Spine Chill needs a nerf...
... In radius. 36 freaking meters is overkill for any killer, but it especially screws stealth ones. Now I know you guys are all gonna say that "it's supposed to screw stealth killers, that's what its designed for, duh!" but lets face it, 36m is 4m higher than every killers base terror radius, so it doesn't only screw stealth killers, it screws all killers.
"But you can avoid that by just not looking in the survivors direction when you approach"
Seriously?! First off, unlike for survivors, most of the perks used by survivors aren't broadcast or show up in a Hud prompt when they are being used against you! There's no way a killer can tell immediately that a survivor is using Spine Chill, and they only gain that knowledge if they approach one 3x and realize that the survivor knows they're coming. Also, that 30 degree cone of vision is a static 2D area of the killers screen and its far wider than you realize. The Ghost Face's reveal mechanic, which is a poor model since it can be blocked by your own character as well as the rest of the objects in the game, is extremely similar to this, but with 1 caveat: you have to take into account that the killers FoV is in First person! Their FoV is significantly smaller than survivors, and thus a 30% loss in it basically means that the killer has to keep their destination in the far left or right sides of their screens while approaching if they are going to avoid Spine Chill. Add in the fact that, unlike the Ghost Face reveal mechanic, nothing blocks this perks activation, and it will always activate regardless of what's in the way. Seriously, just open up MS paint or something like it, and make a 30 degree cone starting at the base of your screen, and you'll see why this is such a big deal! Imagine playing like this as a survivor, wherein the middle 3rd of your screen will reveal you to the killer as soon as you just graze it in their direction for the span of 36 meters, except it doesn't reveal the killers to you through notifications, so you get no information of if it's active or not, and it gives them movement speed or vaulting, and striking recovery advantages... yeah, not so fun for you is it?
Basically, I feel this perk should get a range limit of 24 meters at most or 20 at the least. That way you are in almost all killers Terror Radius's range, and still gain an advantage against stealth killers, just not as obscenely huge of one. For the sake of balance and fairness, I feel that 20-24 meters still gives you more than enough time to avoid a killer headed your way, and still screws over stealth killers, but not nearly as badly as it currently does. Let's not forget the added skillcheck "Bonus" to using it... Honestly for new survivor players this is a hinderance, but for experienced ones, it's a blessing and you know it! Having an increased skillcheck chance also increases your chances of hitting the Great skill checks, and Add in the fact that it also increases your action speeds for Repairing, Healing, Sabotaging, Unhooking, Vaulting, Cleansing, Opening, and Unlocking by 6% while the killer is looking in your direction... there have been whole survivor builds around this with that in mind, and it's obvious that this damn perk doesn't actually need 36 freaking meters to be effective, doesn't it?
Bottom line: Spine chill needs a radius reduction to 20-24 meters. This won't break it to the point of uselessness, but instead will balance it for the better regarding both killers and survivors.
EDIT:
For Balance here's the equivalent (parody) of what it would be if it were a killer perk, so you know what I'm talking about.
Spine Tingle:
Your heightened senses incur a biological response of excitement as you inherently feel the positions of your victims. When looking in a survivors direction within 36 meters, and keep them within your inner 30 degree cone of vision, Spine Tingle activates. You gain a 2% movement speed bonus while Spine Tingle is active, and when chasing a survivor gain a 2/4/6% strike recovery (both missed and successful), Breaking, vaulting, Pick up, Carrying movement, and hooking action bonus speed.
Spine Tingle has no cooldown, and survivors never gain any notification that it's active against them.
Comments
It's not hard to do. I do it sometimes as killer, even when it turns out none of the survivors had it. It can stop them from getting that 6% boost for a few more seconds and finishing the gen in your face.
Adrenaline is fine as is. Let me be clear on this: The condition for it's activation relies entirely on the survivor team completing all of their primary objectives, and such are rewarded for it by being granted an extra health state and/or momentary burst of movement speed, which in this game can be either the thing that saves you in the endgame, or loses you the game if activated too early. Dead Hard, unbreakable, DS, hell, even Soul Guard can be used to give survivors 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th chances of escape especially in the endgame. TBH, I once suggested that many of these perks be nerfed in that they become disabled when the gates are powered at the endgame in order to prevent the killer "No Win" scenario... aka, nothing the killer does will result in a kill or win regardless of their build, if the game reaches the point wherein the gates are powered/opened. Sadly My suggestion was laughed off and bemoaned by the entire survivor main community.
I've grown a bit since then, and take into account both sides viewpoint, and no longer begrudge either side for bringing in perks that give them any advantage in the endgame.
no, it's not hard to do, but when you are playing Billy, Nurse, Blight, Spirit, Freddy, Shape or Ghost Face... you Literally have to look in the direction of your opponents in order to use your power effectively and in the case of Shape or GF, to use the stalking ability at all! Reducing the range from the obscene 36 meters that the survivors have to 24 isn't that hard of an ask to make Spine Chill more balanced.
I always suggest if Premonition, that other Useless Spine Chill Varation, with a weird cone in front of the Survivors face as well as the 30 seconds cooldown; should be Rework to do what Spine Chill does; but instead of normal killers, it should detect Undetectable Killer's.
Spine Chill: Can detect Normal Killer's and allow you to do actions faster like vaulting, as normal. But no longer affected by Stealth.
Premonition (Reworked): Does exactly what Spine Chill Does, but it only apples to killers under the effects of Undetectable, when they are looking in your direction. Every 30 Seconds, you get a one second aura reading glimpse of the Stealth Killer's position.
The new Premonition, will be the alternative Spine Chill that helps you fight Wraiths, Ghostface, and many other Stealth killers. While Spine Chill will only be effective against regular killers.
Of course, if the killers is smart; they can sort of counter it by looking away while moving towards the direction to fool it.
there are essentially 2 play styles to survivor stealth and aggro. Sometimes you want the killer to chase you and other times you want to hide. How and when you use these vs how the killer plays is what makes the game fun.