A calm discussion on why I feel Deathslinger's nerf was too far.

This data was taken from a released article dated 1 year & four days to the posting of this discussion, and considering nothing was done or changed from Deathslinger until September 28th 2021 in patch 5.3.0, I feel this is an accurate representation of Calebs abilities & popularity. At the time of this article, more people were playing Bubba & Nurse, than Caleb. This is to say, he is a niche killer; and frankly I was fine with that. I didn't expect anything in terms of making some of his useless add-ons more viable or perhaps making his Irediscents, alright. But Deathslinger to me always hit that nice sweetspot, of a killer who was not too strong, but powerful in the right scenario. Likewise his average kill rate reflects that in no way was he overpowered, or underperforming. He was sitting just at the threshold of 55% kill rate, otherwise known as a draw between survivors & killers. Isn't that something you should strive for? Anyhow, before I go more into the problems of nu-Deathslinger, I'd like to talk about my perspective on the Old Deathslinger.

Caleb Quinn (Deathslinger) was the Perfect Side-grade to Anna (Huntress)

Think about the Philosophy of use between these two Characters. Its honestly more well thought out than perhaps you'd be willing to admit. Huntress has 5 hatchets to start. Realistically, they have no cap on their range & are only limited by the environment & skill of the player. Huntress is able to get downs that other killers can only dream about; over pallets, several meters away, and still have a few more rounds of ammunition before a brief pause to reload. Her Terror radius is huge factoring in Lullabye, though this layer of confusion & information often brought its own advantages, & considering the range & potential down, didn't serve as that much of an impediment, realistically, despite being a 110% killer.

Caleb on the other hand, cannot down at range or over pallets. His range likewise, is limited to 18 meters, and hitting a shot let alone getting a successful reel on an 18 meter shot was rare if its ever happened to anyone at all. His shot took time, his reel took time, and a hit would take time. To balance these disadvantages, he was given what Huntress did not have; an element of stealth & reload on-the-go (though limited to one shot at a time). At 24 meters of terror radius, Calebs glaring disadvantage was eased, as he could close distance quickly and be well within the range to use his power. There were counters for this of course, SWF communication (as DS is very tall and easy to spot) and the almighty spine chill. But it did its job and allowed Caleb breathing room to use his power. Likewise, his unlimited ammo & 1 shot capacity were a give & take. True you were always in the fight, but a missed shot had its own consequences. The longer the miss the longer the back reel, the reload, and the movement speed penalty. Caleb was the King of the 1v1, yes. But he had realistically no gen or map pressure capability. He relied purely on pressuring people & doing that quickly.

The Complaints about Counter Play Seem almost illusionary.

Listen I've dumped a substantial time into Survivor too. I get it. That said, as a survivor I knew what hurt Deathslinger the most; high objects, long wall jungle gyms, dead harding at corners just like Huntress. But people seemed to focus in on the fact that skilled Deathslingers would drop instant shots at a certain range. I for one was a master of this and loved using Crosshair overlays to secure quick scope + draw ins for a hit. From a survivors perspective, there was nothing that could be done. That said, his stats never showed over-performance despite a supposedly uncounterable power. Why? Because Deathslinger was in fact, balanced to begin with. This was his power. Winning 1v1's incredibly quickly.

Nevertheless, he did have counterplay, one of the easiest counterplays in the game. In the same vein of making Legion a relatively powerless killer, all you had to do to counter Deathslinger was spread out. In the same way Legion couldn't punish a team with injury if you spread thin, Deathslinger couldn't snowball effectively from hook to hook. Likewise high geometry loops of which there are plentiful on many, many maps, served as their own personal hell for Deathslinger. Combine this without Legions mobility, and a quarantined team could easily give Deathslinger a brutal, unforgiving time.

But what do I mean by illusionary perception of counterplay? Well think about it. The real complaint is you can't see him ADS before a shot, no prep time (despite the fact that the chain is not hit scan and longer shots can easily be Deadharded with even a cursory understanding, not to mention juked). The act of seeing something seems to be the issue, despite the fact that other killers achieve similar effects with, well no counterplay. Slapping a survivor with an Intoxication bottle directly doesn't allow for a lot of counterplay, but hey, you could see it right? Pinheads chains if used correctly, just drop on top and hit M1, but hey you could see him warming up and maybe perceive the 1 second of the chain. You can see doctor prepping a charge, but does that do you any-good in the shock at a window or a pallet given the question of take hit or take a hit? Asking for counterplay or nerfs to these already mediocre powers would seem a tad ridiculous, and most people don't ask for them. Why then is it different for Caleb? There are many instances where you just have to accept a hit or a down. Calebs strength for all his faults, was that with high enough skill, open terrain or normally semi-safe pallets, could be where your power shines.

Calebs original downsides have been compounded to the point of total frustration.

Now that you have some insight and understanding as to the killers strength & weaknesses, lets look at 5.3.0's effects on Deathslinger.

• The Deathslinger must now wait for the Exit Aim animation to complete before being able to attack (0.6 seconds)
• Increased movement speed when aiming down sights to 85% (was 75%)
• The cooldown when a survivor breaks free is now the same duration as a successful hit cooldown
• Increased terror radius to 32 meters (was 24 meters)
• The Deathslinger must now wait for the Enter Aim animation to complete before being able to fire (0.4 seconds)
• Add-on – Gold Creek Whiskey: Removed movement speed penalty
• Add-on – Marshal’s Badge: Removed movement speed penalty
• Add-on – Iridescent Coin: Decreased range requirement to 12 meters (was 15 meters)
• Reworked Add-on – Hellshire Iron: When a Survivor is speared, gain Undetectable. The effect persists for 10 seconds after the Survivor is no longer speared.

All and all you'd probably say, thats just a typical rework; he has received some changes and two soft buffs. They are far more significant than you think.

Lets put aside the add-on changes, the take away from them is they've either been changed to support Nu-Deathslinger or made into something totally not useless. I for one just generally don't run Iri's anyhow, but they are at least powerful now in a realistic way.

Lets focus on his Power Changes. For one, exit & aim speed animation has all but gutted the ability to quick scope opponents. In all likelihood now, you will see Deathslinger ADSing before a shot. His movement speed was increased to 85% from 75%, so the intention is to continue to chase while ADSing or at least be moving. Survivors now have so much counterplay to Calebs power its on par if not worse than Clowns Intoxication abilities.

Please, I beg of you, just put aside your own personal prejudices towards killers in general, and hear me out. Caleb is 110% killer already. In pursuit of a long-shot that would normally be available to him, he has a long delay, in which case the shot may already have dissipated. Furthermore, juking at range is going to be far more effective, you can tell he's aiming why not serpentine a little? In all likelyhood, Deathslinger will either lose that long shot to time, but lets just say Deathslinger misses a 15 meter shot. He had a 0.5 second delay in lining it up, he now has 1.5 seconds to reel the harpoon back, and another 2.75 seconds to reload, which he will do if he wants to use his power again. All the while during this time, Caleb was moving at 85% speed for the lined shot, which is 93.5% movement speed (6.5% slower than the survivor), then throughout the shot & the reload, 66% movement speed for the next 4.13 seconds. Presuming the line shot was .5 seconds, all and all Caleb now loses in 4.63 seconds 72.5% movement relative to his survivor. In 4.63 seconds, in terms of speed being relative, that is almost the same distance created by any of the exhaustion perks in the game: Lithe, Sprintburst, Balanced Landing, Smash Hit. All increase movement speed by 150% for 3 Seconds. Caleb now is punished to such a degree that the best time he can hope for on a missed shot is 4.63 seconds wasted for the equivalent of a survivor having 127.5% movement speed each time. A mini-exhuastion perk for free. A colossal punishment.

Due to the absolutely ridiculous nature of the punishment now at hand, Deathslingers are encouraged to play boring, & unfortunately for them, predictably. Since you can't afford to miss and now that your long shots are more slated against you than ever, whats left but to be a slow, less talented version of say Nemesis or Pyramid Head, only taking shots at guaranteed points, or at semi-safe pallet loops, albeit in the most painful & clunky way possible. PH has no movement speed impairment while using Punishment of the Damned. Nemesis is lowered to 95%, but again, he can down at range & over pallets in addition to being a 115% move speed base. Ground is still being gained, and both can do something Deathslinger cannot do. Hit over pallets. One can even drag their AOE over a space for a confirmed hit, the other through walls. They likewise do not have to deal with the 125% increase in Zoom (literal tunnel vision) or waste time reloading after their miss slow down, which is equivalent to a hit anyhow for both. One has no penalty to prepping a shot & both lose significantly less time over-all compared to Deathslinger, in addition to downing at range.

Caleb on the other hands maximum speed while ADSing is somewhere between 93.5% of with the addons an addition 3.5% for 97%, or if my order of operations is messed up here, 97.35%. Either way, any survivor or killer for that matter can tell you the difference between a measly 5% movement speed. People live and die by those numbers, and we have a killer here who cannot down at range, has a limited ranged of 18 meters (good luck on that reel) and has to lose ground by a colossal amount for any missed shot, being penalized up to 6.5% movement speed for his trouble.

What this translates to is an addon dependent killer, as you must ADS to use your power, so you might as well stack both movement speed addons, or at least one of them. Additionally taking keys, reel speed or chains will become a must as virtually all of them give you some semblance of a chance. The better solution of course, is not to take risky shots, which will realistically be anything below 13 meters, and more preferably, 5-8 meters.

Now Deathslinger will chase around pallets with bunny hopping crouch walks as the players draw out the inevitable, wasting everyone's time, but more importantly the killers for this hit or down. Windows & vaults will be the most common point of injury for the nu-Deathslinger, as the power encourages you to never use it unless you have utter certainty, and for often enough, little to some reward.

Chain breaks are still a dubious waste of time. It does get a chuckle out of me that the buff to his no vision limited movement speed after a chainbreak (which again, cannot down, only injure) was called a QOL improvement. Not even BHVR considers this a buff, because realistically, chain breaks are what they have always been. An absolute last resort. Chain breaking someone at distance is almost never worth losing the target, which will happen when you consider the speed not to mention total line of sight cut off. The removal of Chain Break addons has only compounded this as an almost regardless effort. Chain Breaks are only done as a last resort, ideally they shouldn't happen at all. 3 seconds from what I imagine was originally 4, is still a huge price to pay for not being able to see your opponent, and then having to again, spend an additional 4.13 reloading while they run the length of a football field with an additional speed boost on top of the relative 66-69% actual speed created by this encountered. This does not even factor in the time wasted on a chain break itself i.e. the reeling process.

These changes would still be enough to destroy Deathslinger in my opinion, his weakness are tuned up to 11, but we now arrive at the nail which drives its stake right into the heart of Deathslingers gimmick: His terror radius. Having changed his terror radius from 24 to 32, players will now start running with ample time to prepare for Deathslinger. Combined with his limited 18 meters max range & his 110% movement, Survivors now have their pick of when and where Deathslinger will be engaged. Gutting his elements of suprise to compensate for no map control, gen pressure and most importantly, his limited range, Deathslinger now starts & ends with nothing but disadvantages in the fight he is up against. He needs psuedo-stealth to close the distance, to create a disturbance; to use his power. Trickster & Huntress have lullabyes because their powers have limitless range & can down theoretically at any distance. Deathslinger can do neither.

While Trickster gets buffs Deathslinger gets nerfed, I can't help but see a double standard

Trickster seems to have a lot going for him as of late. He reads like the worst of all worlds and frankly in some ways, as a ranged killer, I feel that statement is warranted. Trickster has little thought into his use of his ability. The consequences for a missed knife have never been less severe with the reduction of 8 to 6 for an injured state. He has 44 knives, enough to cause roughly 7 injured states, or 3 downs & 1 injure before needing to reload.This does not even factoring in main event which creates a limitless supply during its time. In exchange trickster moves at 96.5% while firing his knives and a 4 second (likely 2 with Iron Maiden) pit stop every now and again. He has ranged down potential for realistically 1 down 1 injure to 2 downs realistically speaking and he still moves faster than Deathslinger while doing so.

How about the skill involved? Can anyone seriously argue someone quick scoping for a 14 meter shot around geometry or through the corn took less effort, game knowledge & prediction ability than holding M1 in the general direction of the person you are chasing? Whats the consequence for a missed knife versus the consequence for a missed Harpoon shot? In every way Deathslinger is punished, Trickster has genuinely nothing but upsides by comparison.

People might argue again, that its about counterplay, but what counterplay is there to a short loop with trickster slowly chipping you to death? How about Main Event camping a hook? Do you realistically have counterplay despite the fact that you can visualize the element of your chagrin?

Trickster by all accounts in comparison to the Huntress & Deathslingers Yin-Yang of good balance is a killer who gets all of their positives with none of their drawbacks, and worst of all, has a very high skill floor with a very low cieling. I am not hear to start a fight with Trickster fans or anything like that, but please acknowledge what you do isn't comparable at all to the effort involved for a Deathslinger, let alone a Huntress main.

It feels like were trending towards mediocrity with changes like this. Whats the point of investing years worth of time into a killer who isn't even on anyone's radar, just to have him demolished because someone somewhere feels his gimmick is a bummer for SWF's group, despite the fact that the killer by all statistical accounts performed fine?

What are my alternatives, if any, to Deathslinger as he is now?

Preferably, I'd simply ask for a revert. I think the numbers and philosophy of use, with very reasonable counterplay to beating DS are enough. But if changes must be made, please consider what I have told you hear when I make these suggestions:

1) Make the Redeemer a LAR with multiple shots before a reload. It'll take testing and tweaking to find the right number, somewhere between 3-5 shots. Animation speed for a miss / chain recall can be super accelerated (animation wise) until the time of actual reload in which case the already existing slowdowns will take effect. This would allow for breathing room to still make those awesome shots at range, allow for survivors demands at counterplay as he still has to ADS, and encourage development and risk taking. If simply x50% speed of animation is to clunky, well, as a LAR, just add a new animation of slapping a new harpoon & chain in each shot. A meager time penalty is fine before having to load up, relative to the shots expended, with the max being the same as already existing time penalties.

2) Either restore or incorporate something original for his terror radius. 24 meters in my opinion, was perfect, but if you want to do something interesting, make his terror radius a stackable for each set of seconds (lets say 3-5) he's not in chase. Make it like furtive chase or some such non-sense, with each set of time reducing his terror radius from 32 by 4 meters each stack up to 4 stacks (16 meter reduction), and lose all stacks in a chase. This gives him an edge if he's being W-Gamed or Spinechilled too long so that he can actually ambush and use his power.

3) If neither of these changes can be accommodated, then Chain Break has every right to down at range.

These are merely my thoughts after several hundred hours in the game, most of them invested in my Favorite Killer. I apologize for any spelling errors or typos, I'll be working to sort those out here shortly.

I would love to hear the communities thoughts.

I really would, thank you for reading.

Edit: I have made a few corrections in both typos & calculations.