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A list of killer perks and why they're badly designed

SirCracken
SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414
edited August 2020 in General Discussions
I will be excluding all of the meta nonsense, (NOED, PGTW), since that deserves its own post.


Unnerving Presence - Survivors in your terror radius have their skill check trigger chance increased by 10% and skill check size reduced by 60%.

This perk is great against survivors that can't hit skillchecks. If they can, you are actively helping them. So in pretty much all games this perk will only serve to hinder you. It also wasn't changed despite relying on the inconsistency of skill checks, but Ruin was.

This perk is too weak.

Predator - Survivor scratch marks spawn "considerably" closer together.

The effect actually makes it harder to track survivors since it has a hidden nerf of not spawning survivor scratch marks on walls anymore. Meaning you have to keep your eyes glued to the ground if you want to track people.

This perk is counter productive.

Bloodhound - Survivor blood stains glow brightly and stay for 4 more seconds.

Although useful in certain situations if you happen to lose a survivor, the tracking benefit from this perk is very minor. Often times survivor blood will be obscured by grass or other obstacles in most maps, making it useless.

This perk is too weak.

Thanatophobia - For each injured survivor, repairing, healing and sabotage speeds are decreased by 4%.

For some reason sabotaging is still affected even though it now only takes 2.5 seconds or less. But aside from that, the action speed penalty to pathetically low. If everyone is injured, solo gen repairs are extended by a mere 12 seconds. That's assuming that no one helps or heals up. I'm not even going to mention the heal times since they're almost unnoticeable. I really think this perk should only debuff 1 action significantly rather than slightly reduce several.

This perk is too weak.

Dying Light - Your obsession has their healing and unhook speed increased by 33%. Every time you hook non-obsession, all non-obsessions receive a 3% debuff to repairing, healing, and sabotage speeds.

Again with the debuff to sabotage, these perks really need updating. Anyhow, if you've actually managed to hook enough people to get a decent debuff amount you've most likely already won the game. If anything, giving a survivor extra heal speed will hurt you in the long run since they aren't even affected by the debuff.

This perk is too weak.

Hex: The Third Seal - Hitting a survivor with a basic attack will inflict them with blindness for as long as this totem is standing.

A weak effect that's forced into basic hits for some reason. SWF completely negate the effect and merely competent teams won't struggle with it. There's plenty of other Hexes that are stronger than this. And on top of that, if anyone is running Soul Guard you've basically given them permanent unbreakable.

This perk is too weak.

Overwhelming Presence - Survivors within your terror radius have their item consumption rates increased by 100%.

Even before the changes to med-kits and toolboxes this perk was bad. Now it's borderline useless. At best it soft-counters flashlight blinds at pallets. But little beyond that. Just use Franklin's instead.

This perk is too weak.

Beast of Prey - Your actions in the hunting category earn you 50% more bloodpoints. After getting bloodlust, you lose your red stain and receive the undetectable status effect until you lose bloodlust.

Apart from farming builds, there's no reason to run this perk. Survivors in a chase still hear chase music. Despite not being in your terror radius. And removing your red stain would be useful if moon walking to hide it wasn't already a strategy in the game.

This perk is far too weak.

Territorial Imperative - Survivors that enter the basement while you are at least 32 meters will have their aura revealed to you for 3 seconds. This triggers a 20 second cooldown.

This perk can find some use on killers that can quickly reach the basement. But is very useless on anyone else. It also has a cooldown 20 for some reason. Because knowing when people enter the basement in less than 20 second intervals is too much I guess.

This perk is too weak.

Hex: Huntress Lullaby - After hooking a survivor, gain a token, up to 5. Each token decreases the time between a skillcheck alert is heard before appearing, with skillchecks not making any noise at 5 tokens. Failed skillchecks regress 6% more.

Oh look, another perk that relies on survivors getting skillchecks that was not changed after Ruin's nerf. Except that this one can be permanently removed from the game. The most this perk can do is waste survivors time if they go searching for it. Since keeping it up can have little to no effect on survivors if they know how to hit skillchecks.

This perk is too weak and should not be a hex.

Fire Up - For every completed generator, gain a 4% increase to breaking, vaulting, and picking up and dropping survivors.

The numbers are simply too small. By the time you have a decent buff either most, or all of the generators will be done. Rendering the effect not nearly has good as stopping the gens from being done in the first place.

This perk is too weak.

Remember Me - Every time you hit the obsession with a basic attack, the exit gates must be opened by an extra 4 seconds. Up to 16 seconds. The obsession is not affected by the extra time.

Before this perk got it's max duration slice in half it was decent. Now it's worthless. Catching someone at a gate and chasing them often just leads to other survivors coming to open the gate while you chase them. The devs didn't even bother to remove the obsession completely ignoring its effects. Just run Bloodwarden instead.

This perk is too situational and too weak.

Hangman's Trick - Get a notification when a survivor starts sabotaging a hook. While carrying a survivor, you see the auras of any other survivors within 6 meters of a hook.

The former effect is useless since sabotaging has a distinct animation and is so quick. You'll only find it in use if someone starts sabotaging a hook early that's also out of sight as you go towards it. The latter effect used to be actually useful in the ptb. But like all good things in this game, it got nerfed for no reason.

This perk is too weak.

Coulrophobia - Survivors within your terror radius heal 50% slower.

This perk can be very useful if you're snowballing by downing survivors and they're trying to get themselves back up. But often times survivors will instinctively split up after seeing the debuff. Which is what they should be doing anyway. It's better to run Nurses and ambush people healing than encourage them to safely heal away from you.

This perk is too situational.

Mad Grit - You suffer no cooldown from missed attacks while carrying a survivor. Successful attacks pause a carried survivors wiggle timer by 4 seconds.

Highly situational. It can turn a 4 man suicide squad into a makeshift morgue. Or it can never come into effect a single time in an entire game. It's often the latter.

This perk is too situational.

Iron Maiden - You interact with lockers 50% faster. Survivors that exit lockers are exposed for 15 seconds and reveal their location.

On Huntress and Doctor this perk is amazing. On anyone else it's a soft counter to Head On. But if either are not involved in a game, this perk has no use.

This perk is too situational.

I'm All Ears - After a survivor performs a rushed action within 48 meters of you, you see their aura for 6 seconds. After this a 40 second cooldown starts.

A very useful perk that all killers can benefit from. But for some reason it has a cooldown of 40 whole seconds! That's just 20 seconds less than MYC which allows you to insta-down people. Wallhacks for 6 seconds is not worthy of a 40 second cooldown. It needs to be shorter.

This perk has an unnecessarily long cooldown.

Thrilling Tremors - After picking up a survivor, all generators not being repaired will be shown with a white aura and blocked for 16 seconds. After this a 60 second cooldown starts.

Same problem as before. A good perk, but its cooldown is absurdly long. Cutting it down to 30-40 seconds is more than reasonable.

This perk has an unnecessarily long cooldown.

Furtive Chase - Each time your obsession is hooked, gain a token, up to 4. Each token decreases your terror radius while in a chase by 4 meters. If your obsession is saved from a hook, the rescuer becomes your obsession.

The gimmick of switching around the obsession each unhook is neat, but the perk's former effect is pathetic. Why would you ever need a smaller terror radius when you're already in a chase? It also removes all of your tokens when your obsession dies, for some reason.

This perk is far too weak.

Surge - After downing a survivor with a basic attack, all non-regressing generators within 32 meters will lose 8% progress and start regressing. Doing this starts a 40 second cooldown.

You know PGTW? You know how all you need to do is hook someone then kick a gen? How would you like to regress 1/3 of the progress of that but only on basic attacks every 40 seconds? This perk has far too many requirements to be useful and too little benefit when it works.

This perk is too situational and too weak.

Mindbreaker - Survivors repairing generators under 50% are exhausted for as long as they repair and 3 seconds after they stop.

Man, it's a good thing gens take so long to complete or this perk would be even more useless than it is. Gens don't take long to complete and exhausting survivors for 3 seconds is extremely weak.

This perk is pathetically weak.

Cruel Confinement Limits - Whenever a generator is completed, all windows within a 24 meter radius are blocked for 30 seconds.

A laughably weak effect that is both highly situational and unlikely to ever be useful in the first place. It should trigger based on the killer's location, not the gen's, and also block pallets. And they should change the name back, it was honestly way better.

This perk is the worst killer perk in the game. Sacrificial Shrine has got nothing on this.

Zashin Tactics - You see the auras of pallets, windows and breakable walls within a 24 meter range. Injuring a survivor puts this perk on cooldown for 30 seconds.

Another decent perk that has a cooldown for no fathomable reason. It can't even be used for mind games most of the time since the cooldown is triggered not by breaking a pallet or vaulting a window, but by hitting a survivor. It's asinine.

This perk has an unnecessary cooldown.

Blood Echo - After hooking a survivor, all injured survivors will bleed more often until healed, and become exhausted for 45 seconds. Triggering this effect starts a 60 second cooldown.

This perk has far too many requirements. Injure people, down someone else, hook them, then chase the people who you injured earlier. Oh, and don't do this again within 60 seconds. Out of all the cooldown perks in the game, this one is by far the most arbitrary.

This perk has an unnecessary cooldown.

Gearhead - After hitting a survivor 2 times with a basic attack, any survivor that gets a good skill check while completing a generator in the next 30 seconds will have it highlighted in yellow.

Basic attack? Check. Relies on skillchecks? Check. Has an absurd activation requirement? Check. All it needs is a cooldown and I'll have won perk design bingo. Can you even believe this perk was nerfed from the ptb?

This perk is absolutely. Undoubtedly. Pathetic.

Dead Man's Switch - After hooking your obsession, any survivor who stops working on a generator within the next 45 seconds will have it blocked for the remaining duration. Blocked generators have their auras turn white.

Super situational and killer dependent. Freddy and potentially Demo get easy value from this by teleporting right to gens. Everyone else has to travel to gens manually or use their power for extra distance. And if that distance is across the map and you have no mobility the perk loses all value.

This perk is too weak and situational.

Hex: Retribution - Any survivor that cleanses a dull totem will become oblivious for 45 seconds. If a hex totem is cleansed, including this one, all survivors are revealed for 10 seconds.

If the perk told you whenever a dull totem was cleansed it might be useful. But using this on its own, especially without Haunted Grounds, is not advised. The aura reading is neat but too limited to take up and entire perk slot when there are plenty of alternatives that aren't permanently removed from the game.

This perk is too weak.

Forced Penance - Whenever a survivor takes a protection hit, they become broken for 60 seconds.

Useless incarnate. If you chase the broken survivor, then making them broken only stops them from popping styptic agents and nothing more. If you chase the survivor that was protected, then the other survivor will just do gens until the timer runs out and then heal. There is no reason, on any killer, to run this perk.

This perk is too weak and too situational not useful in any situation.

Trail of Torment - After kicking a generator, you are undetectable for the next 16 seconds. During this time the generator is highlighted yellow for all survivors and starts a 60 second cooldown.

Oxymoron, the perk. No other stealth perk in the game tells survivors that you are using it except this one. Maybe it's because doing so would completely negate the point of using a S T E A L T H perk? Nah. The survivors wouldn't know what was going on.

This perk is astoundingly weak and should not be run instead of Dark Devotion, Tinkerer, every other stealth perk in the game.

Post edited by SirCracken on
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Comments

  • Zaitsev
    Zaitsev Member Posts: 1,285

    Beast of Prey has excellent synergy with the Outdoor Security Camera wym

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I'll admit that it's a fun gimmick build. But in terms of usefulness, you should just 99% people and pop them before the down so you can save the perk slot that BOP would have otherwise taken up.

    What do you think of the rest of the list btw?

  • Zaitsev
    Zaitsev Member Posts: 1,285

    Its a very comprehensive and well written list, addressing each perks "upsides" and downsides.

    And for the record, I was not being serious when I said Beast of Prey had good synergy with anything.

  • yobuddd
    yobuddd Member Posts: 2,259

    Fully agree on everything here except MindBreaker. It may only have a 3 second exhaustion, but when you chase them off the gen, they typically RUN away, so the exhaustion doesn’t reduce as long as they’re running. This can be enough for them to miss their critical sprint burst, dead hard, or lithe when they need it most. Once they realize what’s going on, they still have to stop running mid-chase to cancel the effect.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    If you sneak up on a survivor on a gen and they don't have any breathing room during the chase, then yes. But all it takes is a few idle seconds before or after dropping a pallet to make the exhaustion go away.

  • APoipleTurtle
    APoipleTurtle Member Posts: 1,274

    It's a pretty solid list of a bunch of underwhelming killer perks.

    Though I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how you think these perks could be buffed to make them better/more fun (excluding the ones that only need shorter cooldowns such as Thrilling Tremors and I'm All Ears).

  • Mozzie
    Mozzie Member Posts: 618

    I'd agree with all you wrote with the exception of Thana, I think it's in a pretty decent place. Get lot's of play by streamers and red rankers. Very good on killers such as Plague. It also has actual synergy with nurses calling, which is bizarre because almost none of the killer perks actually feel like they have decent synergy. They did a goob job when they made nurse. Omni was too powerful but IMO she got overrated a lot.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    Just off the top of my head:

    • Predator should make scratch marks turn blue the older they become and show the direction that the survivor was running at the time. It also should not prevent scratch marks from forming on walls.
    • Forced Penance should act similarly to MoM, but usable. After 2 protection hits, hitting a survivor will insta-down them.
    • Hex: The Third Seal should make survivors oblivious.

    Are there any specific perks you'd like changed?

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I guess having a more-or-less permanently broken survivor team with Plague or Legion can make it decent. But the action speed penalty is still very low.

    I don't blame a lot of streamers for using it since it seems good on the surface, but not so much in an actual game.

  • Dustin
    Dustin Member Posts: 2,321
    edited August 2020

    Regarding Cruel Limits I really want the perk to be good but I'm conflicted on what it should do. You pretty much need to pair it with something like Tinkerer to do anything and at that point is Cruel Confinement even doing anything for you. It's also very map dependent.

    One of two things I'd like to see tested for the perk.

    Either

    When a generator is completed all vault locations within 32 / 44 / 56 meters are blocked for 60 seconds

    OR

    Cruel Limits now affects pallet locations meaning the entity will block off any pathways where a pallet is for that duration.

    OR

    Survivors receive a debuff and if they were within 16 meters of a completed generator all vault locations they are nearby will be blocked for a duration of 60 seconds. Essentially a bamboozle that follows the survivor.

    Personally and ideally I'd like Cruel Limits / Cruel Confinement to be as so.

    Your ties to the otherworldly manifest when your prey attempts to get away.

    Each time a Generator is repaired, all Windows, Pallets and Vault Locations within a radius of 28 / 32 / 36 from the completed Generator are blocked for all survivors for the next 40 seconds.

    The main changes is instead of the time scaling and the range being static instead the time is static and the range scales. The big issue with this is most of the time it's too situational because when a generator is completed usually the survivor leaves the area anyway and it's also FAR too map dependent. This would make it more reliable overall as both the time and range are increased. It can still only proc 5 times because only 5 generators can be completed.

    I'd argue that it should work at pallet locations whether the pallet is thrown or not but again that part is debatable. It's still a weak perk no matter what because think of it this way. Even if it blocked all pallets so you can't even throw them likely the first time it procs it will be a dead give away to the survivors because the killer will be chasing someone else. Usually 2 gens proc by the time the first chase ends unless the survivor messes up. So in reality you're only getting 2-3 uses out of this perk tops. It needs a bigger range to be consistently decent and worth picking up. Even if it had a range and duration increase and also affected pallet drops it would still be a bad perk. Because again it relies too much on your positioning and being lucky.

    Admittedly I'm not really sure I agree with killer location but at the same time it's a better buff than this perk staying as is. It just doesn't seem like it would be what BHVR intended for this perk to do. Then again it's doing nothing now so..


    Regarding Predator

    What if Predator allowed you to see scratchmarks through surfaces within 12 meters? That way you can see when someone decides to leg it behind cover. Keep the current part of Predator where it brings scratchmarks together but also give the scratchmarks visibility through walls when close to them.

  • OldHunterLight
    OldHunterLight Member Posts: 3,001

    Doesn't coulrophobia make healing slower? For the rest I agree though.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    It does. But unless the survivors are dumb they won't heal within your terror radius, and rather go to a safe distance and then heal.

    The only reason they would commit to a heal was if they the killer was getting downs very quickly and slugging. Meaning the only way they could help up the downed survivors was likely in the killer's terror radius.

  • malatruse
    malatruse Member Posts: 784

    The usefulness of Thana in't just to slow down gen speed, but to scare survivors into hopping off a gen to heal, and their heal time is also slowed down. I guess it's more of a useful perk at lower ranks, whereas more experienced survivors might hop back on gens instead.

    As for Retribution, if you run it with Thrill of the Hunt, you'll either know where survivors are cleansing or have them revealed. You could also run it with Haunted Ground like you mentioned. I think half the power of retribution is the threat of it, though. I actively avoid cleansing vs deathslinger out of fear of Retribution.

  • OldHunterLight
    OldHunterLight Member Posts: 3,001

    I meant that on your description of the perk above says that it heals faster sorry for not explaining what I meant.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I'd rather it block all windows for 30 seconds and destroy all dropped pallets within 18 meters of the killer when a generator is popped.

  • Dustin
    Dustin Member Posts: 2,321
    edited August 2020

    I like that as well. My whole issue with this perk is maps are not accommodating to it at all. This perk can only proc 5 times but it has such a forgiving downside to survivors considering it takes a perk slot. It's either not many windows or vault spots will be blocked by the generator that is completed or by the time the killer gets there survivors are gone and it's such a short range it won't affect useful areas. Alternatively by the time you get there the effect has worn off.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    Ahhhh. I understand you.

    I just corrected it. Thanks for pointing it out.

  • OldHunterLight
    OldHunterLight Member Posts: 3,001

    No problem, I agree with everything though, most perks are either too situational or have a cooldown that isn't needed.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    Pretty much. Higher skilled survivors, (sometimes higher ranked by rank is meaningless now), rarely waste time healing and just do gens.

    My main problem with retribution is that its a hex perk that its weak if used by itself. A perk that can be permanently removed from the game should not be weak unless combo'ed with other perks that can also be permanently removed.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    Forced Penance can give a surprisingly large amount of value. Specifically it instantly gives the maximum amount of anti-heal value possible for that 60 seconds.

    Let me explain:

    • Anti-heal perks only come into play if the Survivor wants to heal. And a good Survivor (we don't care about bad Survivors) will only heal if doing so is worth the time it takes to do so
    • Since Survivors do heal when no healing or anti-healing perks are in play, that means that in general 32 seconds on a gen isn't worth as much as a health state, since it takes 32 seconds of gen time to heal (16 seconds * 2 Survivors = 32 seconds).
    • Most anti-heal perks increase this value, so obviously the more time spent healing then the more value you get right? Not quite, because:
    • If a Survivor chooses not to heal when they otherwise would, that means you just got the most value possible from anti-heal perks. Any further slowdown is irrelevant because they aren't taking the slowed action, however any less slowdown is also less value because if they slowdown is small enough for them to go through with the heal, then that means the time spent is still worth it compared to just completing the gen, meaning that healing is still preferable.
    • By breaking the Survivor you've forced them to not heal. This means you've effectively slowed their healing speed by exactly enough to convince them not to heal, whatever number that happens to be. As I've previously established this is the most value you can possibly get out of an anti-heal perk

    So all of this is to say, broken is the best anti-heal method possible and if you don't value broken then that means you aren't running a build that cares about anti-heal.

    That said there is still the OTHER part of the perk, specifically it's prerequisite of a protection hit.

    This is also fine. A protection hit isn't nearly as situational as you'd think, even if the Survivors aren't going out of their way to take them. This is because sooner or later they have to unhook each other. And hitting a Survivor while they are unhooking is a protection hit, and if the other Survivor body blocks with BT then that's 2 protection hits. But even if they don't it's not rare for a Survivor to unhook with you nearby.

    There's also Survivors healing each other, you hit the healer and they become broken.

    Injured Survivor works with a healthy one on a gen? Hit the healthy one and bam, broken.

    The great thing about protection hits however is that the timing is also when the effect is at it's most value. You don't care about anti-heal if you are going to hit a Survivor and then down them. And a Survivor that just took a protection hit is the most likely Survivor for you to not go for a followup against. After all you have a 2nd injured Survivor to chase right there so there is no time wasted by just continuing to chase them. And the rare time someone body blocks the hook they will likely be long gone by the time you actually hook the person, so chasing them would be tricky too.

    Anyways, the real trick with the perk though comes down to the Killer you run it on. There isn't much point in running the perk on a Killer that doesn't value anti-heal. Max value on those Killers doesn't say much. What you want is to play a Killer that Survivors would really want to heal against as much as possible.

    That means Oni, that means Nurse and Spirit. But most of all, that means Stealth Killers. The Stealth Killers are by far the best Forced Penance users. They can force protection hits the best by ambushing grouped Survivors as I mentioned above, they really like hit and run playstyles and as a result staying injured against a stealth Killer is an awful idea and thus they get a ton of value out of this perk.

    The build I use this on is the following:

    Ghostface

    Forced Penance - just explained

    Whispers - helps me pinpoint Survivors if they try to go immersed, which they sometimes do to wait out thrilling, and saves time patrolling which is very important.

    Surge - The perk is only good on Ghostface because the way he downs makes all of the prerequisites met pretty much every down. But it helps snowball and saves time kicking gens which is important

    Thrilling Tremors - Forces the broken Survivors to not complete gens for awhile and pinpoints them if they try. Either way a big win for me, much more value than normal

    I get a lot of value out of all 4 perks each match and I get the most value against the hardest teams too.

  • MeltingPenguins
    MeltingPenguins Member Posts: 3,742

    I think with a lot of 'post-nurse' or even 'post-huntress' killers the problem lies within their perks becoming a bit of bootleg versions of older perks, often to go with the backstory.

    Take Gearhead as example:

    It's clear what they were going for here with Caleb, but by all means, with his backstory it should rather have been some odd mix of tinkerer and discordance.

    Suvivor perks have the same issue

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    Oh and to verify I'm actually getting value out of my build, I've faced several streamers while playing and made sure to watch their vods each time.

    Sure enough each time I had at least 1 if not several moments where the streamer was broken and waiting in front of a blocked gen or just running around because they realized they couldn't heal like they wanted to, or have them want to heal, be unable to and thus work on a gen, and then get jumpscared by me and immediately downed because working on a gen injured against ghostface = death.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    The main problem I have with this is that good survivors won't bother healing at all, even against stealth killers. All they need to do is run spinechill and remember where the nearest loop is. The time spent not healing, although it might be advantageous since the survivor is more vulnerable, is just converted into time spent on gens. The thing that killers don't want survivors to do.

    It's why I listed the perk as being so bad. Sloppy Butcher and Killer add-ons that apply mangled do a far better job at wasting survivors time since if they do decide to heal it will always be longer than usual. But with FP, not only is procc'ing much harder than simply injuring someone but it doesn't even slow survivors down. If anything, it indirectly speeds up gen progress.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I believe you. But I think having to create a specific build on certain killers just to make a perk worthwhile only cements how poorly designed it is.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    I would absolutely rather a Survivor hop on a gen than heal. I do not run anti-heal perks to slow down gens, there are other perks for that purpose. I run anti-heal perks so that the Survivors don't heal.

    A Survivor that doesn't bother healing in general isn't going to be effected by any anti-healing perk regardless of strength. But they are also going to be easy pickings for me. Even spinechill users, because they will often run into me on accident since while they know IF I'm coming they don't know from where. Not always, but enough.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    If the map is open, good luck getting any pressure with survivors that solely focus on gens and don't heal. If it's on Hawkin's or Lery's then staying injured is generally a bad idea. But otherwise it's far more efficient to just have all survivors run Adrenaline and focus on gens.

    That's also why I'm not a fan of anti-heal perks. Any perk that is focused on survivors healing will never be has useful as a perk that slows down gens. Especially since the no-heal meta is a thing.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    Pretty much. Somewhere along the line the devs got afraid of making good perks and resorted to recreating old perks. Now with 3 extra conditions before they can be used.

    Sometimes I wonder if they mistake the number of conditions a perk has as a measuring system for how good it is.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    Oh yeah, that's another great thing about forced penance. It hard counters adrenaline and any other instant-heal perk. Sometimes people run inner strength which also counters most instant heal perks. But I pretty much never have to deal with Adrenaline with this build.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    How many times have you manged to get FP to procc in time for the last gen to pop?

  • MeltingPenguins
    MeltingPenguins Member Posts: 3,742

    This raises a question:


    Would the community widely mind if some perks would become unteachable as they are deeply tied into the characters backstory?

    Like, Lullaby is something Anna could teach the other killers (assuming they do interact), but Caleb couldn't really teach anyone but maybe Amanda and Max Gearhead.

    Same with the Survivors. Claudette could of course teach the others self-care, but laurie couldn't teach others OoO.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    Almost never.

    My games with this build rarely get to the last gen poping so obviously FP can't procc if everyone is dead.

    But if we ignore that for the sake of the question then in most of my matches I'm able to have at least 1 person broken at pretty much all times after the first hook, like I said a protection hit is an easy condition.

    Right before the last gen pops is actually the easiest time to proc the perk. Survivors tend to group up to complete the last gen, so I can just walk up and start hitting them and can get a broken Survivors by the time the scatter.

    The other perks are actually surprisingly effective at holding the last gen. Surge's explosion has the effect of preventing repairs for a brief moment in addition to the flat regression, which when multiple Survivors are working on a gen is actually extremely clutch. And then Thrilling Tremors means I can go for a hook without worrying about another Survivor rushing the last gen while I'm carrying them. So I can often get everyone broken while holding a 3 gen and still getting hooks at the same time due to a combination of these factors.

    I even had one particularly memorable game where I had 4 adrenaline in the game but all 4 Survivors were broken in time for the last gen. That particular scenario was only a one off, but still. It's not rare to block an adrenaline when applicable.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    People would flock to the character with the most powerful perks.

    Survivors would leave Claudette but start using Meg, Bill, and Laurie in droves. Most killer's would be indirectly nerfed and the meta would stagnate even more.

    But if we're just talking lore, most killers would probably try to kill each other on sight. Never mind teaching each other their skills.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    @SirCracken here's a little experiment I want you to do.

    Next time you play the game as Killer keep track of how many times Survivors heal per game. You don't have to do anything special, just count each time they heal regardless of the method. Picking up slugs doesn't count btw.

    And if you play Survivor, make a note of when you heal yourself and why. Again, include heals from perks.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I find it hard to believe all this can be consistently pulled off unless the survivors make loads of mistakes during the game.

    I'd like to see footage of that 4-blocked-Adrenaline game though. Sounds hilarious.

  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I will do this. I'm at work atm but I need to hop onto dbd later anyway to record some footage for a video. During this I will keep track of the heals and get back to you later.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807

    XD I wish. Unfortunately I don't record my games. To be honest I only remember it happened because it was an unlikely series of events, it's not like I'm getting THAT much value most of the time.

    Like I said most of the time the last gen doesn't even pop and while I get a disproportionate amount of proccs right at the end it's usually closer to 2 maybe 3 at once rather than all 4. But yes it was hilarious when it happened. I cracked up when I realized they all had adrenaline.

  • NuclearBurrito
    NuclearBurrito Member Posts: 6,807
    edited August 2020

    Just for the record, my last few PLAGUE games have had no less than 6 heals each.

    Yes, Plague games. No it didn't go well for the Survivors. I have no idea why they were cleansing so much, it didn't even take long for them to be sick again. I wasn't even running thana.

  • Nameless
    Nameless Member Posts: 869
    edited August 2020

    The cooldown on perks that already have requirements like Blood Echo and Surge really just kills these perks... I really hope they look into these cooldowns on niche perks

    Post edited by Nameless on
  • ZephanUnbound
    ZephanUnbound Member Posts: 227
    edited August 2020

    It baffles me how there are so many weak killer and survivor perks in this game. If you ask me, buffing some of these weak perks should be high priority for BHVR so that we don't see the same boring handful of top tier perks over and over again.

  • bjorksnas
    bjorksnas Member Posts: 5,700

    You know what else has excellent synergy with the outdoor security camera, being undetectable from your power ???

  • PerkyPerky
    PerkyPerky Member Posts: 347

    Good detailed post, thanks for this.

  • Dsalter
    Dsalter Member Posts: 239

    with hangmans trick i wanted it to work as a reverse BBQ and Chilli where it reveals survivors within the 38 metre range of the hook for 4 seconds. for 12 seconds any survivor within 10 metres of the hooked survivor suffer from the exposed status.

    the point i though was it was ment to discourage rush and swarm unhooking so that you can get alittle bit of breathing room just after a hook and buying yourself 12 seconds gap where you can use it to prep, reload, punish a borrowed timer. etc.

  • zacattak48
    zacattak48 Member Posts: 100

    I agree with your whole list. It would be nice for every perk to be viable. A small qol change to these perks to make them a little stronger would be awesome.

  • calem
    calem Member Posts: 533

    I'm gonna disagree with you on a few perks, and explain why:

    Hex: The Third Seal

    The only issue this one has is the fact that once it's cleansed, it's gone forever. I'm sure we've all had a few games where we can't find Hex: TTS and it's absolute chaos. Slugs are everywhere but you can't find them, someone's dying on their first hook, etc. I think a solution to this perk would be getting rid of it's Hex requirement and making only the last 2/3 survivors you have hit. Adding an Oblivious status like you suggested earlier I think is overkill and would make this way too strong while it's active.

    Coulrophobia

    While I agree it's very situational, we need SOME niche perks in the game. And I think Coulrophobia is useful enough to keep it's spot. It works wonders on a big TR Doc build I like to use (Coulrophobia / Distressing / Sloppy Butcher / Thanatophobia and double Calm add-ons), especially on small maps. But overall, while it may seem useless in normal gameplay, it serves a good niche spot that I think we don't need to change.

    Iron Maiden

    You said it's good on Huntress and Doc (I agree, I play those 2 killers a lot), but I think it's way more useful than you're making it out to be. For starters, I like to use it on Bubba (more so after the buff than before) because survivors often try and go in lockers when your chainsaw is coming for them. Iron Maiden then lets you get maybe 2 max instadowns with your M1 if the survivors aren't potatoes. Plus, it can force them to not run into the locker at later stages of the game, letting you chainsaw them. Other than those 3 killers, I like it's anti-Head On niche. I've made surprising amount of use in that certain situation (survivors like to run Head On cause it's FUN). It also gives information if they hide in lockers to avoid BBQ.

    Thrilling Tremors

    This perk is seeing a lot of use in top tier play and in competitive DBD. The cooldown is fine in my opinion, any less and it's overpowered. I'd trade in BBQ for Thrilling any day of the week if I didn't need the bloodpoints from BBQ. This perk isn't countered by lockers, Distortion, being too close, or new auras being terrible.

    Surge

    I feel like so many undervalue Surge. I LOVE it. It's super underrated. I think on it's own, yeah it's not the greatest. The regression isn't much and it's only basic attacks. BUT, if you use it in tandem with something like Ruin and/or Surveillance, Surge gets great value. With Ruin active, you get an extra 8% regression on top of the 200% from Ruin. With Surveillance, you don't have to worry about kicking the gen for information. Also, for a bit of fun, pick Doctor and go to The Game. Use Surge, Nemesis, Dead Man's Switch and Distressing. Fun and niche build. Nemesis lets you hook your obsession way more frequently for Dead Man's Switch value, Surge forces survivors near you off gens, Distressing for the larger TR Static Blast to get people off gens for DMS value.

    Hex: Retribution

    Again, I think this perk is underrated and I love it. On it's own, it seems like it does nothing (although the Oblivious from dull totems shouldn't be underestimated). But used in conjunction with other Hex perks, this one is amazing. One of my favourite combos is Ruin / Haunted Grounds / Retribution. 50% of the time, they'll cleanse Haunted Grounds and now you see where everyone is for 10 seconds. It's not too hard to get at least 2 instadowns from that. 25% you'll just get free info where everyone is, and the other 25% you'll lose Ruin. That kind of information shouldn't be laughed at. Obviously this perk was made to go with other Hex perks, and that's where it's the strongest.

    I respect your opinions though and I love the effort you put into this post. I would love to see weak perks buffed because I am sick of the boring snooze-fest that is the current DBD meta. Pop, Corrupt, BBQ and X perk every game from killers, and DS, Unbreakable, Dead Hard, Borrowed Time every game from survivors.

  • GreyBigfoot
    GreyBigfoot Member Posts: 954
    edited August 2020

    I got Adept Deathslinger today thanks to the new MMR giving me worse survivors, and I'm very glad I never have to use Gearhead again.

    I think Gearhead would be useable if it lasted forever until the survivor(s) you hit (from the 2 basic attack requirement) were back to the healthy state. Shame that it has such a cool perk icon and name, despite being a pitiful 30 seconds.

    Right now, Gearhead is just a worse version of Ruin + Surveillance.

    edit: I didn’t realize how bad of an idea that was until now, because of potential tunneling and stuff, but Gearhead still needs a hearty buff

    Post edited by GreyBigfoot on
  • SirCracken
    SirCracken Member Posts: 1,414

    I wholeheartedly agree with your concluding statement. So many perks on both sides could really use a buff or tweak. Then maybe the meta that's been lingering around for over 3 years now would finally change.

  • D_Orien
    D_Orien Member Posts: 115

    They keep bringing out useless [BAD WORD] perks. What are they doing, playing with themselves to DBD cartoon xxx!