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Septic Touch discussion

Continuing a series on the least used perks, next up is Dredge's perk Septic Touch (0% usage over the last two weeks, 0.19% the prior two weeks, on the aggregate site I follow.)

Septic Touch - Whenever a Survivor performs the healing action within your Terror Radius, that Survivor suffers from Blindness and Exhausted. These effects linger for 6/8/10 seconds after a healing action is interrupted by any means.


Septic Touch is very similar to Fearmonger. However Fearmonger actually sees roughly average use (around 4-5%) but Septic Touch sees practically no use at all. One reason for that could simply be that Fearmonger is a generic perk available to all killers while Septic Touch is a Dredge unlockable. However there's actually more to it as well.

  • Septic Touch only works if the survivor doing the healing action is within the killer's terror radius. Fearmonger has no such restriction, it works on any survivor working on a generator period, no exceptions.
  • Septic Touch only works during healing actions and for 10 seconds afterward. But healing actions are less frequent than generator repair actions and generator repair also takes longer to do so survivors typically spend a lot more time repairing than healing. That means less time for the killer to benefit from Septic Touch versus Fearmonger

So in the end Septic Touch looks to be significantly weaker than Fearmonger, which considering that Fearmonger is "ok" probably indicates Septic Touch could use a buff.

The simplest way to buff it would be to remove the Terror Radius restriction. Just make it work like Fearmonger in that anybody who is healing is Blind and Exhausted. That would certainly help the perk a bit, especially with stealth killers who might not have a terror radius. (Ironically that includes Dredge who actually gets even less benefit from its own perk than other killers.) And if that buff still isn't, extending the duration of the effect after the heal is completed beyond the current 10 second would probably do the trick. Blindness and Exhaustion aren't a bad combination of effects, they just need to happen a little more reliably and last a little longer on this particular perk for it to feel a little more worth using.

Comments

  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 9,518

    I wouldn't say Fearmonger's free status is why people chose it over Sceptic Touch.

    Sceptic Touch is a TR perk. A lot of hit and run killers who want to catch survivors healing tend to have the ability to remove their TR meaning Sceptic Touch's effect will never apply. It's a perk that does something useful in theory, but the users who would want to run it can't synergize with the perk.

    Chase killers who excel in chase don't often need to let survivors go and try to catch them healing later. Legion is like the only killer I can think of who plays a hit and run style and has a normal TR. And generally healing against Legion is something you only do if you need to.

  • Brokenbones
    Brokenbones Member Posts: 5,175

    I don't understand the point of the perk

    Like, you're inflicting status effects on a survivor who's either healing someone else in the TR (Which is a bad play) or they are sneakily healing themselves somewhere, in which case the perk will do absolutely nothing

    At least Fearmonger's effect is tied to an objective that Killers defend and know for sure that a survivor is affected by it.

  • sizzlingmario4
    sizzlingmario4 Member Posts: 6,935

    It absolutely does not need the terror radius limitation. It would be a lot better on stealth killers if it didn't have that. I think it could even have the same effect as Fearmonger where it pauses existing exhaustion. So it's literally the same thing but for healing instead of generators with no additional restrictions.

  • Laluzi
    Laluzi Member Posts: 6,225

    Septic Touch just wasn't a good idea for a perk. It's Fearmonger for heals, but Fearmonger's niche is long-term blindness (gens take a long time and are the main survivor objective, so people doing gens can't see what's going on) and preventing Sprint Burst or other exhaustion perks from activating on survivors that are chased off of gens. Septic Touch accomplishes neither of these (heals are fairly short and rarely take place near the killer anyway.) Personally I don't think removing the TR limitation is enough, because ultimately neither blindness nor exhaustion are going to matter when you're off doing something tucked away from the action.

    What if Septic Touch applied Hindered for 30s after completing a heal? (Or Hindered for 30s or until the survivor gets hit again, whichever is shorter?) The theme of the perk is decay, and this could be decently good... especially if it applied for both the healer and healee.

  • JackFrostMan
    JackFrostMan Member Posts: 204

    Septic Touch

    The Land of the Shadows subsumes all. Healing only delays the inevitable.

    Whenever a survivor performs a healing action, that survivor suffers from the Blindness and Exhausted status effect. These effects linger for 10/12/14 seconds after the healing action is interrupted by any means. When the survivor heals a health state, they are inflicted with Hindered (5%) for 25 seconds or until they lose a Health state


    Just compiling the bits here or there from everyone who posted. Would you guys run this perk?

  • Lastchild
    Lastchild Member Posts: 333

    The skill is well combined with sloppy and nurse's call


    I used this build on Hag and the survivors just didn't like it.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,877
    edited September 2022

    I think i know the point of the perk but its kinda stupid. I think its meant to be slugging perk that blinds users+exhaust when another survivor heals a survivor off the floor when they have sprint burst.

    Picture new player rank 20 meg that walks to a slugged teammate with sprint burst. She picks Dwight up and now she is blinded+exhausted unable to use sprint burst.

    I think terror radius condition was put specifically so that killer like Twins cannot use the perk. Killer using smart synergy? Bad killer! I don't think anyone would use this perk even if it had good numbers.

    I would probably rework to something completely different. I would rework the perk to be that survivors that fully complete a single health-state heal outside of your terror radius, both survivors are exhausted and their aura is revealed for 10 seconds.

    Post edited by Devil_hit11 on
  • K139K05
    K139K05 Member Posts: 217

    I agree, simply removing the terror radius restriction could make this perk useful (by it self. Currently you need other perks like Dark Devotion to make it useful). It would still be a mediocre perk, but for killers that can play hit 'n run it could actually be a decent perk.

  • Iron_Cutlass
    Iron_Cutlass Member Posts: 3,268

    Personally I always thought that Septic Touch should remove the Terror Radius requirement and also have the added effect of causing survivors to be Oblivious. Maybe having the effect linger a bit longer after the heal. Just something to make healing scarier.