http://dbd.game/killswitch
Is Eruption killing DbD?
Remember most players who are not having fun in DbD will just quit and leave silently. DbD is down 25% of it's player base from this time last year according to Steam Charts.
The last time BHVR released relevant stats it was revealed that over 50% of the survivor player base was SoloQs. With Eruption adversely affecting SoloQs, is Eruption's unfun incapacitation and lack of good counterplay contributing to SoloQs leaving the game, ending DbD sessions early or choosing to play the game less?
In my case the answer is a definitive yes. According to one stat site, over 17% of killers now run Eruption. I run Bond and even seeing a chased survivor's aura doesn't really help me counterplay Eruption. If I know the killer has Eruption and kicked the gen and is chasing an injured survivor I get a bunch of bad choices:
- I can work on the gen and eat Eruption when the survivor goes down.
- I can wait for the survivor to go down to work on the gen.
- I can try to find another gen. (Remember just because a gen is at 0% doesn't mean it can't be affected by Eruption, which is beyond dumb)
- I can waste time doing something else.
No matter what I do, all the choices are bad and not matter what the killer gets insane value from the perk. There is no good counterplay, and that is why I hate Eruption. It's not fun. Even if I find a dead gen to work on I don't know if I am safe from Eruption. It's extremely frustrating.
The only mildly effective (damage limiting) counterplay I have found for Eruption is that if I am near (within 10 seconds running distance) of Erupted screamers I can go over and stop the gen from regressing while they are incapacitated.
Is Eruption even fun for killers? I hate it so much I refuse to use it. I think killers only use it because it is one of the meta regression perks right now, not because it is fun. Killers who would run Pop and/or Ruin if they weren't dumpstered are now more likely to choose Eruption.
I hate Eruption for the following reasons: (Note none of them are because it's strong or overpowered)
- The Incapacitated status effect as a feature of a perk is an awful implementation. The other instances of Incapacitation are caused by killer powers (Victor, Slinger and Huntress' Weighted Head) and in those cases it makes perfect sense since you got shot by something.
- It has truly atrocious counterplay without comms. An injured survivor can go down in the next instant or they can loop the killer for a minute you just never know. The killer just always gets too much value vs SoloQs unless they somehow manage to finish the gen before that player goes down.
- 25 seconds is just too long. In an ADHD world it's long enough for a person to alt-tab out and forget they're even in a game of DbD.
- It affects generators that have full regressed to 0%. If the gen is at 0% then the regression perk has done it's job. It shouldn't be able to kick you in the nuts 80 seconds after you started working on a dead gen as a cherry on top.
- Because of #4 the killer is actually encouraged to kick gens with almost no progress knowing that it is definitely worth it. There is no thought required. If a killer has Eruption and a gen has progress they should kick it if they are near and not in a hot pursuit.
- Because of #4 it synergizes too well with Call of Brine. CoB takes the gen to 0% quickly but the gen stays bobby-trapped with Eruption.
Changes I'd like to see:
- Make it so if a generator hits 0% it stops being affected by Eruption.
- Make it 15 seconds of Incapacitation.
- Make it 15% (or even 20%) regression.
- If a survivor is incapacitated there should be a way to tell, like they have a different posture.
It would still be a strong meta perk (possibly even stronger) but it wouldn't be so absurdly unfun and frustrating to play against.
Thanks for reading my thesis on Eruption.
Do you disagree? Why? What makes Eruption fun for you?
Comments
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Personally I'd prefer the incapacitating element to be removed all together. It's an absurd premise.
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I doubt it's solely Eruption, because I can still have games where I don't encounter Eruption.
The last mid-chapter patch we got didn't really change anything. The recent chapter is underwhelming because Knight isn't that good. Not to mention the last chapter was pretty buggy.
I imagine the game will pick up a bit once the event launches in a couple of days as that will be something new and interesting to play around.
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Given the 100% bonus for killer, probably not.
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If DBD can survive multiple years of Dead Hard getting no changes, it can survive Eruption. Easily.
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We just got out of the pandemic, if Netflix can lose retention once people decide to actually live their life, so can DBD.
I am personally taking Prove Thy Self with me so I don't have to deal with gen slowdown as much, if I find prove thy self disappointing I'll try to bring Stakeout + Hyperfocus. I'm simply adapting until something is done about it or it isn't. At the moment I have some of the tools to deal with it although solo is still lackluster because you cannot tell people "come join me I have PTP, let's do gen in the middle of the map" and I understand that not every person who plays can shell out money to get the counters to gen slowdown. (which is the same issue with playing for Reassurance to counter camping lol).
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Poor game design decisions are killing the game. Eruption is just a symptom of that. It’s off putting, and more often you’re seeing people decide to play other games like hockey than stick around. If things change they’ll come back perhaps
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Its not eurption but it's these 2 facts:
survivors are overnerfed and not fun to play unless you find hyperfocus fun and matchmaking refuses to put you up with people of your own skill
killer meta is either boring or non-interactive - it's either camp tunnel or hold 3 gens by spamming kick button with these new meta perks that drag the game
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I'd rather they replace incapacitation with entity blocking the gen. It's not fun not being able to do any interactions for 25 seconds.
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The premise is fine, implementation is the issue, and it is an issue. I would remove the incapacitation, bump the regression and block the gen for like 10 seconds. Or keep the regression as is and halve the incapacitation time. It's just too brutal on solo queue as is.
But "Killing" DBD? Lol, no. DBD had survived many far worse things.
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As a mostly Solo Q player, I am saying no. Eruption is just an additive to the real problem, which is the massive amount of bad Solo Q players out there. A few classes of these players:
1. They think they are better players than they are, thus blame eveything going badly on everyone but themselves (even though sometimes it also the rest of the team performing poorly)
2. Are completely selfish and do everything that makes sure they live and who cares who else does. The type that do just enough all game to pip but not take any risks and then hide to get hatch.
3. People who quit when someone goes down too fast in the beginning. I'm even having other players do this, not even the first one to go down is the one that DCs!!
4. People who, even with Kindred on, will still have two people running towards the hook to try to get it first. Or let you die on first hook to sit on their gen it takes them 200 seconds to do. With zero hooks yet. With 4 players left. WITH KINDRED.
The list goes on. Toxic Survivor behavior will be the end of this game before anything else. Not some broken perks. Not tunneling/camping. It will be Solo Q'ing dying and Killers not just wanting to face SWFs as the only players left. But it is the Survivors themselves that are making the experience so bad for those of us who actually play smart, yet selflessly. The really bad ones are the most blind to this fact sadly.
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Jeez, talk about being overly dramatic for no reason.
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I vote for the removal of Incapacitated entirely. Scrap it. It's not a fun mechanic. It's frustrating, annoying, etc.
It's still a fine perk at 10% regression per gen with unlimited range. 10%+Incapacitated+all the other slowdowns is insane. A good player doesn't need that much slowdown to win. It's ok if players lose to better players.
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Could possibly delay the blast after a down, 0.5-1 second, enough time to let go of the gen, if you don't get incapacitated. Perk retains it's effects, survivors get a counter.
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Bringing up Steam Charts in these arguments is pretty silly since Steam is such a small chunk of how many people are actually playing the game. Way less than 10% of the player base is on Steam.
There are actually substantially more players now than a year ago. The peak number of players in the past 30 days not including mobile was over 950000. A year ago that number was around 700000.
So no, DBD still isn't dying for the 647000 time.
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10%+incapacitated is not enough slowdown to go for 12 hooks with low tier m1 killers, then again the problem is weak killers and not the perk.
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dude....the perk has been viable for not even a year
dead hard was broken for 6....and even nerf is still being used....
do you really think not being able to do anything for 25 seconds can kill the game?
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Do you have a source?
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Back again with the Steam Charts I see.
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Actually. Found your source. They say on the site it’s a lousy algorithmic estimate not based on factual data. So I’m not gonna subscribe to your numbers. There is no reason to suggest that other platforms are not experiencing the same player interest behavior as on steam. So if steam counts are down I’m assuming that console are as well.
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To answer your question, no, it's not.
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Killers use mass-slowdown because it is the easiest way to play Killer. You can also play 0 or maximum 1 Slowdown and you will do fine as Killer. You just need to not suck at the game. However, if you suck at the game, you take 4 Slowdowns and prolong the game to a point where basically everyone can win.
Survivors focussing more on Generators is more the point of the oppressive Slowdown-Meta. What else should I do when playing Surviovr? Gens need to be done, so there is no time to do any different. Especially not when I play with at least two Randoms, where I dont know what they are actually doing and how fast they burn through the Pallets.
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If you get 5 minute games you seem to want to improve as Killer. And you wont improve if you stack Slowdown to prolong the game until the Survivors dont have any ressources left.
If I can do fine without much Slowdown, other players who call themselves "Killer Mains" will also be able to do fine. And personally, using different Perks than Slowdown-Perks is more fun as well (at least for me).
And nope, my answer was not meant to be hostile. It is just that stacking Slowdown is the easiest way to play this game. Even if some funny Content Creators are claiming that Killer is so skillful when they play with stacked Slowdown themselves.
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Just saying, if I can do fine, others will also be able to manage. I am not even good at Killer, but the truth is, that most Survivors are even worse.
But I see, I offended you. Sorry, truth might hurt.
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They do when they nerfed the slowdowns but never touched Gen speed perks and then added more perks that synergize with the speed up perks. I hate multiple slowdowns as much as the next player but there's a big difference between a Killer that dosnt run them on how fast gens fly
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Well, I'd argue that the 12 hook thing is a strange hang up people have too. There are a lot of ways to count to 12, and the worst possible way to do it in DbD is to try and go 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3-3-3-3. There's a midway point on the dial between hard tunneling at 5 gens and applying zero pressure at all.
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its because its more fun for killer to down multiple survivors then it is to hard-tunnel. I like being able spread hooks organically and win by accident from strong consecutive chases. More chases is more fun. Unfortunately, the game does not reward spreading hooks. it rewards hard-tunneling survivors because going for chases = wasting the killer time = losing gens. Otz has video about it. Its description of tru3's tunnel strategy which is something along lines of chase 1-2 survivors to find weak link, tunnel weak links of the team, then finish tunnelling 2nd survivor into 3rd survivor as 1 hook. Eruption helps for going for more chases but is not enough.
Eruption is not killing the game. Hard-tunneling and balancing killer powers for -weak- survivor players is. Its not allowing killer to be skill expressive with their power leading to low-killer variety and low gameplay variance.
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Everyone takes my hyperbolic question literally and ignores my entire OP.
No, Eruption obviously is not killing DbD all by itself.
But it certainly is a contributing factor in its decline.
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That hangup is probably because that's how people expect Killer players to play the game. To go for 12 hooks. No camping or tunneling, so therefore just hooks.
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The problem with the killer meta is if you don't run it on a low-tier killer you're screwed. Tonight I played mostly low-tier killers(Ringu girl(I cant spell her name sorry), Doc, and Demo) with no gen-kicking perks at all. Every match was miserable for me since I just went against lobbies with good items and addons, CoH, DH, map offerings, and Hyperforce + stake out + BNP toolkits. The only slowdown perks I ran tonight were Jolt, Deadlock, and MS(not all in one build those are just a few of the perks I used on each of the 3 killers I played). Every match was an uphill battle where gens pop left and right and downing ppl was a chore. Even if I hurt someone they were healed in a few secs thanks to CoH and a medkit. In most of the matches, I got like 3 hooks and no kills. I DC from the last match bc I was too frustrated to deal with the game and log out for tonight.
Yes, I think eruption needs changes(lowing the incap timer and rising the regression) but I also think survivor's items and a few of their perks need changing also. Right now the side that chooses to bring the best stuff is the side that going to win. If you don't run meta or play a high-tier killer then you screwed against a team that chooses the map and brings the best items.
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eruption specifically no gen focused gameplay on both sides for sure
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I mean i don't use 4 slowdown perks nor eruption, but your answer screams survivor main. With the new Knight perk even i am thinking of going back to kicking gens since its a damn good perk. Many survivors hide around gens.
Anyways there is 4 survivors and 1 killer. You chase someone. Survivors might have really good map like garden of pain or badham. Unless you are a nurse you won't down them in 2 seconds. You can't be pressuring the other 3 survivors at this point. Gens might go fast.
In my games i see multiple prove thyselfs and brand new parts. Even hyperfocus is a thing. People recharge their toolboxes and use them again. its not that uncommon to gens actually go so fast that killer has no chance in the game + bad map yeah might as well afk in a corner. It doesnt make the killer bad it makes the game unbalanced. Ask yourself why is it that killers use 4 gen defense perks nowdays. Why is eruption so popular. It has nothing to do with anyone being bad.
Also take away gen pressure and tunneling and camping will become even more popular. With the knight i feel like its already bad, but do we want to make it worse. Tunneling one person out of the game fast is smart business. Not the fun way of playing but very smart business for the killer.
I'd love to use aura reading + chase build only but unless i get complete new players i can't. I need gen pressure. Survivors have too many tools to make gens fly nowdays.
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Once you finish the tutorial the killers you face will start using perks. You will see it then.
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Killing DBD? No.
making DBD even more unfun than usual? Yeah
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Exactly! I completely agree with you. Today I played three low tier killers(ring girl(I can't spell her name), doc and demo). I ran very little slowdown perks on them and non of of them was gen kicking. The perks I used was jolt, MS, and deadlock. One of each on each build while I use chase and info perks on the 3 other slots. Every much I had was miserable mostly bc survivors used map offerings, BNP toolboxes with steak out, hyperfocus and prove. If it wasn't that they was running CoH and really good medkits.
If you a low tier killer you have to run two or more strong gen slowdown perks and hope you don't get sent to one of many survivor sided maps that is in this game. Like after tonight I feel like maiming nurse or blight.
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I think they need to move away from overpowered perks, addons, items, killers, etc. Things that are fun for one side but miserable for the other. It's impossible to balance a game when people can bring broken stuff that basically means the other team will have no chance. Like what is a beginner trapper supposed to do against a full SWF with 4 BNPs and full meta perks? What is an average solo team supposed to do against a meta nurse or an alch ring blight? The guys who have the longest SWF win streak have lost to these killers numerous times and they expect ordinary players to be able to handle it? It's just insane. Perks and items/addons in particular should be small advantages and not things that single handedly win you the game. If you did this you would see far less DOA games that are over in the first minute or two.
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Eruption can go when Dead Hard does
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Being penalized for 30 seconds is.. I hate to use the term but boring.
It's poorly designed as a trap perk.. perks like make your choice, death bound, haunted grounds, etc have proper consequence.
Eruption creates stagnation in the match and sucks the air out of the room tbh
Exploding the gen and losing progress is whatever. But the lingering effect of being incapacitated should be removed/ reduced/ changed into a hex 🤔
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I'd say it's the one of the strongest perk against soloQ I mean I had a match were we lost because eruption popped on the last gen when it was 99 like 6 times :D... Either way if you play with comms it's easy to call it out and then it becomes useless...
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