Dead hard nerf comes, sprint burst meta arrives.

I dont disagree with you but sprint burst at least has penalties like being forced to use it when running. I just don't like how exhaustion perks are basically a core mechanic instead of a group of perks at this point.

I wonder about the difference in demographic between myself and other posters, because I really don't see SB that often at all. If someone's running an exhaustion perk that isn't DH in my games, it is almost always Lithe or Balanced Landing, which makes sense to me since they provide comparable value to DH. SB isn't going to help you mid chase unless you're really on top of 99ing, and even then, that's not doable all the time-- whereas Lithe and to a lesser extent Balanced are mid-chase perks, with Sprint Burst and Overcome being more for avoiding an extended chase altogether.

Very much so. Something can be technically less powerful, but still be wretched anti-fun to play against.

SB doesn't completely ignore killer powers so that's fine, SB can get you to a tile if you're out of position but you still have to play the tile correctly once you get there.

DH you can misplay a tile have your mistake corrected for you and then prolong a chase another 20 seconds cuz you pressed E.

Sprint Burst is a perk for survs that want to avoid chases and have the patience to walk around the map and learn to 99 sprint Burst which is not always easy.

The only thing stopping Balanced Landing from being meta are the map designs,most of them lack hills and main buildings(Looking at you Shelter woods,Lerys) which makes the perk very situational and rarely useful while in chase.

If they add more spots for Balanced Landing to be usable it could definitely be meta,it's a fun and easy perk to use so most of the player base will run BL instead of the superior SB.

I still love that people are ardently defending an 80% usage perk as 'weak' compared to alternatives. I guess old ruin was actually trash by that logic and overcharge is still sleeper OP.

Is anyone really saying that DH is weak? The premise of this topic is that if DH gets nerfed hard enough, people will swap to the next strongest exhaustion perk SB.

And honestly it's not like SB is that much weaker than DH, both excel at different things. DH is great when you are on a strong tile as it lets you greed the tile to waste more time. However, the perk doesn't do much when you're in a dead zone as dodging a swing in a dead zone won't save you from being downed shortly afterwards. SB however is great when you are in a dead zone as it allows you to get distance to a usable tile. Some killers have powers that can easily play around it compared to DH, but it's going to be just as annoying for M1 killers to deal with all SB as it is with DH.

Also I would argue that old ruin wasn't that good for it's usage as much as at the time there was simply not much for passive slowdown. Ruin was the only passive slowdown option and it worked with pop. Old ruin honestly didn't do much against experienced survivors whereas it could be an auto win against inexperienced survivors. I'm pretty sure if ruin was never changed, it's usage would not be as high as it was then because killers have gotten so many good passive slowdown options to replace ruin. If anything the ruin changes made ruin both a stronger and better perk.

Something that is quite concerning about Sprint Burst becoming meta is that it is a perk that pairs so well with Prove Thyself (another really strong perk which isn't getting changed).

That has nothing to do with my post tho. At no point am I saying that DH isn't strong or that SB is as strong as DH, just that DH and SB excel at different things.

And I disagree that SB can be played around as a killer. If you are playing an M1 killer like Freddy, Ghostface, or Myers, you have no tools to deal with a survivor running from a deadzone to a safe tile unlike already strong killers like Huntress, Blight, or Nurse who have the mobility or range to deal with it. And the killers that can deal with SB the best are also the same killers that deal with DH the best, so it's not like nerfing DH is suddenly going to make weaker killers more usable if SB becomes more popular. So I imagine they'll still be complaints about exhaustion perks after DH nerf.

Now granted fearmonger can deal with SB, but having certain killers feel pressured to run a specific perk is not really a great solution either. Same reason why devs are looking at base changes to the game while adjusting multiple slowdown perks.

As a Michael Myers main, I understand exactly what you are talking about. This is why I brought up the point above.

Part of the people who choose to play with DH isn't because they aren't good at running anything else. They just like riskier playstyles it is part of the fun in the game. So when I have someone who understands that the next time they go around they don't have to worry because they can simply dash with Dead Hard to give them that distance. I am going to assume that they also understand that they are not when they have SB and that instead they get to keep 2 health states instead of one while getting to a "safe" zone. Which is what I think people will see a lot more of.

And all that requires game sense and some map knowledge you don't need to get free DH distance exactly when you need it in a chase. The best part of DH getting nerfed is that while SB may be stronger at times, most mediocre survs that can easily extend chases with DH will never utilize SB to its full potential. So they'll run other exhaustion perks too.

By mediocre I mean dead average in chase, but know basic predropping and looping, and are able to DH for distance. Maybe you mindgame them a few times, but DH robs you of that and massively extends chase. It's super painful when strong survivors use it too. Like wow, finally got you, but who am I kidding. You were expecting an alch ring blight, that's why you're using DH right? And then they get to a god pallet, and ypu may as well drop chase.

Either way, if SB really is stronger at high level we'd see it used more in top MMR, but it remains around 13% usage if I remember correctly.

Something people forget too is that if you ever catch multiple survs, that's multiple SBs spent. That isn't the case with DH.

Sprint Burst has always been better than Dead Hard and it's fine.

It actually requires some skill to be used properly.

SB is very good and I believe it will get the Exhaustion throne after DH gets changed but the problem with SB is it never blunders, unlike DH or other Exhaustion perks.

DH is one of those perks with a ton of potential for insanely game winning plays, squeezing one more loop to reach the pallet, throw it and then chaining towards another loop is something only DH can achieve and SB will never be able to do, on the other hand, you will never use SB on the middle of nowhere and end up downed 2 seconds later because the Killer didnt fall for it, SB is more stable, it will always give you the same value while DH disparity allows for great stuff but also for massive disasters.

People only remember the times DH forced them to extend a chase 40 seconds, never when it achieved nothing and Ive seen enough streamers throw a huge rant when DH gives value 2 times in a match but when DH fails 4 times? all fine and dandy "look chat, these noobs hehe stupid survmains!".

The fact that SB is the only Exhaustion perk which never fails is what I believe will make people go bonkers and exclaim it has 0 counterplay and after that we all know what happens...

On this forum thats like "Hey we blinked, we totally aced it, we rock!!" the hard thing would be people not preemptive complaining.