Midchapter Review: September 2021

Timeman63

Hey everyone, bit of a different post today, and while I don’t usually cover topical DBD matters, I really wanted to give my thoughts about the recent developer updates. Now that both parts of the post are out and there are some twitter reveals of some addons as well, I think I can give some of my views after thinking it over. I’ll cover each aspect starting from the first post. Without further introduction, let’s get to it.

Trapper always has 6 traps spawn on the map

Nice consistency change. My only minor complaint is that while it’s nice that the number of traps isn’t random anymore, the way they’re spread out hasn’t changed. The way it is now, traps can sometimes spawn in corners of the map that you can’t reasonably be expected to take time to retrieve them. I kind of wished this was changed alongside this, but still, a nice change.

Trapper carries and starts with 2 traps as basekit

Thank you so much. This change won’t seem like much unless you play Trapper regularly, but being able to carry 2 traps means you can set up much faster and, perhaps more importantly, you can now have more addon variety because you aren’t forced to run a bag addon just to stand a chance. The addons themselves were pretty lackluster before, and that’s another issue I’ll get into, but this changes everything, people have no idea.

New Tension Spring and Trapper Sack

These teased Trapper addons don’t impress me, and that leads me to worry about what the other addon changes are. First, Tension Spring. Ok, I can see some merit behind this one. If a survivor steps on a trap when you’re far away, they won’t fall for that trap again. But other survivors might, so it’s still worth keeping the trap there in case another survivor goes there. So having the trap reset itself basically instantly in that case can be nice, but a Trapper that knows what they’re doing will do their best to make sure traps only get triggered on their terms. Second, the new Trapper Sack. This one just hurts to see. Carrying all your traps at the start sounds like a huge deal, but not being able to pick up your traps is crippling. Good survivors or survivors that communicate are going to ensure that any trap that is seen or stepped on will not become useful ever again, unless you specifically trap the strongest windows and pallets so that they can be as much of a hindrance as possible. And if you make a mistake in setting a trap down? Entity help you. I just don’t like this one, and I doubt I’ll be using it very often.

Spirit has a directional phasing sound within 24m

Well, I guess this eliminates the whole standing still to mindgame thing that Spirit had. I don’t really know how to feel about this change, since I’m not an experienced Spirit player, but I think this change alone would make people happy and make Spirit a little more tolerable to play against.

Spirit kicks up dust while phasing...or at least she’s meant to

I’m aware that this change is being pushed back, and it seems like people have very mixed reactions towards the change anyway, so there’s a chance this might not get implemented. But let’s say for argument’s sake that it does. I think it’s unnecessary. Truly, if you couldn’t tell where Spirit was phasing from or if she was phasing at all after the above change, you kind of deserve to get hit by her. I’m kind of tried of seeing changes that cater to bad players, to be honest. New players, I don’t mind changes made to make things friendlier for them, but if you’re bad, all changes like that do is ruin things for players that play well. So yeah, I think this change shouldn’t go through.

New Wakizashi Saya and Senko Hanabi

Was anyone actually complaining about the current version of Wakizashi Saya? It does have an interesting new effect, but I’m not sure how useful it will be on Spirit. Senko Hanabi is just pathetic. With a range of 4m, you might as well just use Bamboozle. I’d hate to see what the other addons are like.

Killer addon changes overall for clarity

This change has been a long time coming. Never did I think I’d see the day when that “Slightly, Moderately, Considerably, Tremendously” language would be done away with. Now you get to see exactly how worthless the addon you decided to use is. In all seriousness, thank you once again. This will be a boon to new players and veterans alike. I’ll edit this post once I see what the other addon changes are for the other killers.

Vigil now recovers 30% and recovers Broken, Exposed and Oblivious

How interesting that this change comes along when I was considering making a Bad Perk University post on it. I really like this change, but I’m a bit concerned about the fact that Vigil will still stack. I’d hate to see like 20 second Exhuastion recoveries or something silly like that. Honestly, it might not be so bad. The Exposed recovery rate is going to be pretty good for countering Make Your Choice, Starstruck and Ghostface’s power. No, it’s not going to affect Myers’ power, that one keeps you Exposed until his Evil Within 3 expires. But yeah, great changes.

Babysitter now gives the unhooked survivor a speed boost for 8 seconds and the aura reading duration is twice as long

How much of a speed boost are we talking? We won’t know until we see it. I’ll update the post once I find out, but assuming it’s not an insignificant speed boost, that would be huge. It might make Babysitter an actually viable alternative to Borrowed Time, or pair even better with it. That doubled aura reading duration is also welcome.

For the People now only inflicts Broken for 60 seconds

Very simple change, and I welcome it. I might use For the People more now.

Retribution now makes survivors Oblivious while interacting with any totem and reveals survivor auras for 15 seconds instead of 10

I honestly didn’t think Retribution needed many changes, but this comes as a pleasant surprise. 15 seconds is a very long time in terms of Dead by Daylight, especially when it comes to aura reading. I think this perk will be even crazier in hex builds now.

Blood Favor no longer has a cooldown and works on Special Attacks

While this fixes some of the bigger problems with Blood Favor, there’s still the issue of the fact that it just keeps the pallet there for the survivors to use later. But I guess they can’t use the pallets if they’re always blocked, right? Now that there isn’t a cooldown to the perk now, it might actually be worth running Brutal Strength alongside it since survivors are going to drop pallets early when they realize that Blood Favor is an actual threat. I’ll have to test it to really say.

Third Seal now works on Special Attacks

Third Seal Legion is back everyone! Simple but very welcome change.

Thrill of the Hunt now makes Blessing totems slower, whenever that comes

I’ll address Boon totems when I actually know what Boon perks are about, but I guess this will give Thrill of the Hunt some merit to run. Not a bad change.

Deathslinger cannot fire until fully aimed down sights, has more of a delay when canceling out of that before you can Basic Attack, and decreased movement speed penalty while aiming

I understand why these changes were made, but without playing for myself, I don’t know how much it changes. I guess Deathslinger will give survivors more time to react, not that they’ll be any better at dodging the spear. Though the decreased movement speed penalty is welcome.

Deathslinger now has a 32m terror radius

It’s OK, I stopped using Monitor and Abuse on him a while ago. I’m glad they didn’t give him a lullaby like the other ranged killers though, since he doesn’t technically injure you from range.

Plague infects objects for 40 seconds and the infection rate for interacting with those objects is increased

Wasn’t expecting Plague changes, but here we are. This one’s a nice change, not much else to comment on here.

Plague has a reduced movement speed penalty after using Vile Purge and can tap the power button to use it minimally, and cleansing at fountains takes 8 seconds

All welcome changes. Hopefully they make Plague feel less clunky to play as.

New Prayer Tablet Fragment and Olibanum Incense

Why with the meme addons? This one’s not so bad at least? 80 seconds of infection time on an object, especially generators is a long time. Still, I expect this one to be rarely used. Olibanum Incense has a nice effect though. You can see for a brief moment where survivors run off to after cleansing, I’m sure that’ll be useful in some situations.

Survivor addon changes for clarity

Same as the killer one, good change

Windows of Opportunity no longer has a cooldown and has a 32m range

Now it’s exactly the same as Zanshin Tactics, just with breakable walls for some reason. This one scares me to be honest. Imagine a good looper knowing exactly where all the pallets and strong windows are at all times. Not that they necessarily needed this perk. This perk was fine the way it was in my opinion, but OK.

Repressed Alliance takes 45 seconds of generator repair time to activate

Very simple change, and very welcome. No complaints.

Built to Last now refills 99% item charges after hiding in a locker for 12 seconds. The effect decreases by 33% each time you use it until it runs out entirely

This perk was alright before in my opinion, and now the potential it has is scary. Medkits are going to be insane now.

Any Means Necessary now shows you the auras of dropped pallets

Or, you could have just paired it with Windows of Opportunity before. Still, a welcome change, even if resetting pallets isn’t always worth doing. I might still make a Bad Perk University post about this one.

No Mither has increased Injured noises reduction to 75% and 25% faster recovery speed when in the Dying state

I’m surprised to see No Mither changes. Faster recovery speed is always a big deal. That being said, the killer still knows you have No Mither and won’t slug you without strong persuasion from your teammates. I’m OK with this change.

Mindbreaker now inflicts Blindness in addition to Exhaustion

Cool I guess? I didn’t think Mindbreaker needed any more changes since it was good with Blood Echo but sure, I’ll take it.

Hatch no longer spawns until there is one survivor left, and takes a few seconds to open with a key

Both hatch and keys made to be fair? Who are you and what have you done to the real BHVR? In all seriousness, this was a long time coming. Thank you very much.

Boon perks and Boon totems are a thing now. I seriously wish I understood them in detail

Without knowing what Boon Perks are going to do, I withhold my judgment. But the very idea, while interesting is just baffling. Didn’t killers have enough to worry about? Still, we’ll have to see how it all works in an actual game. Maybe if the devs showed an example of a Boon perk, we wouldn’t be so confused. Hopefully we get a Boon perk to mess around with in the PTB.

New Video Tape for Pig

Oh my word, this addon is amazing. It’s an interesting change of pace when the survivors can’t complete the first generator without putting themselves in danger. I’m going to have fun using this one.

New Vanity Mirror for Myers

Well, not really new, just removing that silly movement speed penalty. I’m not sure if it’s any more useful, but it’s basically Tier 2 only Myers but with wallhacks for 16m. It might make for some fun meme strats to rival Scratched Mirror.

New Interlocking Razor for Pig

I mean, survivors still won’t miss Jigsaw Box skill checks, but at least now this addon is in the common category where it belongs.

New Jigsaw’s Sketch for Pig

Not very useful on its own I don’t think, since survivors usually don’t work on generators with a Reverse Bear Trap on their head unless they have a deathwish, but imagine this with the new Video Tape addon.

New Torn Bookmark for Nurse

Making Torn Bookmark kind of usable? Cool, I guess. I hope to see what the other Nurse addon changes are.

New Workshop Grease for Pig

Man, Pig is getting so much love in this midchapter. I hope there are more addons that affect Pig’s Ambush Dash.

Edit as of September 28:

Okay so the PTB is here now, but I have yet to play it. I'll make a followup post once I get around to it.

And that’s all my thoughts so far. I’ll update this post once I play the PTB and give my thoughts on anything not covered. Thank you for coming to my opinion piece, see you next class!

ThiccBudhha

I feel like it is kind of weird we had 2 different blog posts and we STILL don't know what boon totems are. Like, bro...