The Great Otzdarva Distortion Debate!

Or have it only recharge ONLY in chase so people using it have to take the heat every now and again, I think that could work too.

I think the people asking for it to be nerfed or reworked aren't considering why it is so popular at the moment. Being able to see survivors as killer is insanely powerful and there are tons of ways to reveal survivor aura. It is a really comfy perk to run to prevent being wallhacked 24/7 or to at least know when that is happening to play around it when you are out of stacks.

I am not gonna say it isn't silly that it counters so much but it is equally silly that you can basically be revealed to the killer at all times with the right build.

You know, it's funny, if you check my post history I've been stating how, despite being a stealth player, I dislike this perk because of how uninteractive and unfulfilling it feels to use and that I really wish I did not have to use it.

That said, I'm sad to say that I hope they don't touch it at all for the foreseeable future.

As much as I hate to admit it, survivors don't have another realistic way to combat the varied aura reading capabilities that killers have right now (there's seriously a lot). You can't hide in brushes, behind objects, or generally try to be stealthy without being revealed by 'Nowhere to Hide' or 'Floods of Rage' randomly. Lockers aren't a realistic alternative because they're not always available, and often they're too obvious as hiding spots when they are.

Right now this is the only line of defense we have against all the aura reading, which sucks, because it can be hard to make it consistently work against those small terror radius or undetectable spamming killers.

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My hopes are Behaviour starts adding more varied, active, and conditional aura-blocking perks that force survivors to plan ahead when using it or lose the benefit (still think Still Sight should give aura blocking instead of killer aura reading). This way aura blocking is a still thing, but it requires more effort and thinking to pull off, with the risk of being exposed to aura reading if you misplay (whereas distortion is a guaranteed block).

Stealth survivors deserve to be able to play too, so until we get other tools to play that way, I can't see it being appropriate to touch the only real tool we have to combat it right now.

Its should either only recharge tokens in chase or when being hooked. Recharging out of chase usually hard counters 1/2 info perks for the entire match and lead to a 3v1 where the killer only chases the other 3 survivors because thats the only people they can find. I hate the gameplay loop it creates and how strong of a counter it is to the average build.

Ah yes the most fun part of the gameplay loop finding where survivors are by wandering around the map at 4.6m/s. Other than the fact that 9 times out of 10 they have no where near the amount of time to support that kind of playstyle.

It is part of the gameplay loop, because it gives survivor a small moment to breathe to avoid the killer and move pressure around.

A killer being able to beeline to a survivor right after hooking a survivor means that 3 survivors are always busy, be it healing, being hooked, being chased or moving somewhere to avoid being intercepted.

Especially with how popular tunneling is these days, meaning 1 survivor gets killed at 3-4 gens remaining, and then keep the gameplay loop with 3 survivors being always busy means gen progression comes to a full stop.

Thats an issue. I'm genuinely more fine with killer instinct replacing at least half the aura perks. Survivors cannot avoid it, but it also doesnt mean a killer can simply beeline to their location as its not fully accurate. It just gives a general sense.

Otz is just grabbing onto a hot topic perk (especially now because of Weave Attunement) for view$. Nothing new. This perk was considered mediocre until killers suddenly found themselves with a litany of aura reading perks and of course now it's problematic.

If anything they need more anti aura options. Maps are becoming smaller and Lethal Pursuer removes Survivor’s early game stealth (where they’re strongest) and only Distortion counters it. Besides Killers should be capable of knowing where most Survivors are in the map after the first chase. They have to do gens to live and they can’t teleport around. If you can’t figure out where Survivors are consistently it’s not Distortion’s fault.

it’s a necessary evil imo there’s way too many aura perks in the game it’s to the point stealth is a unusable strategy the moment the game loads

My issue with the complaints about distortion is that they feel very one-sided. Some argue that it's unfair for the perk to counter other perks so easily, but lightborn does the same. Others say it's wrong for distortion to counter aura reading at all but aside from hopping in a locker—which is situational and map-dependent what other reliable counters are there?

There's also the argument that distortion is bad because it can lead to tunneling, which in this specific context is considered unhealthy for the game. However, tunneling itself is often defended or accepted as a valid playstyle, and the players are expected to bring certain perks to avoid it, and if they don't then it was their fault and also their teammates fault.

It's fine not to like a perk, but if the criticisms of that perk only hold up when they're a detriment to one side, the complaints don't seem very fair.

Funny thing is that all his 3 issues are not really valid.

Issue 1 - Unfun Killer Builds/Strategies - those would be the case even if Distortion would not be a thing. Before Distortion was buffed, the main Builds players used were Slowdown and before it was buffed there was also tunneling. Thinking that this will go down is delusional, it has been proven multiple times that incentives (nerfing a Perk which would make Aura Reads more viable would be an incentive) dont work.

Issue 2 - Passive gameplay - he at least admits it himself, but it would not really change much. Someone who runs Distortion and is overly stealthy/passive will not just suddenly become someone who takes every chase they can get. The same players would still be passive, probably in lockers most of the time. I mean, Killers would still get something out of it, because those Survivors would also be less efficient on Gens, but it would not really solve the issue that they are passive.

Issue 3 - SWF/Solo-Difference - While this point is most likely the most valid, it is strange that he talks about competent Survivors and yet fails to realize that those competent Survivors also dont need that much information to know the Perks of the Killer. And while 1 Distortion provides information, it does not really change that the other 3 players dont have Distortion and therefore either have to play around it (while being less efficient on Gens) or will have to deal with being seen by the Killer.

But I guess I am wrong because Otzdarva cannot be wrong.

This is my main observation as well.

I don't think Distortion is a problem. I think the bigger issue is that we've had some insane powercreep in intel perks. Before Onryo, the best intel perk was BBQ & Chili, and that one specifically exempts survivors that are too close. It directs the killer, but doesn't outright lead them to the target.

Now we've got Lethal, Floods of Rage, Nowhere to Hide and Weave Attunement. Most of these provide stronger aura reading with more aggressive application. You could still hide from a BBQ if you played your cards right, because the perk specifically only allowed you to see distant survivors. You -can't- hide from Floods of Rage, Nowhere to Hide and Weave Attunement though. You can ONLY use Distortion.

The argument about Distortion causing Tunnelling is also a bit of a perception error. "If only one person doesn't have Distortion, I'm going to end up tunnelling them!" only applies if you have too much intel uptime on that one person, which is what is happening. If that last person gets a fair shot at hiding from the intel perks, you're in the clear.

One change I do think would be fair for Distortion, in part based on the Richard (Vecna) game Otz shows in the video, would be to have Distortion not activate while in chase. This would make I'm All Ears exempt (It's a different type of aura reading perk, serving a completely different function, so I think it's fair), and would prevent accidental aura reading procs from wiping scratch marks and thus breaking chase. (As that is the only reason Otz lost his mark and wound up finding someone else)

why don’t we just nerf all the aura perks instead? Distortion is literally the only counter to extremely strong aura perks.

The thing is

People want to nerf regression
People want to nerf aura reading
People want to nerf tunneling
People want to nerf slugging
People want to nerf add ons
People want to buffs maps to help survivors

What are we suppose to bring as killers if you nerf all of perks ? Are we meant to play with predator, stridor and whispers only ?