There is fundamentally no way to make 2v8 fun for survivors
TLDR: Invoking Salt is not that interesting after a few games and is an active waste of time and puts every survivor in it at huge risk. The quests requiring survivors to play 2v8 to complete them are ridiculous and probably were made to make survivors play even if it isn't fun. Basically the only draw to the game mode is playing killer with a friend, which does nothing for survivor players.
With the new iteration of 2v8, the devs attempted once again to try and attract survivors to 2v8 with the Invoking Salt. This is a somewhat interesting mechanic, at least the first couple times, until you realize it's a deathtrap and a huge time waste:
In order to actually get decent value out of the salt, it needs to be used while you have zero hooks, since half the value comes from unlocking your ability that you would otherwise need to be hooked for. However, if you do this, then every time a generator gets popped during this period of potentially up to 40s, your aura is read by both the killers while you are extremely vulnerable. The animation to get off the Invocation is extremely slow, and especially against a stealth or Undetectable (Shadow) killer that sneaks up, or a movement killer like Blight or Oni that can close the distance before the animation can even end, that can make all the difference for if you can get up in time. In addition, the 5% haste (which obviously goes down by 1% every minute, becoming even less useful over time) is not even that good in a 2v8 environment. 9/10 of my chases have not ended in a 1v1, but whenever the killer decides he's gotten tired and calls his buddy over, in which case 5% means nothing.
This is not even taking into account the difficulty of finding the salt in the first place. Even while running Scout and opening 10-15 chests a match, it is not uncommon to still not get a single Invoking Salt, and even with a key that is a ton more time wasted. The devs must have realized the Invoking Salt was not interesting or valuable enough to actually lower killer queue times by getting more survivors in 2v8, as they made getting Invoking Salt mandatory to complete the 2v8 quests. While the one killer-only quest can be done in either 2v8 or 1v4, both survivor quests are only achievable in 2v8 because both require Invoking Salts. One of these is to simply complete 3 rituals. It's not too hard, but according to some people I know it seems bugged and may take 5 or so attempts instead. The second quest is ridiculous. "Place 10 Invoking Salts." I ran Scout only, opening 10-15 (sometimes more) chests every single game for 2 hours straight and I am still only at 6. If not for this quest, I would have played maybe 3 games or so of survivor to see the Invocation and that's it. But because I want to complete the quest, partially because I have run out of Tome challenges to do, I have spent a lot more than that. Not because the gamemode is fun or that I want to, but simply because the quest I want to complete requires it.
2v8 fundamentally will never be fun for survivor unless you have a big group of friends. If you are the rare group of people that is able to get a ton of people on all at the same time and pretty much fill out a 2v8 lobby, good for you. However, the majority of people are not that. And so 99% of the attraction to this gamemode is the fact that you can play killer with your friend. That's genuinely cool, I think it's awesome to be able to experience the solo side of DBD with a friend, but that gives nothing to survivors. Chase is the most fun part of DBD, and you could argue that 2 killers on one map means even if they end up switching targets a few seconds in, you're twice as likely to get chased. But like I said earlier, almost all of my chases end whenever the 2nd killer decides to come over and then the chase is done no matter what I do. It's not exactly fun to know you are doing a great job running the killer and then you die because you got double tapped by 2 killers. I recently also went against a Ghost Face (very rare in the matches I've gotten) and I didn't realize he not only exposes you for his own attacks, but for his teammate as well. So this Ghost Face went around Exposing a bunch of people while his Wraith came up behind them invisible and smacked them down in one shot. No hate to the killers for working together, like of course they are. It's just not fun at all.
This isn't even a balance complaint, I'm not even sure which side this mode favors. I escape a decent amount of times, but even when I do it's not particularly interesting or exciting. In the games where it's a killer victory, it just ends up where the last several people are usually just getting cleaned up by both the killers walking around together double teaming them within 15 seconds because now they can afford to. Not exactly a satisfying way to end your game.
Someone on the forums recently brought back up 5v5, which was one of the modes we were allowed to vote on years ago. I'd still love to see this mode made, I think depending on how it's implemented it could also help a bit with the "us vs them" mentality, and I've even heard people talk about how it could work as a ranked mode. Personally I have reservations about a ranked mode mostly because I don't know what kind of rules would even be in place, or if BHVR can even pull off a decent ranked MMR system, but either way. As of now most of the people playing survivor in 2v8 are probably just playing while they wait to play killer. I for one am going to finish this awful quest and probably leave this mode to collect dust for the next couple weeks.
Comments
They just need to make the classes better I think would be a good start. Like Torchbearer needs to have background player since… well flashlight saves are the only reason why someone would pick it. Guide just needs a total rework as they removed the main reason why anyone would pick it. Blastmine is not a strong effect. Medic is also pretty simple, just give them autodidact to make it more exciting since it's kinda a boring class. Scout could use some form of aura protection, given they are the stealth class. Maybe after they get hooked they gain aura immunity for three minutes and it refreshes on every cage state.
Escapist is fine though. They cooked with that.
Fundamentally survivor side is barely any fun because it's been boosted to such a degree that it simply can't be fun due to being non-challenging.
What's the survivor gameplay? First of all, doing gens. It's never been a fun mechanic, it's essential but it's not top tier fun. They 100% could experiment with how generators are repaired, maybe something with extra details, or skill checks, etc.
Second part of survivor gameplay, getting chased. I would argue in 2v8 chase is absolutely dogshit. Reason being, if you are being chased by a solo killer, you can run them for eternity. The pallets are too numerous and too safe to die quickly if you use them properly. But if you are getting chased by 2 killers? Then it's the opposite side of the coin, what you do as a survivor does not matter, you will get down because the game was never meant to be 1v2. In my view, the abundant amount of pallets but only encourages the braindead 1v2 chases.
Lastly, part of survivor gameplay is macro. That's absent from 2v8 entirely. You don't need to save resources, or track where killer is, or which gens are done, just go with the flow. It's empty, there is no complexity.
Personally, I do like playing as survivor in 2v8, but it's sort of "I can just do whatever I want, other 7 should handle rest", but that's empty fun. I don't feel any actual thrill from looping killers, saving with flashlight, escaping or dying, and this iteration with even bigger boost to survivor side, I actually don't even want to return to this game to play the mode, and I always did for 2v8s when they arrived. It's probably because this time I finally gave up on it, devs don't change the mode, they keep boosting survivor side, it doesn't work and doesn't bring new survivor players, and they keep doing it again.
On a side note, what the hell happened with 2v8 players? I know it's mostly casual players, but this time a bit too special, so many of them, including killers now, who don't do basic stuff, feel like they are playing while sleep deprived and not eating whole day, functioning at last 1% of their capacity