My thoughts on the coming Mid-Chapter. The good, the bad and the Billy.
This is undoubtedly a mid-chapter update to remember. There are a lot of changes for both survivors and killers and it's hard to say how exactly this will impact the game overall. There are some changes I think are very good, others that I'm not too happy about and then there is Billy.
The good:
- A lot of perks are being looked at. CoB, Overcharge and Pain Res will disappear from the meta. All of these perks were hated by large portion of survivor players, so overall this is a good change. Also, this means that 3-genning won't be as much of an issue anymore. DH gets another nerf as well. This was a long time coming and no matter how everyone feels about that perk, it was hated like no other and there are a lot of alternatives. CoH no longer grants unlimited self-heals. This is good and exactly what many people have asked for since its release.
- The self-healing nerfs. Very good change and definitely something that will help a few weaker killers out (sadly, Nurse, Blight and Spirit will also profit from this). It will sting for a while but looking back a year ago spam healing wasn't exactly normal and survivors still managed to do ok (better than ok, arguably).
- Map changes. It seems like the devs listened to the complaints here and are working on fixing these issues. I cannot say for sure how this will turn out but I think this is overall a good sign.
- Killers get individual changes again. This is exactly what many killers need. Some number tweaks to their powers and addons. I'm happy that BHVR are continuing to look at different killers again.
- The Bloodweb changes. BHVR - Thank you! This is exactly the kind of QoL improvements we all wanted. I think there is not a single person unhappy about this. Good work.
The bad:
- Sadly with the nerfs to regression perks, Jolt will probably be the number 1 slowdown perk. Jolt has never been an issue but it will probably get nerfed as its pick rate will rise to new heights. That also means that a perk that a year ago was considered as ok to a bit weak will be the strongest left. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
- Altruistic healing is getting nerfed along with self-healing. Honestly, I think this is too much. I've never had an issue with altruistic healing speeds and nerfing that will as others have already figured strengthen camping. I hope for some changes in that regard. Along with a buff to Self-Care because with a base duration of 24 seconds healing with this perk takes way too long to be considered viable in any way.
The Billy:
- This one I can't understand. First, starting the chainsaw will now overheat it considerably slower than before. That is a somewhat good thing, although it goes against their original goal with the overheat mechanic, which was to nerf chainsaw camping. As BHVR stated this will make the overheat almost a non-factor in loops, which is more than welcome in my opinion. However, instead an active chainsaw sprint will now cause the chainsaw to overheat quicker. This limits the Hillbilly's map mobility (which incentivises camping again). I don't like that. This is a nerf to Driftking Billy and I'm not sure why that would be necessary in the first place. Any nerfs to him (at least right now) are a bad idea in my opinion as that gives even less of an incentive to play him than now.
- The Engravings are getting nerfed. This is the point that I find most outrageous as it shows that BHVR are not thinking about why some addons are used more than others, or why a killer performs so much better with these specific addons. Firstly, they'll tone down the extra speed. This hurts his most fun play style (curve / flick Billy). Without Engravings Billy is so slow that survivors can react in the last possible seconds to his curves. This leaves Billy with no 'right' plays to make as long as the survivor doesn't mess up. With Engravings a survivor will need to mindgame /predict the Hillbilly's curves and actually think about to play around that. This adds higher stakes for both sides because the Billy has a harder time curving correctly and the suvivor will need go down if they can't play against him correctly.
- Second, along with the nerfed speed, the Engravings will cause the Hillbilly to overheat quicker. This was originally removed in patch 5.3.0, which was considered a huge QoL improvement for Billy. Even with the base changes to his overheat this is still a bad idea. Billy is already in desperate need of some QoL updates. This is the opposite of that. These changes are completely unjustified. Think about it. The Hillbilly gets a nerf while the Blight stays as he is. After everything this killer has been through I was so happy when I saw that he would get some changes. Then I read further and my happiness gave way to utter disbelief. Once again, I beg the devs to reconsider this. Every new map and every new tile make this killer worse to play and nerfing his 2 best addons on top of that is just adds insult to injury.
Anyway what are your opinions on the coming mid-chapter. Note: This is not an "us vs. them" discussion. Both sides will lose something significant but this is at least partially necessary.
Comments
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I think they continue to move further and further away from what makes this game fun which is being able to hold power over powerful beings trying to kill you and a hag match will never be fun again because i cant flash her traps away mid chase. RIP.
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They have been moving further and further away from what makes this game fun for a while. All because of power creep. Each side has been getting more and more efficient tools with which to complete their objectives, which reduces the number of viable counters the other side has.
The main dichotomy is healing vs gen regression. These are two sides of the same coin, as they're both rolling back your opponents partial progress.
The more effective healing is, the less effective pressuring survivors are, the less effective chases are, the more relative effectiveness of camping and tunnelling. For example, Circle of Healing single-handedly deleted hit-and-run playstyles, and turned Inner Strength from an A-tier healing perk into an F-tier healing perk through relative power creep. This forces killers to bypass the opportunity to heal by tunnelling, or even camping, as this doesn't give survivors the chance to heal.
The more effective gen regression is, the less effective it is to not focus on the main objective entirely, and the more effective it becomes to gen rush. Killers have been getting more and more efficient gen regression tools, like trading Pop for Eruption or Call of Brine, which were much easier to use for greater effect. This forces survivors to rush gens, because if they leave a partially completed gen, all of their progress could be lost.
Both of these need to be nerfed, to bring the relative power levels of each side and their most effective meta tools down closer to the base level. Because if running CoH is so much more effective than not running CoH, it becomes necessary, and inversely, tunnelling becomes necessary, and if you don't bring CoH, you get obliterated when the killer tunnels. If running CoB is so much more effective than not running CoB, it becomes necessary, and inversely, gen rushing becomes necessary, and if you don't bring CoB, you get obliterated by gen rushing.
These changes ARE taking us back to a more balanced playing field, that's more similar to what the game was before everything got out of control. With less efficient healing, chasing and pressuring survivors directly becomes more worthwhile for killers, and with less efficient gen regression, the urgency with which to complete a gen before a killer can interrupt you is decreased. Killers won't need to tunnel because the injured survivor is still working in your favour, and survivors don't need to gen rush, because the partially completed gen isn't a lost cause.
All that said, I mostly agree with the OP. These changes are all good in principle, but the healing nerfs, particularly Altruistic, may be a bit too much, as these have a compound effect, particularly with perks like Sloppy, Coulrophobia, and Self Care. 20 second base heals would probably be more balanced, with slight nerfs to Sloppy and Coulrophobia. Jolt is my favourite regression perk, so no complaints there, but slight trepidation it could be next on the nerf block, which might not be terrible, but would affect me more than the current nerfs. And the Billy changes defy all logic.
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Agreed. You said it better than I ever could. Although, I'm not yet sure how the new balance will look like. I expect at least some extremes that will need to be dealt with.
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I think they will walk back some of the altruistic healing. It doesn’t even benefit killers that much if they keep it bad, since survivors will just not heal or group at all and play in the most boring efficient way, spread out on gens, hold W when chased, etc. which is the opposite effect I think they want. At least COH is still useful in this potential meta
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For new Billy players it's maaaaybe a buff? Like learning him will be slightly less punishing but even as a new player I can't see people overheating that often from just revving even nowadays.
For good Billy players it's definitely a nerf and I don't know why they're doing it because almost everyone agrees Billy is in a rough spot and needs buffs more than anything.
DH and CoH needed nerfs and while the DH nerf is.. decent, maybe slightly overkill, the CoH nerf means it'll almost never be used. Getting rid of the self-heal should have meant it be buffed back up to +100% altruistic heal speed. No point wasting time finding a totem and booning it -just- for 50% faster speed healing others, even with the admittedly pretty nifty aura buff.
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Altruistic healing shouldn't be taking that long IMO. If it takes 2 or 3 survivors to heal, that means they are not doing gens and giving the killer more time.
Medkits needed to be nerfed, I agree.
But at this point they should've just removed perks like boon COH or self-care because they are completely USELESS and go back to the old "meta" that existed before the whole Boon apocalypse.
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