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Where would you place the new Nightmare in a tier list?

TheLastSpectre
TheLastSpectre Member Posts: 21
in General Discussions

First, examining his kit, we can see he has two very theoretically powerful tools at his disposal: Dream Snares and Dream Projection.

Dream Snares are the more useful between them and Dream Pallets, as not only do they require a pallet in the loop to be useful, as well as the pallet to be broken in the first place, it also requires the survivor to use the pallet. Now, I'm not going to say Dream Pallets are bad, because they're not. But Dream Snares are more useful in the early game, and remain useful in the late game, whereas Dream pallets require you to shatter pallets to be useful (two pallets right next to each other looks sus AF), and canny survivors will stop dropping pallets in the mid - late game and instead start playing jungle gyms and window vaults instead. The one advantage Dream Pallets do have is that survivors will mistrust pallets, and begin dropping them very early. However, Dream Snares do the same job by shortening loops. Now, on the subject of Dream Snares, while they have some downsides, on the whole they're one of the better chase tools. Unless it's a very short loop, Freddy can usually force a pallet drop or get in a hit after just one loop. While they don't help him catch up in a straight shot like the Nurse's blinks or the Hillbilly's chainsaw, they negate loops with ruthless efficiency, by way of placing them literally everywhere. The screaming aspect isn't very useful since unlike the Hag, Freddy can't teleport to a triggered Dream Snare (even though I think he should be able to, or at least a Block addon - it takes a long time, they have to be asleep to trigger it, the activation radius is small, they're super visible, and it has a recharge; I feel like it would be balanced.) The only time I saw use for it was during the EGC with the last survivor; trap both gates and wait for the scream, but again; they need to be asleep for that to work. Of course, you can get intel from it, but unlike someone like the Hillbilly or the Nurse with lightning quick map traversal (in a FREEFORM manner; that is the important point of distinction), Freddy can't really capitalize on it. Trapping a generator isn't very useful, as even if they are asleep, the radius is so small they can just go to the other side, and you'll likely be using your snares in your chases.

Dream Projection is the other important part of his kit, and it synergizes crazy well with two perks: Barbecue and Chili, and Pop Goes the Weasel. After hooking someone, Freddy can idenfify any generators where survivors are doubling up, immediately teleport over there, regress the generator, and start the chase. While he doesn't have great map traversal outside of generator teleport, it allows you to initiate a chase immediately after hooking someone. While he can't end chases as quickly as a Huntress, Nurse, or Hillbilly, Freddy will almost always be in one, which makes him a lot better than most every other M1 killer, and his Dream Snares make him better than the rest of them (except Clown - though I consider Dream Snares more useful then the Afterpiece Tonic). Not only that, but something important to remember is that if you're engaged in a chase and you have a free moment, you should always be using the Dream Projection to force survivors off of generators - every second counts and it's free time. Another important thing to remember is that now that the Lullaby is no longer directional, teleporting to a generator in front of a survivor in a chase is very effective since it's much more difficult to keep track of Freddy.

As far as addons go, I don't know how they managed to make them so...bipolar. Some of them are really good, and some of them are hot garbage. Freddy doesn't have a single good Dream Snare addon. At all. Hemorrhage and Blindness are useless, and they only last for a minute at most. Even worse is the Speed Limiter equivalent in Kid's Drawing. Black Box is still as useless as ever, especially now that there's no wallhacks in the Dream World. Red Paint Brush is very good since it's a lot easier to make use of your Dream abilities, and paired with Swing Chains it's a free Thanatophobia. Pill Bottle and Class Photo are good addons but don't synergize with the others. The Jump Rope and Outdoor Rope are a small action speed decrease in the Dream World, nothing spectacular but still useful. Dream Pallet addons are exactly what you expect, use them if you want Dream Pallets, don't if you don't. The aura reveal for Paint Thinner and Prototype Claw are relatively useless, but can occasionally net you a chase or a hit. The other two sketch addons are one of Freddy's more useful, allowing you to use the Dream Projection more often. Finally, the Dresses are not terribly useful on their own but paired with a Huntress Lullaby / Overcharge / Distressing / Unnerving could be effective, I'm not certain; never tried. Overall, you'll find the new good addons and completely disregard the rest. Disappointing but his base kit is pretty fun so I'm not losing sleep.

As far as perks, Freddy is an M1 killer, so pairing M1 perks with his Dream Snares make him a terror in a chase. Ruin and BBQ are great perks on every killer, obv. As for the other two slots, I usually slot in Pop Goes the Weasel, and either Bamboozle or Brutal Strength (You're going to be breaking a lot of pallets). If I feel like losing, I'll toss ruin and slot in the other of Bamboozle or BS, or if I'm feeling particularly saucy I'll use Hex: Devour Soap. Ruin usually breaks during the 1st hook along with at least 1 generator popping but Devour Hope gets me one or two insta downs; people don't usually look for it since it's a stealthy bony boi. Plus, it forces people off generators as soon as they know it's up, giving you time to play defensively around your totem and secure a couple hooks. Discordance is arguably more useful than BBQ as it doesn't require a hook and lets you see where survivors are congregating and allowing you to nip it in the bud wherever and whenever.

Looking at all of this, I would personally place Freddy in the A Tier / High B Tier. His Snares are effective at shutting down loops, and he's always on the move. While he doesn't real have much "tech" to go along with his Snares, spamming them along any loop is enough. Dream Projection allows you to force survivors to waste time, and his short stature and small frame makes his lunge range tricky for survivors to gauge. His passive phasing allows you to get closer to survivors than other killers, and he has good synergy with some powerful perks. I welcome any discussion / contradiction in the comments as long as you aren't an ass about it.

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