Proposed changes to balance killers
These are just some ideas I've thought of to make the worse killers stronger, and the (sometimes) overly oppressive killers more manageable. Personally I don't think any killers are completely overpowered, but seeing as so many people want certain killers changed, I've thought of potential changes for them. Not saying that every change for each killer should happen, maybe only one or 2 of them could be added. I'll also say that I know against the average player some of these killers are fine the way they are. But any killer can do well against average survivors. When talking about how much of a chance a killer has, I'm talking about when they're facing strong survivors.
Trapper:
2-3 traps basekit. We all know it's almost a requirement to run a bag to have a chance with trapper. Giving him more than 1 trap base would make him much better in my opinion. Of course the bag add-ons would need to be adjusted accordingly as well.
Make traps spawn closer to the center of the map. Often times traps will spawn in the outskirts of the map, in the most out of your way locations, and you have to walk all the way over to one, pick it up, go set it down somewhere, rinse and repeat. There's so much down time in the match for the trapper especially at the beginning, to the point that corrupt intervention is almost a must have. This could decrease the down time, so trapper can actually get his traps set up in a more timely manner.
Give Trapper distortion. What I mean by this is give him the unique ability to not have a visible aura. The trapper's biggest kryptonite is object of obsession, since an object user can call out trap locations, significantly decreasing the chances of a trapper catching someone in a trap. If he didn't have an aura this wouldn't be a problem.
Wraith:
Increase his speed while cloaked. Without at least one windstorm add-on the wraith's speed while cloaked is not very noticeable and not very helpful. It's almost a requirement to use windstorm to have a chance with wraith. I think he should move faster while he's cloaked, with his windstorm add-ons being reworked accordingly.
Make bone clapper basekit. The wraith is supposed to be a stealthy, ambush type killer who shows up and gets you when you don't expect. But this isn't very likely to happen, since there's a huge bell sound while he's uncloaking, giving survivors time to run and find a safer tile to be in. I think giving him bone clapper basekit would make him a stronger ambush killer, because the map-wide sound makes it harder for the survivors to know who he's going after.
Shape:
Remove evil within I. The Shape has the slowest start of any killer: he moves really slow, and he doesn't have a lunge. Because of this, most players make it their priority to get out of tier 1 as fast as possible, so they'll have a better chance during chases, and so they can activate tier 3. I think tier 1 should just be removed altogether, since there's no reason to stay in tier 1 aside from using scratched mirror, and you can never go back to tier 1.
Also, the Shape needs an add-on pass. He does not have the standard number of add-ons for each rarity (he has 6 uncommon add-ons) and many of them are not very useful. The Shape is strongest when he's in tier 3, so add-ons that help you reach tier 3 quickly are the most helpful, and the most used, and other add-ons don't see nearly as much use.
Huntress:
Return the huntress's hatchets when picking up a survivor. If the huntress downs a survivor with 2 hatchets, when she picks them up she gets those hatchets back. I think this could help the huntress because she always has to go to a locker to get hatchets, and sometimes there aren't lockers close and she has to go far out of her way to get more, losing precious time which is important, since she's a 110% killer, and down time is not good for her.
Rework Iridescent Head. Iridescent Head by itself isn't super overpowered, the problem is when it's paired with infantry belt, it can become overly oppressive. With iridescent head and infantry belt you can down survivors so fast, it's nearly impossible for them to finish generators since they're just constantly trying to save each other. My suggestion is simple: add a range requirement to the hatchet. Make it so the hatchet only instantly downs a survivor if they're, say, 24 meters or more away. This encourages players to go for long range throws, and rewards them for successfully landing longer throws. Also, since there's a range requirement, I think Iridescent Head should only decrease your hatchet count to 3, not 1, since every throw is not a guaranteed instant down.
Pig:
Make Combat Straps basekit. One of the most commonly used add-ons on the pig is the combat straps. Because it makes her crouch much more usable, and by default, allows you to use her ambush attack quicker. It's the most popular pig add-on and one of her strongest, yet it's a brown add-on. It's a bit strange that a brown add-on could be stronger than an iridescent.
Rework her purple add-ons. One of the more controversial add-on combos is Tampered Timer+Crate of Gears. This combo decreases the reverse beartrap timer by 30 seconds and increases the jigsaw box search time by 3.6 seconds. Which means that if the box a survivor needs to search is the very last box they run to, they literally cannot get the trap off in time. This has actually been tested and confirmed by streamers Otzdarva and Scorpionz, where when they searched every box, they could not get it off in time. I think this combo needs looking into.
Nightmare:
The Nightmare has a lot in his kit: he's got a teleport that gives him insane map pressure, he's got dream snares that give him better chase potential, he's got a passive sleep timer on survivors that give him even more pressure, and none of these are particularly tough to use. He actually has the highest kill rate of any killer, which is why I have a suggestion to make him a bit less oppressive:
Increase the sleep timer by 1-2 minutes. The Nightmare has a passive timer that makes survivors fall asleep without him actually doing anything. This would do several things: it would lessen how frequently he gets his teleport since survivors won't be asleep quite as often, and it would decrease how oppressive his stronger addons are. I'm sure most people will say this is a bad change, but something needs to be done about the Nightmare. His kit has a lot of easy to use aspects, so it's not hard to get into the character, and just as easy to master him as well. He gets too much for the amount of effort it actually takes to do well with him. And to those of you who also think he needs a change, if you think this is a bad one I challenge YOU to come up with a change that's better.
Spirit:
First off, most people have asked for a telltale of when she's phasing. I don't think this is what should be done. A telltale to tell the survivors when she's phasing will not actually do anything. The reason I say this is because even if the survivor(s) know she's phasing, she is still moving faster, she's still invisible, and she can still hear the sounds survivors make and see their scratch marks. So it's still much MUCH easier for the spirit to find and attack survivors when she's phasing. I have a different idea:
Give the spirit a telltale for WHERE she is when she's phasing. The big issue with spirit is that the survivors have no clue where she is when she's phasing. And yes, there are things you can do as a survivor. You can drop a pallet early from the opposite side and vault over it to trick her, you can throw down a pallet and walk backwards, there are all kinds of little things you can try to do to trick the spirit. But it's completely up to the killer to make the mistake and fall for it in that scenario, and if they don't fall for it, she'll get you anyways. I think some kind of way to know where the spirit is when she's phasing would make for more reliable and interesting counterplay, where you can actually say as a survivor that you countered the spirit. We saw this kind of thing with a bug not too long ago, where the spirit would make moaning sounds while she was phasing, which made it easier to play against her. Is this exactly what she needs, maybe not. Just some way of knowing where she is would make spirit matches much more manageable for survivors.
Ghost Face:
Decrease the amount of time it takes for Ghost Face to recover his power. At base, it takes 30 seconds for Ghost Face's power to fully recover. And because Ghost Face is more powerful when his power is active, most players use the chewed pen and address book addons, which decrease how long it takes for him to recover his power. And other addons don't see as much use, since they aren't as helpful as the recovery addons. I think the amount of time it takes for his power to come back should be reduced, so players don't always feel the need to use the same addons, allowing more addons to see use.
Demogorgon:
Remove the sound cue when the Demogorgon uses his power. The Demogorgon has several aspects that suggest he can be used as a stealth killer: after he teleports with his power he's undetectable for 2 seconds, and while survivors are closing one of his portals, they are oblivious, allowing the Demogorgon to potentially sneak up on them. However, he has a map wide sound every time he uses his portals, so survivors always know when to expect a potential sneak attack, and his footsteps are very loud, making it even harder for him to sneak up on people. I think if the sound upon teleporting was removed, his potential as a stealth killer would increase.
Rework his addons. The most powerful part of the Demogorgon's kit is his shred attack, but unfortunately his addons are not focused on that, they're mostly focused on his portals. Unfortunately those addons don't actually affect the portals very much, and aren't very helpful. His strongest addon is the rat liver, which is a brown addon, which increases his movement speed while he's charging his Shred. In my opinion his addons should be more focused on his Shred, that way players would actually use different addons and addon combos, instead of running rat liver every game.
Deathslinger:
Decrease his chase potential. The Deathslinger is very strong during the chase. The reason behind this is because of how fast his gun shoots. The amount of time it takes for him to aim his gun and fire is so fast, that when he is between 1 and 12 meters away, it is literally impossible to react and dodge his gun without hacking. If a deathslinger shoots his gun at a survivor who is 1-12 meters away and it doesn't hit, that doesn't mean the survivor outplayed him, it just means that the deathslinger missed his shot. But strong players won't miss their shots. I think the speed that his gun shoots should change, depending on how long he's aiming down sights. The speed of his spear if he quick shoots, will be lower than the speed if he aims down sights for a few seconds, similar to the huntress's hatchets. This would actually make it possible for the survivor to see him aiming down sights, giving them time to actually try and dodge it.
Increase his map pressure. Even though deathslinger thrives during the chase, he's not strong in any other area, which is why fast generators is the way to beat him. If they decrease his chase potential, I think they should give him something to increase him map pressure. The problem is, I don't know what they could do for this. So until something for that can be though of, I don't think my first suggested change to him should happen.
And that's all the changes I'd like to see come to the killer side of DBD. If you're thinking about commenting something along the lines of "What about DS and UB" or any kind of "What about this?" question, please don't. I understand that those are issues as well. I want DS to be changed as well. But this thread isn't about the issues on the survivor side, it's about killer issues.