First thoughts on Dev Update
Well, some....interesting changes.
While obviously disappointed that there's no mention of the 3-gen system despite ample feedback from people and videos showing why it shouldn't be active the whole trial (I'm still keeping a foolish hope it'll happen sometime soon that the Anti-3-gen system actually only activates when there's only 1 gen left), some of the changes were interesting.
It's always nice to see weaker Killers getting some attention, Billy got some love and now Doctor and Demogorgon are getting some QoL changes, nothing major but it'll make their ability a tad easier to use in chases.
The Hag changes....those were unexpected...and in a very odd direction.
Hag is already a Killer that has a....let's call it "tendency" to trap every inches of terrain around a hooked Survivor to be able to essentially camp from afar (it's weird that she has NO anti-camp built-in her power like other Killers like Dredge and Singularity) since Survivors need to spend precious time wiping traps away and she has ample time already to come back or simply teleport back.
Boosting teleport range/setting speed AND time window to teleport back is essentially just boosting her already powerful camping ability. Those buffs wouldn't be a problem at all, in fact they would be welcome, if she couldn't put traps around hooked Survivors. Wiping traps in chase was already effectively impossible and making the process longer just makes reaching hooked Survivors longer and riskier rather than really change much about her true power.
The buff themselves are nice but she needs some kind of anti-camp similar to Singularity and Dredge. If she did get some kind of anti-camp then the buffs would be welcome, it would be nice to see a few more Hags (although the current gen system doesn't exactly help Killer variety since preventing gens from being done during the whole trial or even using gens for auras or stealth isn't exactly a reliable option anymore).
THE PIG, the beaten-down elephant in the room. Nerfed directly, or indirectly (like she just was when STBFL got nerfed since she was one of the most common users of the perk) several times and now receiving a long-awaited apparently positive change.
The Ambush and Crouch speed are nice, those will likely give her reason to equip different add-ons (or just use the same add-ons from before even though they were weakened in order to achieve a better result).
The RBT nerf/change.... That's a whole lot to see.
It's pretty obvious why the RBT timer was increased and Pig lost the ability to see boxes: Many Pig players would put a trap on someone and then, when they were unhooked, would follow them around crouched and would constantly (either through screams or directly) interrupt their searches of boxes until they died. It was a very common complaint and despite not being optimal (a SWF could easily simply relay the Pig's plan and the other 3 could do gens in relative safety) it was effectively guaranteeing a kill in a very boring way for all parties involved. Those nerfs make this strategy even less optimal since if the Pig loses sight of the unhooked they will be hard-pressed to simply find the nearest box for a chance to find the unhooked and the more generous timer will alleviate some of the slowdown (why stop doing gens if the trapped teammate has more time?) and make tunnelling in that way very difficult
Only time will tell if those changes are more nerfs than buffs, but her slowdown definitely took a hit and this will push Pig players into a much more aggressive playstyle due to slowdown across the board suddenly being weaker (limited gen-regression and more generous RBT timer).
The Clown...those changes are good! The change in the dizzying effect of the Tonic will help those who found the effect nauseating. The rather surprising 2 extra bottles will be quite deadly when used with Redhead's Pinky Finger as it is two more attempts at an insta-down.
The Blight's add-on buff...I don't exactly know why but I guess 2 rushes did put a hard limit on his mobility and chase power, I guess it also makes both of his Iri add-ons compatible together now.
The Huntress buffs. I honestly have no idea why she's getting so many buffs, she recently got a basekit increase to her reload speed and she is already among the most picked Killers with an incredibly high skill ceiling making her a very powerful Killers in the right hands, Her only weakness being map-dependent.
BHVR often gets accused of choosing their balance changes almost solely off of Excel spreadsheet and stats instead of experience and feedback but I know it's not true, otherwise Windows of Opportunity would have been nerfed into uselessness a long time ago and Huntress wouldn't be getting such sizeable buffs to her base kit. While I'm not complaining per-say (those changes will make her much easier to use for newcomers and controller players) those changes might be a bit much, she is already a very popular and powerful Killer that has one of the highest potential.
The Mangled (and Sloppy Butcher by proxy) nerf....WHY!?!?
This change essentially changes nothing for inexperienced Survivors and makes life much easier for veterans. Newcomers/average Survivors will still heal through the Mangled effect out of fear of getting downed in one hit since they can't be expected to stay up for very long if they can only take one hit, giving the slowdown that the perk already gave before the update. However veteran players, who already weren't in a hurry to heal and would sometimes purposefully stay injured to take advantage of certain perks, now can simply heal normally after waiting out a timer that they can afford to wait out, removing any kind of slowdown the perk would offer. In fact at a higher level this will essentially be an advantage for the Survivors since they will be able to heal quickly after taking full advantage of their perk as opposed to having to deal with the healing penalty eventually.
This is also yet another indirect hit to weaker/M1 Killers that were common users of Sloppy Butcher (one of the most accessible general and free perk) that now have to be in a hurry to get full value out of it and hope the Survivors they are going against can't hold their own for long in chase or aren't using perks that work off of being injured like Resilience since the perk's effect will only be a temporary annoyance.
This is yet another perk that the powerhouses didn't really use due to almost all of their attacks being Special Attacks that gets a harsh nerf which will only encourage those Killers to compensate for the lost time by other means. Weaker Killers don't need to have more cases of "tunnel vision" than they already have, it's been so much worse since 7.5.0...
Thanks for the Bloodweb change! it will be much faster to prestige new characters.
I'm not sure if I'll start another thread after experiencing the PTB or edit this one but this will surely get a few modifications and hopefully the PTB will yield some good new changes after. Here's to hoping the 3-gen system becomes an actual Anti-3-gen system and the right adjustments are made!