I can’t believe Dead Hard got such a tiny nerf

Complained about for months? Try years at this point. But it's a survivor meta perk so it stays untouched or gets tiny nerfs.

Dead Hard, the perk that can be quite easily outplayed and can be quite easily missed, didn't need a further nerf.

This is coming from a survivor main who also plays as the killer. Maybe they should be making perks more enticing to use instead of gutting each and every single one and forcing new metas to take their place.

If a non killer main can quite easily outplay a dead hard, just by simply waiting and baiting it and still end up getting a 4K, I would say it's the killer's skill that the issue.

Just lean back, wait till it comes live, realize that you need to time it good and use it wisely otherwise it's a wasted perk slot anyway because it simply can not be used that inflationary as before. There were a lot of situations, were dead hard not protected "you" from damage, it was also used to protect others and now you have to think 10 times if that it's worth. 

Besides, people should stop just to look on patch notes and start to playtest it on their own over a period of time before forming their final conclusion. Theory and praxis can be so different in a lot of cases and the patch also has a lot of different values either beside that which have impact on gameplay. 

Best example was the change between the OG deadhard into what it has become. Over weeks - months a lot of people were the opinion dead hard is "useless" now because it needs to get timed perfectly and what happened more and more after the time? In right hands it is even stronger than the previous version and more and more people started to use it again. Some changes you need to analyze over a longer period of time to see the final result. 

I personally think that the condition of dead hard is a bit too heavy, because i equip it only when i have the feeling i have catched a day where i mostly play against nurses and blights tryhards. If it brings still the result to extend the chase against those killers when it's needed i am totally fine.

But i have hard doubts, because the first chase against those killers are mostly pretty short without DH when the player behind does know how to play those and we all know: A short chase animates to camp and tunnel even more (when the killer is very win oriented), because it's "mostly" the most impactful to throw someone out of the game early.

It still exists, but will no longer carry players through matches. What's the problem?

No, its usability went from upwards of once every 40 seconds (less with Vigil) provided they mend, to its uses requiring you to be hooked and then (self) unhooked, giving it 0-2 uses.

That means that the dev’s consider it ‘balanced’ to have a perk that’s not guaranteed to work in the first place, due to mind games, timing and lag, then it can be denied by some killer perks and add-ons or them just tunnelling you off hook and at most you get it as a consolation prize for being hooked provided you get off said hook.

Some of my fellow killer mains won’t be happy until the perk is completely unusable or better yet ceases to exist, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the most controversial perk nor that you personally super hate it, because a good subsection of this community don’t care about balance and/or don’t know what they’re talking about (which sometimes includes me).

The only reason people weren’t getting activations with the previous PTB iteration was because they were unlucky or lazy, which applies to a bunch of perks on both sides that have a cap on potential uses. I, the person who chose We’re Gonna Live Forever for their profile icon, would probably have little trouble getting Dead Hard activations and could potentially have it for multiple chases before you finally hook me, something the latest iteration makes impossible to do.

As for its pick rate, it already dropped by 50% after the Dead Hard for distance removal, dropping from around 3/4 survivors to around 1/3 and even the current iteration will drop uses now it has a 0-2 cap on attempts for the entire trial.

It actually has to be EARNED, instead of just given out for free all the time, like it used to. So, that IS a nerf.

However, the 'earning' is no longer ' performing a rescue. Now it can be 'just get hooked,' which is a pretty poor sort of earned activity.

Also, every rescue charges up 2 possible Dead Hards, which means that the total number of Dead Hards per match is still wildly out of control.

Which does mean, of course, that the perk wasn't actually nerfed all that much.

Certainly not as much as it needs to be to stop 75% of the player base from using it.

And CERTAINLY not nearly as much as killer perks have been, are, and will be nerfed.

And that, folks, is what the loudspeaker effect looks like. When one side of a two-sided game has 4x the volume of the other, they get treated with light touches and anything significant gets walked way back.

If it changes to this specification after the PTB, I will continue to use Dead Hard as the dash perk that I use most every month until I raise my Survivor to Rank 1.Occasionally, I may use another perk for a change of pace, but Dead Hard is the only one I can trust in the current chase.

It's very disappointing that the nerf that the pick rate hasn't changed much when playing Killer is nothing more than an environment that doesn't look good.

Are we really gonna appeal to popularity, maybe I just have a different perspective because I’m not obsessed over the perk’s continued existence?

The previous iteration was basically the live version meets Deliverance, but with up to 6 times the potential for charges. Deliverance being a perk that still sees regular play despite being a once per trial gimmick that also isn’t guaranteed to work. I’d barely call it a nerf when people could earn a couple charges without losing a hook state of their own.

Yeah, the perk still has annoying elements to it, but at the end of the day, there's a LOT of things in the game that you could call annoying If we go by the logic of "Power level irrelevant, counterplay irrelevant, only annoyance is important", suddenly 90% of the perks in the game warrant a nerf. Power Struggle, Saboteur, Flashbang, Spirit Fury-Enduring, Pain Res, No Way Out, Adrenaline, Decisive Strike, Lightborn, Corrupt Intervention.

The new DH isn't just inactive on the first chase. It also doesn't work on the second, or the third, or the fourth if you aren't tunneling. Can't say the same for PTB Dead Hard.

The prevalence of Dead Hard is likely to plummet after this change. So congratulations, you're probably not gonna have to tunnel people off the hook anymore. You have what you wanted. Why can't you just take your W and move on? And I'd hate to see your face when you find out Off the Record exists.

No, the PTB version had an even bigger tunneling problem, because the unhooker would have three health states because they just earned DH, but the unhooked would only have two at the most.

Again, you are vastly overestimating the strength of the new Dead Hard. For any other Exhaustion perk, if you could only use it twice a game, and not even on the first chase, that'd kill the perk outright. It was at roughly the same strength as Sprint Burst from the perspective of most comp players, so what makes you think Dead Hard will be so different, especially when Off the Record exists?

Yeah, and what if the world were made of pudding? The question is moot in the first place, because this is a nerf comparable to the Ruin nerf- the one that gutted it, cut its effectiveness in half. And very few perks have survived a nerf like that, none of which were Exhaustion perks that take up the single most important perk slot in a Survivor's build.

Dead Hard is now not only a dead perk on the first chase, but can only be used twice per game- meaning you can drop chase after they Dead Hard you, and the perk is dead next chase (When previously, they just needed to recover from Exhaustion to use it next chase). And there are literally other perks that can do what it does without Exhausting you, Off the Record.

Oh wow, so you’re able to review a significant sample of matches and have backend access that lets you track players pick rate of the previous PTB iteration of Dead Hard?

That’s amazing, I bet your uncle works for Behaviour and gave you the inside scoop, right? :D

And again, Deliverance still see’s regular play, it’s not hard to safely unhook someone in the age of basekit Borrowed Time.

Doesn't that take kind of imply that every single attempted Dead Hard actually blocks a hit, and isn't used too early/late because of latency or the killer baiting it out?

And what are you going to do if it turns out that Survivor has Sprint Burst, but also has Off the Record?

Hard tunneling isn't unbeatable. Once you start running into Survivors with the perks, items and experience to counter it, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

If you rarely run into Off the Record, it's because live Dead Hard can do what it does but better, so long as you know how to press E. But OtR works great with Sprint Burst, because it gives you a third health state while still giving you room for another Exhaustion perk.

So yeah, if you decide to tunnel someone after seeing they have Sprint Burst, you're just setting yourself up to get dunked on by anti-tunnel perks. So what's the point of adopting these unfun strategies when it's not even going to help you against decent Survivors?

So are you or are you not going to tunnel someone with Sprint Burst? Because it sounds like you're counting on them to make a mistake if they have OtR. Letting them go, and hoping that they'll come back to give you a free hit instead of hiding somewhere, healing up and then just doing gens where you'll never find them?