Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Earlier this week, the team behind Dead by Daylight announced some of the anticipated changes in the upcoming mid-chapter update, bridging the gap between the most recent “Cursed Legacy” DLC and the next chapter, anticipated in March. Three major aspects of the game will be changed in equally major ways, as the developers look to make some facets less frustrating and more balanced.
First on the slate are changes to killer Herman Carter, aka The Doctor, described as a “polarizing figure since his release.” One of the biggest complaints was the passive Static Field that accompanied The Doctor when in his Treatment stance. Survivors who increase in Madness level scream and give away their position, allowing for The Doctor to more or less eliminate any hope of Survivors playing the stealth game. Coupled with his Static Shock, pushing a Survivor to Madness level III becomes absurdly easy, even in a chase and even with The Doctor’s Treatment movement speed of 110% as opposed to the Killer standard 115% speed.
As such, the two-phase Doctor is no more. Instead of the Static Shock and passive Static Field, the killer will now use a Static Blast, which will hit any Survivor inside of his Terror Radius and increase their Madness level. As before, should their level of Madness increase, the Survivor will scream, and The Doctor will receive a visual notification of the Survivor’s location. With this merge of stances comes a leveling in The Doctor’s movement speed, as he is now on par with most Killers at 115% speed.
This change makes using the perk Distressing a terrifying one. At tier 3, The Doctor’s Terror Radius would be just a hair over 40 meters wide, as opposed to the standard 32 meters, making for a larger electrical mushroom cloud of sorts. What this doesn’t do is do Monitor and Abuse, one of Carter’s native perks, any favors. Since the Static Blast reduces movement speed during the charge-up (think of The Huntress winding up her Hatchets), using the ability during a chase, a time when the Terror Radius is boosted by Monitor and Abuse, is futile. And a reduced Terror Radius outside of a chase is the last thing the Static Blast needs. So while this change does help balance out the tricky-on-both-sides-of-the-game Doctor to some degree, it winds up being more of the same as it was before this impending update.
Can’t win them all, I suppose. That being said, The Doctor’s homefield, Lery’s Memorial Institute, is getting a rework, and while the details are scant at the moment, any improvements that can be made to that map would be welcome, as it sucks for both sides of the game.
Hex: Ruin may have concluded its run as one of the must-run Killer perks. Statistics show that the perk is run in 80% of the games in the highest “red” ranks, while the gamewide rate is around 45%. Long story short, the perk is an extended middle finger, especially to newer players who may wind up doing more harm than good when trying to be altruistic and co-op a Generator. The Killer has to do next to nothing, save for preserving the Hex Totem, and “good” Skill Checks can do the rest of the work to fuck up an unsuspecting Survivor’s day. The new Ruin will affect all Generators so long as the Hex Totem stands, though now, it will ramp up the rate of regression, rather than sending the Survivors to Skill Check hell. As opposed to slowing the early game down, as the previous incarnation did, this makes the late game and endgame a Totem hunt for the ages.
As Hex: Ruin was almost necessary for Killers to score an Iridescent emblem in Gatekeeping, the scoring system for that emblem has been reworked as well. Before, even if a Killer lost Generators in the early game, they could still rack up points in the late game that would warrant a higher emblem. Now, the accumulation of points from incomplete Generators ceases after nine minutes of a match. Bonus points will only be awarded if both Exit Gates are left unopened. These changes will increase the stock for perks such as Corrupt Intervention, Thrilling Tremors, and Overcharge. Time to re-adjust those “fuck your Generators” builds, boys.
Once again, the amount of attention to not only detail, but to the concerns of the more dedicated fans of the game and their opinions, never ceases to amaze me, especially given the length of time that the game has been around. The meta has become a living document of sorts, ever changing as the need arises, and I, for one, am here for it.