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The current state of M1 killers.

M1 killers have always been at a significant disadvantage. They can only catch survivors by walking, and as long as survivors know how to use pallets or windows, they can easily delay them for a long time. While chasing one survivor, the other three survivors constantly repair generators. If you don't disrupt them, they can repair two generators in about 30 to 40 seconds on average. This means you have to find a survivor and down them within 30 seconds. However, this is almost impossible for high MMR M1 killers. In high MMR games, most survivors can stall M1 killers for a long time. When I play as a survivor, I don't feel the horror aspect of the game. I just see a bunch of M1 killers being outplayed by survivors. In fact, I feel more nervous playing as a killer than as a survivor. I have to worry about generators being repaired and chase survivors, hooking each of them three times.

When I'm chasing survivors as a killer, it doesn't feel like I'm hunting prey. If you don't play Nurse, Spirit, or Blight, it's difficult to win. This has led to most M1 killers resorting to tunneling or camping for quick kills. With four survivors repairing generators, it's highly disadvantageous for the killer. However, these killer strategies are often labeled as "incorrect" by survivors. The game has never specified a fixed way to play, so why are killer strategies considered wrong while survivor strategies are always seen as right? Is it because there are more survivor players than killer players?

I'm sure those who claim that killers are too strong haven't played high MMR M1 killers. Many times, a killer's inability to catch survivors isn't related to player skill, but rather due to their limitations. No matter how skilled you are, you can't easily catch a survivor who knows how to loop and use pallets. Facing a killer who can only close the distance by 0.6 meters per second isn't nerve-wracking for survivors. With each vault over a window or pallet, survivors can create a gap of over 10 meters from the killer, especially with acceleration perks.

On a normal map, there are around 10 to 20 pallets or windows (except the game). Many maps allow survivors to loop killers multiple times, like Withered Isle and Haddonfield. When a killer chases a survivor and goes through every pallet and window, they often see four survivors casually walking out the exit gates. This is the predicament that killers face in the game. If things continue this way, the game will inevitably lose all its killer players.

By the way, when I refer to M1 killers, I mean killers like Legion, Trapper, Wraith, Myers, Nightmare, and other similar types of killers.

Comments

  • thisislastyearsmodel
    thisislastyearsmodel Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 636

    Some of them are okay. Wraith and Legion are massively underrated by a lot of people — especially Wraith now that he's been buffed to have the nice speed boost after uncloaking.

    Trapper, Myers, Clown, Pig, and Freddy are the five I'd very comfortably say are the weakest killers, and probably in the same order as I listed them (Trapper being the worst, Freddy or Pig being the best of the worst) but the devs seem to be in no hurry to dish out any buffs to any of them. If they're saying they're fine with Trapper and how he's performing, I have no hope for the rest of them.

  • AlanShin
    AlanShin Member Posts: 24

    I mentioned the Legion as an example because after injuring survivors, he lack the ability to effectively down them unless the survivors are grouped together. Most of the skills possessed by M1 Killers can assist them in taking down survivors, but the Legion is an exception.

  • DaddyMyers_Mori
    DaddyMyers_Mori Member Posts: 2,205

    Wraith is very good, lot of possible builds and not affected much by MFT. Most survivors don't know how to counter him luckily.

    Legion got worse with MFT. It basically makes his counter play way easier and more likely to happen.

  • Gandor
    Gandor Member Posts: 4,262
    edited August 2023

    This is so wrong on so many levels. For M1 killers that can't win in high MMR, I hope you don't consider Hens (or knightlight) low MMR killers:

    For unfair tactics - killers can camp, tunel and slug (complained trio - even though I see no problem w slugging if it's not just to BM to hold survivors longer in game), but survivors can genrush (hyperfocus, stakeout, resilience, streetwise/proof 4man with commodius+spool+BNP is genrush - inability to create pressure or camping single survivor is not genrush).

    Another thing is - I have seen so many low-to-mid tier killers proclaiming themselves high MMR showing their "perfect game without any mistake" (riddled with misplays), that I am pretty much convinced everyone with 10+ hours now considers himself high mmr... Which is funny, because this game has soft cap that is rather very.... Low. So it doesn't take insane skill to really be high MMR. This "I am high MMR" perception also prevents people from realizing they got actually outclassed (happens on both sides very often, because MMR is so loose) and instead blame that other side has it too easy.

    But what we do know is, that average kill rate is above 50%....

  • thisislastyearsmodel
    thisislastyearsmodel Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 636

    Yeah, MFT does hurt when you play Legion. I've been noticing chases take a bit longer than usual, especially around shack. That said, I've found a very reliable build that hasn't done me wrong yet: Enduring (very quick double taps if they stun you in frenzy), Jolt, Ruin and Surveillance.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,881

    legion has natural synergy with blood echo. tataru puts fearmonger on him as well. he has easy time countering MFT if he wants to.

  • DaddyMyers_Mori
    DaddyMyers_Mori Member Posts: 2,205

    So most likely losing slowdown perk/chase for quite a bad perk (blood echo), which will lose you some games in exchange, that's so effective.... You are still worse overall, you manage to get a game (sometimes when perk works) to previous situation, but with a perk less.

    I like fearmonger only on Knight from M1 killers. Otherwise you just buff SB and make it easy to use, which can hurt you a lot as Legion.

    Fearmonger is 5 seconds, it's really not hard to lose it during a chase anyway on checkspots.

  • AlanShin
    AlanShin Member Posts: 24

    I usually infer my own MMR based on the playtime of my opponents. They are usually a SWF group with around 5000 hours of playtime. I play both as a killer and a survivor. I believe that the weak point of M1 killers is their difficulty in downing survivors around pallets. Therefore, I think that the abilities of each killer should assist them in downing survivors more easily. This is also why I published this article.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,866

    I have to confess, I've never understood the idea of "M1 killer" as it's currently used.

    It's hard to make broad sweeping statements about the combined balance of a group that contains both the worst killer in the game (Trapper), and some of the better killers (for example, Pinhead). The range of strength is so broad that "M1 Killers" aren't suffering anything at all as a group, because what's detrimental to Trapper barely matters for Pinhead or Plague, or even someone that's just "decent" like Wraith or Legion.

    Map design and easily-chained tiles are a problem, of course, but I just don't agree with this idea of all M1 killers are suffering. Almost all of them, Trapper excluded, have strong and viable builds, and half of them aren't even weak to begin with.

  • CatnipLove
    CatnipLove Member Posts: 1,006

    M1 killers can do more than walk to catch people. Myers utilises stealth and exposure, Trapper traps things, Nightmare looks sad and helpless so you feel bad for him and throw him a free kill or two. They may not be the strongest at high MMR, but describing their chase potential as simply "walking", isn't accurate.

  • AlanShin
    AlanShin Member Posts: 24

    My expression might have been a bit off. When I refer to "M1 killers," I actually mean those killers who are relatively less powerful. This doesn't include killers like Pinhead, who can down survivors through their power under normal circumstances.

  • AlanShin
    AlanShin Member Posts: 24

    I think Wraith relies more on his Add-ons, which is why I chose to use this killer as an example.

  • AlanShin
    AlanShin Member Posts: 24

    So, what about Legion? After injuring the survivors, he can't down them with his power. This means he can easily injure the survivors, but it's difficult for him to knock them down, as his power can't help him take them out‚ and as you know, if you're unable to quickly take down the survivors, the generators will continue to be repaired.

  • RpTheHotrod
    RpTheHotrod Member Posts: 1,934

    Well, you do have some M1 killers who's powers can be completely stolen from survivors such as ghostie and the singularity. Alien, as well...but he at least maintains his tunnel transportation.