Complete feedback on all changes from the developer update

Annso_x

Hello :) Here's my thoughts about each and every change brought by the upcoming update after having slept on it to try to be as objective and constructive as possible.

BASE KIT changes

Prestige update: Neat, love it, thank you. My bet about the reward was right so I'm not mad at it at all, i think it's neat licenced characters will get a reward. Also, charms for perks is a cute idea (but will take so much space in the inventory if they're availzable for all characters)

Generator speed: Fine by me

Kicking generators: Really good change, now kicking generators will actually be useful

General killer improvements: Overall they seem good, they may be a bit too strong but we'll see that in the PTB and when the changes go live, but i think they're fine.

Bloodlust buff: No, no, no and no! Absolutely not! Why would you buff a mechanic that triggers when a killer fails to catch a survivor? That's literally rewarding playing badly, and it's very uneeded and over the top considering the other buffs made to killers when it comes to chases. Why would you reduce the time to break pallets but also the killer's speed if they still refuse to break pallets even if it's a terrible play on their part?

Basekit unhooking effects: I appreciate the effort, but first of all i don't understand why you put this under "camping & tunneling" when this will have no effects whatsover on camping. Secondly, killers have no issues waiting out current BT, 5 seconds will simply not do. The haste effect is appreciated. This is a very nice addition but i don't think it will be very effective in stopping tunneling (and again it won't impact camping at all).

killer Meta perks

Barbecue & Chilli: Sad about the BP bonus, but I understand the reasoning. I do hope auras are buffed a bit, it feels like we barely get value out of BBQ's aura reading these days.

Hex: Ruin: I think it's a bit too much of a nerf. The speed nerf is greatly appreciated, but making the perk desactivate after someone dies while keeping it a hex seems too much. I think either one of two effects could have been enough (speed nerf or desactivation when someone dies, i'd rather keep the speed nerf tbh).

Pop Goes the Weasel: Healthy change, killers kicking generators with barely any progress aren't getting value out of it anyway. I don't think it's going to impact the perk, it's just going to encourage people to use it properly so i don't really think it's nerfed.

Corrupt Intervention: This sounds like a really good change for high tier killers. However i'm a bit worried about how it would impact Trapper, Hag and Demo, who will have to choose between committing to a chase or keep placing their traps/portals to not lose CI value. We'll have to see how it performs but it sounds like a nice change overall.

Tinkerer: Really good change! Nothing else to say, it's very nice. Still a very strong perk, but can't be abused with ruin or other slow down perks anymore.

Hex: No One Escapes Death: I mean okay? Honestly I don't think this is going to change much of anything, people aren't going to do bones more (mostly when gen speed was nerfed), swf will have an easier time looking for the totem and solo q will still leave you to die. It's better than nothing I guess.

Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance: Nice change, it only nerfs the meta build it was attached to without weakening the perk on its own too much.

SURVIVOR META PERKS

Dead Hard: This one will have to be tested before I can really say anything on it, but it sounds like the perk will not be able to be used for distance anymore, which was its core problem, and will still be strong for people who know how to use it. It looks like it'll still be a good perk for great survivors but not a free health state for less good survivors, so I'm hopeful.

Decisive Strike: I understand making it desactivate after the exit gates are powered, even if I can't help but think it'll make tunneling worse, but the stun duration nerf was very unecessary and I'm pretty sure this change will finally bury this perk.

Borrowed Time: Still very good perk. I don't think the effect of the basekit BT are good enough that BT's usage will drop tho, i believe it will stay meta.

Iron Will: Too strong of a nerf. Survivors won't be able to lose killers during chase with it. It not working while exhausted would have been more than enough on its own, no need to reduce the effect to 75%. I don't think people will use it anymore. And this will have a weird side effect of people not playing some survivors because grunts aren't equal across the board for reasons that are unkown to me and some of them are just too loud.

Self-Care: Just because a perk is ran a lot doesn't mean it's good. You've written in the post that you're aware a lot of people already think it's bad, and you've decided to make it worse? It's absolutely dreadful, people won't stop using it and will just kill their entire team self-caring in a corner. Solo queue is already bad we really didn't that.

Spine Chill: Besides deaf & HoH players who just got screwed, the perk was nerfed to the ground and beyond the grave. There's no point in using an info perk that only works when you can see the info on your screen. I read the change and thought "oh they want it to only be used as a speed boost" but then you also deleted the vault speed, so it's just useless now. Very absolutely sad about this. If you wanted to help stealth killers you should have made it not activate against undetectable killers, simple as that. The perk is terrible but it still will work best against stealth killers, Wraith in particular.

killer perk buffs

Overcharge: That perk will be the new meta. Don't look further, that's it right there. 400% is simply insanely strong.

Eruption: Very unopinated about this, I think people will use it more but i don't think it'll be too strong either.

Knock Out: I honestly don't care about that buff, but the fact that you're reinforcing a perk, meaning you want people to play it more, when it's absolutely useless against SWF but really strong and a nightmare to go against in solo queue is worrying. Not to mention being slugged really isn't fun.

Coulrophobia: Nice change, i don't think people will use it more tho.

Dark Devotion: Really good change.

Jolt: Will become a really strong perk if survivors mess up, but that's the survivors' fault so I'm not mad at it.

Lethal Pursuer: Adding an effect that doesn't disappear 10 seconds into the game is a really nice change. I'm a bit worried 2 seconds is too long considering the amount of aura reading perks & add-ons there are, which are already very strong, but we'll see how it performs.

Scourge Hook: Gift of pain: Sounds fine to me, but we'll see how it performs too i guess.

Thanatophobia: I seriously didn't expect a thana buff honestly. It was already very strong I'm not sure why it was buffed, mostly when gens speed have already been nerfed and survivors' healing perks (self-care & CoH) have suffered nerfs.

Scourge Hook: Monstrous Shrine: Making basement hooks scourge hooks has been asked for since they were introduced, so that's nice. I'm not a fan of making the hook timer deplete quicker at all though, 20% sounds like a LOT.

Survivor perk buffS

Calm Spirit: Still can't wrap my head around the fact that you thought giving the perk a debuff would make people play it more. This really shouldn't be in the "buff" section. Even without any debuff I'm not sure people would play it much more, because if you're close enough to be heard opening chests, cleansing and blessing by the killer you're also close enough to be seen or to be heard breathing and grunting. Killers already have so many perks to slowdown survivors, no survivor is going to add to this just to be quiet in very niche situations. Not to mention the only people who would run it would be boons enthusiasts, who already have a pretty long set up time and literally make noise when activated, so being quiet isn't going to help much for the boon's discretion. The very few people who ran this perk will also drop it all together.

Saboteur: Very disapointing. I was expecting the auras to be shown when the survivor was down, and the cooldown to either be shorter or even better not activate when the sabo isn't completed. But we're just getting auras, for hooks that we're either too far from bc we couldn't see them when the survivor was down, or were going to sabo anyway bc we're close enough.

Botany Knowledge: Nice buff. Probably my favorite out of all the changes survivors are getting.

Off the Record: Same as overcharged, you're basically switching an op perk with an other one and calling it a meta change, but is it really when the new meta will have the exact same purpose as the old one? It's a good anti-tunneling perk, it will replace DS because it's better it doesn't desactivate during the endgame (which is quite contradictary on your part tbh).

Lucky Break: I thought the duration would be buffed a bit, but I do like the idea of the perk being rechargeable. However, there's a problem i haven't seen anyone bring up yet, if you're required to heal people for your perk, you're probably going to have some synergy in your build and bring something to heal your teammates faster, for a win-win situation BUT lucky break doesn't recharge depending on the amount you're healing (like 1s per 5% of healing) but the duration of it. So, if you want a bit of lucky break you should leave CoH's area to not get the speed boost, or refuse to heal someone with a teammate? I'm sorry but this is silly, I wish you would change it so it depends on how much you heal someone and not how long you're doing it for, because 1s of heal for 1s of lucky break as it is would either mean slow heals or very little value.

Pharmacy: I appreciate the effort, but it's a miss. Having multiple medkits is very nice, but needing to be injured to find one means your teammates may very well open your chests before you can use the perk. This should have been made a rummaging perk, like Haddie's. This is one of the many problems that will only affect solo q without bothering swf at all and we really don't need to worsen the gap between them.

Sole Survivor: The buff is nice, but the perk itself follows a horrible design. Making a perk depend on having your teammates being dead will not encourage team play, on the contrary. Also, the 75% speed boost on generators is absolutely irrelevant because if you're the last survivor you need to find the hatch, and if the killer finds it first the gates are automatially powered, meaning gens are useless. This would only be useful in the very niche situation where you're the last survivor, are on the last gen, and decide to finish it. Assuming you finish it before the killer finds the hatch, by completing the gen you just gave away your location. The speed boost to exit gates and hatch action are nice, but still pretty niche and again you probably shoudl'nt encourage players to wait for their teammates to die to gain an advantage, for the sake of your solo queue players.

Distortion: Nice buff but kinda weak, unless you don't need to be hidden to gain stacks. If you can gain stacks during chase it's a really good buff, otherwise it's pretty weak in the era of aura reading. 30 seconds is a long time, either decrease the time to gain a token or increase the number of base tokens you have.

Lightweight: Nice buff, I have no idea if it'll be utterly useless or if it'll actually be good, but I think I might be pleasantly suprised honestly, this could be a viable perk.

Déjà Vu: 5% repair speed for the time the aura is revealed is kinda weak, it'll be good in SWF but probably still very under-used in solo queue. Not a bad buff tho.

No One Left Behind: Nice changes, i don't know if people will play it more but it's better than nothing.

Dark Sense: I've seen people say it was weaker than the current dark sense, but it doesn't sound bad at all to me. Kinda like survivor version of BBQ.

Tenacity: Nice buff.

Hope: Nice change, i don't think people will play it more tho.

Overzealous: Welcome change but the perk is still very weak. You really need to amp up those base numbers if you want people to use it.

We’re Gonna Live Forever: Same as BBQ for the BPs, sad but understandable. Very happy about the added effect. I was a WGLF player when it was only a BP bonus perk, I was a WGLF player when its effect got added, I'll probably still be a WGLF player when the BP is gone.

Closing thoughts:

If by switching the meta you meant "players change their perks" instead of "players change their playstyles" then congrats i guess, because killers will still play slowdown perks and survivors will still play anti-tunnel and second chances perks. Killers will be stronger in chase and slowdown will still be very efficient, if not more, only ruin and very specific builds (DMS + pain resonance) were significantly nerfed, but other strong perks will make up for it. As for survivors, swf will be fine but solo queue will most definitely suffer a lot because of these changes. Survivor meta will still be BT + DH/SP + OTR instead of DS + maybe prove thyself to make up for the gen speed; Killer meta will still be camping and tunneling (even if tunneling will be a tiny bit harder), with a few slowdown perks sprinkled on top of it.

I was super excited for this update, so I hope you take into consideration the feedback because as it is it doesn't sound like a meta change but rather a general killer buff and a kick to solo q survivors who are already on the ground. The basekit changes seem fine, but a lot of perks need to be tweaked a little or a lot (looking at you calm spirit).