Most perks need a buff
I would say that at a MINIMUM 50% of the perks that currently exist are almost never used, or when used offer little to 0 value for various reasons. Either they are super situational, do very little, or both.
Instead of nerfing the more common/popular perks - (not saying that shouldn't necessarily happen) - the more unused perks should be buffed.
For instance : Brutal strength should maybe offer 40% break/dmg speed, genetic limits could offer longer exhaust, spine chill should show aura for longer, etc
Comments
I agree most perks are terrible - that’s why there is such a stale meta on both sides. But there are so many perks now that BHVR is never going touch most of them ever again. There is an ever-growing mountain of old content that they don’t have the resources to maintain, so the problem is only going to get worse.
I agree that a lot of the perks in the game need to be changed. There definitely still are some perks in the top tier that need to be nerfed (I think Sprint Burst is one I've seen a lot of people agree on), but you're right, if you look at NightLight stats about 50% of the survivor perks have less than 1% usage and the same is true for about 40% of killer perks. Some of these perks are just niche or useful for only a certain type of build, and I honestly think that's fine and not every perk needs to be used a lot. But a lot of these either need number buffs or full reworks because of either how underpowered or useless they are.
However, I don't think your examples were great. Brutal Strength is literally the 11th most popular perk on the killer side, probably due to it not only helping in chase, but also synergizing well with certain killers and builds, in addition to it just being a feel-good perk. I think Genetic Limits is a good example of a perk that needs a buff, although increasing the exhaust amount wouldn't really solve the fundamental problem that a lot of exhaustion perks get used before the survivor gets hit like Sprint Burst. I'm not sure if you were trying to refer to a different perk but Spine Chill does not have aura reading, and Spine Chill is well known as one of the most gutted and useless perks in the game (especially since its one remaining role for accessibility was taken by the visual heartbeat) and needs a lot more than a bit of aura reading to make it useful.
Not all perks can be good. If we buff every perk to be useful and effective then every game will turn into a 5 minutes steamroll or a 30 minute long attrition slog.
With the sheer amount perks in the game it's inevitble some will be super niche and only work in soecialised 1 trick builds or just be totall useless.
Look how much of a problem the fast track rework caused. And that's just one perk. Try to rework every perk that isn't meta and you end up throwing the game balance into a blender the setting it on fire
One problem with more viable perks would be that its hard to understand for newer players (under 1000 hours) to understand whats going on. Everybody learns what Pain res, Corrupt, Ruin, Sprintboost, Lithe does. And for some perks it doesnt matter bc you cant/dont need to counter them. But if some survivor needs to keep track of 20 viable aura reveals or a Killer of every stealth perk, there will be huge knowledge disadvantage.
Honestly some perks just need to be combined or completely cut.
Killers
→ Rampage - per each broken pallet you get 2 tokens (was 1) up to 10 = 10 % after 5 pallets or walls break.
→ Hex: Scared To Death - when you get first hook hex activates. You get one additional token per each first hook on unique survivors up to 4 tokens. Each token grants 3 % hindred for 5s after survivor drops a pallet (max 12 % hindred)
→ Ravenous: Each unique hook makes every survivor exposed for 40s, once all survivors been hooked once every survivor suffer 90s exposed
→ Wondering eye: For 10s after you start a chase you see auras off all survivors within 16m
→ Hex: Overture Doom - when survivor first touch a generator the hex is created and you get undetectable untill gen is repaired. The new gen is cursed if the hex totem isn't cleansed.
→ Help Wanted: If generator is completed you get 45 % faster basic attack cooldown for 60s
→ Phantom Fear: Decrease cooldown to 40s and aura reveal to 6s (was 2s)
→ Haywire: Exit switches injure healthy survivors and put injured survivors into deep wound when they interact with the exit switch
→ Hex: Nothing But Misery - first time survivor loses healthstae a hex totem is created. Every injured survivor will suffer 5 % hindred wach time they remain injured untill hex totem is cleansed.
→ Forever Entwinded - decrease tokens to 4, each token is 10 % faster pick up speed.
→ None Are Free - each unique survivor hook gives token, per each token all windows and pallets are blocked in the endgame for 30s per token
→ Shaking Thunder - dropping from hieght gives you one token, spend it to increase you lunge by 80 % has 40s cooldown
→ No Quarter - any heal gives hard skillchecks once 70 % is reached, missing resets heal progress and triggers killer instinct
Survivors
Road Life - repair 50 % gen progress to activate the perk, once activated it it automatically starts 60s timer, during that you heal 100 % faster
Ghost Notes - increase recovery to 30 %
Bada Bada Boom - increase activated time to 90s (was 60s)
Change of Plan - has two tokens, spend token to craft basic medkit when hiding in the locked
Teamwork: Full Circuit - when repairing generator with another survivor you both prevent any skillchecks, you repair 10 % faster
Extrasensory Perception - decrease time crouching to activate from 4s to 2s
We See You - anytime killer sees aura of any survivor you get token up to 4. Once 4 tokens are gained every survivor sees killer aura for 12s
Teamwork: Soft Spoken - while repairing generator with someone else both survivors gain elusive status effect and generator noises are muffled out of 8m range
Place For Us - every heal gets 30s elusive to healed survivor, when healing obsession both survivors gain elusive for 30s and see killer aura for 5s
Flow State - every repair generator gives token, per each token you heal, cleanse, unhook, search, bless and rummage 20 % faster
A few ideas that would make perks much better, leave me your opinions. :)
Since it's not lost on me that speaking about this in broader terms can make it tough to pull out specific examples, I'd love to dig into this a little deeper. We want to make sure we're getting feedback to the team about perks folks feel could use a boost, after all.
I'm game to hear any feedback on perks you think could do with a buff, but specifically, have you noticed any perks that were adversely impacted by Diminishing Returns and are lacking utility nowadays?
They need to to a huge rebalance midchapter changing many perks and addons again. And if it's unbalanced so what? Tweak it after one patch.
To name a few in relation to diminishing returns specifically:
A few things come to mind:
Mangled and Leverage:
A few patches ago, you changed Leverage to 30% but for 60seconds instead of 50% for 30seconds. That change was actually a huge nerf and ruined the perk - and its respectable anti-healing-build. Two years ago, you made Mangled (and Haemorrhage) time based which killed nearly every perk and addon (and it got worse with the 70seconds hook timer) that apply these status effects. Now, if you use Leverage and the survivor suffers from Mangled, this actually gets weakened by Diminishing Return Feautre.
In my opinion, Mangled and Haemorrhage should be no longer time based since the game has shifted drastically since then. Leverage, on the other hand, should get a number buff - at least back to 50% with the 60seconds duration.
Hindered Perks in general:
Basically every Hindered perk is weak on its own and the Diminishing Return Feautre made them worse:
Hex: Nothing But Misery: requires eight basic-hit before it gets active and then survivors can just cleanse it or just ignore because the effect is so weak. The Hindered percent should be higher and the hex should light up with the first attack.
Hex: Scared to Death: this perk has too many conditions to be good 1) hook three different survivors, can get cleansed, only works when basic breaking a pallet and the survivor is nearby. In my opinion the duration should be a bit higher and the hex perk should activate either after the first pallet break or hook.
Knock Out is also so useless and should have a longer time window than just 6seconds.
Vigil: Vigil needs a nerf since it's a huge issue that one perk makes over 30perks and 70 addons useless or less effective for free.
Haste perks:
Unbound: it should at least go back to its 10% Haste while keeping the same duration. The perk is already limited by 1) getting the hit and 2) vault a window within 30seconds that is worth.
Game Afoot also needs a buff. The perk is already limited in so many ways.
Save the Best for Last:
This perk should go back to its 40% recovery at eight stack but as an exchange does not work within 12meters of a hooked survivor. The perk should also only lose stack when the Obsession loses activatly a health state by an M1 attack. The current version is just awful bad and useless.
Help Wanted
This perk should have a faster recovery than 25% considering the fact its only 60seconds and the whole work you have to put in to get it active.
Dying Light:
Dying Light is for a very long time a weak perk but had a niche alongside Gift of Pain. However, with the Diminishing Return Feautre, this niche is gone. Dying Light is in need of a buff but now even more than ever. A rework is also an option like a Lend a Hand version for killers that increase the charges for a heal by 4 for each time the survivor gets hooked.
Not DR related but some of the perks from The Walking Dead and FNAF could use buffs (very undertuned):
-Last Stand (multiple use, or make it easier to land)
-Apocalyptic Ingenuity (2 chests for one fragile pallet is REALLY useless), tying it to gen repairs would probably be more ideal
-Haywire: Needs to be buffed, forget about singularity, nerf him if needed
Also perks from Vee and Krasues Chapter like:
-Overture of Doom
-Road Life (needs to be a duration like We'll make it, or earnable while not injured)
Also Cross Examination is about to be executed even though it's underused already.
Rampage could be tested to be buffed too.
I really hope you revisit recently released chapters which perks have a lot of chapter but, you clipped the wings too much on.
One thing I find strange is when perks essentially do the same thing, but one version is clearly superior. Felix's perk, Visionary, is basically Bond for generators, except it goes on cooldown whenever a generator is completed. Why would anyone choose it over Déjà Vu, which not only reveals the three generators closest together but also provides a repair speed bonus on those generators?
The same applies to Windows of Opportunity and Five Moves Ahead. Windows of Opportunity is already a strong perk, yet Five Moves Ahead offers much of the same utility while also giving you the added benefit of moving away from a dropped pallet more quickly.
Desperate Measures and Flow State are another example. While both increase healing and unhooking speeds, Flow State also speeds up blessing and cleansing totems. On top of that, its effects aren't dependent on other survivors being injured, making it a much more consistent perk overall.
Yeah i know it's sad. But i think that's the only way to fresh up the game.
We have to do the opposite - nerfing the strongest perks down to the level of most others. Perks should be fun bonuses or a rare powerful effect, not the deciding factor of who wins the match.
Most perks being bad is the reason we are in this stale and boring meta. There has been no innovation being done recently by BHVR to encourage using different builds because nothings being changed to a measurable degree. In 2024 if felt like we were getting buffs to killers and perks every so often which was fine compared to know which feels very dry. We are in desperate need of big changes because things right now suck harder than a vacuum cleaner.
I think the biggest problem with perks is since you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. You're going into the match completely blind so you end up picking just a few comfort perks that you find the most reliable and the other %95 of the perks just never get used or very hard to get any value from it.
I thought that was main reason the diminishing returns were implemented so many weaker and bad perks could use some buffs in numbers but they couldnt be abused due to this feature but it seems it got forgoten somehow.
Dying Light -Obsession healing and unhooking boost reduced from 33% to 20%
For each non obsession hooked, all non obsessions suffer from a 3% repair speed penalty and a 6% penalty to healing and sabo speeds
Thanatophobia- Each injured survivor reduces the repair speed for the entire team by 4% to make it more consistent on killers that cant injure everyone but not much stronger on legion and plague.
Hex: Wretched Fate- Remove ability to see aura of totem
Hex: Nothing But Misery- Reduce the amount of hits required to activate perk from 8 to 6
Hex: Scared to Death- Reduce amount of survivors hooked from 3 to 2 to activate perk
Deathbound- Change Oblivious status effect to a 3% hindered for both survivors
Haywire- When the exit gates are powered Haywire activates for 80 seconds, if survivors let go of a gate while Haywire is active it will regress at a quarter of the speed.
Hex: Huntress Lullaby - Now gain a maximum of 3 tokens reduced from 5
Every time a unique survivor is hooked gain a token- 1 token reduces skill check warning cue by 28%, 2 tokens by 56% and 3 tokens suppresses warning sound
They wouldn't even have to spend time deciding what perks to buff. Just grab the 5 least used survivor + killer perks.
Sorry that I am getting to this a bit late, but I would argue that really most hinder/haste perks have been hit pretty hard b/c of the diminishing returns update.
Don't get me wrong - the update in general is good as a concept but in my opinion was executed a bit too broadly. In regards to different perks needing a "buff" (or a re-balancing in my opinion) - perks like self care, dissolution, friends to the end, etc are interesting in concept but often fall short.
To elaborate - being able to heal yourself is perfectly acceptable if you bring a perk or a medkit - but why make it take 3x as long? Why allow for a pallet to be destroyed but allow survivors be notified that the killer is running that perk (and thus avoiding pallets), FTTE does sound solid and can be useful but very very very often, the obsession is either on the opposite end of the map or if nearby - they can just loop for 5-10 seconds and be relatively fine. The issue with these perks in general is simply a matter of *time. On the survivor side - self care (or other non-generator related perks) simply take too long to do anything - whilst on the killer side, they very often lack the time needed to succesfully complete many time-based objectives.
A great example of a good timer is Pop goes the Weasel or Turn back the clock. 45-60 seconds allows for *most killers to be able to 1. Reach their objective and have a *chance to complete it. However, 20 seconds is very often just not enough to do anything unless the objective is immediately nearby
I could go on about other perks/hexes that I *believe should be buffed and nerfed (like how I mentioned brutal strength should be more than 20% in the main post, or how in other posts ppl complain about Hex:Nothing but misery not doing much of anything) but I believe my point has been made. I have been playing this game since 2020 (w/ about 3k hrs on my old xbox and 400 something hrs on my current computer) and I have noticed that many many perks are simply never used or do not get value. As both killer and survivor. (For reference I play killer about 75% of the time but I do play a good bit of survivor later at nights or if I go on a losing streak D:)
Not saying that your Jason perk ideas are bad but they do remove the whole "13" aspect from the perks which I would rather have them keep for thematic purposes.
True! I feel that diminished killed a lot of perk combos that were out of meta or perks themselves thank to killer's power forcing people with even higher reason to play only meta, I'll name few but there are so many of them.
→ Help wanted was nieche pick with save the best for last, now it's already low number value gets even weaker when it was a way to have 60s powercooldown.
→ Haste builds were fairly fun to play yet not as strong as slowdown builds (that again for some reason where not touched by diminished) most of them are now a bad and weak combo fe. rapid brutality + battery included or unbound + battery making most if not all haste potential combos absolutely unviable and I haven't seen a single of them since diminished.
→ Heal builds were strong yet if someone sacrificed whole build to heal 8s faster they were easier prey at all. Now apart from perks like botany, lend a hand or we'll make it none heal perks truly shine and not at all while combined. Do No Harm for example has already low value to be anything close to it's better options. Heal builds are still somewhat usefull as you can run lend a hand, botany, autodidact and 1-2-3-4 and do well, however particular perks should be that bad - do no harm, flow state, strenght in the shadow, better than new, empatic connection, leader. This of course shouldn't be case of antiheal perks either, whose at the moment from what I know are not affected.
→ Vault builds were high risk due to map chosen, sometimes not working at all. Those perks should not be diminished at all, because even superior adn bamboozle together didnt result in a hit for many killers that need to vault a window. Not even saying that some killers whose add ons are designed around vaults can't truly use them with any perks. For example if I play my meme body Krasue only with rotten swine and mysterious elixir I can't pop on bamboozle and unbound to make the combo work, which is already a shame due to gimmicky possible playstyle.
List of all perks that are weak when combined or on it's own:
SURVIVOR
→ Better than new
→ Blood pact
→ Boon: Dark Theory
→ Fixated
→ Deadline
→ Déja Vu (acceptable due to antifree gen nature)
→ Do No Harm
→ Empatic Connection
→ Flow State
→ Friendly Competition
→ Ghost Notes
→ Hope
→ Leader
→ No One Left Behind
→ Overzealous
→ Quick Gambit
→ Road Life
→ Most Teamwork Perks: i believe apart from Walking Dead
KILLER
→ Batteries Included
→ Brutal Strenght
→ Call Of brine
→ Overcharge
→ Dark Arogance
→ Fire Up
→ Forever Entwined
→ Game Afoot
→ Help Wanted
→ Save The Best For Last
→ Knockout
→ Machine Learning
→ Rapid Brutality
→ Thanatophobia
Those are only diminished-focus perks, I hardly believe that those in urge to be loved are many more
I don't know about giving brutal 40% but I agree that a majority of the perks in the game need to be buffed because I don't think a lot of people want to see the same 10 perks run on both sides a majority of their games