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Reasonable Changes to Dead Hard
We all know that DH is a David King exhaustion perk that is super strong in all levels of the game. The exhaustion perks are all uniform in duration of exhaustion. I think this is a fundamental flaw in the design of exhaustion perks in general, since the risk reward of the exhaustion perks are different between perks.
There's no argument that DH is meta and extremely strong. And I think the conditions required to use the perk should come into question. I have a few proposed changes that will nerf it but hopefully in a reasonable way.
First. Increase the exhaustion by 30 sec. I mentioned above that all exhaustion perks have the same cooldown time which I believe is a flaw in design. (Ex. A person running the 100m sprint wont be as exhausted as someone who just finished a marathon or iron man) Essentially increasing the exhaustion to reflect the usefulness of the perk.
Second suggestion. Since DH has minimal cohesion with David's other teachable perks, change the conditions required to use DH. Now, Im not suggesting that DH be changed so that a healthy survivor can use it, no that would be too strong. Instead, require a protection hit or safe unhook to activate the perk. Davids lore is mostly about altruism, so have his perks reflect that style of play. The perk would not use tokens (Only one activation at a time) but you'd be able to use it for an indefinite amount of time. This would now allow DH to be used with a play style instead of being a crutch.
Alternatively, after taking a protection hit, DH activates for 120sec, in that time would a survivor be able to use the perk for a moderate amount of time.
Ex. Teammate A is injured/ hooked and you safety unhook them. DH activates. You also take a protection hit. You do not gain an additional stack (Time resets) you may use dead hard. DH deactivates until you re-activate it.
The purpose of these proposals is it add a challenge. Since other perks require an activation or condition to being used, why not add a condition to DH. Yes, being injured is a condition but its not situational, since survivors are expected to be injured throughout the game. I think ultimately DH should have added conditions that make it shine after a condition is met. Adding conditions adds variety of play styles to the game and enjoyable plays/ misplays.