Freddy Problems and Possible Solutions
I recently got the rank 1 killer achievement while playing only as Freddy Kruger, and over the course of doing so I noticed some problems that Freddy faces that stack up to make him difficult to play. As the title states, below are a list of these problems and some solutions that I thought of that I thought would be fair.
Problem - Freddy’s prototype claws, garden trowel, and paint thinner add-ons don’t actually do what they say they do.
Explanation - The prototype claws, garden trowel, and paint thinner add-ons to state that they increase Freddy’s movement speed when putting a survivor into the dream transition. However, as a part of Freddy’s base kit, Freddy receives a massive slow when he puts a survivor into the dream transition, so what actually happens with these add-ons is that they reduce his movement speed reduction from putting survivors into the dream transition.
Solution - Change these add-ons to read that they reduce the movement speed reduction incurred from putting a survivor to sleep.
Problem - Freddy can’t act while his left hand is on the screen.
Explanation - This is fairly self explanatory, In order to put a survivor to sleep Freddy's left hand pops up on the screen. The problem with this is that while it’s onscreen he can’t vault windows, break pallets, or attack survivors. This results in occurrences in which Freddy puts a survivor to sleep, the survivor vaults a window or pallet, and then Freddy can’t even begin to go after them as he has to wait a couple of seconds while he puts his hand down.
Solution - change it so that Freddy can vault with his hand on the screen. I understand that this is what happens with all other killers. The huntress can't vault while she has a hatchet in her hands, and the shape can't vault while stalking, but with Freddy it becomes an issue because unlike the shape or huntress using his power isn't a game play choice, it's a necessity.
Problem - Freddy’s actions are prevented by survivors who are awake.
Explanation - Freddy can’t pick up downed survivors while an awake survivor is healing them. Anytime Freddy attempts to attack a dreaming survivor it will auto connect with an awake survivor if they’re standing inside him. This happens even if Freddy couldn’t see them while making the attack. I understand that this is another way of body blocking, but it’s unfair that a survivor can body block a killer without any chance of being injured, and survivors can intentionally use it to the extent that I would call exploitative.
Solution - Make Freddy's attacks ignore survivors who are awake.
Problem - Various problems Freddy faces stem from the dream transition slow.
Explanation -
1) The Freddy dream transition slow combined with the survivor having sprint burst results in the the survivor can get a massive distance on Freddy before he even gets the chance to attack them. This gives Freddy a choice. Either waste a bunch of time chasing down that one survivor, or let them run away and wake up later.
2) Freddy must chase down survivors just to put them into the dream transition, and then he still has to chase them again to attack them. This ends up being a massive waste of time, and can feel pretty awful on maps like lery memorial, haddonfield, coldwind farm, and the backwater swamp where tight corners, walls of corn, and clumps of cat tails make his extended power range add-ons useless.
3) Putting a survivor into the dream transition while chasing another survivor will result in both survivors escaping. When Freddy puts a survivor to sleep he becomes slower than both survivors and he loses blood lust.
Solution - Grant Freddy a small movement speed boost (maybe 2%) while there aren't any survivors in the dream transition, while there aren’t any dreaming survivors in his terror radius, and while he's not in a chase.
Problem - Freddy can’t defend objectives
Explanation - It’s simple, Freddy can’t stop survivors from completing generators, and he can’t stop survivors from cleansing totems.
Solution - Allow Freddy the option to use dream demon on totems, hooks, and generators while they are being worked on. Doing so will EITHER make all survivors working on that object become exposed for 5 seconds Or force survivors to continue working on that objective for 5 more seconds. The point of this isn’t to get Freddy an insta-down or let him grab a survivor, but to give survivors a reason be afraid of working on generators while Freddy is around.
Other possible changes.
- Change the dream transition base to 4 and have it increase by 1 second for every sleeping survivor.