Cage of Atonement needs to change.
Recently we have received a hotfix for Dead by Daylight, in which Executioner's Cage of Atonement ability has been altered. Although I agree with the reason behind this change, I feel it should have been reasonable to compensate for this change and improve The Executioner's power.
Allow me to explain.
The Executioner is Dead by Daylight's spotlight killer in their most recent chapter, Silent Hill. He is a map-manipulation killer, able to torment Survivors with the hazards he creates. Affected Survivors will be vulnerable to his special hook, Cage of Atonement, and his special mori, Final Judgement.
A unique killer, being one of the few Killers able to mori a Survivor without perks or offerings. The Pig's Jigsaw Traps can mori a Survivor if they fail to remove the trap in time, and The Shape can mori a Survivor with unique add-ons at his disposal. Understandably so, players believed it to be frustrating to combat against the Cage of Atonement for its limited counter-play. Simply put, their is no way of escaping the Cage of Atonement, no lucky self unhooks, the Deliverance perk will not activate despite its condition of rescue being met, and without the aid of an ally you will die.
There is no way of fighting the Cage of Atonement, you can only avoid it. Avoid contact with the Rites of Judgement trail left behind by The Executioner, and avoid being spotted and captured at all costs.
On paper the idea is intriguing, but in display we have discovered a few weaknesses.
1- The Cage of Atonement is predictable.
Putting it mildly, The Cage of Atonement would spawn at the farthest distance away from The Executioner's position. Most players quickly learned of their specific spawn points, and began to take advantage of that. It may be a flaw or an oversight, but I do not think the developers placed much thought into how experienced players are quick to adapting, Hooking a Survivor was preferable, thereby rendering the Cage ability rather useless.
To be clear, Cage of Atonement has one clear benefit: All perk abilities relying on hooks were rendered ineffective by the cage. Decisive Strike, Borrowed Time, Deliverance, these are a few examples of strong Survivor perks which would lose their power when pit against the special hook. However this benefit was also a double-edged sword, rendering the hook perks for The Executioner to be ineffective as well. Barbecue and Chili, Make Your Choice, and Dying Light are examples of hook-reliant perks for Killers. Utilizing the cage would thus become a risk on your behalf, is it worth sending Tormented Survivors to the Cage, to be rid of unknown perks they may or may not be wielding in order to make the chase easier for yourself? Be wary that you have no control as to the direction of the Cage, and their is a high possibility that one of the remaining 3 Survivors is at the exact spawn point for the Cage at that moment.
2- The Cage of Atonement removes the Torment effect on Survivors.
The unique effect of Torment would be inflicted on Survivors who come into contact with the Rites of Judgement. Tormented Survivors would be easier to track as barbed wires would accompany the trail marks they would leave behind, and would leave them vulnerable to Final Judgement once they have reached the second stage of death. There is no way of removing this effect except in rescuing or being rescued from the Cage of Atonement. Doing so, you will come to notice that players often do their very best to avoid Rites of Judgement and with good reason, but I can tell you from my experience that it certainly isn't out of fear from being sent to the Cage.
3- Does this change benefit the Killer or the Survivors?
If the Cage of Atonement now spawns elsewhere due to the presence of the Killer, wouldn't the Killer be able to use this to their advantage? Say all 3 Survivors rush to rescue their ally, but the Killer arrives first. The Cage would then spawn further away from the Killer's position to avoid camping, thus resulting in a comedic chase between the Killer and the Survivors to rescue their ally. How does moving the victim fix this issue, won't their be other issues this change will bring as well? It won't be long now until Monto makes a video illustrating this comedic effect and how it could benefit The Executioner instead.
I understand with the decision to remove The Executioner's ability to track the Cage of Atonement.
I understand why Cage of Atonement will spawn elsewhere if the presence of The Executioner remains for too long.
My question is...
4- Why should I use Cage of Atonement?
It removes the Torment effect which would increase tracking and grant Final Judgement.
It predictably spawns the Survivor far away from me and possibly towards their allies, removing the time they need to rescue.
It leaves me with little progress in slowing their speed at accomplishing their objectives.
So why use Cage of Atonement now? What is the benefit, what is the result? The removal of hook-reliant perks goes both ways and isn't enough for most players to consider it a fair trade.
I sincerely hope Behavior gives this question some thought and consider adding or tinkering with Cage of Atonement so as to properly answer this question, as I believe I am not the only one who feels this way. I understand this post may be conflicting and most people will think of it as whining for having a Killer be nerfed. I hope my argument is enough to leave you asking the same question, this change in The Executioner by no means makes the Killer any weaker, he still has Punishment of the Damned and Final Judgement to rely on.
In Layman's terms, Cage of Atonement serves no purpose now. I hope Behavior addresses that what it does is not enough and will not be enough for most players.
Thank you for reading my dramatically long post. Do you agree or disagree? Support your thoughts and if you have other changes in mind, feel free to share your thoughts and share this idea in case the developers were to notice.
Also fingers crossed the Coconut from Space comes across this 🤞
Comments
-
You came here from space coconut? That explains a lot.
5 -
Not quite, and I am uncertain what you mean by that exactly. Are you hinting that Space Coconut makes bad arguments, thus insinuating that my arguments are bad? You will have to elaborate and be more precise for me to appropriately respond.
Space Coconut is one of the few content creators who addresses issues or flaws with Dead by Daylight, and for some odd or unknown reason is often met with a taboo or unwanted presence for such. I am curious to know why he receives this response, nonetheless he is unrelated to my overall post aside from a small shout out in the end.
Do you have something to say regarding Cage of Atonement?
1 -
expanding a few sentences into a multi-paragraph novel about everything in this game being awful, no matter the tiniest detail. To me, he's like the modern Tyde Time.
5 -
You should only use cage on moments when you want to slug the survivor. This means cages works great with infectious fright.
I think that was the idea behind the cages and that is the reason the hotfix is targeting tunneling and camping with the cages.
1 -
It's an instant hook. Like bruh it's seriously already powerful.
2 -
I mean if you hook someone then down them again and you know they have ds just send them to the cage, or if you see an Adam and he’s tormented and you know he has deliverance send him to the cage, if there’s survivors trying to save the one you downed that’s tormented send him to the cage and waste their time from doing hens
0 -
Gens blech keyboard
0 -
I agree him and Tyde tyme I can tell don’t like dbd anymore this is them in a nutshell
”I want the devs to make it so the survivors start the game on the hook” devs don’t add it “wahh devs are survivor sided they only care about them and money wahhhh wahhhhh😭😭”
1 -
Well let's point here why it's better to use a cage sometimes
.It's an insta- hook.
. You avoid the traveling time wich allows you to do other things like keep patrolling gens.
.You avoid flash saves.
.You avoid a possible sabo squad.
.The meta perks DS an BT are useless in cages so even if you want to tunnel you can do it
Do you need more reasons?
1 -
Being not able to see where the survivor is caged is the biggest nerf, making the pressure WAY less than using an actual hook. It's basically a free heal and a free un-torment, unless you have other survivors tormented and can chase them down and down them quickly.
1 -
My point exactly, Cage of Atonement in my opinion does not benefit the Killer enough to warrant using it. My post is meant to address this issue before others begin to point it out first, and to state that Cage of Atonement needs to change. Hence the title.
So far the reasons people give me as to why Cage of Atonement is good or valid are points I have already addressed in my post. They are not invalid, but because the Cage dismisses several perks for both Survivors and the Killer, while also being predictable in its spawning point, to me it does not do enough to be useful. I believe others will feel the same in this regard as well.
0 -
TydeTyme does dislike the game, which is why he stopped playing it. Space Coconut has mentioned numerous times that he enjoys the game but dislikes how people choose to actively ignore the flaws or dismiss them. Why people are hesitant or resistant when fans ask the developers to do better is an interesting study for me. Perhaps they view it as a threat to a product they enjoy? I cannot say, but I certainly believe Space Coconut gets a lot of undeserved hate for his thoughts and opinions. He does support his reasons after all, I can't fault him for that.
0 -
Except Tyde hates DBD and refuses to play it while Coconut actually enjoys it despite its flaws.
1 -
The insta-hook and avoiding sabotage are fair points that I agree with. The travel time and how the Cage ignores famous perks like Decisive Strike and Borrowed Time is something I addressed in my post twice. Yes, I do need more reasons because although the Cage ignores Survivor Perks that are hook reliant, they ignore the Killer Perks in that regard as well. Barbecue and Chili, Make Your Choice, these perks don't work when you use the Cage of Atonement instead. As I mentioned previously, Cage of Atonement is predictable in its spawn point. There are 3 Survivors possibly dispersed throughout the map while you chase one. Would you rather-
A- Hook the Survivor to get use of Barbecue and Chili, Pop Goes The Weasel, and other famous meta perks that Killers rely on heavily.
-or-
B- Send the Tormented Survivor into the Cage of Atonement, which promises to be far away from your location, of which you can no longer see the aura of, of which you run the possibility of a 33% chance of one of three Survivors being near said Cage to rescue them?
Option A has been reliable for the previous 19 Killers, allowing you to use all of your hook-reliant perks and camp your prey if needed so as to possibly hinder the progress of the Survivors should they choose to prioritize rescuing their teammate.
Option B is a gamble in which yes, you would save time in hooking a Survivor but likewise you run the risk of saving them time from needing to move towards you for a rescue. Camping is a touchy subject for most, but it is effective to a degree if the Survivors were to prioritize rescue over Generator Progression.
So yes, as selfish or greedy as it may sound I do believe I need more reasons to use Cage of Atonement. I have done well actively avoiding the use of it when I play as The Executioner essentially after his second day of release, and I promise you it will become rare to see other Executioner players use this ability, and no I do not count Final Judgement as part of his Cage of Atonement ability.
I do hope I was able to properly explain myself and help you understand my point of view.
0 -
Thank you for that, Space Coconut has said he enjoys the game numerous times before. The slight shout out to him is because he is active in the forums now and then and I would like to know his opinion on Cage of Atonement as well.
0 -
He has to be a bit active since his community is growing. I'll be sure to ask him next time I catch him streaming.
1 -
Much appreciated, however when I jokingly requested if he may look into my posts his response left me uncertain as to whether he was bothered by my request. In other words, my first impression in his eyes may have been tainted and there is a chance he views me as a troll of some sort. Of course, humor can easily be misheard when it is just text, and there is an equal chance I misread or misunderstood his response as well.
Oh well, his look into my posts would be highly appreciated but I will respect his decision if he decides otherwise and will be thankful for you if you decide to ask or not. Once again, thank you for your input and for considering asking him if you come across him next time. He is very underrated and does not deserve as much hate or negative reaction as he receives for his fair criticisms of the game.
1
