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Distortion should only recharge in chase
The way it currently is, the perk encourages just flat-out hiding, and it recharges fast enough and terror radii are big enough where you can just constantly have charges against most killers in most situations. If the perk recharges in chase, it rewards strategically balancing when you take the killer's attention and when you avoid it.
Comments
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That's not bad idea imo.
Might help survivors who don't use it, so there won't that one survivor hiding with distortion who seen chase only on HUD...
But for most players it wouldn't change that much.
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Agreed
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I agree, but reduce the recharge time to 25 seconds since only recharging in chase is far more limited. But I agree with the idea in principle. Distortion is too easy to constantly maintain while avoiding the killer for most or all of the game unless it's a killer with a small terror radius or a stealth killer.
This way, the perk is more consistent vs. all killers and in order to replenish tokens you have to engage with the killer at some point. If you don't, you'll run out.
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Just no with the amount of Aura readings Distort is one of 2 counters to it. You have get risky already to recharge distort especially some killers who need to be out of their stealth mode which means trailing a chase.
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I get it: people running running a lot of aura stuff are sick dick and tired of seeing distortion. — But that's not because Distortion is op or too easy to get - its because anyone who wants to do anything regarding killer aura read has to run it - even if they just want to know which aura perk(s) a killer has. So yes, ofc you'll see only distortion. But that's because there there is only distortion.
Besides, there are plenty of killers and builds where you run out of tokens two minutes into the match.
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I would:
.make it start with 1 token. That token hides your aura and scratch marks for 10 seconds like it is now
.recharge a token each time you escape a chase or are unhooked after losing a chase(save value because your aura can be revealed while you are on hook. Make those tokens hide your aura for 7 seconds and not hide your scratch marks.
. Have a 45 second cooldown (including not eing able to gain new tokens) after one token is used.
With distortion i would also like to see freinds till the end reworked. One time per survivor, increase exposed to 25 and aura read to 12, and reveal the new obsessions aura for 4 seconds when you hook the previous one.
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No there aren't. I've only ever ran out of distortion vs an all aura huntress. Vs every standard terror radius killer it just disables an entire suite of perks. It's problematic.
Why would I run a set of perks entirely disabled by a single one-size-fits all survivor perk when I could simply opt for game slowdown? It's much more reliable and has more difficult counters than just slapping on distortion.
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BHVR should nerf Distortion as its too powerful - even when i've tried an all aura build with the Unknown i couldn't clear all of the distortion tokens from a survivor, specially on smaller maps like Midwich, but even on not so small maps like Rancid Abbatoir.
Its absurd a single perk from a single survivor can deny a killer their whole build or the effect of several perks.
Also they should rework perks or release new one that negates aura reading effect so this perk doesn't become the only perk against aura reading - maybe a perk that hide both survivors aura while a healing action is performed so you could heal without being revelead by BBQ or other perks. Distortion shouldn't be the most common counter to aura reading but other perks shouldn't be as strong as distortion to deny aura.
Also BHVR could buff scream perks like Thwack! so we shouldn't rely on aura to locate survivors.
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(off topic: I just noticed my touch Touch keyboard loves throwing in auto predict words … sick dick tired is a good one tho 😂)
I usually run distortion - not to crouch in a corner but to be able to tell which, if any, aura perk(s) the killer runs and to adapt. I run out of tokens a lot. Floods, Gearhead, Undying, darkness Darkness revealed and various aura add-ons are the usual culprits (stealth and long distance killers aside). Sure, I aint gonna run out of tokens if a killer has NTH or BBQ and uses it like a bot.
The only reason its sometimes perceived as problematic is because its the only perk even adressing killer aura read. It came into the game when there wasn't a lot of aura read. - The game has changed since then, there's a whole playstyle surrounding aura read on killer while survs still have exactly one way to deal with it - even if it's not their preferred way of dealing with it. I for one would switch out Distortion for a perk that tells all survs in the match their aura is being read while it's being read without actually hiding anyone's aura. Because - aside from laughing at nth bots - that's why I use it; to know when I should expect the killer to come zoomin - and in swf to call out aura read. And gawd, I wish I could communicate which aura perk is currently active to my SoloQ teamies.
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the whole point of the perk is to hide from aura's.
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It's literally the best tunneling perk, deserves to be changed tbh
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Nobody runs gearhead or darkness revealed. If floods and lethal to be charitable are the only aura perks in play you're never going to run out of tokens. If you are chased by the killer at any time or exist near the killer at any time it's more than enough to replenish the tokens used. I have no idea what using a perk "like a bot" means. If dude is kicking a gen to try and find someone like a bot then a survivor is sitting around having distortion activate like a bot. It doesn't mean anything. A hollow insult.
It's the only perk that hard counters every aura perk in the game. Even if there were other options there'd be no other reason to pick them because distortion negates aura reading entirely. Any other theoretical perk would have to have a hell of a powerful effect to make it a tempting alternative.
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if i could see my teammates perks in lobby I'd never play with another distortion user. They just hide. This change should help with that.
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Boon Shadow steps is a hard counter there is 2 of them and no off the record isnt a hard counter its a temp side benefit which requires you to get hooked.
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This change is great but I'd love to see some other survivor perks buffed with aura-hiding effects like Poised.
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No. A smart killer will figure out that a survivor has Distortion after suddenly their aura is revealed and choose not to chase that survivor. That way when they need to find the survivor (slugging for the 4K) they know that survivor can't hide their aura. It's still going to be bad for the other survivors.
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Maybe it could recharge with generator repairs
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I also had this idea a while ago. I think 15-20s per token in chase are fine. It should only start with 1 token though. So you get one free anti aura reading (Lethal, 1st NTH/BBQ etc), then you need to interact with the killer to get more.
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I think a nice alternative would be if Spine Chill was reworked to activate any time your aura was revealed.
This way you learn what aura perks are in play and get a small bonus, but still get revealed. It would also be at odds with Distortion so they couldn't be run together.
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stop asking for a distortion nerf the perk is fine as it is. killers have a dozen aura reading perks plus add-ons that they can combine together to see the survivors aura most of the game and distortion is the only perk survivors have to protect themselves from it.
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You know you can just look for the distortion user, just because a survivor runs distortion doesn't make them invisible and untraceable in the map 😂
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- Shadow Step
- Off the Record
- Residual Manifest
- Lockers
Also, good. People should not feel empowered to hide all game from the killer to the detriment of their teammates. Aura blocking should be highly situational and should never allow that kind of playstyle
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Yeah, tell that to the killers I go against who are too scared to chase me and can only ever find one other person because the distortion users on my solo q team keep crouching edge map whenever they hear a TR or stop seeing chase indicators on the HUD
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lol, there are so many aura killer perks that you blow through their distortion charges so fast, much faster than they recharge. It's already too easy to counter distortion, quit trying to make it harder on them. I know it is shocking, but hiding is part of a valid strategy, much like the valid strategies that we use as killers, but survivors hate. If they are an all-match hider, that just makes the match last longer, and gives us more time to find and kill everyone else. Also, perception isn't reality, regardless of what your managers may tell you. If someone isn't seen by the killer, it doesn't mean the survivor did nothing. There have been plenty of matches when I have been playing survivor that the killer never (or very rarely) even saw me during the match, but I outscored everyone else in the match and got 3 iridescent badges, and nearly got 4 (but it's hard to get that 4th one when you aren't evading in chase). I am terrible at looping, but pretty good at doing gens, finding totems, and generally not getting found by the killer.
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Yeah sure killers have a bunch of conditional perks that reveal auras and add-ons.
However distortion singlehandedly counters all of those, for forever. For one perk. That's not a problem to you?
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Aura perks teach killers to basically be blind when their aura perks don't work. I have had killers walk right by me after looking directly at me, when I was running distortion.
I had a huntress chase me for 4 minutes because she was so used to getting instant downs with her aura build. She could not get back into normal killer mindset, the aura build fried her brain.
I think NoED does something similar to killers, they get complacent knowing they have a crutch to fall back on. So they end up having terrible early and mid games, and then NoED kicks in and clutches for them.
What's the quote? If you are nothing without auras, you shouldn't have it.
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Hmmmm....
- Distortion is active from the beginning with 3x use
- Recharges 1 token/30s when hiding inside of the TR (well usable against most killers), so it's basically active the whole match even against full aura builds
- Players who don't use distortion are tunneled out more, killed or on death hook first, while Distortion users usually weren't hooked once.
- Promotes unhealthy playstyles on both sides (pure stealth, no killer interaction, unintentional tunneling)
Other anti-aura perks have a condition to use: boon a totem (Shadowstep), get hooked (OTR), get a killer blind (Residual Manifest, quite fun with Blast Mine) or the good old hop into the locker (which is what everyone did before Distortion was good or even before it existed).
Distortion on the other hand gives you more stealth for being stealthy, which is terrible design.
If you don't want it to be adjusted, I guess you are too deep in your comfort zone.
Let me tell you something. If you stay in your comfort zone, you will never last more than 10s in chase. Get out, learn how to loop, then you will realize that you don't need this perk even if you have a more careful playstyle. You just can't live without the information on aura reading Distortion provides? Try Object. It is an underappreciated perk.
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Like what? And what killers can use them?
Look at a typical good perk combo: lethal and BBQ. One token at the beginning. One token each time someone is hooked. In no reality is this burning through all of your tokens except maybe vs a wraith.
Your other option is gearhead, which nobody runs because seeing a dude on a gen off in the distance isn't that valuable for most killers. And frankly does not melt tokens like people pretend it does. Nothing else outside of a full aura build on a substandard terror radius build can even begin to touch the wealth of tokens that you're gonna get in a game.
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Hmm, load up Weave Attunement, Franklin's Demise, Lethal Pursuer, and Nowhere To Hide and tell me how many matches you 4K with 1 or 0 gens completed…
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hint, the answer is MOST of them….
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Don't discount Gearhead, I've used it to great effect
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and killers have lightborn to counter a entire mechanic of the game this is the same thing
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Like.... As what killer? That build isn't winning you games as doctor, Freddy, legion, etc etc.
Different killers do wildly different things and a glut of information is not equally valuable on all of them. And what happens when you get a team that just sticks their items in a corner? Then you've got two dead perk slots.
Gearhead is a decent low b tier perk but it's not countering distortion on it's own.
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People don't use gearhead? There's quite a few who use gearhead. Same for darkness revealed - especially those that bring map offerings for game or badham.
And using NTH or BBQ like a bot looks something like this: A killer sees a gen with progress, goes over, kicks it, does a 360 turn and goes away. Returns after a short while and sees the gen has progress. And the mindlessly repeat the same thing. They don't even check on the other side of the friggin wall. - Pretty much the same for BBQ; mindlessly follow the aura even if another, closer surv is in a location you should be aware of - say, a very progressed gen nearby.
If you only run lethal and/or floods then you don't have an aura read build. If you dedicate your build to seeing auras and make the best use of them you will be able to do that, quite easily even. But that's exactly what Distortion is for; if a killer throws in some lackluster aura read they won't get that jump on you.
As for alternaties to Distortion: I think you didn't quite read what I wrote. I said that even those that find the ability to call a killer's aura perk far more valuable than having their aura hidden, have to use Distortion. Spoiler: that's why (maybe rather more experienced? idk, I thought it was common knowledge that Distortion's true power is being able to call aura reading) many players run Distortion. There's more ways to dealing with auras than to just hide your own.
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Both of those perks have like a 2% pickrate. NtH and lethal have like quintuple that. They're rare enough that I literally forget they exist and get surprised when I see them in the endgame screen. Darkness has the same issue that dredge has: inconsistent locker spawns. Gearheads that the information isn't actionable for most killers or is just not helpful. You can see a dude on the other side of the map on a gen. Okay? Then what? If you don't have mobility you can't do anything about it. Conversely if they're nearby then you know they're nearby because you are there.
I've never seen anyone just stand in place and kick a gen off cooldown over and over in the hopes that no where to hide procs. That's game losing behavior.
So you're saying that unless the killer has four aura perks they don't deserve to have those perks work at all vs a survivor with a single perk? That's nonsense. There's only a couple of killers in the game that can actually benefit from a full aura build and God knows they don't need the help. You're just pushing killers toward game stall by having a perk that completely negates an entire suite of perks they'd like to run otherwise. I'd contend that even with a full aura build on a 32m TR killer you'd still be hard pressed to burn through every distortion token.
I'm not really going to comment on swf issues. Frankly: I don't care about them. That's a whole other balancing act. I will say that if you're experienced you can take a fairly accurate guess at what perks are in play without distortion and communicate that.
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Well, I do. Gearhead has been pairing rather well for me alongside Weave Attunement for chewing Distortion stacks.
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Cool. What killer? Investing that heavily in inconsistent information isn't useful for most of the cast. And what happens when they just drop their items in a corner?
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I agree that it can be unfair that other teammates can suffer do to the use of this perk, when a killer can't find other survivors it can lead to them focusing on one. For this reason I also would like some sort've changed to the perk, but more of a qol rather than a straight out nerf. But it is a little strange how when it comes to distorion, people use this point as a reason to state it is unhealthy for the game and should be nerfed/changed but tunneling in itself is accepted and not considered toxic or unhealthy.
I agree distortion should be tweaked to avoid tunneling situations because I disagree with tunneling as a whole.
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Saw Otz come up with a pretty solid idea just now.
To summarise for people not wanting to watch:
- Make Distortion a team perk with a shared pool of 4 tokens for the team for everyone that takes it that never regenerate.
- Whenever a token is used on a player the rest of the team see their aura for the duration with a buff token to show distortion is in effect.
It a shame he gets targetted and made the scapegoat for perk changes and has basically been putting that disclaimer in every other video he makes.... but his opinions are always interesting, and this aura reveal is an interesting idea.
I don't think realistically you can get the 4 shared tokens that never regenerate through, this would completely change the identity of Distortion and would undoubtedly upset people... even if I prefer and agree with the direction of making it a team information perk myself, the push back would be insane.
However I think some re-jigging with this reveal aura to teammates idea is really good, where you can passively give a chance to figure out an aura perk in play for your team. That is a much healthier direction for Distortion to go and levels the playing field of SWF Distortion vs. Solo Distortion.
Some combination with the idea in the OP I think would be very cool...
Thoughts?
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If people still want the gap between solo q and SWF to be closed more, remember that BHVR said the main problem is that solo q survivors don't work together as a team as often.
Survivors that run Distortion, and are excessively hiding, are part of the gap between solo q and SWF. They are basically sandbagging their team for their own survival.
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