Why do people think Xenocat was overnerfed?

I think that it's because the nerf did significantly impact how people can use the tail in chase. The misconceptions seem to be that the tail was rendered useless and that the tail was the main point of Xeno's kit. It requires more skill to use now, because you get a bigger punishment for missing. However, the punishment isn't crippling. It's more like missing with the Nemesis tentacle than missing a Blight charge, which can actually lose you the chase if you haven't played it well. On top of this, the tail is still powerful. It's essentially a ranged attack with almost no windup. The turrets have also been nerfed to the point where they're more of a temporary slowdown than something that can consistently knock you out of your power (unlike my poor, poor Singularity). It's rare that a Xeno loses their Crawler Mode to a turret, and even then, they can still choose to push on and finish the job with mindgames and/or brute force.

Plus, Crawler Mode is only half of Xeno's power. It still has the tunnel network, which gives it incredible, unlimited map control with survivors only being able to pre-run if they have a motion tracker nearby. There have been times where survivors pop a gen on the other side of the map when I'm Xeno, and they're still in the area when I pop up and start biting at their heels. The tunnels significantly reduce the downtime of patrolling and responding to noise notifications.

All in all, Xeno is killer that, by design, can do a bit of everything and do it all pretty well. Map control? Tunnels. Survivors who are good in chase? Tail. Counterplay from Survivors? Survivors need to come to the tunnel entrances to get them. I don't know why they nerfed the recovery movement speed at the same time as fixing the bug, but I do wonder if the tunnel network and turret nerfs made them decide that Xeno's tail didn't need to be quite as oppressive anymore. Overall, I agree with @MikaelaWantsYourBoon that Xeno's still a top-tier killer in spite of this nerf.

What's your opinion on the upcoming Trickster changes?

I'm the first to admit that I'm not great with this Killer, but they still seem pretty strong to me, even if I can't always get the best out of them.

The cooldown does punish a missed attack, but that's fair and as it should be. I find I need to be extra careful with the tail to make sure every attack counts. It's strong anti-loop, you shouldn't be able to spam it.

Besides, they have so many other plus points that a slight tail nerf barely makes the Xeno any weaker than it was.

I put down dbd right when he dropped and came back to see if I could enjoy it again and my first match with xeno was terrible and I honestly thought he was a weal killer.

But playing with him more I am now better than ever and got back into the swing of things as a killer main once again and honestly I think hes fine, tunnels are great for traversal and info when it gets down to that 1v1 and the tail is rewarding when hitting someone.

Just play around more and get the feel thats all I can say. Might make him my main, idk yet.

People were complaining mostly about the animation feeling wonky, not the movement speed post tail attack. The hit timing was like half a second before the visual looked like it would hit. I think maybe there were one or two voices thinking it should be faster, but that was the "all Killers should be 4.8 or even 5.0, and every map is Survivor sided" voices, so they never should be listened to anyways.

Other than indoor maps/controller usage/3gen attempts, it helps sooooo much if someone wastes their time to EMP since it only takes 3s to tag and TP back on top of them. It wastes an EMP, wastes travel time crossmapping to EMP the goo, and can even potentially give you a free hit if they put themself out of position. Sing is super fun to play and super easy to steamroll with once you get the lock-on timings down for biopod tags. The worst thing for Sing is barely missing a TP only to place a pod then break the pod the place another pod then break that pod then finally TP to the Survivor.

This is a PC/Console issue.

Precise aiming is infinitely easier on PC, you literally point and click. DbDs joystick deadzone settings are awful, making precise aiming with the likes of Hatchets, Speargun and Trick knives far more difficult than it needs to be. Xeno's tail attack is along the same lines, very small hitbox requiring precise aim.

This all means that PC players miss a fraction of the tail attacks that console players do. Thus nerfing the missed tail attack cooldown is disproportionately affecting console players.

The penalty isn't an issue for PC players, because they hit 90% of their hits anyway, which is why it wasn't an issue on the PTB. But on console, where 50% of attacks are missed, it's a massive unnecessary penalty that didn't exist for the PTB.

The skill balance for Tail attack interactions with a PC Xeno is squarely on the survivor side, and their ability to bait and dodge the attack. Whereas on console, it's mostly down to dumb luck.

This puts Xeno in the same boat as other "unplayable on console" killers. And for what? The penalty doesn't affect PC players.

It might be ok if Xeno had other stuff going for it, but it fails as a stealth killer. The tail attack is a no go for console players, as a missed hit is very likely and will cost you the chase, making it an M1 killer with a limited map traversal power. It's basically Dredge or Freddy without the anti-loop/nightfall/dreamworld.

I would be thrilled if Xeno got a set of power altering add ons that traded the tail attack for better stealth or movement speed instead.

I´m not against the turrets per se. I actually like the idea of the ping warning and how that performs.

But just as the turret is a free slowdown, its also a free headstart for survivors. Which inevitably prolongs chases and gives the other survivors more time on the gens. Thus nullifying the free slowdown.

My comment was more about how the attack performs after the nerf. How it goes through survivors, is easy to miss and has the long cd (on top of being a power that can be taken away). While the power itself isn´t something so powerful, that it deserves those drawbacks.

I'm not convinced that the hit box for the tail attack is correct, and seems either bugged itself or is more susceptible to lag. Seraphor also made a good point that it might be harder to hit on console vs PC, but I can't say really because I'm only on PC myself.

As far as an extra headstart goes, it's certainly not free with the up front investment of time that's required here. It's a lose-lose for survivors: you either spend the 30+ seconds to grab, move, and set up the turret in a good spot, or you ignore turrets and get completely destroyed in chase.

This is the same kind of thing that people largely ignored with circle of healing and boons as well, by completely ignoring that the time to set up and travel to use them is time not on gens.

I'm kinda tired from trying to explain that for over two years now, so if people still don't get that required, up front investment of time is the opposite of 'free' I have no interest in trying to explain basic game mechanics at this point.

He's not weak, or unfun to play, but he's not Nurse, Blight, or Wesker.

He also has some very uncomfortable details to his tail usage that likely turn people away from using him. Aside from everything already covered, the invisible walls around objects are very difficult to work around. HIs lowered PoV makes some maps a headache to play on. And regardless of assertations to the contrary, the turrets do in fact remove his anti loop ability and turn him into an M1 killer.

So, most likely people that want to win don't want to invest time in learning to work around those issues.

His early release state, although broken, oddly accurately addressed the above issues, aside from the turrets.