In short, it's great Freddy is finally receiving some changes to placed in line with other killers which is great, hopefully some of these new additions which should've been part of his kit years ago will make feel bit more polished and better when trying to add that map pressure. Now, this is from what I've read from the Developer update, I haven't tested him yet, and will most likely change my opinions once I have. But making him similar to former glory is great. Now this has a lot of words to it as I've gone fully into the Developer update.

What I like about the changes, from reading the Dev update:

The change of adding the Dream Snares and Dream Pallets of two abilities which you can switch wouldn't of been that special without the buffs that came following later on, as Dream Pallets in the game now are not good and can easily be removed without consequence, this is good, I like this change. Although, this change should've been base kit years ago, and not locked behind add on. Which I'd imagine they will receive changes according to this new change. The only thing which was good base kit as of this current version of Freddy was Dream Snares, as they are more viable in chases as a sort of slow down with the correct placement, and It's very good and interesting to see a change has happened to this as well. Making them move forward as well is good with the unique interactions, make them even better for Chases. Even if you're awake it actually does something now, which is great as the Patch 4.7.0 nerfs made these harder to use. And the explosion of the Dream Pallets sound great in context with what we can read, but the Developers have not spoken of the counterplay involved, if the counterplay is significant, this is useless. But either way, they wouldn't down a survivor that would be to strong.

I like now have survivors who are awake interacting with Freddy's abilities place them into Sleep quicker, this is an absolute great change. When you nerfed him in Patch 4.7.0 by making Survivors even harder to get into the Dream World, it made Freddy hard to play as, due to Survivors having so much protection with nothing to counter it, It made an essential M1 Killer with no Dream World counterplay, and adding it based on Freddy's attacks was brutal, and unnecessary. I hope the Developers comment on this more.

Seeing survivors healing based on Killer instincts and being able to teleport them is a good change. Although, with the recent nerf of the red paint brush add on this makes it easier for survivors to escape the Dream World making this not as good in my opinion as these only really work if they're in the Dream World, and if you can fail a skill check you're out of the dream world therefore no information, this will only be suitable for lower skilled lobbies when people don't know of the counterplay, but more experienced players will be always evading the Dream World, especially with this new recent buff of the Clocks with the Patch 4.7.0 nerf. Although, you've spoken on adding more to this in the future, which us the players remain hopeful on.

The ability of teleporting to completed, blocked generators and at the end game is another great feature. Should've been in base kit though years ago unfortunately when suggested years ago it were ignored by the Developers as usual. And the ability to teleport to healing survivors in the dream world sounds good in retrospect, but my previous point explains more on why I think this isn't a really great change. But this power now works in end game scenarios which is fantastic.

What I dislike about the changes, from reading the Dev update.

The ability to no longer cancel teleportation is not the right direction of Freddy, we would rather keep the 45 seconds than having it be decreased to 30 seconds with no cancellation. This ability was a great mind game to Freddy, and was able to be used to pressure gens to gain more time without having to commit fully, and having this change is not good. I disagree with this change, and hope the Developers revert this back before this reaches live servers.

I dislike the fact you've directly nerfed the red paint brush add on by making it work similarly to old Freddy when he first released. We need that condition by not making survivors wake up from a skill check in order to keep the Dream World a consistent place for survivors to get more value out of it, and out of our abilities. And also get value out of the new feature of seeing survivors instinct when healing. Now, with this being changed survivors can pretty much always evade the Dream World again. This is like when Self Care was meta in 2017 and all survivors did was being healing themselves and fail skill checks to stop Freddy to being able to attack them again. This should be considered more before live release, as you can already use another add on to reveal the survivors with killer instincts, so I don't like the new changes. Same with being the black box, the change is quite even more worse than what it was considered the fact survivors can escape Dream World easier.

I'm not too sure on the new changes with being allowed to wake up at every single clock, considering you can just fail a skill check now. I'd rather it work the same with how it does as then the Survivor has to waste more time to find their designated clock rather than just using any clock generated on the map. But the cooldown with the clocks is a good feature. I would make it also so Survivors cannot use the Alarm Clocks if they're in the terror radius of Freddy, if we're going to continue with this change.

What I would do with Freddy even further following these changes, and I really do hope the Developers or the Community Manager sees this so I can see their take on this.

Freddy's original issues with his power after his first rework in 2019 relied more into his add ons at the time, those being his slow down add ons which affected the generators which stacked up to nearly 12% if combined with the right perks around this time. This at the time was a solo queue stomper, and got changed eventually, to the point where all his add ons except for two now suck, and aren't worth even using. And people redeeming his as not overpowered, but now boring and fun for both sides, especially after the Path 4.7.0 nerfs which happened to his add ons and power itself. And furthermore, there is nothing to master with Freddy, he is simple to understand and simple to play, that if you've kept in mind of pressuring your generators correctly. Only skill Freddy had was teleporting in chase to cut off a survivor.

My suggestions:

I would wish the Developers make it so you can't see Freddy at all unless you fall asleep and are in the Dream World, and make this process more faster gradually than having the clock feature already in the game. And following this change, perhaps they enter the Dream World quicker depending on close they are to Freddy. And making it harder to detect Freddy if you're awake, to encourage the Stealth aspect of it, and allow the Lullaby to gradually kick in.

I'd make the alarm clocks only to be used if you're not in the terror radius of the Freddy. This is to prevent survivors escaping the Dream World mid chase with the recent buff to the alarm clocks, and making all chases happen in the Dream World regardless, so Freddy get's value out of this. And yes, I would keep the lullaby for when you're not in the Dream World, but at least some what a terror radius in the Dream World to help new players get less confused with how the lullaby works.

I would also keep the teleportation as it is, as that involves some skill with either faking it or committing to it, keeping that mind game element. And maintaining that lore of Freddy, as in the movies he is teleporting around, showing up.

Following his recent buffs and changes to his Dream Snares and Dream Pallets I have nothing to suggest on this anymore, I feel like these changes are good enough to the Killer to be used better than they previously. Before, I've thought of more objects like fake breakable doors as such, but these changes are fine now.

Freddy has a lot of potential, but unfortunately he's always been in the low tier categories due to the Developers mistake, and listening to less experience players and nerfing him passed what needs to be done. I hope you enjoyed reading my take on this, and you can either agree or disagree, but please leave your thoughts below.