Onryo's "Rework" is an unjustifiable nerf
A dev update was just released that revealed the changes Onryo would be receiving in the next patch. https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/399
In short:
- The changes do not fix the problems that her "rework" created. And doesn't stop the widely vilified Condemned Only playstyle from being viable.
- In fact, Condemned Only is not only still the most viable way to play Onryo. But has been made stronger and now with a much lower skill ceiling.
- No attempts to buff her chase potential has been made. And since no mention of changes to her add-ons were made it's safe to assume that Reiko's Watch remains nerfed.
These changes only serve to twist the knife after what Sadako endured on the PTB. Allow me to explain.
"Condemned Only" is still viable and boring
The current iteration of Sadako, (soon to become Old Sadako), has only one playstyle that is viable against good survivors. Using the Iridescent Video Tape, Ring Drawing, and slugging survivors to force Condemned build-up to get kills. It has been widely criticized for being a very boring playstyle that extends the length of matches and feels extremely cheesy to be on the receiving end of. One of the goals of Onryo's "rework" is to remove this style of play by nerfing it so it wouldn't be viable anymore.
But even after the changes it remains the most viable way to play Sadako. Here's what the newest iteration of the Condemned Only playstyle will look like.
- Equip Iridescent Video Tape + Mother's Comb.
- Continuously teleport every 10 seconds until someone picks up a tape. Mother's Comb will highlight which TV the survivor interacted with and Iridescent Video Tape will force them to go to furthest TV away from them.
- Intercept the survivor before they insert their tape and hit them once. This will destroy their tape and inflict 2 condemned stacks.
- Continue teleporting and pay attention to survivor portraits so you know when the survivor you previously hit picks up a tape again.
- Repeat steps 2-4 until someone is fully condemned and then down and kill them.
There was no incentive given for Sadako to chase and hook survivors over spamming teleports and proxy-camping TV's to force condemned kills. The condemned only playstyle remains alive and well. Just with a lower skill ceiling.
Onryo's chase potential is still terrible
In addition to failing to nerf her most criticized style of play, no attempt was made to increased Onryo's ability to actually down survivors. Her "flickering" as she de-manifests remains far too short to effectively use in a chase. And worse still, there was no mention of the nerf to Reiko's Watch being reverted in the dev update.
The biggest factor that made the condemned only playstyle viable, was because it was the only playstyle that forced a reaction from survivors. Sadako doesn't have any other way of threatening them because every other part of her kit is extremely weak.
Rather than buffing her chase potential and switching how condemned is applied to survivors to encourage Onryo to play more aggressively, the devs have shortsightedly changed Onryo's power in a way that doesn't fix the fundamental issues with her kit. They only serve to reduce to amount of meaningful decisions that all players make in game with her.
- Previously survivors only get condemned within 16 meters of a TV. Now it's map-wide.
- Onryo's most powerful add-on was the Iridescent Video Tape. It still remains mandatory to run if you want to win.
- Previously Onryo's most effective way of building up condemned was to slug people and spam teleports. Now it's hitting people and spamming teleports.
- Onryo's only way of getting chase potential was using Reiko's Watch to mindgame survivors with her flickering. With the nerf of Reiko's Watch this playstyle is now weaker.
I find it unbelievable that the devs still decided to ship most of the changes they made to Sadako to the live game despite unanimous community outcry. They failed to fix her most glaring issues and in fact only worsened them.
What a disappointment.
Comments
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her chasing kit is extremely weak to prevent her from becoming too strong with condemn kills. it balances her kit out. weak chase but strong passive to potentially mori survivors in the trial.
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You've completely missed the point.
Sadako's kit is not remotely balanced. The only thing she's good at, forcing kills with condemned, involves playing the game an extremely campy and non-interactive way. This is the real problem that needs addressing. Not how strong the strategy is. But how interesting it is to use and counter.
The "rework" doesn't solve this problem. And just funnels players to abuse it more since Onryo is still terrible at doing anything but trying to cheese kills.
The devs should have buffed her ability to chase survivors instead of doubling down an gimmicky insta-kill that her entire kit has to revolve around because of how powerful it can be.
Post edited by SirCracken on5 -
They try to make gaining stacks more consistence, but slower, to make sure Sadako can get use of her basekit slowdown by survivors running around for tapes.
But the hard part is, survivors getting tapes to lose stack requires the same resource of Sadako trying to put stacks on survivors. Its not about Sadako has 3 cookies and survivors have 2 , so you give survivors 1 to balance it out. Its you take away 1 cookie from Sadako to give it to survivors.
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Pretty much this.
It's so stupid that holding a tape, something that was a risk-reward with current Onryo, is now an extremely profitable and safe option that you should do at all times.
Because Onryo can't run around and hit everyone personally. So the threat of having 2 condemned stacks upon being hit is absolutely worth disabling a TV and stopping passive condemned from building up.
All they've done is ignored the core issues that Sadako suffered from and lowered the skill ceiling for both her and the survivors.
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The only thing she's good at, forcing kills with condemned
that sounds lore accurate character. a curse that kill you after 7 days.
The devs should have buffed her ability to chase survivors
Sure but that risk's sadako becoming too strong. like S-tier strong. She would become way to lore accurate.
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You just ignored every single point I made because of... Lore.
My brother in Christ: Gameplay > lore
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you would not feel like your playing against Sadako if condemn was not a threat. you would feel like your playing against a spirit that has teleport. I think they prioritize the feeling of going against a legendary killer from the movies but they also need keep it balanced such that it is not too killer-sided gameplay wise for survivor. Killer need to want to play killer and Survivors need want to not d/c vs killer. that is strikingly difficult to achieve given your average dbd game.
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What are you talking about?
Condemned Only is the most effective way to play Onryo. And that's a problem. Because that playstyle is extremely non-interactive and leads to bad gameplay. There's a way to balance Sadako so she's simultaneously powerful and fun to play as & against. But the dev's "rework" is certainly not it.
Why are you seriously trying to argue against this? We both want the character to be strong. But you don't understand how her power works from a gameplay standpoint or why it's an issue.
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New iri tape now has her old basekit. What a joke.
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They literally took an important mechanic out of her power and stuffed it into an add-on.
Imagine if you could only charge hatchets as Huntress if you used a certain add-on?
What a travesty of game design.
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I haven't played on the PTB but from reading the original changes + these updated buffs I don't see how they nerfed the ability to spread around condemned - just changed how it's done and made it base-kit. The only 'nerf' I see in the latest changes is to what happens when you hook a survivor carrying a video tape.
Add-ons should boost or change how a killer plays, not be responsible for whether they're viable. They've made spreading condemned around more a part of her base-kit. How is that a bad thing?
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You're right it should take 7 real time days for them to kill someone. That would be the true Sadako experience.
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