http://dbd.game/killswitch
Have Fog Vials been forgotten about?
In late July we got the first new Survivor item since the game’s release, and in only ~2 months they’ve already faded into obscurity. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone bring these into a match in weeks, maybe even a month.
And it’s not a surprise given how poorly they were implemented. When they first dropped, there were a lot of conflicting opinions on their strength due to the fact that their opacity varied depending on the map. Sometimes they were completely opaque, and other times their effects were very anaemic. Instead of addressing this inconsistency and balancing from there, they received two rounds of hefty nerfs that have solidified Fog Vials as the worst Survivor item.
I assumed that they would revert some of these after realising the changes were overkill, but now we’re onto the next Chapter and Fog Vials are still… bad.
I really hope that there’s some plans to take another look at Fog Vials and make them a worthwhile item. Because right now, they only serve as Bloodweb clutter and an indirect nerf to chests. Seriously, it’s frustrating the number of times I roll these with Dramaturgy or pull them with Plunderer’s Instinct.
Maybe this sounds dramatic, but if these aren’t on the radar to be improved soon, I think I would prefer for them to be outright removed. There’s already a lot of useless stuff in the Bloodwebs — I don’t want more clutter that just serves to waste my Bloodpoints.
Please don’t just forget about Fog Vials. Either improve them, or lose them. Don’t let them sit as junk in our inventories for years.
Comments
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Don't worry. Maybe they'll get buffed in one year.
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Nine years down the line, they finally announce a rework for survivor items and then some forum killer complains and we somehow come out of it with no changes except Appraisal lost its rummage speed bonus, somehow.
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They've been nerfed so horribly that they're not worth running over any item that you KNOW you'll get value out of.
Fog Vials have been nerfed so badly that they essentially don't do anything anymore other than add ambience.
If you have an item that's "just ok" that you have a low chance of successfully getting value out of, no one's ever going to pick it over a great item that is guaranteed to have a direct effect on the game's outcome.
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I almost wish they were never added because for a moment, I got excited to play survivor.
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Classic BHVR reworks which are nerfs in disguise. Maybe they should do flashlights next
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I‘m still waiting for the fulfillment of the promise the community managers gave us. Sometimes I wish I could give them advises about how to buff nerf stuff, because these nerfs a horrible most of the time.
That‘s all they need to do for fog vials to make them decent again.
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My biggest hope is that sometime soon, we see something to equalise their effectiveness across realms. On their stronger realms right now, the fog effect isn't even that bad - I had someone use one against me yesterday and it honestly wasn't awful, I think it was on a MacMillan realm or one at around that colour scheme.
On the other hand, there are realms where they practically don't have an effect at all, iirc they're awful on Coldwind and Forsaken Boneyard.I do have other issues with the item - I heavily dislike and disagree with giving them a charge system, for one - but that's the big thing I hope to see soon.
As an aside, it is worth pointing out Fog Vials are still a pocket Distortion, which isn't nothing. Not enough obviously, but I do like that they have some variety in how they can be used. We just need that variety to actually be present by making the "fog" part consistently useful.
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I think they nerfed them that much because weren’t able to fix inconsistency that affected some maps more or another and numerous bugs.
Using fog vials still can trigger bug that causing time to time disappearance of scratch marks even when u are not using them. Like old lightweight effect.But damn it. I think 3-4 charges with actually low opacity is way better. Sometimes I still using it just to avoid bbq or for helping with distracting from tunneling, but med kit and tool box always #1 option
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They need 3 or 4 uses. Their current use is strong in regarding being able to be immune to aura reads, but their limited count use is too small to be viable over other items. For example, when it first released, you'd immediately drop the vial to counter lethal pursuer right off the bat. Since everyone starts together, with the big radius addon, you effectively makes lethal pursuer give no value. Now the killer has only 3 perks for the rest of the match outside of extending aura reads by a few seconds. You could also use it every time someone is about to get hooked which makes you invulnerable to the effects of BBQ and chili. Very strong. However, its just not worth using when you only get 2 uses.
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Painfully accurate description of how Behavior balances the game.
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In light of everything else that's happened over the past couple months, I'm thinking fog vials were intended to make other items like toolboxes, flashlights, and medkits less frequent. Not by being useful and picked more often, but by clogging up the bloodweb. This is just based on the complete silence the devs have had towards their uselessness.
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It feels like all of that feedback they collected was for nothing.
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I'm still recovering from the immediate gut punch.
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fog vials let survivors have a slightly higher escape rate than 40% so they had to be nerfed. basically if anything has ANY impact on the game whatsoever it doesn't get to exist in a state where it will be used.
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How could they tell if it helped survivors or not lol. They got nerf twice in as many weeks. Mean while killer changes are always given a wait and see approach or told it will be months for a change like clown and ghoul.
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If they bring the uses up to 4 I might use it again and the addons lowkey feel useless
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Actual pictures of what the fog vials sometimes look like, with zero filters.
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Survivor is not supposed to have useful items.
We wouldn't want Ghoul or the head killer to struggle seeing in the fog. Their job is supposed to be extremely low effort.
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Yeah, it varies.
I'm not sure I'm seeing your point?
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You literally said "On their stronger realms right now, the fog effect isn't even that bad - I had someone use one against me yesterday and it honestly wasn't awful"
Really? The fog in those screenshots "isn't even that bad"???
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For the survivors.
It was used against me and I noticed that it was actually having an effect- tracking that survivor did actually get harder because the fog effect is genuinely pretty noticeable.
So, yes, the fog in the game I played wasn't that bad for the survivors because I actually noticed its effect.
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I dont think they were around long enough to determine that tbh
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They nerf two great perk to fight tunneling and slugging, giving a killer who outperfom except if you are in a great team (SWF), having a discount for a lot of new pallet in a depot
Don't think they care about the vial… The item is dead, and they are not going to do anything about2 -
Lets be honest with ourselves, making them consistent across maps almost certainly means taking the map they're weakest on and applying that to every map - not finding some middle ground and certainly not going with the strongest effect. Survivor players aren't allowed to have anything new if it turns out it might actually be useful - nothing that actually affects the outcome of a chase or match is allowed.
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I like using them with Ghost Notes + Lightweight and Sprint Burst. I prerun into the cloud, and once the Killer left the cloud my scratch marks are already gone. Even better on indoor maps.
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I haven't bothered with them much as survivor but as killer I've not lost a chase against someone who has used them. Maybe it's possible the survivors just weren't using them correctly, but just saying.
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If they don't want to change fog vials and maps offerings, then I hope they will at least remove them from game. I would prefer to buy some useful addon, item or 100% bp bonus offerings over those.
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They took so much development time for the vials, just for them to get nerfed to the ground in a hearbeat because some actually cried about it
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- If the fog vials had been tied to any paid content (e.g., Kaneki, Krasue), they wouldn't be in the state they are in today. But unfortunately, they were a "free" mechanic for the survivors, so they ended up in this ridiculous state. They didn't even consider the possibility of "maybe the killers just need to get used to this new mechanic." No, obviously... destroyed in a week.
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I do think they should try to make them consistent across all the maps but if you also want the realms to have varied lighting and a different vibe and not to all look the same, that's probably something impossible to achieve. I think they could stay at their current strength if they had more charges or returned to recharging over time. Part of the reason why I thought that was ok was because on some maps they do absolutely nothing. Their value is not very consistent. Or I guess you could make them stronger again, but with a smaller area of effect.
I think a lot of Killer players disliked the item because it was a low skill way to avoid or escape a chase. If you happen to think DBD is more of a competitive game, I can see why this would be a "problem" to these players (compare the item to the much stronger, much more annoying flashlights, which do take a degree of skill to use and can be out played a little).
Given the mess the game is in, I think revisiting the vials is probably very low on BHVR's priorities right now. I suspect they will have to remain as blood web clutter for some time.
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I wish they would give it another charge and equalise it's effectiveness across maps to the best of their ability. Not sure where to go from there, but yeah, it is sad that this item had a lot of hype behind it and was immediately buried before even it's major bugs could be fixed.
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I wish they were never added because it is another useless item cluttering the survivor bloodweb instead of more medkits or BP offerings.
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