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All Generic Killer Perks - Suggested Changelist
Since I've got a little spare time on my hands and I've been thinking about them a lot, I'm going to go through every generic killer perk and say what I think should be done with them, if anything. I don't think the overall crop of generic perks is that bad on the killer side, but most of them could use some kind of change, as a lot of perks in this game could in general!
Bitter Murmur: I like this perk. I think it's an underrated form of midgame tracking, and I think some killers like Huntress and to a lesser degree Sadako can make pretty good use out of the information that it provides. However, I would like to see its power spike in the endgame increased a little, and so I propose that its last-generator ten seconds of tracking be increased to twenty seconds.
Claustrophobia (or Cruel Limits): So, this perk isn't very good, I think we can all agree. I do like the theme of what it's supposed to be doing, but there's no denying that what it does is simply never going to be all that useful since it requires you to lose a generator and then chase survivors near that recently completed generator, and so with that in mind I have two suggestions: Either block windows within a radius of all generators, completed or not, or block windows and pallets within the radius of the completed generator.
Deerstalker: Another perk that I think does its job just fine, but its job just kinda isn't enough to warrant really bringing it. A simple change, but I think any survivor that changes from Dying to Injured through any means (be it another survivor healing them, or a perk like Unbreakable) should have their aura revealed for a handful of seconds in addition to the perk's current effect, just to give it a little extra oomph.
Distressing: This perk is niche and that's okay. I don't think it needs anything about its actual effect changed, but I would like to propose a change that should apply to any perk with a bloodpoint bonus- have that bonus be added after the match like BBQ, instead of just letting it reach the cap faster.
Fearmonger (or Mindbreaker): Good perk, no notes. If the overall meta shifts away from heavily incentivising slowdown, I think this perk would see more use. It's nice.
Hex: No One Escapes Death: Oh boy, where to start. So, this perk isn't good. It does not need a nerf, and it does not need even more requirements slapped onto its current effect; either it stays exactly as it is since it genuinely isn't causing any problems, or it gets completely ground-up reworked to have it be a more consistently useful and viable perk. I don't know what the latter would look like, but I did see one idea I liked that the perk lighting up progresses everyone's hook stage by one, and only if they were already on second hook state would they be Exposed- pair that with screaming as it activates for a little tracking, and I think that'd be perfectly serviceable.
Hex: Thrill Of The Hunt: This perk shouldn't be a hex anymore. It has scaling-down effects for the counterplay survivors can enact on it, and the effect it has is nice but situational, so I think it'd be a perfectly serviceable boon-counter and hex-slowdown perk if it simply weren't associated with its own hex totem anymore. Even still, it's not a bad perk, people sleep on Thrill.
Iron Grasp: This perk is fine. It's not particularly great, and it's outclassed by Agitation, but I think it's reasonable to give all killers some form of "you can carry for longer", especially new players. By its nature, it won't ever be top tier, but that's okay.
Jolt (or Surge): Just let this perk activate on special attack downs.
Monstrous Shrine: So, this perk sucks, right? We can all agree that Monstrous Shrine has legitimately no use- even for basement Bubba builds, it's not actually doing much, so I think it can safely be completely transformed without upsetting anyone. Here's my pitch: make it a Scourge Hook perk, with a small primary effect and the actually-useful secondary effect of making the basement hooks count as Scourge Hooks. As for what the primary effect would be, I think just having the normal Monstrous Shrine effects would be fine- they're not useful, but the point of using it would be to make the basement proc your Pain Res or what have you.
Sloppy Butcher: With the upcoming Haemorrhage change, no notes.
Spies From The Shadows: Perfectly acceptable low-level tracking perk for newer players and those without better options, no notes.
Unrelenting: Another perk that straight up just sucks. Even for totally new players, having a slightly shorter stagger when you miss a basic attack is just not all that useful, so I think this is another one that can safely be completely changed, but like with Monstrous Shrine I do want to preserve the name and idea. So, here's my pitch for this one: When you are hit with a pallet, the survivor who stunned you has their aura revealed for a handful of seconds, to better emphasise that you are an unrelenting predator who won't let minor setbacks stop them.
Whispers: Great perk, no notes.
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What do you guys think? I could do one of these for the survivor perks as well, but there'd be a lot more "no notes" there, the survivor generic perks are in an even better spot than the killer ones imo.
Comments
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I disagree with your sentiment about iron grasp. I think iron grasp truly needs a rework. I don't think there should be a perk in the game that is simply outclassed entirely by another perk. Iron grasp is just a worse agitation, and premonition is a worse spinechill, and all perks like this where they perform like weaker versions of other perks should be changed. For Iron grasp specifically, I'd rework it so that instead of carrying longer with less wiggle effect, take more inspiration from the perk's name. The perk could make it so that the killer cannot be stunned by another survivor to free the carried survivor (with the IRON GRASP, the killer doesn't let go). In this way it'd be a niche perk to use for people that want to counter swf's or pallet save in general, similar to lightborne, but whereas lightborne protects against flashlights, iron grasp would protect against head on stuns and pallet drops when carrying survivors.
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While you're not entirely wrong, I think that there's more room for "strictly weaker than other perks" when it's generic vs teachable. Premonition is such a problem because the better version is also a generic perk, whereas Iron Grasp serves as something everyone can use even if there's something better they could grind for, or get if they want to play Trapper.
There are also way better slowdown and tracking perks available than what's in the generic pool, but they require investing in getting some teachables.
Still, I wouldn't mind seeing an Iron Grasp rework along those lines, necessarily. I just don't think the perk is currently really a huge problem.
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Spies should prevent the killer from disturbing crows.
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That's not a bad idea, I like it!
I'm assuming that's in addition to its current effect, anyway.
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Alright so I like some of these, let’s go through them:
Bitter Murmur: Honestly, sure. I don’t know if it really needs the buff, but I wouldn’t be against it.
Cruel Limits: The issue is that it doesn’t do anything if the killer is on the other side of the map from the gen, and doesn’t do much regardless on certain maps where there are far more pallets than windows (and this is a problem for perks like crowd control as well). On the other hand, extending it to pallets as well could leave the survivor without any real counterplay option if they do finish a gen near the killer. One idea I had was to flip it around and make it block windows a certain distance AWAY from the generator instead, but I would need to see this in action - I’m not sure that’s actually much better. Alternatively it could also just be blocking windows within a certain distance from the killer’s position at that time.
100% agree on deerstalker, distressing, and mindbreaker.
NOED: The screaming idea isn’t too bad. What I proposed before was making it have an activation requirement like NWO to trigger exposed, but it also gets smaller, less impactful effects at lower amounts of tokens. In return for the activation requirement, the added effects would make it be stronger at full power than it is now.
Thrill of the Hunt: I agree that it being a hex and also getting weaker prior to being cleansed is redundant. I do think it should be a hex though, and just shouldn’t have tokens anymore. It will slow down all cleansing and blessing by a flat penalty until it is cleansed.
Iron Grasp: I agree with the idea posted above protecting the killer from pallet saves while carrying, but I would add that to the current effect rather than replace it.
Surge: Agree 100%. Let it work on any down and it’s perfect. The 40s cooldown and 32m range is fine.
Monstrous Shrine: While I like the idea of changing it to a scourge hook, I don’t like the idea of making basement any more powerful, but that’s just because I think the basement in general is unhealthy design.
Sloppy Butcher: Agree, perk is fine. I’ve seen some suggestions to make it work with special attacks and honestly I don’t think it’s necessary.
Spies: I actually think this perk is terrible. It’s ok for new players to teach them about crows, but beyond that it’s not very good. I like the idea proposed above to prevent the killer from disturbing crows, but it might still need a bit more. But that would at least make it a bit better.
Unrelenting: Not a bad idea, but Nemesis already does that AND makes the survivor oblivious unless they were already the obsession.
Whispers: Agree, perk is fine.
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God, I completely forgot about Nemesis. Yeah, that idea does cannibalise a little bit...
I'm sure I'll come up with something better later on down the line for it. Regarding Cruel Limits, though, wouldn't the problem of not helping the killer if they're across the map from the gen be somewhat alleviated by every gen blocking windows?
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Just had a really random idea for Claustrophobia/Cruel Limits
Keep it as is but add one more thing to it
When the final generator is completed, every window on the map is blocked for a minute. Or something like that
Kinda like how bitter murmur's effect is weaker until the endgame where it's at maximum power, for lack of a better way to describe it.
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Sort of, but then it’d probably have to have the range nerfed, so it’d depend on the map honestly.
But an issue with window perks in general is that they just aren’t effective on certain maps. Bamboozle is important enough on certain killers that it gets used anyways, but even that doesn’t do much on certain maps like the game and midwich.
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That’d be kinda cool ngl
It might get used in endgame builds if it did that
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