So I played to rank 1 as Hillbilly...
Let me preface this by saying I know, I know that rank means nothing. I just wanted to share some thoughts on how I see the current state of Hillbilly and some observations I made.
- Hillbilly has potential. Because of undisclosed reasons that took place outside of the entities realm, I had to take a long break from playing dead by daylight, during which the Hillbilly was nerfed. (I use the term nerf instead of rework, because it truly was a nerf in all regards). While I was initially devastated to learn that he'd been gutted, what I ended up discovering is that similar results were still possible to achieve with him, but his skill floor was much, MUCH higher. I don't know if I necessarily agree with this change, but I do like that it's made it so that in my games, when I do go against a hillbilly, it is usually a very fun game with a very skilled user. Unfortunately, the downside is that far less people are playing Billy, which means that they use other killers I don't always prefer as much.
- Second observation: Because less people are playing Hillbilly, a lot of less skilled players are forgetting how to play against him. I mean let me just say, wow. I am able to pull off so much stuff now that I could never do before. People really misinterpret where Billy's strengths lie, which is in his extreme mobility. He is a little map dependent, but even on maps where chainsaw hits were unviable, using his chainsaw to practice hit and run is surprisingly effective. Hit and run is definitely dead, but using his mobility to quickly take care of boons means that Billy, at least in the games I played, had a HUGE time wasting potential that is three pronged. First, survivors take time to light boons, second, it takes you very little time to smash boons, and third, when they do heal you can down them instantly, putting a ton of pressure on the team.
- His addons are effectively worthless with the exception of a few. This is probably what makes the the most sad. Billy used to be one of the best killers you could put your points into, because almost every addon he got had some use or application somewhere. Now his addons are so niche they're almost complete garbage. I typically ran steel toed boots for a little bit of stun reduction. (Which is WAAAAY too long, even with addons) as well as the junkyard air filter so that I didn't have to worry about overheating as much. (Which is also a really stupid addition imo). But even without any addons, he remains pretty viable which I like.
Honestly, I would love to see Billy get a little touch up love. He honestly feels a lot more clunky to play than he used to, which is sad considering how fun of a killer he was. Now that I'm rank 1 I think I might just put on some funny meme perks and relax and get bloodpoints while continuing to practice my chainsaw hits. Any ideas as to what you might change to make billy a little smoother gameplay experience for both sides?
Comments
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In the game of Hockey Chainsaws would be OP and would overheat so sounds like he's fine- Behavior. Also grade is meaningless now it's all MMR based. Billy shouldn't have been nerfed other then his addons he's not that good anymore Blight is far better.
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His nerfs don't even matter he was going to be power crept by Blight regardless
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I mean, it did matter pre nerf Billy had unlimited mobility, which blight currently has you can boink off a wall and in 2 seconds you have your tokens back. If you had Old Billy in the game, he would be equal to blight, if not better, with his instant down.
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Honestly even as a more casual noob killer old hillbilly was just so much more better to play
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You're overrating Billy or underrating Blight, there are still Billy mains who don't even care about the nerfs.
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That's false you can't overrate old Billy he was one of the best killers in the game secondly no I'm not underrating blight I'm pointing out what made Billy better pre nerf to now lastly I'm glad there's 1% people still playing him I play him from time to time I put 4k hours on him I know what made him strong what made him strong is lacking heavily now because a few survivors found it hard to loop pallets. What I said earlier stands true the overheat is insanely bad, he only needed instant saw gone nothing else.
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I've been grinding Billy pretty hardcore the last couple weeks and yeah, the add ons are really annoying. Engravings/LoPro are pretty much the only add ons that could be considered competitive and everything else is niche or worthless.
That being said, I'm having a lot of success. I don't think he's quite at my Nurse/Spirit MMR, but I'm starting to face some stout teams and I'm 4king or holding my own. He's viable.
I almost want to say he needs a QoL pass more than another pass on his power. Most of my frustrations are with hitboxes. Survivor hitboxes tend to be paper thin while environmental hitboxes are absolutely massive. Some of Billy's map collision is outrageous. There's also the matter of his saw auto-locking onto anything but the survivor unless you are absolutely perfect on your angle. Nurse has a similar issue but it's not nearly this bad.
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Yeah he was the second best killer in the game, below Nurse. Until Blight took his place, which was going to happen no matter what.
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A killer that had the same mobility, the ability to slam through pallets with his, saw the ability to turn better without using techs and had better addons, and the ability to instant down, you're out of your mind if you believe Blight is better than old Billy either that or you never touched old Billy.
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On the list of killers that desperately need buffs Billy is near the bottom
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I had a laugh out of that one. Most old/weak killers need complete reworks/overhauls. Billy is one of the few where some simple fine tweaking could make him perfect.
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