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Bad Perk University: Second Wind

Timeman63
Timeman63 Member Posts: 185
in General Discussions

Hello class, welcome to Bad Perk University! I'll be your professor for today, and we'll be going over the worst perks The Entity has to offer and see how to make the most out of them. Last time I talked about the unsung merits of Camaraderie, why don’t I do something similar for its brother perk: Second Wind. Second Wind is quite an interesting perk. When you heal another survivor for the equivalent of one health state, Second Wind will be active. When this happens, the next time you get unhooked or unhook yourself, you suffer from the Broken status effect for 20 seconds, after which Second Wind will heal you for one health state. If you’re injured, you’ll be healthy. If you have Deep Wound, you’ll instantly Mend. Note that if you already had the Broken status from some other means such as Deliverance or a Killer addon or perk, you’ll have to ride out the entire Broken status for the perk to work. If you go down before the Broken status wears off, then it doesn’t matter.


So why is this perk bad? What makes Second Wind potentially strong is that you essentially automatically heal up after 20 seconds, without the need for a teammate to heal you. Yes, a teammate can heal you faster, 16 seconds or less, if you’re able to heal under the hook, but Second Wind lets both of you run off and do something else. You can go start working on a generator or totem and you’ll be good as new during that time. The problems with the perk mostly come down to its condition. You have to heal the equivalent of one full health state, which is something you may not get to do for one reason or another. You might get hooked before you can heal anyone, or you might be healing someone but get interrupted before you can get one health state off. Worse yet, if the survivor you try to heal has healed themselves or has been healed for even a sliver of health, you won’t get Second Wind ready. I have had Second Wind 99’d so many times trying to use it in a build and it kills me inside each time. So okay, you might get to use the perk once per match on average, or you might just get unlucky and get denied both uses of the perk. It feels bad, but that’s just what happens when you run perks like these. You use Unbreakable despite the risk of never getting slugged because the game changing effect of Unbreakable is undeniable. Second Wind is uniquely frustrating because it feels like it has a condition that’s easily obtainable on paper. But anyone who has used Second Wind in practice can attest to quite the opposite sometimes. I think it is a fair balance for the perk’s effect, but what stings even worse is when you have Second Wind fully charged, you get unhooked and the 20 seconds start ticking down, and then you just get downed quickly again because the killer decided to go after you instead of the unhooker. Second Wind completely thwarted by the forbidden tunneling technique. See, Second Wind kind of suffers from a similar problem as No Mither, in that it’s quite obvious when you’re running it. Maybe it’s not as blatant as No Mither, since the Broken status upon unhooking could also mean Deliverance, but if the Killer sees you get unhooked and sees that you have the Broken status, they immediately know that you have Second Wind, and why wouldn’t they go after you at that point? That’s a free health state given to you if they don’t at least try to pursue you. There’s so much that can go wrong there and the tragedy is that, it’s likely the best you’ve got, since the perk actually used to be worse.


So how do we make the most out of this perk? Thankfully, we’re talking about post buff Second Wind, so there are quite a few things going for us. This perk used to only be charged by healing without a Medkit, something that wasn’t even specified in the description of the perk. Now, you actually can use a Medkit if you feel the need to, which actually transitions well into my point with making Second Wind more consistent. Since the condition is to heal one health state, you’ll want perks that allow you to heal faster, giving you a better chance of filling the perk and less chance of being interrupted. In that vein, any perk that allows you to heal faster is excellent when paired with Second Wind. We’ll Make It, Botany Knowledge, Desperate Measures, you know the drill. In the theme of avoiding interruptions, I would employ a more stealthy playstyle when using Second Wind, since it is critical that you are not the first one to be found and hooked, similar to when using Deliverance. Because of that, stealth perks such as Distortion, Quick and Quiet, or even Calm Spirit are all good complimentary perks for Second Wind. Iron Will is also a strong choice, as expected, but bear in mind that if the Killer managed to injure you already, it means there’s potential of getting denied Second Wind. If you already managed to charge it up beforehand, then no problem, but if not, you’ll run into some issues. While not entirely necessary, Bite the Bullet is excellent for Second Wind, since it allows you to heal in relative peace, allowing you to charge the perk easier. Just be wary of Nurse’s Calling. You might be surprised by this next perk, but I’ve found Autodidact to be a decent pairing with Second Wind. Remember, you have to heal the equivalent of one health state. You don’t necessarily have to finish healing a survivor from injured to healthy or the like. So even if Autodidact regresses healing on the first and second skill checks, you’ll still make progress towards Second Wind. Man, Autodidact. I’ll get around to that perk someday, I really do want to talk about how to make the perk better. It’s worth mentioning at this point that Second Wind has a strange method of filling up. Unlike other perks like Blast Mine or Flashbang where you see the perk icon go from partially red to fully lit, it instead updates after you’ve finished the healing action. I’m not sure if this is an oversight, or a coding workaround of some kind, I wouldn’t know. But I’d like to see this perk changed to behave the same way as those other perks, so you can see in real time how soon you’re about to charge Second Wind.


Now what do you do after being unhooked? Aren’t you still at the mercy of the tunneling killer? Well, there’s a good chance that the survivor unhooking you is using Borrowed Time. It’s not guaranteed, but come on, it’s Borrowed Time. The best thing for you to do in that case is to get hit by the Killer, receive the Deep Wound status and run off. If the killer is dead set on tunneling you, you at least made some distance from them. If they decide to leave you alone afterwards, Second Wind will likely instantly get rid of your Deep Wound by the time you make it to safety. Yes you’re still injured, but it’s better than being dead. If you still manage to be downed by the killer and lose your Second Wind, Unbreakable or Decisive Strike can be a last resort to still get away. Yes you lost Second Wind, but you at least have a contingency plan. It’s interesting that I found Second Wind to have had a relatively even success rate, when all I ever heard was stories of failure. Maybe some perks aren’t for everyone, and that’s perfectly fine.


Closing thoughts, how do we make this perk better? Once again, we already have. The previous version of the perk only activated after 30 seconds of being Broken, along with the other conditions I mentioned before. It was pretty bad, but even then, Second Wind was still serviceable. I didn’t own the perk when it was new, but I imagine if I had employed the strategy that I showed you here, I might still have found success with it. If there is absolutely anything I would change to make the perk just a tad bit better, I’d make the quality of life change I mentioned earlier with the comparison to Blast Mine and Flashbang. It’s just kind of a strange function that I wouldn’t mind being made more consistent. As far as the issue with 99’d Second Wind, maybe you could make it so you only have to heal 90% of a health state? But honestly, it doesn’t really need that, after the buffs, this perk is quite alright. Perks like Second Wind make me appreciate starting this series in the first place. I have such a greater appreciation for perks that make me play the game a little differently and expose me to perks that I wouldn’t have used of my own volition. It also tested my sanity with the absolutely terrible design of *cough* OTHER PERKS, but the journey is worth it I believe. Here’s hoping you’ll continue with me, or join me if you haven’t already. Thank you for coming to my lesson, see you next class!

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