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Killer Area Denial: Too much or not enough
TLDR at the bottom.
So, anyone who's played as killer in dbd for more than 10 hours will probably notice a... discrepancy in certain playstyles. This isn't to say that there aren't a good amount of varied killers to play. Rather, certain playstyles seem to.... miss the mark. I'll stop beating around the bush. While there are killers that specialize in locking down areas, they come in only two varieties. 1: Cool power, bro and 2: Why can't I play? Spoiler- Neither of which are good.
1: this variant is an example of weakness in some aspect. Take trapper, He can straight up injure you and stop you from doing ANYTHING.... For a few seconds and only if you step on a specific spot. Needless to say, this isn't area denial so much as a 'hey, don't go this way' in loops. Useful? Sometimes. Powerful? not by a long shot. Killers with weak area denial functionally only have a power some of the time, and considering how notoriously bad many m1 killers are considered- that's a big problem for killers that fall into this category of area denial. Especially since a part of why they fall into this category is... even when you do successfully use this power, it's not guaranteed to get you results. For example: Just because a survivor steps in trapper's traps, doesn't mean he will be fast enough or close enough to actually do anything about it. Having the power be impactful, even if not necessarily helping you win directly, would go a long way in beefing up otherwise weak killers.
2: The, admittedly more common, variant is it's own type of problem. Using hag and skull merchant as examples reveals how they get this way. Functionally, killers in this category have control in key areas that makes them near impossible to properly avoid when set up. Hag can make unhooks far more dangerous without even being there by virtue of a single trap letting her instantly get there to stop your rescue. Skull merchant (before the ptb and rework) made it impossible to stay at gens longer than a few moments without risking your life. Simply put: They control gens, hooks, or the gates- making the survivor's job of escape a near impossibility.
So, we've got the problem. Where's the solution? Well I think it's rather simple. a middle ground needs to be reached. Killers should definitely have a chokehold on areas they've laid claim to, they just shouldn't be able to have those areas be hooks or generators. After all, anyone can scare a survivor off of a gen- it's a matter of catching them afterwards that's the real goal. This leaves us with a very specific kind of killer power. One that can lockdown, or at least alter, an area putting that spot to be in their favor. Imagine: a skull merchant who COULDN'T camp gens with her drones, but said drones were more powerful in compensation. (I know this was attempted in the most recent ptb, but her power isn't strong enough to compensate when you can basically just walk away or hide from it) All you would have to do is scare a survivor into a loop or space you pre-trapped, and voila. Area denial without being OP. Sure, survivors could AVOID those areas. But that's just why you have to pick where you use your power carefully.
TLDR: killers are either not allowed to have proper control of an area, making them a nonthreat, or they have control over areas survivors need to access to have a chance at winning- making them unfair and unfun to go against. Making weaker 'area denial' powers stronger, and preventing such powers from being usable (at least in the same capacity) near gens or hooks, would go a long way in closing the gap between these two types of area denial killers.
Thank you for your time reading this!