Myers Thematic Buffs - One Last Time
I love Myers, even though he's a weaker killer. He is one of, if not THE best realised thematic killers in DBD, and with his update coming up, and I really don't want to lose that about him. With discussion around him now actually having traction, I thought I'd bring up my rework for Myers (with updates) one last time, that aims to buff all the weak parts of his kit and keep the thematic legend in tact.
TLDR
I'll list my changes in rapid fire, but will explore them in more detail below.
Basekit Changes
- Evil Within Tier 1 opening time increase by 50% (0.2s →0.3s). (Boyfriend Memo basekit).
- Stalk pool for each survivor replenishes at a rate of 1 stalk per minute after 5 seconds of not being stalked.
- Stalk gains a bonus +10% stalk efficiency when stood completely still during stalk. (This translates to tiering up a single time taking 6s→5.45s at 2.5m and 60s→30s at 38.95m, see explanation below).
- Myers base movement speed is increased to 5.0m/s, and is reduced to his current EW tier when less than 32m from any survivor. (Mark with a debuff of his EW Icon when within 32m of a survivor).
- Stun resistance of 25% when in EW3.
- Can break pallets and breakable walls 35% faster by holding the interact button (or the secondary killer power button) for 15% cost of his meter when in EW3 (9s at base).
Add-On changes
- Blonde Hair - (Rework) Reduce the Evil cost for breaking pallets/walls by 2.5%.
- Tacky Earrings - (Buff) Increases movement speed while stalking by 15%.
- Boyfriend's Memo - (Rework) Each successful basic attack in Tier 1 or Tier 2 grants 10% (0.5) stalk progress.
- Hair Brush - (Rework) Increases duration of EW3 by 15s. Remove stalk time penalty. Increases the Evil cost to break a pallet/wall by 5%.
- Jewellery - (Rework) Each successful basic attack in Tier 1 and Tier 2 grants 15% (0.75) stalk progress.
- Hair Bow - (Rework) Reduce the Evil cost for breaking pallets/walls by 5%.
- Lock of Hair - (Rework) 30s extra time on EW3. Remove stalk time penalty. Increases the Evil cost to break a pallet/wall by 10%.
- Tombstone Piece - (Rework) Survivors now replenish stalk at a rate of 2.5 stalk per minute after 5 seconds of not being stalked. Stationary Stalking efficiency bonus increased by an additional 5%.
- Fragrant Tuft of Hair - (Update) Grants unlimited duration on EW3. Increases stalk required to reach EW3 by 200%. Breaking pallets/walls speed in Evil Within Tier 3 is reduced to 15% faster.
Notes
Stalk Speed vs. Stalk Efficiency
The difference between stalk speed and stalk efficiency is that Myers stalk rate drops off over distance linearly from 100% at 2.5m to 10% at 38.95m.
The base stalk speed is 0.8333 Stalk per second. To tier up a single tier is 6s at 2.5m, and 60s at 38.95m. His stalk add-ons (unchanged) change his base stalk speed:
- 0% (0.8333S/s, 6s →60s)
- 11% (0.925S/s, 5.45s → 54.55s)
- 25% (1.042S/s 4.8s → 48s)
- 40% (1.166S/s 4.29s →42.86s)
- 25+40% (1.375S/s 3.64s →36.37s)
The stationary stalk efficiency ability on the other hand changes the drop of over distance by 10%, from 110% at 2.5m to 20% at 38.95m. Using the same models as above, standing still to stalk will grant:
- 0% (0.8333S/s, 5.45s →30s)
- 11% (0.925S/s, 4.96s → 27.27s)
- 25% (1.042S/s 4.36s → 24s)
- 40% (1.166S/s 3.9s →21.43s)
- 25+40% (1.375S/s 3.31s →18.18s)
Hopefully it's clear that standing still to stalk unseen should be rewarded by making it easier to gain a stalk tier.
Movement Speed bonus
The movement speed boost to 5.0m/s when further than 32m from a survivor does 2 things for Myers.
- It helps his map traversal, especially when he's in Tier 1.
- It gives him a pseudo whispers, which mirrors Myers in the films seemingly having an innate sixth sense where his victims are at all times.
This mirrors the films with Myers' uncanny ability to catch up and appear from unexpected places, even though it doesn't seem feasible he should do so. I have seen people suggest making it so he can teleport to capture this feeling, but this is a cheat of his power imo, since canonically he can't do that. Instead this tries to give this feeling to him, but do it organically.
Pallet/Wall Break Cost
His accelerated Pallet/Wall break mirrors the uncanny strength that Myers exhibits in the films, and implementing it this way gives him a tactile usage if he doesn't want to burn the meter. His accelerated break always costs him 15% of his base Evil Within meter.
The duration add-ons add an additional penalty to the pallet break, to make the number of breaks he can do proportional to the duration he is gaining. Bear in mind the additional penalty is calculated off Myers base EW3 time (60s), not his new time.
- 60s base time - 15% penalty = 9 seconds (6.67 breaks)
- 75s Hair Bush - 20% penalty = 12 seconds (6.25 breaks)
- 90s Lock of Hair - 25% penalty = 15 seconds (6 breaks)
- 105s for Both - 30% penalty = 18 seconds (5.83 breaks)
This means the duration add-ons are ever so slightly worse efficiency than he would have at base, but the add-ons to reduce his EW break cost can be used to shore this weakness up exchange for add-on investment.
Conclusion
That's most of my thoughts. I hope the benefits of Tombstone Piece Rework is obvious, and of course I want to keep his Judith Myers Tombstone, since this is the only mechanic I know of that actually has important counterplay around using lockers (and is pretty well balanced).
I hope all of that is clear! I think this reworks lands on the spirit of Myers, and fits him well in the lore… we get: -
- Him standing still to stalk more efficiently, also from more distance... very on brand for Myers.
- A limited ability to sense what is around him, mirroring the sixth sense he has in the films to find him victims.
- Spoopy Myers is less useless.
- His tier 3 feels more potent and he himself is scarier when in that mode. The stun resistance and faster break speed achieves that unstoppable and relentless killer he should have always been.
Let me know what you think!
Comments
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I want this...
Kinda all of it, that's rare.
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Cheers friend!
I'm also surprised you haven't got a tweak for me. That feels like a first... 🤣🤣🤣
I've nabbed a few of these ideas from discussions I've had with others, but I've listened to every rework suggestion for Mikey intently to really grasp what people want from him, then tried to address it in a thematically satisfying way.
I think the part I'm most happy with, is every change here has you play even more like Myers than he already is... I was very worried about any change that alters his behaviour too much... despite being weaker, Myers is still regularly played, because hes fun... so I wanted to avoid anything radical like a teleport , or trying to balance needing more stalk for a tier 4. The stationary stalk bonus and movement speed bonus w/ the sixth sense are my favourites.
Watching from afar then quickly disappearing from view is so perfect for him, and the faster movement will make it more likely to only catch a glimpse of him in the distance. Then there is no hiding, he's crashing through walls to get to you 😁
I was considering changes to the mirror shards, but I didn't have any good ideas for those so I left them as is.
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I was considering changes to the mirror shards, but I didn't have any good ideas for those so I left them as is.
I was thinking it would be funny just put scratch mirror basekit. (Stop working at tier II)
On open maps you simply use it to find survivor to stalk quickly, but on indoor maps you would have option to try stay at tier 1 and play sneaky.
But I am not sure that playstyle is popular enough... (Survivors usually don't like it, at least in my games)
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Hehehehe, that doesn't actually sound that crazy to be fair, can you imagine Tacky Earrings and Jewellery Box on that? 45% movement speed while stalking… that's disgusting…
I actually tried playing Vanity Mirror Myers with Jewellery Box a little ways back with M&A, Friends 'Til The End, Make Your Choice, and Deadlock… It was actually kinda gross… Since the passive stalking is only 2.76m/s (or something) rather than the active stalking 0.92m/s, the 30% movement speed on Jewellery box is actually around 4m/s or so… You can walk almost as fast as a survivor, and you have perfect wallhacks to win mind games with…
I am being lazy and not looking up anything or doing the maths… but 45% on Tier 1 Myers would be plain nasty… he'd actually be probably viable as perma T1 Myers xD
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I agree with everything you said I like the explanations behind the changes.
You get rewarded for being undetected or strategizing. Also, there is less time wasted using your power. I would have given Myers basekit Blight Serum, but that's just me.
However, he still has some weaknesses. He still has trouble reaching Evil Within 2 when the survivors know your location. You cannot sometimes afford to switch targets even with the movement speed increase.
My proposal to this problem:
- Make it easier to reach Evil Within 2:
Reward Myers getting close to the survivor undetected, m1'ing a survivor in Evil Within 1 fills half a bar and make his Base Movement Speed in Evil Within 1 110%.
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It was bothering me so, I did the Maths. Your movement speed in as Vanity Mirror/Jewellery Box Myers is 3.96m/s when stalking through walls. So yeah almost as fast as a survivor.
Myers passive stalking with both tacky Earrings and Jewllery Box
Oh… he comes out at 4.56m/s…. Tier 1 Mikey becomes almost a normal m1 killer while passive stalking… That's funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Basekit Scratch Mirror might be kinda busted xD
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Hmmm… could roll that into basekit. I did rework the Boyfriend Memo and Jewellery add-ons to have that kind of flavour, gaining stalk while landing m1s. If you use both add-ons its 1.25 stalk per auto (1/4 of your stalk bar). I didn't want to go too hard because I got the feeling you could quite easily shaft yourself with these add-on too by popping Tier3 earlier than you want.
I believe with the stationary stalk, the tier up from Tier 1 should be a lot easier. If you can get close enough to m1, you can stand still and stalk very fast if there isn't a nearby line of sight blocker.
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I overlooked the add-ons. The problem is when a survivor reacts to you or spots you. You cannot get value out of the buff when standing still. You are easy to detect when you are in a close distance. You need a backup (m1'ing a survivor). Attentive or experienced survivors will not let you stalk them when detected.
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Wouldn't be that much difficult to balance imo... Definitely sounds fun to me
Also you wouldn't be able to follow survivor stalking, because you wouldn't be able to use it with LoS on them. Otherwise you get into tier II
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To be fair, it's already something you can do without the Scratch Mirror effect, just the notion of stalking at 4.56m/s with basekit Scratch Mirror amused me...
Man just zooms around a corner then says "ah... you can see me now... I'll slow down a bit". It amused me greatly xD
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ah... you can see me now... I'll slow down a bit
So Myers would have social anxiety, that seems right.
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