The Clown Changes

Okay, so I'm a Clown main, and I am always very skeptical about Clown ideas. Clown is a Killer that you have to be very careful with what you do to him. A nerf or buff to the incorrect thing and he either becomes a laughing stock or an absolute killing machine.

Base Kit Changes:

Reload movement speed is fine as it is, increases being attached to add-ons is perfect because Clown needs to have some sort of delay when over using his power (whether that's spamming and misusing the bottles, or getting full value out of them). If Clown can keep better tabs on a Survivor (when he's trying to zone them) even when his power is temporarily disabled, they'll have a horrible time actually trying to outplay him. Him being incredibly slow while reloading is needed.

Years ago, a decrease to to reload time would have been desired. Now that he has 6 bottles, taking 3 seconds to reload is fine. You can do so much with 6 bottles that it's actually nuts how much pressure Clown can maintain before needing to consume his own time by reloading.

Kerosene Can - Exhausted was removed from Clowns add-ons for good reason. His 1v1 is that good, that if you add Exhausted to his kit, A) it would be used on every Clown as a base kit add-on. B) it would make any alternative outplay potential completely useless. Especially since the Antidote exists now making pre-dropping an unsafe tactic.

Bottle Of Chloroform - This is a decent change, I think a lot of Killer add-ons that separate effects that do the same thing should be merged.

Smelly Inner Soles - A Haste effect on a Killer that has access to Haste already is pointless. Especially with the added criteria of a direct toss.

Spirit Of Hartshorn - This is what Fingerless Parade Gloves do, but worse. This could be changed to make it so the Antidote gas cloud activates instantly on a direct bottle toss. And Survivors hit directly by an Antidote bottle can no longer become invigorated.

Sulphuric Acid Vial - The increased lunge range would make Clown uncounterable. But the break action speed increase while invigorated is actually a really good affect. Since this makes efficient Clowns even more efficient.

Garnish Make-Up Kit - The addition of increased vault speed is nice, and actually makes sense (what with his unique perk Bamboozle) But I would actually make this a change to the 'Party Bottle'. Party Bottle is a worthless add-on, it needs a change, and this would be perfect for it.

I am curious, since I gave criticism and my opinion to your ideas, what was your reasoning for all those change ideas?

Was this reply for me? You never tagged it but the responses seem like they were to what I said lol

The Fingerless Gloves don't really have a negative, reducing the throw arc makes it so Clowns can't aim high with the bottle, but that only really affects outdoor maps that he's already really good on anyway. So having two add-ons for the same thing wouldn't be worth it.

Coup is a crazy good perk on Clown. There's a reason why a tactic to go against Clown in any tile is now to have huge balls and just never drop the pallet, and if he gets close camp it until he goes for an attack. Coup makes invigoration that much stronger, so having an add-on that makes Coup 100% instead of 80% and 20% bigger without it is a crazy strong add-on. Clown has the best 1v1 in the game out of all M1 Killers. He has since his release, imo, the Antidote made him an extra level above the rest. So a bigger lunge for an add-on would be a meta choice.

I wouldn't say nobody uses the reload movement speed add-on. It has it's uses. If you knew you were going to an indoor map, it'd definitely be a good choice. The best way to use it is: when you plan on reloading, you throw an Antidote and then start to reload, you'll be zooming along, losing minimal distance. It's not the best selection, because minimising Clown's weakness of having to reload and subsequently losing ground in a chase or while navigating the map, doesn't really compare to boosting Clown's 1v1 with Intoxication/Hindered or Invigoration/Haste add-ons. Doesn't mean it's a bad choice though. Making him faster at base kit, like you suggested would be one of those changes that pushes Clown into that oppressive state he could be by buffing the wrong things.

It's not about his place in a Tier list. It's about the general experience of his gameplay. Atm Clown players at a high level need to minimise their mistakes regularly. That means not wasting bottles above all else. The longer a chase goes on for, and the more Survivors can keep him occupied on them, the more likely Clown will be to lose.

Buffing the stuff that is the weaker part of his kit: his reload time, and movement speed while reloading would make it easier for Clown to feel like they can make more mistakes and not really be that impacted by it.

The base kit changes you made with the add-on buffs, on the whole, would allow Clown to be constantly on a Survivor once he's started a chase and end those chases even quicker. Even if the changes still kept him at B Tier like he currently is. They would be too much. The experience going against him would be lousy, since you wouldn't be able to punish Clown or capitalise on his mistakes often. And playing as him would feel brain-dead. I don't wanna play a game where simply equipping something makes it so I have the easiest time possible. Clown needs to have skill to his kit, and Clown needs to have negatives in order to allow proper gameplay to occur in his matches.

He can already force Survivors to interact with him, since pre-dropping is heavily punishable by Invigoration, and greeding pallets is punishable by Intoxication. Forcing interaction when you know you're gonna win said chase quickly would be a miserable time for both sides. Like I said in my original reply, buff the wrong things and Clown becomes a killing machine. There needs to be negatives to his kit in order for compelling and interesting gameplay :)

I see your point, and I partly agree since I view it as both valid and not valid at the same time (in terms of when Clown is in the conversation). With Bubba's latest buffs, he definitely needed them. Insanely good Bubba's had to use his duration and speed add-ons (or a combination of either, depending on preferences) to know their power was a constant threat. The changes making it so the chainsaw is more of a threat at base, isn't gonna change that non-Bubba mains will still have to rely on an M1 here and there to get the pressure they need.

With Clown, his power always has potential to get a down, regardless of whether you are a main or not. So treating his buffs the same as Bubba would put Clown in a state where at the lower levels he dominates consistently and at higher levels where the Clown mains are, even the good loopers are gonna be having a miserable time vs a Clown who knows they can now put in minimal effort for very good results.