Can we bring old Gearhead back?
I've said this with the Deathslinger PTB version of Hangman's Trick as well. It's Just information, nothing crazy like instadowns or the Mangled effect. So why did it need a nerf? For those who don't know what Gearhead is, because nobody plays that garbage perk, here's what it does: After hitting a survivor (with your basic attack) twice, the next time a survivor hits a good skill check on a gen, the gen gets highlighted as long as it's worked on, and this effect lasts for 30 seconds (at tier 3). The old version used to last 45 seconds and happened if a survivor hit any skill check on a gen. Still not great, but at least doable and could even take the place of a perk like Surveillance or Discordance. But no, it had to be changed for some reason. Why is it that everyone complains about the same 5-6 perks being used on every killer/survivor, yet the devs continue to nerf already-weak perks or buff them to such a small degree it doesn't even matter? The meta needs to be shaken up desperately, so maybe reverting some of these unpopular nerfs could do the trick? You'll never know if you don't try.
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The samething is happening with undying.. people wanna say a new perk thats now in the meta is op, when I've had it broken broken at the start of my matches many times .. hope they don't nerf it because its nice having change ups.
Also, I am not sure on this but I think old Gearhead also gave notifications similar to Discordance, it wasn't just the yellow gen.
Buff a killer perk? You must've lost your mind.
I’m convinced it has been shadow nerfed. The first week it felt 50/50 with Ruin. Now however after a few hotfixes Undying goes first 90% of the time 🤔
First off: "Just information" is kinda completely wrong. Information is one of the most important factors in the game.
And I think the PTB version of the perk was still too bad. The base hit condition makes it bad for maybe 30-50% of the killers. The hit condition in general makes it bad because it can easily happen that you lose a good amount of value after your "hitting order" gets messed up, so the perk activates while you are in a chase. If not, you lose a good amount of the timeframe to pickup and hook the survivor (I know, this one got debuffed, but it was still bad in PTB). On top, they reworked Ruin with one argument being the randomness of skillchecks, just to introduce this downside in Gearhead...
In general, the level of information this perk gives you NEEDS some kind of restrictions. It gives you perfect information about gen progression. Think about how strong Ruin+Surveillance is as long as it is up. And that requires 2 perks and will be countered after some minutes. More precise information in a single perk with no counterplay would go near OP. But the conditions they put on it simply breaks most of the possible usage scenarios.
Information is useless unless you are a top tier killer. So many times where you have Pop or Tinkerer and the gen gets completed before you can even get there, or you're in a chase and can't drop it. Even defending gens is useless most of the time. You push a survivor off, his friend comes and finishes it. You defend one gen, 2 others pop anyway. People saying BBQ is OP is a real knee slapper to me, because it's just info and has so many counters. If you're Nurse or Spirit, in which case you'll probably win no matter what perks you're using, sure information can be a strong resource. Otherwise, nah.
So, I agree that Gearhead could use a buff. However, the fact that it can give info mid chase is perfect for Deathslinger in particular because he wants info mid chase. If you've speared and stabbed a Survivor with Sloppy equipped... if they try to fully reset, they'll be out of the game for a very long time. Deathslinger's 1v4 game is usually poor. He needs to do things that bother multiple survivors at the same time and applying Deep Wound + Mangle to someone then leaving to go after someone else is a very good method of doing that. However he can't do that if he doesn't know where anyone else is. That's why I started running Tinkerer on him even before the whole Ruin + Undying + Tinkerer meta started.
The hit and run playstyle is hit or miss. Ghost Face, Wraith, and Deathslinger are better at it than others, but still. If the survivors are coordinated or have medkits or are exceptional at looping, it doesn't do much and you just end up getting injuries but no downs and get gen rushed.
The examples you bring has nothing to do with top tier killers. Pop gives you no information at all, if you had, you would have much more use from Pop. Tinkerer gives you information but it depends on where you are and how many survivors sit on the gen. So it is too less information. The more information you get, the more efficient the killer can make his decisions.
So I strongly disagree with your evaluation of information in DBD. Watch a video from Otz on old Freddy, and he can show you what a "low tier" killer can make with information
Second, I never heard anyone say BBQ is OP, I rather hear about the 10 counters it has. And defending gens is also... well. I don't get your generalising point on that one. Of course having survivors on hooks is mostly the best pressure you can apply. Of course you can waste a lot of time on defending gens, especially when going against multiple survivors on the same gen. But first, that is decision making and second, you better defend those critical gens somehow, or you will have a pretty hard time in endgame, unless you tunnel 2 survivors to death before 4 gens are done.
Not sure about that. As low mobility killer Slinger might have a hard time to get to gens, having fast downs (which is his biggest strength) is the better pressure in that case. If you leave a chase that could end within the next 10 seconds to go for a gen that is 20 seconds away... I think you lose more than you gain. You still can get to that gen when the chase is done assuming you can end it fast. I think Gearhead will only be worth it on him when you see a gen highlighted that is pretty close to you.
And I'm also not that sure if Slinger can really be regarded as a killer that is able to quickly spread damage. Regarding that, I would guess that the aura reading addon is doing a much better job than Gearhead could possibly do. But just a guess, I don't play Slinger that much
Oh Deathslinger doesn't spread damage quickly. In fact he can't really do anything particularly quickly (seriously reeling takes so long). But his injuries stick around in a way that most killer's injuries don't so it still works. Seriously, the only other killer with Deep Wound is Legion, but people don't usually heal against Legion. People do heal against Deathslinger because running around with only 1 health state vs him is a terrible idea... especially after they figure out the Slinger is running Tinkerer.
As for the aura reading add on... maybe its better than Gearhead? Problem is that that's an Iri add on so you can't exactly run it every game.
I'd rather they scrap it and come up with something new than try to buff it. There are too many other perks that do what Gearhead does but better. Or, what it would do, if it didn't rely on: two basic attacks, a timer that you can't control the start of, the randomness of skill checks showing up, AND survivors messing up a great skill check.
Keep it generator themed, keep it (relatively) simple. Every down, all generators over 50% progress are highlighted for 15 seconds. Like that.
Upon (trigger condition), (game mechanic or object to be affected) is/are/will be (effect) for (duration). Very few perks need to be more complex than this. Most can be simpler. At the very least, Gearhead needs to be simpler.