Does anyone else use anything but crutch perks?

Yeah i generally don't use meta Perks, but way more because they're not fun to me than any other reason.

I mean, Hex: Ruin + Hex: Undying for example: It can gets you lots of time, but there's no direct effect.

I love downing a Survivor from my uncloak super-lunge using any form of Exposed.

I'd use multiple Exposed Perks over that combo any day.

I like mixing things from time to time. Perk roulette is actually super fun, the other day I got a super ######### build with deathslinger (Spirit fury, distressing, huntress lullaby and mountrous shrine) and still managed to make it work

Depends if you can or not and the context. Usually I don't see many options as a killer because builds depend on the perks I have available or the killer's power and capacity to make pressure, specially on red ranks. But for survivor I can change more depending on team, otherwise I will use those that feel more effective in the long run. I don't know if you are making judgment of people using meta perks, but if you are, you are wasting your time really. Meta are meta because they are more effective and most people will use perks that are effective, some don't need them altogether or like to meme, more than survive, but you can't expect people to agree with your playstyle and be judged because they think otherwise.

Also crutch is a ridiculous way to put it in my perspective. If something is way too overpowered as it seems to be the meaning people use as crutch, since apparently people think others win because DS or because ruin, you should suggest changes to those and see if your argument holds true, not trying to change how people play the game, that won't happen, I guarantee.

As survivor, I use perks that bonk killers trying to be too efficient (DS), guarantee safe unhooks (BT), heal unhooked survivors faster (WMI), and earn more bloodpoints (WGLF).

This is my go to build as survivor.

Unfortunately, these "crutch" perks are used so much because they're incredibly powerful. Even for incredible survivors with thousands of hours in the game, they're pretty much objectively the best perks in the game.

DS forces killers to either ignore you (and risk you getting back up) or waste a ton of time, both of which can easily win games. It's one of the few perks that can completely change a match in an instant, and it's by far the best anti-tunnel perk in the game. If the game had better anti-tunnel mechanics (though I don't know what those could be), you'd probably immediately see DS's usage drop, and it would leave room for it to be nerfed.

BT allows you to just completely disregard killers who camp around hook, and as such is basically mandatory to use at higher ranks, especially against high mobility killers.

You can write things like this for pretty much all of the meta perks. They're meta because they're incredibly powerful, and at high-level play you have very little reason to run anything else. The same happens on the killer side with ruin + undying + pop being run on every single killer. You're probably not going to see people run other perks unless there's significant rebalances to perks (a lot of perks are frankly useless or so incredibly situational that they almost never come up unless you heavily play into them, meanwhile stuff like DS, BT, Ruin, Pop, etc. can be used in every single match and require zero playstyle adjustment), and I don't think we'll ever see a rebalance like that.

I have no qualms with using some of the meta perks that I derive genuine enjoyment from (like Dead Hard, STBFL, etc), but otherwise I usually only run the other meta options if they either relate to a build I'm playing with (such as Unbreakable + Tenacity + Flip Flop) or if I'm just filling an empty slot not needed for one of those builds.

Though lately I've mostly been playing around with a locker-shocker build and the classic Shaman (a.k.a. "5-Totem") build on some killers. Variety is the spice of life.

...and cinnamon. Cinnamon is also the spice of life.

I use perks that fit the character I'm playing. For example:

Zarina // For the People, Dead Hard, Soul Guard, Unbreakable

Meg // Sprint Burst, Fixated, Hope, Adrenaline

Otherwise, I use what I think is fun, such as anything like unhooking based perks or anything that fills a niche like all exhaustion lol.

I don't use DS.

I was using ace in the hole, plunderer's, appraisal and deception... Until they nerfed the crap out of appraisal this morning and deception wouldn't even work 90% of the time. So I went back to my basic b!tch build - ds, dead hard, iron will and self care

Depends on what you define as crutch perks but my main survivor build is "BT, We'll Make It, Saboteur, and Inner Strength"

Now someone could argue that Inner Strength is a crutch because I don't like to play injured or could argue that BT is a crutch because free hits or whatever.

But the way I see it, 3 out of 4 of my perks are purely altruistic and meant for saving people and the last encourages me to look for totems AND has the bonus of healing me without needing a teammate.

Profile picture checks out

Enduring on Nurse is my guilty pleasure. Watching people think they're slick with stunning me with a pallet just for me to recover instantly and blink on them is deadass hilarious