The Main Issue With Guest 1337: Community Perception & Lack of Clarity

I've been playing Guest quite a bit lately, mainly because I could finally get servers without half a dozen of them for once (I will get back to this later) and I think I've figured out not only his intended way of being played, but also why so few players utilize him to his fullest.

1) Overuse
Yep, I'm getting this point out early. Guest's popularity as a character is more of a drawback than anything, as servers frequently have 2-4 at any given time. This causes a couple issues; for starters, stun time gets lower thanks to stacking nerfs, so every other sentinel gets less and less value from their abilities. The second is more subjective, but once a killer knows the best way to deal with Guests, more often than not they turn into annoyances at best and walking 35s time extenders at worse. Of course, once there's 4-6 Guests you start running into the issue of not being able to do anything at all, but again I will get back to that.

2) Misconceptions
How many Guest players do you encounter that play hyper aggressive? Or alternatively, overly passive like a survivalist? I run into those way more than Guests who actually know what he's designed around, and that has done damage to the perception of Guest as a whole. I'm sure you've all seen the various Guest main slander floating about on social media and even in game. While I don't condone being an ass to players (generally speaking), I do understand where the frustration comes from. The thing is, I can't really blame either side. The game gives very little info on the way Guest is supposed to be played. Did you know that he has hitbox priority? I do, but not because the game told me. I had to learn that through outside means, namely the wiki. I attribute this to being one of the main reasons you rarely see "useful" Guest players.

3) Balance
Believe it or not, I find Guest to be in a pretty good state right now...when played to his strengths and not like a Shedletsky with setup. His extra health enables you to soak damage from your team, Block has a short cooldown and can at the very least discourage the killer from swinging--which has merit, albeit niche--and Charge...kinda needs a buff, I agree, but it's still decent when used right. Then we get to Punch, and taken at face value I find it to be perfectly reasonable. The issue comes from its requirement of getting a block to use it at all. Otherwise, Punch is fine for its theoretically short cooldown, and Parry is good as it is, if occasionally stubborn to actually use. There's one thing I find to be damning however, which is...

4) Rewards & Feedback
THIS is the main thing that I believe causes a lot of Guest players to play selfishly. There's simply no reward for being the shield to your team. No EXP or money gains unless you get a block or punch/parry, nor do you get any other rewards like healing or anything beyond just taking the damage that was meant for someone else. I admit, I don't really have many ideas on how this could specifically be fixed, but it's still something that should be addressed.

5) Fixing Guest 1337
Now, the main part of this essay: how would I fix Guest's gameplay? I honestly don't think he really needs much, so this should be simple;

A) Put Punch on a regular cooldown, around 35-40 seconds, retaining the current Block interaction by immediately taking Punch off cooldown when blocking an attack. This lets you throw out punches more reliably without offsetting his balance much.

B) Add a passive tab to his description explaining his hitbox priority, and if it isn't there already, that Block makes his hitbox larger. The goal is to make Guest's bodyguard role more obvious to everybody, so this is the first thing I'd want changed.

C) More feedback to being a bodyguard. I'm not sure how to go about that beyond the typical rewards, but it should be something regardless.

D) Block should not gain Punch charges from the Mass Infection melee hitbox or the extra attacks of Gashing Wound. I'm sorry but I just don't find this fair at all, especially since right now a punch is something you have to earn. Especially with 1x, using MI when Guests are around is basically giving them a free parry if they choose to capitalize on it.

6) Conclusion
Guest 1337 is a bodyguard to his team that is frequently played as anything but, due to lack of explanation, rewards, and general misunderstanding of his role in the team. I hope to see these problems fixed sometime in the future so that Guest as a character can finally earn the respect he deserves. Thank you for reading.