how built to last makes a good arguement against old mechanics with new builds.
Built to last. an incredibly good perk for some, and incredibly meh to others. It is inarguable that it has a noticeable effect on items, and how they function into a match, with 50% extra charges being incredibly useful on brought in items. it brings back old gameplay mechanics, or rather ways of playing the game, but forces you (along with the many other changes made to the game) to bring a rather specific build to do so. in doing so it makes streetwise a much more valuable perk as well.
Ie speedhealing builds. currently, (and expecially with felix richters other new perk) medkits are the fastest consistent heal in the game. we'll make it works after unhooks for a time, and self care is slow, but medkits always offer a consistent double healing speed with greens/purples, and more with perks and addons. It is now possible to speedheal in a chase again, as was the days of old, however unlike the days long past you can't just do it with botany and a medkit. it used to be that you could pair 3 perks of your choice (usually chase perks and second chance style perks) and a medkit with speed addons/botany to be able to heal in a chase. Now you can do so, and make it worthwhile with the lesser amount of charges by making a full build around it (green medkit, charge/speed addon, botany, desperate measures, built to last, streetwise) to be able to heal in a chase effectively, whilst maxing charge utilization, and efficency, whilst also increasing speed to the nth degree (desperate measures is better then resilience for healing) -
TLDR for this section - healing in a chase is back with incredibly specific builds, along with the opening up of other build types.
on top of this, built to last allows for old style "gen rushing" - to an extent. running a purple toolbox, streetwise, built to last, resilience/prove thyself or possibly both, allows for the fastest possible/longest lasting speed build in the game. Toolbox charges were nerfed, with toolbox speed being buffed to compensate (the nerf overall, being the chargespeed.) making it so that you couldn't just stack 4 toolboxes in order to rush the objective as fast as possible, whilst also retaining their usage, for bombing out an initial generator or the final generator to increase/decrease pressure within the match. Built to last is effectively a counter to this arguement. with built to last and streetwise (Taking up two perk slots that aren't second chance perks, chase perks, or anything else a survivor might find useful) a survivor can maximize their generator pressure time, by being as fast as possible for as long as possible. The catch? born to last *takes 10s to activate* Stopping the initial extra 50% pressure you could get out of a toolbox immediately. If a player wants to rush generators as fast as possible now, they have a way to do so, but there dedicating half, to over half or their entire build in order to do so. This is an incredibly positive net change to the game, by opening up other playstyles outside of the norm, instead of just adding on top of them. As a player who plays 50/50 survivor/killer, im very keen to see more speed builds ironically enough. as that pulls away from the ds, unbreakable, adrenaline, etc meta that people have been stuck in. i also do think that generator speeds can be a bit harsh at times, due to a lack of avalible pressure/map size, or killers being of lower ability then others, but i don't think in the slightest thats the survivors fault, more so the games and how at the start of a match they have nothing to do except the objective. -
TLDR for this section - whilst somewhat at their own detriment, survivors can "gen-rush" with new toolbox/speed builds in order to maximize time efficeny on a generator, at the expense of perk slots that could be used for more "second chancey perks". with the "early game collapse" style change the devs plan on implementing, i believe this perks versatility alone will make it very meta/very useable in a variety of builds.
Now keys are the only thing i have a somewhat problem with with this perk : 50% extra on a blood amber, is quite a bit of extra use time, expecially paired with streetwise. however thats two perks and one item, in order to stop a killer being able to mindgame on loops/see them coming much like an early warning spine chill (using the key as soon as you hear terror radius.) That being said, thats one to two perks out of their loadout their risking on this, and a lot of killers can simply counter this through abilities, or chasing in a straight line. a good nerf to this, would be making the blood amber work like object of obsession during use, so that the killer can also see them.
tldr : keys with blood ambers could be a bit strong, expecially paired on top of streetwise (Against basic killers) however a good way to knock this out of the water, is to simply make it work like object of obsession.
Now in conclusion
with all of this in mind. - built to last provides the means to bring back older gameplay mechanics in ways that nerf current builds, by providing a means to do so, whilst forcing you to build your survivor kit around doing said things. want to speed heal in chase or just speed heal in general? B.T.L. with botany and a medkit, with possibly other perks sprinkled in. Want to rush the objective to provide a means of escape? B.T.L. with a toolbox, streetwise, resilience/prove thyself and bond or better together. (the fact that this also has a 10s downtime between using your items, means you can't just use 150% of your toolbox on a generator immediately, slowing down gen rush/heal rush a bit.)
Now for the future - we could see other perks alter gameplay mechanics in similar ways. ie spitballing an example here, a perk that regains exhaustion within a chase whilst running, after doing a certain action like a pallet stun. rewarding for good use of pallets etc. opening up vigil-exhaustion perk- new perk style builds, that allow for old broken gameplay mechanics, to be reintroduced in balanced ways through builds. we even had one previously in an ingenious fashion : For the people! reintroducing instant heals, at the expense of injuring yourself, and preventing yourself from being healed. all the pressure gain from an instant heal, at the expense of delegating pressure to yourself in a self sacraficial way! its genius! i love ideas and perks like this that open old strategies deamed broken in balanced ways that make the game more engaging.
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