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All killers ranked on how fun they are to VS
There a lot of balance issues in this game, not just with pure power and strength, but with fun. I know a lot of people are sweaty tryhards who just want to get to rank 1, but there a lot of players, particularly survivor players, who just want to have fun. It is possible to make killers who are both fun to play, fun to play against, and capable of getting 4Ks if played correctly. However, there are too many killers that are either unfun to VS, unfun to play, too strong, or far too weak.
So I've decided to rank all the current killers based on how fun they are to play against. The higher ranked they are, the more fun they are to play against.
Keep in mind, this is my personal opinion. If you disagree for any reason, let me know, but be respectful. Also keep in mind that this is how fun they are to VS, not how good or bad they are as killers.
Nurse: Probably an unpopular opinion, but I actually have a lot of fun going against nurses, both bad ones and good ones. The only time she's actually unfun to play against is if she has the 4.2 movement speed addon.
Deathslinger: He's pretty fun. Not only that, but IMO, he's not too strong or weak of a killer.
Huntress: I enjoy going against huntress, though it is fairly map dependent. Dodging her hatchets is extremely fun and makes me feel like I'm actually good at the game. The only time I absolutely hate the Huntress, is when she brings iri heads.
Clown: Clown is a fairly weak killer, but that's not the only reason he's fun to VS. Red Head's Pinky Finger is BS though.
GF, Shape, and Pig: What can I say, I like going against stealth killers. They keep you on your toes and make the game actually scary. None of them are too strong though, with the exception of Myers with certain addons.
Oni: Poor man's Billy with some tracking ability. Dodging his fury attacks is pretty rewarding and fun.
Demo: He's fun to play and fun to play against.
Trapper, Hag, and Billy: All kind of average. Not too fun but not terribly unfun either IMO. Hag is kind of scary though, which I like. They're also all fairly balanced.
Legion: I don't think that Legion is terribly good or anything, but he is both boring to play and boring to play against.
PH: I like the changes they made to his cages, but I'd rather things like DS and BT activate on a cage and he be able to see the auras, rather than the changes he got. Plus, he completely cancels out all good survivor gameplay and looping by being able to hit people through walls with barely any penalty.
Plague: There's no real counterplay to plague. Either you don't cleanse and stay injured the whole match, or you do cleanse and she gets corrupt. Or you don't cleanse and she gets corrupt anyways.
Wraith: No comment.
Leatherface: I know he's basically a poor man's billy, but I've never met a single cannibal who didn't facecamp and tunnel and be toxic in post-game chat. Nothing against the killer himself, but rather the people who play him.
Nightmare: Gross
Doctor: Also gross. The only real counter to doctor is Calm Spirit, but who's just gonna be out here running Calm Spirit on the off chance they VS a doctor.
Spirit: Disgusting angry sewage girl who sounds like a crunchy and upset minecraft villager.
Comments
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Youd hate me 😂
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You'd love me :)
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me 2 lul
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I too find Nurse to be the most fun against, but probably because I main her.
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I think billy is the funnest to go against
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The ranged killers are definitely my favorite too, including Demo and Plague (not nurse tho).
Honestly I wish teammates would cleanse vs her, it makes the games way more exciting when she has corrupt purge.
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I'd put Billy and Freddy up higher, and drop Oni to Bubba level, but mostly I agree. I especially agree with Spirit having her own tier of unfun-ness.
Edit: I just saw you describe spirit as, "Disgusting angry sewage girl who sounds like a crunchy and upset minecraft villager." and I've never seen something so bizarre yet so accurate.
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*Plague has no counterplay* ☹️
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This list reads like "The harder it is to bully a killer the less fun they are to play against."
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That's not it all. Nurse is IMO one of the best killers out there. And I speak from experience as someone who plays an equal amount of survivor and killer. Huntress is also usually regarded as a good killer.
Most people would say that the two best killers are Nurse and Spirit, and I have one of them as the most fun to VS and one as the least fun to VS. If anything, this list is proof that BHVR can make killers that are good at their job and can get kills but still be fun to play against.
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i can understand for certain times in the game, such as one-on-one chases, but I mostly dislike him because of BBQ plus Doom Engravings and it's impossible to get gates open cuz he can patrol those things insanely fast
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I maybe should've been more specific, because you can kind of "counter" her by just being a good survivor and being good at chases, but she has no special counter. Like, with all the stealth killers, the counter is to just keep an eye out, nurse's counter is to run directly at her when she's about to blink, billy and bubba are countered by staying in jungle gyms and avoiding the chainsaw hits. Plague doesn't have anything like that. She can become even better by bringing stuff like olibanum incense or the apples
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Obviously I respect your opinion, and fun is subjective, but why would you put Deathslinger at the bottom? Even below Spirit?
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I would put Clown and Deathslinger a lot further down to be honest. Clown is just prethrow the pallet, so you don't get a lot of chase interaction and Deathslinger is impossible to dodge. You can try to make a good read on him but since every Deathslinger just quick-scopes it doesn't matter.
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As a killer main, i disagree. Bubba is like the easiest killer to bully in the game and so is legion and kinda wraith. Demo, oni and hag are extremely hard to bully. This is like pretty average takes for fun killers.
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Flip a tier list upside down and there's your fun list for most people. 😁
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Generally agree for most placement. Nurse, clown, and demo could probably be lower. Nurse is an easy win sure but knowing the outcome before the match is pretty lame, just like demo, you already won, it's just how much can you torture them for bp. Clown always wrecks me with his eye blockers so I'm never happy to face clown lol.
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Ok i see your reasoning. Makes sense in that context.
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I can see where you're coming from, but I disagree on the Nurse and Demo thing. I've gone against plenty of really good Nurses and Demos who have gotten 4Ks and completely wrecked me (I'm a rank 2 Survivor currently. Was rank 1 for a whole match) but it really depends on who's playing them
I also get the clown thing. One of my friends hates the clown but for some reason the blurred vision doesn't really affect me that much and i can still do chases and get stuns and the like
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How do you find Clown fun to go against. He's literally man with knife.
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I can get that, but I still enjoy the clown and deathslinger. Clown's clouds don't really bother me that much and I've gotten a lot of pallet stuns from the killer underestimating my ability to see him. And deathslinger is hard to dodge in more open areas, but it's easier in jungle gyms and if you're moving unpredictably. A good tip for going against deathslinger, is that his speargun actually has travel time, it's not hitscan. You do still have to react pretty quick, but if you hear him fire and then jerk to a different direction, you can get a dodge
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I get that, but that's part of what makes him fun. My tier list is in no way meant to say stuff like "if it's a bad killer then they're fun to go against" but sometimes it is fun to go against worse killers. I also just really enjoy his cloud mechanics. I know that it's like super weak, and Clown definitely needs a buff of some kind, but trying to do chases with that ######### up vision is just fun, and its especially rewarding to well in those instances
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My issue with clown is the ######### up vision. Its cool and all but if a clown has cloud duration add-ons it gives people, including me some annoying headaches.
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Oh #########. I can't believe I never thought of that. I bet there's a lot of people who get like headaches or a dizzy/nauseous feeling from his clouds. Yeah, that can't be fun
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Ironically I'd put Spirit where Nurse is.
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True, but obviously any killer who camps and tunnels automatically becomes unfun
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Do you need a therapist?
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Because he is the most discusting being in Dead by Daylight since Legion 1.0? Versus Spirit you have at least a chance to counter her power, but versus Quickscope Boy there is nothing else you can do but hope he is playing bad. 0 reactive gameplay. And on top of it, his weakness is mobility, which means you have a LOT of time sitting on gens. Thats a lot of fun too. Plus he is a stinky Cowboy. I mean, a cowboy. In Dead by Daylight. #########? :D
If you would have asked me a year ago what the possible dumbest killer devs might come up with could be, i might have said A Cowboy that runs around with a harpoon which can be used to reel in survivors.
The better question is not why i dislike the deathslinger, but why anybody dont ;) What do you like about him?
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She forces you to adapt and learn how to counter her in a different way, unlike 90% of the killer roster which you counter in the exact same way which is just looping the pallet. Killers that ask something different of the survivors are good design and enjoyable because it changes up my game play.
We have an issue of way too many people forming opinions from watching streamers/youtubers instead of actually experiencing it themselves. Also, too many people who refuse to adapt and learn. They find it easier to come to the forums and complain that the exact same thing they always do doesn't work on every killer.
She also requires extra skill from the killer. If you know basic map tiles and looping mechanics you can already play 90% of the killer roster on literally just that at a decent level. On top of those things, the Spirit also has to be able to play blind and using just her ears. She asks more from the player than most killers to do well in other words.
Spirit is one of the best designed and balanced killers imo. If I go down it's because I was outplayed.
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Pretty fun: Nurse, Spirit, Deathslinger, Oni, Demo, Pyramid, Doctor, Huntress
Somewhat fun: Ghostface, Myers, Pig, Hag, Trapper, Legion,
Average: Plague, Wraith, Bubba, Billy, Clown
Very unfun: Freddy
It varies from match to match and the killer's playstile, but generally I'd see it like that.
I love playing against spirit cuz if i beat her on chases, It feels like im in the other player's head and its super satisfying.
I absolutely detest Freddy. I find his design boring, I think his character model is probably the ugliest in the game. His snares slow you down which just prevents you from making plays which i find boring and annoying, and it doesn't even have the limitations that Clown's bottles have, he can just spam them ad nauseam.
Billy is just loud and obnoxious, has instasaw and is annoying as hell when they just hold they're chainsaw up forever until they finally commit to it at certain loops.
Deathslinger and Pyramid Head are similar in that they require you to know how the killer is played and pay attention to how they're playing in the match. They also require you to be extremely careful with your distance from killer and your positioning around pallets.
The rest either give pretty fun chases where you have to be pretty aware of what you're doing but are generally easier to deal with or require you to be super vigilant.
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I died at " crunchy upset minecraft villager." Thank you OP.
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Nurse used to be up at the very top, but then she got nerfed, and I've only seen Nurses that are terrible or (one) Nurse that downs everybody too quickly and has Infectious, and that's not fun.
The other killers at the top of this list are there because I play them frequently and because I know that I can use the skills I've learned throughout my time playing DbD (hiding, looping, etc.)
The next tier down has killers that I see use a lot of slowdown perks, and I don't enjoy those games, so my perception of those killers are colored by that distasteful aspect. They would probably be higher if Pop and (current) Ruin weren't in the game.
I dislike being trapped mainly because I instantly lose all agency in keeping myself alive. I dislike Ghostface because he's janky to reveal and most players use Pop. I'm also not a total fan of the sound design or lack thereof when it comes to him.
These consist of killers against which I can't utilize stealth in any significant aspect (save one really awesome Plague game) and/or are just annoying to face in several situations. Clown just means drop a lot of pallets (which I rarely ever drop against any other killer because I'm GREEDY in chase). Oni means wonky animations that tell me I shouldn't have been hit and a tracking ability on all injured survivors. Plague means no stealth, and she comes with a practically un-dodgeable ranged power attack. Legion means I'll always be injured and I'll always be found. Spirit means I'm going to be hit when I'm forced to run into the open, but I don't mind some Spirit players, and I've had a number of games where I enjoy myself.
Doctor's chase music is awful and he gives even less stealth potential than he gave before his rework (when he was a killer I used to like playing). Freddy is annoying, particularly because of the lack of terror radius in the dream world, his ability to see survivors trying to stealth before you see him, and the use of Pop and Ruin on him. Oh, and his snares aren't fun to play against. Deathslinger is never fun, mainly because I'm only being used as a moving target in someone else's FPS game. If a Deathslinger misses, I'm fully aware that none of that had to do with my skill and only had to do with the fact that The Deathslinger couldn't aim and time a shot properly. This tier of killers is the "I want to d/c right now" tier, but I do not condone d/cing and don't follow through with my wish. If I'm caught, though, I will immediately try to enter the third hook stage.
Edit: I'm the kind of player that says "get me the **** out of this chase ASAP", and my happiness with the game increases when I escape even though the killer still wants to chase me.
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He's not a cowboy, he's a badass bounty hunter/gang member and looks cool as hell with his redeemer. He's one of my favorites because of his character design and his weapon choice.
You question a "cowboy" in dbd but not the fact that we have a clown that eats fingers and a slimy Demogorgon?
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I completely agree with this fun-tier list. I would defiantly say that the Nurse and Desthslinger are the most fun killers to go against for me.
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Clowns? Why should i question a Clown, they are iconic in horror movies, books and tv shows since ages. And Demogorgon is a Demon, D&D character and the most iconic antagonist in one of the most popular Sci-Fi Horror shows.
You say he is not a Cowboy? Well, who cares what he is per definition, show him to 100 random people and 99 say its a stinky Cowboy and 1 guy plays banjo in silence.
And of course i question a Cowboy in DbD, has a Cowboy really anything to do with Horror? If so, enlighten me please. I am not american, but even those americans i know 100% agree that cowboys in DbD are a bit silly.
Kind regards
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I mean you can theoretically get good nurses and demo's. Been rank one for quite some time and have faced exactly one goodish nurse who got carried by my potato hook diving teammates, doing it without borrowed of course. Zero challenging demos ever. So boring knowing you won already and maybe one in a hundread or more matched against those killers you might get some sort of challenge. You can sure show off your sick jukes and loops against them I suppose since for the most part they are helpless to it. Feels pretty hollow though.
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One again, don't see him as a cowboy because obviously there aren't any "cowboy" killers. He's a bounty hunter, and there's been plenty of horror movies that involved just regular killers like a hunter.
He's a human killer, that even you could see in real life because bounty hunters are real people with real jobs. It just so happens that he is an Irish immigrant in a completely different time period so him being a bounty hunter is different from what one is today. I think it's awesome that they have these killers from different time periods and places around the world, they are all different from each other and aren't boring.
I see him more interesting than all the other killers because there is no other killer that is like him. Call him what you want, he still has one of the coolest character designs and story.
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I dont think we will agree here but anyway.. The reason why i think he is a cowboy is probably because i am not to much into the story of the game, especially not when it is a killer like this. I just see a cowbow running out of the saloon with a harpoon in his hand.
He is an absolutly non interactive killer that was only designed to bring in people from shooters. He is not fun to verse at all, but i understand that people play him a lot since he it is great to be able to ignore every possible defense survivors have. I dont play him sololy because i know how it feels to play against this stinkmouth. Just like the first version of Legion, same nonsense. This man shares my opinion word by word and he descibes it in a great way.
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This would be mine. Edit: swapped Doctor and Plague around
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This is also my list. The only change i would make is change trapper with deathslinger.
I am a trap magnet. All these traps are on weird places you never Will think off and of course i step on it😤
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If you think spirit has no counterplay you must not be very good. There's 2 very easy ways to counter her and a perk that destroys her.
1. When on gens use your ears more than your eyes
2. When in a chase if she activates her ability stop running and change direction. She can only find you by scratch marks and sounds you make.
3. This isn't one that you can do in the match, but if you have spine chill you can just ruin a spirit if you play carefully
I find GF the shape and pyramid head a lot more unfun to play against than the spirit. With GF he can come out of nowhere and just instadown you with his easy exposed status. With the shape it's not as bad but he can do basically the same thing. People who get the exposed status that easily ruin the game imo. And pyramid head just has very little counterplay at all. You can try and dodge his ranged attack but all that will do is decrease the distance between you and him for a regular attack. Then what? DS? you probably can't. He's way too good at downing survivors and once you are downed there's absolutely no counterplay to him.
This being said I think "fun" has less to do with the killer and more with the person's playstyle and skill. I'd rather fight a spirit or even pyramid head around my skill level than fight and low tier killer way better than me. The game is a lot less fun when you're slaughtered in the first 5 minutes
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If any of you saw my hag she'd be way at the bottom of the list. She punishes any altruistic behavior so hard. I run ruin, surveillance, devour hope, and a nurses calling. First 3 hooks just run to the other side of the map. Have permanent exposed status on all survivors until totem is cleansed (defend that crap) and suddenly hook rescues become literally impossible due to hag teleport + exposed insta down
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I have a blast playing pallet Freddy.
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Clown, Spirit, Freddy, Doctor, and Michael are some of the most boring killer to face.
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I get that deathslinger is kind of a weird design, but I actually kinda like it. We have a lot of weird killers in DBD, including an angry samurai, a group of rambunctious teenagers, and an ancient priestess with bolemia. A cowboy isn't that far out IMO.
I'm seeing a lot of divisiveness about deathslinger in the comments. Apparently a lot of people actually really hate him, which I get, but for some reason i actually really enjoy going against him. IMO he's basically a slightly weaker version of huntress and dodging his shots are just fun to me.
Do you think he'd be more fun to VS if, like Huntress, he had to take a second to actually throw the hatchet. Like huntress grunts and takes a second to reel it then throw it. What if deathslinger had some kind of notification and it took him a little longer to ADS?
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There are plenty of killers that have to be countered in different ways that are still plenty of fun to VS. Nurse for example, can cancel literally any loop by just blinking through the wall/pallet. Doctor can prevent pallet stuns and vaults, freddy can do the same, clown can, in theory stop loops but he still kinda sucks, etc.
The difference between spirit and all of these killers is that there's no real counterplay. No warning. You can see doctor's charging up their shock and know to prevault or predrop, you can see clown's clouds and know to run around them, you can see freddy's traps and avoid them. Spirit does no such thing unless you're outside of her terror radius, but she rarely phases outside of a chase. And in that situation there's no audio or visual indication that she's started phasing.
Trying to counter spirit is literally just a guessing game. That's it. There's no skill involved. You have to guess if she's actually phasing or just faking it, if she is actually phasing, what way is she moving, where is she? It complete guessing and that takes the fun out of it
VSing most other killers is more fun because, if you manage to win chases and win against them, then you know that it was because you have more skill, and if you lose to them, then you know they have more skill. When it comes to spirit, if you win, its just pure luck, if you lose, its also just luck
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I'm glad you agree. Apparently there's a lot of divisiveness when it comes to deathslinger and a lot of people hate him
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Deathslinger and the Nurse are super cool, people who don't like them probably don't do well against them😁
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Im gonna guess that the perk you're referring to that can "absolutely destroy her" is iron will. I disagree with that. First of all, you can't expect every survivor to just run iron will on the off chance it's a spirit. Same thing with spine chill. Second, stridor counters it as well
When you're on gens, you can keep an ear out for a phasing spirit, but prayer beads makes it tough, plus you can't hear the phasing if you're inside her terror radius.
How are you gonna know if she starts phasing in the middle of a chase? For all you know, she could just be standing there and faking the phase, waiting for you to start trying to sneak away.
The "counterplay" to spirit is pure guessing and dumb luck. You have to hope that you're making the right decision and you have to hope that you know what she's trying to do. There's no actual skill involved. Spirit would so much more fun and balanced if there was some way (other than the phasing sound you only hear outside of her terror radius) to know when she's actually using her ability
I do however completely agree with you about the killer's skill. If i go against a nurse main with a couple thousand hours in the game, then im gonna get destroyed and have no fun whatsoever, even tho nurse is typically my fave to VS
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