Making The Clown Deadly - Rework Suggestion (w/ Add-On and Perk Tweaks)
Clown, probably the worst killer in the game right now. No map pressure, boring to play as and against.
How do we make him good and fun, while keeping him similar in concept to what he is now? Here are my ideas, and my thoughts on why I suggested these changes:
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New Power: The Interlude & The Afterpiece
Throughout his years experimenting with strange substances, The Clown developed several effective concoctions, his two favorites, The Interlude and The Afterpiece Tonics, he has used to great effect, intoxicating and capturing many unwilling victims while boosting his own stimuli in the process of his heinous crimes.
SPECIAL ABILITY: THE AFTERPIECE TONIC
The Clown carries bottles of The Afterpiece Tonic, which he uses to intoxicate his victims, confusing his victims and obscuring their vision.
Use the Power command to toss a bottle of The Afterpiece Tonic.
Upon contact with a surface:
- the bottle will break and spread its effect in a 5 meter radius, lingering for 10 seconds
- over time, the cloud's effect will lose potency, but survivors who stay in the cloud will not begin to lose the effect until they leave the cloud
- survivors are slowed down and their vision is blurred for 3 seconds
- survivors will cough loudly for 6 seconds
- survivors hit directly by 2 bottles will become Confused and their movements will be inverted
While holding a bottle of The Afterpiece Tonic, use the attack command to reload bottles. Bottles are reloaded one at a time over a period of 1 second. The Clown carries up to 5 bottles of The Afterpiece Tonic at a time. While reloading, The Clown's movement speed is reduced to 4.0 m/s.
SPECIAL ABILITY: THE INTERLUDE TONIC
The Clown carries a special bottle used for his special concoction, The Interlude Tonic, used to push himself to the limits.
Use the Active Ability command to consume The Interlude Tonic. Using The Interlude Tonic consumes 5 bottles of The Afterpiece Tonic and cannot be used if The Clown has less than 5 at the time.
After consuming The Interlude Tonic:
- The Clown cannot reload bottles of The Afterpiece Tonic until the effect of The Interlude Tonic wears off (30 seconds)
- The Clown's movement speed increases by 2% for every second he is not in a chase up to a max of 60%
- The Clown's attack cooldown is decreased by 15%
- The Clown will lose the effects of The Interlude Tonic after damaging a survivor
After the effect of The Interlude Tonic wears off without a survivor being damaged, The Clown is fatigued for 5 seconds, reducing his movement speed by 50%.
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These changes will give The Clown much needed map pressure as well as mix up his gameplay, leaving in the player's hands whether or not they want to sacrifice their opportunity to slow down survivors for a short duration for a temporary boost in power. This will reward skilled players who can balanced between speed boosts for simple mobility as well as in chase, and slowing down survivors.
The Clown's add-ons will need some updating to reflect the changes. I'll be more brief with add-on changes this time.
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Add-On Changes:
Robin Feather (common), Starling Feather (uncommon), and VHS P*rn (rare) will all increase the duration of The Interlude Tonic's effect.
Smelly Inner Soles (common), Thick Cork Stopper (uncommon), and Sulfiric Acid Vial (rare) will all increase the reload speed of The Afterpiece Tonic.
Fingerless Parade Gloves decreases The Clown's attack cooldown by an additional 5% under the effects of The Interlude Tonic.
Ether 5 Vol% switched rarities w/ Kerosene Can.
Sticky Soda Bottle and Bottle of Chloroform's effects have been switched. (now slight effects of area and spread)
Solvent Jug now increases the rate in which The Clown gains Bloodlust while under the effects of The Interlude Tonic.
Flask of Bleach and Ether 10 Vol% are unchanged.
Ether 15 Vol% and Cheap Gin Bottle are unchanged.
Garish Make-Up Kit slows the repair, healing, cleansing, and sabotoge speeds of all survivors the closer you get to them while using The Interlude Tonic.
Redhead's Pinky Finger exposes a survivor hit by a bottle of The Afterpiece Tonic from at least 10 meters away.
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Lastly, here are some changes to The Clown's 3 unique perks.
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Perk CHanges:
Coulrophobia -
- Survivors within your Terror Radius suffer a 30% healing, cleansing, and sabotaging speed penalty, along with a 5% repair speed penalty. This effect is increased by 2% per every 5 meters closer you are to a survivor.
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Lemme know what you all think of the changes! Thanks for reading the long post. What are your suggestions for The Clown?
Comments
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"generators hit directly by a bottle will begin to regress" No to base kit. Yes to add-on with possible other minor effects.
"survivors hit directly by 2 bottles will become Confused and their movements will be inverted" Dunno if you're on keyboard or controller, but this would just be a nightmare on keyboard. I genuinely doubt I could ever get used to this. It makes sense logically, but it totally violates comfort more than any other mechanic in the game. Maybe this could still be done with the high cost of 2 direct hits in fairly rapid succession, but this mechanic would require a lot of care to implement fairly, if it's possible. Other possibilities may be better.
This Bamboozle is too strong for all the loops it shuts down without the killer doing anything. I don't think Bamboozle needs adjustment, honestly.
Coulrophobia does need a change in my opinion. I don't love this one, but I don't hate it either. I think I do hate the idea of it being on a Doctor with a max terror radius build and on the Game map.
I gotta say I do love the general idea of the two power options for Clown, one to buff himself and another to debuff survivors. It fits his lore better than his 1 power at the moment. Choosing between travel mode and chase mode is a unique fix for his lack of map pressure, and you deserve credit for that creativity. The most necessary change to accompany this idea is a change to his terror radius music. A slow, half-broken record of carnival music for Afterpiece mode, and a sped up, creepily clean version of the carnival music for Interlude mode.
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No to base kit. Yes to add-on with possible other minor effects.
Agreeable. This version of The Clown would already be pretty strong without the addition of Afterpiece regression.
Dunno if you're on keyboard or controller, but this would just be a nightmare on keyboard. I genuinely doubt I could ever get used to this. It makes sense logically, but it totally violates comfort more than any other mechanic in the game. Maybe this could still be done with the high cost of 2 direct hits in fairly rapid succession, but this mechanic would require a lot of care to implement fairly, if it's possible. Other possibilities may be better.
I'm on controller. This is a fair point. My aim with this addition was to give skilled Clown players more of a reward for precise bottle throws. You are right that other effects may be better but I wanted to make the Tonic a bit more unique than say... Freddy's Dream Snare. If it was ever considered, maybe it'd have to be two direct hits within 3-5ish seconds?
This Bamboozle is too strong for all the loops it shuts down without the killer doing anything. I don't think Bamboozle needs adjustment, honestly.
I personally think Bamboozle could use some changes. I think more skilled players can avoid it's effects fairly easily. I also think that's fairly uninteresting in terms of interactivity. Maybe this isn't the right way to go about changing it, but I would like to see it changed.
Coulrophobia does need a change in my opinion. I don't love this one, but I don't hate it either. I think I do hate the idea of it being on a Doctor with a max terror radius build and on the Game map.
I did actually consider this exact scenario while typing the idea out. I had another idea of making it more than a simple slowdown perk but opted to keep it fairly similar but also a bit more powerful. Maybe to avoid that scenario I'll think of something else lol. Any ideas?
I gotta say I do love the general idea of the two power options for Clown, one to buff himself and another to debuff survivors. It fits his lore better than his 1 power at the moment. Choosing between travel mode and chase mode is a unique fix for his lack of map pressure, and you deserve credit for that creativity.
I wouldn't attribute all the credit to myself, but thank you. Admittedly, I did hear the idea of The Clown being able to consume his Tonics from somewhere, though I can't recall from who. I just tried to build upon that idea with some weird idea like Bloodlust occurring outside a chase and limiting bottles while in "The Interlude" so he isn't omega faster than the survivors lol.
The most necessary change to accompany this idea is a change to his terror radius music. A slow, half-broken record of carnival music for Afterpiece mode, and a sped up, creepily clean version of the carnival music for Interlude mode.
Yes! Exactly! This would make chases with The Clown just feel a bit more intense and dynamic!
Thanks for stopping in @Blazelski and for your feedback! (sorry if these quotes look a bit weird, just discovered this feature)
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My experience with Bamboozle is that it has gotten me a decent amount of much easier downs or hits than I would have gotten without it. Mostly just because of the faster vaulting, which catches survivors off guard. The blocking off of windows is kind of an extra benefit. But I'm not exactly an authority on it's overall effectiveness.
Coulrophobia isn't exactly an inspiring perk name for creative effects... Just throwing an idea at the wall here:
Coulrophobia - Survivors in your terror radius for more than 5 seconds cannot be healed from the injured state in any way other than being healed by other survivors until they leave your terror radius.
This would counter last second self-caring to no longer be injured during a chase while a killer breaks pallets or using medkits in the same way, and would serve as a partial counter to the quite powerful Inner Strength. It would also serve as a counter to the Anti-Haemorrhagic Syringe, if you were afraid of a toxic SWF with a bunch of medkits, kinda like Lightborn works for Flashlight groups. It'd also make Autodidact a potential counter to it, which I think would be nice. Haven't thought it all the way through, though.
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I think I actually have something that can tie in with the perk name as well as slow down healing.
Coulrophobia - Healing survivors within your Terror Radius breathe louder the longer they are in the radius, up to a max of 25% over 10 seconds, in which they then scream and reveal their location. Survivors who scream regress current healing progress by 50%.
Big con is that players would probably just not heal in your Terror Radius. Counter to this may be for the time not to reset until the survivor screams even if they stop healing/leave the radius.
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I actually really dislike this idea. All you've done to make a killer whom you think is "boring to play as and against" have the exact same ability you find boring, but also made him insanely fast, as to have better map pressure. I am one of the people who finds it to be that Clown has a fine time already with map pressure.
Map pressure is more than just being able to be everywhere. Map pressure is the ability of the killer being played to be able to have an impact on multiple survivors at once. Clown can achieve this very easily. He has great chase mechanics, thus allowing him to get hooks quickly as well as hits in strong loop areas. Making it so he can get rid of time wasting areas early and rotate his gen patrols and chases to fit in with these dead zones. Forcing survivors off gens and into areas they are vulnerable in. Survivors who think they can hang with Clown will attempt to play the remaining safe areas but most likely won't last too long if the Clown knows what he's doing.
If you do insist on a secondary function, how about making it something skilled Clowns won't be able to dominate even more with, but instead, make it something every Clown player can have just as strategy/defensive measure:
Interlude Tonic:
When near a generator, use your Active Ability button to place your special tonic inside a cylinder of the generator. Once a survivor repairs this gen to 50% the Interlude Tonic stashed inside it will explode, releasing a poisonous yellow cloud instantly into the environment. The gas cloud lingers for 12 seconds. Any survivor repairing the gen, and within the clouds radius, at the time of the explosion will suffer heavy vision blur and have their auras revealed for 8 seconds. Any survivor attempting to continue to repair the generator will have skill-checks occuring every 2 seconds of repair while the cloud remains in the environment.
Up to 3 bottles may be held, but can never be reloaded. Start with 2, but an add-on can be changed to give you 1 more of the Interlude Tonic.
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All you've done to make a killer whom you think is "boring to play as and against" have the exact same ability you find boring, but also made him insanely fast, as to have better map pressure.
I wouldn't say that he has the "exact same ability", more like "it's the same general idea, but now much more reliable, with a new mechanic to give more of an edge to skilled or patient players." By slightly increasing the effectiveness of the Afterpiece, while also adding in the ability to confuse survivors with accurate throws, and give the ability to reload individual bottles (like literally every Clown player has asked for), Clown players will be encouraged to either get in close, or make well-timed shots, while not being punished as harshly if survivors manage to evade all of your bottles.
I also think that Clown has literally the worst pressure in the game. he can't really end chases fast as he slows down too much when aiming a bottle, and once it's thrown, survivors will just leave to the next loop until the Clown has to reload. Clown's power can be completely ignored by skilled survivors, so increasing it's base effectiveness is the first part in making him better.
I added The Interlude to not only raise the skill ceiling of The Clown, but also make him more effective at what he does while adding in some fresh gameplay options. With The Interlude, The Clown should be able to find survivors much more quickly, and with the choice to throw his last bottle during his 30 second buff, players have more of a decision to make and have to use the bottles more skillfully. 15% less cooldown on attacks with higher speed and one bottle rewards those who can skillfully end chases, and gives the Clown a high snowballing potential.
This is not the exact same ability, but he's faster. This is giving The Clown more options in a chase that add unique gameplay elements.
Map pressure is more than just being able to be everywhere. Map pressure is the ability of the killer being played to be able to have an impact on multiple survivors at once. Clown can achieve this very easily. He has great chase mechanics, thus allowing him to get hooks quickly as well as hits in strong loop areas. Making it so he can get rid of time wasting areas early and rotate his gen patrols and chases to fit in with these dead zones. Forcing survivors off gens and into areas they are vulnerable in. Survivors who think they can hang with Clown will attempt to play the remaining safe areas but most likely won't last too long if the Clown knows what he's doing.
Big disagree on Clown having good chase mechanics. As soon as The Clown slows down to throw a bottle, survivors will just leave the loop if they're fairly competent, giving them enough time to get to the next one. The big issue is that The Clown slows down too often in order to shut down a loop. This was the same issue with Old Doctor. His power's effectiveness also isn't all that strong, seeing as it wears off fairly quickly, and then survivors can go back to the strong loop you just threw a bottle at, forcing to to throw another one, rinse and repeat, until you're out of bottle, have to reload, survivor gets away, you wasted your time. Even the most skilled Clowns can struggle on larger maps as well without a fair amount of slow down effects. There's a reason why on red ranks, Clown is the weakest.
Interlude Tonic:
When near a generator, use your Active Ability button to place your special tonic inside a cylinder of the generator. Once a survivor repairs this gen to 50% the Interlude Tonic stashed inside it will explode, releasing a poisonous yellow cloud instantly into the environment. The gas cloud lingers for 12 seconds. Any survivor repairing the gen, and within the clouds radius, at the time of the explosion will suffer heavy vision blur and have their auras revealed for 8 seconds. Any survivor attempting to continue to repair the generator will have skill-checks occuring every 2 seconds of repair while the cloud remains in the environment.
Up to 3 bottles may be held, but can never be reloaded. Start with 2, but an add-on can be changed to give you 1 more of the Interlude Tonic.
I mean, I guess it's more information? Which is nice, but it's not even that good, as one, it's completely nullified as long as survivors already repaired the generator to 50%, two, it's only 3 generators, two, only lasts 12 seconds and doesn't slow anything down, and three can only be used three times during a match. Would basically make The Clown Doctor, but he can only Hinder you and only Static Blasts in an short radius (which isn't guaranteed to be near you, and probably won't be). It's just not that effective.
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@thefallenloser His bottles are designed to be slow down tools, and route deterrence. Bottles are supposed to be saved and used in areas that a survivor cannot do much to out maneuver in as well as shutting down the stronger peel away routes. To say Clown has terrible chase pressure just tells me you don't how to play him.
Being able to use bottles to regress gens shouldn't be a thing, no killer should have that ability.
Having a function that relies on you hitting someone directly with a bottle twice in order to mess up their movement isn't needed either; a) trying to hit direct tosses is a waste of time b) err, there isn't a 'b' because the 'a' was so great.
Clown isn't the weakest killer in dbd, he has very strong chase capability, and has tools at his disposal to be able to pull off some very neat techs. I'd say Bubba is the weakest, so far - since no one has discovered techs with his power yet. It limits his playstyle and skill-cap.
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His bottles are designed to be slow down tools, and route deterrence. Bottles are supposed to be saved and used in areas that a survivor cannot do much to out maneuver in as well as shutting down the stronger peel away routes. To say Clown has terrible chase pressure just tells me you don't how to play him.
Slow down tools would refer to slowing down the game/generators, in which The Clown doesn't do.
So really his power is route-deterrence. Unless you mean slowing down movement, which Freddy does better anyways since he doesn't slow down in the process, places them way faster, and doesn't have to reload lol?
Assuming I don't know how to play Clown because I said he has terrible chase potential, which is backed up by the stats? Does that mean most red ranks don't know how to play him either or...? Because he's getting the least amount of kills. He's an extremely simple killer and his power is simple to understand when and how to use it, but it's just a boring, weak power.
Being able to use bottles to regress gens shouldn't be a thing, no killer should have that ability.
Having a function that relies on you hitting someone directly with a bottle twice in order to mess up their movement isn't needed either; a) trying to hit direct tosses is a waste of time b) err, there isn't a 'b' because the 'a' was so great.
Quoting from my reply to another player: "Agreeable. This version of The Clown would already be pretty strong without the addition of Afterpiece regression." Forgot to strikethrough that part of the post.
That's the thing though, you don't have to do it, but you're rewarded for doing so, giving the player more agency/choice. "Do you want to take a bit longer to aim for what could be a powerful effect, or do you want to throw quickly for something more simple?"
Clown isn't the weakest killer in dbd, he has very strong chase capability, and has tools at his disposal to be able to pull off some very neat techs. I'd say Bubba is the weakest, so far - since no one has discovered techs with his power yet. It limits his playstyle and skill-cap.
I don't recall hearing of any special techniques with The Clown, but I know of the aiming-down tech for Bubba that extends the chainsaw's length as well as the Pig-like Ambush he can do.
Still don't agree with strong chase capability. Haven't played against or seen any Clowns that down as quickly as Huntress, Billy, etc.
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His bottles are designed to be slow down tools, and route deterrence. Bottles are supposed to be saved and used in areas that a survivor cannot do much to out maneuver in as well as shutting down the stronger peel away routes. To say Clown has terrible chase pressure just tells me you don't how to play him.
Slow down tools would refer to slowing down the game/generators, in which The Clown doesn't do.
So really his power is route-deterrence. Unless you mean slowing down movement, which Freddy does better anyways since he doesn't slow down in the process, places them way faster, and doesn't have to reload lol?
Assuming I don't know how to play Clown because I said he has terrible chase potential, which is backed up by the stats? Does that mean most red ranks don't know how to play him either or...? Because he's getting the least amount of kills. He's an extremely simple killer and his power is simple to understand when and how to use it, but it's just a boring, weak power.
Being able to use bottles to regress gens shouldn't be a thing, no killer should have that ability.
Having a function that relies on you hitting someone directly with a bottle twice in order to mess up their movement isn't needed either; a) trying to hit direct tosses is a waste of time b) err, there isn't a 'b' because the 'a' was so great.
Quoting from my reply to another player: "Agreeable. This version of The Clown would already be pretty strong without the addition of Afterpiece regression." Forgot to strikethrough that part of the post.
That's the thing though, you don't have to do it, but you're rewarded for doing so, giving the player more agency/choice. "Do you want to take a bit longer to aim for what could be a powerful effect, or do you want to throw quickly for something more simple?"
Clown isn't the weakest killer in dbd, he has very strong chase capability, and has tools at his disposal to be able to pull off some very neat techs. I'd say Bubba is the weakest, so far - since no one has discovered techs with his power yet. It limits his playstyle and skill-cap.
I don't recall hearing of any special techniques with The Clown, but I know of the aiming-down tech for Bubba that extends the chainsaw's length as well as the Pig-like Ambush he can do.
Still don't agree with strong chase capability. Haven't played against or seen any Clowns that down as quickly as Huntress, Billy, etc.
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@thefallenloser yeah, misphrased it. Slowdown as in Hinderance.
I'd say no, the majority of Clown players don't play him well at all. They waste bottles by spamming them in one chase, as opposed to how you should play it, use a bottle when you want to deter a specific pathing route and gain a necessary advantage in the loop. I typically use 1 bottle per chase, 2 at max in a safe zone. They also aim at the survivor instead of the route, as well as gassing a survivor when close enough to just get a normal hit regardless. Wasted Bottles hurt the Clown more than anything else.
You're right, that is a Bubba tech I overlooked. -- A Clown tech I use is manipulating his audio cues when chasing a survivor in a LOS blocked loop, as to fall them into thinking a vault just happened. Unique to Clown and an invaluable technique that can remove the need for tolerating an aggrevating/unnecessarily long chase.
Clown can end chases very quickly, as well as juggle highly efficiently too. Not only can he end chases quickly via forcing unsafe movement and gaining free hits/downs, but he can turn safe areas into a deadzone quickly too. Not many killer's can do that. So, played well, Clown has all the capabilities for the necessary pressure in a 4v1 game.
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Perhaps an agreement to disagree? I just seriously don't think The Clown is good at chasing or map pressure in my experience as well as the experiences I've observed from other people. I don't even think I've died to The Clown, only gone down because of Redhead's.
In my opinion, The Clown lacks the tools to compete with good survivors.
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@thefallenloser yeah I think that's best lol
I would still encourage you to explore different approaches to Clown matches, when you play as him (since that's the only time you are in control of the factors).
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Of course! Thanks for your opinions regardless. I'll be looking out for more Clown games as well as playing him a bit more in the future. If I remember, I'll return with my findings to you.
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Bumping this thread here after a few updates and any pre-existing threads I may have to correlate with the release of a JottScund rework video. Go check it out. :)
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