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Bad Perk University: Technician
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. You know, I wonder if any new players ever read these posts? And I mean NEW players, like installed the game 30 minutes ago new. They haven’t bought any survivors or killers, so how might they navigate this fascinating and scary world of Dead by Daylight? Allow me to go on a tangent and talk about that.
Unfortunately, a lot of the perks I’d recommend for new players are locked behind paid survivor and killers (thanks devs). Windows of Opportunity is excellent to know where vaults and pallets are, you want that right? Too bad, you need to unlock Kate. Fixated shows you your own scratch marks, letting you know that they are in fact a thing you have to worry about, that’d be good to have, yes? Sorry, you need to buy Nancy, and do it fast, because she’ll be gone in November. Or you could just get it as a generic perk. Visionary to see nearby generators? You gotta get Felix. Rookie Spirit to see regressing generators to fix? You gotta buy Leon. Zanshin Tactics to see where pallets and vault are and see what options the survivors have against you? You need to get Oni. Even perks that aren’t specifically for new players but help overall are locked behind paywalls. Decisive Strike? You need to buy Laurie. BBQ and Chili? You need to buy Bubba. Ruin? You need to unlock Hag. Pop Goes the Weasel? You need to unlock Clown. Lethal Pursuer? You need to buy Nemesis.
Thankfully though, they’re not entirely necessary assuming all players involved are completely new. There are still some options. The OG four survivors have incredibly good perks for new players. Dwight has Bond, an absolute boon for solo players. Claudette has Empathy, which gives incredible information. Meg has Sprint Burst, an easy to understand Exhaustion perk. Jake has Iron Will, an incredibly effective perk in the right hands. Some of the other free survivors have great perks as well. Bill has two amazing perks, Borrowed Time and Unbreakable. David has We’re Gonna Live Forever and Dead Hard, which is a difficult perk to use but incredibly strong when used right. The free killers unfortunately don’t have as much to work with. There are maybe three perks that are worth using as a new player: Enduring, Brutal Strength, and Bloodhound.
Is my tangent done yet? Yes, it is. What was my point? If only there were some other perk that would be good for new players to use, in theory at least. Technician? Oh...oh, I have to talk about this perk now, don’t I? Technician is just a sad perk to me as a Feng player. If you fail a skill check on a generator, a few things happen. First, the generator explosion is prevented, making a little thunk sound in its place that doesn’t trigger a Loud Noise Notification. Second, the generator regresses like it normally would. Third, and worst of all, it applies an extra 3% regression penalty. In addition to this, the range at which repair noises can be heard is reduced by 8m.
So why is this perk bad? While this perk is clearly designed to be used by new players to learn the ropes of skill checks and not be punished so harshly for it, it ironically punishes survivors more in some ways. Losing 13% progress on a generator is immense. Pop Goes the Weasel has some competition it seems. In all seriousness, it’s pretty bad for obvious reasons. A new player using Technician and failing a couple skill checks in a row could end up being a detriment to their team, even more so than usual. But what if you don’t fail skill checks? Then this perk is doing very little for you. That 8m reduced range of repairing noises, the little clicking sound survivors make when they stick their hands in the generator, is the only thing an experienced player might make any use of, and it’s still rather underwhelming. At best a killer might have to walk a bit closer to the generator when patrolling before realizing there’s a survivor on it, but it’s all for nothing if they have information perks like Discordance, BBQ and Chili, Thrilling Tremors, and especially Surveillance. Now, I understand why the extra regression might seem reasonable. Since generators are the survivors’ only objective, there needs to be a real punishment if they fail skill checks with them. From a standard gameplay standpoint, that’s fine. But to have a perk that punishes you further for failing that skill check, from the perspective of a new player trying to learn the game, seems cruel. From the perspective of an experienced player, Technician doesn’t offer enough to be worth using in most cases.
So how do we make the most out of this perk? This is unfortunately a really difficult perk to use effectively, since the one part that matters to an experienced player is the shorter range of repair noises. Thankfully, there are valid reasons to bring Technician as a “just in case” perk. Look, nobody’s perfect. At some point, for one reason or another, you’re going to miss a skill check. Here are some things that Technician can help with. Countering Huntress Lullaby. You already get extra regression from Huntress Lullaby, so what’s 3% more going to do? At the very least you will prevent giving away your location. Use this at your own risk though, miss too many skill checks and you’re going to have to find that totem. Overcharge and Oppression. Both perks give skill checks that are more difficult than people give them credit for. Technician can help with not giving away your location. But now I should talk about how to counteract the extra regression that Technician gives. Any generator oriented perk that gives faster repairs or extra repair progress will help to make up for any extra regression Technician may incur. Prove Thyself, Stake Out, and especially Fast Track. Run these perks alongside Technician, and the extra regression might not hurt as bad.
Closing thoughts, how do we make this perk better? I think Technician is very close to being alright. It was clearly meant to be a beginner perk, and that’s fine. Not every perk has to be usable at every level of play. But that extra regression really stings, and I’m pretty sure is only there so that the perk can have three tiers. Another thing that isn’t great about this perk is that if you have Technician and another survivor doesn’t and you start working on a generator, your repair noises have their range reduced, but not for the other survivor on the same generator. I think it should have the Prove Thyself effect where if you work on a generator, any survivor that works on that generator should also have their repair noises reduced. And to solidify the perk’s status as a beginner perk, I would give it a Bite the Bullet effect, where generator regression on failed skill checks is reduced to 3/2/1%. I doubt experienced players would run Technician that much more if this were the case, so I don’t see why not. Do that, and Feng would have three solid perks. Yes, Lithe and Alert are wonderful perks. I wouldn’t mind Technician being just a bit better to make its siblings proud. Thank you for coming to my lesson, see you next class!
Comments
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Yeah technitian really needs it's downsides removed. The upsides just aren't good enough.
Could be a good perk for new players/players who hate doctor or other skillcheck shenanigans.
Mini rant though
Windows of Oppertunity is NOT a pure new player perk and imo is one of the stronger perks in the game.
Knowing ahead of time how pallets have spawned, if you're in a dead zone or avoid loops where your teammates already dropped the pallet is massive in all levels of play
Really annoyed people still see that as a training wheel perk
Mini rant over
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Windows of Opportunity is an incredible perk, I agree. I was just saying that it's a perk I would recommend to new players as well. Too bad you don't have it unlocked by default.
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What if the perk completely mute Gen noise, Gen working sound, no fail skill check noise...But smaller the skill check by half & no great skill check zone?
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