Low Profile discussion

Continuing a series of threads on the least picked perks according to Nightlight, next up is Ada's perk Low Profile (0.64% usage)

Low Profile - When you become the last Survivor standing, this perk activates. Hide your scratch marks, pools of blood and grunts of pain caused by injuries for 70/80/90 seconds.

As a stealth effect this perk is pretty solid, having no scratch marks or blood or injury sounds for 90 seconds is quite a long time to be difficult for the killer to find. Of course it doesn't hide auras, but you could easily combo this with Distortion or Sole Survivor for instance and if you're the last survivor I'd feel kind of sorry for the killer trying to find you before you escape!

The other nice thing about the perk is you don't have to be the last "living" survivor, just the last one on your feet. Which means that it's possible to use this perk to, for instance, save one of the other dying or hooked survivors and get away from the scene while you still have that 90 seconds of stealth. And, assuming the devs eventually implement the Last Survivor Standing mori system they experimented with a few weeks ago, that could actually help you avoid the killer instantly ending the game if they can't find you to trigger that final death on your down. Likewise that new slugging system where survivors can stand up on their own after 45 seconds with no perk or sooner with Unbreakable, etc, could hypothetically allow Low Profile to trigger multiple times a match if the killer is trying hard to slug players and the Last Survivor effect keeps turning on and off. Note that Low Profile's duration of 90 seconds is constant, even if someone stands up soon after it triggers, with no cooldown or limit.

The reason, though, this perk isn't popular is pretty simple - it comes across as mostly a "save myself if everybody else dies" effect. It's the same reason Left Behind and keys don't see much use, they're only useful if the survivors as a group have already lost the game and you're just trying to get yourself some extra points and a consolation prize by at least not getting killed yourself. A lot of players, though, feel the survivors should be treated more as a group for wins and losses, playing altruistically to save each other for instance, and kind of dislike the notion of hiding when the going gets tough so that maybe you can get out.

It will be interesting to see if the new team-based MMR they announced last week will have any impact on Low Profile and similar perks. If the new MMR, for example, is such that the survivors go up or down based on how many of them escape (e.g. if 3-4 escape then they all go up with the amounts varying based on their relative rating compared to the killer and vice versa for 0-1 escapes) then that could have an impact on how people perceive perks which primarily let you personally escape after everybody else dies.


I'm hesitant to have much of an opinion on whether or not this perk needs a buff since I'm pretty sure its lack of popularity is more about how players perceive survivors winning and losing as a group versus whether or not the perk actually does its job of helping you escape in a lost game. It's quite possible that the perk is actually ok if you look at it solely from the perspective of helping its owner escape, and it might even be slightly better once the Last Survivor Standing and slugging system goes into effect in some form in a few months. But hypothetically if the devs did want to buff it, some possibilities would be

  • Increase the duration to even longer than 90 seconds. 90 seconds is certainly a long time but I could see some instances where if a killer is doing a slug heavy game early on then a longer duration could mean the perk lasting a larger chunk of the match.
  • A larger change might be to make the perk give you its stealth effect for a shorter time every time a survivor is downed. So instead of being super stealthy for 90 seconds at basically the end of the game, you get 20-30 seconds of stealth whenever a survivor is downed. That would make the individual effects weaker since the duration is much shorter per trigger but it would allow the perk to actually maybe help the survivor out much earlier in the game with hook rescues and such.

Comments

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,442
    edited October 2022

    I was gonna make a post about this, but since you've made one I guess I'll just put my suggestion here.

    What if it increased heal speeds by 100% when active (on top of all the other effects)? It'd give you the ability to quickly reset your team from a SHTF situation. Plus, if self-healing was avaliable through Circle or a Medkit, then you'd be able to quickly patch yourself up to make going for a save much less risky.

    Post edited by ReverseVelocity on
  • Gandor
    Gandor Member Posts: 4,258

    You hit the nail on the head with it being selfish perk after you lost. It will be completely unusable for me so long as it's main benefit is selfish one.

    Also if I had to take a perk that helps me in this situation, it's going to be left behind or wake up. Solo only loosers end game perks are boring on it's own in my opinion.

    So best buff to this perk is to make it not looser's endgame perk - so I would opt for triggering it for those 30s after each down

  • Nos37
    Nos37 Member Posts: 4,142
    edited October 2022

    I try to use every perk at least once across all my survivors. I tried putting together a selfish escape build with Low Profile, but other perks filled up the 4 slots better.

    I ended up putting Low Profile in with Unbreakable, Buckle Up, and We're Gonna Live Forever. Buckle Up and WGLF don't synergize well since the heal speed makes seeing the recovery progress moot, but I have to use Buckle Up somewhere and the aura read is nice when paired with Low Profile.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,638

    sounds like entirely different perk. I cannot really comment on this perk because I never equipped this survivor perk. my comment on these survivor perks that revolve around being last is that they do not make much of difference in changing the outcome of the game.

    If your going to run a perk that help's you when your at brink of defeat in 3 man slugging situations, your better off running unbreakable. At the same time, if these perk were effective and changed the outcome of games that the killer was likely to win, they would be close to Keys. Conclusively, I do not think that perks like left behind, sole survivor or low profile will ever be good perks.

    the closest one that has potential to be relevant is sole survivor. Currently sole survivor grants 75% repair speed bonus only when you are last survivor. if sole survivor scaled with the number of survivor dead, for example it gave 25% repair speed per survivor dead similar to aura immunity scaler's up to max of 3, then the 25%/50% repair bonus when 2 survivors are dead might be able to change the game outcome in niche instances where 1 generator remains. At the same time, a NOED-type perk that is punishing the killer for killing survivors is just super strange.

    These perks for survivor are largely joke-perks.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,442

    No, it'd be the same perk but it has a heal speed bonus on top of it.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,638
    edited October 2022

    I do not think it fits spirit of the perk. I think that would be another perk. I think this perk is designed for you to be more stealthy in the end game, but the irony is that when two survivors are remaining, survivor can already stealth really well and drag out the game without requiring this perk.

    I think your describing new perk that might come out in the future. Maybe the perk would work like slugging-based we'll make it. If you pick up a survivor from dying state to injured state, Increase your Altruistic Healing speed by 100% for the next 30/60/90 seconds. It might be strong perk where you can 3vs1 some killers with it if they slug.

    Edit: Never ever mind, I see the problem here. the healing speed stacking would be crazy if 4 survivor used the perk due to how we're gonna live forever and current slugging works where survivor could heal slugs faster then the killer could m1(without stbfl).

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,442

    The first line of the perk is "You work best alone."

    I think that fits the spirit of the perk perfectly.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,638

    The second line is "When it is just you and your pursuer, you know how to disappear." The perk is all about stealth but end game perk for stealth is pointless. I do wish Ada perks were more relevant.

  • IlliterateGenocide
    IlliterateGenocide Member Posts: 6,024

    Dont even know why it has a duration. it should be unlimited when the last standing

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    The duration means it keeps going even if another survivor stands back up.

  • Hex_iButt
    Hex_iButt Member Posts: 233

    I feel like Low Profile fits a really good niche for cases where you end up playing during a time where a lot more survivors potato out and don't do anything useful. Sometimes you just can't rely on your teammates, sad to say, and you want to put on a lone wolf build.

    But it's a gamble though with perks like this as you may not be the last survivor standing. You may be the first person dead on hook, or your teammates end up being able to efficiently split up so the killer isn't slugging everyone at their campsite. You won't get as many chances to use Low Profile, compared to Sole Survivor for instance.

    I'm not sure if there's much you can do to buff the perk, as it's effects are pretty strong when they activate. I would say maybe getting a bit of a haste bonus (temp or permanent idk), would be beneficial if you needed to get away from the killer and you're in the vicinity of the survivor who got downed, or to help you get to a hook/dying survivor quicker.

    Otherwise the 2nd option for a buff/change sounds like it would be too similar to one of Yun Jin's perks. Would be a little stronger too iirc.

  • K139K05
    K139K05 Member Posts: 217

    An increased duration as well as footstep volume reduction (by 100%) might make this perk more useful. But most people still won't use it since people prefer perks that can be used indefinitely (or have powerful effects like Adrenaline).

  • Gandor
    Gandor Member Posts: 4,258

    Buffing this perk means it will be more popular. The stronger these perks are, the more miserable soloQ will be. It would actually be healthy if all these endgame looser perks were even as much bad at what they do as possible.