Too Many Cooldowns - Various Perk Changes Suggestions
Hello! For a while, I have been of the opinion that too many of the recent perks have cooldowns, and judging by my peers and other forum members' posts, I'm not the only one that has this opinion. So, today, I'm going to come up with some suggestions to address the problems that each individual perk that go on cooldown have.
First, killer perks.
Surge is probably one of the most used perks with a cooldown. It's good, but the cooldown doesn't really make sense to have it. It only activates when a survivor is downed, and that's not something a killer can really farm for without the survivors messing up a lot. I propose that the cooldown be reduced to 40/30/20 seconds so that the perk can be used sooner if the killer is playing particularly well.
Zanshin Tactics is a perk for beginners, but it has the issue with depriving these beginners of the information this perk is supposed to provide. I think that the perk should be changed so that there is no cooldown, and the differences between perk tiers becomes 16/20/24 meters of its aura reading.
Blood Echo is a very odd perk to have a cooldown for. Its only function is applying exhaustion to injured survivors when someone is hooked. This is a good effect, but the long cooldown and the fact that survivors can heal each other to nullify the perk's effects makes it not worth the perk slot in almost all cases. The perk will be much more useful if the cooldown is removed, and the differences between perk tiers becomes 35/40/45 seconds of Exhaustion.
Trail of Torment got a really nice buff recently, but since generators no longer stay regressed when at 0%, it has become very situational. For this perk to be more useful and consistent, the cooldown should be reduced to 60/50/40 seconds and the "until the generator stops regressing" condition should be changed to "until a survivor touches the generator".
Dragon's Grip is probably going to be changed within a couple weeks of typing all of this out. Still, I think that the cooldown should start right after kicking the generator OR the cooldown should be reduced to 100/80/60 seconds.
Blood Favour is currently a really bad perk and is probably going to get a buff alongside Dragon's Grip. This needs much more than a cooldown negation. The cooldown needs to be reduced to 25/20/15 seconds or to not exist, and it needs to block every pallet on the map for its duration.
Territorial Imperative is a really bad perk that doesn't do its job well at all. The cooldown needs to be removed, it needs to give you aura reading for the entire duration that the survivor(s) are in the basement, and the differences between perk tiers should change the killer's distance from the basement to be 48/40/32 meters away.
Oppression is the newest perk with a cooldown, and it's mostly fine. I only think that a minor change to make the cooldown 100/80/60 seconds would put the perk in a very comfortable tier.
Okay! Now for survivors:
Quick & Quiet is in a perfect spot with its 20 second cooldown. Well done!
Saboteur is also good, but there is no point to have it go on cooldown when you cancel a sabotage with it. It should only go on cooldown when a sabotage is completed.
Any Means Necessary's cooldown is also fine. Maybe it could use a different kind of buff, like downed pallets aura reading?
Lucky Break. Does this count as a cooldown? Probably not, but I still think it really needs to be addressed and function similarly to how Iron Will does. It needs an infinite duration period, and the differences between tiers should be changed to a 15/10/5 second delay to the perk activating when you get injured.
Red Herring seems to have a cooldown just to give it some difference between ranks. A cooldown reduction won't help it much, but a reduction to a cooldown of 40/30/20 seconds would be nice.
Visionary and Windows of Opportunity are both perks for beginners and should not have a cooldown of any sort. The cooldown for both perks should be removed, and the differences between perks should change the range of the aura reading to 16/24/32 meters for both of them.
Deception and Dance with Me are both perks that get rid of your scratch marks, and that's arguably their main utility. Their cooldowns have felt too long, though, so I think that a cooldown of 50/40/30 seconds would make them a good bit better.
And that's it, I think. I make posts like this in hopes that the devs and balancing team get some ideas from this and it helps them make decisions on these perks.