Why Exactly Was Shadowborn Nerfed?
At release, Shadowborn was a two sided perk. It widened your FOV by more than it does now (not sure how much more), as well as brightened your screen and removed some particles.
On the other hand, it made you very susceptible to flashlight blinds, meaning it had both positives and a negative.
To my knowledge, the perk was not popular at all, so I can't think it was overpowered (let me know if I'm wrong), and still nobody uses it currently.
Currently it's almost a useless perk, it gives 5 degrees more FOV than Monitor & Abuse without the extra bonuses it offers, while providing nothing else.
Shadowborn was my favorite perk, and it provided unique scouting ability that was randomly taken away and turned into a very one dimensional borderline useless perk, while being the Wraith's last teachable.
Comments
Shadowborn's FOV bonus is permanent, while M&B's bonus only applies out-of-chase. This leads to shadowborn users getting juked less during chase, which can be outrageously helpful if you've got low framerates (such as on console).
Plus, flashlights are honestly not that common.
I thought M&B's FOV was permanent, it was just the terror radius that fluctuated? Did not know that.
From the perk's description:
"While in a Chase, your Terror Radius is increased by 8 metres.
Otherwise, your Terror Radius is decreased by 8 metres and your Field of View is increased by 3/5/10 °."
The wording is a little confusing on it, but you can see the meaning--when not in chase, FOV is increased AND TR is decreased. If you pay attention, you can actually see your FOV shrink as soon as the "Survivor Found" score event comes up.
@Rhinoface Yeah, though Monitor and Abuse can be used to find Survivors very easily too, who are trying to hide, by the screen shrinking and queuing the music, so I can see what you mean by Shadowborn being less superior than M&A.
It was to give the devs more control over the lighting on maps. Lightborn's screen darkening effect and the moonlight offerings were also removed because of this reason.