Myers Thematic Buffs - One Last Time

I love Myers, even though he's a weaker killer. He is one of, if not THE best realised thematic killers in DBD, and with his update coming up, and I really don't want to lose that about him. With discussion around him now actually having traction, I thought I'd bring up my rework for Myers (with updates) one last time, that aims to buff all the weak parts of his kit and keep the thematic legend in tact.

TLDR

I'll list my changes in rapid fire, but will explore them in more detail below.

Basekit Changes

• Evil Within Tier 1 opening time increase by 50% (0.2s →0.3s). (Boyfriend Memo basekit).
• Stalk pool for each survivor replenishes at a rate of 1 stalk per minute after 5 seconds of not being stalked.
• Stalk gains a bonus +10% stalk efficiency when stood completely still during stalk. (This translates to tiering up a single time taking 6s→5.45s at 2.5m and 60s→30s at 38.95m, see explanation below).
• Myers base movement speed is increased to 5.0m/s, and is reduced to his current EW tier when less than 32m from any survivor. (Mark with a debuff of his EW Icon when within 32m of a survivor).
• Stun resistance of 25% when in EW3.
• Can break pallets and breakable walls 35% faster by holding the interact button (or the secondary killer power button) for 15% cost of his meter when in EW3 (9s at base).

Add-On changes

• Blonde Hair - (Rework) Reduce the Evil cost for breaking pallets/walls by 2.5%.
• Tacky Earrings - (Buff) Increases movement speed while stalking by 15%.
• Boyfriend's Memo - (Rework) Each successful basic attack in Tier 1 or Tier 2 grants 10% (0.5) stalk progress.
• Hair Brush - (Rework) Increases duration of EW3 by 15s. Remove stalk time penalty. Increases the Evil cost to break a pallet/wall by 5%.
• Jewellery - (Rework) Each successful basic attack in Tier 1 and Tier 2 grants 15% (0.75) stalk progress.
• Hair Bow - (Rework) Reduce the Evil cost for breaking pallets/walls by 5%.
• Lock of Hair - (Rework) 30s extra time on EW3. Remove stalk time penalty. Increases the Evil cost to break a pallet/wall by 10%.
• Tombstone Piece - (Rework) Survivors now replenish stalk at a rate of 2.5 stalk per minute after 5 seconds of not being stalked. Stationary Stalking efficiency bonus increased by an additional 5%.
• Fragrant Tuft of Hair - (Update) Grants unlimited duration on EW3. Increases stalk required to reach EW3 by 200%. Breaking pallets/walls speed in Evil Within Tier 3 is reduced to 15% faster.

Notes

Stalk Speed vs. Stalk Efficiency

The difference between stalk speed and stalk efficiency is that Myers stalk rate drops off over distance linearly from 100% at 2.5m to 10% at 38.95m.

The base stalk speed is 0.8333 Stalk per second. To tier up a single tier is 6s at 2.5m, and 60s at 38.95m. His stalk add-ons (unchanged) change his base stalk speed:

• 0% (0.8333S/s, 6s →60s)
• 11% (0.925S/s, 5.45s → 54.55s)
• 25% (1.042S/s 4.8s → 48s)
• 40% (1.166S/s 4.29s →42.86s)
• 25+40% (1.375S/s 3.64s →36.37s)

The stationary stalk efficiency ability on the other hand changes the drop of over distance by 10%, from 110% at 2.5m to 20% at 38.95m. Using the same models as above, standing still to stalk will grant:

• 0% (0.8333S/s, 5.45s →30s)
• 11% (0.925S/s, 4.96s → 27.27s)
• 25% (1.042S/s 4.36s → 24s)
• 40% (1.166S/s 3.9s →21.43s)
• 25+40% (1.375S/s 3.31s →18.18s)

Hopefully it's clear that standing still to stalk unseen should be rewarded by making it easier to gain a stalk tier.

Movement Speed bonus

The movement speed boost to 5.0m/s when further than 32m from a survivor does 2 things for Myers.

1. It helps his map traversal, especially when he's in Tier 1.
2. It gives him a pseudo whispers, which mirrors Myers in the films seemingly having an innate sixth sense where his victims are at all times.

This mirrors the films with Myers' uncanny ability to catch up and appear from unexpected places, even though it doesn't seem feasible he should do so. I have seen people suggest making it so he can teleport to capture this feeling, but this is a cheat of his power imo, since canonically he can't do that. Instead this tries to give this feeling to him, but do it organically.

Pallet/Wall Break Cost

His accelerated Pallet/Wall break mirrors the uncanny strength that Myers exhibits in the films, and implementing it this way gives him a tactile usage if he doesn't want to burn the meter. His accelerated break always costs him 15% of his base Evil Within meter.

The duration add-ons add an additional penalty to the pallet break, to make the number of breaks he can do proportional to the duration he is gaining. Bear in mind the additional penalty is calculated off Myers base EW3 time (60s), not his new time.

• 60s base time - 15% penalty = 9 seconds (6.67 breaks)
• 75s Hair Bush - 20% penalty = 12 seconds (6.25 breaks)
• 90s Lock of Hair - 25% penalty = 15 seconds (6 breaks)
• 105s for Both - 30% penalty = 18 seconds (5.83 breaks)

This means the duration add-ons are ever so slightly worse efficiency than he would have at base, but the add-ons to reduce his EW break cost can be used to shore this weakness up exchange for add-on investment.

Conclusion

That's most of my thoughts. I hope the benefits of Tombstone Piece Rework is obvious, and of course I want to keep his Judith Myers Tombstone, since this is the only mechanic I know of that actually has important counterplay around using lockers (and is pretty well balanced).

I hope all of that is clear! I think this reworks lands on the spirit of Myers, and fits him well in the lore… we get: -

• Him standing still to stalk more efficiently, also from more distance... very on brand for Myers.
• A limited ability to sense what is around him, mirroring the sixth sense he has in the films to find him victims.
• Spoopy Myers is less useless.
• His tier 3 feels more potent and he himself is scarier when in that mode. The stun resistance and faster break speed achieves that unstoppable and relentless killer he should have always been.

Let me know what you think!