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Are survivors who say "Lightborn is a bad perk" just salty?
A lot of survivors here on the forum seem extremely eager to chime in whenever the subject of Lightborn comes up about how "bad" it is, but I get more free downs out of it than Exposed perks like Haunted Grounds or Make Your Choice.
I realize that a lot of killers are of the opinion that flashlights are the "weakest item in the game", and while I don't necessarily agree with that (I'd rather come up against four medkits than four flashlights, especially since they're probably redundant due to CoH), the utility of Lightborn isn't just that I get to ignore the flashlight stun instead of spending half the match staring at the walls and the floor, it's that you can easily get a couple of free downs out of survivors who don't realize that you have it.
Franklin's is more useful in situations where people are running four different items all with decent addons, and Lightborn doesn't seem worth it for just one flashlight, but if I see two survivors in the lobby with flashlights, it's worth considering if one of my other perks is expendable.
If everyone has flashlights, you can easily bait survivors into a free hit or three at pallets or near hooks, and you're practically guaranteed one free down per flashlight-wielding solo survivor if you mindgame correctly. SWFs will figure it out quickly and warn each other, but if they all had flashlights, chances are their entire playstyle and build were based around them, and they're going to have to change tactics, putting them on the defensive.
Considering some of the less than polite messages I've gotten from survivors about my use of Lightborn recently, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's not really a bad perk, and they're just mad (and the killers who say it's bad are just being contrarian).
Yes, there are better meta perks in most cases, but it's far from being the worst, and I'd argue that it's still more effective than Haunted Grounds or Starstruck in the right hands.
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There is no expendable slot in killer perks, never.
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If I see the survivors with 4 flashlights I take it, but that rarely happened at my level (as it was mostly toolboxes and maybe 1-2 flashlights). That's probably why everyone says it's bad. It's certainly a balanced perk and meant to counter specific scenario's like Franklin's, but useless if you use it in matches that has no flashlights/flashbangs.
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There are enough good meta perks that even if the killer had ten perk slots, I'd have a hard time choosing, so I get what you mean, but some builds have one perk that's maybe less required for synergy. If I'm running the trusty ol' Nurse's/HG/Ruin/Undying and I see four flashlights in the lobby, do I absolutely HAVE to have both Nurse's and HG? I'm going to get more out of Lightborn in that situation.
A lot of killers just seem to think it's bad because they can easily, consistently ignore flashlights, but I get more out of it than some meta perks depending on the situation.
I think a lot of survivors hate it just because they don't like to come up against it.
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I don't get complaining about killers running Lightborn. I run both Blastmine and Flashbang, if a killer brings Lightborn I just shrug and move on. Are there better perks? Sure, but if you don't like getting blinded and can play fine with Lightborn taking up a perk slot then I don't see what the problem is.
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Salty? check.
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I'm convinced Lightborn is a poor choice to bring for killers. I do not have problems with dodging flashlights though. I do have problems with ending chases, slowing generators, and needing more bloodpoints; so I prefer perks in those categories.
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The key phrase there is "depending on the situation"
Like many have said, the situation doesn't present itself often enough for me to consider using it.
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What kind of idiot is that, independent of the sore loser mentality. Two exhaustion perks?
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lmfao. Yep, day before yesterday, the guy who inspired this thread gave me almost that exact same comment ("you really be out here running Lightborn") while running almost that exact same build.
He went and spent the entire game hiding in the basement once he realized I had it and tried to convince me in the endgame chat that it was the most epic troll ever despite him and his SWF buddy trying and failing to hit me with Head On repeatedly and then dying lonely deaths in the basement.
How's that build working out? Do you actually get any use out of Devour Hope without Undying?
I'm not one of the people who can effortlessly evade every flashlight, admittedly. I mean, they're not a problem if I bother to pay attention, but survivors will run rings around me with them if I zone out while I'm playing.
I probably only use it one out of every hundred or so games, but I've started using it more the past few days, and the response I've gotten has been interesting. Some people get mad.
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according to wiki, it seems like BL's stagger reduction were working while exhaustion.
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Never, ever, underestimate the need someone has to tell you to "just face a wall". Even though you could be staring straight into brick at point blank range and still get beamer screwed.
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Terrible perk for lazy killers.
Waste of a perk slot.
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But if you could evade the flashlights, would you agree that a perk that helped with chases or slowed survivor progression would help more? This is why I think players say it’s a bad perk.
But if you’re getting salt from bringing it (don’t know why) and that’s the outcome you want, go for it. Imo flashlights are largely more harmful to survivors than helpful because it can make them more brazen and susceptible to mistakes. One down becomes two, etc.
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I don't like Lightborne at all.
I bring Franklin's nearly every match. It works against all items, and you'd be surprised how often good survivors make stupid plays trying to get their items back.
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"How's that build working out? Do you actually get any use out of Devour Hope without Undying?"
No, but that's not my normal build, I was doing the get-exposed-hits-running-make-your-choice challenge. Got them all with Haunted.
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I actually feel like most Lightborn hate comes from killer mains who have yet to experience the old flashy to the side of the head. Once they do, I would be surprised if they were still stubborn enough to knock the perk. The problem is they genuinely believe facing a wall works, and at their mmr, I bet it does.
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That was before the change, wasn't it?
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Short Answer,yes.
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If I see a survivor with a flashlight, I'll bring lightborn, more often than not I get free hits because everyone just assumes it's a really bad perk so they don't expect you to have it.
Never once in my games I came across someone complaining about me using it though.
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15k and lightborn
i can see what kind of player you may be
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no, it is a bad perk and i've never seen actually good killers running it
flashlights are useless and you shouldn't need perks at all against people who bring them anyway, since they won't do gens.
feel free to disagree, bad killers are always welcome anyway 😊
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It's not a bad perk per se, it's just a very niche one, and even when you do bring it there are many opportunities to look at a wall instead of having to deal with them.
I do however love bringing it when I see 4 flashlights and the survivors intents aren't doing gens but just to be toxic.
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I mean, you can't expect people to catching up with changes.
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And I didn't expected anyone actually gets salty at lightborn to come here lmao
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When I notice the Killer has Lightborn when bringing a Flashlight, I will genrush instead of wasting time hovering around the Killer when he downs someone.
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No, those guys are right. It's completely unfair your able to negate all of their hard work - having to aim that light up - with a single perk. Imagine if they had something like that they could use on you, how would that make you feel then, bully?
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Are they salty? Maybe, but it's just an objectively bad perk. You throw away free pressure gained by Slugging and chasing another survivor, which puts multiple out of commission for longer than just then failing a flashlight save, you use a perk for an effect that can be gained through patience and/or looking at a wall, and you force the other team to play more efficiently when you can instead capitalise on their greed.
It is objectively terrible and one of the few killer perks in the game that incentives survivors do generators more.
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I've used it to counter Blast Mine, personally--You wouldn't believe how many downs I got off of the aura reading.
Every perk has its place. Yes, even the "bad" ones.
To be fair, who the hell is going to expect you to use Balanced after they see a Dead Hard? It's still weird, but I guess I can see where they're coming from.
Talk about being chase-focused, though--yeesh.
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Mmmm. The thing with flashlights and lightborn as far as I have been able to notice is that as soon as they realize you have lightborn they no longer fall for it. You might get one or two good whacks, but it becomes an empty perk slot afterwards. Not a lot of value.
Honestly I have gotten much more value of simply going after the flashlight guys after a down. You down someone, another one comes for the save, whack it, they flee and either the others come to try and get you (awesome slowdown) and you chase them off too, all the while that other guy is bleeding on the ground. Eventually they'll scatter enough for you to carry your down safely. The exchange ends with multiple wounds, one hook and no one on gens for the entire time. They get careful after that, so why use a perk slot when you can do this to great effect?
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I think a lot of people just judge by it on paper and don't think about the mind game potential that you've pointed out so well. When called upon lightborn has always been a consistent little performer.
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Ultimately I don't think Lightborn is worth a perk slot, once you develop a better game sense - survivors going for saves turn from hinderances to something you can turn to your favour and increase your pressure
However Lightborn has 1 application nobody has mentioned so far: It counters some cheaters. Some cheaters use perma-blind/insta blind stuff and lightborn makes it useless, which is hilarious.
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As a consistent perk slot, lightborn does far too little.
It can be really funny, though.
It's also just nice for those times a survivor goes down at a loop without any real walls (Badham.) and you weren't aware there was someone else there.
It's a textbook example of a niche perk.
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Imagine using Balanced Landing and Dead Hard at same time.
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There’s no doubt Lightborn is fun when you get a free hit or down on a flashlighter. Where killers like me say it’s not as good a perk as other choices are coming from is:
- Survivors who are trying to blind you are already playing inefficiently. If the survivors just stay on gens except to rescue each other it’s noticeably harder to beat them than when they intentionally follow you around hoping for flashlight saves. So yeah, you can further punish bad strategy with Lightborn, but good survivors won’t be going for those blinds in the first place and Lightborn is useless if the survivors don’t bring flashlights at all.
- Also once the survivors see you have Lightborn they will stop trying to blind you and now they’re actually going to do the gens because what else can they do? So even if you get a free hit, you still might have just encouraged them to play to win versus play for flashlight saves and gimmicks.
Don’t get me wrong, I use Lightborn sometimes just for the hell of it since, like you said, it fun when it gets you hits. 🙂 But I never use it thinking it’s actually a good perk on average.
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I used to use lightborn at first but now I'm able to still be on you regardless if u blind me at pallets
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It's not very useful as any killer worth his salt will know about flashlights and handle them. The occurrences where a save really works are so rare it's a wasted slot.
On another hand, to bait flash-light squads it's pure gold. 😁
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There's no good killer perk -survivor
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Lightborn is useful at lower levels, but once you learn how to deal with flashlights, becomes a bad use of a perk slot.
That said, I will still run it on occasion when a see a four flashlight lobby, just for the giggles.
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Survivors are always salty.
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Maybe those people who whine about lightborn should consider bringing other items into the match besides a flashlight every single game , maybe it's a sign from the game telling you to use something else. 😂😂
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Sometimes a few free hits can make a lot of difference. Plus if you actively act like you're trying to avoid getting blinded they tend to try for longer.
I'll only bother with lightborn with 3+ flashies tho.
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how dare you, I use both BL and DH with Vigil and Windows of Opportunity, Its a free sprint burst and Iron will at the same time with only 30 sec cooldown. DH helps a lot if you can't find any places to trigger Balance Landing at.
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