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I feel like the Hillbilly nerfs worsen a multitude of issues with Dead by Daylight as a whole.
I've been a Billy player for quite some time now, and I personally don't really like the changes made to him, mainly because I think he is as fine as it. However, I think these changes worsen many issues with the game in its current state, as well as its design philosophy. A lot of the stuff here is my opinion so feel free to disagree.
The first issue I want to go over is the unnecessary and worsening complexity of newer killer powers. While this point could technically apply to the new Leatherface as well, I'll give him a pass due to him actually needing a change, as well as the newly introduced complexity actually being beneficial.
The Hillbilly, however, I feel like is a different case. The thing about the Hillbilly's new power is that the added complexity (with the overheat mechanic) didn't really add much to him. I feel like the Hillbilly's current complexity didn't come from the power itself, but rather the player and their playstyle.
For example: If a survivor is looping The Hillbilly around a relatively straight loop, the Hillbilly could sometimes rev their chainsaw and mindgame with the survivor, by choosing whether or not to commit to a sprint, which could either earn them a potential down or cause the survivor run away freely if they miss. This, more often that not, resulted in the better player coming out on top. However, now this mindgame potential is removed since the Billy can no longer rev his saw without the risk of it over heating. This change makes the player feel limited by the character, which is almost never a good thing in any game. It's change for the sake of change. This added depth to the power removes depth that the player contributes. I could also go into depth about how changes similar to these can hinder the new player experience, but that's a whole other topic on its own.
That being said, I don't believe that necessarily ALL of the changes made to Leatherface or Hillbilly are bad. The new Ultra rare addon for billy looks cool, and for the most part, I like the changes made to Leatherface and his addons. However, there is one more issue that I think is really, really important, that needs to be brought up more often, and that is how for both killers and survivors alike, buffing should be significantly more common than nerfing.
In a lot of games with large and diverse character rosters, it's only natural that some characters are going to be better than others, it just happens. However, instead of nerfing the better characters, buffing the weaker ones is almost always a better option. I feel like the Leatherface buff and Clown buffs were a step in the right direction, but since this was accompanied by a nerf to, what most people consider, the most balanced killer in the game, I can't say for certain.
Nerfing should be saved for the upmost severe of cases, and should only be done if absolutely necessary. Look at pre-nerf Nurse as an example. She was widely considered to be the best character in the game at the time. Most killers and survivors claimed that her addons were the problem, and that basekit nurse was roughly alright as is. However, her base kit was nerfed regardless. Many players to this day still disagree with these changes, and although her tier placement wasn't affected too significantly, it goes to show how unjustified nerfs can make dedicated players feel.
While I can't say for certain that all of my concerns will be true (since we'll have to wait until the PTB), I still feel like a lot of this is worth mentioning. Until then, all I can do is hope that things will be different than how I predict.
Alright, that's my 2 cents on the situation. Feel free to agree, disagree, or do whatever. If there's something I need to clear up, I can do that as well. Thanks for reading!
Comments
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I don't care about map pressure, I wonder how this will affect his curves. I started to play Billy 2 weeks ago, learned how to curve, his flicks. I got used to his chainsaw (thanks to SYN vids), and now I see this patch note.
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I think the devs are going wrong about Billy, but also that the community is failing to recognize certain problems that there are with him. Which, again, the devs are trying to solve in a questionable way, imo.
Billy came out when the game was vastly different. With the rework of maps, pallet numbers, introducing new perks and keeping old add-ons, then a new meta came about that I'm sure the devs saw as problematic. This new meta, popularized by content creators, poses balance problems without a doubt. Slap on Crack Billy or insta saw, pop, corrupt, infectious and bbq. Then everyone is down in under two minutes, or they play it safe and all pallets are gone in two minutes and everybody is slugged by the third one. Test it, you barely have to try to succeed, as long as you have BASIC experiencs. Everything but infectious is even negotiable and you can trade for bamboozle/enduring and get the same results. The game is moving away from gen rushing. It's obvious that the devs don't want kill rushing either.
What I find questionable are the basekit changes. I think the above could've been addressed without touching, or barely touching, his base kit. However, we know how these things roll and we'll likely have to get over it.
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A really good post. I agree. BHVR is well aware how unfun cooldown mechanics are because it happened with nurse:. Nurse mains jumped ship. Now Billy? It goes to show BHVR does not care about long-term players.
Part of Billy's fun was the ability to have full flexibility with the chainsaw, you are in control of it. Now you are limited and that is not fun. It's also bad design. A game is supposed to be fun but nurse is not fun and so will Billy. Very bad decision to nerf for no reason.
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I agree with the whole nerf/buff debate and there is a point to be made about his mindgames, but there is also something that I would like to add with that: It stops people for EXCESSIVE revving. If you start it up to force someone to take a vault or possibly a saw, then that's fine. It's a smart move. My issue is when people hold it for a full minute and walk around parading it like a child with a sports trophy.
The main thing about this "nerf" is that it will only punish bad Hillbillies, not all Hillbillies, which was also the case with Nurse.
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You didn't get it. I mean the charge. At some tiles to make a curve you have to hold charge, while you are going from one side to another just to put him in a position where you can make a 90 or 180 curve and get him. I meant that.
Maybe we'll get used to it, I don't know. I don't see flick Billy in the game at all, they always just go straight to you to get that instachainsaw, but it's is very cool to see when Billy uses only m2 to get you at jungle gym, especially when he gets you with that flick.
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Basically this, great post OP
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You didn't get it. I mean, when you hold the charge at a tile, going from one side to another to put a surv in position when you can do a 90 or 180 curve to get him.
Like in this vid
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I don't see flick Billys in the game at all, and after this I don't think I will ever see them. I'll try him on PTB. Hopefully, that won't hurt that play-style.
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I'm not going to be able to test this for months, being a console player. But I also hate Hillbilly playing as and against, so I probably won't go back to him anyway. Still going to say let's just wait for the PTB though.
They did change Ghostface on there after player feedback suggested he was way too weak.
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Yeah I can agree with this.
I feel like certain addon combinations can make some killers a little OP, not just Billy specifically. Just look at myers as a glaring example, since without addons, he's mid tier give or take, but if you give him any of the tombstone addons, he immediately becomes WAY more powerful.
But also as you mentioned, I think his basekit and most of his addons (excluding the overpowered combinations that you mentioned) are okay as they are. I definitely wouldn't be against looking at some of his addons, and making some minor adjustments to make them more fair.
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The last thing Dead by Daylight needs is another power bar/gauge. Now we have two killers (one of which was almost fine as is) who are getting one reworked into their kit. The Hillbilly's chainsaw was a tool given to the player, and it was up to the player to determine how they could use it to their advantage, and that's what separated the good Billys from the bad ones.
This "resource management" mechanic removed some of the potential that really good Billys could use to their advantage, and on top of that, it hurts newer players (as if DbD doesn't do that enough) and it removes the depth that the player themselves input.
Not only is the nerf unreasonable and counter-intuitive, it fails to even address the very few issues that Billy had to begin with. It is change for the sake of change, and nothing else
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Thanks!
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Fine points bit the rework didnt happen because of skillful players like you. They happened due to campers and tunnelers.
His prowess was really strong. And required no skill to play as when used to tunneling and camping.
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Here's the thing though, as I mentioned earlier, revving the chainsaw was a great way to mindgame loops, with the better player coming out on top. With the example you mentioned (with the billy revving around the loop), that billy would most likely lose regardless of the nerf.
Dead by Daylight has always pushed away new players due to its inability to effectively teach all of the game's deeper mechanics (such as learning and being weary about specific perks in game), and this change only worsens that issue, as now not only are the bad players being punished for trying to learn, but the good players can no longer use the chainsaw like they used to.
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Chainsaw mindgames are still going to be a thing, but they just can't happen for as long as before. Having to actually commit to using it, rather than hold 99 for ages was always one of the biggest complaints I've had with the saw, especially since all the killers I play normally loose ALL of their power charge if I let go of it.
I don't see this as being a huge problem, even for newer players. If anything, it will lure more of them towards using his hammer as a weapon.
Maybe I have too much hatred for Billy, but I also come from Xbox, and versed nothing but Hillbillies as soon as I hit purple back on old Ruin. 95% of my games were Hillbilly, 4% were Myers. He was our equivelant of Nurse or Spirit and was honestly WAY easier to pick up and do well with.
Anyway, at least I'm able to have a civil conversation about this with you, unlike the vast majority of the Hillbilly fanbase.
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