Was The Old Killer Meta Better Or Worse?
Introduction...
With such a topic, please consider the subjectivity to this. There is no objectively right answer, since everyone is going to have their own opinions on it. This important bit of information out of the way, we can really dive into the meat and bones of this whole thing, and at least explain my whole opinion such.
What Exact Was Good About The Old Meta?
The old meta heavily revolved around Hex: Ruin (potentially with Hex: Undying), Pop Goes The Weasel (PGTW), and Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (SH:PR).
All of these perks listed reward the Killer for actively making skilled plays and decisions:
- Hex: Ruin focuses on pressuring Generators for the regression, it rewarded Killers for using proper game sense and punished Survivors for leaving objectives for an excessive amount of time.
- PGTW rewarded Killers for making the skilled plays necessary to achieve a down, applying a flat 25% regression upon kicking a Generator after hooking a Survivor. This effect only applied to a single Generator per hooked Survivor, which means that Killers had to strategize when and where to use the perk.
- SH:PR, like PGTW, focused around hooking a Survivor, also requiring skilled plays necessary to achieve a down. It's regression applies instantly to the most progressed Generator, which requires less strategy but provides less regression than PGTW by only providing a flat 15% regression.
The New Meta (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly)...
Eruption, Call of Brine, Overcharge, and another assortment of slowdown or information perks is the current meta.
The Good:
- Eruption, Call of Brine, and Overcharge are insanely strong and have a lot of synergy with other perks. They let weaker Killers actually stand a chance against most teams youll face.
The Bad:
- Eruption, Call of Brine, and Overcharge as a combo heavily rely on SoloQ player to work. The lack of information a player has makes these perks shine even more, which highlights an flaw in perk designs that BHVR is still ignoring. BHVR keeps designing perks that are strong against SoloQ, but weak against SWF; this further widens the gap between SWF and SoloQ.
- These perks do not reward players for playing well, the regression itself is applied then and there. This, in my opinion, makes the meta feel awful to play with and against. I dont feel as if I am rewarded for playing well, I feel like I am just rewarded by playing the game. And going against it can be an unpleasant experience since a lot of regression isnt a punishment for misplaying or a reward for the Killer playing well.
- There perks can also apply their regression to multiple Generators, this means that there is no strategizing or thinking about how to use your regression perks while you have it, you often just go from Generator to Generator applying it with minimal thought behind it.
- These regression perks are not exclusive to just weak Killers, any Killer can use them, meaning that even though it does strengthen the weaker Killers, it also strengthens the strongest Killers in the game, only making them even more oppressive.
The Ugly:
- With certain Killers on certain maps, it is very much possible to use the regression at hand to hold Survivors hostage within a match. And while maybe a SWF can possible handle this situation, SoloQ is not equipped with the coordination and communication needed to properly deal with this. This can lead to matches that literally only end when the Killer gives up or when the 1 hour match duration is met and all Survivors die automatically.
- Perks are a bandaid fix to the actual roots of the issue. If maps were better designed and Killers had better powers, then regression perks would not be necessary to begin with. The Kill Rates™ are raised by perks like these and are often used as pocketed excuses to not buff Killers that are struggling. (#Buff Sadako ; #MakeTwinsBetter)
So Which Killer Meta Is Better?
In my opinion, the old meta was better. Not necessarily stronger than the current meta, since the current meta is definitely stronger than the old meta, but the old meta was better. It felt better to play against, it felt better to use.
And regardless of what I say, that still doesnt change anything. You will have your own opinions, you might agree, you might disagree, and it is perfectly fine, all opinions are welcome here.
Comments
Old killer meta was better. Old survivor meta wasn't.
the old meta was better because it was more rewarding and some perks to be used the killer had to play well. The current one is better in terms of strength but it's very annoying.
Definitely.
I would rather take old ruin and pop or pain res and dead man switch than this meta now.
I miss old dbd :(
I agree that the old killer meta was better.
Although they both revolve around downing survivors, Eruption just feels like a less fun version of Pop. You don't get to see 25% of the gen dissapear, and eruption punishes solos massively more than SWF.
The only thing that is debatably decent about this meta is that D-Tier killers can sometimes win, via camping a 3-gen with 3-4 slowdowns.
The Ruin+Undying meta was the better one i think we had, as was the Ruin+PGTW meta as an alternative for people who didn't like soley relying on the Hex. It rewarded you for actually making good plays.
While I agree with your observations, going against a Blight running old Ruin/Undying back in the day was so frustrating. The actual 'meta' hasn't changed at all; it's still all gen slow-down/regression.
As you said, I think this just highlights issues with gen-speeds/game design. Whenever I play killer, I'd love to run fun and gimmicky builds, but you need to bring at least two gen-related perks in order to even stand a chance. No matter how much you 'pressure gens', there's only so much you can do against a coordinated team running Prove Thyself/toolboxes on a map with ginormous gen spreads like Mothers Dwelling, Temple, etc.
I honestly think basekit Corrupt would really help; it's so common to have two gens pop by the time you get your first hook.
Also, I miss old Pop so much. It was so satisfying kicking a nearly completed gen and seeing it's progress go right down.
Ruin with Original Undying will always be the best meta we've had survivors actually had a second objective and killers had two slots to run literally whatever they wanted.