Red ranks, weak and strong killers, and a developer's philosophy
I want to voice a frustration here regarding balance at the red ranks. I recently got rank 1 killer by main-ing Spirit. However, my favorite killer is the Clown (a "chase" killer).
I was playing a game as the Spirit, got a strong SWF 4-man. Played an excellent game but 4 escaped. Ran dying light and thanatophobia but no ruin. However, I got quite a bit of hooks (3 survivors were on death hook), so I barely got relentless killer and overall it was a fun game. Sure, I would have appreciated one kill, but it was ok. I played well. They played very well and communicated through comms. They were polite in the endgame.
I then got paired with the same survive with friends group by chance. I decided to run an experiment. I brought an Ebony mori with Clown (surely the Ebony Mori would help balance things right?). Along with Brutal Strength, Save the best for last (to support his specialty of "chase"), Ruin, and Corrupt intervention (to slow the gens).
I was destroyed. Ruin was found right away (It spawned in a far away location probably not hidden well). After I downed the first girl, 2 gens were completed as I picked her up and hooked her (she put up a good, standard chase). I started to leave and started chasing an excellent survivor. I used 2 bottles got her bleeding, she started running the long loop on Haddonfield, and I just barely slowed her with my remaining bottles so I could hit her before a palatte- lol yeah right, Dead Hard. I had no time to reload my bottles or I would lose the chase. I abandoned her to reload. Fortunately, I found the girl who I hooked earlier. Another gen pops. I down her and mori her. As I go towards the gen I know they are on (the map is large), the remaining gens pop fairly close together. Fortunately I chase one and get 1 final (3rd) hook. The remaining survivors open the gates, borrowed time her, and done. I get Entity displeased. Sure the survivors brought tool boxes and were on comms, but I brought an Ebony Mori.
Even with an Ebony Mori, the clown was just no match for this team in the way that Spirit was. Spirit is the true archetype "chase" hero. The clown is an inferior version of the type.
People always argue, "well if you were more skilled then the outcome would be different. All killers can do well at red ranks." I feel that that is a worthless platitude that isn't substantiated. Look at the streamers who have 3,000 hours in the game and say similar things. I'd love people who say weak killers just take skill to post a video of their red ranks Clown play so I could emulate. (I already try to emulate hence that above build).
Honestly, I am deeply displeased with the entity. I wish that a standard philosophy of the DBD developers would be that ALL killers are competitive at ALL ranks. I sympathize now with people who enjoy deranking - because they want to play the killers they like! Why should I have to endure an extremely hard, odds against me game with the killer I enjoy most?
Comments
Couldn't agree more with you.
I've recently reached rank 7. I know it's not really high, but for someone who hovered at the 10_15 with trapper and wraith, that's a big change. Got to 7 with ghostface, and now I can't play trapper or wraith anymore, unless I want to derank.
Not only some killers are completely useless at higher tanks, but there also SWF, which the game was certainly not designed for, hence the localization perks survivors have.
SWF is unpleasant for ranked and they should balance the game around that, which they never will.