The Judgment is making me and my friends play less
Why I am posting
I am an average player, not a top-level one. I have played Dead by Daylight on and off for several years, mostly in solo queue and sometimes with friends. Right now, I do not enjoy facing The Judgment, and the matchup is making me less willing to queue.
I work a full day, usually get home around 6 or 7 p.m., shower, and play for two or three hours before bed. I am still improving at chase. I play to unwind, not to treat every match like a tournament or min-max every decision.
My friends have started playing less since The Judgment's release too. They say their choices seem to have too little effect on the outcome. That is our experience, not a population statistic, but DBD should care when ordinary players decide that queueing is not worth their evening.
During a recent six-game stretch, I faced The Judgment multiple times, including twice in a row. In the second consecutive match, I disconnected on my second hook state because I felt unable to participate in or affect the match. I had never disconnected from a DBD match before, even when frustrated. This was the first time. That was my decision, it affected my teammates, and I am not proud of it. I mention it because I stopped queueing afterward. It is not proof of balance; it is the exact disengagement signal I think Behaviour should examine.
I am not asking to win every match. A loss can still be fun when I can see what I should have done differently. I am asking for learnable counterplay with room for an average player to make a mistake. At my level, it has often felt as though even a Judgment player who is still learning can control the match unless I get unusually strong random teammates. That feeling is not match data, but it is why I am no longer having fun.
I have bought many DLCs, Auric Cells, and occasional Rift passes because DBD has remained a game I return to. Those purchases do not buy me wins; they show that I have been an engaged casual customer. If this becomes the direction of the game, I will not keep spending on it as I have before.
What I checked before posting
I did some research before writing this because I wanted to make sure I was not simply angry after two rough matches. I found a detailed post from someone who likes The Judgment but still raised concerns about repeated generator pressure, the missing pickup and carry window before Exile, Shrine patrols, hook-related tools, and aura information. Other players reported liberation returns very close to the killer, a rough solo-queue experience on Midwich, and repeated Judgment matches making them want to stop playing. These are individual reports, not proof of prevalence.
I also read the pushback. Some players said the beam becomes manageable with prediction and attention, that the MMR reset may be distorting early matches, and that people need time to learn. I agree that balance should not be decided from release-week frustration alone. I am not arguing that experienced players cannot counter The Judgment. I am saying that several players independently reported parts of the same agency and enjoyment problem, which deserves examination rather than automatic dismissal as a skill issue.
Why the base kit feels excessive to me
A survivor must notice the cue, decide whether the beam is converging on them, leave an interaction in time, and reposition. Outside Zealous, the cast is committed. During Zealous, The Judgment can steer it for up to 0.6 seconds after release. That is learnable counterplay. My concern is the repeated attention burden across four strangers who are also repairing, healing, rescuing, and navigating the map.
A fully lethal Divine Light can pass through obstacles, slowing as it does, and one hit removes a health state and applies Heresy. If that survivor is later downed while still Heretic, The Judgment can Exile them on the spot, giving a hook state, or killing them at two prior hook states, without a pickup or carry. This removes the usual window for body blocks, pallet saves, flashlight saves, and sabotage saves. Exile also does not trigger hook-related perks.
While Heretic, a survivor receives special repair skill checks: a Good result loses generator progress, while a Great result avoids the penalty. The survivor can Repent at a Shrine, after which Heresy depletes over time. Exile grants 60 seconds of Zealous, with a larger beam, a shorter cooldown, and post-cast steering. This is all base kit, before perks or add-ons. It is not automatic, because the killer must land the beam and later down the survivor before they remove Heresy, but the successful sequence gives a lot of value.
A free teammate must travel to one of two active Shrines and Pray, often leaving another task. One Prayer can liberate everyone currently Exiled, and Exiled Souls can extend the default Haste, Endurance, and Elusive protections. Those safeguards matter, but solo queue does not assign responsibility. Four strangers must decide who Repents, who stays on objectives, and who goes to a Shrine. In some of my matches, people appeared to abandon the team rescue and play only for their own escape. I cannot know their intent, but that is how it felt from my side. Inside Exile, hits from Seeds of Punishment also remove three seconds from the sacrifice timer.
The range adds another burden. On compact or predictable layouts, especially with location information, a practiced Judgment can send Divine Light toward likely repair positions. The survivor may have to release the generator even when the shot misses. Blind casts are inconsistent and cost the killer time; my concern is repeated interruption and divided attention, not guaranteed cross-map hits. I have not found a comfortable range: at distance the beam can interrupt objectives, while in chase it can still threaten through a tile.
Compact and multi-level maps such as Midwich have felt worst to me because generator, chase, and Shrine routes are compressed. Several players have also reported liberation placing them very near, or even on top of, the killer. I want Behaviour to examine map and spawn data, not assume every map or return works the same way.
Why "just dodge" does not answer the whole issue
"Just dodge" describes the immediate counterplay, and attentive survivors can avoid many shots. My concern is cumulative. Four strangers must repeat that response while deciding who Repents, who remains on an objective, and who answers a Shrine. One beam can begin an injury, Heresy, later down, immediate hook state, and Zealous chain. When Heresy is not removed and the Shrine response is delayed, ordinary solo-queue mistakes can snowball very quickly.
Players like me who have played on and off, instead of drilling movement for thousands of hours, are still building that timing. A high skill ceiling can reward veterans without making less experienced players feel useless while learning. Telling those players to get good or leave does not solve a player-experience problem.
What Behaviour's public data says
Behaviour does not publish a current percentage of players it defines as casual or new, so I will not invent one. Its official figures still give context:
• In March 2026, Behaviour said its 1,800+ "High MMR" cohort was approximately 18% of the player base when the numbers were pulled. That does not make the other 82% casual or inexperienced; it only shows that this defined High-MMR group was a minority in that snapshot.
• Behaviour reported welcoming more than six million new players during 2025, while DBD averages more than one million players per day across platforms. That does not give us a retention rate, but it makes the experience of incoming players important.
Behaviour has also said MMR exists for matchmaking rather than as a goal, that "fun is the number 1 factor," and that improving the new-player experience had become a big focus for the coming year. None of this proves The Judgment is overpowered. It supports the case that top-end play should not be the only experience considered.
What I am asking for
Please preserve The Judgment's identity while testing meaningful base-kit reductions. Possible levers include a lower maximum range or stronger slowdown through obstacles, a greater cost or cooldown for repeated long-range casts, less generator loss from a Good Heresy skill check, less Zealous duration or reward, and more recovery room around Exile. I am not attached to exact numbers, but I do think the base kit needs a real reduction rather than a cosmetic adjustment.
Please make liberation spawn selection and the existing post-release protections more reliable against immediate re-engagement, give solo queue clearer rescue information, and review which hook and unhook perks should recognize an Exile hook state.
Please evaluate more than one overall kill rate. Compare solo queue with coordinated groups, newer and returning players with veterans, and compact maps with larger ones. Beam distance, generator interruptions, post-Exile survival, Shrine response time, disconnects, early give-ups, and whether players queue again afterward would show whether the current skill floor is healthy.
I am not claiming every shot is unavoidable or that early anecdotes prove The Judgment is overpowered. I am saying the current experience is making an average, long-time casual player and my friends play less. That is the issue I want Behaviour to examine.
Sources
The forum links are examples of reported experiences and disagreement, not proof of how common they are.
Official mechanics:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/556-10-1-0-chorus-of-sin
Look under Divine Light, Zealous, Exile, and Heresy.
Current Zealous steering:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/557-10-1-1-bugfix-patch
Look for the change from 0.3 to 0.6 seconds.
Detailed live-release feedback:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/471570/my-thoughts-on-the-judgement-after-the-first-day-of-live-release
Look for "2. 3 gen defending" and concerns 3 through 6.
Reported Exile return positions:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/471623/judgement-feedback-suggestion-spawn-logic-from-exile
Read the opening post and the replies from AGM and Elan.
One solo-queue Midwich account:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/471619/soloq-experience
Look for "Midwich is just too small map."
Repeated-match fatigue and opposing views:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/471566/negative-feedback-the-judgment
Look for "played literally 15 rounds today" and the early replies about dodging and MMR.
High-MMR snapshot:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/540-stats-first-look-at-stats-in-2026
See the first paragraph.
Behaviour on fun and new players:
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/515-reddit-ama-july-23-2025
Search "fun is the number 1 factor" and "new player experience has become a big focus."
New-player and daily-player figures:
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/dead-by-daylight-celebrates-ten-years-of-terror-832239428.html
Search "six million new players" and "million players every day."
Comments
There was a recent MMR reset so you are likely to go against really good players, once it evens out in 2-3 weeks (my guess) you will likely start having easier games with people in your skill level. Also please remember that everyone thinks a killer is op for the first two weeks of release until people learn counterplay, same thing happened with Unknown, Jason, Lich, ect.
An MMR reset can explain why I may face stronger killers. It does not change The Judgment’s base kit or the amount of coordination her counterplay demands from four strangers. Comparing this reaction to every other killer release also skips the specific mechanics I raised.
I work a full day and come home to play for fun. A normal match should not demand tournament-level attention from all four survivors for the entire trial. Solo players have to avoid her ranged attack, manage Repentance, work out who can use the Shrine, and leave objectives to release Exiled teammates, all without voice communication. One teammate misunderstanding their responsibility can punish the whole team.
Experienced and coordinated players may learn to manage all of that. My post concerns average and casual players like me and my friends. Counterplay existing on paper does not make it practical, balanced, or enjoyable for that audience.
If the expected solution is to endure miserable matches for several weeks and then follow a strict routine every time we face her, BHVR still has a design problem. That experience is already making us play less.
Counterplay can exist and still demand too much to be enjoyable in casual solo queue. I understand what her mechanics require. The Judgment asks four strangers to maintain constant focus and follow the same strict routine without comms, because one person’s mistake can snowball across the whole team.
I come home after work to relax and play. I shouldn’t have to treat each match like tournament practice for the game to feel playable. Calling that “not wanting to learn” ignores the point of my post.
I would argue that Judgment requiring survivors to treat matches like tournament practice is vastly exaggerated. You just need more awareness and attention against her than against most killer, but it's not that crazy. At least I never felt like I had to put so much effort into the match when going against her.
I think you are making her out to be more comlpex than she actually is. If you don't find her fun, that's completely understandable and fine. But I know that a lot of people do enjoy going against her as well. She is certainly one of the harder killers to counterplay as a team, and arguably even in chase, but she is also quite hard to play as well, which evens that out.
I do think this might also be a result of the mmr reset, you might be going against Judgments that have much more experience than you in the game.
All that said; Judgement's power is really difficult to use. Ya, throwing at gens and aura's isn't hard however; using her power mid range during chase is almost just luck. Anticipating where the survivor will be while trying to perform a wacky slingshot that breaks your line of sight is extremely difficult. When I am in close range I often use her power to try and corral the survivor to an M1 position out of fear as I'm unlikely to actually hit with M2.
I'm more likely to get a M2 while the survivor is running away from me. The angle is more shallow and much easier to anticipate. 30 and 60 degree angles are much easier to manage than a hard 90 at close range. It's also easier while the survivor is running away because the distance they are trying to gain actually plays in my favor. Due to the charge and distance and angle, it's much easier to get that second hit since they are now in the kill box. Landing the M2 at close range is just not something most people can do unless they are overdosing on caffeine.
While I understand the OP's frustration I would suggest they try to play her and attempt these close range shots.
I don't use aura read for the same reason I don't take most add-ons as Nurse.
You can only really learn these difficult killers by getting a feel for it. The add-ons ruin that feel.
The only way I can explain that is Nurse training.
Knowing your exact distance from a gen you can perfect blink to in a single blink. It's just kinda an estimation of the size of the gen on your screen vs how long it takes to max charge a blink.
It's similar to the Judgement in the sense it's a charge time vs distance issue.
It took me about 4 days with zero aura read to start getting 4ks. I still miss 90% of my M2's. I'm just better at using M2 to corral survivors to an M1 position. While my MMR is catching up with me; the only reason I'm still getting 4ks is because the survivors in my games are to cocky. They get 4 gens and flashlight me 8+ times and through all that attempt to bully me only to ruin themselves at the end. They stay way to close and I only need to M1 them.
I'm sure this will change soon. I'll end up losing more as my MMR is raising faster than I can learn her power effectively.
It really is easy to dodge. Unless they are in that weird kill box distance of around 30m. The charge time and distance just makes 30m the easiest to aim at.
Closer than 30m is really hard to aim at. After 30m, just dodge.
I'm a survivor main but I love Nurse and Judgement. I just don't have the energy to play them regularly and I get tired of the stomp. I don't even play Nurse anymore cuz people hate it so much. If I do, I let 2 survivors go if they are only at 4 gen. I understand the frustration. I also find learning difficult high skill killers fun.
Judgement is my new Nurse. I'm not there yet, but, getting to the point where I can land those M2 shots at 90 degree angles easily is a goal. It's just unfortunate I'll no longer want to play at that point cuz everyone will hate it so much.
Your statement is completely contradictory
You said that these killers are "hard" and also that you "hardly play them".
Yet in the same breath you said you stomp every game with them?
Can you explain this?
I honestly do not think you are responding to the post I actually wrote.
I explicitly said that I am an average casual player who mostly plays solo queue and occasionally plays with friends. I also acknowledged that experienced players can learn the counterplay, that some people enjoy facing her, and that the MMR reset may be affecting early matches. My argument was never that every player hates her or that counterplay does not exist on paper.
The issue is that her complete base kit demands constant awareness and coordination from four strangers: avoiding the beam, managing Heresy, deciding who Repents, deciding who leaves an objective for the Shrine, releasing Exiled teammates, and dealing with the loss of normal pickup-and-carry counterplay. Saying that you personally do not find this demanding does not address how that burden affects average casual players without communication.
You focused on one phrase—“tournament practice”—while ignoring the perspective, mechanics, and limitations that I spent the rest of the post explaining. If you want to disagree, that is fine, but please address the argument I actually made rather than replacing it with another “new killer feels difficult because people have not learned yet” argument that the post already addressed.
You're clearly not worth responding to as you have not clearly not played her as a killer or read (comprehended) anything I said.
Nor have you understood anything I've said.
GG and GL in your next game.
Most of your comment explains what The Judgment feels like to play, but my post is about the experience she creates for casual solo-queue survivors and why that experience is making my friends and me play less. Her shots being mechanically difficult does not address the cumulative pressure of the beam, Heresy, Shrines, Exile, lost rescue opportunities, and four strangers having to divide those responsibilities without communication.
More importantly, your own experience reinforces my concern. You said that you miss around 90% of your M2 attempts, use no aura reading, are still learning her, and are nevertheless getting 4Ks and describing the matches as stomps. You accomplish that partly by threatening the M2 and forcing survivors into easy M1 positions. That means her power is producing substantial value even when it misses.
Your opponents becoming overconfident or your MMR still adjusting could contribute to those results, so one account is not statistical proof by itself. However, it seriously undermines the argument that her mechanical difficulty automatically balances her. If someone still learning the killer can miss almost every power attack, use no aura information, and still repeatedly wipe teams through the pressure her base kit creates, that is exactly the kind of lower- and average-level experience I am asking BHVR to examine.
Playing her might teach me how difficult her aiming feels from the killer’s side. It would not answer what her complete kit does to four uncoordinated survivors, which is the actual subject of my post.
(up vote) btw
Just to be clear, you need to play her.
That pressure from randomly guessing to throw an orbital shot at a random gen while in a chase is only a bonus if you hit with it.
Her M2 slows her down considerably. Instead of 4.4 you're basically 1.1 while casting M2. And the speed of the shot is considerable. 0.6 seconds to redirect is insane for us normies. I simply don't have the reaction time for half a second.
Complaining about the reaction time is silly. Never has her boost been useful.
You're trying to discount my experience without experience.
Play as her, then come back.
If you're only looking at it from a survivor side you're not getting the whole story.
Not saying its the worst thing to be added to the game or anything, but i managed to loop a judgement for 4 whole generators before going down. And as soon as they got a bit of momentum, we could not do anything with all the constant aura reading. So sure she can be looped well, but like kaneki they can streamroll the whole team quite aggressively. I'll even say that most of the time the sound effects gave away that they were about to snipe and i was able to move. But sometimes there was nothing, just BEAM and ur down before you can take 1 step from the generator. Almost as if firing from maximum distance makes less sound.
Yeah right I definitely havn't played her ever.
You can't just say someone's not worth responding to when you don't like what they are saying. How about you stop running when you're confronted with facts?
The fact it ONLY took you 4 days to learn this killer "idk how many games this is but that's likely not many, you will have to tell me", kinda shows that the killer isn't hard. It doesn't take only 4 days to learn a hard killer, unless they actually aren't hard… And people are trying to pretend otherwise. You know how many games it took me to learn this killer? About 5. That's it. Smashed everygame with her since using only 1 perk. It's disgusting broken and everyone knows it.
I've played her a ######### ton plenty and it's quite clear she's broken unless your coping insanely hard. A human's reaction time is 0.3 seconds, 0.6 seconds is MORE THAN ENOUGH time for the average person to react to a dodge. Remember that survivors have to dodge BEFORE you launch the power anyway or they'll get it, so thats even MORE time you get to react to their dodge. If they dodge half a second before you press the button, thats 1.1 seconds of time you get to react. That is UNMISSABLE levels of reaction.
If you think that redirect time does nothing I have a bridge to sell you, and it involves a custom lobby with my judgement.
this new killer is over tuned and buns to play against me and all my friends just perma DC
im actually so ######### sick of the direction the game is going. they shouldve leaned into the looping and mind games of the survivor/killer interactions. it just sucks now just over tuned killers every release
stop buying their garbage
Your contribution is appreciated but please write it yourself instead of AI.
The points and experiences are all mine. I used AI to organize what I wanted to say and help with punctuation because writing isn't my strong suit. It didn't play those matches for me or form my opinion. If you disagree with what I wrote, respond to the actual points.
Fair thoughts. Thanks for sharing it with us.
The "Vote down" are so hilarious btw.
@ReviveMeMaybe :
Just take a break: as new boosted killer, I think we will see less & less Judgements as soon as the Denuvo's patch/fix will be released (sooner I hope ?…). I mean, for now, this killer is new, buffed to the bone, no coutnerplay. But in few weeks, the hype about this uninteractive killer will slow down probably.
It happens often in this way when a new killer is out: "he has to be strong to be played"… bc killers are leading the dance in this game.
Thanks, I appreciate you understanding where I'm coming from. I probably will take a break and see what happens after the next patch. I just think players feeling like they need to stop playing until the hype dies down is part of the problem. I hope BHVR takes a serious look at how she affects casual solo queue instead of only waiting for people to play her less.
Unfortunately they just buffed the Judgment again. However they are not in 2v8 yet so enjoy that for now.
That’s rough to hear. I might stick to 2v8 for now, but feeling like I have to leave the regular mode just to avoid one killer is pretty much the problem I was describing. I want to enjoy normal solo queue again, not wait for Judgment matches to become less common.
Same, it will take a while for them to have any reliable data because of all the changes they did at the same time - MMR, off hook protections, new killer. And now a competing game and 3 weeks of 2v8.
The killer is just out of place in DbD and puts me off playing.
I agree, especially about her feeling out of place in DBD. The part I enjoy is the back-and-forth between killer and survivor: reading each other, making decisions, taking risks, and feeling like both players affect the chase. Judgment’s beam passing through obstacles and Exile skipping the normal pickup, carry, rescue, and hook interactions removes too much of that.
Even when I understand what her mechanics expect me to do, it often feels like I’m responding to her kit instead of interacting with another player. That makes the match feel meaningless and unfun, and it puts me off playing too.