The Unimaginable Truth: 2nd Chance Perks

NOTE: For this test, we will be operating under the understanding that all perks are at T3.

So many people (mostly survivor mains) do not comprehend how strong their over-excessive quantity of 2nd perks effect the game negatively. In order to fathom why this is an issue, you HAVE to understand how these perks effect the game as a whole. This means you need to look at the overall scheme of the game, NOT just your own biased opinion.

First, game facts! (no perks considered)

1. Unbalanced game, heavily favoring survivors. Acceptable and predictable for a 4v1 strategic game.
2. A survivor team that gets annihilated by a killer will still manage to safety pip at red ranks, or even pip-up. The same cannot be said for a killer that is destroyed.
3. Survivors outnumber killers. This is also expected from a 4v1 game. Therefore, as the majority of the community, survivors have to be made happy, but survivors cannot even have a game without a killer player, so I think their side needs properly heard out from time to time.

Those are in-game facts that already ensure a challenging/stressful game for the killer side, but an easy/fun game for the survivor side.

Now let’s jump into perks. We’re going to accurately breakdown why some of these are meta crutches. To help illustrate this, we’re going to pretend that these perks have been created as KILLER PERKS instead of SURVIVOR PERKS.

A. Decisive Strike

What it does: After being hooked, provides a second chance for 60 seconds. This is NOT an anti-tunnel perk as confirmed numerous times. I’m sure you other older players remember when DS was first released...you did NOT have to be hooked to use it. Why? Because it was designed as a 2nd chance, not just a 2nd chance from hooks. The perk gives you a free 2nd chance to reward you for losing multiple chases and (upon successful skill-check) prevents you from being hooked.

How this perk would work if it was designed for killer: Once per match, After a survivor is unhooked, they are cursed with a TELEPORT status effect for 60 seconds. If the player is downed within those 60 seconds, a killer can hit a skill-check to use DS and teleport the survivor to the hook furthest from the killer.

B. Deadhard

What it does: Allows you to dash forward, being immune to attacks for the duration of the animation. Also works as a temporary speed boost to reach a tile you were not quite in range of due to out-position to help lengthen the chase. Can take away free hits from killers, can help an out-chased survivor regain distance.

Now, what if this was a killer perk? What would it do?: Use once every 60 seconds. Perform a lunge attack twice to normal range of your normal lunge. Any survivor within 3m of the killer that is injured is downed. This, like the survivor version, would give a killer a minor speed burst when found outpositioned to end the chase faster.

C. Deliverance

What it does: upon obtaining a safe unhook, you can successfully unhook yourself if you have not been previously hooked. Causes broken for 60 seconds. This adds to the strength of the most powerful thing in the game: generator repair speeds. Now you can completely negate making a teammate get off a generator to save you, resulting in even faster gens, killing a vital piece of map pressure the killer has successfully earned.

How would this work as a killer perk: Once per match, Upon hooking a survivor, progressing generators equalling the number of players alive in the trial are blocked by the entity until the hooked player is unhooked. So if all 4 survivors are still alive, the Entity would block 3 generators that are progressing until the hooked survivor is rescued. Gives the unhooked survivor endurance for 60 seconds.

D. Adrenaline

What it does: Once per game, upon completion of all generators, gives survivor one health slate and increases their movement speed to 150% for 5 seconds, causes exhaustion. This allows players towards the end of the game to focus on rushing gen speeds and not waste time healing. An injured survivor currently in a chase gets a nice speed boost and a new health state to put distance between them and the killer and negate the progress of the current chase the killer has already obtained.

How this would work as a killer perk: Once per match, after all generators are repaired, every survivor loses one health slate and you gain a 150% movement speed for 5 seconds. This means, if you’re on the other side of the map healthy, you are now injured. If you were already injured, you are now in the dying state.

We’ll stop there, but those are just some examples. Could you imagine playing VS a killer using these? The survivors would all rage quit and start playing killer. And yes, I know killer’s have NOED, but as it’s very easily disabled (even before ever being used), it is NOT worth mentioning. But if you insist!

A. NOED

What it does: As long as a dull totem remains on the map, survivors are exposed and you gain a 4% speed increase when the exit gates are powered. This allows a killer to instadown players at the very end of the game.

How this would work as a survivor perk: Nope! I got a better idea!

Let’s say Decisive Strike was only powered by a small magical bush hidden in the map. By attacking this bush 5 times, Decisive Strike is no longer useable. You think killers would have an issue with a small secondary objective that indeed wastes 15 seconds, but counters a strong 2nd chance perk? C’mon, killers would be weedwacking everygame! An easily disabled perk is not worth mentioning.

The goal here, was to help the people that don’t understand how the game works to comprehend why these 2nd chance perks are so meta against killers. It’s the same reason survivors lost the “fear factor” of the game, and now (mostly) have more of a borderline cocky dimeanor. Because they know if they mess up or get out-played, their perks will carry them. If you look at the previously mentioned examples as if they were killer perks, you can see why they’re so crutch. I simply gave the perk the opposite effect.