Man do i ######### love Dead Hard and survivors' meta so so much :3

I don't like Dead Hard because I see so few survivors actually use it properly. Most of the time they just sprint ahead of me in a straight line and I just wait it out and then hit them right after. I feel like so many people bring it because they think they are "supposed" to bring it, or that its automatically going to be the best thing *for them* in every situation even when they don't know how to use it to even most of its full potential.

It's a detriment to the game when there are so many interesting survivor perks that you can combine to together for different builds but everyone just uses these same few because they are supposedly the best. Dead Hards are rarely a problem for me, and if I down someone I previously hooked that I haven't seen do anything else then I just leave them on the ground for a bit. There, you now have two dead perk slots, way to go.

My favorite streamers and YT content creators are the ones that don't take DH for one match and don't shut up about it.

Loading in: "I wonder how this match is going to go without DH!"

Normal start: "Man, I don't even know what to do with (NON-DH PERK) because I never use it..."

Killer chases someone else: "I'd take a hit, but I don't have DH."

Other person doesn't have DH: "Wait, they don't have DH??"

Takes hit at hook: "Sorry man, I have BT, but no DH!"

About to be in chase: "Man, I don't know how this is going to go without DH!"

In a chase: "Ohhhn noooo I don't have DH!"

Unhooked: "DH! Wait! NO! I forgot I don't have it!"

Idle: "Man... I keep forgetting I don't have DH. This is so weird."

Dies: "if only I had Dead Hard, I would have lived!"

Escapes: "Wow! That was a SUPER HARD match! I'm not used to things being so... tense. Did they buff (KILLER) or something? IDK, it just felt a lot more difficult than usual."

You see it from time to time. It's always a chuckle.

Dead Hard is a good perk, but the survivor community has come to lean on it like a crutch. It has become an unhealthy addition to their kit, IMO - because when some people don't take it, they feel dependent and helpless. I cannot begin to count how many DH observations and comments I hear on YT and Twitch. After playing with it for so long, survivors literally cannot work their stylings or levels of play around its absence. It has sadly accelerated many players into boosted MMR ranks, while also teaching them extremely unhealthy things about how to play the game, which encourages far more capricious and haphazard approaches rather than traditional survivor gameplay which revolves around subterfuge, stealth, and tense loops with mind-games.