Knight Changes

Xioxwolf

Howdy! I was told to post here since it's been said that the team actually reads these posts. There's a few general issues with the new Knight add-on changes, as well as a couple of suggested changes for live addons. I play a lot of Knight and pretty well at that, but by far my main issue is the lack of variety in his builds. In terms of general balance he's in a pretty good spot. If you find any of the changes listed below to be a bit too much, you can always nerf his base-kit a little. Whether it be the speed boost, or the summoning path length, or even the default patrol speed.

PTB Changes

1. Pillaged Mead did not need a nerf, but a buff. One of the main advantages of sending a guard to break a gen is that it guarantees the survivors cannot work on it for 6 seconds. This gives you time to catch up and push them off the gen before they can finish. With pillaged mead, you're essentially nerfing yourself - because with the extra speed of breaking the gens there's less time that the survivors are blocked from working on the gen. You would need to make the tradeoff of speed to be equivalent or greater than the value of stalling generator progress in order for Pillaged Mead to be a genuinely useful addon. In case you're wondering, it doesn't matter how fast they break pallets since they can't be vaulted over when the order goes out - meaning the survivor has to leave the tile whether its 6 seconds, 10 seconds, or 2 seconds. Proposed change is 25<30-35%. If this breaks Carnifex, having the addon not affect him makes practically no difference.
2. Tattered Tabard is a strange one. The main issue with it is that while the patrol time has the potential to be useful, it also increases the time in which you will not get your guards back. This isn't a terrible tradeoff per se, however it reinforces a very camp-heavy playstyle that most players would agree is quite unfun and borderline unhealthy for the game. Ideally the addon should do something else entirely, but this is an addon with room to agree to disagree. Proposed change: "Increases guard path travel speed while summoning by [x]%"
3. Town Watch Torch. Listen I get what you were going for on this one and on paper this addon doesn't sound too bad. Except for the fact that the Knight has the loudest, most noticeable footsteps in the game. It's practically a lullaby. There is no such thing as undetectable when survivors can hear you "KACHUNK KACHUNK KACHUNK" from 20m away. Proposed change is to increase the guard hunt time and/or chase speed instead (with the same trigger conditions). These values do not have to be any larger than horsemeat, since the potential combination of the two brings its own unique interaction to the table.

Live Addon Changes

1. Please make Map of the Realm base-kit. Survivors can outrun the circle without it. Against decent survivors you do not have a power without it. It's beyond a "feel good addon", not having Map of the Realm equipped makes the Knight's guards nigh incapable of starting a chase. I cannot stress enough that the Knight is almost unplayable without this addon. Proposed change is to have it increase the summoning path length instead.
2. Gritty Lump has no problems that I can think of conceptually. It just needs some number tweaking since its effects are unimpactful in its current form. I can't give a value to change it to, since the balance is really dependent on dev testing. To throw out "15%" has no basis because that can turn out to be overkill.
3. Ironworker's Tongs are again pointless because of Knight's extremely loud footsteps. Trust me I love the idea of having stealth addons. DBD can be too much of a competitive game at times, and having that stealth element brings that feeling of horror and paranoia back to the survivors. They just don't work on Knight. He's essentially a jackhammer covered in mirrors. Proposed change could be a small debuff to gen repair/healing speed for a set amount of time. It's a green addon so the values shouldn't be very high, just enough to make it a considerable addition to a build. ~5-10% should be alright.
4. Blacksmith's Hammer should be mostly fine if Map of the Realm is made base-kit. However I would start the exhaustion at the start of the hunt but for a significantly less amount of time. 5 seconds should be enough, as 5 seconds of walking or standing still mid-hunt allows plenty of time for guards to get dangerously close. Hindered after escape is completely fine, maybe bump the value up to 5% - it's not too necessary but it would make Blacksmith's Hammer worthy of being a Very Rare addon.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you genuinely consider these changes.