Some Dead Man's Switch Testing
So this appears to be a bit of an interesting perk at present, with some deeming it the most OP thing since CoH and others going 'it's okay'.
I've been doing my little challenge, so I built a few killers around DMS (usually with Pain Resonance).
My verdict:
- It's a good perk now.
- On some killers (Artist, potentially Doctor on small maps) it might be a bit too good, but that's only if the latter is true.
- DMS is a slight problem when you use it to facecamp on certain killers, and even then - only Doctor really gets truly evil with it (as he can prevent unhooks and trade really well). Artist is nasty, but there is a bit of counterplay and she isn't a great camper anyway.
- On a lot of other killers, it's really mediocre.
- Pain Resonance is nutty butties with DMS.
- There is also a hidden downside to it, that I like to call 'the Dam'. Basically, you are 'damming' gen progress. This buys you a lot of time, but also causes survivors to progress multiple gens to pretty near complete, and you can't regress them. At some point, the dam breaks and 2-3 gens pop at the same time.
Overall, I don't think it's the nightmare people are making it out to be. What I would do is cause interrupt abilities not to trigger it (if it needs a nerf, I don't know if it does) and leave it at that.
Comments
I've been doing your challenge too and used it on a few killers, and wow it is good.
I played Doctor with DMS on swamp and it was a nightmare for the survivors. Not only did I have a 3 gen because that map is notorious for 3 gens, every time I get a hook I just go to the center and static blast and they could never get any of them done. I felt bad by the end.
DMS is absolutely dirty on Artist and Doctor. They can easily interrupt repairs from a distance, allowing them to camp with no consequences. Add in Pain Resonance and the game practically plays itself after the 1st hook.
Imo they need to limit how many gens can be blocked by DMS at a time, or reduce the duration by 10 seconds or so. The fact that the gens remain blocked for almost an entire hook state duration is unhealthy.
Do other gens? like OP stated, it tends to encourage working on multiple gens at once, since it doesn't actually provide regression (and even prevents pop) spreading pressure effectively counterplays it quite well.
Also since people seem to have a lot of trouble with this, the artist needs to move away from the hook to fire her crows, so at best she can proxy camp with it (which can still make room for a smart save) AND her crows need to follow along with terrain (there are many gens she legitimately cannot hit with her power due to elevation differences.) Lastly, if the PR combo is bothering you, learn to let go of the gen before the hook goes off: only time it'll block is if someone else getting hooked activated DMS within the past ~45 seconds (which means a good chunk of its duration already expired anyway, since it doesnt reset with each hook.)
I say this a lot lately I feel, but a exceedingly large amount of people's problems with things on killer side come from people not understanding how they work. Play the killer and get stomped a few times, and you'll learn a lot of counters for them.
Ok so I let go of the gen before the hook. The gen still explodes and begins regressing. Now I'm forced to A) let it regress or B) touch it and get it blocked by DMS because the Killer is surely coming to check the gen that just exploded. It's a lose-lose for the Survivor.
In which case - it's stopped regressing and you've effectively 'stored' progress on that gen. Now you work on another gen, leading to the eventual 'dam breaking' effect where suddenly I go from 3 gens left to gates opening in the span of 10 seconds.
The only slight problem that can occur is killers with interrupt abilities who are also camping and also on very small maps - but that's an outside, extreme circumstance.
Again, the killer can't use pop after that scenario. You severely overestimate baseline regression on gens, as well as your importance as one survivor out of the up to three that are not incapacitated on the hook.
If it really bothers you that much, do just that and tap the gen so it gets blocked and run away with a nice big head start. get chased on purpose and draw the killer away from the hook, reset all their map pressure entirely, and get a nice long chase out of it for more BP and interactive gameplay.
Or just refuse to learn to counter any of it i guess.