I'm a bit concerned about No Way Out
Not the current form of the perk, which is fine. Serviceable at best, a bit underwhelming, but so are the majority of perks in the game. But the buffed version rubs me the wrong way...
Increased the base time of the perk to 12 seconds
Increased the bonus time for each token to 6/9/12 seconds
The perk only activates whenever a Survivor interacts with an exit gate for the first time, and you’ll receive a loud noise notification when they do
Starting off: No Way Out is an underwhelming perk, but it's a far cry from the worst the game has to offer. There are dozens of perks that were more deserving of buffs, but this pick can be somewhat excused since it's part of a Trickster buff.
Going into the motivation:
This perk can do quite a bit, but it can also be very inconsistent. If you’re missing a token or two, or if the Survivors are preoccupied when the gates are first powered, it’s possible they’ll completely miss the effect.
Perk effects being missed is part and parcel of a massive chunk of perks on both sides of the isle. There are a ton of perks that are somewhat unlikely to fire or to fire with any relevance. IIRC, Distortion in particular suffers from this. Boosting its consistency is overall all right, but it needs to be balanced with the effect it puts out.
Which brings me to the method.
This is a three-fold buff for a perk that's just not quite there in terms of efficacy. It's a duration increase (20-50%), it is shifted to inconvenience the survivors more, and it gets an additional function in giving the killer bonus intel.
This is sledgehammer balancing and I'm concerned that No Way Out is going to be an extremely overbearing pick for a lot of killers. Not necessarily for Trickster, but good luck trying to open an exit gate against a competent Nurse running this perk.
With the duration increased, it's more likely that survivors will be delayed in opening the gate already, so it does serve to improve the perk's reliability. It's understandable that you may want to shift it onto the point where the survivors first try to open the gate, that's perfectly fine, too. But the duration and the activation shift combined are going to have a multiplicative effect.
With just that, I think No Way Out becomes a very dependable and very powerful perk.
With the loud noise notification on top? I think it becomes a problem.
In part because in the intentional gameplay loop, survivors will be left with no option but to spring this trap, leaving this perk as a very powerful pick with little to no counterplay. With a mild exception for swiffers, since they can coordinate to make the perk have as little impact as possible.
Additionally, this perk feeds off of spawn RNG, because if two gates are close together, the perk is almost guaranteeing a chase.
So what would my suggestion be?
Take it in steps. Ideally, I'd try the activation shift first, then add the duration buff if that is not enough. If that combo still isn't enough to make the perk feel strong enough, then add the loud noise on top.
Just... Don't start with the loud noise. I really think that's going to push it over the top, especially on highly mobile killers like Blight, Nurse, Spirit and Wraith.
Comments
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Please remember this is going to a PTB first, we will be monitoring things closely and changes can be made if necessary.
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