Bad Perk University: Distressing and Overwhelming Presence

Timeman63

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. Welcome back to another double lesson! So, that perk rebalance everyone’s been talking about, huh? It fills me with hope and anxiety. Killers got buffed across the board. Pop Goes the Weasel and Corrupt Intervention were changed in a way that made them weaker, but still good and useful on killers that use them effectively. Decisive Strike disabling when all the generators are completed is nice, but the 3 second stun nerf was too harsh in my opinion. Borrowed Time, I’ll eat my own words if this turns out not to be the case, but isn’t it stronger now? Which means survivors might actually use it MORE, not less? However, there are changes that bother me. NOED is still kind of unfair, but at least it’s easier to deal with. The Dead Hard rework both makes me happy and concerns me, since it’s not clear how well it’ll function in its new state. Even Self-Care got NERFED, which completely baffles me. I would have accepted a rework, perhaps. Guess I need to make a follow up post, huh? There is definitely a lot of good though. Eruption, Dark Devotion, Jolt, Lethal Pursuer, Gift of Pain, and even Monstrous Shrine got cool buffs. I repeat, MONSTROUS SHRINE got reworked, and it actually looks good! There were a few perks I noticed didn’t get changed though, and that’s great for me, since I can still talk about them. The two perks I’m going to cover today are Distressing and Overwhelming Presence. Let’s start with the first one, since I have more to say for it.

Distressing sounds like a counterproductive perk, and that’s probably because it is. What it does is increase your terror radius by a percentage. 26% at Tier 3. It also increases bloodpoint gain in the Deviousness category, or to be consistent with the emblem system, Gatekeeper, which relates to generator defense. Increasing the terror radius by a percentage instead of a flat number is strange, but to give an example of what it means, a 24m terror radius killer will have a roughly 30m radius, and a 32m radius killer will have a roughly 40m one.

So why is this perk bad? Do I really need to tell you? Fine, I will. The terror radius is an important gameplay mechanic. It’s what warns a survivor that the killer is approaching them, giving them a chance to react and seek safety at a loop, pallet, or locker. Killers sometimes have smaller ones, or have the ability to turn it off altogether. Whether it’s the Undetectable status or Oblivious status, through perks or powers, killers will often seek ways to make it harder for survivors to know they’re coming, allowing them to close the distance before survivors realize they’re in danger. All that being said, why in the world would you ever consider making the terror radius bigger and give survivors more of a warning that you’re approaching? Sure, there are perks that have to do with the terror radius that would benefit from having more area of influence, but they aren’t really amazing perks themselves. Unnerving Presence, which I’ll cover in the future, makes skill checks smaller, but it also makes skill checks more frequent. Which sounds like a good thing until you realize Great Skill Checks are still possible, meaning you might inadvertently help the survivors. Overwhelming Presence...well, I’ll get to that one, obviously. Coulrophobia is...OK in my opinion. I’ll go more in depth as to why I think that is when I talk about what perks to run with Distressing. My point is, the perks that are meant to pair with Distressing are usually not good enough to warrant giving survivors more warning of your approach. Also, that 100% extra bloodpoints thing doesn’t stack like BBQ and Chili...oh wait, I can’t make that comparison anymore. It doesn’t stack like Anniversary Cake or Flan offerings. It lets you earn bloodpoints faster than normal, but not more than normal. So yeah, it’s not really good for that either. What kind of perk is a detriment to the person using it, you might be asking? Well, I can see what the intent is behind the perk. But before I talk about that, let’s quickly talk about the other perk.

Overwhelming Presence doesn’t sound all that bad in theory. When survivors are in your terror radius, their items are depleted 100% faster. Basically, this means items like toolboxes are used up quicker while not repairing as much generator progress, maps, keys, and flashlights are used up quicker, giving them less duration, and medkits are much less efficient at healing you, to the point where a brown medkit and green medkit will not fully heal you on their own if you heal while affected by this perk.

So why is this perk bad? The main issue with Overwhelming Presence is that survivors generally know better than to use items when they hear the terror radius. Not to mention, the perk warns them when it’s active. For most situations, it’s not very helpful. For flashlights, Lightborn counters them far better. For maps and keys, survivors usually only use them briefly for information. Seeing the auras for only a moment is often all they need. The primary use of Overwhelming Presence is countering toolboxes and medkits. Draining toolboxes faster is helpful, to be sure. Even if survivors bring addons that add more charges, cutting short that repair speed and time is nice. It’s less helpful when countering sabotage plays though, since it’s the speed of the sabotage that matters more than how many times you get to do it. Still, if sabo plays do occur, it’s nice that sabotage attempts happen a bit less. That leaves medkits. Against medkits of all kinds, Overwhelming Presence melts through them. As I mentioned before, brown medkits and green medkits without extra charge addons will not heal a survivor fully, and a purple medkit will only provide one full heal instead of two. I suppose that’s good. But the thing is, they typically won’t heal in your terror radius for a couple reasons.

1. You might have Nurse’s Calling.

2. If you have Coulrophobia or this perk, they won’t try.

Nurse’s Calling is definitely more persuasive here. The very threat of being caught out at the most vulnerable time means survivors will often go out of their way to heal outside your terror radius even if you don’t have Nurse’s Calling. And if they heal outside your terror radius, Overwhelming Presence isn’t doing anything to them. Also, Circle of Healing exists, so they don’t care about it anyway. What Overwhelming Presence seems to be for is as a sort of area denial, a zone where items are not allowed. And dissuading survivors from using medkits to heal themselves is actually not a bad idea. Once again though, nothing’s stopping them from just using their medkits outside your terror radius. And since Circle of Healing exists, they can heal without using a medkit anyway.

So how do we make the most out of these perks? Now is the time I tell you the secret of Distressing, and the way it can work for you. You’re going to think I’m crazy for saying this next part, but just stay with me. Distressing...is a stealth perk. I know! That makes no sense, right? How can it be for stealth when it makes it so survivors hear you coming sooner? Well, think of it like this. Imagine you’re a survivor who hears the terror radius for the first time. You think to yourself, “Oh shoot! I need to get out of here!”, and you sneak away. As the match goes on, you hear the terror radius more and more frequently, and you start thinking, “Huh, I hear the terror radius, but where’s it coming from?”. If you’re clever enough, here you might begin to surmise, “Oh, the killer has Distressing! I get it now.”. Eventually, you start to get complacent, and start working on generators even when you can hear the terror radius loudly, because you figure, “Well, if I keep running away, we won’t get gens done quickly. So I’m just going to stay on it until I see the killer get close.”. This is what I believe Distressing was meant to do. Since survivors hear your terror radius more often than usual, they end up becoming complacent because they can’t exactly tell how close you are when the terror radius is always loud and constant. The obvious problem with that approach is that in order for that to work, the map needs to be rather small. Experience playing this game will tell you that most maps, especially the bad ones, are enormous, making that 40m terror radius seem puny. Your best bet is the same approach as a Scratched Mirror Myers, that is to say, indoor maps are your friend, therefore map offerings. The best maps to attempt this perk pair are The Game, Midwich Elementary School, and even though it’s not an indoor map, Shelter Woods. Not only are these maps relatively small, some of the smallest maps in the game, The Game and Midwich are perfect for the Distressing approach because of the two story nature of those maps. When your terror radius is large, survivors will have a harder time knowing which floor you’re on. Distressing is the main crux of the strategy, but because Overwhelming Presence is so passive, with no real way of knowing if it’s working or not, it’s best to just pretend it isn’t in your build. The only reason I’m pairing them together here is so I can talk about them at the same time, otherwise I’d have no excuse to even mention Overwhelming Presence. You can slap on this perk if you see a bunch of items in the lobby, but you can otherwise regard it as optional.

So, what other perks should you run? I already mentioned Unnerving Presence and Coulrophobia, so let me explain the conditions in which it’s a good idea to run these perks. Use Unnerving Presence if you’re going for a skill check build. Try perks like Huntress Lullaby, Overcharge, Oppression, Merciless Storm, and to top it all off, play as Doctor. Out of all the killers that may potentially make this build work out, Doctor is easily the best, as his power is all about making skill checks harder. You could, in theory, use this build on Legion for information and area control, though I find other perk builds to be much more effective on them. Next is Coulrophobia. Use this perk if you’re going for a slugging build. Sloppy Butcher, Knock Out, Third Seal, all make for great perks to keep survivors on the ground for a while. Killers that can quickly generate pressure through quick downs like Bubba, Clown, arguably Deathslinger and Trickster, will make this build work best. The only real reason for Distressing in this case is to have a larger area where survivors will have a harder time picking up their teammates.

If you really wanted to, you could even have a hybrid of the two strategies, some slugging perks, and difficult skill check perks.

This time, I’m going to recommend some wild card perks, to spice up the build and potentially throw survivors off. If you want to cause chaos and confusion, Dark Devotion is excellent for that. Damage the Obsession, and go find someone else. With the large terror radius and (hopefully) small map, the survivors aren’t going to have a clue what’s going on for a good while. Dissolution is...fine, I guess. Survivors aren’t really going to vault pallets unless they’re in a chase and they’re forced to, but I guess it could work in theory? Franklin’s Demise can be infuriating to the survivors. They can’t accept losing their item, but they also can’t be sure how close you are and how safe it is to go get it. If you want to irritate survivors that depend on items, this is how you do it. I can’t forget to mention Infectious Fright. By itself, it’s already a solid perk for snowballing. But when used with Distressing, its value pales a bit since, depending on how close or far away a survivor is when they scream, you might not be able to get to them that quickly. But hey, it’s easy information, and you may even interrupt whatever they were doing at the time.

Closing thoughts, how do we make these perks better? I’m at a loss on how to help Distressing, since I can’t really imagine it doing anything other than making your terror radius bigger. It’s a niche thing to want, sure, but it’s clearly not entirely detrimental. I guess my problem is that it only adds 6 to 8m to your terror radius, which isn’t great when the maps can be so large. That’s a problem in itself, but that’s a conversation for another day. I guess if you really want your terror radius to be that big, I figure, why not go all the way with the idea? Aim to make your terror radius comically large. Here’s what my idea is:

Increase your terror radius by 28/30/32 m.

Grant 100% bonus bloodpoints for all actions in the Deviousness category.

Now you may be thinking that this is even worse than before, since survivors will hear you coming even sooner. In a way, yes, but it also means your terror radius becomes much more oppressive and all-encompassing, which only helps terror radius builds like the ones I described earlier. When survivors hear your terror radius that often, you can start to weaponize their paranoia and complacency more effectively.

As for Overwhelming Presence, its effect is so passive and forgettable, it should honestly just have its effect added to Unnerving Presence. That perk certainly needs some help too. This leaves us at square one, and we can do whatever we like with Overwhelming Presence now. If it has to keep its theme as the “no items allowed” perk, then we can try this:

Trigger a Loud Noise Notification for 4 seconds whenever a survivor is using an item within 28/30/32 m of your location.

This turns the perk into a “I heard you using an item! Don’t make me come over there!” perk, which will really discourage survivors from using their items. This does still mean survivors can just use items like medkits outside your terror radius...if you’re a standard killer. If you’re one of those killers that has a smaller terror radius, then the survivors are going to have a nasty surprise when they realize you can hear them using items.

That’s it for now. Distressing has always just kind of been the “handicap perk”, but I can certainly see the tiny niche it fills, and I wouldn’t want to ruin that too much. Overwhelming Presence though...it’s been due for a rework for a long time now, and I hope it gets looked at in the next big perk overhaul that’s inevitably coming. Thank you for coming to my lesson. See you next class!

TL;DR: Distressing is often detrimental because it gives survivors more warning that you’re approaching, and Overwhelming Presence has such a passive effect, you won’t notice if it’s doing anything. To make these perks work, send yourself to a small, indoor map and go for a terror radius build that involves either skill checks or slugging. Use perks like Coulrophobia, Infectious Fright, or Dark Devotion to take advantage of the larger terror radius. To make the perks better, have Distressing make your terror radius incredibly big to go all the way with its niche, and put Overwhelming Presence’s current effect on Unnerving Presence and give it a new effect. My suggestion is to give a noise notification when a survivor uses an item within 32m of you.

MrMori

Distressing gives 100% bonus to Deviousness points and is therefore the best perk in the game.