Billy's Engravings are being nerfed.

Yeah this doesn't make sense. If anything he needed a speed increase on his chainsaw, not a nerf to Engravings.

The popular double engravings combo will most likely be completely gutted, so rip those good Billys who used these add-ons for sick curves.

Like, it's kinda sad that Billy's changes weren't good when he got his rework. Especially when he was one of the most beloved killers by both killers and survivors.

But now, after all this talk from Billy mains. You decide to nerf him even further and try to pass this as a buff.

Just leave Billy alone. He was mistreated by his family enough. Just don't touch him bhvr. Stop the bullying, it's not funny.

All the other changes, idk. It's a lot, let's see how things go.

Yep, nerfed Billy and buffed nurse.

Bhvr's evil knows no bounds

This midchapter is a huge W in many aspects but once again we see billy buff changes and again it includes a nerf as an unnecessary compensation. Are there actually any reasons engravings are getting nerfed besides the whole "hurr durr we buffed his basekit so bla, bla, bla"

Friendly reminder Blight still has his speed addons AND alch ring unchanged after all these years.....

The only solid reason I can see is that BHVR just don’t like him much

I mean huntres kept her cooldown/charge time after her update and blight also has cooldown + speed with no downside. It’s simply bias

I've posted about billy before many times, Even going as far as to say overheat isn't as bad as people make it out to be, and I'm pretty staunch defender of him I really don't think he's even c-tier, I think he's a strong b tier. But engravings were on the list of things I would say never needed to be touched. I think the overheat changes are fine but the engravings would be a disappointing change if they went to live.

That said of course, I want to see how they toned it down. If dooms are gutted, that makes low pro and engravings a dead combo as well.

My theory: Billy is the free killer that brand new players will struggle the most against, and engravings are available early due to their rarity.

In reality, the nerf is ridiculous. Change the math in terms of how engravings stack if you must, but a flat nerf to engravings speed kills him at a high level. If I loaded into a competitive scrim without engravings, the survivors would ask me why I'm trolling and wasting their time. I can accept that the top percentile isn't the balance target, but we can still use the blanket term "high mmr" (as cringe as it is) for the discussion. The engravings are his viability in that range.

Beyond that, he has so many issues relative to map assets that need to be addressed. I've stated in other threads that I refuse to play him without map offerings. I'd categorize him as unplayable on a large number of maps due to collision, too much clutter, or simply being indoors. What's the justification behind nerfing an already hyper-niche killer?

There seems to be a lack of understanding as to how Billy plays at a high level. And that hasn't changed since the initial overheat iteration, which is disappointing. Changing the overheat over short distances doesn't change how Billy functions. The tile is either curve-able or it isn't. Either way, I'm not sitting there ripping off curve attempts until I go through an entire heat cycle. This was never an issue before. You can tell whether the survivor is going to position correctly within the first two attempts. And the heat change on long saws punishes Billy against teams who play safe and communicate. You aren't always going to play against teams who announce themselves. The mobility is needed and, again, wasn't an issue before.

Edit: I also have to ask- How are Billy's engravings problematic while Blight's speed add ons continue to go unaddressed? This is beyond absurd. Blight is stronger and his add ons are infinitely more problematic, yet he continues to go untouched while Billy continues to get nerfed for no reason.

BHVR loves nerfing trash killers so that doesnt surprise me.

My only guess is that they're mistaking correlation for causation with Billy's add ons.

Billy, at least in my anecdotal experience, is more likely to be played by a Billy specialist at a high level. They're almost always going to run engravings and usually do really well. BHVR looks at high kill rates for top Billy players and sees them all running engravings.

A generalist killer player is more likely going to play Blight. Blight is much easier and has better add ons. That's going to introduce more variance into Blight's results despite his add ons being objectively more busted to anyone who actually plays the game at a high level. I've seen Alch Ring Blight players get 4 outed because they're awful at the game, but it doesn't mean the add ons are ok. I've never run into a double engravings Billy player who wasn't cracked, because random average killer players typically aren't playing Billy. They're playing Blight.

I'm just speculating. A dev could feel free to correct me. Or give any logical reason as to why Billy needed a nerf. But it seems like it's their reliance on data over practical game knowledge that bit them here.