I have roughly 4500 hours in Hillbilly. Over half a year of my waking life on this killer.

gtVel
gtVel Member Posts: 24
edited March 2023 in Feedback and Suggestions

You are removing two of the most functionally enjoyable and balanced addons for a killer by nerfing engravings in the way you are.


Engravings trade utility, for lethality. And a sharp increase in skill requirement per engraving added.

It is INCREDIBLY easy to counter as well, purely just by predropping and breaking for distance nonstop.

It's taken me roughly 4500 hours with double engravings ALONE to tell you, they do NOT need to be nerfed. Despite having all this time and experience, I can tell you, billy is STILL weak with them. It's why I enjoy billy, it's a challenge to win with a mechanically high skill ceiling character that's at a disadvantage. I regularily play with no slowdown, or occasionally just agitation and shadowborn and only queue lery's because I LOVE the unfair challenge. The overheat changes make no difference either, because overheat is only an issue against players BETTER than you, (until you reach extremely high skill levels). I understand overheat and it's impact VERY well, and it only becomes an issue if you're not aware of how to manage it, and it's a very basic skill to learn.


If you make those changes and nerf engravings, you neuter this killer to a place of irrelevance, and no overheat changes fix that. There is a cult following of double engraving players that has been bleeded out slowly by every billy change that's been made, ESPECIALLY over the past few years. I'd fairly confidently say i'm one of, if not the MOST experienced billy player, and I'm genuinely considering quitting this killer over the changes. And it doesn't stem from a place of bias for wanting a strong killer, I don't care about winning in the first place. It's purely from enjoyment of developing a mechanical movement skill because it's an incredibly unique, incredibly difficult, and incredibly satisfying skill. The high sensitivity inherently makes billy a high skill muscle memory challenge by design, similar to aiming, and removing the skill ceiling and potential range is just antithetical to what actually makes billy punishing! Remember, the faster you're moving, the more challenging that initial turn sensitivity is. That fast movement speed is EVERYTHING that matters, and inherently balances itself with the wind up/cooldown times of the chainsaw on TOP of the mechanical complexity.


That doesn't even get into the VERY intimate and frequently changing knowledge you have to develop about timings, every potential angle of exit of a loop, and which one is most likely by the skill assessment you've built of the player you're chasing, literal update-to-update environment hitbox changes, and other weird idiosyncrasies billy's chainsaw has. Overheat being added to the game was just salt in the wound.


Billy is HARD. That is FINE. There needs to be something like this in the game, because no other killer comes close. He's already on a knife's edge of being unusable and I say that with again, 4500 hours. Let's talk about making him better in a healthy way to serve his strengths in fun, or at least leaving him as is until he can be addressed in a healthier manner.


Please Behavior, reach out to me and talk. I don't want to see what makes me passionate about this game fully die.

Post edited by gtVel on
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Comments

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,088
    edited March 2023

    Listening to the professional Hillbilly players is what caused Hillbilly to be insufferable to play as for any casual player. He is just too hard to play and only hardcore experts play him. Listen instead to the rest of the community who does not play him, ask them why they don't play him. Hillbilly is like Nurse in that regard, completely insufferable to play as except you get mediocre results for your sweat. bHVR could have given him quality of life, change the power. but that would not fly.

    Leather face is a much more viable and open to other players kind of Killer, but you have to pay for him.

    Like have you seen the gameplay vs a Good Hillbilly? they walking back and forth revving the chainsaw around the same loop for a min and then BOOM insta-down. Its super boring and Im glad I never see a Hillbilly nor have any want to play as them. Hillbilly needs a full rework of his Power and a reduction of addons that show too high a kill rate is a good solution while we wait. Make Hillbilly fun and easier to play instead of gatekeeping him hard.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,088

    Well I'm glad I can introduce you to a different point of view, but its beyond weird you say you never have met anyone who didn't like playing against current Hillbilly. Even so how you say he is insufferable to play yet say its a "my problem" when I played him for 5 hours and quit.

    Yes. Any killer you have to play more 5 hours with to do anything with really bad way to treat a product. Nurse too.

  • Notionless
    Notionless Member Posts: 243

    I agree partially, but that isn't the consequence of gentlemen who're able to land absolutelly rancid curves, it's a result of problems that bother the beginner more than the expert IMO.

    • Overheat is mostly a non-factor for experienced players, newer player constantly get put on cooldown.
    • great billy dont bump into objects nearly as often as beginners, who suffer from 5 sec stuns every second stride.
    • players aware of what objects have good and bad collision know where and where not to chase, inexperienced billy players will undoubtedly have to learn that bushes = danger the hard way.

    The overheat one is addressed a little in this update, which is nice.

    Overall, these have nothing to do with "pro-billys", rather, they're somewhat of an inspiration, showing that one can overcome these problems. If those stop playing, we wont see the really fun sides of billy anymore. the amount of mindgames that occur at one filler pallet is peak survivor chase gameplay to me.

  • GΣVΛЦDΛП
    GΣVΛЦDΛП Member Posts: 19

    "You're probably one of the only players ive ever run into that sees it this way"

    Man be discovering how echo chambers work, and DBD players sure know Billy mains love their echo chambers.

  • GΣVΛЦDΛП
    GΣVΛЦDΛП Member Posts: 19

    Source: Trust me bro I know the opinion of every survivor player in the world

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,088

    That is still bad product design. bHVR really ought to packup that idea of keeping a Killer being insufferable to play as just because someone says "It's not a bad thing to have a difficult killer" is really bad. Luckily for us they dont make Killers anymore that are insufferable to play as, they have well designed powers you can easily use and that is why Hillbilly deserves a rework instead of life support in death while being bad to play as.

    A high skill ceiling? Sure you can have it, but there has to be standards for mechanical requirements to play a Killer and billy is way off.

    I'm glad you are aware of the issues with Hillbilly, but im not here to retell you that. Im here to suggest to bHVR a full rework of Hillbilly would be better than what exists now. Its fine if you want to tell me not to play him. I already stopped. I only play him when I have a daily to give him a worthy try like every month, but its rarely worth the trouble.

    These are concerns I raise cause its just a unhealthy way to manage a product. bHVR needs to realize that.

    Overheat has never been an issue for me on Hillbilly. Less overheat will do little to improve his play rate. Nor has bumping into stuff. Its the mechanical requirement that is out of whack. I think bHVR could solve that with a rework.

  • gtVel
    gtVel Member Posts: 24

    The mechanical challenge isn't really even there. If you don't have engravings, he's not hard. That version of billy exists, he just needs better addons among other changes.

  • GΣVΛЦDΛП
    GΣVΛЦDΛП Member Posts: 19

    Guys, I will have you know I have 50 viewers on twitch so my opinion is the only fact there is. Out of the 100's of 1000's that own and play this game I know what they all like and dislike. It is of complete coincidence that my billy only stream seems to only attract people who agree with me and because of this it is easy to determine that this is the majority.

  • SlowLoris
    SlowLoris Member Posts: 288
    edited March 2023

    Billy without speed is still available for newer players. You can traverse the map with your chainsaw, you can back rev very efficiently without speed for an insta down and break pallets quickly if someone drops them in your face. So, base-kit simple Billy is there. He may not be strong, but he's there and is definitely much easier to win with if you play like that and also basic attack more against newer players. It doesn't make him fun, or very viable against really good survivors. However, if we're talking about a low barrier to entry for newer players, Billy is more than accommodating. There is nothing wrong with his lethality having a higher skill floor and very high skill ceiling.



    Edit: Forgot to add, but for those people that want a more "chill" version of Billy, let's look at the other 80% of useless addons he has like rev speed increase while being blinded. Or 20% quieter chainsaw, etc.

  • KingFieldShipper
    KingFieldShipper Member Posts: 612

    I guess I still don't really understand why you think that having a high skill floor on a killer is unhealthy and justifies a full rework - if that's even your point, I really can't tell.

  • Moonieee
    Moonieee Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 1

    Viability this optimal that. Why is it not okay for things to be hard to play? why is not okay to have to spend a lot of time devoted to something to play it at a top level if thats what you want? he doesn't need to be overpowered, he doesn't have to bring astounding results. People play him because curving around loops and outplaying people is HARD and fun. And that's okay. Listening to billy players to bring a billy that not only they, but everyone can enjoy is the best option here. The fact you say nurse brings mediocre results and is insufferable to play says the most.

    You think only about winning and thats the issue with this game, everyone thinks about winning, fun is disregarded and its just creating a vicious cycle of boring gameplay. Y'know whats more boring? Having a billy zone and back rev you because thats all they'll do if these changes go through. Y'know whats boring? Having survivors forego looping to predrop pallets, use their E key or really any exhaustion perk and have the game play itself for them. Billy doesn't deserve this, he's fun and fair, bubba does the same as billy and you don't complain about that.

  • GΣVΛЦDΛП
    GΣVΛЦDΛП Member Posts: 19

    It's pretty crazy then that you meet so few people who differ on billy then. Must be pretty jarring to come across more than one person too.

    I think if we take a minute perceive even beyond that and think about hours that other people have and the amount of people they interact with as well we can come to an even wackier conclusion that peoples opinion vary beyond to our select groups. But then again the world seems to revolve around your twitch chat so maybe not KEKW.


    For the record I have quite a few thousand hours, friends with quite a few as well and not everyone is head over heels over the stagnant gameplay that is flick billy. Not to mention this opinion is across the board from people with <100 to friends with +5000. But who knows clearly it's just a one sided perception that "everyone loves billy"

  • gtVel
    gtVel Member Posts: 24

    No, I run into a lot of people who don't enjoy playing against him or playing as him. I understand my biases well. My statements stand.

  • GΣVΛЦDΛП
    GΣVΛЦDΛП Member Posts: 19
  • AmpersandUnderscore
    AmpersandUnderscore Member Posts: 1,731

    Billy changes are so odd. It's like they have to have one "Calm Spirit" level of change included in every patch. No one asked for this, and no one thinks this is a good change.

    I've never played Billy personally, and have little interest in his play style. But this change is wholly unnecessary.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,088

    I have explained this a few times now.

     Bad product design. You cant have many people enjoy a product if a high skill floor gatekeeps them from enjoying them, a high skill ceiling is fine. But if you make a Killer insufferable to play as, its a really bad idea. bHVR would not create a similar killer these days.

  • Jubswest
    Jubswest Member Posts: 6

    i have around 800h with dbd my highest prestige is billy at p25. all my other killers( i have them all except artist and the skull lady) are at p3 with some exceptions( trapper at 10, legion at 9 and deathslinger and huntress both at 5) in truth i find most other killers pretty stale to play as their interactions hardily change at loops either you can dominate a certain loop ( such as trickster with anything waist high) or you can do jack ######### at it( just being trapper) and while mind gaming is certainly an option and all the fun that goes with it. hill billy was the only killer( and blight) where all the old loops changed for me, they became fresh as i tried to learn to curve with them, with only newer possibiltys as i started to explore his add ons( besides the completely worthless ones looking at you belt buckle) if this nerf would go through i fear i may not lose interest in dbd as a whole, the supposed buff to his heat generation is complete useless as the current time is still plenty, as why you would then nerf his abilty to cross the map is ludicrous to me as that was one of his few strengths and in the event of this why are there no nerfs to blight? when he can do this far better? please explain to me these changes and to the small community of billy players.