2v8 Feedback
Dear 2v8 devs,
I love 2v8, I way prefer playing it over 1v4. First iteration of 2v8 actually brought me back to DBD from a months long break. Since the first iteration went away I've only played Lights Out and the Halloween event in 1v4, both only long enough to earn the cosmetics. This iteration of 2v8, while I don't think it's as good as the first, I am playing a bunch and when it goes away I will go back on my DBD break. I've played both sides solo although I definitely play the survivor side much more than the killer side. I loved the first iteration and how basic and chaotic it was. This iteration feels much more sweaty and less chaotic than the first iteration which is a bummer. I think it's a combination of the catch up mechanic, more mobility killers, and some of the abilities for survivors.
I've tried out all of the survivor classes but I tend to stick with the Escapist class. I'm mostly using my speed boost to go rescue teammates across the map more than I am in a chase. It feels like between already not knowing if someone is going for a save mixed with the catch up mechanic people are now sticking to gens more than they had in the first iteration - very much a gens before friends. I'm noticing people being left in cages much more than they were in the first iteration. I think (hope) that in the next iteration you would consider adding a basekit Kindred (minus killer auras), this would hopefully help a little with people not being left in cages.
The Escapist ability is pretty lack luster. As nice as the silent rushed actions can be I'm rarely using it. The aura read for getting into a chase with a killer pops up pretty often since one loop around a wall I'm out of chase only to have my aura read 2 seconds later and the mobility killer teammate heads over to help out. The ability would be much better if for 8-10 seconds it blocked the survivors aura/scratchmarks - increase the cooldown from 30 to 60 seconds.
Medic ability is great, makes sense it has a 2 minute cooldown. I would change it though to require that the medic is being healed/healing for the ability to work and for it to only apply to the 3 involved in the group heal (2 healing, one being healed). While I haven't experienced it in my solo matches I have seen the main complaint for the medic ability is that survivors can coordinate to heal a large group of survivors with just the touch of a button, sometimes just running by the injured survivors. While it requires coordination that is still a really strong ability. Requiring players to be involved in the heal animation (either being healed or healing) and limiting it to the 3 involved in the group heal, while still strong, it requires more risk/coordination if the survivors try to instant heal in a killers face.
Guide also has a good useful ability. I haven't seen any instagen exploits like others have or atleast have made YouTube videos for. As far as I know to exploit it like you see in YouTube videos you really have to coordinate and more often than not it takes throwing the match. When a group can pull it off I can see why killers hate it and I think it contributes alot to this iteration being more sweaty than the last. Even if the majority of the time people are not able to coordinate and get that "instant gen" it doesn't matter, if it COULD happen that's the only reason a killer player needs to play more sweaty. I think for Guide make the ability only apply to non-Guides and for the unlockable skill have the Guide gain 5% repair boost for each non-Guide within 8 meters - this would nerf the ability but not make it useless. I do think showing survivors aura when grouped up on a gen was a good choice to counter this survivor class. As much as I hate the killer knowing which gen I am on with someone this does help with a major complaint about the amount of gens and survivors grouping up.
Scout ability I have no complaints, I just think there should be a trouble maker class that has Blastmine, Flashbang, Chem trap, and Head On that has the pallet rebuild/reset ability instead. Create that class and Scout can instead have Wire Tap ability.
There definitely needs to be more survivor classes, not only for variety on survivor side but also something to make the survivor side more appealing to play - that BP bonus just isn't cutting it. I've already mentioned the trouble maker class I think should be added. A boon class to make use of the totems around the map, it can have the ability to see totem auras and rebuild broken totems. A class that has smoke bombs, Diversion, Deception, and Red Herring with the ability to use Mirrored Illusion. These 3 would give survivors more killer interaction opportunities while also giving them something a little different to do that isn't just gens and healing.
For the killer I only played Trapper (he's my favorite) and switched between Fearmonger and Enforcer. I played probably around 10 matches before switching back to survivor for the quick queues. My random teammates were Deathslinger, Wraith, Blight, and Huntress - I wasn't matched with any Nurses, Billys, or Spirits. In my matches they were all 4k-8k, only exception was when I was paired with a killer that chose to be AFK for most of the match.
I really liked Fearmonger on Trapper, the 5% haste when unseen is nice at the start of the match when I'm placing traps. People stepping in traps was great for putting survivors in the injured state while I was further than 16 meters away from my teammate.
Enforcer was also good for Trapper thanks to the 3% haste while chasing an injured survivor - really any Haste boost is nice on Trapper.
While playing as survivor I did get jump scared quite a few times at beginning of match from killers using Shadow. It seems to be the best on Deathslinger. I haven't seen many use Brute, usually if they do they seem like they are a well coordinated killer team.
I do have concerns with killer classes eventually having issues similar to 1v4 perks where a perk will be broken on certain killers but weak on others so there's no good way to fix it. Right now there are only 4 classes and they are only taking into account 8 killers, it's easy to avoid having a class that is broken on a single killer. I am worried that if more killers are added at a time (or more classes) we will start running into the issue where we have broken class/killer combinations. Personally I would like 2v8 to have a rotation of killers rather than just adding more each time. Keep it at 8 killer options, 3 original (Trapper, Wraith, Billy) and rotate the other 5 in/out. This not only will keep 2v8 fresh but will help to avoid the issue of broken combos.
Playing against 2 high mobility killers does make the game feel much more sweaty, especially when one is playing Billy who has his instadown back. I do think since killers can quickly 2 tap survivors that single killer instadown abilities should not be available. I know it may not be as fun for Billys to not instadown but he is still a high mobility killer that can zoom across the map. Depending on how killers/classes are added there may need to be a way to not only prevent the same 2 classes from being used but also limit killers using 2 mobility killers or 2 instadown killers.
Cages not moving when a survivor is nearby. Please revert this back to the way they worked in the first iteration of 2v8. We have more mobility killers now that can quickly make their way to where cages spawn. If the cage doesn't move away the killer now knows there is a survivor nearby so has no reason to leave - survivor in cage is eating up cage states and another is nearby not on a gen. There's also the issue of survivors looping a killer near a caged survivor, no one wants to make a save when the killer is right there. I understand the issue before was people going for last second saves and the caged survivor dying when the cage moved but I'm seeing more people die with this change. Please either fully revert or make it so only the last 5 seconds of a cage state the cage doesn't move.
Remove the sound of a survivor getting removed from a cage. Killers already have an idea where the cage will spawn and will head in that direction to tunnel out a survivor, the sound when a survivor is removed from the cage let's the killer know if they are heading in the right direction. Remove the sound to decrease the tunneling ability of killers.
The catch up mechanic - it's a nice idea but I think it has made games more sweaty. Survivors are choosing gens before friends more. Killers are either slugging to avoid sending survivors to cages or they are tunneling out survivors - while 3 hook states will speed up the gens that is one less survivor to help repair/save/heal/distract killer in a chase and with mobility killers it's easy to get across the map to the cage sound. I would say just overall scrap the mechanic - I don't think there's a way to fix it that doesn't make 2v8 feel more sweaty than casual. If you move the speed boost to when survivors die you make the gens feel like a slog with slowdowns until someone dies and once killers get multiple players to death hook the game goes very quickly with killers downing and killing survivors - by that point a gen speed boost is pointless.
Anti-slugging mechanic tied to ability. While this is a good idea in concept it doesn't work in practice. As Escapist your ability cooldown is currently 30 seconds, you could use your ability just before you went down and you'll have it back by the time you've recover enough to pick yourself up. Meanwhile the other classes would still be waiting on their cooldown to finish, if you're a Medic that's half a bleed out. I think instead have being able to pick yourself up have a 45 second cool down for everyone - 45 seconds is plenty of time to hit a nearby survivor waiting to flashlight blind/pallet stun. If slugging continues to be an issue in 2v8 can shorten the time until slugging is not seen as more efficient than caging.
Based on the killer wait times, both in 1v4 and 2v8, I think the next iteration really needs to focus on making the survivor side more appealing. The killer side already has the appeal of playing with another killer, in the first iteration that was more of an encouragement to play killer side than a 400% BP bonus on survivor side. This iteration adding the 3 killers and giving killers 4 classes was more encouragement to play killer over survivor - new killer combos to try out and now try out combos with the classes as well. Survivors had the same 4 classes slightly tweaked, abilities are new but none were an incentive to get people to switch from killer to survivor, and the BP bonus is less than it was in the first iteration. As much as I know killers want more killers added, more classes added, (and I'd like to see the rotation I previously mentioned) I do think next iteration really needs to focus more on the survivor side - see if we can get that queue time a little more even. Since the survivors themselves are just a skin then you really need to lean on new classes/abilities for the survivors. I've given 3 suggestions, I'm sure there's more the devs can think of.
The tome challenges should have more survivor only challenges - play 5 games as Scout, use Escapist ability on 10 other survivors, etc. If killer side ends out needing help can change a survivor only challenge of "play 5 games as Scout" to a survivor/killer challenge of "play 5 games as Scout as survivor or Brute as killer."
The BP bonus just isn't enough of an incentive at this point. Start including an XP bonus. People may be more willing to switch sides if they can level up faster and get more Iri Shards.
That was alot but I think I covered just about everything? If I can get in more killer games I may have more to add on that side but I'd rather be playing the game than waiting to get into a lobby.