The problem with many survivor perks.
I have been messing around with different builds on survivor to try and see why some perks are just so bad on them compared to others. And i realized what the problem is with many of these perks. I'm sure many other people agree but i don't know if i have seen a discussion around it.
For context my standard "meta" build right now on survivor is: Sprint Burst/Off the Record/Kindred (I play solo queue)/Unbreakable. If i'm working on a challenge the requires a certain perk or gets easier with a certain perk, i'll swap out unbreakable for that perk.
The biggest problem with these perks, is that all of the "bad" ones, aren't really bad, they are just extremely situational. Outside of information perks, every other perk has some sort of requirement to work in an optimal way. And because gameplay for survivor is generally dictated by how the killer plays, you can't always make use out of your perks. So what this results in, is the survivor "meta" perks just being jack of all trades perks that you can always get value out of, or that the "situation" they counter or deal with is fairly common, such as the case with off the record.
Here are all of the survivor perks:
Meta/Non-situational: Adrenaline - Activates 100% of the time in the end game, might not get use out of it if you aren't injured or being chased, but it still activates. Alert - Activates nearly 100% of the time unless the killer is undetectable, but that should be rare because they are likely breaking pallets in a chase. Boon: Circle of Healing - Even if the killer cleanses it, you can reapply it unless they have the perk to remove it, which is very rare. Great in solo queue to point out to your team a safe place to go heal. Botony Knowledge - Pretty good when going for a healing build. Can always get value out of this if you heal anyone even yourself. Pairs nicely with COH and Self care Dead hard - I feel like i don't even need to say this one, but you can basically get a chance to use it in nearly every single chase. Hope - Similar to adrenaline, activates 100% of the time in end game, very easy to get value from. Although adrenaline might be better. Kindred - Activates every single time someone or you is hooked. Allows you to see where your team is, where the killer is/is going. Allowing you to coordinate a hook save or meet up with a teammate working on a gen. Lightweight - As a killer, this perk can make it extremely difficult to follow a survivor and just always exists, once people catch on this will become a meta perk. Once they buff base kit BT i might swap OTR for this in my meta build. Lithe - Very easy to get value out of this whenever you want compared to balanced landing. Off the record - Counters tunneling, probably best perk at that. Also the aura hiding and noise hiding effects happen even after doing a conspicuous action or even getting healed. Very easy to always get value out of this perk. Prove thyself - You can almost always make value out of this, makes gens faster, helps in a 3-gen scenario. Sprint Burst - Best exhaustion perk after dead hard rework, you can almost always get value out of this when you play correctly.
Information (not really situational, just information that is generally only useful in solo queue): Bond - This is actually a really good solo queue perk and you can get maximum value of it. Useless with a SWF though. Clairvoyance - Just decent information. Deja Vu - Very good information about which gens you should be working on. Good for solo queue to prevent a 3 gen. Empathic Connection - Just a better version of empathy. Works well in solo queue and works nicely with a healing build. Empathy - Decent for when you are injured, but generally bond or empathic connection or kindred is better. Rookie Spirit - Pretty siuational, most of the time you know which gens are regressing anyway, additionally has activation requirements. Can be useful in solo queue. Spine Chill - Counters stealth killers, great solo queue perk when you can't call out where the killer is to your team. Windows of Opportunity - Very good solo queue perk as you don't know what pallets have or have not been used.
Somewhat Situational: Bite the Bullet - This one can be used with a good medkit, but it still is hard to get value out of this outside of meme builds. Boil over - Requires a meme build to be useful and/or good coordination, maybe with a SWF group. Borrowed Time - Very useful still, but with basekit increasing again next patch, and many people running OTR, this is becoming less useful. Dance with me - Can be useful in certain parts of the map. But very map/area dependent to actually get value, and if you are injured it's not that useful. Maybe if it lasted a bit longer Dark Sense - Decent information, but there are better information perks that don't have hard requirements to activate. Deception - Similar to Dance with me, can be useful in certain parts of the map, and if you are injured it's not that useful. Decisive Strike - Less useful now as there is a better anti-tunnel perk in the way of off the record, but still useful if the killer super hard tunnels. Even though it is somewhat situational, the situation it counters is very common. Detective's Hunch - Pairs nicely with inner strength or some other thing about cleansing totems, but requires a gen to be done for that. Distortion - Requires the killer bring things that reveal your aura. Often there are perks that do that, but with OTR being so meta, it is starting to become less common. Guardian - Somewhat useful to deal with camping/tunneling, but there are better perks to do that. Such as borrowed time and off the record. Inner strength/healing - Somewhat useful to heal yourself, with boons now being more common though if you use this you could be hurting your teams boon value. Kinship - Requires the killer to be camping, and for you to go near them and requires them to be on second phase hook. The new anti-camp perk will just be better though. Leader - Requires you to be grouped up which is usually bad. Can help in a pinch if you are getting unhooked, but less often useful. No one left behind - Situational useful, requires endgame, but there are better endgame perks that guarantee value, such as adrenaline or hope. Overcome - A little less situational than balanced, but more situational than dead hard/Lithe/Sprint burst. You have to go from being healthy to injured. Maybe if it paired with endurance effects? Overzelous - Similar to inner strength. Can take away value from other teams, also have to actually find a totem and then not get hit to get value. Quick and Quiet - Hard to get value out of this, but it can be useful in some areas of the map, like killer shack. Pairs nicely with lithe. Residual Manifest - Does basically guarantee a flashlight, but flashlights are pretty situational items in general. Better to just bring a flashlight and take another perk. Resilience - Requires you to be injured. Does increase vault speed. With spine chill change vault build is dead. Resurgence - Probably a better version of second wind, because it doesn't have an activation requirement. Still situational, requires kill to not camp/tunnel you. Small game - Requires you to run some totem perk, or the killer to run hex totems to be valuable. Also counters your own team's boon totems. Smash hit - A little less situational than balanced, but more situational than dead hard/Lithe/Sprint burst. Generally if you land a pallet stun on a killer you already bought a ton of time anyway. Tenacity - Requires killer to down you and not immediately pick you up. Generally decent when paired with a unbreakable/down build Unbreakable - Requires killer to down you and not immediately pick you up. But the best "pick yourself up when downed" perk Urban Evasion - Can be situational useful in certain areas of the maps. Pretty map dependent but can get value. We'll make it - One of the better unhook perks, but requires killer to not be camping/tunneling. Requires your teammate to not be running one of the other situational perks around healing.
Situational: Ace in the hole - Requires you to be able to search a chest, also what you get is very RNG. Aftercare - Even though this is informational i put it as situational. It's not very powerful and it resets when you get hooked. Any Means Necessary - Requires that the killer doesn't break a dropped pallet Appraisal - Requires someone else, or you to search a chest already, what you get is RNG. Auto Didact - Very situational, requires you to actually get skill checks, makes your first couple of heals really slow so you don't start getting value to later. Useless if you are the one chased. Balanced Landing - Unlike other exhaustion perks, there are far less places in maps to make this one activate over others. Map dependent. Blast mine - Requires the killer to actually kick the gen, which is getting slgihtly more common, but even when they do it has a heavy requirement to activate and doesn't do much. Blood Pact - Requires you to not be the obsession, requires you to heal the obsession. Requires you to stay close to the obsession (usually a bad idea to group) Boon: Dark Theory - Requires the killer to chase you near the boon and not cleanse the boon and also doesn't add much value. Boon: Exponential - Requires the killer to down you near the boon. Not pick you up and not cleanse the totem. Unbreakable is far less situational and more useful. Boon: Shadowstep - Requires the killer to chase you near the boon and not cleanse the boon, also is very obvious to the killer when it is up so they immediately can cleanse it. Breakdown - Requires the killer to hook someone near a dead zone for hooks, have someone get unhooked, then down someone else nearby and try and pick them up and not leave them on the ground. Breakout - Requires the killer to keep holding a survivor while another is near. Requires a hook to not be immediately close by. Buckle Up - Requires the killer to leave someone on the ground and not pick them up, requires the killer to not be nearby the person they downed so you are actually able to heal/pick them up. Built to last - Requires you to bring items to get value. Generally unless it is a medkit or a beefed up toolbox it isn't worth the time investment. Calm Spirit - Not scaring crows is somewhat useful but generally the downside now makes it not so useful. Only gains value playing against doctor which is highly situational. Corrective Action - Requires you to repair with another survivor, requires them to fail a skill check. Doesn't work on yourself. Basically for playing with noobs Counterforce - Very situational, requires you to spend most of the game cleansing totems to find a hex, and requires someone on your team to not have boons or you take away their value. Deliverance - Requires you to not be the first one chased. Requires that you are the one that gets the unhook and not a teammate. Requires that the killer not camp you. Requires that your team not come try and save you. Desperate Measures - Requires that everyone be injured to get full value. The unhook speed is nice but only matters if the killer is camping, there are better healing perks. Diversion - Requires you to be close to the killer and not in a chase. Requires you to be in a part of the map that the killer can't see you but can see the pebble. Fast Track - Requires teammates to get hooked. Requires you to land a great skill check. Requires you to save your great skill checks to get a big burst, making you more bursty but less efficient. Flashbang - Requires you to work on a gen, then get in a locker. Requires them to actually work on the killer. Harder to aim them then just a flashlight. Flip-Flop - Requires you to pair with a meme build, requires the killer to not immediately pick you up. Maybe useful in SWF bully squads. For the people - Requires that you injure yourself to get value. Requires a situation where this actually is useful which rarely happens. Head on - Requires killer to walk in front of a locker, similar to balanced, it is hard to get value with this perk. Inner focus - Requires another survivor to be hit near you. Then reveals the killer aura, but if you are already close you probably already see the killer anyway. Iron will - Requires you to be injured and not exhausted. Requires the killer to be far enough away to not hear you at 25% but close enough where if they heard you normally they'd know where you are. Left Behind - Requires you to be the last survivor. Lucky Break - Requires you to be injured, has a time limit, you still make noise, making this hard to get value out of as it likely activates when you get hit in a chase. Mettle of Man - Requires you to get hit multiple times. Requires the killer to not realize what you are doing. Requires you to waste so much time for so little value. No mither - Makes you permanently injured, meme perk. Object of Obsession - Requires the killer to not be a stealth killer. Generally makes killers want to camp/tunnel you. Open Handed - Requires you and/or other survivors to run perks that read auras. Also requires that you are the only one that brings this perk because multiple instances are useless. Parental Guidance - I could see this being useful on some maps/areas of maps. But the duration is far too short to get anywhere the killer won't just immediately know where you are anyway. Pharmacy - Requires you to be injured while doing the search. Requires that someone else doesn't open the chests first. Plunderer's Instinct - Requires that someone else doesn't open the chest first, RNG item. Poised - Requires you to complete a generator, killers generally don't want to be going to a gen that was just completed unless they were already going there. Duration is a bit too short. Power struggle - Requires the killer to walk through a pallet after you get some wiggle meter and/or requires other perks to be useful and downed right near a pallet. Premonition - Has a long cooldown, requires you to look in killer direction, doesn't give that useful of information. Spine chill is just better. Red Herring - I really want to love this perk so much. Requires you to repair a gen a bit, then run to some other gen, then get in a locker. Then requires the killer to fall for it. Second wind/Renewal - Requires you to FULLY heal someone, meaning they can't have any progress, and someone else can't help. Doesn't pair with stuff like For the people. Repressed Alliance - Can only use once, counters gen kicking which is pretty rare. Most killers run passive regression/gen blocking. Sabateur - Requires you to be near a killer. Requires the killer to not have time to run to another hook. Generally flashlights are better at saving than sabo. Sole Survivor - Requires you to be last survivor. Solidarity - Requires both of you to be injured. Requires you to be the one that does the healing first. Soul Guard - Requires killer to have a hex perk, or to take with other perks that let you get off the ground. Stake out - Requires you to be in the killer terror radius but not be chased. Would be more useful if it gained stacks while getting chased. Streetwise - Requires your teammates to run items where this would be useful (medkits/toolboxes) Technician - Requires you to be bad at landing skill checks. This is not happening - This is just a bad perk TBH, one of those noob perks. Up the Ante - Luck is RNG based, also requires team to be alive. Vigil - Requires your team to run exhaustion perks. Requires you to need your exhaustion perk 12 seconds sooner. Very situational. Visionary - Pretty situational, only useful for a few maps like RPD where gens are hard to find. Wake Up! - Requires endgame, requires you to actually need to open the gate faster. You already should know where the gates are. There are better endgame perks. We're Gonna live forever - Requires stuff to activate half the perk, requires killer to leave a survivor on the ground and not pick them up. Requires you to be near the downed survivor.
As you can see, so many of these perks are super situational, so you just don't get any value out of them.
Comments
Same goes for Killer Perks.
I think the issue is that we have so many Perks, coming up with more "general" Perks that have little-to-no prerequisites or aren't pretty situational has become really hard
That was kinda the issue with the last survivor meta though. All 16 perks always got value.