Can someone tell me why killers need 20 aura reading perks?

Because the game is overloaded with stuff, so its a lot copy + paste in the perks.

I have used distortion, I know it can be strong and I do know it is also used (or abused?) by survivors who hide rather than interact. That is boring in itself and not fun for killer either… but there has to be a middle ground surely?

Well either way it doesn't matter now as they essentially killed Distortion so I guess the aura reading meta is in full swing now.

Its kinda wild how a lot of both sides complaints basically boil down to removing options from the other side. It would be nice if that was considered more often, regardless of role.

We are talking about killer perks. Territorial perks for killers are generally not a good idea because they would be effective in 3gens and not much else. Maybe on a small map like The Game or Midwich but these maps are already not good for survivors. You generally have very limited capabilities to decide the direction a survivor will run in because they are the one that is running from you, not the other way around.

Seeker perks are fundamentally not in tune with the killer role. Putting a second objective on the killer can only work, if it was somehow stronger than going after survivors. Which would immediately result in the perk either being broken or incredibly weak. Not to mention, that it would take away interaction between the killer and the survivors.

Meme perks are a fine idea, although we do have some of those already. Distressing is mostly a meme perk and though Two Can Play doesn't nerf you directly it's pretty close to a meme perk as well.

Disinformation perks similar to Freddy's dream pallets might sound like a good idea but the problem is that they need some restrictions and are likely not going to work against SWFs (see original Legion concept). These restrictions could either come with these perks being hex perks or something else. Hex perks in general are probably not the best approach anymore. Let's be honest, there is a reason why they are quite unpopular. Other restrictions again are very hard to balance. There is also the issue that as of now 2 killers already have fake pallets (Doctor and Freddy).

I have no idea how you would even attempt to balance an ability overriding perk. Not to mention, that these would also need some restrictions so that you couldn't just dash and immediately get a M1. Otherwise, playing against a Myers or Ghostface would be a horrible time. Exhaustion perks for killers have the same general flaw in concept.

Resource manipulation counts as chase perks. We do have some of these already. Bamboozle, Crowd Control and Blood Favour come to mind. What else would you do? Something like Mage Hand? That's literally a killer power, so that will never happen and with good reason. If it was Mage Hand for windows, that would be horrible to play against and I guarantee you such a perk would be hated. Unless of course it came with a downside so terrible that the perk would never be used. Remote pallet breaking is already a part of Knight's power, so that is not an option either. Not to mention that people would hate such a perk as well.

You only have so many options and you need to keep in mind that these perks could synergise with killer powers. We already know that the devs are not too keen on the idea to ban some perks from specific killers, so that issue can't be disregarded.

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal tbh

Hmm, what about:

Remnant: Solitude - See the Auras of Dull Totems. You can interact with them to create a Remnant: Solitude Totem (Similar to a Rekindled Totem). You gain the Undetectable Status while within 32m of this Totem and for 6/8/10s after leaving it.

(Remnants are cleansed/blessed faster than other Totems and are consumed by The Entity when cleansed.)

Emissary: Telltale - Blood Ravens spawn within the Trial. The Aura of Blood Ravens appear to you within 16m. Interaction with a Blood Raven will reveal the Aura of Survivors within 32m for 10s. Survivors can disturb Blood Ravens, however you will not.

Fair, there are some meme perks.

Regarding resource manipulation, that is also fair. Though I was thinking about a perk that introduces a new resource, rather than a removal or blockage of one. Though I don’t know what a Killer resource could be, perhaps:

Graverobber - Searching a locker disturbs a restless spirit. The next time a Survivor moves within 8m in front of this Locker, a Haunt will burst from it. Survivors disturbed by this Haunt will Scream and become Hindered by 10% for 4/5/6s

Scourge Hook: Twisted Ties - After Hooking a Survivor on a scourge Hook, gain a Token. While you have a Token, standing underneath an Empty Scourge Hook allows you to press the Ability Button while looking at another Empty Scourge hook to teleport to that location.

Yeah, I haven't played at the time but I'm aware of the original effect. Good point.

Remnant Solitude sounds like a pretty strong perk on small maps but much less impactful on big maps. Getting value out of it would require a survivor to be somewhat close to that area. Plus, if they see you, the undetectable effect is useless, so you also need some large LoS blockers.

If we compare that to other undetectable perks that is quite niche. On smaller maps on the other hand you would be undectable for pretty much the entire match. I'm not 100% against such a perk but it would be quite a pain to play against on something like Midwich.

Emissary: Telltale sounds like an interesting perk although we are back at aura perks. The general concept of these could be nice though, if we were to redesign them to act like a little trap. Say you put a Blood Raven somewhere and when it is disturbed, the survivor that disturbed it gets some kind of debuff.

I like the general concept a lot, however each Blood Raven would need to have a pretty small range, you would need to be able to place multiple ones (otherwise it would only work for a more territorial play style) and survivors would need some kind of way to get rid of them. At that point it's complex enough to be the foundation of an entire killer power. It would probably also need a downside that Blood Ravens remain inactive for some time when you place them because otherwise it would end up similarly to Skull Merchant's drones where you just place one at whatever loop you are when chasing a survivor.

Graverobber sounds a little difficult to balance. It could be pretty strong on indoor maps. It would probably counter the shack and some of the other strong structures as well. Although that would depend on how many lockers can be affected simultaneously. If it's multiple ones, that could make this perk very strong (although probably not very fun to play against since there is pretty much nothing you can do once you are at a loop with such a locker), if it was only one that would make this perk very niche. Again, I very much like the concept but there would need to be a lot of fine tuning.

I'm not sure what to think of Scourge Hook: Twisted Ties. It would be massively RNG reliant but it could be a pretty powerful perk with a bit of luck.

Honestly, I respect your creativity. These are some very interesting indeas. If you haven't done so, you should definitely make a post in Feedback and Suggestions.

That was the point of my first post in this thread. We have something for pretty much every niche already and with the amount of perks both sides have, it's not very surprising that any category will have a lot of perks that fit into it.

The idea certainly wasn't to give killers a specific amount of aura perks but it's a natural outcome when there are so many perks in the game and many of them are hybrids that fit multiple categories because one effect on its own might be too difficult to balance or straight up useless without the other (Friends Til The End is one such example).