It Feels Like Pyramid Head Was Forgotten About
For being one of the most iconic additions on the roster with some of the most hype I've seen around it when it came out, it feels like the star of the Silent Hill chapter sorta got the short end of the stick.
I won't even cover his addons in this post, since I think everyone knows basically everything but the range ones are mostly useless.
His power is the main thing I take issue with, as it just feels lopsided. His Trail mechanic feels like it could be a way to change the dynamic of the match in a way unique to him, but all it really boils down to in practice is a time saving way to hook survs that 90% of PH don't go for since it takes a fair amount of time to get survivors tormented in the first place.
Then there's Punishment of the Damned, a ranged ability that ends up dominating basically his entire playstyle despite being an ability he's literally never used before. Like, really? All the symbolic themes and unique aesthetic traits of Silent Hill led to this?
As for a suggested improvement, I'd change Torment in a few ways to make the character more interesting without hopefully breaking his balance.
First, I think an easy way to make PH's entire kit more cohesive is for Torment to be inflicted by PotD, and for the wave to not do damage until a survivor is Tormented, essentially making it a third health state. This makes Tormented much more meaningful as a status effect when administered. On the other side of the coin, this is also a pretty substantial nerf to his lethality, an issue I intend to address with the next change.
One thing I'm surprised this chapter never embraced was Fog, as it's one of the most central parts of iconography between both franchises. The proposed change would be that Survivors without Torment see fog all around the map and be inflicted with Oblivious. This provides a Multitude of thematic and gameplay benefits such as:
- Representing the transition between the Fog World and Otherworld in Silent Hill without being a major time sink to develop, as it'd be a simple visual and status effect.
- Gives him the element of surprise, a great tool that pairs well with his ranged attack. He could snipe Survivors to Torment them without being able to Injure them the same way.
- Solves the issue of the third health state feeling awful during gameplay that Nemesis and Unknown have as PH has multiple ways to inflict it and has a minor advantage when he doesn't have anyone Tormented.
Give him an Addon Pass on top of this, and I feel like this proposed rework makes him much more interesting to play as and against whilst deepening his theming as a character and not breaking him balance wise.
Thoughts?
Comments
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Personally I’m not a fan of turning his torment power into m2 no damage and then damage
torment on M2 attacks imo is just in a very strange spot ever since they tested it on the end transmission PTB
and most ideas don’t address what’s the actual problem with torment on M2 attacks
ALTHO I like your idea about the fog world thing with how the SH chapter when it first came out it had no real elements of silent hill except the other world version of midwich
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Very fair concern, I favor Torment being on the wave as it ensures PH will always be playing in a way that leads back to Torment, as PotD is just outright damage that most PH players focus on because it's simply better than trying to get survivors to step on Trails. However, third health starts tend not to be my favorite design in most cases, so I definitely get your reluctance towards the idea!
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I say the idea of tormenting on M2 hits (whether it’s a 3rd health state or not) should be abandoned for better ideas for his kit and addon pass
Personally I’d rather have torment stay as it is or a better idea to make torment abit strong is that the game adds a base mechanic that awards you for tormenting survivors
something like Wesker’s recharge speed increasing for every infected survivor or the old “forever Freddy” addons
and yes I’m aware it’s gonna make the game more awkward with how survivors will avoid his trails even more but there could be a few positive side effects
or maybe a mini thana base mechanic with how most slowdown perks don’t favor his kit or are very nerfed that they aren’t worth running on him
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