Dracula is stupidly overtuned

Last time I checked, the Wolf form was meh for the most part and overshadowed by his other 2 powers.

But anyway, I don't think he's so overpowered that immediate nerfs are needed. There are worse cases.

Yeah, he's pretty strong but he's also a bit hard to play, so it kind of helps balance things out a bit. I don't know what they could change about him, since currently he's quite fun and the quick changes between forms is what makes him fun and dynamic.

He has 3 powers, each of which is a worse version of other killers.

Vampire Form Hellfire:

• 3.8 m/s movement speed while holding
• 2 m/s movement speed while firing it
• 3 second slowdown after firing it
• 0.9 second charge time
• 7 second cooldown
• 8 meter range
• cannot go through walls, only over short ones

Compared to say, Pyramid Head:

• 4.4 m/s movement speed while holding
• 3.68 m/s while firing it
• 2.25 second slowdown after firing it
• 1 second charge time
• effectively 0 cooldown
• 8 meter range, than can be increased to 10.5 meters with addons (hint, his only good ones since all of them are terrible)
• Goes through walls

So hellfire vs pyramid head, Pyramid head gets to move faster while holding it, faster while its actually firing, Slowed down for less time after firing, charge time is 0.1 seconds slower, he has basically 0 cooldown, longer range, and it goes through walls. So again, a worse pyramid head power.

Wolf Form:

• On average moves 4.68 m/s instead of 4.6 m/s, with bursts at 4.8 m/s for loops.
  • Scent orbs increase movement speed to 4.8 m/s for 2.5 seconds spawning every 6 seconds, so on average, if he perfectly collects them this is the average movement speed
• Killer instinct on picking up orbs
• 1 second charge time for pounce
• 3.91 m/s movement speed while charging
• 20 second cooldown that is reduced by 4 seconds every orb, for an average cooldown of 12 seconds
• 13.34 m/s speed during pounce
• 5 meter range for each pounce
• 3 second slowdown on miss
• 1.15 m/s movement speed on miss (same as regular attack)
• Can't hit multiple Survivors
• Can't cancel the second pounce
• Can't vault things

Lets compare that to a similar killer with 2 "dashes" Wesker:

• 3.68 m/s movement speed while holding
• 14 m/s while dashing
• 2.76 m/s walking BETWEEN dashes (which can do for 2 seconds basekit)
• 1.5 second charge time
• 6 second cooldown per charge for a total of 12 seconds
• 7 meter range on first dash
• 14 meter range on second dash
• 1.5 second cooldown on cancellation
• 1.5 second vault speed
• 3 second cooldown on miss
• 1.15 m/s movement speed on miss (same as regular attack)
• Infects survivor on hit, forcing a map interaction, or they get heavily hindered and exposed
• Killer instinct when survivors cleanse
• Can hit multiple survivors
• Can cancel the second dash
• Can hug/bounce tech
• Can vault windows and pallets

So comparing the 2, wesker gets, slightly slower movement speed while holding, but CAN actually hold it and cancel it unlike the wolf. Faster dash speed, can walk between dashes and reposition, can cancel the second dash, has a longer range on both dashes, can vault pallets and windows, same cooldown on miss, same miss penalty, infects the suvivors on hit, forcing them to waste time cleansing instead of working gens or face a steep penalty, is able to hit multiple survivors, has a hug and bounce tech, can turn the camera to hit the power at weird angles. I'd say again, wesker is much better here.

Then finally the thing everyone complains about, bat form vs spirit:

Bat Form:

• 6.5 m/s movement speed
• 12 m/s teleport to vault locations.
• 32 meter range teleport
• 48 meter lullaby
• 50% louder footstep volume
• Is completely visible to the survivor
• Can be heard by the survivor
• 1.5 second cooldown shifting out of it
• 2 m/s movement speed during that cooldown
• Can't attack directly out of it

Spirit:

• 4.4 m/s movement speed base
• 7.04 m/s movement speed
• 1.5 second charge time
• 5 second duration
• 15 second cooldown
• Phases passively for a brief time making it hard to track her even out of her power sometimes.
• retains speed for 1 second after phasing
• completely invisible to the survivor
• Survivors hear her general direction but not her exact position
• No terror radius on her (but on her husk)
• Can attack directly out of the power, giving a massive lunge distance similar to wraith.
• In terms of addons her cooldown can be made 10 seconds, or even lower with addons, with her typical combination being 10 second cooldown and 8.8 m/s movement speed

So what does spirit get here vs the bat? She moves faster in her power, but slower overall, has to stop for 1.5 seconds to charge, has a 5 second duration, and a 15 second cooldown. In return, she gets to keep her movement speed, the survivors cannot see her, they can hear her location just like the bat, she leaves a husk that has a terror radius that can confuse survivors, and can immediately attack right out of the power, making it much better at loops whereas the bat is more about catching up between loops. You can't really got into bat, go in front of the survivor, come out of bat, and then hit them before they go around the loop to the pallet/window. Spirit can though because she can hit immediately out of her power and for much longer range.

The point i'm making here is, yes, dracula is similar to 3 other killers rolled into 1. But when you look at the pure numbers, all 3 powers are significantly worse than the main powers of the other killers. Dracula often has longer charge times, can't cancel powers, moves slower, doesn't have as long of range, and has more limitations on the power vs the similar killers.

Now obviously comparing 1/3 of this killer's power to each killer and saying that "pyramid head is a better hellfire" isn't totally fair in terms of the overall power of the killer, but the point is when comparing each part of the power, each power is individually worse than the killer it is based off of, when combined together, your mileage may vary. Personally i think he's probably on par with wesker overall, better than pyramid head, and worse than spirit when taking all things into account.

it's their newer killer and BHVR is 95% controlled by the profit motive. so their newer killers tend to be very OP.

That's…not really true.

Yes, they sometimes have issues, but most killers do not come OP. Not even the licensed ones. For every Dracula there's an Onryo or Xenomorph that come janky or just straight up weak, and they stay that way. The could have made a lot more money on the latter two if they had made them stronger, if that was their sole intent.

I think it's more just design incompetence. They make killers they don't know how to nerf properly, or with an exploitable fundamental design flaw that makes them broken (like SM). Nurse is the prime example of this.

Or they just move on to the next chapter and leave whatever broken mess they've made on the back burner.

I mean people are always saying stuff. But as a surv did you ever feel oppressed by Xeno? I never have. Sure, the tail attack is/was too quick to really react to, but actually using it was tricky for a lot of players. And the rest of the kit is just kinda…meh.

Certainly not strong in the way Dracula is.

But I do think it's mostly a design issue, as these killers are in development long before anyone in the media puts eyes on them. And then they leave it to PTB for people to discover what are often fundamental flaws when the product is essentially complete.

And yeah, then we get creators falling over each other to pass judgement on them after only a few hours, which often results in some searing hot (and often quite poor) takes that influence general perception.

Lots of the most notable issues we've seen only after weeks or months into them being live. In cases like the SM, these design issues are so fundamental that they essentially have to nerfed to the shadow realm, or just left as is, where no amount of responsible feedback would have saved them. There are more than a few of these cases that where there was a fatal screw up early in the design process, either in favor of the killer's strength or to their detriment (Nurse, Legion, SM come most quickly to mind).

But the main point I was trying to make is that I disagree with the "BHVR drops OP killers and leaves them that way to make money" narrative. While they sometimes drop an OP killer, there have been plenty of killers dropped in a sorry state, we just don't remember them as well.

No I was never oppressed by Xenomorph. Holding W and pre running results in an adequate amount of time for the rest of the folk to decide to work on gens, or to throw the game. The collective effort still determines the outcome. If you mean is it hard to dodge the tail, yes it is.

I agree, sometimes they do not correctly exploit the potential in the IPs they launch. But, aside, and in defiance of popular sentiment I suspect people that come and stay to play killer are not primarily driven by potential of that killer. I think the IP itself and perhaps most importantly the ergonomics of that killer are what cement the marriage.

Again, I agree with the sentiment, the marketing team does not twist for maximum profit via abuse of the design or implementation people.