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If Vecna gets his FOTD nerfed, he will be one of the weakest killers in the game

It's been hinted pretty heavily that Vecna won't be able to "insta-hit" a survivor by spawning FOTD on top of them anymore. Right now, Vecna's only got two strong abilities in his kit: lifting a pallet right after it’s dropped, and spawning FOTD on top of a survivor to get a hit. The rest of his powers just support these main moves.

If he gets nerfed, he'll be left with just one decent ability—lifting a pallet with mage hand. This isn’t enough when playing against skilled survivors since most players know how to counter FOTD pretty easily.

I think Vecna's mostly fine as he is now. Taking away these mechanics, even if they weren’t originally intended, will just make him weak. People will stop playing him after a few weeks once most players get the hang of countering him. Removing these things will just drop him way lower in the tier list, and personally, I'm tired of playing against the same three killers every match. It's nice to have something strong every once in a while.

Comments

  • SleepyLunatic
    SleepyLunatic Member Posts: 408

    where is that hinted at?

  • CrimsonMothKing
    CrimsonMothKing Member Posts: 437

    I like the Insta hit of FOTD because it rewards good positioning and timing on the killer's side. But it feels awful to go against as survivor.

    It's tricky.

  • coolgue1
    coolgue1 Member Posts: 127

    People will stop play him when he get any sort of change it happen to every killer except blight because people think that this interaction is fine no it not the counterplay to veckna is his items, that it he make most loop null an void unless you have exzact item equipt and u can only have 2 equpt so really you only ever have counter to 2 powers invisibility and teleport are a joke because it give a free health start that bot counter that call a meme

  • Caiman
    Caiman Member Posts: 2,960

    Haven't bought the DnD chapter yet, and I'm not feeling enticed to with this constant suggestions of nerfs.

  • The_Krapper
    The_Krapper Member Posts: 3,259

    If it's an uncounterable ability like they say then it should be changed, I personally haven't faced a vecna that's been able to pull that off yet but no player on the killer or survivor side should have an uncounterable ability and if you think it's fine then we should bring old dead hard back with the I frames and dash both along with the old syringe that could pick you up to full health from dying, I prefer both sides have skill input be what wins them the chase not by technicalities because the player used a uncounterable attack, if you brought the syringe back I can heal tech mid chase and if I time it right you'll hit me and I'll be full health with a speed boost when I was supposed to go down, uncounterable things get removed for good reason otherwise you set the stage for stuff like I mentioned above to return

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,112

    it is not uncounterable, you can crouch preemptively but it is impossible react to if the player does it right. Every player I have done this on has no reacted to FOTD. You can only predict this play.

  • The_Krapper
    The_Krapper Member Posts: 3,259

    See I don't even know what play you're talking about like I said I haven't seen a uncounterable move in my games but if it's there it should be changed

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,112

    personally, i think Vecna is fine where he is at. the only i'd make to him is nerf stbfl on him because for some reason, his flight of the damned does not consume stbfl stacks. So just fix bugs.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    Well mage Hand definitely needs the nerf it is going to get. When it comes to FoTD I am not quite sure what I should think. I can understand arguments from both sides. But I definitely doubt that nerfing FoTD like that would make Vecna weak. Far from it. Flight of the Damned will still be really good at denying pallets and windows.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,606

    I really hope that they don't actually think FOTD is too hard to counter bc the counterplay is literally just:

    FOTD doesn't really do an amazing job at countering pallets. Even if you're right next to the killer, the cooldown is so long the skeletons can fly over you and you can drop the pallet before the killer can get an M1 in.

    The amount of times FOTD will actually get hits in is rare against anyone with knowledge against Vecna. It's only really good as a zoning tool, and even then if you time the crouch well then you really don't lose all that much distance.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    Yep, I do. If not, I'd rather have them decrease his cooldowns a bit instead of having his abilities be too strong.

    On the other hand, when it comes to FoTD, I am not sure if I think any nerf is necessary. But when it comes to Mage Hand, again, I think even after the nerf he will still be viable. And I do believe he will be viable even if FoTD can't be spawned on top of survivors anymore. It's still gong to be good at denying vaults.

  • sizzlingmario4
    sizzlingmario4 Member Posts: 7,019

    Imo the insta-hit does need to go but I think they should buff FOTD in some other way to make up for it

  • squbax
    squbax Member Posts: 1,511

    If Fotd loses its insta hit, vecna loses his only complex mechanical skill. Not only that but he loses the point of playing him entirely because a lot of other killers can just deny vaults/pallets while having good mobility.

    It just makes people go back to the already used killers and leave vecna to dnd fans or people who strongly main him. But tbf he is not that special so that might be a good thing.

  • Pit_Bull_Love
    Pit_Bull_Love Member Posts: 59

    Seeing that every match against any killer is a 4k now...I think Vecna's ability to tunnel and slug will be just fine.

  • phishymunki
    phishymunki Member Posts: 2

    Well then it looks like he's going to be one of the weakest killers in the game lol.

    Also, you realize you pretty much just described every licensed killer, as well as most of the others. That's how it works. Or at least that's how its been since behavior decided to sell out. The first couple years were absolutely great. But at some point they decided to cater to the crybaby survivors who cried and cried about the game being too hard. They changed all the killer powers to make them weaker and several perks as well.

    So that's how it's been for the last few years. They release a new killer, survivors cry about them being too powerful and the next patch, the survivors get what they want lol.

    DBD basically screwed up the entire game quite a while ago. The end game collapse was a necessary change because of how often survivors would just bully killers and not leave to trap the killer in the match.

    All the rest of the changes were done for the sole purpose of making it easier for survivors. Which is absolute BS. When the game launched I primarily played survivor, and yeah I'll admit, the game had quite a learning curve to say the least. It took me a while before I was anything less than a sandbag to whatever poor team I ended up on.

    The game was never too hard for survivors. The issue is there's all these newer generation gamers who are used to getting whatever they want, whenever they want. Which is why anything they can't immediately win at is too hard.

    I'm still pretty sour about the whole thing because I took the time to learn how the game works, and I only got a few months of being decent as a survivor before they started changing everything to make it easier.

    The game didn't need to be messed with, but they went ahead and did it anyway. Which is exactly why the gameplay has sucked for years. I used to be able to play match after match without getting bored. I rarely play anymore because it's just too annoying and depressing, but when I do, I can do maybe 2 or 3 matches at most, then I'm done.

    DBD has been relying on these events and collabs to keep the game afloat, but it's not going to work forever. Should have just left it alone.

    I can almost see why they decided to favor the survivors because survivor mainstream are almost definitely where most of the money comes from, but it's not hard to figure out that if nobody wants to play killer, there is no game.

    I really wish they'd offer some kind of classic DBD. Like how blizzard will let you play WoW the way it originally was if you don't like what they've done to it since becoming super popular. Obviously it wouldn't be free but I'd pay for that.

  • phishymunki
    phishymunki Member Posts: 2

    Really the only necessary change they've really made aside from bug fixes was the end game collapse. The rest was done to make it easier for survivors.

  • Marioneo
    Marioneo Member Posts: 808

    But if Vecna uses FOTD to deny vaults aint that just another uncounterable situation Vecna gets a free no matter what the survivor does.

  • OrangeBear
    OrangeBear Member Posts: 2,858

    I agree. I decided vecna was weak but then i saw videos where killers were using fotd in this way and i started doing it myself and it makes a huge difference.

    Honestly i would understand if they got rid of it. It's clearly not how it was intended to be used and i think happens too fast to react to. BUT flight of the damned really needs to be useful and consistent in some other way.

  • Firellius
    Firellius Member Posts: 4,539

    FOTD doesn't really do an amazing job at countering pallets. Even if you're right next to the killer, the cooldown is so long the skeletons can fly over you and you can drop the pallet before the killer can get an M1 in.

    But if you crouch, you can't vault, and if you drop the pallet, you can't crouch. Timed well, it's a lose/lose for the survivor.

  • Sarrif
    Sarrif Member Posts: 192

    I mean it should be nerfed if it's uncounterable. If he can just get free hits then that's obviously not okay. Would you be fine if they brought back old brand new parts and survivors can just insta pop four gens?

  • PreorderBonus
    PreorderBonus Member Posts: 338

    To be fair, you can counter it. You can predict if Vecna will try to do it, and you can also watch his model because he raises his hand right before spawning the skeletons. Sometimes it's super obvious and easy to counter. For example, in a short loop, if Vecna is standing on the pallet and you're on the other end, he's definitely going to try it.

    It's hard to say right now because this "tech" was discovered pretty recently. Not only is Vecna new, but playing this way is even newer (less than a week). I've played against Vecnas who did this, and I haven't been hit by it yet. The counter is literally just crouching in spots where it makes sense for Vecna to try this move.

  • HexHuntressThighs
    HexHuntressThighs Member Posts: 1,245

    After playing against Vecna today and going against people who finally know how to play him well I would definitely say he needs a few nerfs. Unless I’m not understanding the counter play.

    Nothing is more frustrating than completely outplaying them and they just breathe down your neck, block the next pallet and get a free hit on you. Spawning FoTD on top of you is also annoying and has no counter play. I think they should remove the crouch aspect and just leave it to where you have to go in between them.

    I may just be biased because all the Vecnas I played against the past few days have played like total scumbags.

  • Sarrif
    Sarrif Member Posts: 192

    Okay but he raises his hand and when you crouch they just m1 you but they still have their power… so?

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    So the counterplay you described with Mage Hand is actually the reason I have to admit that I underestimated Mage Hand's counterplay a bit. My problem with Mage Hand was that Vecna can just react to pallet drops instead of having to predict it. However, as I have learned thanks to one survivor I went against, if you react to the pallet drop, i.e. use Mage Hand after the survivor already pretty much dropped the pallet, the survivor can just drop the pallet on top of you because the cooldown is too long for you to get a hit before the survivor can drop the pallet. Meanwhile, if you predict the pallet drop, enough of the cooldown is spent during the pallet drop animation and you can get a hit before the survivor can drop the pallet back on you.

    So in that sense Mage Hand does have counterplay, since theoretically you do have to predict the survivors pallet drop. But the problem is that pretty much no one knows of this. Which is why in most cases, as Vecna, you can just use your power on reaction. So in my opinion the nerf to Mage Hand that is confirmed is a good nerf. As it will simply allow survivors to loop the pallet again if Vecna uses his power on reaction instead of prediction, meanwhile survivors will be less likely to redrop the pallet on Vecna immediately because the pick up time will be longer.

    When it comes to Fly, I really do wish you could bodyblock vaults and pallets, but that right now sadly doesn't work. Crouching under Fly should probably not be a thing. It's still a great map traversal and anti-w tool.

    However, we disagree when it comes to FoTD. It can deny vaults and dropped pallets, and hit survivors while they are in animation, in my opinion FoTD will still be strong enough, even if it loses it's insta hit tech.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,606

    The M1 cooldown is long enough so you can crouch and THEN drop the pallet before he can swing again. Same with vaults if you have even a bit of distance.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    Not necessarily. I mean sure, it can lead to uncounterable situations in rare cases, at windows that are particularly safe otherwise. But in general survivors can predict your FoTD and instead loop to the other side of the window, mindgaming it from that angle. Killer shack is an example of this. Instead of going for the window, you can go for the pallet or try to get to the other side of the window.

    In the end, powers of killers will always lead to some uncounterable situations, that's can't be avoided. The question is how often such situations happen. FoTD being used to deny vaults and dropped pallets is fine in my opinion, in most cases it does have counterplay, but the ability should do something as well.

    Mage Hand on the other hand has little counterplay in too many situations, or so I thought. The reality is that you can actually counterplay Mage Hand if used on reaction, something I have just found out myself recently, but pretty much no one knows about the counter so it's still good that Mage Hand is getting a small nerf, so that it has more counterplay for most survivors and can't be used on reaction as effectively anymore.

  • PreorderBonus
    PreorderBonus Member Posts: 338

    It's really hard to test right now because he's a new killer, and most survivors don't even know about the counters yet. This is also why I think the nerf was rushed. You can immediately tell the difference between survivors who know the counters and those who don't because they are super hard to catch in normal chases.

    Yes, theoretically, the Vecna player can use Mage Hand at the right time so that the cooldown ends just before the survivor can drop the pallet again, but this window of time is around 0.1 to 0.3 seconds. It's not realistically feasible to pull this off. This makes Mage Hand's only consistent use (pallet lifting) pretty much useless once survivors know how to counter it (which isn't even hard, just stay still and spam the spacebar).

    On the other hand, FOTD will still have its uses even after the insta-hit nerf, that's true. But using FOTD for guaranteed hits at vaults is extremely boring for both sides. This wouldn't be an issue since many killers have guaranteed hits in their kits, but it's a big problem for Vecna because his cooldown is so long that it discourages risky shots. Why go for a risky FOTD shot when a miss (which is likely) means you can't go for another shot for the next 40 seconds? And with the rest of his powers being as counterable as this one, it's just straight-up a bad play.

    I'm not saying they shouldn't nerf the insta-hit interaction, but if the cooldown remains the same, Vecnas will only use FOTD when it guarantees 100% a hit (at animation locks) and won't attempt riskier shots that might miss. This results in extremely boring gameplay for both the killer and the survivor.

    I've been playing nothing but Vecna, and the only things keeping him from the bottom three killers are 1) survivors not knowing his counters and 2) FOTD insta-hit. These two factors will disappear over time, and I think that once they do, Vecna will plummet to Freddy-tier, and the average player won't even understand why it happened.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    Yes, theoretically, the Vecna player can use Mage Hand at the right time so that the cooldown ends just before the survivor can drop the pallet again, but this window of time is around 0.1 to 0.3 seconds. It's not realistically feasible to pull this off

    Of course it is realistically feasible to pull this off. You just have to predict when the survivor will drop the pallet instead of reacting to it. That's the point. As Vecna you should have to predict when the survivor drops a pallet and not react to it, otherwise there is no counterplay interaction for survivors.

    The problem is that this counter is very unintuitive, so pretty much nobody knows about it. Meanwhile, if survivors could just run around the loop again after Vecna reacts to the pallet drop, that would be much more doable by everyone. This way, Vecna would also be forced to predict the survivor pallet drop.

    Also, if you expect a Vecna to deny a window vault with FoTD, you can not go for the vault and instead loop to the other side of that vault. Unless Vecna is already very close to you, or it's a god vault. That's some counterplay survivors still have against FoTD. When it comes to FoTD, I am not sure if it needs to lose the insta hit tech, but I also don't think it would be a problem if it did.

    I am also not against cooldown reductions if Vecna turns out to be too weak after the nerfs, but I personally doubt he'll be too weak.

    I've been playing Vecna as well like crazy, and I am playing him as if he was already nerfed, i.e predicting whenever a survivor will drop the pallet instead of reacting to the pallet drop, and not going for insta hits with FoTD, and I am doing perfectly fine with Vecna.

  • Marioneo
    Marioneo Member Posts: 808
    edited June 17

    Then your just make exceptions if some killers will have uncounterable situations why was chuckys scamper removed let's just remove Mage Hand like we did to Chucky Devs clearly didn't wanna balance scamper why should we with mage hand?

    Just scrap it like scamper and Vecna can be a Tri power safe killer

  • Xernoton
    Xernoton Member Posts: 5,887

    That's how I feel about it as well. I made the mistake of buying Chucky on day 1, then he was nerfed and I haven't played him since because this also removed the fun part for me. Vecna is already kind of meh and yet it is suggested we nerf him again.

  • Spirit_IsTheBest
    Spirit_IsTheBest Member Posts: 1,048

    FOTD should get buffed if anything. His Mage Hand is the one that needs nerfing.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    No not really. Again it depends on how often an ability is uncounterable. There are enough killers with abilities that are uncounterable in certain situations. The problem is when an ability is uncounterable in almost any situation. But that doesn't mean one has to remove that ability. What kind of logic is that? It just needs to be balanced a bit better.