Bubba still lacks Map Pressure and some Bubbas still Hook Camp, so let's Fix Both at the Same Time

Doomsaki

So to start off: the recent rework did our chainsaw wielding maniac a lot of good. If you look at the Dennis-Reep Crowdsourced tier list, he used to hover around High-D Low-C tier, but now the community has him voted around Mid-B to Upper-B tier.

But he is still not lower-A or middle-A tier where you'd expect to see him okay against SWF groups and viable in a competitive rank-1 setting. Quite simply, he still has the huge Achilles heel that many low-mobility and no-stealth killers face with map pressure. Efficient spread out survivor teams will still generator rush him--something that his recent buff in lethality doesn't quite compensate for.

As a result, and even in-spite-of the chainsaw-rev tantrum change, many low-ranking Bubbas still resort to facecamping and thus try to capitalize on survivors being overly altruistic. It can be a big salt mine for the killer, but its not exactly fun and engaging gameplay for the survivors either.

But here is a humble change that I think would remove such a perverse incentive to camp and kill two birds with one stone--gently fixing his map pressure problems also. Let's dive in and give him a really unique mechanic that matches his fantasy.

Imagine if during a trial involving Bubba, lockers were replaced with old-school-style external Latch Refrigerators.

These refrigerators function exactly the same as lockers with survivors being able to hide inside; however, instead of wasting time searching lockers, Bubba quickly locks the refrigerator door instead when he presses spacebar. When a refrigerator is locked, survivors cannot enter it anymore.

But what happens when a survivor is hiding in a Refrigerator and Bubba locks it? (see this image)

Refrigerators serve as alternatives to hooks. When carrying a downed survivor, Bubba can place the survivor traditionally on a hook or stow them inside a Refrigerator. Refrigerators function differently from hooks as shown in the following image:

Mechanics:

1). Bubba can lock refrigerators as described previously. Downed survivors placed inside a Fridge are also locked inside.

2). When a generator is repaired, all locked refrigerators on the map become unlocked and thus "frozen" survivors can be rescued by other survivors.

3). Survivors who are rescued from a fridge exit with the deep wound status effect, but also the endurance status effect (refreshing deep wounds once if Bubba chooses to camp a fridge and hit on rescue). This acts as a soft disincentive to camp them.

4). When the exit gates are powered, all fridges remain unlocked and Bubba cannot lock refrigerators anymore. Bubba must search them like lockers, and he must use hooks only for downed survivors.

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So what does this do for Bubba?

Gameplay Implications:

1). Late-Game Control: When only a few generators are left, placing a survivor inside a fridge knocks them out of the game until another generator can be completed. This isn't too useful at the start of a match where generators are very easy to complete (and even detrimental due to automatic borrowed time), but when only a few are left, it can create a lot of pressure on a team to get one done before their numbers dwindle and they fall behind on the 3-gen map pressure curve.

2). Less Camping, More Gen Patrol meta: No this doesn't forcefully eliminate camping per say, but it strongly encourages Bubba to actively patrol generators after a fridge hook instead of trying to intercept other survivors going for a save. And Bubbas who are elsewhere patrolling gens do give windows of opportunity for survivors to make saves when a Gen suddenly pops. For the killer, this is a mechanic that can snowball if a survivor team makes mistakes, and good Bubbas will want to try to and keep their survivors locked up in fridges. Expect less insidious and more overcharge/surveillance/dragon's grip perk builds.

3). Soft counter to Meta Perks: Locker builds are more common these days especially with the very popular head-on perk. The ability to lock fridges is a soft counter to this survivor style of play, but not overly restrictive since generator completion unlocking all fridges still allows ample opportunities to get value still from these perks.

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I think this would bump to him reasonably to mid-A tier, encourage a more pro-active hunting playstyle, fit his fantasy as a killer, and make him have a more unique tempo to play against in high-ranking matches that tend to see the same killers over and over again (i.e. high-mobility Nurse, Billy, Spirit, Oni, Freddy, Hag).

(disclaimer: if the mechanic turns out to be too strong, perhaps survivors could just exit automatically from a fridge if a gen is completed)

Thoughts?