Huntresses why bother bring IRIDESCENT HEAD?

Maybe that was the plan all along.

🤔

As people are fond of telling me when I play my hardest

"Because that's boring and unsportsmanlike"

But you do you man. I know I'm not going to change your mind - you're here for validation. Sorry I can't give that to you.

Huntresses use Iri heads for the same reason survivors are rushing through their keys at the moment.

Well if they bring a key, they want to have a quick game. With Iri Heads you are just making it a bit quicker.

Well its more everyone knows they are going to be nerfed, and (rightfully) no side feels obligated to hold back to ensure the other side has fun, that should be structurally enforced rather than some bullshit imagined code of conduct, so people are burning through them.

Blame devs for not taking care of either of these things in a timely manner, but the logic is exactly the same. Both brutally change the win/loss condition for the game in a huge way for the other side in a manner that is extremely not fun and is unhealthy, but its part of the game and its a massive prisoner's dillema situation: You can't know if someone is gunna 'play nice' to you, so you gotta always assume both sides are going 100%.

This is actually more fun anyway when the game is in a good spot, and not everything in the game should feel nice and cuddly, but sometimes the tools you have are too strong and game warping. Being camped feels bad, but camping being allowed underpins the experience in a way the devs repeatedly tried to unpick and failed to do so because its just... too core to DBD. Keys and Iris are different because the alter the timing relationship of the entire match in a way with little real counterplay. So they are 'unfair' but its insane to say 'how dare you use this thing?' and the reluctance of dev's to disable them as they rework them or provide short term solutions (ex: Keys only work for yourself and can't be saved by any means, Iris require a minimum distance to work) is the real problem here, not the behavior of your fellow players.

We are all slaves to the systems we are born into, and all that.

Actually I was just joking a bit. But as long as keys aren't nerfed I'm not sorry for using better addons.

I agree with you on the point, that unhealthy stuff should be disabled. Potential nerfs/reworks could be tested on the PTB.

A: Keys are in about 20% of my games as a red ranker. WAY more than Iri, I haven't SEEN a huntress, forget an Iri huntress, in ages.

B: Key swaps at lobbies are a thing to block this. Also franklins is a really bad counter to keys cuz either you camp it and lose or just pick it up.

C: Other people can pick up the key. Eliminating a player quickly vs a key is BAD.

D: Dodge the hatchet lol. Like there is no counter to keys, you just... lose because the way the ranking system works you auto lose if you don't get a very specific type of 3k at least and keys deny that from being a realistic possibility without a ridiculously lucky snowball.

Iri hatchets at least let you win if your good vs huntress anyway, but good killers struggle to win against keys to the point even Otz doing his 50 win series gave up on counting games with keys as losses because they are so insanely unfair in terms of how you actually win the game.

This isn't me saying "iri hatchets are good." But at least you quickly get eliminated and into the next game. Keys have the double whammy of A: Having basically no counterplay besides such a vast skill difference the game would be a blowout no matter what, like Iris and B: Forcing you to play out a full length game knowing you probably lose because you get robbed of 4 hooks just because you killed one player because gens are fast enough you get to 'hatch numbers' if you kill anyone.

So, no, exactly the same. We can talk about if X should be in the game, but complaining that people use X tool and that they shouldn't because 'honor' or whatever is dumb and a non-solution because it forces people to walk this imaginary line that conveniently always happens to be juuuuust on the border of what someone thinks they can win consistently against.

Tom Scott has a great quote that I think applies here: People always draw the line of ethical behavior to juuuuust contain what the most extreme examples of what they do and exclude everything else. That is natural and normal, but it means holding other people to your own standards when they have no obligations towards you is unrealistic and silly: of course you think Iris are unfair and keys are if your getting blown out by iris having a bad time but rarely win a game with a key because you take one only once in a while. You might have different feelings about them when you go into a game where a SWF brings in 3 BNPs and a key to force you into a 'kill one person and the hatch spawns' situation if you dare to win even one chase.

Structurally systematized solutions: If the devs put it in the game, use it and don't complain others do. If you think its unfair, complain to them (But also be aware there is often a good reason for stuff existing and sometimes you do deserve to just get trashed by a strategy).

I personally don't find Iri enjoyable to use. I don't find it fun to play against. But I don't think someone is being 'unfair' if they use it anymore than I think someone is being 'unfair' if they camp, or use a flashlight to blind the killer during an animation lock for a carry, or go for the hatch 2v1, or all sorts of things that are frustrating behaviors that are important to how the game functions. If we actually cared about making the game never unpleasant people wouldn't flashlight blind or pallet rescue, insta unhook, place traps in grass, use Pig's power AT ALL, ect. That isn't a realistic standard to play by and no one ACTUALLY plays by 'playing honorably.' They just use it as a weapon to bludgeon behavior they don't personally like.

Honestly, I never play Huntress, so I'm very bad at landing hatchets. Iri Head just makes doing a Huntress daily not a complete blowout.

Do I think it's a healthy mechanic? No.

I've never seen a normal game when iri head is in play. Pre dc bans I'd see the other survivors all dc and now a days I just see everyone go afk. I've also never seen an iri head without the purple belt.