The "Break the 3 gen early" mindset, is an outdated remnant of the the pre 6.1.0 meta
Breaking the 3 gen early was a viable strategy prior 6.1.0 because the killer meta was all regression perks requiring downs to activate. The only exception being ruin which could be disabled for the rest of hte match once the hex is gone.
In the previous meta, "break the 3 gen early" was the legitmate way to avoid a 3 gen because a killer commiting to a 3 gen early meant they were losing the rest of the match for nothing. When their regression perks all required survivor interaction to activate, they could not reliably defend a 3 gen from the start against a team who had all their resources (pallets/items/perks/hooks/etc.) Thus, 3 gens were a fallback strategy used if available rather than a primary go to strategy.
This new meta revolves around CoB/OC though, 2 strong regression perks that activate without interacting with survivors and synergize, and unlike ruin, cannot be taken out of play. This enables a hyper defensive style of play that, combined with a 3 gen, allows even killers without a power that is especially good at it to delay a very long time. They can often win despite having given up on other gens early. Killers with powers that are particularly effective at this, like knight and skull merchant, can hold the 3 gen indefinitely against most teams. The winner is usually whoever gives up first because they aren't willing to wait until the 1-hour mark for the match to automatically cancel.
In fact if a killer is committing to a 3 gen early, we've actually come full circle. You're now better off just taking all the other gens on the map because if you still have to get them done after you're done fighting the 3 gen you might actually lose to the attrition at that point. You may as well take the other gens while they're free and THEN fight the battle for the 3 gen because it is inevitable that you are going to have to fight it. Leaving the other gens up isn't providing any value if the killer is treating them like they're completed and abandoning them from the start.
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Hot take: The 3 gen meta isn't fueled by any killer's perk.
It's fueled but Circles of Healing and other boons that allows the survivors to rush the other gens very quickly (maybe after a down or 2 the killer only has 1-2 gen to go)
then what happens is a stalemate because all the 4 remaining survivors have to do is cycle through a deadzone the killer can't afford to pressure and just take turns forever. Dead hard and other mobility exhaustion perks basically guaratee the survivors a fall back plan to their team's designated healing spot and said healing no longer requires a teammate.
the result is obvious, killers have been falling back to these regression perks not by choice but by necessity.
any killer that isn't Nurse or Blight do not have the mobility to pressure the healings provided by the totem and said totem's magic never runs out. It keeps the game in a slow albeit certainly losing curve that the Skull merchant can merely offset at best (Hence the current state of the game).
if Boons were like hexes and could removed from play, I guarantee the story would be different.
unfortunatley, the precedent is that the devs nerf killers again and again and fail to address the source of the issue that is rooted in the survivor's toolkit
soon to come more nerfs to the pig I guess... oh wait this time it's going to be skull merchant.
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If they’re doing nothing, but guarding that 3 gen from the very beginning they can still get heavily punished for it if they don’t go for any other chases or hooks, especially if survivors are equipped properly.
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the knight and the merchant cannot be defeated if they themselves do not want it. You yourself write that on average make 3.5 kills and the ideal balance is set to 2 kills. I myself played as a merchant and indeed the tactics of 3 generators are unbeatable. Given that the developers want to make a drone = survivor ahah guys this will not leave a chance for survivors if she had 3 or 2 drones I would say yes it would change the situation. But with 4, I absolutely don't care if 1-2 of them come back to me later
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It's laughable people defend 3-gens with perks when it's the most boring thing I have ever played against in a video game. It would be hard to differentiate a player playing like this and a bot doing the same. At this point I have no fun doing anything but chase on either side, watching a killer turn around 12 meters from the closest part of their 3 gen is just boring. I mained hag and did the exact same thing when I started playing, but I didn't have these perks to play the game for me.
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The game used to be MUCH harder on killers years ago. But nobody ever needed to camp 3gen from the start. As a matter of fact - if somebody did that - it was same as hitting "I give up" button. Because there was no way to stall the game indefinitely. But there were no strong regression perks that needed to just kick a gen and there were no killer abilities that helped regression even more.
The point is - you are totally wrong. This tactics was never feasible before 6.1 - and that is the only reason why it's being done so much now as never before. I am willing to bet everything that outside of memeing (meaning much less then 5% of all games - no matter which killer), nobody would guard his 3gen from the start of the game should this be a loosing tactics the same way as it worked before the patch. Right now it's rare to see SM that doesn't 3gen from the start.
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The fact is we live in the present.
None of what you wrote invalidate any of my arguments.
This patch actually proved me right.
By nerfing DH and CoH, 3 gen meta went away.
The gen kick builds still works if you wish to play like that... albeit it's less effective due to nerf.
What makes killer able to play other builds now is the absence of a meme perk (DH) that was so strong it had a 35% pick rate. Also to consider the nerf to CoH that breaks the ability of survivors to induce endless stalemates.
For reference, killer's most picked perks had around 11% (lethal pursuer and the CoB/overcharge)
if you think I'm wrong, dream on.
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The CoH nerf is not what killed the 3 gen meta lol.
It was the nerfs to COB and OC, they were the core of that meta and those perks suck now (as it should be)
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3gen is not gone. It just moved to the only killer that is capable of stalling for extended time = skull merchant (and knight to some degree). It's not feasible on other killers, because CoB+OC now suck hard. That is THE ONLY reason why all the other killers stopped 3genning (and also why so many threads say that the patch helped survivors disproportionally more - they can't just hold the game forever)
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I disagree.
right now those perks still work. They are less effective but they still allow to win matches.
The fact that they nerfed DH and CoH is what broke the stalemate.
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Less effective is far from what they are.
They are garbage.
But 3-gen is something I have done before those perks even exist. You don't need them.
It's good if you have killer who is good at holding 3-gen. Basically:
Skull merchant, Knight, Hag, Trapper, Legion.
Of course mobility killers can do it too, but reason they don't do it is because they don't need to.
I am not sure what survivors want tho. When you are running low on gens, best way to win is either tunneling or 3-gen. I am not sure what they hate more...
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The 3 gen developed in popularity in Nov 2022 after a popular Coconuts video, and it developed following the 6.1 Eruption buff. It had nothing right do with DH and COH. It was because slowdown perks at the time created a perfect storm where killers didn't need to chase. There's a reason it was called the kick meta. It's funny that said slowdown perks recieved nerfs that made them no longer effective at holding a 3 gen stalemate, but your conclusion is that two survivor perks that have been in the game for years were responsible
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it didn't originate from DH or CoH... but these were the perks that allowed the survivors to force a stalemate on it.
effectively causing the game to never end even when survivor should have lost long ago.
right now, either side wins in a timeframe that makes sense thanks to the combination of nerfs but imo its mainly the nerf to survivors that fixed it.
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COPIUM
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lol
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