Do you think Xenomorph is weak?

Yggleif
Yggleif Member Posts: 211

I take nightlight's statistics with a heavy grain of salt and nothing beats official statistics from BHVR but it sticks out to me that currently Xenomorph has the lowest kill rate barely above 50%. I feel like Xeno is quite a strong killer and one of the ones you have the least options against if you're not near a turret. If you hold W you get the tail, if you vaults a window or pallet or drop a pallet you also get the tail. She doesn't struggle with mobility either with tunnels that are near every gen on the map so what is it?

Is the learning curve too high?

Are turrets too strong?

Is it just not a good sample size?

How do you explain Xeno being at the bottom on nightlight currently? Do you think Xeno needs buffs or are most people just not playing them well?

Comments

  • Sngfun
    Sngfun Member Posts: 313

    The thing is, as long as survivors place turrets directly next to tunnels he will be significantly stronger than against actually good survivors.

    I mean, the cooldown for tail hits is significantly greater than basic attacks, and the turrets literally shutdown 3 seconds after xeno exits a tunnel to teach survivors to NOT do that yet they just do it over and over again and accidentally buff xeno lol

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,776

    No, not at all.

    My explanation for Xeno being low on Nighlight (other than Nightlight not being super accurate to begin with) is that it's kinda hard to play?

    It has a similar skill curve to something like the Nemesis Tentacle Strike, which is a very strong ability that it's very easy to whiff. Add on to the difficulty that turrets are something you need to be aware of and get better playing around, something Nemesis doesn't have to be concerned with at all, and you have a recipe for a killer that is going to struggle in the hands of less experienced players - and to be clear, I count myself among their number, I'm awful with Xenomorph lol

    Xeno's in a pretty okay spot once you get the hang of how to play it, in my opinion. That's not to say nothing can hypothetically be changed, but I don't think it's a weak killer in desperate need of buffs either.

  • Ekrizdis
    Ekrizdis Member Posts: 65

    Strength wise they're okay. Sadly xenomorphs tail is far to basic for it to be interesting. I wish it was more like nemesis where you had to ready the tail before using it and when you did you could curve up and over obstacles or around corners.

    The tunnels are pretty cool but due to the fixed positions theyre sometimes not worth going for

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    FYI - hitting survivors with tail has longer CD, but you lose way less distance due to speed curve being different. Hitting people with tail is sorta like having an equivalent of 3-4 STBFL stacks as that's roughly the distance you preserve.

  • Sngfun
    Sngfun Member Posts: 313

    Are you sure the cooldowns on tail hits are the same for turrets and hits? Cause I swear they feel significantly different. Like I swear basic attacks feel faster than tail hits on turrets.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,710

    the skill requirement to play the killer /= rewards for playing the killer.

    the m/s is like 25%. it used to be 50% where you had like 3 stack of stbfl. that was the nerf.

  • Noobking3000
    Noobking3000 Member Posts: 35

    As a semi Xeno main, no, Xeno isn't even close to being weak. Even in the absolute worst case scenario, he's still a mid-high B tier killer

    I'd have to guess his killrate is so low due to how punishing turrets are if you don't know how to play around them. If you don't know how to play around them, your only tool is the tunnels, which just makes you a worse Dredge.

    Xeno also has an extremely punishing cooldown if you miss a tail attack, which probably isn't all that helpful to the people struggling with turrets.

  • RenoPro
    RenoPro Member Posts: 69

    As a survivor Xeno is my favorite killer to go against and i don't really care if I escape or not when i play against him.

  • Garresh
    Garresh Member Posts: 50

    No idea. But Xeno feels weak in my hands because of how terrible your vision is. Being so low makes you much easier to juke, and harder to see movement if you're moving through grass and junk on swamp maps or whatever.

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    tail hits on turrets are slower than basic attack on turrets, but tail hits on survivors lose you less distance than basic attack on survivors.

  • VolantConch1719
    VolantConch1719 Member Posts: 1,232

    If you don't know how to handle turrets and the Survivors actually know how to use them, yes. If either of those are not true (and in my experience Survivors REALLY struggle with proper turret placement), Xeno's pretty strong.

    It just so happens that most people also don't know how to play around turrets, they have a very low POV that's partially blocked by their tail (which I know is the reason one of my friends doesn't play them), and missing with the tail can feel quite punishing. All of this combined with how they fixed a bug that affected one of the changes they made… THEN REVERTED THE CHANGE BEFORE ANYONE COULD TEST IT… are probable causes for why basically no one plays Xeno anymore (okay, that last one was likely just me venting about a stupid decision, but I digress).

    Oh, and a lot of people find Xeno boring due to how similar they play to other Killers.

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    obviously, but nonetheless you maintain decent distance after successfully hitting survivor with the tail.

    and unlike missing, you regain you speed faster while if you miss, you're stuck at 25% speed for the duration

  • TheArbiter
    TheArbiter Member Posts: 2,606

    Yes we gotta buff Xeno he is sooooo weak /s

  • Laurie268
    Laurie268 Member Posts: 574

    Almost like there are 35 other killers survivors face each with their own counterplay right? Most people who play this game are casuals who only play it a few times a week so expecting them to know the counterplay to every killer is ridiculous, especially the newly released ones

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,710

    no. it is similar to m1's. it might be worse because i think his cooldown is 3 second. m1 is 2.7.

  • I_CAME
    I_CAME Member Posts: 1,289
    edited August 18

    No. Although I do feel like Star Map and Emergency Helmet are necessary. There isn't really any variety with the addons since those two are so strong and the others are so weak. I really wouldn't trust Nightlight stats to be 100% accurate anyway. It's notorious for reporting kill rates lower than the official ones. Xeno had a 59% kill rate in February.

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    xenomorph regains his movement speed on a curve and therefore loses less distance.

    the cooldown for tail is 3 seconds, but xenomorph isnt stuck at 25% speed for the whole duration if the hit was successful. that's only the case if the tail hits the turret or misses.

    if you hit the survivor you go back to your normal speed over time while the cooldown lasts, meaning you'd be better off hitting people with the tail whenever possible if they're going to run away from you, as you'll start catching up way faster than you otherwise would with m1 attack that doesnt have that mechanic and slows you down equally for the whole cooldown.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,494
    edited August 18

    I think Star Map needs to be basekit, and the cooldown on missed attacks reduced slightly. Nowhere near the levels where it was post-launch but it feels SO bad to miss a tail right now.

    Star Map is practically mandatory so you can actually disable Turrets with a basic attack.

    Xeno could also do with an addon pass, there's so many terrible ones.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,710
    edited August 18

    all m/s reduction and m/s boosts follow a curve. I am not sure if it is same curve universally for all of them though. If you shorten the cooldown such as running unrelenting perk, you lose less distance because your curve to regain m/s stops quicker. with that being said, his cooldown is very long that he slows to a crawl.

  • Choaron
    Choaron Member Posts: 358
    edited August 18

    You need to take all rating statistics with a grain of salt in general. Nurse being at the bottom of killrates since forever speaks volumes.

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    idk why you keep arguing against a fact.

    go into a lobby as xeno and see yourself. hitting with tail > hitting with m1. you lose less distance with tail.

  • danielmaster87
    danielmaster87 Member Posts: 9,332

    Free flame turrets for survivors, microscopic tail hitbox that's also hard to aim, massive stun from missed tail attacks, tail attacks on turrets count as misses, awkwardly placed tp spawns which sometimes don't spawn near the gen at all. The question is, what does this killer have going for him? I still like to play him, but I just get tired of all the issues.

  • doobiedo
    doobiedo Member Posts: 306

    I always felt like he's one of the easier Killers to escape from if you actually use the flame turrets. On the other hand I hate going against Trapper even though he's supposedly "weak."

  • Fuzzycube
    Fuzzycube Member Posts: 261

    I dunno but post tail attack nerf he's very frustrating to use.

  • Bookern
    Bookern Member Posts: 319

    Playing as Xeno is pretty unfun and uninteresting playing against xeno using flame turrets is more fun

  • Sandt1985
    Sandt1985 Member Posts: 342

    My biggest issue with Xeno is that the tracking aspect of turrets makes any kind of stealth play impossible. Why even give Xeno a smaller terror radius in crawler mode when a turret can tack you from 40 meters away??

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    you can still mess with survivors because they dont really know where you're coming from and if the tunnel is in a good spot, they have to prerun. just in your hands

  • Grigerbest
    Grigerbest Member Posts: 1,698

    Xeno just objectively can't be weak.

    Quick map traversal with the ability to spot survivors without any perks or addons.

    A pretty good anti-loop power, helps at pallets and windows if you use it correctly.

    Not really hard to play.

    People just find xeno frustrating with missed tail attacks, and flame turrets. But in reality… Flame turrets are doing nothing but slowing you down per hit, in most of cases it's not enough to even slow you down.

    Missing your tail attack is pretty punishable, probably the main reason. But it's on people… Right? People should aim better…

  • SkeletonDance
    SkeletonDance Member Posts: 341

    Maybe not weak, but boring. Boy's power is just like Nemi's

  • Toystory3Monkey
    Toystory3Monkey Member Posts: 722

    tbf turrets can mess his power up pretty badly if used right.

    "just slow you down" when they make a difference between you getting an opportunity for hit/down or the chase being extended even more.

    i dont think xeno is weak, i think he's pretty balanced, but turrets arent something to underestimate.

  • Langweilg
    Langweilg Member Posts: 1,178

    Xeno is not weak, but extremely unfun to play. The turrets are extremely annoying and the hatboxes can be really frustrating, especially on controller.

  • Batusalen
    Batusalen Member Posts: 1,323
    edited August 21

    I don't think he is weak, but it definitely doesn't feel good to play since being nerfed.

    In my opinion, the main culprit is the fact that hitting a turret with the tail is considered a "wall hit", which has the longest cooldown possible. So, if you are chasing a survivor and there is a well placed turret, your options are:

    • Stop the chase and go hit it with your M1, which would grant the survivor a lot of distance and probably remove your power.
    • Ignore the turret, which would grant the survivor less extra distance, but now you will have to continue the chase powerless.
    • Hit it with your tail in the short window you have before losing your power, but if you miss, the survivor will gain distance and now you will be powerless, and if you don't, your quick reflexes and good aim will be rewarded with a long cooldown, which still makes the chase take longer.

    This makes you feel like you are getting punished for doing good, and we can all agree that this is not how it should be in any case.