If Dracula doesn't get some tweaks soon, he might end up forgotten just like Vecna

if you understand what elevation hellfire hits, it is extremely predictable for what the attack fly over vs what it does not. it is not inconsistent. I agree that the dracula will be forgotten if dracula does not receive any changes.

I don't think Dracula will be "end up forgotten just like Vecna" because he misses some tweaks or that his powers are weaker variants of other ones. The issue with Dracula and Vecna (according to Nightlight Vecna has a good pickrate) is that both of them are rather difficult to pick up and difficult to master. In case of Vecna, you have to use your power right or otherwise you will get punised with a long cooldown on it - the skull power is very difficult and can be frustating when you use it wrong or have a different mindset of how it should be. Meanwhile Dracula, has three different Forms and all of them have unique abilities and different things to learn. You have to switch between the forms and adapt to the situations. Wesker, on the other hand, is easy to pick up because his power is simple to understand and to use - thus mastering is still difficult. Same with Huntress. Of cause, why should you spend all this time in an average killer whne you can spend this time in Nurse, Blight or Billy which are strong S Tier killers. Lastly, in my opinion, DnD and Castlevania is not as popular in the DbD as RE.

The vampire form has arguably his strongest chase ability, since it's antiloop, but it's also an ability that feels quite bad to use: it's similar to Nemesis' tentacle, but slow to charge and with a cooldown. The slowdown just feels awful: even if you press the button for a quarter of a second and immediatly cancel it, you can feel the effect and lose a lot of distance. To make it worse, the only add-on that increases its range makes the charge time 25% slower. It also seems a little buggy and inconsistent right now. Sometimes it goes trough certain tall tiles, sometimes it doesn't. However, I must say I like that it can hit people in different elevations, to me that's the best part about it.

The charge time of 0.9sec is fair and fine - Artist has a similar charge time. However, the slowdown to 2.0m/s feels so clunky and the developers should change it to either 2.5m/s or 3.0s/m (more could become problematic) to make Dracula smoother. Comparing it to Nemsis is not fair because even though Nemesis can charge his Tentacle much faster and has less slowdown, he has to hit survivors three times, has only five meters and has to earn his 6.5 meter by using his power correctly. That is a fair.

To make it worse, the only add-on that increases its range makes the charge time 25% slower.

That's fair. The baserange is already 8meters which is huge. Having 9meters without any drawback would be bs for the survivors.

It also seems a little buggy and inconsistent right now. Sometimes it goes trough certain tall tiles, sometimes it doesn't.

I think this is rather a map thing than a Dracula thing. For example you cannot hit over these shelves on Autohaven which is akward but it might be that there is an alpha wall or something like this. But year, it sucks.

However, I must say I like that it can hit people in different elevations, to me that's the best part about it.

Year, I like this part too! Hellfire is really fun to use and it feels so satisfying to find spots where you can hit survivors!

The wolf is, in my opinion, his most fun form. 3rd person view + a passive with speed boosts + a pounce attack. The problem is: the pounce attack feels similar to demogorgon's, but with a surprisingly long charging time. Sure, it's a double pounce, which is the part that makes it unique and fun, but that doesn't make the slow charge feel any better. Of course, there's also a cooldown on top of that.

I wish the player could control when to release the second Dash because sometimes you want to release it immediately and sometimes you want to wait two seconds. They could also make the Dash a bit longer or create an Addon for this. And of cause remove the hug tech exploit. I also would say it is a mix of Demogorgon and Wesker but weaker. The cooldown is fine, you get your power basically after two Orbs back and having a cooldown makes it fairer for the survivors.

About your bat part: The developers should reduce the high pitch noises and let us see pools of blood - it is the same with Legion why do they hide the blood from us? Seeing not survivors is kinda weird because bats can see but I guess it adds some skill ceiling to the form which is fine. The IW buff should be in general changed because it is so stupid strong. They could also increase the teleport range by a few meters. I also don't understand why this form has a lullaby but also undetectable status. Why do the developers do this awful mix? You are a big fat Bat with little bars around you, survivors can see you clearly. They also can see the teleport. Why has it a lullaby that is also directional when you are closer to the survivor- not from afar.

Finally, even his shapeshift ability has a cooldown, AND he slows himself down when changing forms. So on top of other slowdowns and charging times he already suffers from, he also gets a slowdown for switching between powers, AND he needs to wait before transforming again every time, even if he just used the bat form to teleport near a gen and now can't even attack.

They can reduce the Shapeshift cooldown by a second but it is fairer when everything has some type of cooldown because otherwise you could just spam the switching to confuse survivors and this would feel really bad. I guess it is also a bit of "punishing the killer when using the shape shift wrong". The slowdown after shapeshifting is alright and fair. If you remove it, it could become problematic.

TL;TR

The Dracula is a good and fun to play killer but he needs some tweaks and buffs to feel smoother and better. Currently he feels rather mediocre and should get some buffs.

The developers can give him a blighted skin because Konami gave the permission for Pyramidhead so why not for Dracula too? Blighted skins usual drop around Halloween which is the next big event and starts during the Castlevania rift. Xenomorph got a blighted skin after his realease at the same time last year. Also we will get his Demon form as a cosmetic in the next rift which is huge as this one looks amazing and they give it to us for 10bucks rift pass instead of a 15bucks cosmetic.

Hellfire is completely free. I hold it and walk towards the survivor. They either drop the pallet and I get a hit for free, or they don't drop the pallet and I body block the pallet into an M1. Same thing with windows. It's a free health state.

Finally, a levelheaded opinion on this thread.

That's weird, I had Scent Orbs show up outside of a chase before and it helped me find someone. I wasn't running anything special. I think it could be too powerful if they were always around, but if they were like that experience I had I think they'd be fine (it was still a relatively close Survivor, they were just on the other side of some rocks).

I don't think it's that much of a problem that Bat Form makes it hard to hear (and that it still allows Survivors to hear you despite the lack of a Terror Radius). Vampire form and Wolf form are already both good for chasing. The way I see it, Bat form is the travel power. It's not really meant to be for chasing or stealth, not that I would mind if they made it quieter to Dracula. I do think it could use a longer teleport range though. Too long and it'd probably be too oppressive, but half the time right now, by the time I'm close enough to use it I have other options unless it's a floor change.

I think the worst part of Hellfire's collision detection is it's hard to even see what it did or didn't hit over. I can't really get used to it. I don't even use the spell if I can help it, but I appreciate that he has it.

The weirdest thing I experienced today was that I seemed unable to get Iridescent awards as him (since I needed that for a challenge). I had almost identical matches when I played him as when I switched to Sadako, but Dracula would just get Silvers and Sadako would get Iridescents. I couldn't figure out what was different.

I already listed killers in A tier that you think are stronger than this killer. So yes if you and many think this, its hard cope coming from nothing. Dracula is better than all of the ones listed.

I see a few say "B" and by few I mean 3-4, but that doesnt mean majority. I could find a majority of people that think old MFT was fair that doesnt mean it is.

Again learn to use scent orbs. Dog pounce does not have a long CD you just dont know how to play Dracula correctly. Scent orbs = run into them.

Hope this helps

PH cant teleport. He has 0 map pressure and actually LOSES pressure by caging most of the time. (See all threads about camping and tunneling)

Dracula has constant map pressure even after hook.

PH has a single power Dracula has 3

PHs judgement can go through walls but not up slopes. Hellfire can go down AND up slopes.

You arent hitting through wall blind hits, you are getting vault and pallet hits 9.9999/10 times.

Instead of responding with namecalling calling others trolls, maybe provide actual discussion around the matter. I provided my reasoning why Judgement is weaker than Hellfire.

Both of you reasoning(s) is "Yea well Judgement is stronger than hellfire because you're a troll"

You're making assumptions about my mmr based on a discussion which makes 0 sense. I have 3000+ hours in DbD so I definitely don't have low mmr/experience.

I did know that scent orbs decreases pounce cooldown. My bad for saying it has a long cooldown. Happy now?

Punishment isn't easy to dodge, you are just bad at Pyramid Head. Watch somebody like Ohmals play.

And caging a survivor doesn't make you lose pressure. It actually helps you keep pressuring survivors by not wasting time hooking. As well as countering a slew of the strongest perks in the game. Getting survivors tormented isn't a problem if you're good at PH.

As @Devil_hit11 said, struggling vs Dracula is largely a learn to play issue.

You're the one complaining about Dracula therefore you're the one having trouble in the game.

His cages always spawns the furthest away. You just have to understand the spawn logic. The cage always spawns at the furthest possible spot from the killer, a good pyramid head can use game sense to locate these cages.

You just place the torment at loops. His trail is a natural mindgame as some survivors will risk going down instead of stepping in it.

Punishment is not easy to dodge unless you have incredible reflexes. If you can dodge punishment, you can definitely dodge hellfire.

And don't say "hope this helps" as if you're doing me some favor.

You're the one complaining about Dracula therefore you're the one having trouble in the game.

Apply this same logic to any concern in the game. This is flawed correlation. Lashing out isnt helping you.

I'm skilled enough at Pyramid Head to the point where I know where cages will spawn. You clearly aren't.

So you are changing what you say now. And you dont know 100% where they will be you just know the general direction of them.
Okay real quick whats easier to pressure:
A place you 100% know where the survivor is (hook)?

A place you dont 100% know where the survivor is (cage)?

Your lack of understanding on this basic concept highlights a very reckless way to use cage of torment. You dont cage every single time, and you certainly dont do it if you want to apply pressure. You will learn this as you play PH more.

You just place the torment at loops. His trail is a natural mindgame as some survivors will risk going down instead of stepping in it.

Apply this same logic to traps. Its up to the survivor if they want to step in it or not. Only torment is 1000% more obvious. You can place torment all you want at loops. From what you are describing you are facing very new/unknowing survivors though. Not many will willfully enter a loop seeing your torment. And you are limited in how much you can put down. You are just proving that torment is not up to you in this case.

Punishment is not easy to dodge unless you have incredible reflexes. If you can dodge punishment, you can definitely dodge hellfire.

Punishment has a tell on the ground, the rectangle lights up about .5 second before it actually can damage, and you can move out of it extremely easy.
Hellfire does not do this, the moment you are in the path of the first traveling fire spout, no matter how fast you move, you will not avoid the others.

We see this in footage where you can be INSIDE the punishment rectangle and have plenty of time to move out of it. We dont see this in hellfire.

I hope this helps clarify any confusion you may be having.

The problem is it's not a valid concern. It's basically not wanting to adapt and get better.

I never said you should cage all the time. You should cage a survivor when you know someone is close by. Rather than wasting time hooking them I can get to the chase much quicker, effectively applying pressure without slugging. If nobody's around, it's better to hook them so they're in a more defensible position. Pyramid also applies pressure thanks to his tunneling ability. Since I know the general location of the cage, I can tunnel the survivor out of the game after they get rescued, effectively putting pressure on the survivor team.

"Not many will willfully enter a loop seeing your torment." That's just not true at all. Is every loop that has torment a deadzone?

His hellfire is something you need to adapt to, genuinely just a skill issue if you can’t figure out where it will come from when dodging and what it can and can't go over.

I'm going to stop talking about PH now, because this discussion isn't about him.

There are several high level competitive players who do not think Dracula is easy to play against and actually believe he is very difficult to play against. I am not suggesting anyone believing otherwise is a bad player like what is being thrown around in this thread, but to discount the experiences of these strong players as well as those in this thread as a skill issue sounds very interesting.

The fire attack cannot be dodged at close range but can be reacted to at far range. Dracula can wait until you are locked into animation or until you are in a narrow area and hit you and otherwise walk you down for an M1. He can reliably set this up by only holding out his hand when he is in closer range to do this, so there is no counterplay. If he holds his hand up earlier he is misplaying and that is the fault of the player, not the design of the killer.

You cannot hold W from this at most loops, as any filler loop is circular and Dracula can simply zone you for a free hit if there were a nearby loop but often there isn't one. In a tile there are narrow spaces you will eventually be corralled into for a free hit. He needs his walking speed while charging the fire to be reverted back to ptb value in order for this strategy to be less effective.

I did not say OP, but I have heard Xeno on his stream earlier today say Dracula is A+ tier, which is much higher than the B I have seen in this thread. A+ tiers I think are at least fairly unhealthy for the game, but perhaps that is splitting hairs.

I am more flatly saying that his Wolf and Vampire form have little counterplay, not that there is a lot to learn vs them. It is true there are many situational things to learn vs him though, just as with any killer in DBD.

cerburus talon is only aura reading for the orbs. if they do spawn outside of chase, the radius must be so low that it is unnoticeable at base-kit. the wolf is only good for its slide tech, beyond that, it is rubbish.

Wolf is not like wesker. Wesker has more charge time on his rushes, does not get a speed boost that increases his rush range or his speed beforehand, cannot get into better spots or outright win loops due to his short height and third person camera, and his hug tech is miles easier. They are hardly comparable.

For the vampire form, I have already addressed this point but I'll say so again: you cannot guarantee you'll get the kind of loop you mention. Even if you do get it, he can just close then hold out his hand then there is no counterplay. If he uses it at max range he has misplayed.

I agree with you, but that just means we need to be addressing it! More interactive gameplay makes both survivor AND killer feel more rewarding when done right, and no it doesn't have to mean it makes the killer weak either.

If they do remove the hug tech then it would be a lot better I can agree with that much. I do think you are underestimating the speed boost and height and 3rd person camera advantage though.

I would imagine pounce will still be optimized and will be used in a lot of places where it'll either be difficult or perhaps occasionally impossible to dodge, but I still think it'll be better simply because it won't be usable in so many places. The hitbox does seem large enough but with a predictable timing to where you could force some fun 50/50s or other mixups though, and I hope that aspect of the pounce can be emphasized more!