Does the Clown have an Identity Crisis?

Doomsaki

On the steam forums right now, there's some discussion that the clown is a bit mediocre. A lot of comparisons are made to Huntress or Doctor. Huntress is generally regarded as the best ranged killer. In most situations, a slow doesn't stack up to direct damage especially in a meta where time is short before generators are completed. Doctor is considered by many to be the strongest indirect killer. His power doesn't do direct damage but he manages to make survivors anxious on the right maps with the right perks.

Killer powers usually fall along several lines:
-- direct chasing potential
-- time wasting
-- ambush capability
-- scouting

On the direct damage scale, clown is weaker than huntress. You probably won't see a montage like this where a clown can mess around:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBi5ew19WHo[/url]

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Niche situations aside, if he has a weaker feeling hero power than huntress, does he need some kind of secondary effect?

For example, despite being an anesthesiologist, I'm surprised he has no sleep mechanics. If his gas could put people sleep (freddy sleep but no aura reading) after enough exposure (1 or 2 sec in the gas cloud), then he'd have some strength in the time-wasting category. That would put him as a proper doctor-huntress hybrid.

Or another example instead: if he had a blurring effect with his terror radius (think vapors on his body) that stacked with his bottles, then he'd have some ambush capability instead. It'd be especially potent if it caused double vision so you had trouble telling whether to go left or right.

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Some of these may sound powerful, but there is a HUGE gap between billy/nurse/huntress/map-favored_doctor and the rest of the killer crew; indirect methods of killing haven't been given a proper power budget in this game to compete. What I'm trying to argue is that the clown would benefit from a more unique identity to stand out from the huntress if he needs adjustment. A slow is always going to be awkward to balance in comparison to just ending a chase instantly with direct damage unless he pushes multiple categories of the killer power spectrum. At the very least, he needs better area denial or longer lasting gas.

Unknown

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Jack11803

@RemoveSWF said:
Clown farts in his bottles and throws them.

He also sniffs the bottles himself, which is why he's slow af.

Terminal 8, brain cancer... I don’t know what that means... but it’s bad.

weirdkid5

I feel he's in a a decent spot. Played a match with him last night and he felt pretty good to me.

He requires his own skillset different from the Huntress or Doctor and does a good job of one thing: Corraling the Survivors.

He's perfect for area denial and crowd control.

Doomsaki

Here is an example of some of the elements I'm talking about with a video I saw from another streamer:

This video showcases how even with applied bottles, the clown faces a long chase. Many opportunities a huntress could have had guaranteed ranged hit on a window vault, pallet drop, or corridor. You can also see how much easier gas canisters are to dodge in midair as well only made harder for the killer to land with its arcing trajectory and delay once it impacts. Even worse, a big issue is that most of this chase was indoors and thus the clown's power couldn't be used.

[url]https://youtu.be/Q5cbm83v2pE[/url]

I'm surprised more people don't agree with my assessment that clown is generally a weaker huntress. Its a higher skill floor, but with less rewards for both landing on target and mastering use.

Acnologia

Well in my opinion he doesnt have something special ... His ability is pretty boring tbh. But i dont think he is a terrible killer like in that video that u showed. But other then that i agree with u that they should put something as a ,,second effect"