DbD's perk design is bad
Whenever a new perk gets added into DbD it often feels like the devs played a round of roulette with random attributes on each number. And then combined all of the results into the new perk. To showcase exactly why this is, I'll be using two perks on both the survivor and killer side as examples.
I'll start with a survivor perk first. Boon: dark theory.
This perk requires so many things before a survivor can even begin to get value from it.
- The survivor must find and bless a totem.
- The boon must be in a location where the survivor can loop.
- The survivor must be chased by the killer within the boon's radius.
- The killer has to ignore the totem during the chase.
And even after all of these conditions are fulfilled all you get is a measly 2% speed boost. Now there might be a scenario where that 2% makes the difference between getting hit or dropping a pallet in time. But the speed is so difficult to make use of that you'll rarely ever be in a situation to be affected by it in the first place.
Now compare that one of the newest survivor perks: Made For This
The difference in power is staggering.
MfT has only half the requirements to activate compared to dark theory, those being be injured and not exhausted, both of which are extremely easy conditions to meet. It also gives 3% haste instead of 2%. Which sounds small. But is mathematically 50% extra speed compared to dark theory!
And not only is MfT easier to activate and gives more haste, it also has yet another benefit. By giving you endurance whenever to heal someone. It is fundamentally better than dark theory in every way.
Keep in mind that the point of this post isn't talking about how strong/weak perks are. But rather how good/bad the design of the perks are. And in a game like DbD with multiple perks options its important for build variety that as many perks as possible be worth using.
Since dark theory is an objectively worse version than MfT, there's no reason to run it when players have limited perk slots. And if players have no reason to run a perk, then it isn't well designed. And I'm left wondering why dark theory was blatantly power crept into irrelevance instead of being buffed.
Now for the first killer perk. Grim Embrace.
The effect of this perk is very underwhelming for the effort required to activate it. Hooking every single survivor isn't easy and takes a lot of time. Especially for killers that don't have powers that help in chases. So although being able to halt all gen progression for the next 40 seconds isn't bad, it is not as rewarding in proportion to the amount of work needed to hook every survivor.
The aura reading it grants is also bizarrely limited to the obsession. Despite the perk having nothing to do with the obsession mechanic. And doesn't even give value if the obsession is the final survivor to be hooked.
Now compare it to next perk: Deadlock.
Whereas grim embrace requires you to hook everyone to trigger the gen block, deadlock triggers automatically after a gen is completed. Which is so easy to activate you can get value out of it by literally being AFK.
Not only that, but it can activate multiple times. Blocking gens for a total duration of 120 seconds overall. Dwarfing the 40 seconds of grim embrace. There is no reason to use grim embrace when deadlock is easier to activate and blocks gens for longer.
These examples show a pattern with most of the perk design in DbD. Where a collection of perks help with a certain task or situation, but one perk is definitively strongest than all of the others for doing that task or being in that situation. Which leads to everyone using that single perk and rarely if ever using the others. Which has lead to the incredibly stagnant meta that has plagued DbD for years.
Despite some of the strongest perks in the game being changed as the game has been updated over time, there has never been a single time in the game's entire lifespan where there was a big selection of perks for both sides to choose from that were viable. Because although the amount of perks has never been higher, the design philosophy behind them has never changed. That being: seemingly nothing at all.
To harken back to the start of this post, perks really do seem to be designed on the whim of a roulette wheel. With no consistency with power level, viability, or even general use in mind. It really seems like the devs haven't learnt anything from their 7+ year experience developing this game and are still throwing stuff at the wall to see what works.
Comments
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Well thought out, thanks.
They monetize like a mobile game company does. Predatory. Obsolescence.
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I agree for the most part. The constant use of FOMO when it comes to cosmetics and arbitrarily making certain sets only purchasable with real money, and others purchasable with enough time, is really scummy. Especially for a PC game that you have to pay upfront to play.
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Grim Embrace. The 40sec that if all 4 survivors hiding make the perk totally useless. But if you're chasing a survivor for 40sec while Gens dont progress, its another story.
Dead Lock is also pointless if the most progressed Gen is 10%. But its a rare case and it happens for 4 times per match.
Dark theory and MFT, everyone agree.
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Grim Embrace is also mostly useless if survivors manage to repair a gen just before it activates. Letting them focus on heals/saves while they wait out the 40 seconds. It really needs a buff.
Deadlock is practically guaranteed to get at least some value every game because survivors cannot avoid triggering it unless they never spread out repairs. Which is a very bad idea as it can lead to them 3-genning themselves. I think it's pretty dumb that the killer can get up to 2 minutes of gen block time by doing nothing.
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I dont really think that you can buff Grim Embrace. At least not with the current effect. 40 second of all Gens being blocked is not enough, I would agree on that. But you cannot really increase the time. I mean, 2 minutes of all Gens being blocked in a situation where the Map already was drained of ressources would be too much for example.
When it comes to Deadlock, I dont know why they never thought about nerfing it. It is just a stupid design, the Killer gets value by doing exactly nothing. And I mean it, it is a Perk which is very good when camping. It is already not possible to do 5 Gens while one person is on the Hook, but having to deal with Deadlock on top of it means that Survivors probably can get 3 Gens done max during those 2 minutes the person on the Hook is camped. Free value without any input.
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The way I see it is that BHVR is way too careful when it comes to Perk Design. Look at Dark Theory, it is just bad. In general, Boons are a failed concept because except for CoH, which was most likely a Cashgrab to promote a Survivor only-Paragraph, all of them have been bad and even CoH is nuked into uselessness. Made for This is strong, but also less careful designed, because Perks like Dark Theory are just not really good and should not exist. And IMO it is better if they release strong Perks which might even be a talking point, instead of releasing Perks where everyone is just like "Eh, whatever".
Killers have it better in this regard, they usually get at least one Perk which is either universally good or at the very least good on some Killers. But for the most part, before Made for This and CoH, Survivors did not really get good Perks for years.
But I prefer them releasing Perks like Made for This and Deadlock over Perks like Dark Theory or Grim Embrace. The problem is, you will rarely find Perks which are fun for both sides and strong as well. Most of the time the fun Perks (especially when they should be fun for both sides) are not good. And the strong Perks are not perceived fun for the other side.
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I can think of a way Grim Embrace could be buffed without being overbearing. The changes are as follows:
- Change the 5 seconds of aura reading on the obsession to be on all survivors. The perk has nothing to do with the obsession anyway. And the map-wide aura reading would help the killer capitalize on the gens being blocked.
- Increase the time gens remain blocked to 50 seconds. This is a no-brainer change. If the killer goes out of their way to hook every survivor they deserve more downtime.
- Let the perk be reactivated. This massively increases the potential value of the perk if the killer avoids tunnelling. And helps put it on par with Pain Resonance. Since PR effectively gives survivors an extra gen to repair after hooking everyone. And the buffed Grim Embrace would do the same if the killer gets all 8 hooks. Which is very fair for the effort required.
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depending on the killer the 50 seconds might be rough, because thats almost the time of a full hook stage, so this might lead to camping :/
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