Deadslinger is in a weird spot balance wise
Deadslinger is one of my favorite killers in the game for one simple reason: I like it when the funny cowboy man goes bang with this gun. Its that simple.
So what is the problem? Balance.
Deadslinger is arguably the best 1v1 killer in the game if we ignore spirit and nurse. The ability to make so many loops unsafe is very useful. Sadly for our cowboy, there is more to this game than 1v1.
For starters, the power is not that dangerous at range. Not only does it have a range limit, the chain can also break. You could try to use unrelenting to use his power as a form of zoning, but you also have reload after every shot. Combine this with a lack of map pressure and end up with killer in a very weird spot.
On hand, his chase power is only matched by the top tier killers but his lack of range and pressure along with his vulnerability to survivors body blocking make him a killer that feels oppressive from the survivors side but lacks any actual pressure.
A small change that I am fan of is to increase his range, as that would give him more pressure without needing to change a lot of things.
Another option is to change how his gun reloads based on what you do, with hitting and breaking the chain with an m1 giving you the quickest reload to make his zoning powers more effective.
Another even more complicated option is to rework his reeling in mechanic entirely to reward long shots.
In order to make him for fair to play against, I would make his shots more flashing and maybe even make the camera point towards a near hit. This playing against feel more dynamic even if nothing has actually changed.
Deadslinger is a killer that has a lot of potential, BHVR just needs to give him so more things to play with. In his current state, he is just a budget huntress.
Comments
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If it was pre nerf slinger he would be different. He was fast as ######### when he aimed and he was a better stealth killer than the actual stealth killers. his 1v4 is his biggest weakness.
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DeathSlinger & Spirit are examples that Killers too strong in chase make it doesnt fun for survivors, nerf them down and nobody use because they have no build in slow for the only thing they relied on is fast down before the hooked survivor goes back to game.
Thats why I think Pig & Pinhead design are the best, make them weak in chase all you want, you can always buff their slowdown mechanic
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DS is indeed in a weird spot. He's completely un-fun to play against for most survivors while simultaneously being quite weak at the moment. So the survivors don't have fun in the chase and the DS doesn't have fun because he still loses even with fast chases because he has no map pressure.
Better killer design I think is in map pressure/map mobility/gen slow down killers. This lets the survivors have fun chases but at the same time doesn't lose the killer the game from those longer chases. Unfortunately most those killers tend to have a hit and run play style which is currently gutted and unviable from CoH.
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Survivors only have fun in chase with a killer if it's someone they can loop for 5 gens like Trapper
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I object as pin head and pig aren't exactly the most fun killers to play because they feel so weak in chase.
What's the point in having slowdown when you feel powerless against your opponent.
Let alone unless your using a specific add-on Pig's slowdown needs her to down people so a bad chase = a bad slowdown.(Ignoring RNG elephant in the room.)
Finally Pin Head's slowdown is notorious for stomping Solo Que but is useless against SWF which design wise should be avoided to make Solo Que less horrible.
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I would say
fun chases are engaging
Like Demogorgon or Bubba Or pyramid head,
These killers feel awesome to chase with, with counter play that doesn't completely destroy them
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none of those change would really do anything for him.
only reverting him to his old state would truly help him.
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Honestly Deathslinger nerf really just shows there's a fundamental issue the devs don't really want to address and that's giving survivors more interactions outside of chase and reworking the main objective.
Deathslinger was fine the way he was outside of the walking backwards while reeling which removes the whole chain counterplay. Longer cd on ads cancel was also an okay change, but it's not like current Deathslinger is any worse at zoning.
But survivor "fun" shouldn't just solely be being chased. Survivors should also need to constantly move around the map to get their objective done as well. Right now if someone is getting chase the safest spot to be is on a gen not by the chase. Which leads to situations of killers losing multiple gens during their first chase.
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No killer who's as busted in chase as deathslinger can be bad imo. He moves a little slower than most other killers but he negates like every loop in the game with little counterplay besides blocking him with walls. The best way to slow down the game is to get downs and deathslinger is very good at getting downs so I don't really see the issue.
I think a lot of the reason why you don't see deathslinger very often anymore is that he actually takes SOME skill now. Before he was basically just a point and click game, you put your mouse on the survivor click and boom you have a down with almost nothing the survivor can do about it. He can still do that now but at least there's some room to dodge, making him just an easy killer rather than one of the easiest to play in the game. And of course all the people who played him just moved to easier ranged killers like nemesis and pinhead.
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I used to be a Deathslinger main, and the nerf made me stop playing him altogether
Im a huge fps player (mainsly counter strike) with very decent skill at aiming, that's why i enjoyed deathslinger and his scope/fast paced aim gameplay.
Now he is So. #########. Slow. Its not even enjoyable to play him
Plus, without the reload addon, its pretty much unwinnable. The sheer amount of time you lose to reload throughout an entire match is ridiculous
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Tldr slinger is a slow killer who has a lot of mechanics that prolong the chase requiring two hits to down reload after every shot and a reel mechanic that takes up a lot of time. Zero map traversal and a range limit. This makes him a terrible killer. Your overrating him!
"Besdies blocking him with walls". Thats a big weakness and when you add up all the time required to get in range and finally land a shot. Which even in other shooters with players who have thosands of hours of experiance they can still miss! People forget the best slingers in the world do not hit 100% of there shots. When they miss it is an even prolonged time frame to catch up and get that shot.
But say you land your shot there is time spent reeling which can be broken. Theres time spent stun, reloading and then finally picl up and hook. Then there is map traversal which is a time sink due to lower movement.
Huntress always had the range advantage so her mobility wasnt as much of an issue. New maps have hurt her a bit but hhe still has that longshot potential. Even trickster has the rapid fire technique. So what now? How do we give slinger a real buff whipe maintaining his existing aim changes. (Personally i dont believe in making a power clunky as a fix since it kinda messes with the people slinger was meant to appeal to but this is behaviour stance i guess).
Slinger either needs more lethality with a charged exposed shot or some kind of in built slowdown. The slpwdown imo is a bit boring because these playstyles rarely ever excite survivors bar i guess pinheads lament configuration.
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Just play Huntress she is better in every way, and wont ever get nerfed
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How about we leave him as is and just have his gun auto reload.
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Shame they nerfed Deathslinger out of the game.
No reason to play him.
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Killers who have no 1v4 HAVE to be strong in 1v1. Making chases shorter is the only way they have of putting pressure on the survivor team.
TEAM.
I cannot fathom how that gets ignored, but this is not a 1v1 game and CANNOT be balanced as if it were. Nerfing Deathslinger so brutally, with no provocation, and with zero compensation was so nonsensical it suggests an outright grudge somebody on the balance team had against him. He is slower than most killers, has a short range that also cannot down survivors by itself, has copious counterplay in the whole "break the chain" mechanic on top of having to aim correctly and letting survivors just juke and evade the hook in the first place, gets throttled controls when trying to use his power, AND has to reload after every shot. There are SO MANY limits and restrictions on him to begin with.
Putting another heaping helping of nerfs? Nah. That's asinine. That tells me someone in a position of power at BHVR does not have the game's best interests at heart and is making decisions based on personal preferences alone.
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