Who is the add-on Gold Standard?
There are A LOT of add-ons in DBD, and what makes them tough to assess is the fact they are so closely tied to a killers power. As such deciding what add-ons should be is highly contextual to the killer.
After listening and watching a number of discussions on this, I'd say that labelling a killer with good add-ons should meet good scores for the following categories.
- Basekit - The killer power itself is reasonably well defined/balanced at base kit, preferably easy to learn and hard to master.
- Variety - The add-ons provide a variety of different effects that accommodate/fasciliate creation of a number of different playstyles in line, add-ons ranging from lightly buff basekit, to radically change playstyle.
- Logical - Each add-ons relative strength should make sense given the rarity tier of each add-on, with brown/yellow generally being minor/standard effects, green/purple being strong/altering effects, and iri being drastic effects.
- Viability - All add-ons should be somewhat viable for their respective purposes, with no add-on being the clear best/default choice for majority of players (factoring their availability from the bloodweb).
- Synergy - A reasonable number of add-ons should provide interesting build options when combined with each other or perks within the game.
With these categories in mind, who you got for your gold standard of Killer add-ons and why?
Comments
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I'd probably peg Wraith as the gold standard for addon design, with all those criteria in mind.
The one area he scores fairly low in is Variety, since he does have a fair few repeated types of addons that only scale with rarity, but he scores high everywhere else. Basekit is consistent and easy to understand, the addons all follow one another logically, they're almost all genuinely viable, and they have decent opportunities for synergies within full builds.
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I disagree that only iri should radically change playstyle. If it only gives a powerful effect, sure. However, something like Prayer Tablet on Plague is fine for a brown. It is a major change to playstyle as it adds a powerful ability, but also has a significant nerf as well. Some killers I only really enjoy with a significant change to how they play from an addon, and having to dump a million bp into a killer just to fish for a couple of addons to play it how you like sucks.
Again, if it changes the play style by just a big ability buff sure, but if it also nerfs the killer hard in other areas, no it should be a more easily obtained item.
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It's kinda why I asked really, Spirit for example has quite a few greens that give her an interesting set of gameplay changes.
The Pig gets quite a few substantial changes in her browns.
However I have kinda pushed things in that direction in my post, I'll edit that now 😁
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I
I agree with Wraith having the best overall add-on selection. Outside of a couple meme add-ons, they are all useful and don't unduly punish the killer with a downside for using like many other killer add-ons do.
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Wraith
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I'd say doctor is the gold standard.
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i'd say wesker. strong power, not op or completely worthless add ons maybe except iri vial (wouldn't call it op myself but still), offering a wide range of variety and opportunities to different playstyles.
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Wesker (from my experience atleast)
aside from like 3 addons
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Currently its Hag by a long shot even if she herself is borderline F tier now. She has always had probably the best add ons in the entire game with no real standouts besides mint rag rusty shackles but even then they dont make her like SUPER OP SHE CAN NEVER BE BEATEN they just make her much stronger which is normal for an ultra rare + very rare add on combo.
I also think old Skull Merchant fit this well as well. Current Skull Merchant only has a few good add ons but old one had so many good ones that could change how she plays in all sorts of ways.
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You’re heavily underrating Hag. She is a monster at downing. If you set her up right she’s unstoppable and she’s the greatest camper ever
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Not since her nerf where survivors can effortlessly wipe her traps off the ground. Any half decent team will just obliterate any set up she has within seconds
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range feels like an obligation on her otherwise you cannot play her outside of 3 genning.
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Myers and hag
For their creativity
Hag jumps care addons that hide the trigger notification
Or allows tp cross map on command or deny tp but traps body block
When the addons were special and not 1extra hatchet or + 5,8,12% uncloak speed
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Hag is gabage. Only good against solos leaving Hag alone. SWFs just have a trap destroyer and game is over since gens fly.
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Blight
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I was more talking about pre nerf Hag
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Wraith is pretty good in that regard. He has some useful addons in all rarities with lots of potential for synergy and no single addon that is completely pointless.
Doctor isn't bad either but some of his addons are a bit overly complex. He also suffers the same issue as Wraith that he has the same addons over and over again in different rarities. And sometimes the brown is pretty much just as good as the green, because you're more focused on the secondary effect anyway. Or at least that was the case until WoO countered the Order addons (Cheep move, devs.) and not the other way around.
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Wraith & Blight. I just don't think other killers have many decent add-ons like them.
Silent bell, Shadow Dance, Windstorm, Swift Hunt, All-Seeing, even sloppy add-on are all useful.
Iri Tag, C33, Alc Ring, Blighted Crow/Rat, Ad Vial. Personally his fatigue decrease add-ons are also good.
People can say Hag or Doctor got well-balanced add-on pools but I don't think they outnumber those.
If I can include old killers add-ons, I would include Billy, Nurse, Spirit and Freddy's original ones.
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Wraith and Wesker have the best designed add ons.
Most of them have some use, none of them are overpowered, a lot of variety which allows the killer multiple play styles while at the same time none of them greatly affect the counter play to them so survivors don’t have to re-learn the timing for each add on. Neither of them feel add on dependant either so you can run whatever you want.
Legion and Doctor’s are pretty good too but they feel much more dependant on certain add ons so I don’t think they are up there with Wraith and Wesker.
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Quite interesting to see Blight dropped in a couple times @lav3 @HugTechLover.
Wouldn't want this to become a(nother) Blight debate thread, but I find Blight a curious choice. Most talking points about him seems to put a few stand out add-ons ahead of others and overtune his power, namely c33 and alc ring are the ones I see mentioned most often.
At my level I've not really played against strong Blights getting noticeable value over what they'd have achieved anyway against a scrub like myself. I can only guess at their strength based on theorising their potential and what other players say.
Would you guys agree Blight has problematic add-ons and you're more voting for their design and interesting effects? Or do you think they're fine?
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Dredge has maybe 2 or 3 underwhelming add-ons, i'd say atleast half of them are game-changing in how valuable they can be without being overwhelmingly powerful. The only few that stand out as notably underwhelming are mortar and pestle, wooden plank and war helmet, maybe air freshener.
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Dredge
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Can't agree more, we need more Prayer Tablet type brown add-ons, its a real game changer that really changes the playstyle and build a lot while still being actually viable. When paired with perks that punish survivors for staying injured you can really put them in a tricky spot, either heal and stay away from generators for a long while or risk Plague snowballing with perks like Blood Echo, Alien Instinct or Hysteria.
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wraith and dredge
honorable mentions to doctor, trapper, blight, plauge and probably others.
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I'd say plague because all of her addons can be useful in some way.
Although overall I cant say there's a killer with flawlessly designed addon. Everyone has some issues. Xeno, for example, has atrocious molted skin and brett's cap + his iris really leave much to be desired.
Singularity has overall nice addons if not for Soma's photo which shouldn't exist as an addon because it affects the killer way too much. It's literally must-have to run, that's how good it is. Same goes for Chucky's jump rope addon or +4% scamper addon.
Unironically, Pyramid Head. His addons suck and are boring, but you literally do not have to run any of them to get good performance because they all affect unimportant aspects of his kit. I wish they had more interesting and transformative effects, but it's really good that even range addons are not that important so the killer doesn't depend on addons at all. That's a very important quality.
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This is kinda what I wanted to gauge... because while the add-ons are kinda boring, Pyramid Head himself is a pretty balanced killer who people enjoy facing, and in the regard, none of the add-ons do anything to change that...
There is this sort of tug of war where you have build variety on one side, and balance on the other. Ideally you get both, but ofc across 33 different killer powers that is kinda unreasonable to expect.
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