Meta will not shift (changes go against declared goal)
TL;dr at the bottom.
Yeah,I know, the news have been out for less than a few hours and what not, give it time, so dramatic, etc.
But if you indulge me for a moment, after 3.2k hours playing everything in this game, I got experience to see what works and what doesn't.
And the upcoming update has missed the mark on its declared goals.
Details below.
KILLER META
Perk-wise, it will stay exactly the same minus Ruin and bbq (the latter I already saw much less frequently).
Character-wise, there will a big comeback of Spirits, because Iron Will is gone and forgotten.
With increased chase potential across the board, there's now even less reason to not run full slowdown/3 slowdowns and a complimentary perk. Those will still be the best tools to simply find the path of least resistance to victory, especially considering any of those perks are still viable and stackable.
Bonus: Jolt can actually change the meta on Nurse. In the sense they can now slug repeatedly with Jolt and no cooldown. Maybe it was better to remove the basic attack requirement only...
SURVIVOR META
Basically, it just got a make-up job. Exhaustion of your choice (mainly SB and Lithe), Off the Record, UB, and even BT for the longer haste effect and because a successful unhook becomes absolutely crucial now (see Unfun Situations section below).
The reduction of DS stun duration is almost nonsensical. The duration had been tinkered with many times and there's a reason why it was settled to 5 sec. Survivors are still locked in animation for a second. Not to mention that Blights, Nurses and Spirits can already disrespect it completely. 2 seconds of distance are gonna be nothing. Also, deactivating the perk when gates are powered is questionable, considering that gen times have been increased across the board.
UNFUN SITUATIONS (devs' words)
The update completely fails on this aspect. Catastrophically so.
Essentially, facecamping has been buffed (Bubba is smiling somewhere).
90 sec base repair time coupled with available options of passive slowdowns make camping even MORE attractive, not less.
The fact that hook grabs are untouched (why?) and with faster hit recovery base for forcing trades even more easily, means that with increased gen time, survivors are in a catch-22 where either they take two people off gens for the rescue, or simply stay on gens (more gen-rush meta) and still probably lose. A grab (however inconsistent they are) and slug under hook, are already a game over in the current state. But coming soon, there will be no question about it.
Gen time has always been finnicky to balance exactly for that, because it has to be measured against sacrifice progression and even just forcing stages. With gens taking longer, but not sacrifices, staying at the hook is a no-brainer.
It's irrelevant that some anti-tunneling is basekit if there's even less penalty for leaving the hook, the unhook cannot happen, and the killer can machine-gun a trade.
TL;dr killers will still be incentivized to run full slowdown due to increased chase potential base kit. Survivor meta perks are still going to be very few and mostly the same. Increased gen time, reduced hit cooldown and hook grabs still a mechanic buffed facecamping.
My 2 cents.