Could Singularity be too strong?
Singularity upon release and after was a rarely played killer because his macro gameplay and skill cieling was insanely high with the returning value being extremely low. That being said, the few players who mastered Hux were monsters, including the infamous Chess Singularity. However, he still remained absent from most players games. Nurse, Blight and Wesker being not only easier but more fun to play with massive value.
After playing himself and watching much more skilled players, Singularity is still insanely difficult to get a grasp on, however once you understand how to play him, he goes from frustrating to unstoppable really fast. From what I've learned and witnessed, Singularity is a chase oriented killer with surveillance only being a minor part of his kit. If you try to use him as a surveillance killer, good survivors will make your life miserable and you will get no value from your power. But as a chase killer, emps only help so much and before survivors know it, there is a pallette shortage.
With his stun reduction add-on, pallettes are feeling useless unless you predrop everything but even then if he times it right, the pallette is still getting broken and he is still on your heels. That is with the speed boost and the speed reduction if Soma Family photo is being used which is a 6% speed difference.
I'm sure high mmr Swf are still going to be a nightmare for even good Singularity players.
The reason I brought this up is because more seasoned players have brought up the concern that he might be a little overtuned. I think he's perfect, but I'm sure there will be plenty players saying he's too strong or is still weak. Solid A tier in my eyes, maybe S but that's likely pushing it until we see a LOT more.
Comments
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Singularity's power was always strong but as you said insanely difficult and exhausting to use and VERY map dependent. I think he's fine as now
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Agreed. He's not as hindered anymore, but maps like Larry's are very hard on him since line of sight is constantly cut off, limiting the pods and Hux's ability to stay on the survivor.
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I think he is perfect. People probably think that because they are not use to going against him at all. His pick rate was right there with freddy, hag and twins.
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Nothing effectively changed about his ability.
He got haste basekit, but also lost overclock scaling and that mechanic was what allowed singularity to shutdown loops SO well.
He still remains very skill dependent killer with lots of interactions in 1v4 and 1v1 and fair counterplay.
The only thing that's absurd is new soma's family photo. Applying deep wound upon infections is broken. It should at least activate upon teleports or overclock hits.
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I think they're fine as long as you manage EMPs well and respect him in overclock mode and predrop against them so if you know the counterplay I actually think Singularity is one of the most balanced killers in the game.
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Its true that nothing technically changed, but it's hard to refute that he feels SO much better to play. He feels more responsive overall which makes for a more rewarding experience when you do put the skill
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well, just saying you could do the same before.
yeah, qols gave him teleports / infections where he otherwise wouldnt have, but it's not that big to make a difference, it mostly just makes the experience smooth.
you still have to have same game awareness, know how to aim pods to gets scans/tps when survivors are under cover, how to use overclock in chase (now more than ever bc you cant just mindlessly w key vs knowledgeable survivor anymore if you want to win chases) and so on.
im still dreading the complaining once devs also roll out the autoaim for him, so that even more singu players start performing on a bare minimum. i really hope devs recognise that hux deserves to be strong and that once people finally learn the counterplay with more exposure to him, things will be fine.
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I don't think it'll be that big of an issue. Most Singularity players jump to the assumption that the optimal play would be setting up a web of cameras near gens which new players will struggle with. Then again they struggle with every killer.
Good survivors will easily counter this playstyle and make the experience miserable for the Singularity player which will discourage most from touching the Singularity again. A bit of auto aim won't change that. Anyone already good with Hux will flourish while others will find their way through perseverance. All in all, Singularity will still be on the low end in terms of pick rate.
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Exactly. Singularity can still find a beat, however, and counter the pre drop with a certain add-on.
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Nothing in DBD ever required an "insanely high" amount of skill ceiling.
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To each their own
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predrop is the main counter, but it's far from the only one.
at some point you need to learn the timings and understand when to predrop, when to greed, how to path to minimize losing pallets and so on.
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He is a little better but I don't feel there is any difference when it comes to strength
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The average soloQ player can barely handle sadako, cannot solve pinheads box and doesn't know how to place turrets against xenomorph.
Expecting those players to know how to use EMPs and handle overclock is absurd. I am not saying singularity is too strong, I am just saying you expect wayyyy too much from the average soloQ player.
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I'll be honest if "use EMP when you have goo on you" and "drop pallet early when he's green" is too complicated for people I'm a little surprised they could figure out how to turn the game on in the first place.
I mean let me put it this way, I do understand not understanding the killer at first and how they work and what special props they bring into the game do. But if after 5 or 6 games against them they're not putting it together I'd find that concerning especially when there's a wiki that's pretty well maintained and countless resources explaining anything you'd want to know. At a certain point if people still struggle they're basically choosing to. Which btw is fine people are allowed to be as casual as they want but I am against making balance decisions around people's willful ignorance.
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Mainly because if it is required then it is skill floor, not a skill ceiling.
Skill ceiling is optional, but it simply displays how much you are able to improve on that single killer.
Like I can waste way more time on Blight, Nurse, Artist, Singularity etc. than on Wraith and still be improving.
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he is largely same killer. he got a lot of QOL for -2% haste in overclock. If you thought he was oppressive in the chase now, than he was stronger before the change with correct add-on's.
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the average solo q player doesnt deserve to win vs singularity that does anything more complex that cant be just countered by "EMP when goop and near camera" and "predrop when green" because the skill difference is a gaping pit
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some common sense, thanks
5% haste + stacking overclock up to 7 seconds of 120% speed was way more oppressive than current fixed 5.7 (or 6.1) seconds with 118%
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Nope, he feels now pretty nice, good update overall. Still Survivors were putting a good fight and at no point I felt oppresive with him nor weak.
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I don't think they made him too much stronger to be honest that I'd call him to strong?
He doesn't need soma-familyphoto to work anymore because it's at part basekit now. That'a good, less need to use certain addons is always better
The emp change was very nice because it still allows to help teammates but makes it harder for the chased person to emp themself 3 times. That's good because it makes his chase feel a little bit better.
The overclock duration is now always the same, it's sometimes good and sometimes bad, depending on situation. That one is mixed, sometimes you'd lile to teleport quicker, sometimes you like to have overclock for longer .
I didn't test the autoaim to be honest, but I think it's good for people starting? At least if it's the same from the ptb.
Leftclick to destroy biopods is nice to help you having them always in senseful spots.
The reduction of the penality around hooks is pretty nice, it's still a punishment, but doesn't make it impossible to gather informations from there.
Overall he just feels less clunky to play, Idk if he's nessasarily stronger.
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I think he's reached the point where the power level of the killer is a bit more in line with the effort required to learn him. None of the QoL changes have drastically changed his playstyle. They've mainly made him more consistent. Many Singularity players already ran Soma Family Photo most of the time, so the basekit change just frees up an add-on slot. Even the coming pod autoaim feature seems to be oriented towards making him more consistent.
The big thing with Singularity is he is a very, and I mean very, macro-oriented killer. People who get good with Hux are also going to gain better understanding of area control, pushing survivors into areas that favor the killer, and planning how to maintain momentum after getting a hook. Most survivor lobbies probably aren't thinking on the same macro-level as the Singularity. Ironically, this kind of macro-strategizing is an important part of playing killer, and learning these elements makes one a better killer player in general. I think this, combined with map-wide teleport potential and a strong chase ability, is what makes him a threatening killer to face.
It has less to do with individual killer balance, and more to do with the skills the killer encourages players to learn. Just my two cents, anyway.
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Snowball's chance in Hell.
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It was never strong.
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Insta pallet destroying, insane vault speed, teleporting next to survivor + grants 3% haste? That's very good imo
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He's already strong. It's not that he doesn't deserve to be. He IS strong. He can do to a 3 Gen what people accuse Skull Merchant of being able to do lol
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