http://dbd.game/killswitch
Springtrap is a slap in the face to Deathslinger.
Deathslinger has been stripped of his identity; his playability has rotted into agony ever since patch 5.3.0, which gutted not only his mechanics but his future. He stands now as the definitive “High Risk; Low Reward” killer; paralyzed in time, discarded by design.
Despite being the only ranged killer in the game who cannot down at range, he was once branded “too powerful” in what now feels like ancient and laughable history. In response, Behaviour increased his Terror Radius from 24 to 32 meters; they shattered his fluidity with molasses-slow ADS animations, rendering his once-lethal precision a calculated risk of self-harm.
Since that moment, playing Caleb has shifted from an experience of skillful engagement to one of constant restraint; you are punished for using your power, and so you threaten with it rather than commit. Meanwhile, the archetype of the 110% ranged killer has all but vanished; its identity buried beneath an avalanche of hybrid ranged killers who now boast 115% speed and a myriad of tools, with the ability to down at any range, from a few feet to literal infinity in the Artist’s case.
What was once a fair tradeoff (range for speed) has become a joke. Now, hybrid killers dominate the roster; their powers are bloated, their counterplay shallow, their impact immediate. The uniqueness of killers like Caleb has not merely been forgotten; it has been overwritten.
But over the years, I’ve learned it’s not about fairness; it’s not about balance; it’s about what sells. It took years for the community to admit Blight’s total dominance, and only after a record-breaking win streak exposed how meaningless his counters were did he finally receive the lightest of slaps on the wrist. And like the Twins, Caleb has been left in the cold; no matter how vocal or faithful his mains are.
Then enters Springtrap; a killer who has it all. He toggles between 110 and 115% movement speed; he retains a stealthier 24-meter terror radius; he wields a teleport mechanic that, depending on door-gen proximity, can create wildly oppressive chases. His ranged power? It carries no meaningful punishment…EVER.
When Caleb misses a shot, he suffers three separate slowdowns: the missed-chain delay; the reel-back; the reload. All of this burdens his already-slow 110% speed. But Springtrap? He is rewarded for using his power constantly. If he hits, his target is injured and he gains bonus speed or he just DOWNS THEM. If he misses, he still gains speed and reloads on the move with no penalty. It is unearned momentum, gifted literally without risk.
Springtrap is the final proof that Deathslinger’s downfall had nothing to do with balance, fairness, or competitive integrity. Every piece of Caleb’s kit that was deemed “too much” is now comfortably nestled inside Springtrap, and then some! The same stealth-based loadouts that were vilified when Caleb used them are now praised on a killer with more mobility, less downtime, and arguably, stronger stealth potential.
His slinging mechanics, once the core of his identity, have been reduced to a clunky novelty. Chains can be broken with interaction or unforeseen unlucky positioning; shots are invalidated by hitboxes and janky unupdated map geometry; the ADS system is now so slow that engaging with it feels like walking into a trap of your own making. Yet Springtrap receives both mobility and stealth, along with a teleport, and none of the baggage that Caleb carries.
So I ask, why? Why does Behaviour hate Caleb Quinn so much?
After years of dedication and rolling with the punches, while perks that finally addressed Deathslinger’s core weaknesses were nerfed into the ground all because the game must bend over backwards not to give too much power to the top 1% of killers who already dominate on perkless loadouts by comparison. After watching the erosion of identity spread even to Huntress, who is now having her uniqueness stripped in turn. All I want is the admission that this was never about balance. It is about popularity. It is about money. Blight sells. Whether through streams, skin packs, or promotional content, he makes them money. And I suspect the same will be true of Springtrap given the legions of his fanbase, irrespective of the consequences to other killers identities.
I suppose Caleb and Twins do not sell. So they are relegated to the trash bin of history. My killer's identity was stripped down and redistributed to a character whose kit feels not only oppressively unearned, but lore-breakingly lazy even within the confines of its own canon and its DBD adaptation.
All I want after five years and 2,600 hours on Caleb Quinn is the admission of hatred. Hatred for the Chains of Hate DLC, which Behaviour clearly harbors.
Comments
-
I personally think Deathslinger has one of the best chase powers in the game but fundamentally suffers from the fact that their 4v1 is just really, really terrible.
The larger Terror Radius plays into their ability well when you consider that Deathslinger can use Exposed perks like Starstruck to great effect; issue is that this is moreso an oddly specific example and they lack the movement speed to really capitalize on the Exposed most of the time.
If it were up to me, Id give our dear boy Caleb some new tools. They are an engineer afterall, and their weapon is a modified Rail Spike Gun, so why not lean into this and give them different ammo or traps they could shoot from their gun to give them better 4v1 potential. Why not a tether trap that uses chains to hold Survivors in place for a set time, or maybe some Generator slowdown tools they can shoot from afar (to make up for the lack of movement speed).
1 -
I don't disagree that deathslinger has been severely powercrept, but anytime I see someone use a killer's real name, it genuinely feels parasocial. Idk what it is about it…
But nah he's definitely been left behind but atp, it's not even a hatred towards deathslinger… it applies to 90% of the older killers. It's just how it is. I would say the only one it doesn't apply to is nurse, because her power is so mechanically broken since it just ignores a massive gameplay part of dbd (that being loops), so nothing could ever really powercreep her out of the game.
2 -
Welcome to the community and DbD! Where the biggest reason for this company's success is off the back of Halloween chapter. Only to "rework" Myers to be a bigger joke now than before. I play 50/50 of the roles in this game and been around since introduction of The Nurse. Look at this latest DLC drop. P2W skins, unfriendly/useless tutorials for beginners, more glitches and bugs than the released chapter of the Twins, untested/unnecessary changes to perks and addons, punishment for trying to play the game but gets a DC penalty for being tunnelled out of the game quickly. The list seems bottomless and the DbD content creators/streamers are not speaking up against the company on its scummy business practices; but instead, are advertising like everything is going well while abusing the exploits in the game.😤🤬
1 -
Or you know, just give him his old kit back, the one thats currently in Springtrap. If you're worried about Starstruck which has also lost popularity and is not nearly as strong or novel as it once was, a reduced base terror radius helps with that plus the natural counterplay to slinger which has been a part of the game since his release: spread out.
0 -
So I feel you in that it is annoying when the game power creeps your main to not being fun. I've been playing since 2020 and I was a Hag main back in the day, the game changed and made her worse and worse so I just moved onto a new killer that played similarly to her but was viable in the way the game was evolving the killer that I've always referred to as Hag on a time limit since their release, that being Artist. I was also helped through the times when she was getting power crept to oblivion by the fact that I have always played a range of killers so as she got less fun I just played more of others and less of her. I'd suggest instead of getting super attached to a single character be willing to move to the characters that power creep them if you want to stay competitive, or just have a range of killers you play so when one becomes not so fun it isn't that big a deal, or if you really love that character's mechanics just go into matches knowing you aren't going to win all your games with them, I still love playing Trapper and still do despite him not being very viable in the current state of the game because I find his power so satisfying when it works.
0
