Smash Hit discussion
Continuing a series of threads on the least picked perks according to Nightlight, next up is Yun-Jin's perk Smash Hit (0.58% usage)
Smash Hit - After stunning the Killer with a pallet, break into a sprint at 150% your normal running speed for 4 seconds. Causes the Exhausted status effect for 60/50/40 seconds. This perk cannot be used while Exhausted.
On its face Sprinting at 150% speed for 4 seconds is a pretty decent effect, if you run straight away from the pallet you gain an additional 8 meters distance compared to normal run speed, and a typical 4.6 m/s killer will take about 13 additional seconds compared to if you didn't have the perk to make up that gap assuming they chase you again straight away. Therefore for practical purposes if a killer opts to chase you again after you stun them with a pallet using Smash Hit they are almost certainly going to be losing a ton of time doing it.
The main downside, though, and why it probably doesn't see much use, is that it only triggers on a pallet stun and even then only if you're not already Exhausted. While getting pallet stuns on killers is certainly doable, it's not exactly a guaranteed thing in a given chase (there might not be a good pallet to use, or the killer might respect the pallet and not get stunned, etc). Meanwhile because it's an Exhaustion perk it's competing with other perks that are a little more flexible like Dead Hard, Sprint Burst, Balanced Landing, Overcome, etc, all of which give you pretty comparable distance boosts when they trigger but that don't require pallet stuns.
I do think this perk could use a bit of a buff to make it see more use. A couple of options might be:
- Parental Guidance and Smash Hit are both bottom tier usage perks that require stunning the killer. The former hides scratches, blood, and suppresses grunts of pain after stunning the killer, while the later gives a speed boost. So one possible change might be simply combine these into a single Exhaustion perk that gives you a boost of speed and also the stealth aspects whenever you stun the killer. If it were just a single package perk that did all of that for the cost of an Exhaustion and killer stun it could be pretty good. Then you'd need to replace the perk that got merged into the other one with some other effect.
- A more conventional buff would be to make it so you get the benefit if you stun the killer by any means, not just by pallet stuns. That would you allow, for example, to flash blind a killer while they break a pallet and gain that movement boost to run even further away.
Comments
-
I think the perk should grant a secondary bonus effect similar to balance landing that turns off when your exhausted. It should increase pallet stun hitbox by 20%. This will make it harder for survivors to respect pallets. The killer will need to stand further away to avoid getting stunned. If the killer over-respects a pallet, this allows you to go for another loop as survivor. I see potential in this perk being a popular exhaustion perk for pallet looping.
4 -
The biggest problem with this perk is, that it's hard for survivors to consistently stun killer. And once they learn it, then they don't need the exhaustion, because stun itself will provide enough time to get to another obstacle.
Also the perk is lying a little. It gets activated at the start of stun - locking you to whole pallet dropping animation. Meaning it looks like this sprint-exhaustion at least provides most distance compared to all the rest of them, but it effectively provides same benefit. This makes it sprint burst/lithe/overcome with worst possible initiation condition (because pallet stuns are hard, pallets are limited and there is no additional benefit).
That being said. I have no idea what to do with the perk to actually make it good. Parental guidence merge would definitely be buff, but it would become strange perk that requires you to have to know how to chase good enough to actually stun killer, but still want you to hide rather then loop. IMO there is not that many survivors like this.
Second buff to activate it on "every stun" would not help, because blindness is not a stun. If we included blindness, then maybe that would be a buff.
As for secondary effect of making stun area larger. That would probably work to semi-reliably extend chases. Especially because killers would not expect this play. But I have a feeling that 20% would not be enough for respecting killers. On the other hand you probably don't want to make the area too large, because that would probably create too much frustration with killer players.
To say the truth, I don't know what to do with the perk. Maybe extend sprint duration for additional second or two to make it really longest effective sprint in game to counter worst possible trigger condition. But I don't like it super much, because this just promotes holding W and does not bring anything extra interesting.
0 -
Especially because killers would not expect this play. But I have a feeling that 20% would not be enough for respecting killers.
its really strong because the perk creates something called a form of self-deterrence. Its similar to dead hard. Dead hard existing means that every chase I open with survivor at the start of the game, I cannot long-range swing because there is a chance that the player has dead hard and until they reveal their exhaust perk, I have to respect dead hard.
With smash hit, its same idea. With every chase, you need stand 1 meter further away from the pallet to avoid getting stunned but by standing further away, it allows survivor to disrespect dropping the pallet in shorter loops and keep gaining extra loops. It makes a lot of unsafe pallet loops really safe as long as the pallet is standing face-up. Normally as killer, its super easy to force survivors to drop the pallet and down them on unsafe pallet with small sides but with this perk, the risk of getting stunned means that you do not get that free hit and those loops become time-wasters for killer. 20% pallet stun hitbox's stun is really strong statistic. It is like balance landing 100% stagger statistic. The effect being permanent on every pallet would be too strong just like balance landing 100% stagger created infinities loops. in theory you could counter the perk by swinging into the pallet but now you need anticipate the survivor dropping the pallet ahead of the time instead of just reacting to whatever survivor does. if he drops pallet, you go around until you hit them and if they do not drop it, you can often hit them before they make to next rotation on max distance lunge. it makes pallet dropping a mindgame instead of reaction for killer procedure.
scary survivor perk to play against for killer.
0 -
I am pretty sure 20% is not extra 1m
0 -
depends how much is base. suppose the pallet is 2 meters and you get 1 meter stun leeway on each side for total rectangle. the perk would grant you 0.4 meters extra. I think its interesting having an exhaustion perk that rewards pallet greeding over pallet pre-dropping/playing safe.
0 -
sure agreed. But it would be quite hard to find correct balance. I presume (but I can be very wrong) that 0.4m would not be enough, because any "respecting" the pallet would respect even smash hit - meaning killer will not see a difference. If it was something like 3m instead of 2, then it might work - but we are risking it that it might be too OP in that case (and yet again I can be wrong and it could be just enough).
What I am trying to say is, that if normal respecting works the same as smash hit respecting, then it's not enough. But it should be possible to smash hit respect as well (which should give you advantage in greeding pallets).
I would need to see the effect of the numbers to say if it would be no difference, ok change or OP change. My gut feeling is 50% might do it. But it's just a guess
0 -
It's really hard to get value out of this perk when there are a ton of killers who learn to respect pallets, so this is a nice secondary effect that would be nice.
I also do like the idea of any stun activating this perk as well, as it can open up some potential rat playstyles with Blastmine.
The big thing that really makes this perk less desirable to use is the fact that it's reliant on pallets. What happens if you get unfortunate RNG, and spawn into a map with low pallet spawns or your teammates drop all of them? You could run another Exhaustion perk, but then you may as well go for the more general Exhaustion perk vs tying yourself to limited resources. Even though there's synergy you can use with Any Means Necessary, this is also situational to the point where a killer could break any/all pallets to deny you a chance at picking them back up.
I do like the synergy between Smash Hit and Parental Guidance, mostly because when I attempted to use the former I would get injured 80% of the time due to latency or "securing the stun" by taking the hit; the latter perk becomes a mistake eraser of sorts if you're able to get away effectively, but then you're using two perk slots for this.
0
