The Many Enemies of the KRASUE: REPOSTING MY PTB FEEDBACK FOR VISIBILITY
So I made a feedback post on the PTB for the Krasue, and I am now reposting a rough rework for her based on the lack of changes to her from PTB to live. To begin, I LOVE the vision of the killer: the folklore that inspired and created this killer amazes me, however the implementation, particularly in using Head Form, leaves a lot to be desired. In the folklore, I don't imagine she uses her regular human form much for her attacks on her prey, yet in-game you are forced to: no pallet breaking in Head Form means you are FORCED to either use a full chase build (such as Dissolution, Enduring, Spirit Fury, and Brutal strength) to allow her, or play her predominantly as an M1 killer with the same build, which if we wanted to play an M1 killer, we'd play Wraith. Not only that, but her Head Form is severely weakened by the fact you have to hit a survivor more than FOUR times successively in Head Form to infect and injure them. This weakness allows for a lot of Survivor abusability, which I will explain as we go further into this post. Again the killer in the folklore isn't going around slashing people, I feel, she's using her Head Form to ravage her prey. I understand, and regularly employ the Body Form's infection ability, however in a game of DBD — where time is of the essence — this switching back and forth all the time creates a huge time sink, and removes her a lot of her fluidity.
Krasue's enemy NO.1: pallets. Vaulting pallets as Krasue provides her little to no benefit MOST of the time. Against experienced survivors, they will simply run from the loop, and with no way of breaking the pallet in Head Form, you either have to waste time switching to Body Form to break it, or remain in Head Form, and potentially fall victim to it again later. Functionally, Krasue's M1 in Head Form is a Demogorgon Shred. It just is. Therefore the idea that she cannot break a pallet while in Head Form SEVERELY limits her power as a killer. Instead of corralling survivors, survivors coral her, and with the new Pallet Density changes, this only oppresses her more. Again, requiring a full chase build, to play as close to her full potential as possible, should NOT be required. The weakness of her Head Form does not end there.
Krasue's enemy NO.2: bodyblocking. In a game such as DBD, where teamwork is essential on the survivor side to maximise survival chances, it makes sense that players work together to meet these goals. However the downside is that because of the limitations to Krasue's Head Form, and the timesink of switching back and forth to Body Form, means that there are AMPLE opportunities for abuse on the survivor side. It takes FOUR hits in Head Form to infect a survivor — note: Not even INJURE — versus a single Body Form M2. However the unpredictability of how the M2's projection works, in terms of how it bounces and interacts with terrain, this means that the time wasted on either form: Head Form M1/Body Form M2 costs valuable time. I often — not always - but often play against altruistic survivors, who work together well. I do not want them to stop working together, as it's great to see. However I want to have the potential to play against it, which at present, I do not. Survivors take no punishment from Head Form, and only a limited punishment of potential injury if the collision of the Body Form M2 interacts as expected (I have found it more reliably bounces when hitting it OFF raised terrain. It does not bounce when throwing it at the survivor's feet). During the main phase of the game, bodyblocking of this time enables survivors free progress on the generators, with little to no punishment, but in the endgame, this gets worse. But first.
Krasue's enemy NO.3: herself. Plague has her bowls, Nemesis has his vaccines, and Wesker has his spray paint- sorry his first aid spray. Krasue has her own bowl-vaccine-spray: herself. In addition to the mushrooms already present on the map, EVERY time she lets loose and drops her mortal body, she leaves behind a mushroom of her own. This means that survivors have an abundance of mushrooms to choose from to (yes, over time) remove their infection making the prospect of BEING infected a moot point. Krasue is the ONLY killer I can think of where her own power plays against her, to a soul-crushing degree. If Nemesis and Wesker can have hard limits on the amount of vaccines and first aid that spawn, so too should Krasue, especially given that she is fundamentally weaker than both — even in a potential scenario where she was changed so she could break pallets in Head Form. The fact that her ability spawns a mushroom should be removed, as it actively discourages using her Head Form, when arguably that's the form you SHOULD be in the majority of the time to truly fulfil the fantasy of her design. This leads us finally to endgame.
In endgame, everything goes: safeguarding mechanics deactivate, and you play as ruthlessly (or not) as you want…unless you're Krasue. For Krasue, this phase of the game can only be described as: you might as well stand in a corner, because there is next to nothing you can do. The aforementioned problems that have plagued us throughout the bulk of the game are still with us, and now: it's open season. Survivors, if they've gotten to this point, are more brave, more altruistic: they will bodyblock an injured survivor and in Head Form, there's nothing you can do; in Body Form, you might get a single hit before the next survivor takes a hit for the newly injured survivor. And what of the infection?!! OOOOOH SCARY…no. they just walk out. Even with the abundance of the mushrooms on the map, survivors can just…walk. out.
So to my changes! Because I've complained enough. Firstly remove the infection addition on M1s in Head Form. Allow me to injure people immediately in this form, and change the infection to do something else (will discuss later). It allows players to live out the fantasy of the killer much better, and removes the awful timesink of changing forms. NEXT, allow the Head Form to shatter pallets — it can already destroy breakable walls (albeit not with the dash), pallets absolutely should be next. For me, the pallet vaulting in Head Form can either stay or be removed, for balance reasons, as for me, it's not a game breaking inclusion, and 9/10 hinders her more than it helps her against GOOD survivors. Thirdly, the mushrooms: Stop the mushrooms spawning from the carcass of the Krasue's body when there is already mushrooms available on the map. While I do not like the drawback of her spawning her own downfall, I do not want it to end up in situation for survivors, where there is no way to cleanse the infection (which I will discuss next), as there currently is with Nemesis. Finally the infection: the infection as it is has NO impact on the game for survivors — with the abundance of mushrooms, as well as how long it takes to become FULLY infected (i.e. broken), means that this should be seen only as a secondary power, with the bulk of the gametime being played in Head Form. To this end, I would add the following to the infection: basekit: give survivors who are infected some form of hinderance that requires them to cleanse it, beyond just being broken, since in my vision for the killer, the infection isn't required for the Krasue's Head Form to injure and down; in endgame: prevent survivors from being able to escape through the exit gates while infected. Instead, they must risk their lives to search for a mushroom on the map to remove their infection and escape. Hatch would be unaffected by this. For me, it will create more interactivity between killer and survivor, rather than the current system, which all but guarantees any survivors that get to endgame the ability to survive.
The fantasy of Krasue is so enticing to me, but her current form actively forces you to play against that fantasy, and boxes you in with regards to perk freedom. The changes I have suggested above are not overly tuned or gamebreaking — just little levers that I feel NEED to be pulled, in order to make this killer a viable option for players new and old. If you see this, and like ANY of the ideas, please upvote this post so that the Devs might see it — and Devs, if you see this, thank you for creating this wonderful killer. I hope you will read it and see it as constructive feedback, and make at least SOME of these changes, to improve the quality of life for this killer going forward!
Comments
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I disagree.
She is already release Kaneki levels of strong. Don't need to add more fuel to this fire at the moment.
She needs tweaks to make her have better counterplay, since whatever little counterplay there is can be negated with two perks:
Dissolution and Bamboozle.Now that she has her own free HugTech™ loops are too easy to shut down.
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Before I get into your reply, my post was based on the PTB form of Krasue (I was not aware of her changes, as they are not listed in the in-game version of the patch notes — thought they are listed on the forum, and I am now aware of them). Also I have 7k hours, and most of them (60-40) are on survivor. I disagree on her being Kaneki levels of strong — she IS strong — but nowhere near as oppressive as Kaneki against decent survivors. I think people simply haven't learnt to play against her yet, which I do not say as a criticism of those players (she has literally just released), but when they do, they will see how reliant she is on a build like mine (or a build that features perks I've mentioned and Bamboozle). I've gone against good survivors who are able to dodge the dash (which is what her attack is in her M2 form), as well as waste my time having to switch to Body Form, in order to break the pallet, as vaulting — as I've mentioned — is 9/10 a hinder than a help (for instance during my adept attempts, this further proved my point that my build is much more important to the success of the killer than the actual strength of her following these changes from PTB. They are LESS of an issue when using my build, but prove my point)
I also don't know what these Techs are. I've played the game since 2017, and I don't use this 'Tech' terminology, so I apologise. But if you're referring to her being able to bodyblock window vaults — other killers can do it, it would be unfair for her not to be able to.
That being said, I still love her design and her overall fantasy. I just want it to lean more into that than she currently is
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