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How Most Dead Hard Nerf Suggestions Miss the Mark, and How I Would Change the Perk.
It's generally agreed upon that DH is a problem, allowing chases to be extended to an unreasonable amount regardless of the user's skill level. Even if you disagree, you have to admit that the amount of players using the perk is staggering. Naturally, many people have suggested their changes, but I don't think that they really address Dead Hard's core issues at all- nor to they stay faithful to what the perk is all about in the first place. Let's run through the two most common nerf suggestions I see before I present my own.
Suggestion 1: Remove the distance, but keep the invincibility frames
This seems like a good idea on paper, but it is important to realize that removing one problem from DH does not remove all problems. Even if a survivor can't make distance to a pallet or window, what they can do is activate DH to give them invincibility frames- forcing the killer to be stunned or to watch as they vault a window or a pallet. Sure, it solves the old "Make the killer miss" antic we all know and love, and it removes Dead Harding for distance, but what makes the perk so strong remains, only in a different form. It'd be less good, sure, but still very strong.
Suggestion 2: Keep the distance, but remove the invincibility frames
This is a far less common suggestion, but one I see a bunch anyway. While this would solve isolated issues of Dead Hard causing Victor Pounces, Huntress Hatchets, and more to miss, it wouldn't fix Dead Harding for distance, and it would not help M1 killers whatsoever. It'd make juking with Dead Hard more punishing, but that's about it.
My suggestion:
My suggestion is to start a 20 second timer as soon as the survivor using Dead Hard is injured. During this window, Dead Hard may be used while the survivor is running. If Dead Hard is not used during this window of time, it cannot be used until injured again and the survivor gets the Exhausted status effect for 12 seconds.
This would keep long chases from becoming never-ending chases, while still giving survivors an escape option if they blunder or are caught in a bad spot. (You might argue that this keeps it a second chance perk, but honestly I see nothing wrong with that. Personally, my problem with Dead Hard isn't that it makes chases against bad players hard- it's that it makes chases against good players almost impossible to win.) 20 seconds is a timer that i'd be happy to tinker with because my goal is to find the perfect time it'd take for the killer to hit a survivor, catch up, and then chase for a few more seconds. If the survivor finds themselves in a bad spot, Dead Hard can be used. If not, they can save it or attempt to extend the loop. I also made sure to give the survivor exhaustion even if they save it to prevent DH from being used alongside something like Lithe or Sprint Burst, as that'd allow the survivor from having a double option- using DH if they need to, or running away if they don't.
Comments
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I am still believing removing distance is best solution. It is not so bad to dodging hit. Killer still can catch you, plus there is some perks to makes hit animation shorter. So Dead Hard will have fair counters.
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BHVR heckin love bandaid fixes so i wouldn't be surprised if they only remove the distance cuz your suggestion doesn't synergize well with the spaghetti code.
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Wouldn't removing distance just make it worthless?
Like I think its broken in its current state but I don't think an exhaustion perk should be worthless
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Not really. Imagine you're in an unsafe place but you use the I-frames to just get to a pallet and extend the chase by that much more.
Basically, it'd still allow you to reach safety just by pressing a button, as long as your timing is good.
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I say just remove the I frames. In return you can probably also reduce the distance you get from using it. Using it for distance is the most best use of the perk and puts it in line with other exhaustion perks since all exhaustion perks are used for distance.
Using it to dodge a hit has too many counters as killers would agree as they suggest it all the time
I do have another idea as to how it should be changed
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I still like the idea of reworking it so that when you use it you have a short window of endurance if you get hit and it would otherwise give you no distance / dash like it does now.
This way it fits the perk description more "You can take a beating", no longer let's you dash to a pallet when you NEED to and becomes a more skillful interaction between survivor and killer.
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I think it needs a total rework that doesn't include chase extension.
Perks that extend chases, letting the Survivor 1v1 the Killer, shouldn't exist. Dead Hard allows Survivors to 1v1 the Killer, and that's the reason it's overpowered
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But with your idea DH doesn't change and it isn't only a problem that really good survs get nearly invisible with it its also a problem that you can just evade any Form of play the killer does with the press of a button.
Just imagine killers had a perk that the could press E and boom my hit lands no matter what the survivor is doing
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I think DH should come out in 1 or 2 seconds after you push the button. In this way, the survivor can't just react to the killer anymore. They have to read and predict the killer's actions. It's not too weak not too strong. Not complicated design, too.
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With my suggestion, DH wouldn't take away deserved downs from the killer. 20 seconds isn't a lot of time when you consider that the killer has to wipe their weapon and then catch up to the survivor. To be fair, it may be more harsh on Nurse and Blight- but they both are already top tier killers.
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The problem with that is you can use it to guarantee safety to vault a window or drop a pallet when you'd otherwise be hit. That's one of Dead Hard's biggest problems- it takes away downs from the killer even after they've won the chase.
It's more skillful for the survivor to time it right, but for the killer there's not much that's skillful about being forced to take a pallet stun when you should have hit the survivor, or having to wait 5 seconds before downing a survivor just to wait for Dead Hard.
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