Perks shouldn't have tiers anymore. Change my mind.

TL;DR: Read the first set of bullet points.

When the game was first released and had only 45 perks, 4 survivors, and 3 killers, the tier system made sense, and it held up for a long while after as well. In addition, the changes which have been made to bloodwebs in the past has made them easier to deal with, but not perfect.

25 survivor perks at 3 tiers each for 4 survivors = 300 total perk purchases to complete survivor loadouts. 20 killer perks at 3 tiers each for 3 killers = 180 total perk purchases to complete killer loadouts. If we assume 4000 bloodpoints per purchase on average (which I'm sure neither is or was entirely accurate, but for the sake of simplicity) that's 1.92 million bloodpoints to purchase all perks, excluding the rest of the bloodwebs. A lot, but reasonable for new players (which everyone was at the time) to get what they want where they want it.

In the current game, there are 23 survivors, 21 killers, 83 survivor perks, and 75 killer perks.

In my experience, the average level 50, 4/2-perk bloodweb seems to cost about 55,000 bloodpoints to complete, and I'm usually pretty good about gaming the entity to take as much of the bloodweb as possible. This equates to 27,500 bloodpoints per perk tier. Since the majority of the bloodpoints of someone trying to max out will be spent on level 50 bloodwebs, I'll use these numbers for calculations; I believe they should suffice at least to serve my point. I'll also round down to 50,000 bloodpoints per web, or 25,000 per perk tier.

23 survivors * 83 survivor perks * 3 tiers = 5,727 perk purchases. At an average of 25,000 bloodpoints per perk purchase, that equates to 143.175 million bloodpoints. 21 killers * 75 killer perks * 3 tiers = 4,725 perk purchases. At an average of 25,000 bloodpoints per perk purchase, that equates to 118.125 million bloodpoints.

To max out all killers and survivors would cost approximately 261.3 million bloodpoints. (Note: these numbers cannot be directly compared to the aforementioned 1.92 million bloodpoint number, as I didn't take into account the cost of the rest of the bloodweb when purchasing perks.) At a maximum of 32,000 bloodpoints per game (excluding offerings and events) one would have to play 8,166 perfect games to earn that many bloodpoints. At a near ABSOLUTE maximum of 230,400 bloodpoints per game (assuming only perfect games, double bloodpoint event and 5 4th year cakes every game, which is extremely unreasonable) that's still 1,134 games.

In my 1546 hours, I've earned a total of 143 million bloodpoints, averaging ~92k/hour. At that rate, it would take me approximately 2841 hours to max out all characters, if I didn't prestige anyone ever. And using OhTofu as an example, he's earned a total of 812 million bloodpoints in nearly 7000 hours of gameplay, averaging 116,000 bloodpoints/hour. This is likely significantly above average, but even so, it would take 2,253 hours at that rate to have earned enough bloodpoints to max out all characters, ignoring prestige. The large majority of the playerbase will never hope to play that many hours, and those who do/can will likely be prestiging characters anyway. And with the DLC train seemingly stopping no time in the near future, this problem will only get worse, not better.

To be clear: I'm not saying everyone should be easily able to have all perks on all characters, but I do not think it should be so far out of the realm of possibility for a casual player to get the perks they want.

There are also other problems with the perk tier system, in my opinion at least. Some perks are almost not worth running at all until you get them to tier 3. Examples are: Autodidact, Iron Will, and (less so, depending on circumstances) Stridor, Blood Warden, Whispers, Lightweight.

And some perks have nearly no discernible gameplay difference between their tiers. Examples: Better Together, Borrowed Time, Breakout, Mettle of Man, Self Care, Devour Hope, No One Escapes Death, Infectious Fright, Lightborn, Monitor & Abuse. If you include the perks which function exactly the same in-game with the only difference being the amount of bonus bloodpoints you receive, this list gets even larger.

Some perks are better in some (or all) situations at tier 1 than at tier 3. Examples: Discordance, Make Your Choice.

Creating perks for a tierless system would also be easier. With the current perk tier system, perks essentially must be based on a number in some aspect in order for it to differ between tiers. Without this restriction, many more perks become possible additions to the game. Many games function just fine with a perk system like this, in which you either have or don't have a perk; there aren't any levels.

So, for a short list of benefits, a tierless perk system would:

• Make it easier for new players to get into the game in its current state
• Significantly open up the possibilities for future perks
• Open up possibilities for reworking perks
• Entirely eliminate the problem of some perks being useless until you buy them 3 times
• Entirely eliminate the problem of some perks having nearly no differences between tiers
• Entirely eliminate the problem of some perks being better at tier 1 than 3
• Make the bloodweb RNG less infuriating without taking away from the game
• Improve overall game health (in my opinion)

That's not to say there are no problems with this system. I'm sure many veteran players may complain that they spent bloodpoints buying something they didn't need to buy / future players won't need to buy. Personally, as someone with 1500+ hours (which I know in the grand scheme of things regarding this game isn't a ton) I wouldn't mind a change like this going into effect, even if it means I spent bloodpoints newer players won't need to spend, as I see it as beneficial for the game and community. I also believe this logic is flawed, as the health of the game should trump all else. However, I don't believe it would be outside the realm of possibility to give all players bonus bloodpoints based on the perks they've purchased. For example, a possible reward system could look like:

• 1500 bloodpoints for each tier 2 perk owned
• 2500 bloodpoints for each tier 3 perk owned

This would result in a maximum compensation amount of 4.77MM (23 survivors * 83 perks * 2500 bloodpoints) + 3.94MM (21 killers * 75 perks * 2500 bloodpoints) = 8.71 million bloodpoints for someone with all tier 3 perks on all characters.

Altogether, I truly believe that getting rid of perk tiers in DbD would be good for the long-term health of the game, and may even be necessary if DLC continues to get released. New players are frequently overwhelmed by the sheer number of perks and the feeling that they may never have the perks they want where they want to in order to experience the game to its fullest.

What are your opinions? Do you think the perk tier system should go? Should it stay? And why?