Can We Make Surge Work With M2 Attacks And Remove The Cooldown?
Title. I don't think this would be game breaking. It would make it useable on more killers and more useful on those killers. As it is now I can use it but its not great. Is this too far?
Comments
Yeah, it should work when the Killer puts a survivor into the dying state at any time. Also I wouldn't mind removing the cooldown from it too, since already regressing generators doesn't get affected.
I don't mind the cooldown to be honest, but the "Down with a basic attack" clause is too restrictive to Surge and makes it only useful on a small amount of killers instead of universal to all of them. My theory as to why they have this requirement is because it says it affects gens within 32 meters of where the survivor falls, but in reality it's actually affecting generators within 32 meters of the killer. Having the Basic attack requirement covers up this fact by putting the killer right next to the survivor every time it activates so we can't tell the difference, and I'm betting that if they removed that requirement, it would become very obvious that Surge comes from the killer, if say, a good Huntress managed to down a survivor further than 32 meters from a gen. However, Since she's the Only killer who could pull off that scenario, I don't see why it would be such a big problem?
Honestly, The basic attack requirement needs to go; It didn't work for infectious Fright, and it isn't working for Surge either. If Surge did 15-20% damage to a gen, I could totally understand the need for it, but since it only does a puny 8%, it's hardly overpowered enough to warrant a range restriction, basic attack restriction, and a cooldown.
By leaving the basic attack condition in, so far I've only been able to get any usage out of it with Shape, Ghost Face, and Plague, why? Because all 3 of them can insta-down with a basic attack ensuring that the survivor doesn't get far enough away from the gen. Other M1 killers like Wraith, Clown, Freddy, Trapper, Spirit, Nurse and Legion all have the same problem with Surge: if they strike a healthy survivor near a gen, by the time they down said survivor they will have gotten too far away from the gen for Surge to activate. With Surge also being useless to killers with damaging powers like Huntress, the chainsaw boys, and Demogorgon, there's literally no point to run it on anyone except Plague, Shape, and Ghost Face. If the basic attack requirement were removed however, at least it could be useful to the killers with damaging powers too, which doesn't solve the issue regular M1 killers have with it, but it at least increases the roster of killers who can use it effectively to more than just 3.
My meme build would be very very happy if Surge had those limitations removed.
I really don't understand the thought process behind Surge. Half the time it doesn't even hit the gens in the vicinity because 32m isn't as wide of a radius as it seems. Even if it does hit, 8% is nothing, and you have a cooldown on top of it. You're better off with a different perk. I get that I can hit two gens for 8%, but I'm still hitting gens for 8% in the grand scheme of things. Why on earth would I take Surge over Pop/Tremors? And then there's the basic attack thing. Devs....it's 8%. Relax.
I find it really silly that Surge is a demo perk that doesn't work with his shred. Killers and their perks aren't designed to synergise 100% but it's still silly that he can't get the best use out of his own perk.
If surge worked like infectious fright, the following things would be possible:
Maybe the developers think it would be a bit too oppressive/synergistic for Surge to trigger on all of these conditions, since I've heard Infectious Fright is a perk they've thought about nerfing in the past.
This also explains the Basic Attack nerf to Knock Out which is pretty funny to think about.
Oh yeah, and it also can't activate on generators that are currently regressing or blocked, so If they did remove the cooldown, It's not like it would be constantly tearing down gen progress with each successful down. I once had a game as Plague with it where 1 gen was hit 3 times by it, but because there was always someone on that gen or tapping it to stop the regression, it still didn't stop the gen from completing. Likewise I've also Kicked a gen only to find and down another survivor within range of surge, but Surge didn't go off because the gen was already regressing.
So if they removed both the basic attack and cooldown from surge, in the best case scenario where a killer like Bubba manages to down 2 survivors near a gen with his power, chances are that it would only activate once anyway.