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Distortion Is Fine
I've been seeing a lot of posts about how the nerf to Distortion is problematic, or how Distortion has been "killed" or what have you, so I decided to test it out. I equipped Distortion for a good chunk of games, and tried to get a feel for how accessible tokens were and how much impact Distortion had on the trial.
My conclusion, broadly, is that Distortion is still a good perk. It still does the job well enough, though it has been downgraded to be comparable to its peers instead of clearly superior to them in every aspect— it's still better, but it's not better by as much, and that's still a healthier outcome. The fifteen second requirement is honestly quite easy to hit, even for players that are not the best at chase like myself, so tokens were pretty plentiful.
More specifically, I found there were two legitimately strong use cases for Distortion, and one that's fine but much more toned back.
First, it's protection from Lethal Pursuer. That was a pretty popular use for old Distortion, so while it's only a single perk being countered, it deserves top billing. If you don't like being chased at the very start of the match because the killer beelines for a Lethal aura, Distortion still protects you from this. Bring Distortion if that's your complaint.
Second, it's great at fooling mid-chase auras. If you're the type to want to use perks to break chase with the killer but you're worried about perks like Predator or I'm All Ears, bring Distortion. It still does that, and it still does it best of the three viable aura perks.
The third use, the one that isn't as strong, is that it is pretty good at just generic mid-match aura blocking, you just can't evade auras forever using it this way. I had a specific match that I'll use as an example, where the killer had Friends Til The End and I was the Obsession - I blocked the first one, kept repairing a generator, and then realised I'd be vulnerable to the next use of FTTE.
That's the area that Distortion is weaker in, and that's okay, it was always kind of silly that Distortion 100% blocked basically all auras unless specific conditions (stealth killer with no TR, and/or killer with a full gimmick aura build to punch through tokens faster than they regenerated) were met. The perk still has very good and useful use cases, it still does one of the main things that people brought it for, and it still works in almost all the same builds as it used to.
TL;DR, Distortion is still a very good perk, it just isn't a perfect perk anymore and that's okay.
Comments
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The distortion nerf wasn't just fine, it was absolutely necessary. A single survivor perk should NOT be able to singlehandedly shut down an entire category of killer perks and addons.
With that being said, I'm fine with it being buffed to 15 seconds per chase per token. Its in a really good spot now. Powerful effect, but not oppressing18 -
So lightborn also deserves a nerf by this logic?
This is a terrible rationalization for a nerf, let alone deleting one of the only reliable counter plays to an increasingly large number of aura reads available to killer.
The game isn't intended for the killer to have nearly constant wall hacks on survivor locations, and not having any way to deal with that is going to eventually either break the game or result in sweeping nerfs to aura perks. These distortion posts seem to be celebrating the former without realizing the later is inevitable now that the reliable counter is being removed.
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There are three reliable counters to aura reading, one of which is Distortion, as I laid out.
Killers also definitely very much do not have nearly constant wall hacks either, for the record.
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The logic here doesn't work its an asymmetrical game, the sides can't be compared 1:1 to each other because they are not equal (aka asymmetrical)
Even if it was 1:1 for some reason lets talk about scale
Survivor perks and items countered : 5
Killer perks counted by distortion : 25, killer addons, 42
So lets tally it up, perk that counters 5 things vs perk that counters… 67 things. Thats a lotta things… for 1 perk to counter
Killers knowing where survivors are is strong but it keeps a better flowing gameplay loop and reduces the total amount of stacked slowdown in killer builds. I think the devs know this too and to keep the game entertaining and moving along they give a good mix of aura perks for whatever people would prefer to use to find survivors which on its own doesn't do anything unless you then go chase the survivor or plan to use that info later like figuring out which gen to pop. Plus having a different category of perks means that most builds will end up containing a few of them which means less slowdown. Frankly the whole idea of 'aura perk winter" is never gonna come to pass and if it did I'd expect "slowdown perk summer" that would follow to make people beg to revert it.
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aside from Weave Attunement, please tell me which other perk lets the killer have lowkey permanent aura reading on survivors?
And it's always funny when i see how yall are justifying existence and usage of old Distortion for "constant aura reading" when the perk literally gets countered by it.
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I agree with you overall, but I'm curious - what's the fifth thing that Lightborn counters?
I count four - Flashlights, Flashbangs, Firecrackers, and Blast Mine. What am I missing?
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Champion of light and residual manifest (I didn't count blast mine because its a full stun during the full time you are blinded so it doesn't do much)
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Ahhh, I see what you're saying. I'd argue Champion of Light is only partially countered since you still get more distance while blinding, but I getcha.
Regarding Blast Mine - you're still stunned, but you also still see the aura of the person who set the mine, so I'd argue it breaks out in the killer's favour overall.
Either way, it doesn't change the core of your point and I agree with you, just wondered what I was missing.
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While it isn’t a 1:1 ratio, you must understand DBD is a PvP game regardless. There must be enticement to keep players—because they aren’t preprogrammed logarithms—interested in playing the game. Both roles have been handicapped, but one role (killer) has been handicapped with advantages while the other (survivor) is receiving more disadvantages. What do you think happens in a situation like that? Hint: People play as the role that has advantages.
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What does that actually mean in this context, though?
Survivors still have tools to defend against aura reading, if that's something they want. Distortion is still one of them, even. What exactly is being taken away from them here? What's their significant disadvantage?
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The hyperbole aside killers have reliable aura reading to a point where they can spend more time reading survivor auras than not. You could argue against the semantics of calling this wallhacks but for the purpose of this topic the definition applies.
The other perks (some of which I personally like) that block aura reading are saddled with heavy restrictions or activation conditions that don’t allow them to function as consistently or reliably as old Distortion. It’s disingenuous to speak as if they do.
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Do they, though? Setting aside specifically the perk Weave Attunement, all killer aura reading perks have restrictions and conditions and/or timers on them, such that even a full build of aura perks only provides intermittent wallhacks. Don't get me wrong, aura perks are very good, but they're not at the point of providing more aura reading than not even when stacked together with all your perk slots.
To your second point, Distortion being as consistent and reliable as it was is the entire reason it got changed. Because killer aura perks are not that persistent, being able to completely shut down all of them with one perk was both kind of questionable in terms of raw balance and disastrous for perk variety. Why ever bother weighing the upsides and downsides of aura blocking perks if one of them had no downsides and all upsides?
Distortion is still reliable and consistent, that's what the thread is about. There's more reason to consider Shadow Step and Off The Record, depending on what specific auras you're wanting to block the most, but Distortion is still the most reliable and consistent of them. Like I said, it's just not perfect, which is fine.
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Distortion, Sole Survivor, and… Help! (Reread OP and didn't see anything) I'm assuming not Object?
Naturally, everyone's mileage may vary. I've had absolutely terrible luck trying to get Distortion to be useful, so it's pretty dead. I've moved on to Object.
Sole Survivor, if included in the 3 aura blockers, has a steep requirement, as you know. So let me paint this picture. Even if we use current Distortion, 4x Distortion can show zero aura's with lethal in play. Can 4x Sole? Nah, it really can't. Sole Survivor is/will always be a solo'q perk, which Im surprised hasn't been attacked like Distortion was with all the rampant 'rats' that apparently plague the game.
If Object is one of the trinity, then in the same scenario, the killer sees everyone's aura, but all 4 survivors also see the killer. This essentially counters, by @bjorksnas 's calculations, like 67 things. I'm curious if this needs a nerf or if this even matters to anyone?
Old Distortion had one thing above the rest: reliability. Now, it's see them when they see you, or gen build.
Thanks for reading! Actually enjoying the various perspectives. These are just my thoughts.
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Distortion, Sole Survivor, Shadowstep and Off the Record block aura reading. That’s all.
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The three I'm referring to are Distortion, Boon: Shadow Step, and Off The Record, and I'll explain what I mean a little bit to make sure we're on the same page.
The way I see it, each of the three viable (clarifying here that Sole Survivor is not a viable aura blocking perk, lol) aura blocking perks has a specific use case or two, and players should hypothetically be weighing which use case is most beneficial to them when choosing their perks at the loadout screen.
If they want to protect against Lethal or other early-game aura reading, and/or they want to protect from mid-chase aura effects, Distortion shines. It still starts with a token so it protects against Lethal, and it still hides scratch marks so it's great for fooling something like I'm All Ears or Predator. It's less good at protecting from random mid-match auras, like BBQ, but it still does that somewhat well.
If they want to be able to do certain actions (like generator repair or healing) with relative safety from mid-match random auras, like stated above, that's when Shadow Step comes in. It isn't good at protecting from stuff early on and fundamentally cannot protect from Lethal, but with a totem set up, you can do a gen or finish a heal with reasonable protection from auras. If that's your main concern as a player, you'd bring Shadow Step. Since this perk also hides scratch marks, it works reasonably well in chase, but its range restriction makes it more of a sidegrade to Distortion in that regard.
If they want protection while they're at their most vulnerable, to ensure they aren't sniped by a random aura after an unhook and while resetting, Off The Record is the best call. Since this is also an anti-tunnel perk due to its Iron Will and Endurance effects, it really shines in that niche but suffers for the other two use cases we've discussed.
Before the nerf, none of this applied, because Distortion did all of the use cases, and it did them all perfectly with no downsides. Now, it's still the most consistent and reliable, but there's at least some reason to consider the other two perks.
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It shifts then recovers? What happens when a new killer comes out and everyone rushes to play it?
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Object is fine because it also can come with a downside of revealing your aura against killers with undetectable or revealing your aura when you are in a bad spot. Distortion doesn't really have a downside like object because for example If it never procs then you have a massive advantage knowing the killer has absolutely no tracking perks or only visible ones like infectious fright.
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Well, you’re certainly an optimist.
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100% this
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Thank you
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All this beautiful information your saying, I said the similar things and examples but you know they will always justify why lightborn is totally ok to negate one of the few defense survivors have.
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It is trash tier.
Waste of a perk slot.
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Instead of trying to fix some issues, they completely went nuts again. In addition to every stealth nerf through out the last years (massive influx of aura read perks vs massive nerfs of stealth perks) they completely sealed off any possibility to play stealthy as survivor who arent good loopers, whom is the most part of the playerbase. Just another pretty good job on killing variation on survivor builds. Those changes are beyond understanding.
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I disagree, I think Distortion very much still remains viable.
Do you disagree with any of the use cases I laid out in the post?
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Distortion still becomes a dead perk in this scenario. You get info that there are no aura perks, but Distortion counters nothing. Anyone could play the same with or without Distortion in this scenario and have the same result.
Object grows in power the more people on your team has it, especially if the killer does have an aura build. Honestly, can we even compare Object and Distortion? They do very different things with how they interact with auras. Thoughts?
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Object also has a doa senario of a killer with no aura perks and you aren't the obsession
But I think distortions one is more powerful knowing the killer has no info perks because you KNOW you can get away with a lot more. Its a small knowledge gap but it has some pretty big implications with it like knowing that the killer doesn't know where to go next or which areas are now the best to hide in. On top of just knowing that stealth is going to be overall more effective against them. Probably small in solo queue but it can do a lot in teams.
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Yeah, thats the distinction I first thought: solo vs swf uses. Agreed there.
Distortion knowledge is bigger and better if there is no aura build in play. Is it the same with an aura build in play? Does object or Distortion become more useful, solo'q or Swf?
I feel the more Object's in play, (As in all 4 survivors bring it) the better the deal. Distortion's token juggling is what knocks it down a bit, even if the token generation isn't that tedius: its still there.Hmmm… I've some things to think over. Thank you!
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Edit: Forgot to quote lol @jesterkind
I see! I never would have thought about the boon. I see boons as wasteful and unattractive, save meme builds. They have some uses, but my experience is there is always a better option. So I didn't even think of that lol.
That said, Boon: Aura hide wouldn't come close to Distortion, Object, or even Sole. The counterplay of just stomping it out is too much for me to want to even want to use it. Re-booning will take so much time doing… nothing. All other alternatives become more attractive imo.
OtR has steep requirements, not quite as bad as Sole Survivor, but still requires bad things. BHVR's perk design with give and take usually miss the mark imo. On top of that, it is used only 2 times in the match, and nothing about it is guaranteed. I'd say its better than the Boon though.
Still prefer Object over either of these. There are niche scenarios we can pick and chose to make each perk shine, but in a general, 1000 game sample, I predict Object or Sole Would win as most reliable. Distortion just hasn't come clutch when I needed it most with the changes. Just my thoughts. Thank you!
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"So, Lightborn also deserves a nerf by this logic?"
……….YES!!!! Yes it does! Never let it be said that I'm a hypocrite. But lightborn absolutely shouldnt be able to completely shutdown one of the few defenses a survivor has. Personally, I'd give it a cooldown long enough to make sure it cant be used is rapid fire succession, like 90 seconds or something like that.8 -
I agree. Old Distortion was actually very much not fine: being able to block almost any and all killer aura perks/add-ons/abilities all match long by simply spending one perk slot was way overtuned. The activation requirement of needing to be in the killer's terror radius made sure you almost always had tokens, and it encouraged overly stealthy playstyles and trying to interact as little with the killer as possible. Not healthy in my opinion. The only instance where I thought Distortion was fine was against Nurses abusing Nowhere To Hide (and Darkness Revealed), particularly on indoor maps.
Distortion now encourages interaction, and like you point out has a more limited, targeted scope of when its effect can then be beneficial. It sort of was to aura-blocking perks (of which there admittedly are too few) what Ultimate Weapon originally was to tracking perks: it trumped them all, gratuitously so.
What I do think would be reasonable however is to have it start out with its 2 tokens already present.
In general I would encourage anyone that has trouble dealing with the - indeed plentiful and not always entirely unproblematic - aura-reading effects of killers to give Object Of Obsession a try. Not only will it also tell you which aura effects are in play, but sometimes seeing the killer's aura when they see yours will actually be more beneficial in playing around those aura reads than simply blocking them would. And interaction with the killer is ultimately more fun than trying to continually hide from them. You will also learn to get better at chases if you are actually more regularly engaged in them, which Object will also facilitate, ha.
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This.
I don't even think the Distortion nerf was a terrible change, but I don't like how stealth is constantly the target for nerfs and unnecessary changes.
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Awful change.
Run into killers with a lot of aura stuff all the time now.
Takes hiding as an option away. Sadly makes the game less tactical. And imo only hurts new and bad players who mostly can´t cahse well.
It is not Distortion, it is the aura reading stuff which should be dialed back big time in the game overall.
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I don't see how it takes hiding as an option away. Not only is Distortion itself still good, but there are two other viable aura blocking perks depending on what auras in particular you want blocked.
Which aura perks are giving you trouble?
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I disagree with how Distortion was changed for a variety of reasons. The most impactful of those for the game as opposed to myself is that Distortion used to help new players while now it does not do so. The 15 seconds in chase is welcome and anyone with situational awareness should be able to get 15 seconds just hitting W on most Killers. However, new players don't necessarily have situational awareness as they're new and DbD already has such atrociously high barriers against entry for new survivor players that anything that helps them should be encouraged. I feel that tying tokens to 30 second periods spent on gens would have been more helpful.
On a personal note Distortion feels more like you're being cheated now to me instead of rewarded for being in chase. In a couple of recent games I ran a Killer who was trying to tunnel me until my OTR indicator ran out (so over 80 seconds as a minimum). In return I got one token? That doesn't feel commensurate with the effort put in. If there were more tokens available than 2 or the tokens were tied to gen repairs it would have felt better even if Distortion was useless in those two specific scenarios (a Killer sticking to me like glue; there's no need for aura reading unless the Killer loses track)
I don't think a change was even that necessary as I quite often run aura reading builds and I had no issues finding Distortion users. It's not accurate to say it's unfair for Distortion to counter so many perks and items when the only reason that Distortion was popular is because there are so many powerful aura reading tools available. As soon as NTH was introduced I thought that Distortion would become popular simply because of the aura reading power creep. If aura reading perks hadn't received so much power creep then there wouldn't have been a reason for Distortion to have been buffed. However, aura reading perks are multiple times stronger than when BBQ and Chili was considered strong aura reading.
Distortion is also hard countered by Spies in the Shadows, Surveillance and Discordance. I'd rather know myself which and how many Survivors are on gens so I can more accurately determine when I should drop chase and defend gens instead.
All in all, I find the change was both unnecessary and poorly implemented. Distortion was nerfed without addressing the underlying reason that it was popular because aura reading has been power crept substantially and it was changed in a way that both makes the game harder for new survivors and doesn't feel like it rewards more experienced survivors. If Distortion is not to be reverted back then I feel BHVR also needs to either address the power creep Killer aura reading perks have received or change the requirement to recharge tokens to a time period such as 30 seconds repairing generators so at least it helps newer players develop better habits.
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I play long enough and also very casual and offensive. So i do my challenges and die already a lot.
But i can recognize the perks and see how quick people go down.
To me it is just annoying trying to hide somewhere and seeing the killer beelining to me.
… also - is today Blight day or something? Ran into three 3 Blights, 2 P100. Were very short games…
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A lot of this seems to rest on the implied assertion that Distortion is no longer useful or consistent, but that's not true. Distortion is still very consistent at countering specific kinds of aura reading, and moderately consistent and countering the rest. It still does the main thing that it is supposed to do, it just isn't flawless any more.
I'm not quite sure what you mean about it helping new players before but not now, so apologies if I'm not addressing the core of your argument, but to me it seems like it still does do just that. It's a layer of protection against being chased right away due to Lethal, it's a layer of protection against having your aura read from something like BBQ or Nowhere To Hide, and it's exceptional at helping you protect against mid-chase aura reading. All of that is very useful to a new player- what's missing, what did they get before that they don't now? They can't hide forever with just Distortion, but that'd be a pretty unreasonable expectation so I don't want to assume that's what you meant.
There are still defences against aura reading, that are absolutely viable against the current overall strength of info perks. There could absolutely stand to be more, since there are only currently three viable ones and a singular non viable one on top of that, but they do exist at the moment and all three viable ones are on original survivors to boot, so no forced paywall.
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That's not really an answer, I'm legitimately trying to help. Most aura perks in the game right now have counters, either in basekit actions (admittedly fairly rare) or in counter pick perks. If you're noticing specific perks are revealing you more often than you'd like, there's almost certainly an answer to them.
The answer might still be Distortion, mind you. That perk's still good.
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It may not be "perfect" but it's pretty damn good.
I don't want to type full details again but I've been in a match against a Distortion team (with my full-detection Nurse) and I've got basically two detection for the whole match. (If I recall I had one kill only, on one of my usually strongest map: The Game)
I'd say playing against a perk-less Nurse is quite the high value.
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With Distortion?
How do you see the killer bee-lining to you?
Distortion gives you enough tokens to last quite a while in a chase (15s only to recover a token). From my full-detection killer, it's still pretty strong.
On another hand, when I hear "aggressive", I think of that survivor play style that dies so well. (Opposite style being "respecting" the killer.)
As a general rule, playing aggressive against an aggressive killer isn't the best tactic. (Blight, Nurse, …)
You need a nice balance between stealth and chases. Stealth to not die, and chases because in this game you have to take chases for your team, so it should naturally happen.
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I know you want to help but you need to help new and bad players which is a problem.
I play pretty often with new players. They try to hide, of course - which is completely logical. They often don´t understand how they get always found and think the killer is cheating.
Aura reading is sadly counter intuitive. Imo the game would be better if it was gone like old times. BBQ was fine but the new stuff is not.
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I didn´t use distortion much.
My normal build is Bond, Kindred, and variations of Small Game or WoO or recently Inner Focus and Alert. Or healing stuff - challenge dependend.
I also never used DS or DH. Thats what i mean with casual.
Distortion for chase is pretty meaningless as the players i see don´t last long. Earning a token when you go down doesn´t do much.
It blocks Lethal but the BBQ already gets you now. They may earn one token but Predator uses it if they manage to escape - which most don´t.
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I have two issues with invoking new players in this context.
The first is, Distortion obviously still works for them and will help protect them from aura reading. It isn't flawless for them, as it isn't for skilled players, and that's fine there as it is anywhere else.
The second is that I genuinely do not know what is actionable about that. New players shouldn't be able to hide from all auras for the entire match because of one passive perk, and aura reading existing is not a problem because it pushes for more interactions between players, so it's kind of just a nothing statement. Besides, new survivors go up against new killers, so the threat of the chase they're in is proportionately lower anyway. They're gonna have to be chased at some point, and they're not gonna be better at chases until they've started practising in real matches, so… no real issue here.
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Since the subject is Distortion, I assumed.
That's indeed quite the casual build (with WoO being the best perk for chase in this build)
My usual build is …
You get hit, you run with Overcome to break line of sight, helped by Lucky Break, then you start healing and make no noise anymore for a while.
The killer usually loses you, walking right next to you.
Anyway, that's a bit far from the original subject.
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One issue with new players that I was referring to is that an experienced survivor will look around while working on gens in order to see an approaching Killer. A new Survivor may not and will then take a hit from the Killer getting too close and may very well drop in less than 15 seconds. That means they have no protection in that case.
To add to that a new player is more likely to be tunnelled if a Killer is targeting the weakest link. It is quite possible to determine with aura reading which character model is who so the Killer can then beeline right back to the just unhooked newbie survivor and tunnel them right out. That's not an engaging game experience nor one that is likely to retain new players. With the large plethora of aura reading available it's very possible to get a read on where a recently unhooked survivor is. That wasn't the case back when the main aura reading perk was BBQ. However, with the current power creep that aura reading perks have undergone it is pretty easy to track people off hook. That's why I mentioned 30 seconds of generator repair would have been better for new players; the new player can't stay hidden and would have to engage in the game experience to recharge tokens.
It would also cause better game habits if it were tied to generators as the most consistent counter now to aura reading for new survivors is Sole Survivor but that only works if your teammates die. I'd rather new players work on gens to get aura reading counters instead of hiding players letting their teammates die and, with the MMR being as wildly varied as it is, there is no guarantee a new player will last 15 seconds in chase.
I don't really think that's addressing the power creep that aura reading perks have undergone though. I don't feel that the current level of counters to aura reading perks is commensurate with the power creep that aura reading has gotten now that Distortion has been nerfed but that's a subjective opinion anyway so not worth mentioning it anymore than how I feel.
What I question with BHVR though is why make a change that could impact the new player experience when Killers have the highest kill rates and more advantages than at any other time but the new player experience is abysmal? Killers as a whole (as opposed to individual Killers) don't need any help but new survivors certainly do.
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Haha, thats a good one. I tested this when Otz or someone had a video about this. They used a Medkit back then.
But i did not always got it to work :-)
And now killer walks past you and Floods of Rage pop and he just sees you.
Thats kind of the whole point. You could and still can hide in this game. Which i think is completely ok in a horror game.
But due to the aura reading more and more of these opportunities are taken away. I think thats sad.
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I think you're perhaps supplanting experiences onto new players that they aren't actually likely to experience here, at least a little bit? I don't think many brand new killers are running strong aura perks that they use to tunnel people out, because they're probably not even going to know what the strong perks are or that tunnelling is a strong strategy. Besides, even if they are- that's tunnelling, not aura reading. Something that still needs to be conclusively addressed, but also has its own counter perks.
For average use of aura reading, the current counters are absolutely good enough. None of them just shut off aura reading entirely, and nor should they, but the three viable aura blocking perks all have a strong and useful niche that'll help survivors who struggle with the respective form of aura reading.
The three viable perks include Distortion, by the way, I feel I need to make that clear. Distortion in its current form is a good, consistent, reliable perk.
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It still has the same effect, except the way you get tokens is different. Now, you get rewarded with tokens for doing well (looping). Before, it was a perpetual feedback loop of stealth. The only thing I'll give them is that it's now 2 tokens max instead of 4.
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In my experience not.
If new players would play against new killers it would be ok. But the MMR often don´t work well enough.
As i said, it is not distortion only. It is the sheer amount of aura reading and it is getting more and more. And it hurts newer and not good loopers the most.
Hiding opportunities are shrinking which i find sad. I think aura reading may ruin the game in the future.
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I mean, that's MMR being a problem, not aura reading.
As to the last part, aura reading would only ruin the game if there weren't reliable ways of blocking it, which there are. If you want to play stealthy, there are perks that help you do that, including Distortion.
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