Kaneki is one of the more uniquely designed (and balanced) killers, and he doesn't actually need ner

He gets a free injure, and some slowdown with Deep Wound, but the price he pays for it is having a power that cannot directly down you. At the same time, he cannot injure you with his power as efficiently as Legion can, and Legion is a pretty bad killer. They also share the same inherent weakness in being purely M1 - safe loops and strong pallets are extremely effective against both Legion and Kaneki, except for niche situations where vaulting the pallet can help. (In Kaneki's case, he has to actually connect his tendrils to you to get the faster vault.)

His method of trying to down you with his power is incredibly unique. Instead of throwing it at you, he needs to get around you, and block your path with his body, then incur a brief fatigue period to give you a chance to vault a window or pallet before he downs you. This is what makes the killer so interesting to play with (and against.) He's not throwing danger at you, he IS the danger, and that's cool. Not only that, but the way he has to play to take you down during a loop is interesting and allows for play from both sides because you can anticipate where he's going to leap and try to base your pathing off of that.

"But he gets unfair hits on me around corners with his power!!! He can't even see me!!!"

Alright so, first of all, there's nothing wrong with a generously applicable injure, when the price to pay for it is so heavy (needing to down you with a melee attack.)

Second, here's the reason why his power can damage you despite there obstacles being in the way:

The nature of his power necessitates the hit going through if you're around a corner or behind a gen because it has a travel time. It's like how Huntress hits you right before you round a corner, that's still a legitimate hit, it just doesn't have a delay. Because Kaneki's power has a delay, it LOOKS weird, but it needs to be this way because there are only two alternatives:

1. He just lets you go after he *already lands the hit* on you because it "doesn't look correct"
2. He vacuums you back around the corner to "make the hit look better" and make you lose more distance in the process.

In the first scenario, it feels terrible to play, and in the second scenario, it feels *even worse* to play against than the average player currently perceives it to be.

The hit is perfectly fine as-is in my opinion. There were concessions that had to be made in terms of "feel" because Kaneki doesn't damage you immediately (again, like with my Huntress example.) He hits you around the corner because he locked onto you BEFORE you rounded the corner. It only feels weird because you don't INSTANTLY take damage - he has to fly to you first. On a technical level it's perfectly fair.

It is 100% working as intended.

However, I would certainly be down with reducing the duration of his enrage animation while also reducing the amount of time that the survivor is stationary so it's fair for both sides (since I don't personally feel like he's overpowered - he's the only dash killer where his dash doesn't have the ability to down survivors, so it's actually fair for it to work the way it does. Even Pig's dash can down people.)

This solution would resolve the janky/stuttery feeling while being power-neutral.

The best players in the world played as and against him on the PTB and correctly surmised that he'd be a pretty good, but not overpowered, killer. Even so, BHVR actually did rebalance Kaneki coming from the PTB by removing his hug techs in exchange for making the sliding addon basekit. Honestly I prefer him this way personally, but I understand why some would prefer his PTB design.

"But he can down me in between loops so easily! I can't get away!"

Well first of all, Lithe exists (but counterplay also exists for Kaneki - he can try to grab you as you try to Lithe, so you have to use it intelligently) to help you connect tiles and loops together. Second, you know who else can kill you REALLY fast if you're in an open area? Deathslinger, Trickster, Wesker. You complaining about them, too?

"Okay, then why not increase his fatigue after power so I actually have a chance to get somewhere?"

Because *that would destroy the killer.* What you're asking for here, is going to be the WORST POSSIBLE VERSION of this killer because you'd disincentivize using his power in interesting, skillful ways, basically shoehorning him into only using it when he's guaranteed to catch up on you, with zero risk-taking from the player's part. You're asking him to be weaker than Legion while simultaneously being more boring. They can't increase the downtime after his leap without just turning him into Diet Legion.

The whole point of his ability and his skillcap is to dash intelligently to cut off your path, and give you a moment or two to try to get away before he hits you. If you make him take too long before he can hit you, even after playing correctly and performing a good dash, he's going to be piss weak. He's already an M1 killer.

His gameplay loop is to try to cut you off and then down you. It is NOT designed to "cut you off, stare at you for 3 seconds and let you get somewhere safe before he can hit you". That's not only unfair to him since he can't down you directly with his power anyway, it's also dumb to play against. You're asking for something dumb to play against.

Overall, Kaneki is a well-balanced killer that brings a unique gameplay experience to both sides of the Trial. He doesn't need nerfs.