To Devs - do you have any input on Aura Reading options?
After 8.3.0, there 29 killer perks that allow reading survivor auras. Across all killers, there's a total of 61 add-ons, so they have 90 total options they can choose to read survivor auras. Some as little as 3 seconds, some as much as 10 seconds. Drop an item? Aura is read. Walk next to a locker? Aura read. Drop a pallet? Aura read. Loop a killer and escape the chase? Aura read. Heal other survivors or yourself? Aura read. Get a good skill check on a generator, the MAIN OBJECTIVE of survivors to do? Aura read. Just load into a match and before you even take 1 step? AURA READ.
And as an avid Distortion user I can admit that regenerating tokens every 30 seconds was/is powerful, too much so, but the perk could certainly have been nerfed a number of different ways.
You could have A.) Taken away token regeneration and given 5 or 6 and once they're gone that's it, or
B.) Keep it at 3 tokens, still be able to regenerate either after 45 seconds or a minute, or
C.) Keep 3 tokens, but only regen a lost token after getting a safe unhook, escaping a chase, or doing a gen.
Personally, I like option 3 the best. You want more than one use out of Distortion? Contribute to the team.
Instead you overnerfed the only reliable perk that blocked Aura reading.
Yes, survivors still have the following:
Boon: Shadow Step
Off the Record
Sole Survivor
With Shadow Step, you have to be in its radius to get Aura reading blockage.
Off The Record only activates once you're unhooked and lasts for 80 seconds
Sole Survivor only starts activating once other survivors start dying.
And seeing anyone run those is rare.
Yes, doing a chase is a part of the game as well. I won't deny that, and while I'm not the best looper, it can be fun. But while there are multiple survivors good at looping, I see just as many, if not more so, struggle with it, especially new players.
Survivors have auras read for every little thing they do to the point it's ridiculous now. Survivors only have 14 perks to read auras, and 1 item that needs an add-on (dull/skeleton key) to read killer Aura.
There are 105 ways to read auras in the game between all perks and add-ons from both sides. Ridiculous.
I know this is a very hot topic right now, and there are multiple threads about this (including this one), but I've not seen any dev feedback or input on concerns and complaints from a sizeable portion of the playerbase. Of course, if I'm wrong, I welcome anyone to point it out and provide me with proper information.
Thank you.
Comments
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I think there are a couple problems with the prevalence of aura reading right now. It lowers the skill cap a lot. Game sense is a skill. You really don't need to look for anyone if you don't want to anymore. There's also no indication for survivors that they're having their aura read in most cases. You just have to guess. I don't think it would be unfair to tell players they were having their aura read. They could adjust and play accordingly. That's a skillful interaction between killers and survivors.
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After gen regression got gutted, I figured aura reading would be next on the chopping block.
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Aura read is completely out of control at this point and they are just adding on to its ridiculousness with the reworked Zanshin.
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That's a really interesting point regarding survivors having to guess. Back when I started playing… while many aura perks existed and several were viable, near everyone ran BBQ & Chili for the bonus bloodpoints, so the meta was to hop in a locker after the killer picked a survivor up. And sometimes there would be things like Discordance or Nurse's Calling, but you could use game sense to pick them out when the killer kept finding you in certain situations.
Then BBQ lost its bloodpoint incentive and people split into using all kinds of aura perks, to the point where it got hard to predict how you were being found and there was no preemptive way to avoid it (especially with the advent of very consistent on-demand aura perks like Nowhere to Hide and Darkness Revealed), but Distortion allowed you to pinpoint the exact moment your aura got read and infer what the killer's perks were. Now Distortion isn't worth running, and every kind of activity under the sun can potentially reveal your location to the killer.
In survivor matches, I always try to guess what location perks/addons the killer is using, and I'm wrong a solid half the time once we reach the endgame screen. Used to be a lot better at it, and I don't think I've gotten dumber; the game has gotten much less predictable in this regard.
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Exactly. I think back then it worked a bit too, because we had such a limited range of things that revealed auras. I'm old school and run Whispers on most killers if that ages me DbD-wise.
I can see arguments against informing survivors, because that inherently makes the interaction a bit more competitive. But especially for newer players who might play more stealthy, they most likely don't understand why they're being found so frequently.
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Thank you for your response. I do agree with if we were notified of our auras being read, and for both sides potentially, it gives all players a chance to adjust what they're doing accordingly.
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BHVR does not want survivors to have countermeasures which is strange for a video game, especially if it is touted with skill based matchmaking.
Aura reading should have never been added if survivors are not able to counterplay the killer. It's extremely unbalanced.
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I dont even think there is a problem with Distortion right now. I use it frequently, and there are matches where all three tokens are gone the first 30 seconds. There are so many aura reading perks for killers, why then nerf the only counterperk for survivors?
Can survivors abuse this perk? Yeah, but that is possible for a lot of perks and it is not possible to control every little action in the game. When I play survivor, noone is abusing Distortion. And I play SoloQ, so most of the time I die anyway.
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Another idea that came to me as I was explaining the powercreep of aura reading was to have Distortion only work within X meters of the killer, effectively imposing the same restriction as BBQ & Chili. This would still allow survivors to hide while allowing aura reading perks to direct killers to a survivor's area, rather than their exact location.
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I have also had experiences where all my tokens are gone within the first minute of the match. And sure enough, the next time your aura is read (which by that point you have an idea on when it occurs based on the killer action), they make a beeline for you. I won't complain, since there's plenty of that on the forums, and I do get that the point of the Killer is to KILL survivors, but with all the aura reading available, it takes away at least some of the mystery of where the survivors are at, and it can get obnoxious at times with how the killer is ALWAYS on your back at some points. This leads to you having no chance to do anything else except commit, and eventually lose, the chase in most scenarios
People hiding at the edge of the match or not helping is going to be inevitable, regardless of perks. But to take away one of the only consistent ways to prevent your aura being read is essentially punishing those who aren't the most skilled or confident in looping the killer, especially at the beginning of the trial. I couldn't even begin to count the number of times that I spawn in with Distortion, either with 1 or all other survivors in the same location, and I immediately lose a token, telling me that the Killer has Lethal Pursuer, and sure enough, within a few seconds the killer is on top of us before we can get our bearings together. With Distortion, it saves me from being immediately targeted and chased most times, unless I either ran the wrong direction to the killer or they focused line of sight on me. If they keep the Distortion changes how they currently are, fine, there's nothing I or any of us can do, except complain and/or change builds, but I wish the devs would provide some sort of input on this.
As it stands, aside from Distortion and aura reading, it's my understanding this PTB is NOT sitting well with the playerbase.
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well, people who play like rats and rely on perks like distortion are also not incentivized or inclined to get better at the game because they only want to understand dbd at the surface level, which is do gens and try to ensure your own survival
distortion needs the nerf, even if you still intend to play like that at least you don't have this busted perk with 3 stacks of no aura reading which is 3 opportunities for the killer to pressure someone else and possibly the same person he just hooked because you're nowhere o be found
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I feel like distortion can still be good for perk identification, you just won't be able to completely ignore aura reading perks. If it activates after a hook, you know to find a locker next time.
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Just wanted to comment... you said there was times you'd lose all 3 tokens within a minute and by that time you knew what the killer had. Don't you think this information alone is good for countering aura reading? If you've recognized the killer has Nurse's calling, then don't heal within the killer's terror radius for example rather than assume Distortion will let you completely ignore Nurse's calling.
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Yes, I advocated for just an aura symbol in the bottom right hand screen (just like Dissolution is) just to notify the survivor that their aura was read.
We can even take it a further step and just make it a general symbol, instead of let's say a Nowhere To Hide symbol to indicate the killer has Nowhere To Hide... To at least keep some form of guesswork or secrecy in terms of the killer's aura.
Yes, you will have people pre-run from their original location or simply walk as they are aware their aura is red, but at this rate with the plethora of aura reading it's a necessity.
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I do hope this gets put/considered in the PTB feedback.
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I don’t know what options killer will have for effects on perks in future.
Gen regression was complained about. Gen blocking was complained about. Healing slowdown was complained about. Screams were complained about with Ultimate Weapon, now aura reading; honestly what effects are left that you could use on perks and them be useful without complaints lol.I do love the look of the new Zanshin Tactics but it is a bit of a worry how good it might be on Pyramid Head and Unknown etc.
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That's a really interesting point regarding survivors having to guess. Back when I started playing… while many aura perks existed and several were viable, near everyone ran BBQ & Chili for the bonus bloodpoints, so the meta was to hop in a locker after the killer picked a survivor up. And sometimes there would be things like Discordance or Nurse's Calling, but you could use game sense to pick them out when the killer kept finding you in certain situations.
This.
Aura Reading is a useful tool, but it worked better in the Old DBD because the options were limited and, like you said, you as a survivor had an easier time understanding which aura reading tools the killer was using and how to play around them: BBQ & Chili, Nurse's Calling, some add-ons and Freddy who had it at base kit.
But now there are far too many of them. And it is difficult to play around something when you don't even know what that something is.
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The fall from grace Nurse's Calling took as well. You hardly if ever come across it in regular game modes anymore.
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And to think it was once part of the meta. Still think we should bring it back somehow.
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I kept that Nurses train rolling up til around the Sloppy nerfs. What's a guy gotta do to get some hemorrhage up in here?
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I've always thought haemorrhage was a bit brutal to go against as it can make healing go so slow. I don't think they should have made it on a timer though, but I don't really know of a proper nerf that would have taken it down a level as it was quite heavily used — especially on hit and run characters, I'm guilty for using it on Wraith before its nerf.
Like I've mentioned before, I think it was looked at due to the medkit and CoH nerf, it's just sad that Nurse's Calling tanked down when Sloppy got nerfed.
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That's mangled. Hemorrhage is the effect where if you successfully interrupt a heal, it starts to regress. I honestly wouldn't have cared if BHVR nuked Mangled
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Agree, way to much aura reading.
Hiding was a big part of the game once. Gets more and more destroyed.
I still guell kill rates will go up for new and normal players because they try to hide and often can not loop very good.
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You know, that'd actually be nice. And then Killer Instinct could be looked at as the "Infrequently used/obtained" type of Location information Perk.
There's certainly paranoia to be had if your Aura gets read, you see some indication that it was read (I'm a proponent of having A foggy border to the screen and hearing Whispers).
In chase it'll help you learn how to augment your playstyle, and at range and against stealth Killers you might just move off of the gen or get prepared to run.
Though, Aura reads that function mostly for ranged Aura Reading might need to be pivoted to using Killer Instinct/having a minimum range/not showing your hand to the Survivor as that would work against that ranged read/disregard the time investment to travel a distance.
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Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It was frustrating as survivor to let's say you're unhooked, you go behind an object to heal, teammate is healing you — killer returns, interrupts the heal, it starts to regress quite fast, and that's a whole thing where it was just wasted time on the survivor team and Sloppy was quite excessive as it worked 100% of the time without any drawbacks, hence why it was used so much in general.
It was a very strong and powerful perk, until obviously they put it on a timer. I don't like haemorrhage in general as it is quite oppressive, especially in high MMR games.
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It's all about portion control. Some regression is fine. But players understandably felt like Pain Res+Eruption w/ Incapacitated+etc was too much regression and game delay. Some screaming is fine. Ultimate Weapon was absurd tracking.
Players are fine with most mechanics in moderation.
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This is impossible. Distortion has a duration of 12 seconds. So even if your aura were being read successively, over and over somehow, it would be a bare minimum of 36 seconds. The only way that's even possible is if what? Lethal, then someone gets hit and you're on a gen and gearhead gets procced several times and thats way past the first thirty seconds of the match. I have no idea why people feel the need to exaggerate like this. It only undermines your point.
To the people complaining about aura reading: I'll tell you what is reading your aura. It's BBQ, nowhere to hide and lethal. That's pretty much it. I can always tell what perk is in play by the way the killer behaves.
The problem with distortion is that it singlehandedly counters an entire suite of aura perks with no input from the survivor or killer and expects you to bring a game losing array of perks to counter it. BBQ and lethal? Not enough. Permanent aura block vs most of the cast. That's insane and pushes people away from those perks into ones with guaranteed value.
I have no idea what people want at this point. No aura perks. No game stall. I expect bamboozle to be next on the chopping block. Let both sides have good perks to encourage variety.
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Also while I'm at it it doesn't matter if there's ten or a million ways to read auras. A killer can only utilize six of them at a time and the only killer best served by that is huntress. Even then I think she'd be better off running pain res in a slot. For nearly every other member of the cast a full aura build is game losing.
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Aura reading is absolutely out of control. Anymore when i hear the terror radius i make a beeline for the nearest pallet, and more often than not that's the correct decision.
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