http://dbd.game/killswitch
My Survivor Perk Tier List
I had some free time waiting for some contractors that never showed over the past few days, so I decided to sift through all one hundred and fifty something survivor perks so I could place them on a tier list. First I'll show the tier list, then I'll give some reasoning and context.
Tier list:
Now, some clarification.
For the tiers, "Exceptional", "Very Good", and "Decent/Viable" should be fairly self explanatory.
"Undertuned" refers to perks that don't quite meet the bar for being Decent, but do have some limited applicability and/or are just held back by something. Something like Calm Spirit's effect being fine but having too harsh of a downside, or Rapid Response being broadly pretty decent in design but hard to use because of its low duration. They have a good best case scenario, or they're juuuuuust barely not quite in the tier above.
"Interacts W/ Undertuned Mechanics" is basically just, these perks would be fine if chests were more plentiful and worth it at a baseline. They don't need to be changed, chests need to be changed. Also the one Luck perk. Self explanatory.
"Bad" is also self explanatory. These perks just aren't worth it even in their best case scenarios.
"Meme" isn't worse than Bad, it's just for perks where the point of running them is that they're funny, not that they're good. Some are decent, some are undertuned, but rating them on anything other than them being funny would be misleading. Flashbang is here because I'm unsure of it after the nerfs and it does have the "this is fun to attempt to use" quality so, not unfitting.
"Shouldn't Exist" is for perks that are just flat out unhealthy. They vary wildly in effectiveness, and their most effective scenarios are flat out awful to face or just awkward for some other reason. They need reworks. They're not necessarily the only perks to need reworks, but they're the ones that warrant their own tier.
For how to rate these perks I mostly wanted to rate how good they are at doing their job in isolation, then factoring in a few things like helping out solo queue being a bonus and requiring SWF to be a detriment, or having strong synergies with varied other perks being a boost to perks that are only okay on their own. Perks are loosely ordered within tiers (except the bottom two because they're not a strength rating at all), but I'm not married to specific ordering.
Broadly speaking I think fewer perks are bad or undertuned than some might suspect. That's not to say all of these decent perks are equally desirable to any given player, of course, but they're perfectly alright at their jobs.
also did you guys know it's Empathic Connection and not Empathetic Connection I could've sworn it was the second one before double checking the effects on the wiki
Comments
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You think power struggle shouldn't exist? Its very situational.
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The thing about Power Struggle is that it's basically impossible to get value from it unless you're forcing the killer into really annoying lose/lose scenarios. It's not a perk that'll activate unless you force it to, and the ways players have available for doing that tend to be deeply frustrating.
I'd love to see it reworked sometime. I had an idea a little while ago for making it anti-tunnel, but really anything that fixes the way it currently is would be fine.
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All my homies hate Boil Over.
Good to see DH properly placed.
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Glad I'm not the only one that sees the value of lucky break!
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That perk is crazy good, probably one of the most underrated perks in the game.
Not one I personally use much, but it has a ton of really achievable potential.
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"Clean Break" in very good and "Second Wind" in a tier below it is kind of criminal I'm ngl
Clean Break feels like a Killer perk a lot of the time, you're actively opting to stay broken for an entire minute when you COULD have been healed by your teammate since that's it's activation window
Meanwhile Second Wind's countdown activates at a very important time (Being unhooked) and is only 20 seconds.
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The thing about Clean Break is that you're completely capable of activating it when you're not likely to be in danger for a while, and then you can just hop on generators and be entirely efficient. Second Wind only activates twice, and while it's definitely good, I don't think it matches the flexibility of Clean Break.
They're both good perks, but I genuinely think Clean Break is the better pick in a lot of situations. It allows for great efficiency across multiple uses, and while Second Wind is similar, it's more restricted in ways I think make it a bit weaker.
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Yelp, my build is not very meta by the looks of it lol
Seems the best of my perks in the list is: For the People!
Half of my build is in decent/viable: boon expo and plot twist
And the other slot which I rotate between: mirror illusion and blast mine 😅
With my trusted item being the special burrito (map to find totems lol)
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Clean Break isn't really that efficient though.
You have to heal a survivor first (32s since 16s x 2 survivors) then have that survivor try to heal you and THEN you trigger a 60s broken timer which yes, you can do other things during the timer but you're an incredibly easy target compared to if you had just let the teammate heal you and you had both health states available
Sure on paper it SOUNDS efficient but that time isn't really that important if you end up chased and going down in half the time because you weren't healthy.
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Sole Survivor + Clairvoyance is the current meta for lone wolf builds.
Lone wolf is an awful playstyle, that should be nerfed. But it's currently the best perk combo for survivors trying to escape streak.
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Finally someone that gets No Mither. 😎 Sure it's not great in every situation, but it's a lot more pliable than it's given credit for.
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Eh, I really don't think that one specific pairing does all that much to raise Sole Survivor. Most of the heavy lifting is done by Clairvoyance here, Sole Survivor is just insurance in case the hatch spawns next to the killer.
There are other perks in the Bad column that have very specific "kind of okay" builds like that, namely Self Care, but I don't think that outweighs how bad the perks are outside of that context.
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I used to use Visionary a lot and wish they'd make it so you can see all the gens. It should be a perk that let's you be smart about what gens you do. But limited gen auras AND a cooldown is just silly. Like please give me a reason not to use Deja Vu, I'm begging you.
Small Game is another I used to use a lot, for hex hunting. I'd go back to it if it would show the aura of the totem too, if you're a few meters away. As is, it's application is so limited.
Boil Over is possibly the most annoying perk for me as killer.
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Adrenaline is terrible imo.
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not terrible, just far more situational now in solo q. in a swf, the perk is still S tier since they can 99 the last gen and wait for everyone to be in a good spot where adrenaline is at a good time to activate (getting off hook or all 4 survs injured with adren). other than that, i would not use this perk in solo q since it’s a double gamble if the perk will even work.
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Pretty good list overall, and I very much appreciate finally seeing a tier list that appropriately lists Clean Break as a good perk, I run it a lot and it's massively slept on imo.
Specialist belongs in the category with the other chest perks, if chests were buffed it would be much better.
Prove Thyself should be in decent. It's not what it used to be, but I don't think it's undertuned.
DH/DS/Windows of Opportunity should all be much higher.
Empathic Connection should be in very good. 35% heal speed is quite noticeable and the info is very good for your teammates, not just to get healed by that person but also in chase for example as if I am injured and someone else has the perk, I know which generator they are doing and can avoid taking the killer there.
I think Lucky Break should be a tad bit lower. It's good, but I don't think it's consistent enough to fit in with all the other meta perks at the top.
Cut Loose should be in the bad category. It is way too restrictive and difficult to use, the duration is too short and the 45 second cooldown doesn't match its strength at all. I was actually really disappointed it didn't get a buff when a bunch of the other survivor deception perks got cooldown reductions a few months ago.
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Hmmm. Pretty solid, there are a few I'd move a little, but it's typically is only 1 spot up or down...
The only exception for me is maybe Blast Mine, since it's aura reveal and checkmate on the killer can be pretty good. If you place it on a key gen, you can alert your team you're working in that gen, and get some help to finish it. If the killer turns up, they can't kick it without losing a pretty decent patch of time for other actions to complete, and if they leave it to chase you, you have to gen marked for another Survivor to pick it up. It admittedly has a bit of a SoloQ Empathic Connection problem of "you can see me... why have you brought the killer here", but I'd call Blast Mine more than a meme.
On that note... I knew it was Empathic Connection... doesn't stop me spelling it as Empathetic every time zi want it xD
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As someone who highly enjoys both Blast Mine and Scene Partner, I will agree that they definitely fall into the "meme" category.
I also always bring Botany and Iron Will for the unconditional value they bring. 50% faster heals is a no brainer, cutting the time by 4 seconds. Those 4 seconds can be the make or break moment. Iron Will is perfect for my build, considering I don't use Exhaustion perks, but I can still get some nice and long chases, or cheeky escapes with it.
While Blast Mine is considered a meme perk, it actually provides decent "reverse slowdown".
And Scene Partner is the DEFINITION of a meme perk, but the aura read you get from it is actually very good. And it has the side effect of sometimes making the killer fall in love with you.0 -
That's why it's terrible imo. It used to be situational but still potentially really powerful to far too situational to useful in solo-queue
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Finesse is overrated.
Decisive and Windows of Op. are top perks.
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Lucky Break is the one perk that almost never comes out of my build(s). Unless you take the hit in a dead zone, it's almost a guaranteed chase win. And unless you don't get hit or get hit in a dead zone, you will get value from it.
WoO and DH are wildly overrated by many. I think they're well placed. DH is the ghost of the rotting corpse of what it used to be. Even in the hands of good players, getting value depends largely on the killer making a mistake. DH used to be the bane of my existence when playing killer. Now it's an easily baited afterthought.
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Loved Fast Track back when I played survivor, but i never saw anyone else using it. Definitely slept on
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