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The Biggest Problem with Killers
Before I tell you the biggest problem with the Killers, I have to talk about what makes a killer balanced and good. Basically, think of it like this :
- There are 2 measurements, Mobility and Lethality.
- A balanced killer would have some mobility and some lethality with counterplays (like Billy) or be extreme in one side while being bad in the other side, balancing the spectrum (like Huntress).
So, what is the biggest problem with killers right now ? The devs can't balance these 2 measurements. Here are some examples ;
- Legion : Extremely mobile and moderatly lethal.
- Spirit : Extremely mobile and extremely lethal.
- Pig : Not lethal and not mobile.
- Clown : Not lethal and not mobile.
As you can see, while some killers are very powerful, the others completely suck. If the devs use these measurements I think we'll get decent and playable (even at red ranks) killers.
Of course some killers are not as easy as they look, the biggest example being Legion because his/her power is unbalancable while killers like Pig only need some tweaks to their numbers and a few changes and boom ! The killer is viable now but if we take all of this into account we can't have a measurement.
Comments
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Just a minor point but Clown is actually fairly lethal since the Silent Hill patch buffed him. He's one of the best one-on-one chasers at this point, certainly more lethal than Legion who can't use Frenzy to get a down for instance. He definitely lacks mobility though.
But the top killers certainly do combine map mobility with something that helps them in a chase (Freddy, Spirit, Nurse, and even maybe Billy still since it looks like the nerf he got was considerably toned down before going live.) Everybody else is in this "good enough" category where they are good enough to win if you play well but are either hampered by map movement (e.g. Huntress, Deathslinger, Clown) or a lack of a way to chase people down efficiently (e.g. Legion, Demogorgon).
P.S. I'm not quite sure where Hag fits in here, I think Hag might be on the upper end of that "good enough" bucket because her traps effectively give her sort of a "virtual map movement" and quick chases. But her movement speed is slow enough that it takes her a little time to ramp up at the start of the match, so not quite top tier but a little above average?
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I kinda agree actually
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lol legion: "moderatly lethal." thats a good one
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I'm gonna disagree with Legion and Pig.
Legion can not down anyone with his power, and it's faster to just walk then to use Feral Frenzy, land no hits and suffer a 4 second stun.
As for Pig, she can get free hits or grabs if a survivor is on a gen, and can be lethal on short tiles with her dash.
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Honestly, I feel like the biggest issue with balancing in this game comes from the three layers of balance each Killer gets:
Killer Power is layer 1.
Killer add-ons are layer 2.
Killer perk loadout is layer 3.
The game is in serious need of a revamp though, imo, as the 3 layers are making it harder and harder to balance the game properly. I think the concept of teachable perks is actually kind of bad, because it allows Killers to overcome the built in difficulties to the kit. Stridor instantly makes Spirit's downside, which is diminished tracking in phase, almost non-existent. Likewise, perks like I'm All Ears enables Huntress/DS/Nurse/PH to overcome their downsides. I'm a fan of killers having set strengths and weaknesses, because then it allows you to dial in hard on the strengths in order to make Killers oppressive at their role, but still able to have counterplay.
Survivors have a similar problem, only it's item, add-ons, and perks. Personally, I wish survivors only came with 2 teachable perks, and the 3rd was rolled into the survivor as a power. Like Jake could have saboteur built in, Claudette could have botany knowledge, Dwight Leader, Meg QnQ, Nea Streetwise, so on and so forth. And then you could lower both sides down to only having two layers of balancing to worry about. And then you'd only get to choose 3 perks instead of 4, or something like that.
That way there would be a reason to play a survivor over another one.
Edit: Sorry for the slight derail.
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Stealth goes under the lethality category I'm guessing, but there's also disruption to consider. Though Legion and Pig aren't very lethal they do have a lot of disruption.
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Overlapping layers of balance are definitely slowing down the balancing process, I like your thought process.
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I thought Hag was one of the best killers in the game, arguably better than Hillbilly on some maps and certainly better than him on others.
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I agree, basically I'm saying the "tiers" are :
Tier 1: Freddy, Spirit, Nurse, maybe Billy?
Tier 2: Hag, maybe Billy?
Tier 3: Everybody else
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I always kinda like pain relievers grading scale for killers and base powers.
Stall Potential: How long the killer can prevent objective completion
Lethality: How quickly the killer can end chases
Detection: How quickly a killer can find survivors.
Then tier two is add ons
Then tier three is perks.
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