.
Oh, and I didn't forget about his perks...
Perks
Lethal Pursuer
- Nerf: The amount of time the Auras of Survivors are revealed to you at the start of the match is reduced to 3/4/5 seconds.
- Buff: The perk has a new ability.
- Whenever you are in a chase, the amount of time it takes to reach each Bloodlust tier is reduced by 20%/30%/40%.
- The buff is to make this more in line with the "lethal pursuer" bit of the description. You are meant to track down and eliminate targets, so a better design for the perk is to slightly nerf the solo ability it has, but also grant it a new ability that affects how you pursue your targets, which would be another first for Dead by Daylight.
- Plus, I mean, the icon literally has a Survivor sprinting in it. Of course it should be altered to be more of a chase-based add-on.
Hysteria
- Buff: The perk's ability is now changed to whenever a Survivor is put to the Dying State with a Basic Attack, all injured Survivors will now suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect.
- This is to ensure that the Perk itself doesn't accidentally activate when trying to make the most out of it. The problem with this perk is that many Killers do not have a Special Attack ready at the helm, so this change is more so to make it so that you gain benefits for using it properly.
As for the perks, I think these changes would make sense for their overall themes. Lethal Pursuer is meant to sound like you're really built to be a good pursuer, so why not make it something that affects the chase, or the "pursuit"? And Hysteria by itself in its current iteration would just be quite sad, since again, many Killers do not have control over when they will activate it, so it won't be as good for them as it is others.
What I want to see is these two getting buffed (and Lethal Pursuer getting slightly nerfed) so that it makes the Perks have more value and use overall instead of making them Perks for the sake of being Perks. It also gives them more of a spice of originality (at least in LP's case).
What do you guys think? Do you agree? Disagree? Which points do you agree on?
And do you think the devs should implement anything that was suggested here? Let me know below.
Comments
Well what can I say... I think you did a pretty good job
I wanted to tow the line between what I think would make the Killer himself feel practical, but also more engaging.
I think that the mixed amount of progression in his kit will definitely hurt him in terms of consistency; it should always be range/mobility, then power, I feel. And the addition of more supply cases makes his progression a little easier in-game and also makes Survivors not need to fully worry about the consequences of grabbing a vaccine until they're at the last four.
Then there's the add-ons. I wanted to suggest changes that made the add-ons more interesting. Some of them, pretty lame currently. But doing more for Nemesis' kit would make them again, more engaging and not as lame as they are now. (Who wants to remove one Supply Case with an add-on or have the single worst iridescent add-on in the game?)
I don't need to say much about the perks.