Distortion nerf
Comments
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I'm aware of that and that's what I've been doing since Behavior announced that they were going to look into the perk. Not all people are familiar with the perk or even know of its existence until their aura is being red which still causes the snowball effect to occur.
I used to lurk the forums years ago and I would always see people say to think of the new killers that play this game when changes were done. In this situation, the perk gives a lot of utility to killers in its current state to cause the snowball to happen without Distortion helping. Killers are already strong enough with their visions of creating a 60% killrate, why punish survivors for a teammate being hooked? Why punish newer survivors playing the game by creating a perk that can singlehandly decimate a solo-queue team? Not everyone that plays this game reads or looks up every single perk like the people do in these forums, which I would argue are enthusiasts of the game. We have probably if I could guesstimate 200+ perks in this game, people do not have the time to study up on a game of this caliber like some exam to git gud.
There are many people who play this game casually and by allowing an oppressive perk that can cause a killer to bing bong between survivors with aura reading, screaming, and the exposed status is too much altogether.
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Boon perks are bad in general, because if you have 30 seconds to set up a boon somewhere, that's 30 seconds (plus travel time) you weren't doing gens, and the killer probably has already seen you by then. Multiply that by each time you set up your boon.
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And BBQ still has a range requirement?
Yes, but none of the newer aura reading perks do. Those all highlight you, even if you're hiding nearby.
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Probably because they're geared towards doing that?
NTH prevents survivors from sticking too close to a gen constantly, Lethal helps with early game and some extra auras to make sure it's not wasted after the first 6 seconds of the game, BBQ is to incentivize going far from hook, Floods of Rage for finding a target post unhook or going for the unhooker and only gets value on unhook, etc etc.
Killers aren't running all of these at once either, they need to pick aura reads to fill in the spaces for their build or killer. Aside maybe Nurse, who we all agree could use a decent nerf to prevent her from being too overbearing with aura reads. And even then, aura read doesn't automatically make you good in chase, it just helps you locate your next chase quicker or assists in mindgames in very specific situations. For example Sadako's Distorted Photo, which I love to use to assist in early mindgames at loops, is ONLY useful in specific situations and doesn't stop survivors from throwing pallets and vaulting windows to keep away.Edit: Except maybe Weave Attunement. That one's getting changed soon though, hopefully to a more fair state.
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I don't think you understand my point.
BBQ & Chili kept pressure up on survivors by directing the killer towards survivors, but the newer aura reading perks do that too, on top of completely removing the survivors' ability to hide. (Save for lockers, which are next on the chopping block)
I know that these perks are working as intended. But just because it is intentional powercreep, doesn't mean it's not powercreep, or not a problem.
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Did we get confirmation on lockers being changed?
Also, no, I didn't misunderstand you. I'm saying if a killer has all aura read to the point people think they do, they're more than likely not going to win unless they're Nurse, or they're also good at loops. Heck I've seen BBQ by itself complained about and I've personally been called a hacker a few times using it on Dredge.0 -
I wasn't talking about killers bringing in 4 aura perks, and I don't know why you think that I was.
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They're not bad if you're the type of person to hop on a gen and do a totem after the gen is done, especially if one is near the gen you were doing.
If you're actively going out of your way to try to find a totem at the beginning of the game, trying to bless it, and then hopping on a generator I'd argue that, yes that is time better well spent.
I remember playing against a full aura reading Nurse months ago with my build of Deja Vu, Circle of Healing, Shadowstep, and Sprint Burst and I was able to buy my fellow teammates time to do gens. Sadly, as you are aware Shadowstep is specific to a boon's radius and she was able to systematically aura read other survivors down while I was the last one alive with gens still remaining. However, I was able to get hatch due to her not being able to find me with what she practically had.
If I didn't have that build, it would have been an easy 4k for that Nurse.
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That's how this is being portrayed though, as if killers are bringing so much aura read there's no way to have a moment without being seen without Distortion. Not saying that's you saying it at all, but that's one talking points I see a lot.
Once you understand and notice which perks the killer has, you can easily work around it.
NTH? Pre-run to a loop instead, or keep your distance to see if the killer approaches despite you hiding, as well as Distortion telling you even post change. Lethal? Distortion will still let you know. Weave tells you when you're effected by it, etc etc.0 -
I think it's pretty common in most games to see two aura reading perks and two gen regressing perks.
A noticeable build you see a lot of the time in top level play is Lethal Pursuer, BBQ and Chili, Pain Resonance, and Pop Goes The Weasel.
It doesn't change how oppressive it is and you can easily swap out an aura perk for another — you could do Pop and Nowhere To Hide as it synergizes well. Regardless, as Firellius claimed there is a powercreep when it comes to the amount of aura reading in the game. It's not necessarily the limited amount of that killers can bring, it's the fact that there are perks that can easily show your aura without any notification for it unlike Hex: Undying for example which notifies you when you pass a dull totem. There are too many aura perks that are tied to specific things that survivors do and it's getting too convoluted to know when, where, and how you were spotted when you're practically unaware that a killer is coming to your direction. There was counterplay with BBQ and Undying as you can guess where the killer is going, but there is no counterplay to the remainder of the stronger ones that Behavior has created — this also causes issues and overlaps with people who are cheating in the game as any little thing can cause aura reading, which is what cheaters do with their wallhacks (making it harder to discern who is cheating and who is not).
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That's why I also suggested this:
We shouldn't try to hang onto Distortion in it's current form, allowing for games to be held hostage in exchange for these defenses. While I do think most aura reads have tells and ways to work around them, I also think survivors should have more reasonable choices too, aside Distortion.
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I agree, but what type of changes would you create for other perks that provide your aura being red? The proposed changes I mentioned like making it so that it's tied to in game mechanics like doing generators is by itself not holding the game hostage, yet another player stated this perceived change would cause less interaction with the killer.
Put simply, there's too much aura reading in the game. I have no idea why we need this much when we simply have tell-tale signs of crows moving to know that a survivor was just there. Additionally, they've made locating survivor scratch marks more discernible as well. Even when Distortion was in the top ten perks - I played Onryo with Spies from the Shadow and I would consistently 4k and I had no aura reading and could easily find survivors simply by spawning to the TVs near my gens or even outright ignoring gens that were not worthy of being defended (they're not my three gens). Killers have so many tools that they could easily utilize, yet when a perk that blocks the extreme amounts of aura reading (this primarily became a conversation at the forefront when Friends Til The End was created) and people couldn't get value from it.
I've also been accused of cheating as well as killer, but that doesn't change my stance on why we need so much aura reading to help a killer — who already has so many advantages and an easier chance to find survivors and keeping pressure on throughout the duration of the game.
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So why not just change the perk so it can't be used for holding the game hostage. Did the perk also need to become substantially weaker?
They could give it three tokens that can't be regenerated till the survivor is chased or hooked. That would keep it's original function, make it weaker against aura builds (instead of making it nearly useless), and stop survivors holding the game hostage.
The devs didn't need to use the sledgehammer.
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Probably for the sake of variety. Again, while there can be lots of aura reading options, it does not mean all forms of aura read are being used that often.
On my own Sadako, I use gen blocking perks to locate where to go next. Stuff like DMS or Thrilling Tremors. And I often get matches where two survivors hide with Distortion instead of assisting their teams, forcing me to scour for 10 minutes going in and out of power using Distorted Photo to try and get them to scream after their friends are dead just so I can find them since I don't have aura read specifically for them and enough of it to burn through the stacks. Even if I don't use aura aside her Distorted Photo, I can recognize just because there's a lot of aura doesn't mean it's always going to be an issue if you can recognize what they run and adapt to it, much like how killer has to adapt to what survivors bring.I do think, however, more options for survivors are welcome for aura blocking as well instead of putting all our horses on Distortion just in general. Survivors should have options for perks they want to try and counter, just as killer should.
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I agree with that too. I never said the change was 100% perfect, just that I understand the justification for the change and that we should be asking for more options instead of depending on one perk for every aura situation.
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Nope. Now killers will bring aura builds and you'll all die quicker 😂
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I just don't know how you can implement aura reading blocking as consistently as Distortion does. The reason why it was used so much was due to the fact that it tells you information about the perk that was used, your aura blocked, and allowed you to do risky behavior such as staying on a generator if BBQ and Chili for example. As I said in some other post, a fun build I had was the combo of Poised (people state how niche it is) and Distortion, both perks complemented one another as killers have gotten so used to not defending a generator if they don't see the aura pop up on a gen. It was a clean getaway and always catch killers off by surprise when a generator would pop and they think no one is there. This supposed change guts that niche build that I came up with on my own, which affects strategy and gameplay adaptability.
Again, there might be people who use the perk maliciously, sure (I've never seen it, but I won't discredit other people's experiences as survivor). However, hammering down on perks and making them a glory of its former self is exhausting to read over and over in patch notes repeatedly. There are many people, Otzdarva included that said that it should stay as a token system and recharge in chase -- that would have been a fine change, but Behavior likes to continuously make these perks so niche to the point that people no longer use these perks, it's actually a disgrace as someone who likes to use different builds and enjoys the element of finding little perk combos that go well together.
On a side note, that is a nice combo for Onryo especially for her needing of information tracking and teleporting.
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I actually think the consistency is the problem, personally. Something being far too consistent will always be an issue, like old 3 gens with Eruption. It was too easy for some survivors to simply hide with Distortion and let their team die for it.
That said, my suggestion to hide aura reads by other means with perks that counter specific aura reads, or at least a decent amount. We can also shift Distortion to 2 stacks every chase or hook to fill in any smaller outliers, since it does counter stuff like NTH and Floods of Rage pretty naturally.
Also thank you, I tend to try very unorthodox builds on my Sadako. Though the DMS nerf is going to make things problematic for my build, but I will find a way around it.1 -
100%, I'm not the strongest looper but if your running the killer best believe I'm cranking that gen for you. But yeh ppl call others rats when there multiple ways of helping your team. If you are sat in a corner doing nothing then yeh that's boring and I don't get why someone would play like that but I barely and I mean BARELY see it. But what I do see is other survivor's causing problems for others when it's NOT warranted.
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This is my belief as well. I would rather someone who isn’t a strong looper work on gens or focus on resets (rescues and healing) than enter a chase where they’re down in a few seconds. This is a bigger hit for the survivors than having distortion and not taking aggro but working on gens or performing other critical roles while a player who can handle a chase does that. One thing about 2v8 that I appreciate was it allowed different survivor styles to shine. For people who liked to play immersed they could spy on the killer, or work on gens. They didn’t have to worry about looping so much (there was a class for that too of course). This attitude should be in the main game as well.
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Yeah, I try to go out of my way to play off-meta builds for situations like perks fundamentally changing.
I have a similar build on my Trapper — Grim Embrace, Pop Goes The Weasel, Corrupt Intervention, and No Way Out. I've never actively played with Pain Res, as I know at some point it'll be nerfed again in some capacity due to it being used in top level play. From my build, Trapper gets all the slowdown he needs as it takes long for him to get started and it prevents him from being "gen-rushed" at the start.
On a more on-topic discussion, I don't think any aura blocking perk will get that much use as much as Distortion did - even now, it isn't in the top used perks but I suspect a rise in aura reading perks from this change and I'm trying to look at it in a more balanced viewpoint. Like I mentioned, I hope Behavior slows down on aura reading perks in the game as it continues pressure for survivors with no downtime to recover -- I think with less recovery time, we see people suiciding on hook and giving up after a certain amount of time which has nothing to do with Distortion from me playing solo-queue.
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Yeh I've had many games where I've been the only one to do gens and I've literally ran across the map to unhook a teammate all for them to rat me out. I'm literally sat there like "I should of let you go next on hook" and it shouldn't be that way.
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I mean if you're booning after the gen is done then you're not getting the Shadowstep benefit while you're on it. And yeah, aura spam Nurse is exactly why perks like Distortion and Shadowstep are necessary in the first place.
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Yeah that's an issue as well. BHVR needs to address situations that make cooperation with the killer possible or appealing. Like you should NEVER be cooperating. Why don't we have more options in these situations?
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I mean cmon people lets stop pretending that distortion is fine and didn't need this adjustment. It nullifies a category of perks just by loading into a match. There's no activation requirement and to gain more stacks all you need to do is be inside the killers TR….
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I actively put Circle of Healing on with Shadowstep attached. It's good to boon areas that the killer won't actively patrol as the killer more than likely won't go to edge map if the gen was already popped there.
It allows an area where a survivor can freely run into the boon radius to get the effects that you need and keeps the boon standing as long as possible rather than putting the boon in easily accessible areas where a gen is being worked on.
In the example I gave, I believe there was no gens that even popped and the killer just used her aura reading to find a survivor one after another and she couldn't find me as I was in the boon radius itself.
It all depends on how the game is going, but in that situation - I didn't do a gen and then boon given that she would find people with Lethal, BBQ, Nowhere To Hide, and an another aura read perk (probably Darkness Revealed) I can't remember as it was a while ago. Boons can be helpful if you know when to put them up and not excessively rely on wasting time setting it up.
In the example I gave doing gens was pretty fruitless as a full aura reading Nurse can be quite punishing on solo-queue by practically giving the nurse permanent wallhacking.
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