'Decisive Strike' and 'Sole Survivor' need some changes
I think these two Laurie perks, in their current states, are way too weak and need a slight rework.
The current DS stun time (3 seconds) is too short. I understand it's the same stun time as, for example, Head On, but when you stun a killer with Head On you can immediately get on your feet and start running away, whereas DS's stun time includes the animations of the survivor getting back on the ground - thus making the actual stun time much, much shorter and pretty much worthless. Unless you are a meter away from a safe loop or you have flashbangs/good bodyblocking teammates available, current DS only serves to postpone your death by a few seconds (and it doesn't even do that against killers like the Plague) and it's outclassed in every way by Off the Record (which doesn't even require an hard skillcheck to activate). I think the DS stun time should be reverted back to 5 seconds, maybe 6. The EGC deactivation nerf was needed, but reducing the stun time to 3 just makes the perk too weak to actually counter tunneling at all.
Sole Survivor offers a lot of things but only one of them actually matters in the game. The aura-reading blocking aspect is completely outclassed by Distortion; it's fair that Distortion is much better at it (since Sole Survivor also has other functions) but the meter range for Sole Survivor's is so short it barely matters. The max aura-blocking range you can get is 77mwhich is not only kinda short but it also only matters when looking for hatch (since you can only get 77m range when you're the last one standing), and there are barely any aura-reading perks it can counter in those situations. Having a faster gen repair speed when you're the last one standing is also absolutely useless; there's no point at all doing gens instead of looking for hatch/waiting at the gates. The increased gate opening speed is the only proper benefit of the perk, and it's great, but at that point bringing Wake Up is just a safer option since, despite being slightly slower, it's always active and doesn't require you to be the last one standing to let you open gates faster. And just like for Distortion, it's fair for the dedicated perk to be better at what it does, but as for now the gate opening speed is the only proper benefit of Sole Survivor, and that's not enough to justify equipping it. I think either the aura-blocking range should be larger or the gen-repair part of the perk should be reworked into something different, because as it stands it's simply useless.
Comments
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Sometimes the killer will stand at the hatch and wait for you to close it in your face
Well, "Solo Survivor" helps me with this situation where I go and fix the generators to force the killer to close the hatch and trigger the endgame
I agree with you on all points, but this point I wanted to clarify
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DS is performing fine at the moment, Don't forget you cant stack it with many effects.
Which was why bHVR removed the 5 sec stun to begin with.
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I understand, but simply having DS without something to complement it such as a flashbangs or firecrackers is pretty much useless unless you're in a very specific scenario. Usually perks that are at their best when combo'ed with others (DMS with Pain Res, Plaything with Pentimento) are still kinda usable if on their own, and even then they need less conditions than the DS/stun item combo (you need to have a firecracker/flashbang at hand to increase the stun).
Plus everything that stacks on DS's time stun also stacks on Head On's time stun for example, and Head On (which can be activated more freely and isn't an anti-tunnel perk) allows for more freedom and time to react since its stun time doesn't include an animation like DS. A 3 seconds time stun on DS per se would actually be fine in my opinion, the problem is that the DS user is also unable to move during some of that time, so it's not actually 3 seconds. Simply making the perk's stun time 3 seconds + (how ever long is the animation of the survivor getting on the ground and becoming playable again) would be a perfect fix imo, even if that turns out to be something like 3.20 seconds instead of the proposed 5.
That's something I haven't considered, it's definitely a more niche situation but considering the perk has other functions that makes sense. Maybe then the aura-blocking part of the perk could use a buff? The generator speed thing is still so niche that Distortion/Wake Up remains a more palatable pick than Sole Survivor, so buffing that a bit could help increase the perk's low usage rate
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What exactly are you expecting out of DS? A free escape?
also, its exactly like Pentimento when Survivors don't cleanse totems. wow WORTHLESS. if THAT is fine, then DS also is.
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Ds is not a weak perk.Its in the top 15 most used perks(according to nightlight),placed highly on many perk tierlists,and from personal experience i can attest to its strength(lost many games to it,i run all the time when i play surv).The perk isn't a contender for the strongest perk in the game like it used to be and thats fine.Thats where a well designed perk should be,strong but not game breaking.It doesn't give you distance for free,it allows you to resume loping and thats it.It's also the best perk to pair with DH,due to its strong synergy.
Sole survivors is a worthless perk,like 80% of all perks in this game(its not a problem uniquely attached to it).Atleast laurie has one strong perk.Poor pyramid head,pig and ghostface have nothing going for them and they are also licensed characters.
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(edited because i accidentally double posted due to internet connection problems)
Post edited by tuttoinunavolta on0 -
When did I ever say that..? My argument is that it has the same stun time as Head On on paper, but in reality it doesn't because its animation is included. I admit I should have checked how long it lasts before writing 5/6 seconds as I did in the OP, because it's definitely longer than I was thinking, but you're just willingly misinterpreting what I'm saying at this point - I'm asking for the breaking free animation time to be added to the stun time. That's probably less than a full second, so the survivor would have less or as much time to react as when Head On is used. And I doubt Head On grants free escapes.
That's not a fair comparison, that's why I said Plaything and not Pentimento. DS's usefulness depends on your rival's actions - something that you can't predict before starting a game. It's more akin to Unbreakable or Mad Grit. Pentimento, like Undying or Blood Rush, gives you a backup plan if the core strategy of your loadout gets countered. An anti-tunnel perk could always be useful as long as tunneling exists; an anti-hex-cleasing perk is only useful if you're bringing hexes.
Oh DS can be useful in specific situations, but completely useless against killers who can cover that range in no time. I think just adding those few 0. seconds I mentioned here wouldn't change the perk's power in other situations and just make it worth it even against those killers. Again, I apologize for those 5/6 seconds I wrote in the OP because I didn't realize it's a huge change from 3 at first. I basically just want the perk's stun to be the same as Head On's, not just on paper though.
Me wanting Sole Survivor to become more useful doesn't mean I don't want the same for other characters; all of the rarely used, really weak perks should be changed. But since I wanted to suggest that change to DS too I decided to put them both on the same post since they belong to the same character. I love Piggy and Ghostie and their perks need a buff too for sure (I like I'm All Ears a lot on some killers though I won't lie)
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No Ds isn't useless vs blight for example,it still gives you an extra health state,that you can pair up with another endurance perk for example,or it can buy time for your teammates to bodyblock.It wastes a lot of the killers time to get hit by ds,and essentially giving you another chance at playing.Yes it doesn't give you dsitance,so?You can still use the pallets and windows to buy more time for your team,its also one of the few anti tunneling perks in the game,actively countering the most effective strategy a killer can employ,calling it a weak perk is disingenuous.As the person above said,it's not meant to give you a free escape from a chase.
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I see, so basically you expect DS as a tunneling perk to fix tunneling once if used correctly. But that's not how this game or any perk works. That's also why the pentimento comparison works, even tho you butter it up to sound like something else. Alone its very bad and that's pretty normal for a lot of perks.
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Man please don't bring back old DS. It was the most miserable thing to encounter as a killer (more than old DH). DS is fine and already used plenty.
Sole survivor could be changed though.
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Sole Survivor is fine as is. The only thing I'd like added is an indicator that it's hiding my aura, but apart from that it has saved me many times.
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Well you're saying that two perks have to be wasted to just strengthen one of them? Isn't he supposed to catch the killer on the tunnel?
It gives you two seconds to really escape from the killer, and the distance between you and the killer will be only 8 meters, and this is very bad.
I didn't see any survivors come to protect me from a killer tunneling me (not all survivors a SWF)
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DS is fully within the killer's control, so I don't see why it has to be fair to the killer if said killer has to fully commit to playing into it.
A competent killer will not be hit by DS.
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Having synergy between perks is completly normal.Dead man switch got nerfed due to its strong synergy with pain resonance,on its own it was a mediocre perk that turned meta due to its pairing.
Its not meant to give you a free escape from a chase,it still allows you to loop your surrounding tiles.Considering you have base bt, chose to go down in a strong area and you are find,there are only 2 anti tunneling perks,that alone makes DS potentially worth running.
I'm not saying its often,but good survivors will,i solo queue only and had many teammates do it for me,and i reciprocated as well.If a killer is tunneling someone it's worth taking hits to keep them in the game for longer
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