If they were to nerf Dead Hard, what would the nerf be?

Here's how I think the devs would change it if they had to

They'd make it automatic aka the first time the killer swings at you and if that swing would hit you auto-dead hard.

The only reason they'd do this is to address 'DH for distance' which is what everyone complains about DH for and calls it unfair/no counterplay and so on.

But a usage cap wouldn't change anything about DH mechanically. The only a cap would do is just punish survivors for being able to survive and make it through multiple chases, as well further limiting their manuel input in chases. More importantly it would just "feel" bad.

A automatic feature would just feel really bad, not only would it be annoying for the killer but it would probably just screw the survivor by having it send them into a wall or a completely opposite direction. Plus there would be a lot of jank as to what would "register" as a hit that would connect or not

Personally, I'd remove the i-frames so that you have to use it for distance preemptively instead of just guaranteeing you can correct a mistake at almost any point in a loop.

This would also make it so that it doesn't just unnecessarily dumpster Trapper (Dead Harding over traps) and remove a lot of the annoyances of playing against it like having to ride a survivor's back for several seconds to see if they have it.

I think there would have to be a few balance changes to accompany a Dead Hard nerf though. Nurse, Spirit, and maybe Blight would have to be nerfed as I think Dead Hard is keeping them in check and everyone would start running Sprint Burst so maybe that would have to be looked at as well. Or maybe Mindbreaker would become meta in response to a Sprint Burst meta.

Invincibility frames instead of propelling you forward, that way it remains the way it was intended to dodge a killers attack instead of being a free loop extender.

Remove the invincibility frames and keep it for distance 🙂

In the hands of a novice, yes. The real reason Dead Hard is used so often is because it is the easiest stamina perk to use after those nerfs to Balanced landing. In the hands of a skilled player(s) that know what they are doing Sprint burst as well as Lithe are very strong. The reason you don't see Sprint burst very often is because of the penalty, most players don't know how to deal with the movement penalty or use the speed effectively so they'll waste it running to a generator or worse combo it with Urban evasion.

If you nerf Dead Hard all you will do is get people to switch to Lithe or Sprint burst, and when players finally get over that hump its gonna be pretty annoying having those be the meta let me tell ya. Its the same thing that happened when BL got nerfed and likewise for killers we just move on to the next best perk what will we do then, demand a nerf again? All we do by doing this is kill the variety of the game even further by making the meta more and more rigid, perks should be strong on both sides it gives the players agency

And Dead Hard is nowhere near as strong as it used to be thanks to the map changes. It can't clear a survivor from a dead-zone, it can't buy them an escape from a generator, nor save them if they are caught in a empty field its designed purely for pallet looping and nothing more

I'd rather deal with Lithe or Sprint Burst against good players. Look at all of the exhaustion perks in their current state.

• Lithe
• Dead hard
• Head on
• Sprint Burst
• Balanced Landing
• Smash Hit

Lithe is not efficient. All it does is let you move from one loop to another. You can't loop as effectively with it, because vaulting a window will use it early on in the chase. You could drop pallets earlier, but then you are using up the pallets early to save your Lithe which i don't think is a good use of the perk. Pallets are gone permanently, and a "wasted" Lithe comes back in 40 seconds. When i see Lithe as a killer, i have options. I can abandon the current chase, go after someone else and i didn't really "waste" anything, because i likely got a hit or not, but either way the Lithe was used very early in the chase, which allows me to save my time, go chase someone else, and note the survivor has Lithe and plan for it next time by knowing they are likely going to vault that window rather than fake it to get their Lithe and I can start cutting them off early.

Sprint burst is also not efficient, it can't effectively be used in a chase unless you "99" it. If you 99 it, you can't do anything other than hold shift w, or else it will be ready to be used again, so you can't stop to repair generators. Additionally, in order to not use it, you have to walk around everywhere. Smart survivors will know this and use it to sprint to a gen quickly and use the time working on the gen to wait for exhaustion, but if the killer comes before it is up, you have no sprint burst. Also, as a killer, i can bait it out. I can run toward a gen with the survivor with sprint burst, watch them run and waste it, then quickly abandon, but then quickly double back as they go to work on the gen. I can also abandon the chase, because it happens at the start of the chase so it is easy to pick someone else to go after.

Balanced landing is very hard to use and is heavily map dependent. It is also usually super obvious when a survivor has it, because they run for the otherwise useless hills. I can prepare for it, plan for it, and deal with it. The only exception to this is Haddofield, but that has it's own problems.

Smash hit requires a pallet stun. I can respect the pallets harder if i know the survivor has it, or i can not, and if i get pallet stunned, what happens? It just ends the chase. Often i will break the pallet anyway which again, ends the chase, Smash hit just ends the chase harder and forces me to pick someone else. Ok, no big deal, because i often want to do that anyway.

Head on can't really be used in chase without comboing with other perks, and doesn't grant as much distance as the others. Also, you can bait it out, have them jump out of the locker, and then what? They go down.

Dead hard for distance has no counter, and no downside compared to all of the other perks.

They should make it so that a survivor can't vault or drop a palled 5 seconds after the dash. This way it can't be abused.