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Okay: now tackle distortion
Distortion is permanent aura blocking on standard TR killers. It gains tokens quickly both in and out of chase. If you have one or two aura reading perks it's permanently active. The only times I've ever ran out of tokens is vs a full aura huntress who has a very small terror radius.
Look: if you're gonna gut every game stall option you have to give killers something else. Powerful chase and information perks are the natural alternative. Distortion singlehandedly suffocates one of those. Make it gain tokens more slowly. Make it not gain them in chase. There's plenty of evenhanded options that leave the perk good without negating aura perks entirely.
Comments
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They aren't free if they have activation requirements such as hooking a survivor or if they take up 1/4th of my perk slots I could just run consistent regression perks in. That's a cost.
Every killer you can think of loses survivors during, before and after chase. Having strong options to mitigate that only helps perk diversity.
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I don't think distortion is a particularly strong perk, but I think it's unreasonable to nullify so many killer perks and crush options for other stealth perks.
Moreover, since it can be reused even in the second half of the game, it becomes extremely difficult to play hide-and-seek when there are only two players left, which is one of the reasons why the game lasts longer. Depending on the killer's build, especially if both players are wearing it, you may be able to give up, turn your back on the edge of the map, and head to eat or shower in real life.1 -
These are my thoughts exactly. It's not op or gamebreaking or anything. It just easily nullifies an entire suite of perks and makes it difficult to justify bringing them.
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After I saw the developers want to nerf Deadlock, BGP, Pain, and Pop (which is good btw.) I was surprised they didn't nerf Distortion too. In my opinion Distortion is an unhealthy (not op just unhealthy) perk for the metagame because it makes aurareadingbuilds useless which leads killers into playing four slowdownperks because this is more reliable. Distortion never really runs out of tokens because it is very easy to gain new tokens, especially on maps like Salon, Midwich or The Game. It also forces the killer more to tunnel due to the passive nature of the Distortion players. On the other hand, Distortion hurts SoloQ because it leads users to play more selfish and passive.
A good rework - in my opinion - would be if Distortion gains it tokens during a chase. With this the perk would be still good but also healthy for the metagame (either the survivor keeps playing passive and then the killer gets the aurareading of them or the survivor starts to be more activ to have the tokens for later). The idea of this perk is good and can be helpful when paired with other perks like Deliverance but in it's current state is more of an unhealthy perk that hurts both sides more than it helps.
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should start with 1 token
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Yes, because the survivor spent BP on that item and is forgoing a medkit or toolbox. That's not free.
To be clear I don't actually run aura perks. Like at all. You know why? Whenever I get an itch to try it like alien instinct on onryo or lethal and lav mic on dredge, I load into lobbies where half my perks are just dead. It feels really bad and makes those perks feel pointless, so I just switch back to my more reliable load outs. That sucks. It's bad for the game. Perk variety is good.
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This would not really fix the problem. Starting with 1 token might limit its potential early-game but it would still be very easy to get the tokens back. The problem with Distortion is that it has a token system meant to limit its use, but that token system recharges too easily to actually be much of a limiting factor in most cases. I don't use Distortion that often, but when I do use it I usually only ever run out of tokens if you are against a killer with a small terror radius like Huntress, or a stealth killer. Usually from playing against the perk it just means I never see that survivor's aura the entire game. It's basically a hard-counter to aura reading with no restrictions in 95% of cases.
The change I would make to Distortion is to not have the token recharge be based on the terror radius anymore, and instead have the perk recharge 1 token for every 25 seconds spent in chase with the killer. This allows it to be recharged slightly faster in chase and allows it to be recharged against stealth killers more easily (making it more consistent vs. all killers), but it ensures that you have to actually engage with the killer in order to recharge it at all. If you don't, you won't regain any tokens and you'll run out.
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Junpscare so I run full aura on my ghostface (super op and fun). At most I have one person in the lobby with distortion and it effects nothing. Even when I run sniper builds with just bbq it doesn’t effect me much. Just don’t rely on aura reading, it’s just a fun commodity
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You're running one of the edge cases where distortion won't do anything. For standard terror radius killers it counters aura reading completely. There is no dependency. I would like to have the option to run an aura perk or two.
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I run aura perks on killers that aren’t stealth too. Like artist, nurse, huntress, and billy. Distortion isn’t much of a problem. It has a 10% usage. Not like the entire lobby is using it. I’ve never had more than one person in my lobby run distortion, and I still find em pretty easy. It’s not that deep. Especially since there’s half a million aura reading perks on killer that are very common with usage. Lethal and bbq are both in the top 5 used killer perks. Distortion isn’t. Meta needs a counter.
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I'm not saying that it is overpowered or that it makes my games difficult. As previously stated I do not really run aura builds. When I do though, I find them entirely countered by a single perk. Because they are trivially countered by this perk, it disincentivizes running aura perks at all in favor of more reliable game stall. My belief is that this is bad for the game. That's the argument.
Moreover BBQ is definitely the most trivially countered aura perk. You hop in a locker on hook and count down a few seconds. If you're vs a billy, wesker blight or huntress then it's safe to assume they have it and you should do it anyway.
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I think it’s just you mate. Doesn’t decentivise me in the least or affect me very much at all. Half the time I don’t even notice
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Distortion is fine. For the assumed Distortion-crouching-in-the-corner-jimmo stacks are gone rather quicky as they tend to leave TR as soon as they enter it.
Running a one-sided build is always a risk - an all-aura-reading-build is no different. Though, having at least one perk that removes stacks at a distance (Gearhead is actually pretty good at that - but also Darkness Revealed, Murmur and Undying) is very helpful with making people run out of Distortion stacks. - Also, bringing only one aura perk and calling it an aura reading perk is just running the risk of one perk being countered by another which is kinda how it should be.
The issue with Distortion isn't actually an issue with Distortion but with survivor perks: If you don't like your aura being read for any reason at any time Distortion is your only option with one exception; those that only want their aura being hidden after they've been unhooked can opt for OTR. Everyone else has to use Distortion. Even those that just want to know if a killer has aura read but don't care if their aura gets seen or not.
Before any change is done to Distortion Survivors need at least two more perks that address aura read by killers in some way; a perk that doesn't actually do anything, except telling you and your team when their aura is being read. A perk that functions maybe more like OoO where if a killer reads your aura, you can see the killer too. Maybe a counter-perk that only activates if you're within x meters of the killer, for those that really don't like NTH and All ears but don't really care about the rest. Idk. There are options that help deal with Killer aurea read and help adjust the playstyle accordingly that don't involve hiding the aura every time / have a different mechanic than Distortion.2 -
...... If you don't notice when one of you perks doesn't function, it sounds like you're rather unobservant.
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Equating hooking or downing a survivor with free is certainly a stretch. whats free is distortion giving you max stacks automatically. Also, if not auras or slowdown what are killers supposed to run?
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Aura reading has been part of the game since 2016. That would remove an integral part of DBD.
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My fix:
- Starts with 1 token
- Regain 1 token for being chased by the killer for 15s to am maximum of 3 tokens
My main issue with Distortion is, that it gives stealth for stealth. With my change that problem is fixed. OTR is quite similar as it gives you stealth for 80s after getting unhooked. But to get it, the killer has to find and hook you first. You don't get it by hiding all day.
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I disagree, by this logic an exhaustion perk is handholding and should be removed. Most aura perks require a skilled action in reward for information. Information that requires skill to use effectively. Despite its clear similarities to popular cheats I believe it has a place in the game. This extends to survivor aura perks as well, though they are less powerful.
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”hand holding”
Wanna know what else is hand-holding
-any exhaustion perk
-any passive perk
-any perk that rewards players
-any perk
EVERY perk gives you a reward, saying aura is hand holding yet saying a 150% movement speed isnt is contradictory. Passive perks are always hand holding. Also. You say you use huntress and aura isnt a issue with you,clearly you never do long distance snipes because you need insane game sense and some aura.
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And I explicitly don't use aura perks because distortion makes them inconsistent compared to game stall. Yet here we are.
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it’s not that I don’t notice…it’s that it doesn’t make a difference. I still find them rather quick and if not there are several others with bright auras. Plus if you’re good enough the tokens will go away pretty quick unless they’re always in your radius. But at that point it’s on you for never finding them despite being so close. You have a 1 in 10 chance of running into distortion. It ain’t that deep.
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I always found auras as a cheapskate move to reduce the scouting for both survivor and killer. IF you want to reduce Distortion reduce the means and limit the range of aura reading all over make it more rare or weaker.
Edit better yet make Distort two tier
Example
Distortion starts with 3 tokens and the usual hide within terror radius
Press X to switch mode
Mode 1 Drain one token Killer gets an audio alert instead in the general area of the distort perk
Mode 2 Drain 3 tokens Distort instead blocks aura reading for 5/10/15 secs1
