We have temporarily disabled The Houndmaster (Bone Chill Event queue) and Baermar Uraz's Ugly Sweater Cosmetic (all queues) due to issues affecting gameplay.

Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on these and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
The Dead by Daylight team would like your feedback in a Player Satisfaction survey.

We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.

Access the survey HERE!

Furtive Chase buffed - Still not good on its own even after the buff?

dugman
dugman Member Posts: 9,713

One of the changes coming up this PTB is Furtive Chase is getting a buff.

Furtive Chase

Furtive Chase has found its way into some niche builds and can be a lot of fun to experiment with. However, losing all your tokens when the Obsession is killed leaves you without a perk for the rest of the match. So, we’re getting rid of the restriction: You’ll no longer lose your tokens if the Obsession dies.

So the perk will now read something like this for reference

Furtive Chase

You become obsessed with one Survivor.

You lurk in the shadows, eliminating your victims one by one.

Each time you hook your Obsession, you gain 1 Token, up to a maximum of 2/3/4 Tokens:

While in a Chase, your Terror Radius is reduced by 4 meters per accumulated Token.

When a Survivor rescues the Obsession from the Hook, that Survivor will become the new Obsession.

You can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time.

Notice in the update it doesn't say you gain a token if you hook someone other than your Obsession, it just says you don't lose your tokens any more when the current Obsession dies.


I'm thinking this buff still isn't enough to run this perk on its own because losing half of your terror radius only in a chase is not a useful effect. After all, the person you're chasing already knows you're chasing them, and odds are not only can they see you but you're probably already well within half you're terror radius for most of it. Other survivors outside the chase between 16 and 32 meters away won't hear the heartbeat when they normally could, but so what? The moment you get out of chase to go after someone else the effect ends and everybody can hear it normally again. In other words stealth abilities like suppressing your terror radius are primarily useful between chases, not during them. You can use stealth to get closer to someone before a chase starts, after it starts having a small terror radius does almost nothing for you.

Let me put it this way - hypothetically, say this perk made you literally Undetectable in a chase, but only in a chase. No tokens needed, you're just Undetectable while chasing someone. Is that a good enough perk to use? Because if the answer to that question isn't a resounding "Yes, that sounds really good", then clearly a perk which is objectively much, much weaker than that probably isn't any good. And frankly I'm not even entirely sure anybody would use that perk I just described. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't? But it's definitely not a big, fat "yeah, everybody would use it."

Or another example, look at Beast of Prey which makes you Undetectable while you're in Bloodlust. Bloodlust only happens in chase, so basically Beast of Prey makes you Undetectable, say, half the time in a chase assuming you hit Bloodlust 1 about half the time. (The way I see it, it takes 15 seconds to hit Bloodlust, and a typical chase lasts something like 10-20 seconds before the killer swings and resets the timer, so a reasonable portion of chases get to Bloodlust 1 before a swing.) Does anybody use Beast of Prey though? It's effect, Undetectability, is superior to Furtive Chase's terror radius reduction effect. Beast of Prey isn't always on, but it's also on a reasonable amount. Does anybody actually use Beast of Prey though to, say, chase someone and then break off to switch targets suddenly hoping for an easy hit before the Bloodlust Undetectability is cancelled? I kind of doubt it.


Basically I just don't see how Furtive Chase is any good on its own. At best it's useful in combination with another Obsession perk to help switch Obsessions around, but then you're spending a whole perk slot just to get that switching which is a pretty heavy price, especially when you could hypothetically use Nemesis and get a similar effect a bit less often but also gain a more beneficial effect of making the Obsessions Oblivious.

So am I wrong? Does anybody like using Furtive Chase on its own just for the terror radius reduction in chase? Or does this perk still need a revamp?

«1

Comments

  • Laluzi
    Laluzi Member Posts: 6,226

    The only use I can think of for Furtive Chase is to break off from chase and go after someone else nearby. Since obviously your TR doesn't matter to the player you're being chased - they're not going to be fooled into thinking you've up and disappeared, and it's not as good as straight-up Undetectable in chase where there's no red stain and no directional audio. (Which in and of itself isn't very useful! But still more useful than this.)

    Except this works just fine without the TR reduction. Because the deal is that non-newbie survivors do not flee from a terror radius if the killer appears to be occupied. They will continue working on their gen while monitoring the situation. Either they're watching the killer and will react if the killer comes towards them, otherwise staying around regardless of the TR (Furtive Chase doesn't matter), there's a LoS blocker and they won't notice the killer breaking off until it's too late (Furtive Chase doesn't matter), or they're on comms and the person being chased will broadcast the killer's movements (and Furtive Chase doesn't matter.)

    Keeping Furtive Chase's stacks when the Obsession dies doesn't address that Furtive Chase's effect is fundamentally not helpful.

  • Norhc
    Norhc Member Posts: 575

    I don't think any of the buffed perks are good enough still. It'll just be some free content for Youtubers for a while, that's it.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Exactly, and you brought up additional points I didn't mention. Plus, if I'm chasing someone, unless I can't quickly catch them then breaking off to chase someone else is typically folly. Basically Furtive Chase's terror reduction only potential usefulness seems to be in this extremely unusual scenario where:

    • You are chasing someone, but have determined you can't catch them quickly. (If you can catch them then why break away?)
    • You are within a range of 16-32 meters from another survivor that you want to chase. Any closer and they hear the heartbeat, any farther and they wouldn't hear it anyway regardless
    • The survivor you want to chase would have acted safer when you broke off at that range to come toward them had they been hearing your heartbeat earlier. If the survivor would have just kept doing a gen, for instance, while you chased the other person even if they heard your terror radius then Furtive Chase made no difference

    It's really difficult to imagine a real world scenario where this is actually a useful perk effect.

  • konchok
    konchok Member, Alpha Surveyor Posts: 1,719

    The perk could have purpose if it removed the terror radius in it's entirety for killers with an insta-down. So Cannibal, Billy, the Shape, Plague, and Oni. But the terror radius reduction needs to go to the full 32 meters and not just 16. The Shape can't get use out of the perk right now because his instadown ability increases his terror radius to 32 meters.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    There are a couple that I think might be good enough to use now on their own

    • Dead Man's Switch working every time you hook any survivor makes it much more likely you'll get opportunities in the match to capitalize on it by pressuring people off a gen. Plus this new version could be very good in combination with Scourge Hook Pain Resonance since that forces survivors off gens on every hook.
    • Gearhead might be good enough to use as a detection perk now? Basically every time you damage a survivor it triggers, which means after every hit you can take a quick look around and see what gens are being actively worked on potentially (assuming they get a skill check). Plus it has that interesting new side effect that if someone gets a Great skill check you actually see their aura for 10 seconds, which is a pretty long time to see an aura considering you can literally cross half the map in 10 seconds! I don't know exactly how good or bad this new version will be but at least on paper I don't want to dismiss it out of hand, it's certainly worth trying.
  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 9,561

    Gearhead is still an RNG based information perk meaning it'll never be that useful. A survivor needs to both get a skill check and hit a great. Which while bound to happen can vary from almost instantly to minutes depending on what survivors are doing.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,606

    Honestly, if they made it 8m per stack it could be useful sometimes, maybe. The fact that you keep your stacks when the obsession dies isn't that significant because the effect is pretty useless.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Actually the update didn't say they got rid of the perk showing the generator's aura on a Good skill check, they just added that if it's a Great skill check you see the survivor's aura for 10 seconds.

  • danielmaster87
    danielmaster87 Member Posts: 9,683

    Why does it only decrease terror radius while in chase? That's the most confusing thing about it.

  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 9,561

    Considering that the info on gearhead calls it a small rework, it's likely that effect no longer exists.

  • psionic
    psionic Member Posts: 670

    Each time you hook a survivor, you gain 1 Token, up to a maximum of 2/3/4 Tokens:

    Your Terror Radius is reduced by 4 meters per accumulated Token.

    BOOM!

    An useful and fun relecture of the perk, and probably won't be used as much as the meta perks.

  • konchok
    konchok Member, Alpha Surveyor Posts: 1,719

    That would literally remove the one useful portion of the perk which is the ability to change obsessions. So while it would make the perk more consistent I think that that would be a bad idea.

  • JasonS
    JasonS Member Posts: 100

    I don't think its as useless in chasing as you'd think. A lot of survivors use the TR during chase to judge distance when the killer is behind a high wall.

    With that said, you're still jumping though hoops for an effect that's only marginally useful. They could start you with the full effect of the perk (no stacks) and it still would be pretty niche.

  • LoneSlinger
    LoneSlinger Member Posts: 500

    Nobody and I mean nobody uses the perk to change obsessions we have Nemesis and decesive strike for that

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Who knows, maybe I'm misunderstanding, we'll find out tomorrow. 🤷‍♂️

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    I think the point they're saying is if Furtive Chase worked like Monitor and Abuse and lowered your terror radius out of chase then it might be used about as often as Monitor and Abuse is.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Actually Michi used it in a video a few weeks ago in this Hag loadout

    • Scourge Hook Pain Resonance - regresses most progressed gen and forces survivor off it
    • Dead Man's Switch - Blocks the gen the survivors got forced off for 45 seconds when the Obsession is hooked
    • Furtive Chase - Switches the Obsession to the rescuer
    • Make Your Choice - Exposes the new Obsession. Hag teleports back for an easy down and repeat the above


    I agree though that in a lot of cases Nemesis is the better choice if you want a perk to occasionally swap Obsessions since Nemesis' other effect (making the Obsession Oblivious) is better than Furtive Chase. But the above combo is one of those rare times Furtive Chase is a little better for the swapping.

  • lauraa
    lauraa Member Posts: 3,195

    Wow, I never actually realized that Furtive Chase only reduces your Terror Radius in chase. That sucks.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713
    edited January 2022

    To be fair, I guess it's why they named it Furtive "Chase". Still, ... yeah, it's kind of a dumb effect.

  • Hito420
    Hito420 Member Posts: 89

    so even if it is a "niche" perk, picking the perk, you KNEW if your obsession died, that was it, thats why you pick perks like nemesis along with it, you do the same with rancor to get more use out of it correct?


    why stop there then? with the logic of "if your obsession dies, you lose the perk" then that also means any totem perks, dying light, etc etc, you should automatically get to stay active even though it was "destroyed" come on, there needs to be RISK in this game on both sides, not coddling

    lets also bring back doc being able to increase insanity while you are on the ground, that was fun right? and survivors popping hag traps on the ground? that too, oh wait, it wasnt fun on that one? because it messes with the killers power? what about messing with survivor gameplay when they are dodging the killer constantly during chase but when they cant dodge is when the killer is able to do it during the chase but arent good enough, so we reward bad gameplay these days? whats the point of the pip system then since you should be rewarded based on performance, correct?


    one last side note, it was fixed that you cant drop people into traps, yet you can drop people into pyramid heads trail of torment goo and theres nothing they can do about it since they cant even not wiggle if the killer repeatedly drops you? you should be able to crouch as you are dropping to counter it

  • Aneurysm
    Aneurysm Member Posts: 5,270

    I use it for that. Furtive chase/nemesis/rancor/MYC - hook the obsession then the unhooker becomes oblivious and exposed

  • anarchy753
    anarchy753 Member Posts: 4,212

    It's perk buffs like these that leave me skeptical for the 40+ perk changes coming up.

    They are still very much out of touch with what makes perks pathetic.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Not sure why you’re replying to my post from five months ago, but ok….

    The complaint is Furtive Chase’s actual main effect, mainly making you have a smaller terror radius in a chase, is totally worthless and should be changed. It’s not called “Furtive Obsession Swap”, it’s “Furtive Chase” because that chase ability is supposed to be its main benefit. But having a smaller terror radius in a chase is utterly pointless. Even if they made it say “you are Undetectable in a chase” that is still terrible (Beast of Prey already does exactly that without the limitations of Furtive Chase and it’s still widely regarded as one of the worst killer perks in the game.)

    This has nothing at all to do with “the perk goes away when the Obsession dies”. You could literally make Furtive Chase say “Your terror radius is always halved in a chase” with no limitation and it would still be a useless effect. That’s the problem with the perk.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713
    edited May 2022

    Just to clarify, Furtive Chase doesn’t make the unhooker Oblivious or Exposed in that combo. It just makes someone else a new Obsession. Nemesis and Rancor and MYC are the ones doing almost all the work in that combo. I’d even argue that probably Nemesis, Rancor, MYC plus any “good” perk (e.g. Scourge Hook Pain Resonance) is probably a more effective combo that those three plus Furtive Chase.

  • Aneurysm
    Aneurysm Member Posts: 5,270

    MYC is the one making them exposed, furtive chase is the one that changes the obsession and nemesis is the one that causes oblivious any time the obsession changes. All three of those are necessary to inflict both status effects on the unhooker (rancor is just a bonus they can pass around)

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    No, Nemesis already swaps the Obsession when it triggers, so you don’t need Furtive Chase to swap the Obsession before someone pallet stuns you to make that person both the Obsession and Oblivious.

    I think you replied while I was still typing, but like I said above you could replace Furtive Chase in that Nemesis / MYC / Rancor combo with any good perk (e.g. Scourge Hook Pain Resonance) and it’s a more effective build overall.

  • Aneurysm
    Aneurysm Member Posts: 5,270

    Well I could still just get pallet stunned or flashlight blinded but the fun part of the build is sneaking up on exposed survivors who can't hear you coming, or at least making them too nervous to do much useful until the effects wear off

  • Viskod
    Viskod Member Posts: 854

    Onryo has a lullaby, so it doesn't matter what's going on with her terror radius.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Sure, I get why Oblivious is useful. But Furtive Chase doesn't do that, it only reduces your Terror Radius while you are actually chasing someone and stealth in a chase is pointless. It could make you literally Undetectable in chases and still be bad.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713
    edited May 2022

    To be fair, Lullabies are at least non-directional, so unless there's a bug you can't tell what direction Sadako's lullaby is coming from.

    But yeah, I'm not quite sure why they gave her a Lullaby to be honest, she's the only stealth killer that has one.

  • Aneurysm
    Aneurysm Member Posts: 5,270

    But if you also have nemesis then furtive chase -will- inflict oblivious when it triggers, just like for the people and decisive strike do

  • Viskod
    Viskod Member Posts: 854

    Sadako's is actually directional. The only one that is.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713
    edited May 2022

    Except you don’t actually need Furtive Chase at all in that. Nemesis inflicts Oblivious all on its own.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Not according to the official wiki. Like I said, if it’s currently directional that’s a bug, no lullabies are supposed to be directional.

  • sizzlingmario4
    sizzlingmario4 Member Posts: 7,005

    It was a pointless buff. It was a terrible perk and it’s still terrible. Reduced terror radius in chase sucks and if you want to change the obsession then nemesis is just better overall.

    That midchapter had a few decent perk buffs, but a lot of them were basically meaningless (this, buckle up, and sort of remember me, and gearhead basically got sidegraded imo) and also included the boil over disaster.

    I did use furtive chase once back in the day for a meme build with the old DMS (when it was an obsession perk) but even that isn’t relevant anymore.

  • Blueberry
    Blueberry Member Posts: 13,671

    It's still just complete trash tier, I don't know why they thought this was enough of a buff. The effect it gives is just nearly useless. It should give a stacking TR reduction out of chase.

  • Hito420
    Hito420 Member Posts: 89

    getting stunned by a pallet/blinded is a better way to change obsession than hooking a survivor?... ok, what about if you are myres who is already trying to lower terror radius and when in tier 3 and a chase, you hear someone on a gen, you decide to break off, you get that much more time to hit them before they react

  • DyingWish92
    DyingWish92 Member Posts: 793

    It should have 4 tokens like no way out and reduce your terror radius by 4 meters evwrytime you hook someone new. Also not just while in chase, PERIOD.

    If they want more perks to be used and nuke the meta then start doing MEANINGFUL BUFFS!

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,073

    just gotta wait for 40 perk update. maybe this perk is one of the perk on list. who knows?

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    I’ve tried that strategy and it just doesn’t work well. For one thing typically if you’re already in a chase you stick with the person you’re chasing so it’s already not applicable to most chases. And when you do break off a chase to switch targets, even if you were Undetectable odds are fairly good either the survivor you’re chasing is intentionally running away from the gens, so you’re not heading toward one at that moment (which is why you need to break off) and/or the person on the gen already saw you chasing the other survivor or heard about it over comms or both. And Furtive Chase is even weaker than that,

    To put it another way, Beast of Prey already makes you Undetectable during chases, which is much stronger than what Furtive Chase which is just reduce the size of your terror radius. And Beast of Prey is generally considered one of the worst perks in the game as well. If being Undetectable in a chase isn’t good enough for people to want to use it then having a somewhat smaller radius that people can hear your terror radius is even worse than that so obviously is really bad.

    The only reason anybody actually uses Furtive Chase is for the Obsession switching, and it’s not even the only perk that does it nor is switching the Obsession even all that important in Obsession based builds. Any build that focuses on Obsessions is probably more effective overall simply either using Nemesis instead of Furtive Chase or using neither and taking a generically useful perk instead.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    I’m certainly interested to see this perk update, it’ll be fun to see what perks get buffed.

  • Hito420
    Hito420 Member Posts: 89

    you are literally ignoring everything i said, and just assuming you are correct, now listen closely, i have run this build myself, worked pretty decently, its all about playstyle, not everyones playstyle is the same, you HAVE to keep that in mind, and the build im referring to is nemesis, furtive chase, rancor, and make your choice (this makes it so the obsession is exposed as well as the new obsession, and if the obsession dies on the hook before unhooked, you can get stunned or blind to get the obsession back for rancor, but using one of the other alone i dont think is great either

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,606

    Honestly, I think it could get some decent mileage if it was buffed to be 8m per stack. It'd still keep to the whole theme of the chase actually being furtive, but having a 32m Terror Radius killer have no Terror Radius mid-chase could be really nice.

    Imagine having a teammate run past you and a Leatherface comes out of nowhere with no warning. You'd have a heart attack.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    What exactly am I ignoring and getting incorrect? You could easily take Furtive Chase out of that build and replace it with anything else and the person doing the unhooking would still be exposed by Make Your Choice. Who cares if the exposed person is the Obsession or not?

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    It really doesn’t make as big a difference as you might think. You can already do this for instance with Beast of Prey which makes you Undetectable once you have Bloodlust. Try using that perk, chase people, and when you are Undetectable see if you get chances to ambush other survivors with it. I’ve actually tried and it doesn’t work well, especially when the survivors are on comms.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 4,606

    I mean, Beast of Prey doesn't really activate that often. Furtive would be active in every chase, so you'd have more opportunities to try it. Not saying it'd be an amazing perk or anything, but it'd be a nice gimmick at least.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Sure, I’m just saying even when Beast of Prey activates it’s not doing much at all for you. They could make that perk simply be “You are Undetectable in a chase” and I’m still not sure killers would use it that often.

  • Chadku
    Chadku Member Posts: 731

    Imagine if Furtive Chase reduced your TR by 4/8/12/16m (+ 8m from M&A) for the Obsession.

    24m TR killers would have permanent 0 TR against the obsession

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    It would have to be all the time though, not just in a chase, to be useful.