The Clown Problem

Yes, I'm doing another one of these, and no I didn't learn my lesson from last time. Ok. Good? Got what you wanted? Fine. Begone with you then.

Right. Now that the serious people are staying, I can get on with the topic at hand.

Before we go on further as well, I'm not specifically talking about the highest levels of gameplay, I'm talking for the average, almost casual player. The one who picks up the game for fun after a long day and wants to do something a little different. This thread however, is aimed somewhat more at the higher levels of play, but the whole of the The [Killer] Problem series is to be for a Green-Purple focus.

Clown. Great killer in theory, kind of a mess in today's meta.

His power to slow survivors with an area of effect power that also has a vision impairment effect on a survivor is, on paper, BLOODY FANTASTIC. You easily shut down loops, get downs and even easy information about survivor locations within one simple power.

Clown was easily one of the stronger killers at the time of his launching, and even during Patch 2.3.3 was considered within the A-Tier of all killers.

So, what's the problem? Another killer just too good for you, potato survivor? Pffft. No. Quite the opposite.

There are two killers that Clown gets compared to the most as of late: Freddy and Doctor. All three of these killers have a similar effect: They have the power to shut down Survivor looping tools. Freddy has his Blood Snares, a small AoE that slows a single survivor, Doctor has his Shock Therapy which stuns a Survivor preventing vaults and pallet drops. Clown's power is better, since it's a more ranged, large AoE effect, right? Yes. It IS better than those two abilities. However all 3 of these killers share a similar problem.

How is Clown now considered the weakest killer, as of 3.5.0, by just about all members of the community with a decent length of time in the game. So, what changed?

Survivor knowledge and skill.

Survivors learnt how to counter the Clown's power, and with no other skills, What Clown DOES have going for him also has massive drawbacks.

Survivor Knowledge: If there is one thing that Survivors have to do more of before complaining about a killer's power is adapt, and OH BOY have they adapted over time. There are now two major things that counter a Clown before adding perks or items into the mix: Stealth and throwing a pallet early. If the Clown cannot find you, he cannot chase you. He cannot rely on his power. You play stealth, there is a good chance you'll survive quite easily.

As for in chases, similar to Freddy and Doctor. If you see them charging their power as you're near a vault or pallet, YOU USE IT! This makes it so that the killer then has to waste valuable time going around an obstacle, or breaking a pallet. Precious seconds that you can use to simply dash off and hide.

Clown's own drawbacks are pretty numerous within his base kit. For starters, there is a slight, yet severe slowing of the Clown as he's throwing a bottle, and people have tested that you are no better throwing your bottle as you are just running at a survivor in a straight line. This is probably negated when walls come into play, but if there's a vault nearby, then too bad.

Reloads also take forever, since it's the same cooldown for ALL of your bottles, versus just one. As far as I can tell, your movement speed is also slowed a small bit. This means that you have less mobility on a basic killer, which means more time between patrols, and more time for survivors to finish them and scarper off.

Map pressure is also virtually, VIRTUALLY, non-existent with Clown. Don't lynch me. Let me explain, and listen. I will not have this turn into Hillbilly 2.0 the thread. Outside of a few cases of slugging, or spawning in a smaller map, you have a standard Large killer profile: 32m Terror radius, Large height and 4.6m/s movement. What do you have outside of that and a power that is good in a chase? Nothing. You have a standard terror radius, that any Spine Chill Claudette has used to disappear into the scenery and any other survivor to have moved on to the next generator. You can gas the area, but now you've used up half your bottles, and there's no screaming. Time to move on.

But wait! Quite a few of these problems can be solved by perks, can't they? Well, yes. Monitor and Abuse can help you start a chase quicker. Thrilling Tremors can lock down generators and give you information, and you have Pop Goes the Weasel as one of your teachables. Distressing and Coulrophobia or Unnerving Presence can be quite effective perks combined together for Terror radius map pressure. Play With Your Food can increase your speed, so that it is easier to catch Survivors in general. However, we only have 4 perk slots to deal with, and there are some perks that can just be ignored.

So, back to Freddy and Doctor. Two of the best killers in the game right now, and what do they have that makes them so top-tier? Other abilities to place pressure on Survivors, and less severe drawbacks with their powers, to the point of being non-existent. Freddy's Dream World is a massive problem for Survivors, since he has a lot of add-ons to affect the Dream World and statistics in there AND he can teleport to generators anywhere on the map, provided they aren't complete. Doctor and his Static Blast is an area of effect with massive information benefits, that also adds a tier of Madness to Survivors. Combined with BBq & Chilli, you have locations of every single survivor NOT locked in a locker.

What does Clown have? Nothing.

Clown has been weakened over time by a shifting of understanding. Survivors can beat his power, and a lot of other killers who easily surpass him have ways of using a power outside of a chase that allows them to affect survivors in other ways. Clown relies on the chase, but can't always get that option and therefore has slipped over the years into being the worst killer in Dead by Daylight. As new killers are added, and formerly weaker killers are re-worked into newer, stronger versions of their original concept, they've added more elements to deal with all situations: Demogorgon's portals and Shred, Freddy's teleport, Doc's Static Blast, Pig having Dash and the RBT. Hell, even Trapper and his Bear Traps have more overall threatening map presence than your average Clown.

There are so many small changes that could be made, but they would only put him within the lower areas of the mid-tiers with all likelihood. It's just ironic that the literal clown is now the laughing stock of all the killers in the game.

Make strong killers useful again.