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What do you think of current Freddy Krueger?
Greetings, friends of the Fog! I hope this discussion finds you doing well.
So, if you are familiar with my posts, you know that Freddy Krueger is a character that means a lot to me. If you aren't, however, allow me to quickly give you some context: Freddy Krueger has been my main killer in DBD from the day I started playing the game, which was all the way back in December of 2018. Most of my posts have been about Freddy and, if I may be so bold to say what I'm about to say, there is an association between my name and the character.
Now, as a strong defender of the original power design for Freddy, prior to his first rework in patch 3.1.0, I was definitely not happy with the direction his second and most recent rework, which happened in January of last year, took the character. To me, his newly reworked power didn't even come close to fixing the main issue with his kit: how boring and uninspired he feels.
Because of that I stopped playing him for a while, switching to Skull Merchant who had already caught my attention by then. However, once a Freddy main, always a Freddy main. At least in my case.
And after getting back to this killer that I care so much about, I've found that my opinion… actually stays the same.
But I've noticed that Freddy isn't really a hot topic these days, and I would like to get a general idea of what everyone is feeling about this killer as he currently is.
So that is why I ask: what do you think of current Freddy Krueger?
Remember, every opinion is welcome here!
Comments
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Overall we'd give an "ok". Its not as satisfying as doing well with old Freddy, but with all the toys he has (pallets + "snares", teleporting to sleeping healers, being able to pop to the exit gate [that one surprised us]) its not a bad time. Defiantly better than the first rework if nothing else, even if its not a high bar. We're also probably more lenient due to them giving back a weaker version of jump-scare Freddy.
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I used to play him every once in a while before the update. Afterwords though ive maybe tried him one time. Not a fan of the new stuff. It feels like he lost his simplicity but still works the same, so more tedious. Just lke skull merchant's stealth activation nerf.
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I think he's fine where he is. I dont have too much to say as i never really was a Freddy player, but i do miss the Hubris/Spirit Fury/Enduring dream pallet combo i used before his rework. Also imo the way he placed Dream Pallets down before his rework felt more smooth, after the rework i dont like the extra bit of time it takes to complete the animation to place one.
Edit: i forgot to mention one thing i dont like is how survivors can tell that dream pallets are fake, now you lose the element of suprise when they drop the pallet not realizing its fake. I know Dream Pallets are now a ranged form of attack but i do miss pre reworked dream pallets.
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I love playing him tbh, but after Myers got reworked I remember thinking to myself 'oh so this is how GeneralV felt' because I remembered how much Freddy's rework ruined him for you
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Considering the other reworks we've gotten as of late, I'd say he's quite decent. I think his balance is a good middle ground but I still feel that freddy, well, just doesn't feel like freddy. I do feel this however will be the final iteration of the character that we'll see in this game.
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I totally feel ya and support you. I wish his dream world was a little more threatening than it is. Alarm clocks come easy these days if not that a teammate can just wake me up or I do it myself.
His dream world needs a deeper feeling of horror to it.
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I now know your pain because of the Myers rework.
As for Freddy, I played him back on the rework PTB, and found him quite boring.
I can't say that I like the current design, despite the unique parts.
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Not overpowered or anything, but more tedious to go against.
It just gets boring that they give almost every killer a projectile/ranged attack nowadays.2 -
While I do miss old Aura Freddy I think he's in a ok spot I do like popping fake pallets on survivors
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Boring. I think that the most recent Rework for Freddy was not even that bad overall, but I just think that they did not do enough to make him feel more unique. And honestly, Freddy before the most recent Rework was also boring to play for me, so my expectations to the latest Rework were probably too high so that I was disappointed either way, since I hoped for something more in line with the original concept of Freddy.
But I think the rework overall was not that bad, especially if we compare it to something like Myers. That being said, I dont really like to play against Freddy and I dont really play him anymore myself. Strength-wise he is fine, but his gameplay is not for me.
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Powerwise he feels very balanced. He seems decently strong and does well, but I never feel like losing to Freddy feels cheap or like any part of his kit is a crutch.
I think his good balance comes from the unfortunate fact that his kit is kind of boring. As it stands it's a very unambitious take on the idea of him being a dream demon that hunts you in your sleep. He's basically an antiloop killer with a gimmick secondary power in the form of his pallets. Funny when they work though.
Aesthetically, he's my least favourite killer in the game. He was the star of a post of mine about petty reasons to dislike a character, as I hate going against him purely because of how ass his presentation is. Negative personality, suffering from early-chapter syndrome badly.6 -
This is indeed a good way to describe it, my friend.
I remember that we talked about what would happen to him while the rework hadn't been fully revealed yet, and we both brought up the idea of making him more in line with his original power or if they would do something more boring, closer to first rework Freddy.
Such a shame that the worst option won. And it still isn't the worst we have ever seen because Myers got an abomination of a rework.
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I missed old Freddy and I mean before his power overhaul. The current freddy is fun for me with pallet but beside that he just not as fun as to me.
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I can't help but feel that the love for old Freddy is some very deeply tinted rose colored glasses. I still remember sitting next to someone working on a gen having to restart the process of pulling them into the dream world over 6 times in a row because they'd just let the skill checks fail, or losing out on kills in multiple matches because the autoaim would end your lunge on an awake survivor even though you couldn't hit them, while the asleep one ran just in front of them out the gates. New Freddy certainly doesn't feel as thematically accurate as old Freddy but I feel like as far as dbd gameplay is concerned new Freddy is definitely in a better spot.
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I can guarantee, my friend, that it isn't the case.
In fact, his weaknesses always remained very vivid in the minds of those who mained him and wanted him back. I myself came up with a solution for the problem you've just described: Incapacitated status effect during the Dream Transition. Forces someone right off the gen.
The auto-aim doesn't really have a solution though, yesterday it locked me into a rock instead of the survivor, so nothing that can be done about it.
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He's in a good place, I think. Not because he's actually in a good place but because no one plays his counters effectively anymore. Most of the time when I play him it's an easy 4K, with SWF's being the only thing that deter me meaningfully. It's bizarre as a single look at his kit tells me he should be underpowered, but it's as if people just refuse to respond to his presence meaningfully.
One of those 'in a good place due to ignorance' situations, rather than being mechanically level.-1 -
I think its because of his current pickrate, nobody learns to counter him correctly. Everybody knows how to counter the top five most played killers because they get picked so much, but when it comes to Freddy you only see him once in a while and that causes to people to slack on learning how to counter him correctly.
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I was a P100 Freddy main up until his most recent rework. While it definitely made him stronger, in terms of creativity and fun it felt like a side-grade at best.
Before his snares were like traps and you actually had to know how to set them up correctly around loops to get the full value from them, now it's just a boring projectile that can be shot through walls. Additionally his teleports' much shorter cooldown incentivized faking and mind games. The only improvement was to his dream pallets, as using them like remote bombs that you can coerce survivors towards is actually inspired and in-character. (Though it is incredibly stupid that Freddy can now be stunned by his own fake pallets, which was previously a bug that I assume the devs didn't know how to fix so they just made it a "feature".)
Don't get me wrong, while I did genuinely enjoy playing Freddy, part of me also mained him because I hoped that Behavior's promised rework would return him to a state much closer to that of his original release, with some modern updates and improvements. Specifically, I was really hoping that he would have an ability similar to the upcoming Grimoire killer or the Void, where his dream world would function as an actual separate part of the map that survivors would be trapped in.
Instead, this rework proved to me that either Behavior, the license holders, or both, don't really care about making Freddy Kruger actually feel like Freddy Kruger, and despite him being my only character to ever reach P100 my motivation to play him his has basically dropped to zero.
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Just worse clowns chase like power with teleport and dream pallets that arent that great either only on few maps, overall solid killer.
The original was total joke unless you ran slowdown addons and back then forever freddy was a thing and second rework made him strong as hell.
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nobody likes or plays Freddy, but i do it in your honour once in a while! I was actually sad Freddy got bugged in the last patch with Houndmaster because I was on a Freddy kick.
Freddy is in a weird spot as he's really strong, has strong built in counterplay, and isn't very exciting so everybody just forgets he exists.
I just love using the Houndmaster perks on him to keep the extend-a-lunge Freddy meme alive. I use Jagged Compass to find the most progressed generator and then I jump off a cliff while teleporting to arrive with a big lunge with All Shaking Thunder.
my last match, I decided to tunnel a Nancy and she dead handed me good so I dropped her, which boosted her ego and she started spam vaulting, which i don't respond to. but this time I said "you wanna keep going? alright, stay right there..." and walked to the crocus prenn main building to jump off and teleport to her.
I've tried my best taking off the houndmaster perks but they're just too cozy to me for Fredster.
it just feels bad to get easy wins when I know the survivors simply do not understand how Freddy works I've never enjoyed winning like that
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I barely ever see Freddy. Probably because he just isn’t viable against good survivors who know how to counter him. Like a few other killers with more complex powers, he stomps noobs but struggles against experienced players.
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I love what this character can do. Feels incredibly rewarding to play and do well with him, but a team that knows his counterplay won't make it easy.
My only complaint is that having hold-to-teleport AND power toggle on the same button can result in some… friction.
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Ayy, thanks friend :)
What an honor that is!
And I gotta say I definitely agree with ya here. Strength wise he is fine, mostly due to people not knowing how to face him, but it doesn't change how boring he can feel.
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id trade him for skull merchant 2 if i could. at the very least I'd like to see him in 2v8
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I still want the Freddy + Dredge combo in 2v8 and watch the game crash trying to mix the Dream World with Nightfall.
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He's fine. I mostly enjoy playing him. He has enough uniqueness to him to make him interesting, and he doesn't have strong map dependency. Map dependency absolutely ruins killers for me. It's why I don't play Singularity or Billy.
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Yeah, if there is one thing Freddy has going for him is that never once was he map dependent.
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My biggest issue with Freddy is how clunky swapping powers feels. He would be incredibly fun to play if it was more smooth.
There’s so many times where I fire a snare and then want to swap to pallets, however it takes so long to swap and there’s a delay between swapping and actually being able to activate the power. Then sometimes the power just won’t switch at all. It feels too awkward to actually use the powers together in a chase.I’m not saying to remove the delay, there’s just something about how he swaps powers that feels clunky and unnatural compared to other powers.
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Very boring on both sides. I hate its not even the correct Freddy version we have. I guess Englund version was not offered.
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Oh, old Freddy was really not good. I dont think that anyone would argue on that. That you could simply miss a Skill Check to wake up was one thing, especially because Self Care was Meta back then and everyone was running it. It also resulted in Freddy players often using Endgame Builds, because then there are no Generators to fail Skill Checks on and since those included NOED, healing was also more difficult.
But I am still very sure that the old concept could have been saved.
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Fact probably worst killer through entire history of this game maybe og wraith without his two best addons that are his basekit could match him.
-1 -
Very true, friends.
No matter how bad Freddy's changes were, the Myers rework was so, so much worse.
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Glad you came home. I'm still loving him, I love using the Dream Pallets. I honestly don't play against him very much but that's because most of my Survivor time is spent in 2v8.
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Good to see you here, my dear friend <3
Happy to say I'm back!
Honestly, ever since the rework I've barely used Dream Pallets. I know they can be useful, but I prefer reworked snares over reworked pallets.
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Pallets are addictive once you start catching people with them. For fun, I suggest going upstairs in the main building of the Ormond maps (especially the newer one) and sniping survivors, it's a blast.
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I'll give it a try at some point, friend!
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The downvote bandit sure is having a fun time in this one lol
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Yeah, I've noticed, friend.
They could at least share their opinion on Freddy, at least that would be a contribution to the discussion at hand.
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I think he is mostly fine now. Pretty middle-of-the-road, which is a good place to be. I do kind of wish they didn't just turn him into another projectile killer though. They could have come up with something more interesting.
However, considering both Freddy and Myers reworks, it has me terrified what they plan to do to Skull Merchant. She's been in such a terrible state (probably even worse than Freddy ever was even at his worst), BHVR went back on their word about her, and their is no indication she is leaving F tier any time soon. And if/when she does, she will most likely just end up ANOTHER garbage projectile or dash killer.
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Oh, hello, dear friend! Good to see you here!
Yes, it is a rather concerning topic, is it not? I think she is safe from the dashslop, but the projectile is, unfortunately, a real possibility.
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I dislike playing against him. Not because I think he’s overly strong or anything, he’s just “there” if that makes sense. He stomps newbies but that’s only cause they don’t understand how his power works.
Here’s the issue with Freddy: his power is mid at best. The fake pallets are easy to spot a mile off and you don’t need to be a god-tier survivor to recognize them. His projectile is kinda “meh” and gen teleportation is probably his only redeeming quality. But when you have high-mobility monsters like Ghoul and Blight in the game, the gen teleportation seems kinda mid, too
He essentially suffers the same issues as the likes of Pig, Ghostface, and Trapper. Their powers are good on paper, but are so easily countered that they just become M1 killers. I think even with his rework, he’s a relic of old DBD. Killer design nowadays lean far more into anti-loop and passive match slowdown because it counters survivor play styles. Older killers were designed for an iteration of DBD that no longer exists.
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Respectfully, friend, may I ask you to share a little bit more about why you believe his current power is a relic?
Generally speaking, I have a strong preference for Old DBD. I think it was an overall better experience than the game we have today, and I would happily return to it if it was possible to do so. I dare say I have a good grasp on the finer details of Old DBD and, frankly, I don't think current Freddy has anything to do with it, really.
I would argue that it is the opposite, in fact. That the lack of unique mechanics and overuse of what essentially are recycled abilities are characteristic of the modern DBD.
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Nah current merchant is still good compare to og freddy who had to run addons so he could put survivors into sleep faster or he couldnt harm them and that was his power plus slowdown to sleeping survivors but just fail skill check and you were awake so very harmless killer especialy when we take in count the number of pallets and perks being stronger like dead hard, ds.
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If only I had my own gameplay to share from the good old days.
I guarantee I would change your mind.
-1 -
It was kinda funny how people kept underestimating him then when they meet people who used him well it turned into a "######### just happened" moment
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A lot of underestimation, my friends, that is for sure.
And honestly, some of it was justified. I mean, his nerfs one week after his release were very severe. But weakest in the game? No, not even close.
That was only the case if someone were to make the absolute worst mistake you could do with original Freddy: play him like Wraith. Or at least the way people played Wraith back then.
Stealth and map control are different playstyles, and many players seemed not to realize it.
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Of course, I can explain what I mean. Thank you for being so respectful.
In my humble opinion, “new” Freddy’s power is kinda awkwardly shoehorned in. The same thing happened with Myers and how he’s uncharacteristically and very much uncanonically become a dash killer. Most of the newer killer roster over the last few years have had powers that have been mobility/anti-loop focused. Freddy was released in a time when the game was still designed for survivors playing stealthy. These “reworks” of older killers seem to just remove any of their unique traits and awkwardly put powers on them that are characteristic of newer killers (Myers is essentially a buffed Chucky, for example).
It’s not just Freddy; Trapper, Hag, Wraith, Ghostface etc all have powers which just don’t translate into modern DBD very well. BHVR can “buff” them all they want but their powers are fundamentally flawed and were designed in the days when people played this game very differently.I agree though my friend, I too miss old DBD. Don’t get me wrong, there were some aspects that were broken/unfun to play, but the game feels less and less like a horror game these days.
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Thanks for the explanation, my friend, I believe I understood your point here!
Come to think of it, those might be the reasons why I really enjoy playing against stealthy groups these days. They are rare, sadly, but I like facing them when it happens. Its like a nod to the good old days.
-2 -
Theres many things different now but what freddy could do then? He had to make survivors sleep so put them manualy into dream world or they had to fall in 60 seconds I believe, he was invisiable so flashlight saves were super hard almost impossible but nowdays flashbangs would give him lot of troble. He saw everyones aura if they were in dream world 32 meters away from him and their actions were slowed by 50% thats old freddy.
I tooked 7 seconds (5 with addons) for survivor to manualy fall asleep so he vouldnt even grab people that were awake so hatch was loss for him, survivors had selfcare everyone run it with old dh which is perk that is only beaten by 2v8 current speintburst. Survivorshad so many ways how to get from dream world like they could heal mid chase and were immune until he put them to dream world again so so many ways how to get awake compare to current freddy and his only bonuses against sleeping survivors were great info and slowdown but it was super easy for survivors to get awake and be immune. There was lot of safe pallets and many meta perks were stronger compare to current versions of them, only thing that keeps him hard to place is skill because back then survivors in majority had less skill due to two things less hours of experience and lot more sided things like loops,perks, item addons or offerings so they had less skill requirements compare to today.
I will tell you if nowdays merchant was there she would wreck maybe more than freddy because he was just m1 killer with just aura info and slowdown but merchant has better qualities than him due to how easy it was to get from dream world if it would be harder to get awake he sould ne better but that wasnt the case so I think he is worst killer maybe only second if we include og 2016 wraith without his best addons that are basekit now (speed boost after uncloak + faster moving speed when cloaked).
-1 -
I miss old freddy, i'm assuming you know the one. Where he pulled you into the dream world before he could hit y ou.
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