Distortion Is Fine

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.

I don't think the nerf was intended for that situation, personally, I think it was really just to reign in a perk that was a little too good at what it does.

Though, I guess if all you want is to be able to hide as the last survivor, you might be the one person to make genuine use of Sole Survivor, lol. Then again, what aura perk is even going to reveal you in that situation?

That's still MMR being a problem and not aura reading, though. If you're matched with really new players when you're not one yourself, nothing about the balance of any perks or addons or what have you is going to change that you've got a gigantic advantage.

Distortion functions well in practice in any other context than the MMR hiccuping. Even then, Distortion works fine, it just doesn't overcome the bigger problem.

I have never claimed this change is a good thing for survivors, I'm legitimately not entirely sure where that comes from. Is it because I said the change is good overall? I meant that it's good for the game as a whole, not specifically for survivor players. It's obviously still a nerf to a survivor perk.

To the rest of your points… I mean, checking for Weave and blocking Lethal is what Distortion does. If you want that effect, bring Distortion. Not only have I not implied that OTR or Shadow Step work for this, I've literally said multiple times that they do not and Distortion is the perk covering this niche.

The boon is not useless, but it serves a different niche that Distortion is now a little weaker at. If the main auras you're worried about are things revealing you while you're repairing/healing, like BBQ or Friends Til The End or such, Shadow Step is good because it just gives you a bubble of permanent aura blocking. Now that Distortion doesn't just also offer you permanent aura blocking with practically no restriction, that's a more worthwhile choice.

OTR is still fundamentally an anti-tunnel perk, yes, but it can also be a layer of protection while you're vulnerable if the killer's not returning to the hook. It's the weakest in this context because it's mostly an anti-tunnel perk, but if aura reading enabling tunnelling is your concern, OTR is (and has been since 6.1.0 tbf, it's the one people do actually bring) viable there.

Yes, it is the best form of aura blocking, and it's definitely better than OTR.

It's available immediately, it has no timer to block auras during, it recharges through regular gameplay with no functional limit other than how long you're in the match at all and it blocks scratch marks so it's more useful in chase. It heavily outclasses OTR at aura blocking, because it does so as its only function and OTR does so almost incidentally.

It's closer to Shadow Step now as it doesn't have effectively 100% uptime anymore, but the balance still favours Distortion because it has no setup time nor does it have a restricted range. Shadow Step applies to everyone and offers the benefit of blocked scratch marks no matter what, but the setup time and range are still a factor. It's good, don't get me wrong, Shadow Step has been underrated since it launched, but if you just want to block auras and don't want to think about it, Distortion is better. You'd mostly bring Shadow Step if you want to do certain actions safely, whereas Distortion is better at evading early aura reading and chase aura reading while still being fairly useful outside those two contexts.

Flat out, no ifs or buts, Distortion is a very solid perk at the moment and will absolutely work in most of the scenarios you'd have brought it for before. A little thought and preparation goes into using it now, but that's hardly reason to claim it's not worthwhile anymore.

People drop perks that are perfectly good just because they were nerfed all the time, it doesn't actually mean those perks are bad. You listed two of them; Adrenaline is still a top three survivor perk and Circle of Healing is still very good in its niche, neither of those are garbage perks.

Distortion is the same way. It's still good, it just isn't overtuned anymore, so people are dropping it.

Pickrate does not correlate one-to-one with strength in general.

I've been very consistent about this, it's not contradictory.

Distortion is still the best overall, but it's now more in line with the other tools. There are reasons to consider the other two on the merits of their aura blocking now because they have niches in which they are actually better than Distortion, but those niches are more specific and restricted than Distortion. Before, Distortion was better than them at their niches, because it was flawless and had effectively 100% uptime on the aura blocking effect unless very specific conditions were met.

All of this is in the main post, where I run down the use cases for the specific perks.

Shadow Step is completely viable and has been since it released, it was just overshadowed by another perk covering its niche better and with no setup time.

There are three viable ways of blocking auras in the game right now, so I think the message is more that you should have tools to help against being revealed, but none of them should be so perfect that you never have to be chased if you don't want to. It's also worth mentioning that aura blocking is just as much for making the chase you're currently in more favourable, as it is for hiding from chases outright.

I would (and have, and am, that's what this thread is) argue Distortion is very reliable as long as you have a specific use case for it in mind. The way the game is right now, you do have to think about which auras you want to block and pick your perk accordingly, but once you do that they're all pretty reliable at it.

I can say that, because it is.

"In line with" and "comparable" do not inherently always mean "equal". Distortion isn't equal, it's better, proportionally.

It used to be so much better that there's no point in other aura blocking perks existing, either in terms of the ones we currently have or in any future aura blocking perk. Distortion was perfect, it blocked 100% of auras in most scenarios; why ever bother even considering a different perk even if it has some extra effects? If you want auras blocked, there's a flawless perk right there. OTR skated by because the anti-tunnel is just flat out more valuable than aura blocking, but Shadow Step and Sole Survivor were dead in the water. Granted, SS is just bad, but Shadow Step isn't, it was just massively outclassed by the perfect perk it was in competition with.

Now, though, Distortion is just "very good" at blocking auras, but it has gaps. Gaps that can be covered by other perks, now, but those perks have gaps too, that Distortion would cover. Now there's more of an appropriate spread where Distortion is the best overall but lacks in certain niches, which other perks can pick up the slack for if those niches are what a specific player wants covered the most.

I'm not actually ignoring context here, I'm even acknowledging that Off The Record isn't as susceptible to Distortion being perfect because it is not fundamentally an aura blocking perk. That's the one that still looked good in comparison to Distortion, I've acknowledged this multiple times. It still now has a niche that Distortion isn't quite as good in for aura blocking specifically, but that's less relevant because it occupies a separate design space too.

What I'm saying is that only applies to OTR because OTR is the only one that has a full other niche. Shadow Step and Sole Survivor are both fundamentally aura-blocking stealth perks and they were power crept by Distortion becoming functionally infinite back in 6.1.0.

It's also not just the current perks, the design space for aura blocking as a main component of a perk was completely filled. There could not ever be another aura blocking perk that isn't like OTR in primarily doing something else, because Distortion being the way it was meant no aura blocking effect could ever compare even in a lesser state because Distortion was the perfect aura blocking perk. That's not a good design space, it's not great for balance overall, and it warranted changing.

That's what I mean by "perfect", to be clear. It was perfect at blocking auras, obviously it didn't do anything without aura reading in play.

I also do not care about pick rate in either direction. I don't care how high or low the pick rate of any specific perk is, I care if they are capable of filling their role without undue obstacles— whether that's because they're actually too bad at their job to be reasonably appealing (Sole Survivor) or because they are heavily overshadowed by an overtuned perk in their same niche but with no meaningful downsides (Shadow Step). I am not saying that Distortion needed to be killed or gutted because of its high pick rate, and that's for two reasons: I am celebrating the fact that it WAS NOT killed or gutted but rather was changed in a very healthy way that preserved it being a strong and useful option, and because my complaints are based on design and not popularity. I don't care if people do swap to other perks, I care if they could or have reason to.

It's worth mentioning that Distortion was also a little bit too strong just from a basic balance perspective, too. It wasn't the huge balance issue that some other things end up being, but it's worthy of scrutiny if something is such a fundamentally hard counter that it completely shuts down multiple different options without any downside or requirement. Just to head off any whataboutism from whoever may be reading, yes, this applies to Lightborn too.

So, to sum up: I am judging perks by their own merits. That's how I came to the conclusion that it's good for Distortion to stop crowding out other perks' merits and operate in a healthier niche.

I did already run through that in the main post, but I don't mind repeating it a little bit.

So, generally, there are four sorts of use cases in mind here. There's preventing yourself from being revealed early, there's making certain actions safer to complete without being revealed, there's making chases less risky by blocking mid-chase auras, and there's protecting yourself while you're vulnerable.

Distortion is still the king of stopping you from being revealed early. It stops Lethal Pursuer from activating at the start of the match, and even as late as the first hook or so, you can be safe from aura reading if the killer doesn't have Lethal. Distortion also works against something like Nowhere To Hide or even Undying, random situational auras that also let you avoid them if you know they're there.

When it comes to making certain actions safer - generally referring to generator repair and heals here - Distortion still functions but is somewhat less reliable. That's where Shadow Step comes in, because with a little setup you can have a zone where you're safe from aura reads. Set up Shadow Step near a generator and you can be reasonably sure the killer won't snipe you with BBQ or Friends Til The End, as well as being safe from Nowhere To Hide until the killer snuffs your boon.

Blocking mid-chase auras like I'm All Ears, Predator, and Zanshin Tactics, Distortion and Shadow Step are roughly equal, with Distortion being more reliable due to the lack of range restriction but Shadow Step having an extra effect that helps in that area. Both valid choices, both useful.

For protecting yourself while you're vulnerable, all the perks work, but Off The Record is the best because it's the most potent when you're the most vulnerable. This is slightly cheating because OTR is already an anti-tunnel perk, but some people have legitimately expressed concern about auras leading to tunnelling after the Distortion nerf, so it's worth mentioning.

In short: What perks are giving you trouble? When do those perks activate? Answering those two questions can help you figure out the best counter pick.

Alright, let's tackle those in order.

So, we'll tackle those first two at once, which is Shadow Step and OTR having second effects. The crucial distinction here is that Shadow Step is primarily an aura block and scratch marks perk, and OTR is primarily an anti-tunnel perk. Shadow Step still had a niche for hiding scratch marks, but that alone doesn't make a complete perk- it's designed around the aura blocking being a main draw as well, and that was outclassed by Distortion having no downsides or restrictions. Shadow Step already has more downsides and restrictions than Distortion, it also being invalidated for a full half of its effects was a bad position for it to be in when it's otherwise a perfectly good perk.

Not that I'm necessarily claiming that is The Reason To Nerf Distortion, to be clear, it's just a positive benefit from the nerf happening. The nerf almost certainly happened purely because Distortion was too effective at its job, the fact that we're in a position where all three perks have a good and viable niche now is a side effect, and a positive one.

Next you talk about pickrate, which I'll glide past because it isn't relevant here. I don't care if people DO pick each perk equally, I care if they COULD. Design space, not popularity.

Your next point is the "nerf-bombing" comment, but that seems to rely heavily on the assertion that Distortion is currently a bad perk, which it isn't. It has several very useful and viable niches, in which it functions pretty damn well. What we actually need from aura blocking perks, new or existing, is the same thing we need from all perks - they need some kind of restriction, downside, or narrow scope in what they effect. Something that just does the job universally with no downsides is only acceptable if the job is particularly narrow in scope, which aura blocking is not.

Next is another pick rate comment, which I've covered. I don't care about that, it isn't part of my argument and never has been. Design space, not popularity. People already only pick a handful of perks and ignore perfectly viable ones, as a whole, and there generally isn't any fixing that, it's inevitable for games with choices to make at all.

For Distortion being questionably balanced, no, I don't have data. I have reasons and explanations, though, which are just as important from BHVR's perspective and the only important things from our perspective as players having a debate.

We're on a more salient point that probably should've been raised earlier with the assertion that aura reading is too oppressive, but I'm not sure I agree with that statement. Certainly if there were no tools for defending against it, the number of aura perks in the game would probably be too high even if most of the individual perks are well balanced, but there are tools to defend against it - both in the sense that you can stop your aura being read entirely, and in the sense that you can react afterwards. In the latter case, there's hiding after being revealed if you know it happened (not universally applicable, but a good few perks have tells), or just being in an undesirable position to chase. Players have options, they just still actually have to deal with their opponent's tools, which is pretty reasonable.

Finally, for the second to last point - as I covered the final point a bit more in detail above - you're falling into the trap of assuming that stats trump all when it comes to balance changes. They don't. Something can absolutely warrant changing without hitting an excess of pickrate or escape rate, and that's happened multiple times in the past. There's so much more that goes into balancing a live service game than a linear scale of too strong or too weak.

Two things:

1: I'm not sure why you're bringing up the supposed downsides of hiding all game or encouraging the killer to go after your teammates. I never brought up the former as a plus or a minus at all, and the latter is going to be true of all aura blocking. All I'm saying is that Shadow Step functions as a viable tool for hiding your aura if you want to do specific generators or complete heals in a specific part of the map without being revealed, that's all.

2: I meant that me bringing up OTR is cheating a little bit because it already functions in this area regardless of its aura reading. There's nothing substantially wrong with the perk itself and it definitely isn't cheating to run it, if that's what you thought I meant.