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Tier lists are pointless if we don’t consider skill
I have seen countless threads and twitch chats talking about this killer and that killer being S or A tier. Here is the reality, based on high level play:
Viable: Nurse and Spirit
Non-viable: the rest of the cast
Too many people base their opinions on a low level of play. The problem is that tier discussion based on people who don’t play the game at a high level is pointless. Against unoptimal players, any killer can win. It is pointless to put then in A or B tier when they all crush noobs.
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If we are going off highest level play I feel blight and hag can be viable but yeah the rest of the cast just falls behind
it if we’re are assuming the survivors are all just decent to good then tier lists can be very useful
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Indeed — that's why we have tier grids which combine strength and difficulty. Blight, for example, is very strong for those skilled with him, but first-timers are going to struggle.
e.g.,: https://sac.gg/killers
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yes tier lists that reflect 0.1% of the player base are very useful.
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Well, a tier list for ladder would still be helpful for the majority of people which is kind of the point. Top level players don't need tier lists. Like, yeah, I could beat bad survivors with Freddy OR Trapper. But one of those is way less ideal than the other. And really, I want to know which killers to play against good survivors relative to my skill level.
Tier lists aren't great for that, but they are a decent start for anyone learning.
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They are- they show the potential of a character, not the result of a rank 20 noob complaining.
I can respect that, but the problem is that most people definitely do not think that way when they make a tier list. We’ve seen countless complaint threads about unviable killers like Nemesis and Pyramid head, so you can’t assume people will understand context.
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Yes, because everything is black and white and nuance doesn't exist.
Do you want to know the reality, based on the players you are talking about? Viable: literally ######### no-one.
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Well, technically every tier list is right and wrong at the same time.
Such things are subjective and depend a lot on who you are asking.
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Meh,only Blight,Spirit and Nurse are really viable at the highest level.
Hag gets destroyed because high level players know how to play against her and exploit her weaknesses
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A more useful tier list would be "How difficult is this killer to pick up and play to any degree?"
We'd have folks like Nurse and Blight down in F-tier, since their powers are extremely punishing for those who have not dumped a ton of time into them. While killers like Freddy or Leatherface are closer to A or even S tier, since their powers are intuitive and fun to use. (though that doesn't necessarily make them good at the actual match results)
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You dont need to consider skill just the average swf vs the average killer can show how much a dissparity we have between nurse/spirit vs the rest of the cast
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Yes because only 0.1% of the player base can play nurse well you got me.
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Who the hell makes tier lists without considering the most outrageous top tier big brained players?
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No....because average players are usually averagely bad....thats how this game got so imbalanced in the first place, balancing the game around shoddy average players instead of gods. And the game itself mechanically doesn't require much to begin with the skill floor starts incredibly low. So its not hard to measure it.
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Is this some low key way of saying you are amazing at the game because you play nurse?
News flash, anyone who can get to high silver low gold in league of legends can probably slay with nurse. So like 50% of the gaming player base. They just play more competitive games than this. DBD is casual and balancing it around tournaments sounds pretty cringe.
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There are many red rank nurses that can 3k or 4k a good amount of the time and you don't really need to even be that amazing since it's not like you're playing against god SWFs most games. That's problem with basing a tier list off comp play because it doesn't reflect the live game that is made up mostly of duos and soloQ.
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No? I mean I can speak from experience that I have countless Nurse games that made me think “only Nurse can win this.” On the other hand, I have had even more games with basic killers in which I had no chance and pretty much knew it when the game began. This is obvious if you are experienced.
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Yeah but then again you'll never vs top tier survivors either
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Tier lists are made up thing by streamers and ppl blindly follows it.
Every killer is available in all ranks if ur skillful enough while you need to remember you're not entitled to get 4k each match because some ppl immediately call killer useless if they don't 4k all time
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Tier list are pointless in DbD because killer isn't the power role.
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Dude that tier list is actually pretty neat, thanks! haha.
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I mean, the best of the best will make a killer look good, but the general population is just average, so if you have a killer that is average at something + an audience that’ll also not practice them to their hearts content and become gods at them, then a consistent pattern will show. Otherwise, a inconsistent pattern will show because you’re basing them off of what they’re truly capable of when played at their best, when the average player won’t ever be able to take notice of that or even reach that.
It’s a much safer bet to just compare them imo, and one last thing, Nurse and Spirit are ridiculous. One avoids everything in the game, the other leaves you guessing. There’s no meaningful counterplay to them, hence why they’re top-tier. It’s good, but they’re conceptually too powerful.
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I do not think that tierlists are pointless. However the tier list needs to point out what conditions it applies.
You are right for a competitive 4 people SWF squad with near perfect skill level.
However most people play simpler games. 3 people SWF with fun builds are not that rare and lobbies with 1/2/1 split are also very common. Now there are already two tier lists you can make. And it becomes worse then more factors you take into consideration. "Skill" is just another factor here.
I can make a tier list about "which killer is the strongest with 50 hourse of practise against normal lobbies". And I can even make useless tier lists about "how dateable is that Killer".
The problem is that most tier lists are done without ever telling the parameters to the audience thus rendering them useless.
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