Killer: What would it take for you to come back to DBD?

The main thing killer needs IMO is a lot of QOL love.

The game is killer sided. Killers are the stronger role. A good killer playing perfectly should win every time.

But killer is also the more frustrating, busy, and hampered role. Basically everything about killer is designed to be as infuriating as possible. Stuff like constant camera locks, the ability to be blinded while you lack control over your camera, loops as the main game mechanic over stuff like hiding or break aways (and to be clear survivors need loops, juke based gameplay died with the survivor speed waaaay back when), and lots of other mechanics that allow a survivor to openly 'brute force' past you or otherwise have power in a situation they shouldn't.

DS+UB is actually really important to consider, because while is meta and strong, it isn't so strong killers can't win if they play well, it changes basically nothing about the 'ideal' win condition of snowballing save adding an extra step. But it is so ABSURDLY INFURIATING to killers because it creates a scenario where despite the survivor not even trying to escape you they have more power than you.

Other problems include stuff like lacking a real way to concede (End game collapse actually upsets me because it was downright OPTIMIZED to let survivors bully killers), a refusal to buff killers to be interesting or impactful, and nerfing tools killers have that make the game smoother and less frustrating. For example, ruin undying was too strong, but it also solved a problem where good killer play moment to moment wasn't rewarding at all unless you were playing amazingly the entire time. It gave you a concrete reward for correctly pressuring gens and allowed you to meaningfully extend the game for good tracking. Did it need a nerf? Sure. But its no wonder killers are furious because their tools are constantly nerfed in ways that remove the positives of them while survivor tools get nerfed in meaningful ways that maintain the intense negatives for the killer.

Killer is also physically exhausting. The camera locks are some of the best in gaming so it isn't physically nauseous save for nurse, but it still makes killer gameplay fatiguing. And killers have no downtime, they have to be constantly doing things all the time, so every little bit adds up and causes killers to quit.

And to be clear, its obviously why most of this stuff is in the game, mechanically it mostly works fine: Camera locks allow survivors to try to do more jukes and evasion based strategies which are cool. Its just that it all adds up in a really negative way for the killer experience which makes winning a killer game not feel good unless its a total blowout, and losing a killer game a nightmare as your forced to continually actively participate in your loss to do dumb stuff like run people out.

So what do I think killer needs?

1: More punishment for 'longer' bodyblocks such as it auto-damaging you after 2 seconds or something of uninterrupted contact with you not moving away. Pinning the killer to the wall should be an insane strategy, you should be trying to eat a hit or buy a few seconds not physically halt the killer entirely.

2: Get rid of camera lock blinds. Yes, this makes flashlights even worse, but as we learned from Deathgarden maybe having a major interaction component be '######### with a player's vision' is not fun and contributes to a lot of burnout.

3: A real surrender system. Killers should be able to end the game with a 'GG you win' rather than have survivors run around them and teabag until they start chasing again despite the gates being 99'd.

4: More base regression in kit. Killers seriously need this, like I think killers should get a 'mini pop' base kit so that killers feel way more rewarded for winning a chase. Bonus points: It teaches killers not to camp without a very good reason.

For meta changes that I think are more critical, because I think the killer die-off was way more 'Ok this game doesn't treat us well' rather than 'the game has a lack of balance':

5: Actual consideration to the EMOTIONAL impact of changes for killers, like they do for survivors, rather than just making it purely for the survivor's emotional needs. The devs treat killers and survivors EXTREMELY differently, and the mori nerf is a prime example of, frankly, scummy behavior. Its so telling they didn't warn the killers about the mori change because it would make survivors feel bad to have a week or two of killers using their moris, but killers have to just deal with keys for an indefinite period still as survivors burn through em as fast as they can. Like holy ######### that was just awful and its no wonder survivor Qs are 20 minutes now you treat killers like garbage, that was the kinda stuff that lead to the killer strike but now killers don't even want to talk to the devs anymore because its so clear its all appeasement.

6: Get off the stats based balancing holy crap. OoO needed to go a year ago how the hell is it still in the game? Actually think about what things do to the gameplay loop when it negatively affects killers, rather than just what it does mechanically. The idea that OoO or Keys weren't a problem because their win rate wasn't high is so amazingly dumb and ignores why people hate these mechanics. Its way more critical for the game to feel good to play than the game having a balanced win rate: this is why its ok that NOED is bad for example, because emotionally its a powerful perk that does good things for the game. This is why its bad that Adrenaline is so good: It feels awful for adrenaline plays to happen for the killer and while this high point is great for survivors that is ultimately what most killers feel is the only consideration here and it combos awfully with DS-Unbreakable.