New DH vs Old DH vs Old MoM

FeryGEN

I hope to hear and see more objective people here, and not players who have not changed their build since 2016.

Mettle of Man

I'll start with the MoM of my favorite perk, which is:

After getting hit 3 times by a Killer's Basic Attack, Mettle of Man activates.

Once activated, the next occasion that would put you into the Dying State from the Injured State is ignored.

Basically the perk wasn't very unbalanced because you need to get three hits from Basic attack and it worked once, but with perks like DS and DH, you could create a super tanky build, so the perk got a nerf.

Old Dead Hurd

The perk gave a collision shutdown when pressed, which in most cases gave just a miss, the survivor did not get acceleration, and could fall even after 2 seconds if he did not have time to get into the pallet or window.

To activate it, just press the E button

I exaggerated the situation a little, but in general it looks exactly like this. The survivor, once in the pallet, can press DH and still die in this pallet.

New Dead Hurd

As many say nerf DH. What advantages did the nerf perk give:

• The perk essentially now works like the old MoM, you don't need to get any hits to activate it, just press E (when you are not exhaustion, that is every 40 seconds)
• As in the case of the old MoM, you get a speed boost because you got hit and can run away anywhere.
• You can press DH right in the pallet, get hit, stun the killer and run away. With the old DH, you could fly past the pallets
• If earlier you could die in a dead pallet, now you can escape from a dead pallet to safe places.
• Hitting the survivor by pressing the DH, the killer not only slows down, but also loses Bloodlust, with the old DH not hitting the survivor, you did not lose the advantage in speed.

And here it is logical that you can say, but you still need to click in time. And what's difficult here, I'll ask you, you see Anna's hatchet, you press DH, you throw a pallet against the Nemesis tentacles and immediately press Dh if you see that the killer is attacking. Survivors, even in a bare field, sometimes manage to press DH in time if you put the activation button on the LMB mouse button.

I don't understand the words of the survivors that the perk has BECOME more balanced

GrimReaperJr1232

As per your request, I will attempt to be as objective as possible.

MoM

You saying the perk wasn't unbalanced because it worked once and required 3 basic attacks tells me you don't quite understand why this perk was nerfed, to begin with.

Balanced or not, the perk was objectively unfair. Every killer has a basic attack but not every killer has a special attack. There are multiple killers that need to basic attack; Trapper. Wraith, Doctor, Clown, Hag, Slinger, Dredge, Freddy, etc. The fact is, this perk guaranteed an extra health state combined with every chase perk in the game, medkits, etc, simply because the killer played the game. Release Legion wasn't nerfed because he was imbalanced (he only got 1-2 kills on average) but he was reworked because he was objectively an unfair killer to verse.

Perhaps a bit irrelevant to your overall point, but I feel the details are important when discussing one of the most BS perks to having ever (dis)graced this game.

Old Dead Hard

I think your explanation of Old Dead Hard isn't quite apt. Yes, it did remove your collision box. However, during the 0.5-second dash, you did accelerate. Because the speed went on a bit of a bell curve, it's hard to put it into numbers but at its peak, DH had you moving at 250% movement speed. This was used to make it to a pallet/window, typically after greeding a loop or "DH for distance." You would DH to the pallet, not at the pallet. This also lacked any counter, as even if you were ranged, the I-frames meant they were immune to damage.

Dead Hard

The reason it's claimed to be more balanced than before is that they removed the acceleration, meaning DH is purely meant to avoid hits. You can no longer DH to make it to a pallet/window.

However, as you pointed out, there is more nuance to this. Yes, you can't DH for distance but if you DH AT the pallet, it's effectively the same effect since you can quickly get the stun off. Killer can't lunge since you can press E in time, and if they don't, then you make it to the pallet where if they swing, they can eat a DH, get pallet validated, or both. The control is purely on the survivor's side.

Now, why do people still say it's better than before? Despite this lose-lose scenario, there are some limitations in place. Namely, it counts as Endurance, thus can not be stacked with any other form of endurance such as OtR/BT, and can effectively be nullified by the likes of Legion, Slinger, or Pinhead (with Original Pain). If you're going to a window, the killer CAN afford to wait since you commit to the animation beforehand, so they can wait out the DH animation or wait for the vault animation, and then you die; before, they DH to the window and they make it. Nothing you can do.

You may argue that while no longer as versatile as before, its effect when used properly is immensely stronger than before. This I agree with, but was also intended. The idea the devs had was, "DH is harder to use, but it's more rewarding when successful." But as you and I have pointed out, there are attacks that are telegraphed with Hatchets, lunges, Neme's tentacle, etc. These attacks are deliberately made to have some forewarning before being used, and that's basically a warning that says, "DH now!"

So while harder for a new player to get value, with a little bit of practice and experience, you can consistently get value out of DH provided you're not out in the open with no defenses (which is the worst-case scenario for any survivor). In effect, the high-risk high-reward perk can instead feel medium-to-low-risk high-reward.

Something you didn't mention is the psychological effect of Dead Hard. Let me explain...

• Due to its status as an on-demand perk, It's one of the few perks that have an active presence even when not being used. If you ask any killer, they will assume everyone has DH. This translates to standing at every one's back, waiting for a perk that may/may not be there.
• As I mentioned, waiting at someone's back. Even if it ends with a down without timing the DH properly, the killer will often wait a few seconds for DH to be used. These seconds alone are arguably worth the perk slot since they're more or less guaranteed, and potentially equal to the raw time given by the likes of Sprint Burst from w-keying alone. All of this is purely just by waiting, not actually getting the perk to work.
• Getting hit by a DH as a killer feels awful. They speed off and you have to power through a health state, it's often used in situations you feel helpless, and you can wait out a DH, think they're not gonna press it, attack, and still end up eating the DH.

FeryGEN

Dear GrimReaperJr1232,

I read your point of view and I got the impression from reading that the perk is stronger than its predecessors, besides you deliberately pointed out that MOM was not countered by 10 or more killers with basic attacks, now I'm wondering how the new DH is different, it can be pressed against any attacks, and as you indicated, only three killers can counter it. If he's only countered by three killers, how will that help me?:)