Killer Balancing Theory in DbD

Montesque

As we all know, there is significant discussion at all levels about the appropriate balancing of Killers and survivors amongst the community at large. Both sides have numerous members who believe the other "team" is too powerful, or has too many advantages, etc. What might be useful, then, is to look at what appears to be the balancing philosophy of DbD as a whole, and the "knobs" that can be turned for each role (killers and survivors) to either make them stronger or weaker.

"Knobs" in this context refers to the variables and the abilities of each role which can be adjusted upwards or downwards for balance purposes. For the purposes of this first, killer based article, I propose that there are essentially three knobs that encompass all the basic abilities of all the killers:

Mobility: Ability to get around the map, as well as ability to quickly and efficiently resolve chases.

Knowledge: Ability to know what the survivors are doing, or where they are at any given time. Conversely, includes the ability to prevent survivors from knowing the same things about the killer

Lethality: How quick a killer is to take a survivor from healthy to hooked.

All killer abilities give them advantages in some combination of these three areas. Thus, if we look at each killer as well as their commonly held strength in the current meta, we may be able to see more broadly in what areas of the game adjustments are needed to the game itself, rather than specifically and piecemeal for each killer.

So, in alphabetical order, let's look at the killers and their basic abilities. The various advantages conveyed by addons and offerings are beyond the scope of this article, and we will be examining each killer from the perspective of just its basic ability, using a 0-5 scale in each category, with a 0 indicating that the power actively hurts in this category, a 1 indicating their power gives no advantage in this category, and 5 indicating that it gives the most advantage in this category in the game.

The Cannibal:
Mobility: 0, Knowledge: 1, Lethality: 5

The Cannibal's chainsaw not only does not give him a comparable speed boost to the hillbilly, it slows him to activate it and causes a significant stun if he makes contact with anything. The trade off for this is that he can take down any survivor in one hit with it, AND can take down multiple survivors at once, making it very unwieldy and potentially the most lethal ability in the game.

The Clown
Mobility: 3, Knowledge 2, Lethality: 1

The clown's mobility advantage is almost strictly restricted to chases, but comes hand in hand with a knowledge advantage. I.e. The clown, when placing a bomb, knows that that opponent will either NOT run through that area, or will be slowed when they do, and thus be easier to catch.

The Doctor
Mobility: 1, Knowledge: 5, Lethality: 1

The Doctor's ability is all about knowledge, from the ability to cause survivors to scream, thus revealing their position, to the ability to track them via hallucinations at long distances, to the ability to restrict their ability to do objectives at madness level 3, thus allowing the killer to know that they will have to group up to reduce their madness level. It provides no advantage to either of the other two categories.

The Hag
Mobility: 4, Knowledge: 2, Lethality: 1

The hag's traps teleportation ability is almost the best in terms of mobility, allowing for more exact and longer distance relocation compared to the nurse, but she is hindered by the longer set up time and the potential for her traps to be broken by flashlights or ignored by crouching. Even if she is out of range of teleportation, her traps being set off give a knowledge advantage, as you know someone is over there to have set them off.

The Hillbilly
Mobility: 4, Knowledge: 0, Lethality: 4

The Hillbilly's chainsaw dash is extremely quick, extremely loud, and extremely lethal, thus giving away a knowledge advantage for the benefit of speed and easier kills.

The Huntress
Mobility: 2, Knowledge: 2, Lethality: 3

Being the only ranged attacker in DbD, the huntress can end chases fairly quickly, cut off routes with the threat of axe throws, and get hits and downs without getting within striking range of the survivor.

The Nightmare
Mobility: 1, Knowledge: 4, Lethality: 0

Freddy's Knowledge advantage should be huge, but loses out to the Doctor due to the simple on/off nature of his power, and the easy way it can be eliminated compared to the scaling levels of the other killer. Additionally, since he has an extra step to his killing as compared to any other killer, his lethality suffers.

The Nurse
Mobility: 5, Knowledge: 1, Lethality: 1

Mobility is the nurse's only power, but it's a doozy of one, being almost unlimited teleportation. Doesn't really help with the other categories, but it doesn't really need to.

The Pig
Mobility: 2, Knowledge 4, Lethality: 2

One of the more categorically balanced killers, the pig's dash can help her move quickly. Knowledge is a function of the fact that a trapped survior will be known to be heading to Jigsaw boxes, and that the Pig's stealth ability erases her terror radius, reducing survivor Knowledge, and The instant kill ability of the RBT's gives at least a small bump to lethality.

The Shape
Mobility: 0/2, Knowledge: 3/1, Lethality: 0/4

Myers is a strange case, as his power relies on essentially trading categories as it increases. At EW 1, he is slow to move and to lunge, but an almost nonexistant terror radius means that the only way a survivor knows he's there is by actually seeing him. He gradually trades away that advantage for increased speed and Lethality, up to instant downs at level 3.

The Spirit
Mobility: 3, Knowledge: 2, Lethality: 1

The ability to go very quickly invisibly should be a major mobility and Knowledge advantage, but between the fact that she can't herself see survivors when haunting and the fact that there are currently audio indicators of her direction and presence for the survivors, the knowledge advantage is fairly incremental. Current buffs to her sounds on the PTB may increase this rating.

The Trapper
Mobility: 1, Knowledge: 3, Lethality: 3

The Trappers...traps both tell him where a survivor is when they go off and when they are disarmed, and he's the only killer who can put a wound on or down a survivor without ever seeing them.

The Wraith
Mobility: 2, Knowledge: 4, Lethality: 1

Slightly increased speed when cloaked gives the wraith a slight advantage, but his real strength comes in the information advantage of his invisibility. They can't see you (mostly) but you can see them.

So, in closing, if we look at the killers most often considered top tier, I.e. the Nurse, Hillbilly, and (possibly) Hag, the common thread for all three is a very high mobility score. Thus, it seems as though that is the most powerful category in the game, and any changes to the game's inherent structure might best be focused on either shrinking some maps (currently a change on the PTB) or adjusting how chases work in some material way.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your feedback.

thekiller490490

Swap clowns mobility and lethality stats around. Map pressure is his greatest weakness and he is the king of the chase. (Nurse is the queen). Also Billy mobility wise I feel is 5 and nurse is 4 as the greater the distance the more effective Billy gets, while for nurse the opposite occurres due to the slow between blink chains. Also for me Billy's noise is not that bad. Instead many survivors react to late to not be spotted and while I know this is based on the base kit Billy takes BAC to it's full potential, able to get to a survivor before they have time to counter. I think Billy should also have 2-3 on knowledge thanks to survivors underestimating how fast he will get to you.

thekiller490490

Also why is Leatherface 5 lethality and nurse is 1? 4 at the most on Leather Billy and 6 on nurse ffs she is literally the best killer and will never be beat in lethality. "It doesn't help in other categories," so literally ignoring every defense of the survivors using the teleportation is unhelpful in the chase seriously this is a huge flaw.

redsopine1

thekiller490490 said:

Also why is Leatherface 5 lethality and nurse is 1? 4 at the most on Leather Billy and 6 on nurse ffs she is literally the best killer and will never be beat in lethality. "It doesn't help in other categories," so literally ignoring every defense of the survivors using the teleportation is unhelpful in the chase seriously this is a huge flaw.

Points to the 4man swf teams queuing up to play nurse for a challenge * that's the reason most play her to counter them or for a dailey

White_Owl

You got some things wrong:

The Clown
Mobility: 3, Knowledge 2, Lethality: 1

The Clown's relative mobility is very strong in chases, now way his lehtality is just 1, it should be 3 imo

The Doctor
Mobility: 1, Knowledge: 5, Lethality: 1

It provides no advantage to either of the other two categories.

Excuse me? You're totally ignoring the main use of the shock therapy: preventing survivors from dropping pallets or vaulting. This can end a chase very quickly if used right giving him at least 2 if not 3 in lethality

The Hag
Mobility: 4, Knowledge: 2, Lethality: 1

Yeah, no way the hag has a 1 in lethality. If we consider "how quick a killer is to take a survivor from healthy to hooked", she has the potential for a 4 in lethality.

The Nurse
Mobility: 5, Knowledge: 1, Lethality: 1

The Nurse's lethality is, on a scale of 0 to 5, 6. She's borderline broken.

The Shape
Mobility: 0/2, Knowledge: 3/1, Lethality: 0/4

Because his mirrors addons exist, his knowledge potential is 5

The Spirit
Mobility: 3, Knowledge: 2, Lethality: 1

Her knowledge is 0-1, for obvious reasons. Her power is strong in chases, so her lethality is a 3 imo.