The Singularity is awful
I wondered why I did not come across the Singularity more even though he has just been released. As a survivor I already noticed he was easily outplayed. So I decided to play him for the past day or so. Well, I understand why. My God this killer is bad.
Main problems:
- Most maps are severely cluttered consistently breaking line of sight from pods
- EMPs everywhere, meaning when you do infect them...they'll just get rid of it
You're basically reduced to a killer without power. Add in the new meta with Made for This and well....
This killer is going back in the freezer.
Comments
I disagree, actually. EMPs are a little overtuned, but having played a bit more of him by now, I've realised it's more of an annoyance than truly rendering him unplayable.
They can get rid of your pods quickly, but the thing I initially didn't quite get was that you can replace them even quicker. He functions best when played aggressively, not as a setup killer - which is a shame because I love setup killers, but oh well.
You also want to put the pods pretty high up where possible, so it looks over loops in their entirety.
EMP's are essentially an unlimited Dead Hard baked right into his power, that survivors don't need to use a perk slot for.
It's by far the most effective strategy to simply grab the first EMP you see pre-emptively. This ensures you have an EMP on hand when you need it, and that the next EMP is already being printed.
As soon as the Singularity slipstreams you, you have 3 seconds until he teleports on your ass. Your EMP takes 2 seconds to charge. Therefore, you will always interrupt his power as he's using it. So once you see that green reticule over your character, pop the EMP and flawlessly force his power to whiff right at the moment he tries to use it.
Does that sound familiar? Forcing the killers attack to whiff right as they try to use it?
Well, cant say any thing about the maps. he is very relying on getting the right maps.
But the EMPs, well i got news for you. The devs are already working on that.
Here is the post with the planned details:
Thanks for the suggestions here, we do have a few changes for the EMP's in particular ready for an upcoming hotfix. We'll be looking at reducing the EMP crates themselves to 4 per map, the generation time increased to 100s (currently 90s), and Survivors will also be slowed whilst charging an EMP by 10% as well as increasing the EMP charge time itself to 2.5s from the current 2s.
Duration of the pod disabling from an EMP will also be decreased down to 45s. There's also some score changes as we noticed Devious points were a little on the low side.
Unfortunately these changes won't change the way EMPs are played.
Reducing printers from five to four changes nothing, there will still be 8 EMPs available at any given time, reduced from 10.
10 seconds of additional printing time doesn't make much of a difference, 90 seconds was never a problem anyway.
Movement speed, you generally don't use them in a chase, but this IS the best change they're making, as it will punish those who DO use them in a chase.
2 seconds to 2.5 seconds, is still less than the 3.5 seconds it takes to teleport. So there will still be ample window between Slipstream and teleportation in which to use the EMP.
It is worth mentioning that the 3.5 seconds thing only applies if you're trying to teleport from the biopod itself, not if you're using the gun to teleport mid-chase. That's where Singularity shines, and based on the changes they're making, I imagine it's what the devs want him to be doing most of the time.
Like I said in my response, I don't think the Singularity is a setup killer, he's a chase killer.
thats all true and if you allow me to quote myself here
i think the increased charge time is unnecessary but the rest is strong.
I would suggestion to make it so if all survivors hold a EMP that the crates should stop to produce and start to regress. This way the EMPs need to be used more tactically and survivors are motivated to use them faster.
with this it should be a bit better.
And the point with the teleporting, you dont need the cams to teleport to the survivor. So if you just use your ability to teleport, there is no warning and no time to start the emp.
Unfortunately you can't use him as a chase killer on controller, any more than you can with Trickster/Huntress/Deathslinger. The camera controls are too restrictive for an FPS format.
Similar to my main suggestion:
That still changes the boundaries of the conversation, though- he's still a chase killer, just one that controller players have a harder time using.
Then I'd say it's an issue of confused identity. His power is set up as a 'set up' killer. You place objects and use those objects to view survivors. It has all the hallmarks of a zoning, territorial and information power. But those facets of his power don't work, because survivors have a workaround that obliterates the power under those circumstances. Forcing you to use his power in a way that appears to completely goes against it's intended design.
It's like if Trapper's Bear Traps glowed with a bright pink aura and could be disarmed by a survivor is 0.2 seconds, but Trapper could place them slightly faster. Now Trapper is a chase/anti-loop killer instead of a set up killer, despite having exactly the same power with a couple of minor tweaks.
Not to mention, another killer who's power is unplayable for over half of the playerbase, isn't exactly a good thing.
Not... really?
Like, you play Singularity by placing pods as you move towards survivors, then push survivors towards those pods so you can infect them mid-chase and use your gun to teleport, gaining Overlock to deal with pallets. If you really want to consider him one, that still does technically count as setup, so he still counts. The part that matters is that teleporting via the pods is meant to be a deterrent to just sitting there from the survivor side, as far as I can gather; somewhat like Pig's headpop, or Sadako's mori, pressure to make survivors act rather than a result you're meant to be banking on. The thing you're meant to be leveraging is the direct teleport after the mark.
His identity isn't confused, people just need a little time to properly grasp how he works.
So what am I supposed to do when I have a 5% chance of actually hitting a survivor directly, and when it takes 30 seconds to pan the biopod camera around and therefore cannot be used mid chase?
You'd be better served asking a person who plays on console, I have no idea how the madmen do it. There are people who play all the aim-dependant killers on console and do very well, I have no doubt Singularity will be the same way.
Again, also, that is not a case of confused identity or the killer being trash. It's a completely different conversation.
I don't understand why you can grab an EMP preemptively and the printer will print another one. It should only start printing when the previous one has been used.
for beginning to play a new Killer, you dont want users completely signed out of their power.
Which is why it's relevant that you aren't. A pod being EMP'd can be replaced immediately at no cost, as long as you're near it.
If you have to be near the pod to use it, kinda defeats the point of placing pods. Your time would be better spent just chasing the survivor as an M1 killer.
Nope. Place a pod (either ahead of time or in the moment), infect a survivor mid-chase, then use Overclock by teleporting to them. That's the best way of playing Singularity.
And you do that how when the survivor uses an EMP?
By replacing the affected biopod, or placing a new one.
EMPs are overtuned, we shouldn't lose sight of that, but they also don't completely render the killer impotent if you're playing aggressively. They're a stymying force, one survivors have more access to than they should, but they aren't a hard disable.
Again, physically getting back to the biopod that was disabled, in order to replace it, is time you could have spent simply chasing the survivor.
M1 killers are viable, I played trickster for weeks without using his knives at all, and didn't do horribly. That's how people are playing Singularity, because how power doesn't work as a power, it wastes more time than it saves. You make it up by running regular chases, with the odd Overclock effect when you get lucky, which could just as easily be replaced by something like Spirit Fury.
Legitimately, I am confused what you mean, can you elaborate? What do you mean by "getting back to the biopod"? You'd already be next to it.
If you're already next to it, then you're already next to the survivor. Why are you using a teleportation power when you're already in a chase?
Even when you're apparently using this power 'optimally'. You're willingly trading distance for time, by teleporting closer to the survivor at the same time as being slowed down, so you're not actually making any ground, all in order to gain basekit Spirit Fury? The power is just Spirit Fury with extra steps.
Teleportation should be used to gain ground, which means using it when you're not already close to the survivor.
Except the survivor carried a EMP and now my second one is gone and they have run to a different tile and picked up another emp.
what then my guy`? when does the Killer actually become bad then? what's the definition of bad here?
...Sorry, are you under the impression that I think EMPs are fine? You'd do well to double check what I'm writing, if that's the case.
Having a second and third available is the problem, not the first. The effect itself is fine, if you play Singularity aggressively, because it doesn't lock you out of your power- it makes you adjust your angle.
...To get Overclock. His power.
Spirit Fury with extra steps.
Teleportation doesn't work, it's just a means to unlock a mid-tier Perk.
Spirit Fury, Enduring, hyper-Bamboozle, and whatever elements your addons give you. You are definitely underestimating the power of Overclock.
It is also still teleportation, you aren't using it point-blank. You use it far enough away that you save time and deny resources, while still being in range to do it with the gun rather than the biopods. Cross-map teleports should be a nice bonus, not the main thing you're banking on.
with spirit fury, you will still get stunned. Overclocked only slows you down a bit. If the survivor hits you with a pallet during overclocked, thats a guaranteed hit for you. And with addons you even get faster while overclocked.
Singularity is basically immune to pallets when played correctly.
Overclock should be what you get when a survivor uses an EMP. Not when you successfully manage to use your power 1 time out of 100 because survivors always use EMP.
Every other killer power item has a cost-benefit to it. Pinhead's box makes you oblivious and gives you the chain hunt, making you a target to save your team mates. Sadako's tapes increase your condemned until you deposit it. Nemesis/Wesker's highlight you with killer instinct.
EMP's should be the trade off. You either allow the killer to teleport on top of you like Freddy, or you deny them the teleport, but grant them a boost instead, so that as the killer, if you don't succeed in teleporting, you get the opportunity to catch up instead.
Instead, the power is useless as a set up power, despite being a set up power, the power whiffs 99% of the time because EMPs are pocket Dead Hard, and it can only be used as a Nurse-level chase power, with markedly less impact than Nurse.
for real man, i played the singularity and i teleported all the time. If anything, EMPs got less use than i expected.
I really start to think that you just dont know how to play the killer and now think hes bad just because you dont know better.
That's clear then the thread of correct to posit that Singularity is bad and that slight nerfs to emps wont help much.
You said
EMPs are a little overtuned,
so once the emps have been tuned down, he is the perfect killer to play then?
Yes, that's why you predrop. Problem solved. With the amount of safe pallets on every map these days, you can easily do so.
The whole purpose of this killer is to have eyes everywhere, infect and teleport to whom you see running around. The fact that you can only semi reliable use his power when in chase defeats the purpose of his design.
pre dropping does not work. if he teleports while you are near the pallet or still in the animation, he still destroys it and hits you.
What?
The thread isn't correct to posit that the Singularity is, as they put it, "hot trash". There's obviously a middle ground between "hot trash" and "perfectly balanced".
And, after EMPs are nerfed... yes? He will be in a pretty good spot? He's already fun, it's just that EMPs are overtuned. So, yes, once EMPs are tuned down, he'll be a great killer.
I don't mean to be aggressive or anything, but I'm struggling to understand where you're coming from.
Then why have I done it successfully every time? As soon as he can teleport you should throw it down, not the moment he actually teleports.
you just dont understand his power, it is supposed to be used in chases to counter pallets and vaults, not just to get around the map faster.
There biopods are manly for applying the slipstream and for in-tell. Thats why they give a warning before you teleport with them, because thats not there purposes.
A killer that cannot use his power reliably is hot trash. With the EMP's toned down he might, but currently he is literally and M1 killer. Chasing and using Overclock is highly map dependable as well
this wont work when the killer knows what he does, and more will learn to use him correctly over time.
His power serves both scenarios. One which is completely redundant now, the other only slightly viable.
Im coming from the point that I spent money on a Killer that has no power right now, Survivors are WAY too coordinated with EMPs right now and they can do so much against me and I cant do anything. So Im here to voice my concerns.
i had absolutely no problems while playing him, thats all i can say about this. Even feeling it might be a bit to strong while playing it. So i think the problem can only be in the user, not the killer.
Your mileage may vary, but I've found that I do get to use his power somewhat reliably. EMPs are definitely obnoxious, but because you can replace your biopod way faster than they can remove it, if you play aggressive you can generally get results.
It is possible for a killer to be too weak without being unplayable. That's where Singularity is: he's not hot trash, he's not unplayable, but he is too weak in ways that are annoying to deal with.
See my above reply, then. Singularity isn't so weak that he doesn't have a power, he isn't unplayable, he's just... too weak. That middle ground does exist.
i agree
for me hes somewhere between low or high average.
He is not super strong, but deffanetly has potential to be deadly.
Being in "too weak" to "unplayable" isn't a good middle ground to be in, your nuance does not matter even in the slightest, the result is loads of bad games. Sadako is a weak Killer but even her you can play and have fun. I'm not having fun at all with Singularity.
I didn't say it was. In fact, I outright said the opposite- EMPs are overtuned. That's a problem, and it's preventing Singularity from being in a good spot. I was mainly responding to the idea that he is unplayable, and then to Seraphor who had another issue that I disagreed with.
As for you not having fun, that's subjective. I am having fun with him, and that's also subjective.
I'm not having fun at all with Singularity.
sound like a you problem and not like a singularity problem. I had a lot of fun while playing him.
Being in "too weak" to "unplayable" isn't a good middle ground to be in, your nuance does not matter even in the slightest, the result is loads of bad games.
I think it is, do you think it would be better if he started super strong?
Slowly building a killer up from the bottom is way better than starting with a broken killer, in my opinion.
How can you expect to have full control and mastery over a killer that is not even a month old?
You don't seem to understand "too weak" and "unplayable" is used interchangeably on these forum.
Being too weak, but not technically unplayable is not meaningful in any way.