New Pain Resonance is peak perk design
I'm in love with this perk now, really. I'm slapping Agitation + Pain Res in most of my killers now and it feels great.
25% of a gen without having to go to it or kick it is insane regression, but the fact that you need to spread hooks to get that value and you also need to worry about scourge hook placement makes it incredibly balanced, and it feels extremely rewarding for me when I play as killer. The last time we had a perk with such a good design and rewarding feeling was No Way Out, which curiously enough, also requires you to spread hooks, and the fun part is that it is a really good pair with Pain Resonance. Having both together means you get a lot of extra time as a reward for playing well and chasing all survivors, I love it.
Ever since the update, when I'm playing with those perks, I lose the urge to tunnel early and I only do it when things go extremely wrong. The fact that I don't have to deal with Dead Hard on the first chase with each of these survivors also gives a good feeling to it.
I know a lot of players are saying that "pain resonance is dead"... it's only dead if you are not that good at chases. I find the conditions of the perk extremely well-designed, and I'm against the idea of making Pain Res not a scourge hook perk.
Let's compare old Pain Res to new Pain Res. On average, how many procs would you get off old Pain Res in a good match? About 6, I'd say. That's 90% total regression, which was obviously good regression, but how much impact did each proc have? 15% was not a lot, that's even the reason why it took some time after Pain Res was released for players to notice that it was a good perk. If you hook someone while the gen with the most progress is on the other side of the map, chances are that they are going to finish that gen anyway before you get there to interrupt it, it's obviously still good that it took longer but that regression didn't necessarily mean you would be able to protect a gen.
With 25%, things are a little bit different. 25% is the same as old PGTW, which was a regression available after any hook but required you to go find a gen and kick it. Even though it took that work, and even though you had to find a gen that was worth kicking it with Pop, people still used it, and why? Because 25% is insane, even when the gens took 80 seconds and not the current 90 seconds. 25% gives you enough space to have a chance of making a generator that was on 90% go to 65%, and then make it slowly regress while you apply pressure in the area, and having that much less progress also means that you still have a chance to defend it even if they get some more progress after you get the regression. You get fewer procs of Pain Res now, but those procs are much more meaningful than before, and remember that that 25% do not require you to go to the gen like old Pop did.
It is a really strong perk, but only gives you value if you play well. You need fast chases to get that regression to be applied on the gens that matters the most, and you need to spread hooks to get the full value. I really like the design, it feels great.