Deathslinger is unhealthy for the game.

Deathslinger is generally fine, however they should adjust his terror radius as it feels really wonky on him as a ranged killer. Either he can appear on you from behind a corner before you get the sound notification he's in the area or while playing him I've gotten a few grabs depending on the map.

yeah weak if youre bad

I hate Spirit, Nurse and Huntress for the same reason, but I do not see this reason to be valid for Deathslinger. He is weaker than any of these 3 characters and I find him balanced, if not a little too weak.

• he can not down them with his power
• just use your eyes
• he uses slow projectile with small hitbox and does aiming animation when about to shoot, it's already hard to hit something with Redeemer
• after every shot he has to reload and when doing so he is slower and does special animation
• smaller harpoon hitbox means it's easier to avoid
• straight, but slow shot with projectile
• when harpooned just try to make chain go into some solid object, so the chain breaks. Also Deathslinger suffers from long stun duration if it happens and if he decides to do M1 attack to avoid stun, no damage is inflicted.
• Huntress has longer range with bigger hatchets' hitboxes, Nurse can teleport, Spirit can move very fast and Billy can instantly down someone. How is Deathslinger better than them?!
• half of a second of chain touching solid object is enough to refuse Deathslinger's his hit. If you get hit when being harpooned, you probably deserve it.

I don't know how you can complain SO DAMN MUCH about so underwhelming killer?! Huntress would just hit you in situations where Deathslinger struggles to do so. You are very biased.

Each killer should chase and play differently..it adds much more spice to the game..its way more entertaining to face a doc than a bubba

I forgot I was reading about Deathslinger there for a second. It sounded like you meant "The Nurse". But ok.

Its really sad but, yeah, survivors having the ability to not just loop a killer but be able to troll and teabag because of a piece of wood is in the way. Its dumb the amount if disrespect you can get. And i dont mean smack talk, i mean like bodyblocking killer, teabagging, flashlight spam etc. Why should i be afraid if all i gotta do to get out of trouble is just go to a blick of wood and go clickyclicky with a flashlight till gens are done

Which is why I used to play a load of Nurse until the devs made her unfun for people who don't hit every blink. The changes didn't make her power "trash", they just removed much of the fun components about being a mediocre Nurse, especially one who knew the thrill and power of playing her before the nerfs to her fun factor, which is why she's an extinct breed. I can't remember the last time I've faced one since the changes.

I dislike playing against The Deathslinger because he's both good at stealth and good at chases, so the only thing to do as a survivor other than hide (which is unproductive for the most part considering how quickly killers gain momentum when one survivor isn't doing something) is to keep The Deathslinger apart from the survivors. What else do survivors do beside get chased and attempt stealth (both of which are made difficult by The Deathslinger? Do gens. And that's not really fun. It's just the survivors wanting to get the experience over with because they don't find enjoyment in the match otherwise.

If The Deathslinger had been around at the beginning of the game, he would have been by far the most powerful killer, no question. That was the only time when survivors could find significant enjoyment and ways to occupy themselves outside of being chased and/or doing gens, and he would have driven the survivors to advance upon the so-called "gen rush" meta even sooner.

So, yes. I agree with OP that The Deathslinger's design and implementation is unhealthy for the game. It yet again drives survivors toward the one thing that can prevent their impending doom.

While I dislike playing against The Deathslinger, I really enjoyed playing against terrifying Nurses before the changes. Those games were solidly among the few that made me feel like I was in control of what difficult decisions I had to make. I often threw my life away for altruism points because I'm a bloodpoint slave (another thing wrong with this game, imo, but that's for a different discussion), but I never felt too exasperated by my utter defeat. I knew what good Nurses could do, and I was rightly afraid. I almost understand what a good Deathslinger can do, but I have a very good grasp on what he cannot do: protect gens efficiently. So, I focus on gens to just get out of the match. There's no real test in a chase for me. I'm too average, and I have low framerates and often suffer from high latency. And therefore, Pop and Ruin and the like serve to just bandaid the greater issues presented by a killer's inability to be everywhere at once and the lack of fear that should normally alleviate that issue.

TL;DR Deathslinger is unhealthy because he makes survivors clearly focus on gens more intently than do other killers. Fix issue of fear removed by comms and overall survivor knowledge from auras and portraits, do other overall balance stuff NOT related to chases, and then tone down The Deathslinger's overwhelming ability in chase (against most survivors), and suddenly, many people could feel much happier about playing this game.

Edit: #revertNurse (except the reappearance change from the survivor side)

He does have a sound cue. When he aims and has you in his sights there is a ringing noise.

Just because you didnt pay attention doesn't mean it's not there.

Same has been said about Nurse and Spirit. They're still here, why not keep Deathslinger?

Deathslinger is pretty fine the way he is. To be honest, I haven't really seen many people playing him lately (1 over the past few days).

Ok, there's a way to make him stealthy? There's a lot of ways to make a killer stealthy. But he can't down people just by using his gun. If you don't want to worry about getting stealth hit, bring something like Premonition or Spine Chill. Some kinda intel perk that'll inform you if he's near - and guess what? It'll work with other killers too! Utilise your 3rd person camera, look behind you in chases or while doing gens. He can't shoot through walls, nor can he see through them. Meaning, if you can see him, he MIGHT (first person perspective) see you, and you've got time to make some distance. A gen in a closed off space is fine because you'll be in his TR before he comes into view, so you'll still hear him before you see him while he likely won't have a solid idea of your whereabouts.

Any killer can be good at high ranks if someone puts enough practise into it, but there are simply some that are naturally "better" for it than others. Deathslinger at high ranks are hard to face? I'd hope so! I'd hope any high rank killer is a challenge. High rank Huntress is deadly too. There's always someone who will be skilled with a killer and absolutely dominate with them. Games aren't supposed to be easy, you're not supposed to escape every game no matter the skill level. There shouldn't be a solid way to beat every single killer with the exact same tactic. You're complaining about him because he's different, because you can't use the same old tricks. Killers aren't here to teach you anything, especially other killers or how to loop.

Looping? Isn't a problem. I am by far, no where near skilled at chases, but I know that if he's really desperate to shoot you with his gun.. Loops are great! He's like looping Huntress, if Huntress couldn't down you with her hatchets, and had a small stun every time she missed a throw. He's not supposed to be looped like "every other" killer - so many killers have different looping mechanics built into their ability anyway! Spirit can phase around loops faster, Clown can slow loops with a bottle in moments when outspeeding him is crucial, Trapper and Hag can place traps around loops and windows - perks like Spirit Fury and Bamboozle can help end chases quicker, Huntress can chuck a hatchet at you and injure you from the other side of the loop. Really the only difference is that everyone's learned how to counter these killers - There's no second thought when getting chased by these killers because they've been around enough that we have these cautions in our heads in a chase; It's Spirit, watch the grass, it's Huntress, don't run straight and preemptive pallets won't work, it's Clown, mindgame his bottles and stay ahead enough, Trapper, be cautious around pallets and windows, try to scope out your area pretty well before you work on it.

You can literally mindgame Deathslinger in the open. You don't even need to lose LoS. He punishes you if your predictable, that's it.

It was proven long ago that Spirit DOES NOT move grass in phase. Staying awake against Freddy via walking to clocks is a severe waste of time likely to get your team killed, and guess what Freddy likes to do most? Run an addon that makes it so that that's the only way to wake up. Those aren't counters. You won't see any good survivor run to the other side of the map to use a clock. The only time it's useful to do so is if you're already at it, which you won't be when you fall asleep. I don't understand why people say "Well just stay awake" like that's a legitimate option. Doing that will get you killed, and it's much better to just treat him like Clown if he's puddle Freddy. The only time you should be waking up is if you almost have a gen done and he is in a chase, blow the gen up when it's close to 99% and you can wake up others, but don't go running to clocks every single time you doze off. t's really annoying when people say things like they 100% know what they're talking about when they've proven that they don't by saying things are counterplay that were proven NOT to be counterplay and talking down to people. If you're going to tell someone they don't know how to play, at least know what you're talking about.

?? Except that he can down injured survivors with his gun when he brings them in???

Death Slinger is like, Mid or Mid Top tier at best my guy.

He has some pretty exploitable weaknesses, biggest one being, he can't just down an injured person with his ability like Huntress could over a pallet, he has to actively hit them, which can be quite tough sometimes, especially against experienced survivors.

Also, no semi-truck hitbox like Huntress, it can be pretty unforgiving at times.

I don't fully agree with your whole post and reasonings, but I do also hate deathslinger. We agree on that much. People are saying he's weak, which he may be in terms of map and gen pressure, but most killers have that issue. That's a map thing though, not a deathslinger thing, but oh well. He really doesn't have a real counter. He's just annoying and wholly unfun to go against. I've not played as him because I don't wanna put people through that torture. I hate him.

I'd argue he's one of the healthiest killers in the game. You can avoid him if you're smart and slick, but he can still catch up to you and his range is pretty far. Once he catches you, though, that's when things really get tense. It's a better situation than most killers at launch, I'd argue he's probably got the healthiest loadout thus far, I don't think he'll need any updates or reworks in the future. He's a powerhouse with a small weakness.