Balance Change to Encourage Diverse Perk Builds

Waffleyumboy

Put simply, replace a survivor perk slot with an ability slot. Give each survivor 3 unique abilities to choose from. Prevent ranked matches from loading with multiple copies of the same survivor (for QoL and immersion).

Some ideas (Vault speed bonuses can't exceed 20%):

Dwight - Manager: You can see a counter in the bottom left of a survivor's icon that keeps track of how much generator progress they have completed. This counter ticks up every 50% progress that survivor does on a generator. The survivor with the least counters (but not you) repairs generators 10% faster while within 8m of you. While you have the most counters generators within 24m of you have their auras revealed to all survivors and regress 50% slower. *I wanted Dwight to have something that helps objectives other than just speed increase. I like how this turned out.*

My Only Friend: *Friends mechanic introduced here. You will see an indicator at the bottom right of a survivor's icon if they are your friend. Become friends with a survivor by doing a total of one health state of healing on them, safely unhooking them, or cooperating with them for 60 seconds. Friendship ends if you unhook them but fail to do it safely.* Allows one Friend. While you have a Friend, both you and your Friend have +7.5% action speed when not unhooking each other, healing each other, or cooperating. Otherwise, you both have +10% action speed. This ability deactivates when your Friend dies. *I'm on the fence on this one, both lore and balance wise. Overall, it turned out underwhelming and exploitable but I don't want to scrap it.*

Promotion: Gains a token each time you hit a Great skill check, to a maximum of 5 tokens. Great skill checks grant +1% progression per token. Loses 2 tokens each time a generator is completed, then you Walk 25% faster per token expended this way for 10 seconds (Walk speed bonuses from this ability can't exceed 100%). *Really a throwaway slot, but at least This is Not Happening will be somewhat useful now.*

Meg - Fierce Streak: After the killer advances in blood lust tier this ability activates for 3 seconds. Getting hit while this ability is active will put you into the Deep Wounds state if you aren't in it already. If you are in Deep Wounds, your timer will instantly lose 10 seconds when this ability activates then the ability will deactivate. *I started out with just giving DH style invulnerability, but I like an Endurance style effect better.*

In Stride: When running, exhausted, being chased, and at least 20% slower than the killer: Gain 10% Haste for 5 seconds then set your Exhaustion to 20 seconds. This ability has a cool down of 90 seconds each time it activates. Can't activate while the killer is performing a basic attack. *I know this hurts low tiers like Legion and Bubba a bit, but I'm proud to have created a balanced "second chance" perk.*

Hurdles Master: Vault 30% faster (Bump the vault limit to 50% during this vault only) and become invulnerable for 1 second after the vault ends. Doesn't recover cool down while Exhausted. This ability has a cool down of 30 seconds each time it activates. *I decided on another Exhaustion perk complement. Really this will only see use in the Q&Q DWM Lithe combo but that's where it belongs.*

Claudette - Herbal Remedies: *Here we introduce the Patched Up state. Basically, Patched Up is Injured but you leave no blood trails and your grunts of pain are reduced by 50%. The survivor retains any healing progress they have when gaining but not losing the Patched Up state. The killer receives no indication that a survivor is Patched Up on their hud. Survivors see the Injured icon with no blood. Getting hit while Patched Up will apply the Deep Wounds state and a 20 second mend timer instead of the Dying state. When the Patched Up state ends, the survivor goes back to being Injured.* Hitting skill checks while healing another survivor will give this ability tokens, 2 for a Good and 3 for a Great. While this ability has 5 or more tokens you can press the active ability button while healing another survivor who has at least 25% healing progress to lose 5 tokens and make that survivor Patched Up for 60 seconds. *I know this is kind of like Autodidact but it has its own charm that I appreciate. Progress required can always increase if needed.*

Compassion: Gain +25% altruistic action speed bonus per injured/dying survivor aura revealed to you. *The first perk in a long line to try and make use of aura reading. This is not spectacular but it's functional.*

Makeshift Bandages: +50% healing speed without a medkit. *Another throwaway slot imo. It might see niche use with Self Care but it's not really worth using outside of that.*

Jake - Survivalist: While the hatch can be seen: you see an indicator in the bottom left of a survivors icon that lights up when the survivor is within 16m of the hatch. Other survivors who have their icon lit can see your aura. You also see special Injured and Healthy icons for survivors holding keys that have a key in the icon's hand and you can see the auras of keys on the ground at a 48m range. *I know keys are slightly unhealthy right now, but they won't always be that way. I can see how this might benefit swf but it benefits solos even more.*

Be Cool: Starts with 1 token and gains a token each time you perform a safe hook rescue. When the killer would see your aura instead this ability loses one token and your aura is hidden for 7 seconds. Other survivors within 32m of you are 90% quieter and see your aura. *A neat little ability to encourage team work and healthy unhooks.*

Hook Bane: Gains a token each time you cleanse a totem. For each token this ability has, sabotage 10% faster and hooks stay broken 10 seconds longer. The auras of unbroken hooks in a 28m range are revealed to you and you can determine how much progress they have by the intensity of their auras. The aura reading range of this ability is increased by 10m for each token it has. *Here's the mandatory sabotage ability for Jake. I know this discounts maps slightly but they were already bogo. More encouragement to cleanse totems is healthy imo.*

Nea - Lay Low: Move while crouching 25% faster and you do not trigger traps while crouching or walking outside the killer's terror radius. *This one's questionable. With UE you can crouch faster than walk and even faster than Fixated. Numbers might need to be knocked down a pinch.*

Tag: Press secondary action to mark an aura directly in front of you that all survivors can see. Maximum of 5 deployed at any time. *Admittedly, I don't know how the buttons will be for ability. This does have more power in swf hands but it's fine because the ability is pretty weak.*

Street Parkour: 15% less fall stagger. Recover Exhaustion at 50% speed while sprinting outside of chase. *Here's something mega controversial. The fall stagger slightly extends chases while the recovery from Exhaustion can happen during chase. I kept the numbers super low so this ability might buy you a little time but it's mostly aesthetic.*

Ace - Coming Up Aces: Gains a token each time a survivor is hooked or unhooks themselves. Completing a chest search while this ability has 7 or more tokens will guarantee an Engineer's toolbox with a Brand New Part then this ability will deactivate. *A little something to encourage luck builds and chest finding builds. Note guaranteed items from abilities take priority over perks.*

Ricochet: This ability activates for 60 seconds after unhooking yourself. While this ability is activated, any time you would go into the Dying state you instead go to the Broken state for 60 seconds unless you're already Broken then the perk deactivates. *More self unhook encouragement that's strong but situational. As a bonus, it can't be cheesed with Deliverance.*

Life's a Treasure: This perk activates after completing a chest search. While activated: Heal other survivors 80% faster (doesn't stack beyond 250% bonus). This perk deactivates when you are hooked. Passive: +10m personal aura reading range bonus, except for Kindred. *Excellent ability for a support style survivor.*

David - Hardened: Gains a token each time the killer attacks while you're in chase, to a maximum of 10 tokens. You take 6% longer to die on hook per token. *A perk to weaken camping that compliments Dead Hard. It's not amazing but at least it's better than Camaraderie.*

Nerves of Steel: Recover from the Dying state 50% faster (does not stack). *A small compliment to No Mither. Another niche ability.*

Strength of Our Bond: Allows you 3 Friends. Passive: You and your Friends all gain 7% Haste for 10 seconds when one of you takes a protection hit. Activates after you and your Friends have taken 3 protection hits. Once activated, the next occasion that would put you into the Dying state from the Injured state is ignored. Does not register hits towards its activation until all 4 survivors have been hooked at least once. *I guess David has 3 niche abilities. This ability would be fun to try but I doubt it's any better than MoM.*

Feng - On the Grind: You repair generators 2.5% faster for each generator that needs to be completed, but with 10% reduced skill check success zones. *Gen speed is always tricky to deal with. I kept the numbers super low to reduce the usefulness of this ability severely. It can still save a ton of time but it's not very oppressive for the killer.*

Hard Carry: Repair generators by yourself and heal yourself 10% faster while more than one survivor is dying, hooked, or dead. *Another ability for the objective focused player. This used to be a worse Resilience but I scrapped that idea.*

Mechanically Obsessed: you become obsessed with one generator. You can see its aura and repair it 12.5% faster, it can't be blocked by the entity and regresses at 50% speed. You repair all other generators 20% slower. When you complete your obsession you gain a new obsession otherwise this ability deactivates. *A fun little idea I had. Encourages interaction which is nice.*

Waffleyumboy

Oops I accidentally posted the incomplete list.

DepressedClownMain

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/115850/balance-change-to-encourage-diverse-perk-builds

Why dont you buff the useless perks? Also, vault boosts cant go over 15 percent, not that it matters