General Discussions

General Discussions

About the "slug meta"

24

Comments

  • Member Posts: 10,465

    Yeah, they don't draw the obvious conclusion that these perks like Resurgence, Second Wind, Moment Of Glory, Clean Break, are pseudo instaheals. If you last long enough in chase, or not even in chase, you get automatically healed while potentially progressing the objective at the same time. That is beyond broken. That's like a killer perk that regresses all gens as long as a survivor is on hook. It forces your opponent to commit to a bad option just to play around another bad option. If they let you go, you get healed for free. If they chase you as to not give you the free heal, you're still forcing them to choose to chase you, and you might still get healed.

    The other perks aren't bad either. You said it. 30s of 10% Haste and extra time on hook? What's to scoff about that?

  • Member Posts: 207

    Damn!
    I didn't thought this topic would get so much replies.
    Thanks guys! 😁
    Now I'm sure it got the attention from someone from BHVR team.

    "And now you want to take away slugging?"

    That's EXACTLY what I've been thinking too!
    They took killer resources away one by one until we got at slugging and after they take it away too… what will remain?
    People need to want to play killer or this game literally dies.
    Just like the guy says in the video: BHVR asked A LOT of stuff about slugging in their last survey, but only from the survs perspective.

    Another VERY IMPORTANT thing that is said in the video and also by other people here is 2nd chance perks being weaponized against the killer.
    They are suppose to be anti tunnel damn it.

  • Member Posts: 10,465

    Yeah, world's gone mad. They really don't look at things from the killer POV, or they apparently play it but never go against a single decent team. I've got inflamed passion for this role, but dang if I don't feel like I'm not being unreasonable here. The only thing I see killers really having once slugging is nerfed is... hoping to stall enough with No Way Out/Remember Me? That's really the only alternative I've been able to experiment with besides slugging. But it's like, how does nobody see the time crunch we're on? They're literally balancing off the top 10 killer players and off brand new survivor players. That's the real unbalance in this game.

  • Member Posts: 207

    "Stall" is another keyword here.
    Killer gen perks getting nerfed while nothing is done to surv ones. Slugging is a more efficient way to counter gen rush.
    They make killer gen perks don't stack with each other, but surv ones still can.
    A friend these days had a match that a surv was using Deadline, Hyperfocus and Stakeout and gens melted FAST.
    Damn, even one surv with Prove Thyself is enough for a "BIG DAMAGE" and if for some reason you don't find this surv and don't let him/her touch gens or even tunnel him/her out you lose.

  • Member Posts: 6,039
    edited February 5

    I think you are reading into a bias that you perceive is there, especially based off your comments.

    Nowhere in that did i say that basekit BT and AFC are bad for the game. Actually i think the concept of them is good for the game, but they went about it the wrong way. They are just another piece of evidence of the devs actively discouraging killers from hooking survivors. Think of it this way, we go from a time where none of these things existed to:

    • Basekit BT gets added
    • Anti face camp gets added
    • Survivor anti-tunnel perks get buffed
    • The killer hook perks like Pop/Pain res/BBQ (bloodpoints) etc. get nerfed
    • Hook timer gets increased to 70 seconds

    All of these things are things that actively punish killers for hooking. While rewarding survivors for getting hooked.

    Look at a perk like NOED for example. Survivors often complain about NOED because it "rewards the killer for losing" right? It rewards the killer for playing badly in a way where they can often secure at the very least a kill if not more if survivors play altruistically, all for what? The killer did nothing skillful to activate it, it just happens.

    Now look at the survivor side of things. Survivor gets outplayed, and is now downed, but there are a ton of things that now are given to the survivor when they get hooked/unhooked for free, that just HAPPEN. Nothing skillful on the survivor side was done to get them, the survivor in fact got OUTPLAYED and the killer correctly progressed their objective, and now the killer is "punished" for doing so, through the survivor activating a ton of perks, and the killer spending a significant amount of time trying to get that hook.

    In terms of AFC and basekit BT, i don't think those were the right approach. What i would have done, was create a system by which tunneling and camping becomes IMPOSSIBLE (not just punished) from a gameplay perspective, while also using that as an opportunity to encourage killers to hook survivors. So my proposed solution is usually to create some mechanic by which, survivors who are unhooked are effectively immune from the killer and are automatically healed when the effect is over. While also making survivors share the 1st hook state. Meaning that even if you hard tunnel, you'd still have to hook someone 6 times in order to remove them from the game.

    On the flip side, something would need to be done basekit for killers to reward them for completing their objective. Generally i think this would work best as a "when a survivor is unhooked, they are put on a "timeout" where they can't progress the game and can't be targeted by the killer" But, once that timeout is over they get fully healed and are back in the game. Basekit get kick regression gets buffed up to 10%, basekit regression gets buffed to 0.5 c/s instead of 0.25 c/s. Basekit corrupt that lasts say, 30 seconds, a basekit corrupt on totems that lasts say, 30 seconds.

    Then from there you can rebalance things like gen speeds in relation to these changes i they need to be increase or decreased. And you have new mechanics by which perks can be made. Meanwhile you can go rework all of the survivor anti-tunnel and anti-camp and the killer gen defense perks to do something more interesting.

    The reliance on gen defense perks for example is obvious, the game is balanced around it. Similar to survivors taking anti-tunnel perks, the game is balanced around it. This is evidenced by things like chaos shuffle, where gens fly super fast, and survivors get tunneled super quick. Because both sides know the other side likely doesn't have the perks to deal with that thing.

    All i'm saying is, the devs themselves have led us here to this new meta around slugging by punishing killers for going for hooks time and time again all in an effort to deal with tunneling, without actually looking at WHY the killers are tunneling to begin with. And instead of actually making tunneling impossible, and balancing the game around that fact, they instead bandaid the problem with perks and half baked basekit mechanics.

  • Member Posts: 6,039

    To check your biases a little bit and maybe look at things from a different perspective?

  • Member Posts: 1,353
    edited February 6

    I said the biggest factor is killer cooldowns buff and survivor movement speed nerf.

    Killer's cooldowns haven't been buffed, and survivor movement speed hasn't been nerfed in the last years. In fact, perks like STBFL were nerfed. What are you talking about?

    Slugging is more effective when you can down someone and immediately go do something else […]

    And here is the key that you people are not getting (even though you meant something else with it). Tunneling, 3-genning, the genkick meta, regression perk stacking… all those things were always about gaining time. Survivors with good game sense that coordinate a minimum don't leave most killers with a long enough time window to do anything, and min gen times have been a problem ignored for years now.

    Now, after years of BHVR making any other option for the killer to gain time minimal with nerfs and base mechanics, plus rewarding survivors with their stronger perks when they lose chase, plus making it even easier for survivors to make all the time the killer spent in his last chase go to waste, etc., some killers have come to the conclusion that it is better to simply not hook for all the reasons mentioned in the video, like not having to employ up to 20 seconds picking up and walking to the hook just to give survivors their stronger perks and the chance to screw you over. Like you said, you simply "down someone and immediately go do something else".

    It's not rocket science. I don't get why the need in denying it is when, again, slugging and Knockout are not precisely new things added to the game recently, and it's just now that people are going "Yep, slugging is the way".

  • Member Posts: 10,465

    How is tunneling double standards? It's a strategy. Killers don't say you're not allowed to gen rush, or that you're toxic for doing so. They just think it's stupid. 5 gens in 5 minutes shouldn't be a thing.

  • Member Posts: 3,155

    Except hooking is different? It is legit just better for the survivors if you hook them rather than slug them. Hooking them makes you take more time to hook, they get their unhook perks and the basekit changes to hooks for survivors.

  • Member Posts: 10,465

    I'm sorry, but if you had a game you thought was pretty darn fun, and then balance change after balance change threatened to ruin it, you can use whatever word you want, but yes, you would be scared to lose it. Not lose win streaks, strawman. Lose the fun in it. I don't keep win streaks because it's fake bragging rights, and that's because every 5 matches 1 decent team will just take the streak away. Whoever that doesn't happen to is just lucky or smurfing. Sorry. Good survivors have to throw to lose, because their gen efficiency alone leaves the killer insufficient time to kill them. Y'all can keep doing the trash talk and buzz words thing, but it's not a legit logical argument. That's why this game is stagnant, because the devs do think that stuff is like a really good argument.

  • Member Posts: 12

    When you really break down the numbers, it makes you wonder how survivors ever lose a match. If a killer takes 60 seconds to chase and hook a survivor, the survivors could have completed 180 seconds worth of generators out of the 450 (base) seconds of total generator progress needed. Remember, that 450 seconds can be divided by 4 and completed concurrently.

    And if you assume 60 seconds for the total time of a killer finding a survivor, chasing them, and hooking them, it takes a killer 540 seconds to get their first kill without tunneling (2 hooking all survivors, which is what they want) and 720 seconds to get a 4k. And unlike the survivors, this time is cannot be divided. The killer must go through it all, unless the survivors make serious mistakes.

  • Member Posts: 1,353
    edited February 6

    6.1 was released almost 3 years ago, it was a 0.3 seconds buff and a 0.2 seconds nerf, it was precisely after that patch that they added and removed all the things that make slugging worth more than hooking now, and on top of that, Knockout and slugging were exactly the same then as they are now.

    The coping is real.

  • Member Posts: 3,974

    While you're right that the starting numbers are very much in the survivors' favor, they shift more toward the killer as the match goes on. Even though your scenario involves 2 hooking everyone before getting a kill, chases will also get shorter as more resources get used up and/or weak links get chased, just like how they could be longer than a minute at the start. The game is too volatile to put into hard numbers like that, since advantage can change drastically with every interaction, and scales from one side to the other over the course of the match inherently. And thats before all the crazy variables caused by loadouts/powers/maps/etc.

  • Member Posts: 2,267

    Well if it was "bad" as in terrible design that encourages the most unfun play style, I would agree lol.

    Look I am sure he is not a bad player, I see he must have been playing at least as long as I have been but I just think some people expect easy wins and don't take losses well, nor do they ever consider that maybe they didn't play that well or perhaps they also just get really unlucky with RNG but that affects both sides.

  • Member Posts: 133
    edited February 6

    Kicking a 3 gen with overtuned kick perks and hit and run tactics is indeed low skill in terms of macro and micro.

    I didn't say it is "too strong". I said it was obnoxious to stall the game for 40 mins+.

    Even killer main content creators made fun of this strat about the "'chess Merchant" or the chess killers.

    "I'm like a chess player, I kick a 3gen and I do hit and run for 45 minutes and eventually of survivors are too impatient I win".

    Yeah great memories…

    For slugging I said it requires skill for killer, indeed, and it's risky, so I'm ok with it. Just solo Q needs info.

  • Member Posts: 6,039

    Because they are allergic to doing gens. There's a reason that these efficient high level SWF squads usually get 4 man out with 1 or 2 hooks. And then the answer is always "those teams are rare though"

  • Member Posts: 9,513

    yeah. rare. so rare that i am end up playing vs it every 8 games or so.

  • Member Posts: 2,266

    I'm actually just confused on definitions here.

    Out of how many games would something need to happen to be rare? 1 out of 8? Well that definitely not common. Rare, unusual, uncommon, it seems to be splitting hairs on that point.

  • Member Posts: 432

    We've been telling BHVR for years how to correctly implement basekit Unbreakable into the game. They just don't care.

  • Member Posts: 116
    edited February 7

    The “Slug Meta” is not real.

    it is an artificial “meta” that works because survivors are not bringing anti-slug perks. The minute they do, even the best sluggers in the game can’t do it for free.

    played against a slugularity yesterday with plot twist, exponential, circle of healing, and DS.

    got a 3 out that could’ve been a 4 out. And it was a solo queue game.

    Again the slug meta is not real, it’s just taking advantage of survivors not running anti-slug. But when the meta shifts, you shouldn’t be surprised that it’s no longer as effective as content creators claim.

    Slugging, just like tunneling, is a good strategy to use Situationally to build pressure. It’s not an instant win button for killer when survs are prepared. The “Slug Meta” preys on bad solo survs, which are the majority of the player base. That’s why it seems effective, when it’s really showing the weakness of solo queue surv.

  • Member Posts: 618
    edited February 7

    Just because it's a temporary or not as common playstyle doesn't mean it's not gearing up to be a meta.

    People generally do not use anti-slugging builds or perks because most killers typically pick up. I tried running the "small pp build" yesterday and I got use out of my Unbreakable with Soul Guard once. I got more use out of Decisive Strike, lol. Most killers that you go against are the type that downs, picks up, and hooks.

    I think the Knock Out and slugging builds are in a way dying because most survivors know to push gens, hop into a locker when they recognize it's in play, or the killer in question doesn't have as much experience and notice it via YouTube.

    I went against a Freddy with Knock Out two days ago I believe and he got no pressure whatsoever because of how he was playing and began hooking my random due to it.

    I still think the perk needs a nerf or a timer placed on it - but regardless, it is a "meta" in the same way that popular streamers are pushing it but people are not as skilled as let's say Tru3, so they typically suffer from getting kills.

  • Member Posts: 116

    ”Just because it's a temporary or not as common playstyle doesn't mean it's not gearing up to be a meta.”

    Meta literally means most efficient tools available so if they’re the most efficient, would they not be the most common?

  • Member Posts: 116

    I don’t think you fully read my first comment on this thread. Because I made the same point but it doesn’t have to be a swf it can be a good solo group with the right perks. Again proving that the slug meta is not real it preys on general unpreparedness for the strategy.

  • Member Posts: 618

    Okay, we can argue semantics. Regardless, it's been an uptick and people are not going to equip anti-slugging builds for a 1 outta 5 games where someone equips slugging builds.

    It also has now become a thing since Thrill has been nerfed and it's been a killer's mantra that gen regression is weak, when in fact it's not.

    We will see in the next few weeks as it's still a relatively new "meta".

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