Red Herring discussion

dugman
dugman Member Posts: 9,713
in Feedback and Suggestions

Continuing a series of threads on the least picked perks based on the aggregate site I follow, next up is Zarina’s perk Red Herring with about 0.15% usage.

Red Herring - After repairing a generator for at least 3 seconds, it will be highlighted to you with a yellow aura. The generator stays highlighted until it is fully repaired, you repair a new generator, or enter a locker. Entering any locker will trigger a loud noise indicator for The Killer at the highlighted generator's location.


Fake loud noises to distract the killer probably aren’t bad in principle. I’ve seen some people make good use of Pebble occasionally for instance. I think the issues with Red Herring though are probably.

  • It only triggers on the generator you most recently worked on. If you work on a generator for a few seconds to set the diversion, then run off to do a different generator instead, the previous diversion is lost and is now on the new generator. So at best you are making a noise on a generator you just worked on recently which limits how far you will typically be from it.
  • You have to enter a locker to use the perk and entering lockers is either slow if you want to do it quietly or makes noise if you don’t. So you need to be doing this in a locker that’s not too close to the distracting generator for it to really work well.
  • If you’re far from the distracting generator and you trigger the noise it’s quite possible, especially in solo queue, for another survivor to have decided to work on that gen when try and you lure the killer to it. So you can end up distracting a killer right into someone else which isn’t ideal.
  • Most killers who hear a noise at a gen are going to assume the survivor who made the noise probably left or hid after the explosion. So it may not even be a priority for the killer to go check it out, especially if they are already in a chase or think they are closer to a different gen that also has survivors. So it’s not even necessarily likely to distract the killer at all even if they think the noise really was a missed skill check.


I’m not sure the best way to buff or revamp this one. I suppose one possibility might be to make it be an activated ability like Blast Mine or Pebble rather than tie it to lockers. Another possibility would be to have the perk create fake scratches leading in a random direction away from the generator when it triggers so if a killer does look that way they might be further convinced a survivor was just there and ran off. And maybe if the perk had a safeguard where it won’t trigger on a gen that is actively being repaired that could help avoid backfires.

Comments

  • Milo
    Milo Member Posts: 7,383

    I suppose one possibility might be to make it be an activated ability like Blast Mine or Pebble rather than tie it to lockers

    How about this?

    -----

    You have noticed that people pay attention to whatever makes the loudest noise.

    After repairing a Generator for at least 3 seconds, Press the Active Ability 2 button to mark the generator. It's aura is revealed to you in yellow. The generator will smoke heavily for other survivors.

    After 15 seconds (could be longer or shorter), a loud noise notification and random scratch marks will appear for killer at the highlighted generator's location.

    Red Herring has a cool-down of 60/50/40 seconds.

  • Masterninja
    Masterninja Member Posts: 411

    I suggest you can trigger the loud noise notification any time you want with x button. then a 40s cooldown.