Dead Hard is Overrated and Overhated
Okay, hear me out...
Dead Hard's effectiveness is completely overblown, IMO. I think it's only the third best exhaustion perk. Sprint Burst is just better in almost every way and Lithe gives more distance and is much more consistent.
I admit that when used smartly, Dead Hard is pretty effective at extending loops, however, Dead Hard has a ton of weaknesses that people are quick to write off.
- It is severely dependent on latency. The timing sweet spot to effectively dodge a hit can greatly vary from killer to killer and sometimes not even work. Very cool exhausted on the ground.
- It gives way less distance than the other exhaustion perks, hence using less of the killer's time to catch up.
- Its dodging mechanic is ineffective after the killer finds out they have it, or assume they have it and wait.
- It is effectively useless in dead zones. Dodging or making an additional 5 feet of distance is going to do nothing for the survivor other than take an additionally 2 seconds in the corner of the map with no pallets or windows.
I've seen people make the weird claim that "Dead Hard extends chases for minutes at a time." If the Dead Hard extended a chase for that long-- which is definitely a complete exaggeration that says more about the killer's skill than the strength of the perk-- why would you continue to give chase?
I think a good Sprint Burst or Lithe are much harder to deal with than Dead Hard.
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After that NOED post, I can only imagine what this one will do...
Comments
The only thing I hate about it is that as a killer it makes my games freeze for half a second every time it's used (PS4)
If DH eventually gets nerfed (because it was complained enough), this will be the main point against Sprint Burst. I agree, the distance a Survivor can get with Sprint Burst is insane. And unlike Dead Hard, you are safe with Sprint Burst, no matter what. You can be in the biggest Deadzone, as long as you have Sprint Burst ready, you can get to a Pallet.
And I find it more frustrating that a Survivor can wait until the last second before they run away from their Gen while still being completely safe.
I am admittedly not swayed by your grand point. I think the majority of the time, the RNG should be sufficient enough that using DH to extend the chase is feasible, and the whole "injured" thing to me is a non-issue. Even with one-shot Killers, you will still inevitably end up being in the Injured state where you have access to Dead Hard.
It's most likely a defensive mechanism to cover for their weak argument against something that's universally known at most levels of gameplay (further exemplified by stats, content creators, majority of normal players in this topic, etc - basically every metric used to determine such things in this game).
As embarrassing as it is, you may as well take it as a sign of concession and stop wasting your time on such toxic and ignorant behavior.
Saying it's the strongest survivor perk in the game without any reasonable explanation to counter my own points only reinforces the idea that it's overrated as hell.
I definitely didn't ignore what people said, but okay, sure.
I've been responding to the people who actually leave reasonable arguments that extend beyond "you're dumb if you think dead hard isn't best" or something of a similar nature. Surprise, we're actually having a discussion!
Now do you wanna try that again? Forgive my arrogance, because it was intentional, but I don't care to talk to people who don't actually want to engage in meaningful discussion.
There is indeed no way to tell if the majority of the time this is true without dev input or a large enough poll, which is why I can't factor it out of my point. I feel as though 1/3 of my games have completely unbalanced map RNG that heavily favors one side, even on the maps that are more acknowledged as "balanced" such as Coal Tower.
Do gens until it's 99% then swap into chase.
The whole survivor strat is swapping in and out of chase at advantageous times. It works surprisingly often when done right (of course, even more with coordination), and Sprint Burst works wonders when used "offensively."
Also Vigil to recharge mid-chase works pretty well too.
@TGB You may find this discussion interesting based on your previous postings.
Alright, let's see what we got in here. I'll respond to the OP first, then go through the thread and see if there's anything else.
Responses to your listed downsides:
Would I say Dead Hard is overrated?
I wouldn't personally say so, however if it is technically overrated, that doesn't necessarily mean it ISN'T the best exhaustion perk, either. Something can be overrated while still being the best.
In my opinion, the only competition is Sprint Burst, with its pros and cons that I think I already described. Additionally, I'd say the only point that could bring Sprint Burst above Dead Hard is the fact that Sprint Burst could prove more useful in games against Killers with insta-downs. But you can't know that beforehand, so, I dunno. Maybe if that's what you struggle the most against, it could be your pick.
But for general use, and even against Killers with insta-downs, Dead Hard is generally more useful, because it's ALWAYS useful. And the only downside is the injured requirement, which I'd say is far less than Sprint Burst's downside of being attached to the run button.
Survivor perks are trash when Dead Hard is complained about. A perk that hardly works, and it is so annoying that it is so easily nullified by simply waiting an extra second to breath down the survivors neck. I wish you could wait 1 sec to totally counter a killer perk.
It does not help at all with Wraith and Blight. Wraith swings through Dead Hard his lunge is so far! It really needs buffing.
If there's no way to verify if this is true, then you can't really factor it into your point, can you? That is the big problem with anecdotal evidence.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my tag!
I wouldn't say Sprint Burst needs that much skill to use effectively (or as effectively as Sprint Burst), because simply running away and preventing a chase already wastes a ton of time. Using it offensively, like doing a gen till 99% exhaustion then switching into a chase (which is what survivors should be constantly doing) also makes it a pseudo-Dead Hard that gives a lot more distance without the prerequisite of being injured.
I also do think that Sprint Burst is always useful. Even being able to get across to the other side of the map faster is amazing. This isn't to say that the risk of Dead Hard in chase is ever-present, but it won't do anything for you if you're in a deadzone or weaker structure, so I think Sprint Burst is actually the one that's always useful.
Finally, my big point of the thread wasn't to say how much better I think the other perks are then Dead Hard (so I don't know why people are getting so hung up on me thinking Sprint Burst is better), but I wanted to highlight the big weaknesses Dead Hard has and why that contributes to me thinking its overrated (and overhated).
Hellz yeah, I got Sluzzy!
Well the thread is partially my opinion, based on my overall experience and observations, so I don't see why I can't.
If we only used cold hard facts to judge DBD literally nothing would be changed because the game is so RNG dependent and the devs drip-feed us the actual numbers.
I've already said this already but I think you can do the same with Sprint Burst with less drawbacks.
Again, I'm not saying Dead Hard is a bad perk, but I think people overblow just how good it is and write off the many scenarios in which it does absolutely nothing.
Congratulations!
You never forget your first Sluzzin'!
True, it is only your personal opinion, but it also means that the anecdotal evidence can only carry so much weight to it.
It really depends though. If survivors know how to use Dead Hard, and survivors are able to extend a chase multiple times only thanks to Dead Hard, than one can argue that Dead Hard at least played a big role during that match and why the survivor team won in the end. Dead Hard for distance often doesn't have counterplay.
I would argue it's map dependent though, and the more balanced maps would become in general, the less complaints there would be about Dead Hard. It depends on what loop it is used to gain distance for example. If you can make it to a safe loop or can extend a chase with safe loops around you, then Dead Hard had a lot of impact.
Sadly though, despite the many map reworks, many maps have still stayed the same balance wise, and there are still plenty of survivor sided maps. But nerfing Dead Hard so it doesn't gain you any distance would make that perk easily useless compared to the other exhaustion perks.
Yeah, that’s true. Definitely shouldn’t be weighted as heavily as the other points, I agree.
Among other things like extending a chase or dodging a hit (when it works), Dead Hard gives you the comfort/confidence to take what would otherwise be considered risks.
E.G: Let's say you don't have Dead Hard. If you're looping around a small pallet and want to greed another loop when the killer is very close, they need to respect the pallet and hesitate for a split second. If they do that, nice you got another loop. However if they don't respect, you get downed. Now imagine if you had Dead Hard in that situation. It doesn't matter what the killer does, you'll still get another loop. DH therefore allows you to play more boldly.
It's also excellent against certain killer powers. Amazing against a huntress trying to zone you. Great against Trapper's traps, e.g. if you're being camped in basement with all exits trapped, just DH to escape. You can dodge a Nurse's hit after they blink.
It's also interesting to use in a few niche(ish) situations but I won't ramble on. I think it's the best exhaustion perk.