Let's imagine ourselves as a DBD dev. Why in the world would you make the changes that they make?
Because I can't see it.
Naturally, you'd nerf something if it's OVERPOWERED, right? Not just "overused." Perhaps you'd come to the conclusion that some addons are "overused" because every other option is terrible, not that THAT addon is too strong? Maybe you'd give some SIGNIFICANT BUFFS to other things to encourage diversity?
So why isn't this the case? Why does BHVR do this?
I genuinely want some REAL dev insight right now.
Why was Mikhael's Eye nerfed? Did anyone ask for this?
Why was Toy Sword nerfed? By 0.05%? What's even the point?
Why was Stale Biscuit nerfed? Did anyone ask for this? (Actually, no, people asked for the OPPOSITE. People have expressed how AWFUL their 5-8 second fatigue feels)
Madeline's Scarf? Did anyone ask for this? By 2.5%? What's even the point?
Why was Marvin's Blood nerfed? Did anyone ask for this? By 8%? What is the point?
Why was Bubba's addon, Long Guide Bar, which virtually does nothing because the value it affects is irrelevant in 99% of Bubba play, given a number buff instead of a rework? Did anyone ask for this?
Why was Clown's Bleach nerfed by 1%? Again, what is the point of that? Did anyone ask for this?
Why were ALL of these things nerfed over ACTUAL extremely strong killer addons, I.E. something like Alchemist's Ring?
Speaking of that, WHY was a Blight addon touched, yet none of his other ones? I understand it may be on your radar, but why was ADRENALINE VIAL on your radar before his most insane addons? They've been talked about for over 15 months now. Hasn't Adrenaline Vial been touched about 3-4 times now? Why does this addon get changes 3-4 times but there is NOTHING for other addons?
PLEASE. YOUR COMMUNITY WANTS TO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU THINK THE WAY YOU DO. People ARE NOT agreeing with OR understanding your changes. Please be a little transparent and give some insight, because you guys seem the be the ONLY ones here who have ever thought of these random changes.
Comments
It's pretty obvious that Healing Circle needs to be reworked, it's so good that not running it in a full SWF just feels wrong. I would personally love a rework to Distortion rather than a buff. I want a way to counter aura reading in game that isn't limited to tokens given to me at the start of the game. There should instead be a token earning system and the survivors only start with one or two tokens. Having to compete against built in wallhacks is just not fun for me. (Also, I feel Shadowstep doesn't counter aura reading well enough, that that Distortion actually doesn't really need to hide scratch marks to be good)
Another slight buff I would like is to pause the Lucky Break timer while you are healing.
I am going to make it very easy for you to understand:
Players rated matches against those addons to be generally unfun across the board, while other addons had mixed/fun matches across the board.
DBD is a party game, fun will always be a priority over competitive balance. If you could steamroll an entire game, but everytime you play it, players loved it, those addons would never be nerfed, even if competitively seen, they'd be absolutely broken.
I have played some very broken combo's, but everytime I played them, players loved it(killers and survivors alike). Never seen any of those combo's being nerfed. I've played some very boring builds, players hated it(killers and survivors alike) and not too long after, at least 1 of those components were changed.
The biggest reason CoH might not have been nerfed, is simply because the maches had mixed responses in terms of fun. Even if they were the common denominator in unfun matches, there were plenty of fun matches where they could have been the common denominator.
When playing as a solo survivor, I dont consider CoH to be busted. I need to be able to get healed in some way. Circle of Healing is effectively a way for me to run somewhere, patch myself up and be able to come back, making a boring match with a camper and/or tunneler significantly more fun. But playing as an SWF, CoH can vary between useless and absolutely busted depending on the map, my teams positioning etc.
It's easy to see that once you look at the nerfs, fun ratings make a lot of those changes make sense.
DMS probably didnt see much use, and the time it was used, the results were unfun matches from both sides. Since its not used much, the conclusion must be that it's too hard to use. Mikaels Eye saw almost unanimous use, but most of the matches werent rated to be fun, and matches without it were considerably more fun to play against, but not to play as. So the conclusion there would be to make Mikaels Eye's effect a bit harder to use, while making addons that are fun to play against stronger to be easier to pull off.
So if you despise CoH truly as much as you do now, to the point of thinking that hearing a boon activate instantly ruins the fun in your game, rate it 1/5.
I have almost nothing to say but you hit the nail on the head. All extremely good points.
Though I don't greatly value the opinions of fog whisperers like others, you once again made a great point that even if they're not all-knowing geniuses, they definitely can come close to good ideas, and with enough collaboration with the community and amongst themselves, the Fog Whisperers who ARE most passionate and knowledgable about balance (and not just balance, because sometimes things are balanced but unhealthy) could've absolutely been a GREAT resource for the devs. FAR more than their current data is. As you say, the forums definitely hold some civil, constructive discussions, but they're DROWNED by how much garbage is on here. Filtering that feedback through knowledgeable members of the community and having it relayed it to the devs would do so much good for us (if it's actually listened to).
Whether or not you like the idea of content creators having so much influence (I'm someone who usually heavily opposes that), it's either that or this, and I would prefer that any day given it was a GOOD system that gives thorough, valuable feedback for the devs to use. It'd be a huge improvement over what we have now. I hope there's still an opportunity for this someday, but I fear it's incredibly unlikely or impossible at this point.
The way I imagine their decision making is this;
There is a large dartboard with pictures of various perks, add ons, and characters pinned all over it. They then take a handful of darts, some green for buffs, and some red for nerfs, and then (blindfolded of course) begin to throw the darts, and whatever they hit gets adjusted accordingly.
Thats the sad truth , sadly that dead by daylight has by far far far the worst devs ever i just say the sbmm instand of just using the old matchmaking and just lock the rangs that only people have to play with the rang red,purple,gren, as example but no they totally ignore everything what the most people want in that game like always since the game came out
Because they are bored
I don't have much to say, just that I agree with many of the comments made here. The balancing decisions in this patch make absolutely no sense, and it's frustrating.
I can imagine I don't want to spend 12 hours a day on overtime testing every ######### addon for bugs, gameplay fixes, balance issues, etc. etc.
Fact is, time is a factor. And they have so many killers to do passes on that whoever is in charge of balancing addons I don't envy. Because they have to really prioritize and only get a few months to adjust dozens of addons.
Don't tag devs