Lightborn needs change
It's insane how rampant the usage of Lightborn has been during the event. But also in general, this perk has been problematic, and it needs to be addressed. It has 0 counterplay, no requirements to unlock/charge, and pushes survivors into super boring play. Killer's got Lightborn? Go sit on gens for ages…
Earlier this year I proposed that Lighborn be remade into a fair perk that challenges survivors. With the reworked Lightborn equipped:
- the timing for flashlight/-bangs/-crackers saves reverts to the old one, with much smaller time frame to blind the killer. This brings back that skill into flashy saves.
- upon picking up a survivor, all survivors within X meters around the killer become exhausted for Y seconds. You could also add the effect that any survivor within that range immediately reverts to base 4.0 m/s movement speed, even if they had already started sprint bursting. Background player doesn't trigger because of the exhaustion that activates prior to this. In other words, the survivors' movement speeds gets capped to 4.0m/s until the killer is out of the pickup animation.
So new Lightborn would have these 2 effects, (1) and (2). It wouldn't just be an easy impenetrable wall that the survivors can do nothing about. It would actually be fair, but more challenging. The perk called "Forever Entwined" from the Ghoul exists, as well as "Fire Up" from the Nightmare, in case you want to use those instead of this, or combined with this. Forever Entwined and Fire Up do not just blatantly block flashy saves, they make them harder, but doable.
While I personally would prefer the above-proposed rework to what I'm gonna mention now, I'll still mention it because it can have merit.
So, the other proposal would be to keep current Lighborn as it is, but add penalties to it. Similarly how No Mither has a penalty (an unhealable injured state), Lightborn would have penalties as well. Those would be +25% increased gen speeds and +25% increased wiggle bar progressing, throughout the whole match.
Reasoning number 1: if a survivor brought a flash-item, and now cannot use it and is forced into boredom (due to both inability to blind the killer AND leave the match without a penalty), then at least shorten the duration of that boredom. Make the gen speed faster, so the boring match can end sooner.
Reasoning number 2: just like No Mither can be used by experienced survivors to pull off interesting plays and challenge themselves, so can this version of Lightborn be used by killers. Streamers have already done something similar in the past, where they would AFK for the 1st 30 seconds of the match as killer, before starting to play. This version of Lightborn would facilitate those challenges by streamers (or any other people) that want to hard-challenge themselves. Trying to win with higher gen speeds and faster wiggle progress (hook planning needs to be really on-point) would be a gigachad work.
I would prefer the former solution, but the latter also has its merits. The current existing Lightborn though is ridiculous. Slapping on impenetrable shield because you don't want to work on baiting out flashy savers etc., which also makes survivors' match miserable, because they are forced to suffer through the boredom of doing gens. If you really struggle with people flashy saving against you, there are better, fair(er) options: Forever Entwined, Fire Up, Infectious Fright, Forced Hesitation, slugging.
If you've come this far, thank you for reading, I appreciate it. I'd just like to ask you to not bring in the "but the survivors have this/that…" into the equasion. Feel free to make separate posts for those things you'd like to change. My Lightborn rework proposals do not go against fixing unfair stuff that killers have to do deal with. Please do encourage the devs to change those, if you'd like. I have however, proposed fair changes to Lightborn, as well as alternative perks for dealing with flashy saves.
Comments
Lightborn is fine as is. You sacrifice one of 4 perk slots to counter single item which is big enough disadvantage.
Another "nerf lightborn" post.
To preface: I don't regularly use Lightborn, but when I do, it's because I'm tired of dealing with flashlights, flashbangs, firecrackers, and blast mine. I also don't want to deal with a bully squad for 5-10 minutes, even if it's an easy 4K because they don't do gens. Killers shouldn't have to dodge lobbies because survivors only go for saves. I also don't want to have to look away from my screen every time I get blinded because of the increase in brightness. I think facing the wall or baiting out the save is generally much more effective, but more on that later.
Let's regurgitate the same thing everyone always says on these posts: Lightborn is a wasted perk slot once everyone realizes the killer has it. It becomes 3 perks versus 16 perks at that point, and you no longer waste as much time going for a flashlight/bang save. It becomes a wasted slot that could've been a gen slowdown or a better info perk. Lightborn doesn't need penalties because the killer is inherently punished for using it. No Mither, on the other hand, is meant to be the "Hard Mode" perk and has seen countless buffs. You immediately have an advantage when killers bring Lightborn, even if it doesn't seem like it.
To address your "why can't they have skill" point: Baiting out the save or facing a wall isn't always possible. A survivor going down out in the open or on a short wall immediately takes away the possibility to face a wall and prevent blinding. 2+ survivors hovering for a save makes baiting much harder, especially if the downed survivor is on a pallet. Couple that with background player, light-footed, iron will/calm spirit, etc. makes baiting even harder. It's impossible to not bring in "but survivors have this/that" when the game literally requires interaction between survivors and killers, perks and all. Additionally, Lightborn CAN be used skillfully. Making survivors not realize you have it until it matters is part of that skill.
To address your "forced into boredom" point: Doing generators is the survivor objective of the game. The wincon for the game is escaping (with at least 2 of your teammates), not getting flashlight saves. I think the main objective needs a rework because, yeah, doing generators is boring. Looping and going for saves is fun, and I will agree that Lightborn can take away some of that fun. However, gutting a perk that effectively does nothing once you know the killer has it, is NOT the long-term solution.
Lightborn also prevents one of the most complained about and "boring" playstyles: slugging. If the survivor isn't under a pallet and there's a person hovering for the save and the killer is in a good spot match progression wise, then there really isn't much of a reason to slug.
Final point: Your propositions are not fair in the slightest, and thinly veiling it as a "but it will let people have a challenge as killer" is cowardly. Just say you don't like the perk, don't act like you're doing hardcore killer players a favor by giving them a "hard mode" when "hard mode" killer is perkless/addonless. Hell, hard mode for killer is just going against a coordinated SWF. +25% global generator speed and wiggle ability only further encourage slugging, with the generator speed unbalancing the game even more. It cuts the current 90 second completion into 67.5 seconds. 2-3 good chases and the game is over for the killer. Exhaustion doesn't do anything to people playing for saves and hovering like flies, and relearning timings takes a good 10-minutes max in a Custom lobby. Lightborn is fine as is, and, in my experience, it's not used all that commonly, especially when survivors can item-swap in the lobby right before the game starts.
But I want to blind killer 25 times in a match during the pick-up animation of the downed survivor and I no longer can do that! It's so unfair.
This has to be a joke, right?
You need to specify what you mean by old timing of flashlight save. Do you mean that it has to be precise, with no 1 second d buffer during which it will still count, or do you mean the longer overall time required to do the blind?
If it's the latter, your rework really doesn't change anything, if blinds both need longer blind time, and the sprint perks are disabled by it pretty much, when blinding will be just as impossible to pull off.
Personally, I don't care about lightborn myself, I prefer Forever Entwined over it, though naturally forever Entwined is not a free perk.
Your second rework proposal however... +25% gen speed? Genuinely, are you insane? That's an obliteration nerf, not a fun challenging nerf
I thought this was satire until I checked his post history.
Eh.
Lightborn is a waste of a perk slot in a lobby with less than 3 flashlights.
I see nothing wrong with it.
op got beasted on