I don't like playing against Pinhead
And for some reason, I appear to be in the minority. I've taken to the internet many times, trying to find people who shared my opinion, perhaps find some advice on how to deal with him, but I mostly seem to find people saying he's fun to play against, 'weaker than Clown' and 'piss easy to beat'. In fact, I've even seen people call for multiple buffs.
I don't get it. I really don't. I can't seem to win a single game against this guy and every time I go against him it's a miserable experience. As soon as the chain hunt has begun, aside from the fact that it's very annoying, you can't really do anything anymore. You have to solve the box.
My problem with that is that he can either teleport to you while doing so or be close enough to interrupt you with a regular M2 to down you and trigger a chain hunt on the entire team. When he teleports to me, I never know exactly where he's going to be coming from, which often results in him getting a free hit. This means if I'm already injured, there's no way I'm touching that box.
In the few complaint posts I've found, I've seen people say that all you have to do is hold onto the box and solve it when he's carrying someone or when he's mid chase. Does simply holding the box stop the chains from spawning all the time? If not, what are you supposed to do in the meantime?
As for an example of why I think he's super frustrating to play against, in the game I just played, I finally found his Ruin and started cleansing it. The person carrying the box went down at around the 90% mark and it interrupted my cleanse. I tried cleansing it after that but the constant chains spawning prevented me from doing so and alerted the killer to my position. After a solid thirty seconds of me trying to cleanse that totem, he found and downed me and I let myself die on hook. I typically don't do this but it was my second Pinhead game in a row and I just reached my limit.
I'm really hoping I'm missing something obvious, some trick perhaps, that will make my experience with this killer less miserable. I'm looking for advice. Anything. Please help.
Comments
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He's very anti-solo queue unfortunately. Pretty fun to face if you SWF though.
I've found that holding the box helps a lot, if you position yourself correctly you can even push gens while the chains spawn.
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When you take the box hostage the chains will hunt only you and not the team but it's get more aggressive the longer you hold it hostage.
I actually find him to be quite a balanced killer. He's fun to play, fun to play against.
He has the best 4v1 in the game for a killer and that's something you need to remember here. A lot of what you're saying seems to come across that you find him frustrating in your 1v1. The games not a 1v1 it's a 1v4 and he just has the mechanic for it.
With Ruin, you stuck around too long. You need to get the box, and then cleanse the ruin again that's his 1v4.
Someone must always be on the box with pinhead, it's just how it is, and that's a good mechanic to have it's another objective for the survivor, and killer as both sides obtaining the box is beneficial.
So long as the box is down, you're fine. When he hits a chain, just simply dodge as best you can, and use the environment to break them.
Keep facing him and eventually you'll get better.
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just keep the box as a main objective like gens and you won’t have a problem
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Pinhead has one of the highest skill ceiling imo. A good Pinhead will make the match pretty frustrating with good chains and consistent box spawn predictions.
The best you can do against the chainhunt is solving the cube while someone else is in chase. Most killers will not switch up midchase. And of course hope your mates do know when to go for the cube as well which will most likely never happen in solo q. Chain hunt is carrying the whole killer too much imo.
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I do
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He definitely needs buffs.
I can't ever seem to beat Trapper, but I know he's still weak.
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My problem with Pinhead is that my solo queue teammates NEVER go for the box. So I always have to get it, whether I'm injured or not. And usually Pinheads run Hoarder so they'll know where to find me even if I just hold on to it.
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weaker than Clown.
easy to beat.
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He's very irritating to play against.
Even worse, he's not that good. He's unfun to play against and not even good to begin with.
Reminds me of old Doctor.
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I hate how the chains can mess with you while you try and solve the box. That is something that should be changed.
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Woah now, Are you really asking survivors to do more than M1 a gen or hold shift W and press space when needed in a chase? You know anything outside of that gets called "boring" Or a lose lose situation because it is way to difficult.
I am fully expecting them to destroy hoarder and franklins with the box and probably weaken chainhunt and his chase mechanic because it isn't "FUN" for the lower to middle class survivors.
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Pinhead Box is something all other Killers should have in the beginning, something that keep at least a survivor busy and Gen slowed down by 1/3.
Though hes far stronger for Solo than SWF because SWF can have 1 guy goes for the Box, while in Solo there can be 2 or more go for the Box and no one on Gen. And gives Solo equal info like SWF is also something should have in the beginning.
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When he teleports to me, I never know exactly where he's going to be coming from, which often results in him getting a free hit.
He always teleports in front of you. When you solve the box, I highly recommend solving it by or at a loop - always expect the Pinhead will teleport (some don't... most Pinheads do but some don't for some reason). Being caught in the open solving the box will grant him a free hit.
In the few complaint posts I've found, I've seen people say that all you have to do is hold onto the box and solve it when he's carrying someone or when he's mid chase. Does simply holding the box stop the chains from spawning all the time? If not, what are you supposed to do in the meantime?
If you're referring to kidnapping the box... you can but you have to be super alert of your surroundings as some Pinheads will just creep up on you without teleporting for a free hit cuz the box makes you oblivious. Holding the box hostage has a price though: You alone get bombarded with chains until you solve it or Pinhead gets it from you so yeah the chains stop for your teammates but not the box holder. The most important thing about solving the box is being smart when solving it. The best times to solve it is when he's carrying someone to a hook or really committed to a chase or if you solve it in an area that's of no importance to him aka where all gens are finished.
As for an example of why I think he's super frustrating to play against, in the game I just played, I finally found his Ruin and started cleansing it. The person carrying the box went down at around the 90% mark and it interrupted my cleanse. I tried cleansing it after that but the constant chains spawning prevented me from doing so and alerted the killer to my position.
Yeah.. that's super annoying I agree. Lol he can be just super annoying to go against depending how good the Pinhead is. A Pinhead in the right hands... good luck ever solving that damn box lol
But uh some tips? I'm not very good at countering Pinhead yet but! If you didn't know, the chains break on the environment so if you're chained and go through like, I don't know, trees or the corner of a building, the chains will break. I'm not sure if you're on console or PC but console the break chain button is the same as vault so a console player has to be super careful while breaking chains not to accidentally vault right back into Pinhead's loving arms.
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I don't like how breaking free from his chains is the same button as vaulting pallets on controller and I'm not gonna rebind just for him.
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If the Pinhead is a hoarder gamer, nah, I hate him. If he is stupid and runs an inferior build, he is basically the only killer I can consistently counter.
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Thanks for your reply! There's definitely some useful things in there. Yeah, I guess I did stick around too long for that Ruin, but the game was going downhill fast and we really needed it gone.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of that!
I had no idea he always teleports in front of you. Mostly because I do try to solve the box near jungle gyms so I have something to work with, and then he spawns behind a wall and I run into him... :)
I also had no idea the box holder stops the chains spawning for everyone else. The main problem with that is that in solo queue, the other people rarely go for the box. So if I get the box or not, I have chains bothering me either way.
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I agree the chain hunt is what carries him. In chase, I find that even if I do get hit by his power, I can just break the chains and keep running without losing too much distance.
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Maybe I would have a different opinion on that if I played the killer myself. Maybe that would help me learn how to counter him better. Unfortunately, I can't afford to get him right now...
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I feel your pain.
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Totally sympathize with you. Pinhead can be quite unfun in solo queue. He kinda requires coordination to properly counter his power. It sucks because I think he could use a buff to compete with the better Killers, but that would only worsen the solo experience.
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Pinhead is fun to play against when you actually have other teammates do the box
It's annoying when you are the only one who acknowledges it's existence
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You can also use the Drop Item button for only breaking chains.
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General rule of thumb if you don't get ruin in a good timeframe you will lose. There are exceptions, a good team comp with excellent call outs can ignore it. But if you in solo queue and you wanna win no chasing tomes or any of that nonsense pack a perk for hunting totem's or run a map. Pinhead and ruin is terrifyingly powerful don't give him it.
That being said if he gets really defensive about protecting ruin back off take the time to heal up your teammates and reset. start pushing some gens and then the minute he drops his guard cleanse the ruin. Also if you want to make a pinheads life a living hell shack is painful for him since his power doesn't really work well there.
Make sure when solving the box you have a found a good place to loop'em because if he calls your bluff or your on death hook he will punish you. The pinheads obssesed with hunting boxes will require a different approach giving him chain hunts is obviously bad so always make sure you position yourself in a region that is far from pinhead and also has a wall directly obstructing his ability to interfere with you via summoned chains. I think pinhead in his current state has to much power frontloaded on the box whilst his summoned chains are to easy to mess with.
Its probably better that he puts more infuses on the box because I could easily see the chains becoming so frustrating that his 1 v 1 becomes miserable to play against.
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Reviving my own thread to add that the iridescent addon that hides the box aura until the chain hunt begins is the pinnacle of unfun.
I ran all around the map trying to find the box but no luck. The chain hunt started, so I saw the box and picked it up, but because the chains were already spawning I straight up couldn't solve it without getting interrupted constantly. This gave the Pinhead plenty of time to simply walk up to me and slap it out of my hands with Franklin's, starting the entire process of unfunnery again.
Lovely design.
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The only time I don't enjoy Pinhead is when they're running the "meta" hoarder, Franklins, double solve time build. It removes all the "skill" part of his kit, and just makes it so that you're constantly under his passive while he just holds W. It's the Ruin Undying Tinkerer syndrome, where rather than commit to interesting chases he just waits until someone triggers his perks, then he gets a free hit and starts the hunt. His passive is the stronger, but far less engaging part of his kit, and its immensely frustrating that its the part that people focus on.
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Pinhead is a really good random team stomper.
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I'm gonna be real I don't give a ######### about the gameplay I absolutely love facing him because I kidnap the box for 13 years just to listen to the music
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Of course you don't enjoy going against Pinhead. I don't either.
His kit is absolutely littered with Crowd Control that prevents you from doing what you want or need to do. He's also got several mechanics that punish you for mistakes that you personally didn't make. To top it all off, some of that Crowd Control shows up without him doing anything to get it. None of those things feel good to face off against. As far as terrible design decisions go, I'd say he's worse than live Spirit and a bit less terrible than Plague.
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That's fair. xD
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You summed that up pretty nicely.
I just had a game against a regular Pinhead, without that addon and without the annoying perks, and it was actually not too bad of an experience.
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Agreed.
I feel like some slight changes could make him a lot more enjoyable / less horrible to go against. The main thing I'm thinking of is stopping chains from spawning when solving the box. I thought that was a bug at first, because I really don't want to believe that's intended.
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I don't particularly like playing against him either, I'm 100% solo queue.
Thankfully I haven't seen one in the past couple of weeks.
They tend to be either really good or really bad, skill level doesn't bother me though I like playing against good nurses for example.
If I get the box my team tends to do very little if I leave it i'll get chained forever because most teammates wont touch it
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My issue with pinhead in his current state is that if you hit someone with your power it is legit the easiest thing to break. If you so much as hug a wall the chains snap off instantaneously. Sometimes the chains decide to rng in such a way they spawn on a survivor immediately snapping. Its infuriating to land 3 chains hits and actively lose distance. Even though its easily the hardest skill shots to land in the game. His passive on the other hand makes pinhead go from awful mediocre killer to genuine force of nature. His passive slowdown and increased chain hunt progression speed buys you a lot of time and forces puzzle interaction.
You could buff his power and make his summoned chain's an actual threat but that has some key issues. If you do that he now becomes an extremely frustrating 1 v 1 killer akin to Pre ptb slinger (rip slinger). Sticking with the box mechanic being powerful gives him amazing 1 v 4 potential and adds a teamwork element that will push survivors to work together to prevent him from accessing the box. I suppose you could just nerf him and make him another middle of the road weak killer but I would like if we could have pinhead's skill in term's of how to play him be rewarded with uniquely powerful 1 v 4 potential.
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You're not alone. He's by far become my least favorite killer to play against in the entire game.
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It really depends on how lucky/good he is at finding the box. Without it, he's excellent at hassling a single survivor, but he really struggles to pressure a map, particularly anything with verticality.
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That's usually how it goes, yes.
I had one game where my team took care of the box and not a single chain hunt happened all game. It felt pretty nice and three of us escaped. I feel like that's how it's supposed to be, but there's so many reasons why this never actually happens (solo queue being solo queue, addons, ...).
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I felt it the moment they revealed his mechanics that he was going to be horrible to play against. Sadly, I was not wrong.
And even more sadly, unlike the previous bunch of killers that was released that nobody ever plays, I seem to run into him constantly.
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I don't know if I just don't know what I'm doing or if there's a pattern I don't see but I'm shocked this isn't complained about more.
It's so GD frustrating to go get the box but never be able to solve it because every time you try, you get hit with a damn chain. I wait and dodge a chain, chain spawns after I start. I find a tight area, chain spawns inside of me.
If chain hunt has started, there seems to be nothing you can do about it until Pinhead decides to just teleport to you and end it himself. I don't understand why chains spawn while you are solving the damn BDSM Rubix Cube...
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Theres a few ways to play Pinhead and one was semi popularized a bit later.
One way is to ignore the box and hope that you get value out of your chain hunts, which is a bit risky because survivors can just farm the box and wait for you to down someone before solving it.
Another way is for Pinhead to find his own box. This has a lot of advantages. When he finds his own box it will cause a "chain reaction" and all survivors will instantly scream and 3 chains will spawn near them. The scream is a loud noise notification so keep that in mind.
How you play around that is up to you. My recommendation for countering that is to play closer to Pinhead and look for the box yourself. The less chain reactions the Pinhead gets, the less value he has and will be another M1 killer. I typically just hold onto the box with these players because the longer I have it, the less chances they have to find it.
Good luck!
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Pinhead is extremely addon dependant. Ive only ever lost to him when hes using engineers fang and impaling wire and mostly when i was queueing solo. His other addons are strong but not OP or game breaking for me and thus they can be countered easily. The iri lament config if solo isnt always easy to deal with but 4/5 times at least 3 members of the team will still get out for me.
In an swf, hes a pure joke. Ive never died to him in an swf of 3 people minimum.
The chain hunt can be annoying but its also fairly easy to avoid. And any good survivor who is up against Pinhead who isnt using the iri config will know as and when to go grab the box. Especially a SWF. My swf teams never have issues with chain hunts because of coordination and who goes to get it.
If he is close to you when you have the box, then you run as far away from him as possible. Thats what we do, and thats what most survs do that play against me. Trying to open the box while his terror radius is heard is silly. Position yourself behind walls so he cant chain you and it takes time to reach you to hit you. Im sorry but this is totally a you problem here. Teleporting to you isnt an issue either, as i said, hide behind walls and pallets and you should get away easily enough. He doesnt spawn on top of you and you have a second to run before he appears. If you dont know where hs coming from, move your camera around? I dont know what to suggest here, it just sounds like poor play and is a total non issue.
Holding the box stops chain hunts and the timer, but the longer you hold onto it, chains will spawn on you, however these are not that annoying, its kind of a trade off.
The whole ruin topic is just how it is. When the person with the box is found/downed then it interrupts what you are doing with the 3 chains. Its his slowdown mechanic and quite frankly, its pisspoor as the chains are so easily broken. The fact you were doing ruin is just unlucky, but again this shows poor play from you. Instead of waiting and then finding the box, you preffered to stay on the ruin for the BP instead of coming back to it when it was safe. Thats what its all about. You find the box, solve it, and it creates a safe time for you to do gens and totems.
The majority of issues you have seem to be entirely tied to you and your playstyle. You are not adapting your style to the killer, which is what so many survs moan about. They seem to want every killer to be the same and easy to figure out. Learn from what you're doing, if its not working, change your style. Maybe play Pinhead as a killer because thats how you truely learn how to survive killers, by watching others survive you and adapting methods they use to escape you into your own game.
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I find Pinhead annoying to go against for the same reason I hated going against Blights when he first came out. 90% of the players are using the same hoarder/Franklins build and the chain hunt is constant. On larger maps it is a pain to get to the box in time so having it in your possession (and the killer usually has duration add ons that make it slower to solve) is almost impossible before someone is hooked. On smaller maps Pinhead runs into his box even when you are not holding it and the chain hunt begins.
Then I hear there are people that play him so much they know where the lament configuration spawns right off the bat. Haven't seen this yet, but that sounds like a nightmare too. When people first played Pinhead they would teleport constantly, now they don't teleport because hoarder tells them you've picked up the box and they just interrupt you solving it, pick it up, chain hunt and down you because 50 million chains keep spawning. The constant need to break chains is the most annoying thing I have ever faced in this game and I've played it off and on for over three years. Don't get me wrong, its good tactics, but tedious and boring as all get out.
Also, playing solo and even with a two man, I have found my teammates don't want to pick up the box so I end up taking aggro even while injured. There can literally be a full health person running around during chain hunt like their behind is on fire and the rest is catching.
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Pinhead is one of the most fun killers to play and one of the most fun killers to go against, imo. I play both, but lately due to time of day I can play and queue times I end up playing survivor way more. It all depends on how you decide fun. I enjoy the added mechanic of the box as survivor. It makes it feel like I have more to do. I really enjoy having to change up my strategies for each killer and figure out how to outsmart the other player. I'm not very good at it, but even if I die I still have fun. The things that make pinhead unfun is when your teammates refuse to adjust their playstyle (but this is true for all killers). The only time I'm not having fun is when I'm one hooked, the killer isn't camping me, and the survivors don't even try to rescue me (and yes, I have kindred)
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He badly needs a buff to compete. Against a team of 3 swfs or seperate 2/2 groups hes poor. Very poor. Against a full solo queue he destroys them.
But even in solo i rarely get killed by him, i mean the basic was to avoid him killing you is early pallet dropping. Do that and he will either give up on you or commit so much everyone else can do gens very quickly.
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I will face nothing but Pinheads, Plagues, Legions, Deathslingers and Spirits for the rest of my time playing DBD if it means I never have to vs a Wraith.
So no, I like Pinhead.
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With Pinhead imo, once again the devs design things around Killers and SWF, with Solo queue a distant afterthought. With SWF, you can designate someone on the box at all times. With Solo, no one wants to do the damn box. In my matches as Solo, I am constantly doing it. I can be injured and on the other side of the map, and yet no one will solve the cube until we're all in a chain hunt, and I'm limping my way to it, trying to grab it, passing 'team mates' trying to do generators with chains on them. It's ridiculously annoying.
And as others have said, add the same build of Hoarder + Franklin's. Rinse, repeat. It's really miserable.
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Common sense solo queue thing to keep in mind the box needs to be done. Do not leave it to others if they are on death hook. Make sure the one solving the box is not on death hook. Because if pinhead calls your bluff things can get ugly real fast.
Pinhead with 3 survivors left is miserably difficult at 4 survivors its quite easy. If your in solo queue you need bond, kindred like effects if you dont have perks that give you swfesque information you will have a much harder time.
Pinhead massively relys on the box if his perks gets him the box then its your failure as a team. Much like other killers if you or a teammate messes up you will lose. Pinheads has the advanatage of being new so figuring out how to play against him will take time before the community is able to tackle him. But mark my words he will very likely be a low midtier killer if his summoned chains remain untouched. Espcially once survivors have adpated to his box shennanigans.
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I get what you are trying to say about Pinhead countering my personal playstyle, but I can't agree with this being 'totally a you problem'.
First of all, you can't hear his terror radius when you have the box, so how am I supposed to know whether he's close or far? Secondly, I do position myself behind walls before trying to solve the box, which is exactly why I can't see where he's coming from sometimes. If I'm standing in a jungle gym, he could be anywhere. And I am still of the opinion chains shouldn't continue to spawn while solving the box, because that's straight up impossible.
Part of your post also explains how easy he is to deal with in SWF. I play solely solo queue, so there's that. A killer that focuses on 1v4 rather than on 1v1 is always going to be easy to beat when you can communicate and coordinate with your team, which is literally not how the game is supposed to be played, but that's another discussion entirely.
As a final note, all of these things might be counterable and playing the killer myself might teach me how to do that better. However, being able to counter it does not make it fun to play against. He's the most infuriating killer ever released into this game.
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This is exactly how I feel as well. I'm glad there are others out there who feel the same way. :)
I actually faced one of those Pinheads before. He found his own box within like ten seconds and a chain hunt started right away. It was horrible. I actually blame a certain famous Youtuber for that one, posting a video explaining exactly how to do it. As if this killer wasn't frustrating enough yet...
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Spend time improving your pinhead matchup taking on the tips information above then come back with your opinion. I d rather the people having success vs him be defining what is and isnt oppresive. The last thing we need is nerfing a killer before the community forms there counterplay.
Imagine if plague got nerfed before pepple found the strategy that works. It would have been a disaster.
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