Np, this is mostly a thought and to solve 2 of our boredom.

To be fair, valid point, but not one I'm really going to add much to.

We mostly put this here due to sympathy for our friends. They don't play killer (or in general play) as often as the likes of us and swear by lightborn to not have to worry about blind squads. We do feel that people should learn to be better and we admit to a little bias on behalf of our friends, but it's undeniably a life saver for them so we'd like to keep eyes out.

I'd first say its not bullying to defend yourself with a flashlight or otherwise.

We're not talking about regular blind save squads to be fair. We're talking the survivor group who are genuinely just trying to irritate the killer as much as possible. They care not about escape, just to piss off the killer. True they're likely to eventually die against any competent killer but the frustration and time gone is felt.

As for the distortion comparison, there are other perks that help with tunneling better (a direct upgrade for this is off the record which both hides aura and other things with a layer of endurance) while only 1 perk for blinds.

We'd agree that they do similar jobs if we weren't playing advocate but we also don't feel the drawbacks are too much (sans starting with only one token).

You can be genrushed in four minutes and down to one gen in less than five. One bad chase in early game usually determines the outcome of the match. Ive had three gens pop back to back after I just got done with my first chase. Imo, having aura reading perks cuts the downtime of finding survs. Play smarter, not harder.

Its not laziness. Its the simple fact that distortion users cant last 30 secs in chase to recharge stacks. Thus, why i said to get better at looping. I mean thats what all the crying was about right? Just gotta last longer in chase to get your stacks so you can hide. Am i right?

Old distortion was lazy cause you never had to be chased or even interact with the killer. You just had to stay within their terror radius, and you essentially hide forever. Imo, poor game design... rewarding hiding by hiding... cant progress the game if the survs are hiding. Cant progress the gens if all the distortion users are hiding in corners waiting for their teammates to die.

Im not trying to change your mind. Im merely stating my experience. Im not talking about me chasing a surv for a minute, knowing i need to disengage. Im talking about getting stunned or the surv having an exhaustion perk to get away.

And as for your statement about crutches, im playing chaos shuffle without aura and winning most of my matches. Its not even about crutches. Its about using the utilities you have and adjusting your gameplay.

You are just a bias surv main.

Zombies abound! We apologize if we miss the point of this post (it seems like it's trying to argue different things at once to us).

Has it occurred to you that many people that are not happy about the current state of distortion are not good with chase?

The thing here is that chases are a part of the game just like hiding. They're going to need to get better at it eventually. Aura perks makes hiding from the killer a lot harder but not impossible while old distortion you had a good chance to be able to hide from the killer for an hr. Current distortion gives a buffer for aura reading for ppl not good with chase but they're now going to need to learn how to either loop or stealth naturally without overly relying on the perk.

Some here complained that they killed survivors too fast and the last two are hiding for 20 mins, well what other indicator do you need that you have out best the survivors and they don't belong to a highly coordinated SWF team?

Sooo we're confused as to this train of thoughts. Mainly how it relates to distortion and its changes.

Survivors should have the option of playing whatever play style helps them survive as long as possible.

This is true however there's things to consider. First is that the change doesn't outright remove any style, just makes it harder. Second is that this falls under the similar vein as tunneling/camping/slugging as everyone should have the option to whatever play styles help them. And (no) surprise those things become increasingly harder just like hiding.

If you take out the Technician, you will most likely win at 2 or 3 Gens.

If you takeout the Runner you will most likely loose the game or get 2 kills.

This is just our curiosity but what happens when you take out the jack-of-all trades?

And for those that disagree that fast/teleporting killers shouldn't have more than 1 aura perk

What happened to that option to be able to whatever play styles they want? (Sorry couldn't help ourselves). Snark aside, that's basically what happens when a survivor with a self preservation instinct sees a killer coming at them from a distance away. They bolt or disappear.

To be honest we're more arguing that they shouldn't rely on a single perk and poking holes in the arguments seen. Scattered isn't the right word, but since we can't come up with the word...meh

1. True. As we said hiding and chases are important. You don't need to loop for 5 gens, but survivors should learn the basics to survive, which does include looping. Basically we're saying survivors should learn everything to a basic competency from stealth to loops. Hell we 3 prefer stealth, but we also know how to keep the killer busy with other ways. We can also flip this coin. There are players who rely on aura reading to catch survivors and old distortion disproportionately affects them. These killers also need a basic competency training too as if they run into someone running full anti aura then they run into problems.

2. While not truly unlimited, in practice it consistently blocked any single aura reading from the killer. Survivors in the past could hide in the terror radius via locker, recharge tokens, move, repeat. Should the survivor desire it basically shut down anyway to find the survivor bar scouring the map and getting lucky. Should a survivor be good enough in stealth they very well could hide for an hr if they wished (bar whispers) especially if the survivor in question did not care about doing gens to escape. It took a full dedicated aura build or SM Meyers to be able to break through the single perk.

3. True not every survivor needs to be a chase god, but they shouldn't lean completely on stealth either. Making distortion weaker does change the way they play, but it also doesn't completely invalidate stealth it does it? It changes how they go about it.

4. Killers are limited, just not in ways you specifically want. Survivors can stack anti-aura reading just as killers can stack aura reading. What your specifically asking for is to restrict how someone plays via limiting what perks the killer can run. That is something different that what nerfing distortion has done. We compared it to tunneling because it became harder due to the anti tunnel perks and base changes just as the distortion nerf now makes it harder to stealth.

5. This is why a certain competency base is good for survivors in general. The alternative is keeping the killer busy via running and having them chase you. What aura reading does is locate targets not covered by some means. Any snowballing is done by the discrepancy in the killer and survivors skills (or mistakes a side does). Aura reading does not net a down.

I want you to understand that distortion provided a buffer against excessive aura reading, which is increasingly common among killers with fast mobility or strong map control. The nerf doesn’t just "encourage better chases"it removes a tool that some survivors relied on to level the playing field. If killers are free to stack multiple aura-reading perks, then survivors should have strong counterplay options.

We wish for you to look at our view. You say it was a buffer against "excessive" aura reading, yet this single buffer also practically nullifies that whole class of perks on its own for the "smallish" cost of hiding within the terror radius. One of the ways past it was through "excessive" aura reading. We also never said it "encourage better chases" (did you mean "encourage to get better in chase"?). Currently survivors do have tools to counter aura reading and they are good enough to us, but we want to know what is your baseline for "strong"?

So if we're arguing for "players should adapt," why not apply that logic to killers too? If survivors are expected to get better at chase instead of relying on Distortion, shouldn't killers get better at finding survivors instead of relying on aura perks?

Ohh we very much believe that killers should as we said above, but survivors currently do have decent tools to counter aura reading as said above. They may not be as good as old distortion but they work and are good enough. The devs nerfed a single tool, it may have been a fan favorite, but theres still others and they work.

They shouldn't be relying on them but we're back to a few things. 1. You were specific in wanting to limit the play styles of the killer player ("But if that logic applies, then killers should also be restricted in similar ways meaning limiting aura stacking on fast or teleporting killers is a valid discussion.") and not restricting them like the distortion nerf. The distortion nerf makes things harder to do but your capable of still doing them and using multiple things. You are asking for full on restrictions. 2. What would you call "overuse"? This is a genuine question. Would a full gen build from survivors be "overuse"? We personally have little problems with them as gen builds like aura builds keep the game going at a pace but if they're "overused" what then?

Like I stated previously, old Distortion was strong but had trade-offs for instance hiding didn’t progress the game be cuz they weren't doing Gens.

And the apparent main problem was people consistently hiding instead of trying to get the gens done and everyone out. We can debate the effectiveness of anti aura all day as those are opinions but we'll point out some things. Off the record hides your aura for 80 seconds regardless or not if you do something productive (helpful for the situation you described no?). Shadow step is a bubble of semi permanent aura hiding. Lockers exist. Sole survivor protects you a good distance depending on how many people are left (not that you'd want to be in that position mind). And distortion still works well enough against single cases. Combined you get a way to cloak yourself against aura reading.

We also kinda want to point out that distortion (or any anti aura really) wouldn't protect you from being located by a few of those on the list here. If spirit or wraith is tracking the blood what does aura reading do? Unless we missed something spirit can't even see auras when phase walking. Doc doesn't care about distortion (or any anti aura) nor has any movement speed buffs by default. Bubba doesn't have mobility (or if you really want to stretch it, he doesn't have practical mobility) unlike the other saw bro. To our knowledge Victor can't see auras. Pretty sure Knight can't see auras when placing guards. Drac, like spirit, can see auras as a bat. Please continue.

Counterplay includes the perks mentioned and lockers. Now tell us, why exactly is the survivor hiding in the locker for that long? Is the killer sitting there? If so what are the rest of the survivors doing? Hiding too? Then there's a problem here. Dead? Then they're going to die eventually unless they do something. Hiding is a part of the game just like chases, but it's these actions that raise issues.

If DS disable killer power for 10 seconds even the killer base movement speed will close the distance within seconds, then what next?

First, sounds like your expecting DS to guarantee an escape from chase (sounds like, we're not saying your saying that before there's a misunderstanding). Second, it sounds like it's working like the distortion nerf. They can still tunneling, it's just harder just as you can still stealth but it's harder.

OTF has the same problem, it only works if the killers does not continue chasing you after the initial endurance hit, then what next?

Off the record? (Wouldn't it be OTR?) Ignoring our confusion: 1. Is that OTR hides your aura for 80 seconds, regardless if you lost the endurance. 2. Is if the killer is explicitly there what good is hiding your aura with literally anything else? You'd block 1-2 perks at best. Distortion wouldn't save them any more than OTR. 3.

You are aware that many killers go back to hook to down and hook the person who did the unhooking and then use aura to find the injured survivor that got unhooked. High mobility makes that possible.

Funny how we often saw a lot of people scream tunnel on the forums here. Anyway, during the time the killer is murdering that's when they hide in the boon or have OTR or run into the red coffins we call lockers. Unless that survivor went down as they unhooked, which we think is a bad idea most times, or Billy/Oni, who can rush over and instant down, you should have enough of time to get the hell away and hide.

Comparing this to anti-tunnel perks doesn’t hold up—those don’t completely stop tunneling, just make it slightly harder.

And this sentence specifically is what we think of the distortion nerf. It doesn't stop stealth, just makes it harder. Also it's not just the anti tunnel perks, there's the whole basekit but and whatever upcoming thing the devs have planned. You may not think the comparison holds but your kinda proving it does in our eyes.

If the goal is balance, survivors should have strong counterplay options just like killers. Nerfing Distortion while letting killers stack aura perks just makes things easier for one side.

We asked before and will ask again what is your definition of "strong". Your still free to stack anti aura as survivor can't you?

If you play both killer and survivor you will know that you are just arguing for the sake of arguing.

So here's the thing, we've previously stated that we are arguing just to argue.

To be honest we're more arguing that they shouldn't rely on a single perk and poking holes in the arguments seen.

But with that said, besides our opinions on maters we are arguing with very valid points.

...on a side note you never answered our questions…just realized that.

I admit killers have their challenges but my argument is if killers can have stacks of aura reading perks, then survivors should not me limited to a diluted distortion.

Now, this is just our observations, we mean no offense, none of our usual snarkiness like above, and are looking at it detached. We think from everything that there's a problem of old distortion being the only "strong" anti aura to you. Survivors are not limited to just distortion.

This part is our opinions old distortion just overshadowed everything else. Everything else was and is serviceable, just not to the level of old distortion which on its own held a wave of killer perks for little cost.