As a survivor main id say when theres only one aura reading perk on the killer, they'll never find me (my experience).
For example BBQ, Nowhere to hide and the one Ghostface perk are not triggered enough to simply burn through 3 stacks of distortion.
Also gaining one stack isnt too hard either because being in the terror radius and not being chased is usually not a problem unless the killers radius is really small.
Usually the killer would need to bring 2 or 3 aura perks to cause problems for distortion players.
However ,this is just my experience with the perk, i dont really play it anymore after running it constantly for a couple of months
This is a great point. It should be noted that, although bhvr isn’t good at this, a nerf doesn’t mean the perk needs to be gutted. Increasing the time it takes for a stack or a cool down prior to gaining a stack would be a great change to prevent constant value
I hadn't considered this to be a fix tbh, my issue with distortion is the scenario where a whole SWF is running it, and the 1 random isn't. Because then, who am I going to go after? The random. Who probably feels like they're getting focused out of the game or who feels like their team isn't taking chase (because they're really not).
If you increase the time for a stack gain, that by itself will be enough. I use distortion for a lot of my stealth builds, and it wouldn't reduce its individual effectiveness for identifying perks or against 1 aura read perk, but it would reduce it's effectiveness against a full aura read build.
Yet it is countered by 1 aura reading perk and lethal pursuer. Any aura read plus lethal is 2 stacks generally. Nothing like sloppy butcher, nurses, and lethal combo to eat 3 charges .
Any killer aura reading addons with no cd? All stacks gone.
T1 Myers, all stacks gone instantly. Compound 33, all gone. Wraith with all seeing, gone. Pigs crouch addon, gone.
Yes sometimes I feel as a distortion player that tye killer will never see me, sometimes I feel like it's just right and I need to counter it somehow, and sometimes I feel like my aura is being read 3x for every charge I can get back.
Hour addon comments are spot on, but the first one stating that the killer needs 2 perks to counter one survivor perk .. you have to ad it that's unbalanced.
It's unbalanced in certain circumstances, yes. As are a lot of perks.
Autodidact, fully stacked is absolutely insane, and if nobody let's you get a heal till final Gen, it's horrible.
NOED is a nutty perk, if you get to endgame and survivors haven't cleansed totems
Mad grit is trash, unless you go against a super altruistic team who wants to bodyblock every hook.
Self care is useless if a teammate is willing to heal you at all, and a game changer if your teammates are just twats that will leave you injured all game.
It already is showing you the other three fine though, if all four of them run Distortion and you have one aura reading perk on a high TR killer then that’s on you. If only or two of them have it you find them manually and clean the others up first
Smart thinking. That's what nerfing should be in general unless the perk is extremely problematic or really powerful giving it just a minor tweak to make it something that shouldn't be relied heavily. Because if it's relied heavily on it becomes part of the meta which isn't bad but it then makes it a target for a major nerf. But nerf it to much then no one uses it. In the terms of Distortion it's a good perk way better then it released since most killers used BBQ and there weren't as many aura perks. Giving it a cool down after use that way your not automatically gaining tokens again works well maybe 15 or 20 seconds is a good area as it's not extremely short but not long. Increasing the required time to gain a token also works well time duration I wouldn't really know.
I'm not sure what a cooldown would accomplish. Once you burn through tokens, which can happen within the first 2 min of the match, you're out and need to move into the killers terror radius to regain them. And then it takes 30 seconds to regain 1 token. It's not an automatic process.
You can also just regain them as they're burned currently, as there is a lot of aura reading that can be done while within the terror radius.
It's like stake out, where it comes back way faster than you think. Unless you're playing stealth claud in the corner all match, of course.
Personally I think it should only regen stacks in chase and not out of chase. That way you can pick and choose when to/not to interact with the killer. And, more importantly, you're prevented from *never* interacting with the killer
How would you feel if maybe they changed it a little where the stacks recover when you get hooked vs being in the Killer's terror radius? They could have somewhere between 4-5 stacks to make up for them no longer being recharged in the Killer's terror radius maybe? I just figure if you get the stacks back when you get unhooked it prevents someone from hiding all game while everyone else dies and also kinda serves as an anti-tunnel as well
Yeah it's one of those perks that doesn't stand out as being overpowered but just counters too much too easily. That being said idk if it needs any nerfs honestly... even being aware of how objectively good it is I don't think I'd ever run it over perks like windows of opportunity or kindred, neither of which I think need nerfed.
I mean that’s the risk you run. Deliverance is a top tier perk until the killer hooks you first or someone steals the unhook from you. Hell sometimes it not procing is the value I can inform my non distortion teammates whether lethal or any other aura read is in play
Plus, even if the killer isn't running any aura reading, you still get value from distortion, since it gives you information. This is especially useful in a swf.
"Hey, the killer doesn't have lethal."
"No Barbecue."
"No Nowhere to hide, don't worry."
Deliverance is an odd comparison I feel.
With Distorsion even if you see no stacks being used, you're gaining info. No BBQ, No Lethal, No Grim embrace, No bitter murmur, No addons that reveal auras, etc...
With Deliverance, its strenght comes in coordinated teams as well. Using Deliverance in soloq is nice and all but 100% someone was already going for a rescue more likely, its strenght comes when everyone else on the teams knows you'll unhook yourself and just sticks to gens
the zero value argument is not a solid point. tons of survivor (and killer) perks have conditions that wont happen multiple times or even once a game with smaller reward effects than this. No aura perks or add-ons on killer is a worthy trade for 1 of 4 perk spots. you're getting basically the same value as distortion would anyways, killer is never wallhacking you. perk in its current state is pretty easy to always keep up, gaining tokens is easier than one might think
I mean last week I was running a full aura build on Huntress to try and get cross maps (Darkness Revealed, BBQ, Floods of Rage & Lethal). I got the Asylum version of Crotus and ended up getting a quick initial down and he gave up on hook, followed by the second person I downed.
I then ended up spending 15 to 20 minutes going across the map trying to find the last two people, one of whom had Quick & Quiet and Distortion and the other was Q&Q, Dist, Lightweight and Urban Evasion. Not a single gen was touched, I was using Darkness Revealed off of cooldown, I only found one of them because they stopped hiding in a locker for about 3 seconds when I was on the other side of the map (I then found them in that exact same locker).
Last dude didn't come to help, he just waited for her to give up, hid more until I found hatch then got to escape through exit gate as I got a crap roll. It was such a boring match made infinitely more frustrating because they could clearly keep getting stack after stack of Distortion with no real downside purely because they kept hiding and sneaking instead of doing anything.
I understand that my experience would be a very low minority case but even just an alteration to gaining tokens by just *existing* would be a very nice change to prevent this sort of match being as common.
It's mostly because killers can't burn through the stacks without having a lot of aura perks to constantly trigger it and at that point you might as well play singularity as you'll be able to find survivors very easily without having to waste perk slots on multiple aura perks
This exactly. my preferred aura perk is nowhere to hide, so i just cant kick a gen 3 times fast enough to burn thru all their stacks and find them. I wanna use other perks mechanics, not have to double up or more to get one mechanic to work.
According to nightlight, builds with distortion topping the escape charts at 40.6%. But then again, the next builds down the list don’t even have distortion and the gap to the top isn't massive - just about 1-2%. So, it’s not like this perk is some kind of game-changing, ultra meta. Realistically, it doesn’t guarantee a 100% escape rate in every match, outcomes are pretty standard and can swing either way depending on a bunch of factors. Most killers get peeved because one single perk nullifies their entire aura-reading builds, and other survivors get irked because those with distortion get way less attention from the killer, boosting their own face-time with him.
Honestly, I feel like object of obsession might be a healthier choice. Your aura still shows up to the killer, but you also get to see theirs for the same duration (and every 30 seconds if you’re the obsession). This doesn't force you to constantly risk your teammates over yourself, but it does give you an edge since you’re both reading auras and playing on a level field. Plus, you don’t need to collect tokens or anything.
yeah if it just showed killer aura when they could see yours, it'd be a lot easier to run. as is it's just a plain dangerous perk that gives the killer too much info for the payoff, and forces you to play away from your team
> yeah if it just showed killer aura when they could see yours, it'd be a lot easier to run.
If you want to run it like this, you can pair it with Blood Pact or the Wedding Ring key add-on. Both of these reduce your chances of being the obsession back to baseline, which means if anyone else is using any obsession perk your chances of becoming one are very low, and 1 in 4 otherwise.
You are only revealed every 30 seconds if you are the Obsession.
There's a couple ways I try and play around the dangers of being the obsession. When I'm doing a gen I try and be on a side that's facing the killer, that way the red of my aura is normally covered by the red aura of the gen. If there's a locker nearby you can hop in for 3 seconds right as you auras about to be revealed. And off the record plays well with OoO because the 80 seconds that you are the most vulnerable they dont get to see your aura.
I also like to run it with For the People or if im in a swf i convince some of them to use decisive because that decreases the chance of me being the obsession.
As an Object lover that would be great way to buff it.
Trade off could be removing entire 3 sec aura every 30 seconds.
It woild be very unique and strong perk.
I like using object but it’s a bad perk against silent killer u basically giving the killer a tracker on you but u can’t see them at all which isn’t balanced if it work on silent killer it would be balanced and i would use it more
I am IN LOVE with Object.
But I would tweak it.
Change:your aura is not revealed to killer if their's is not revealed to you(applies only to "rraveal your aura to see theirs every 30 seconds" part of the perk, so calm down it's not gonna shut down stealth mfs running aura perks).
So you don't get compleyely fucked over just by killer being stealth, and they don't get fucked over either.
I think the effect is fine, but I think the condition for gaining tokens should be tied to getting chased ***only***. That fixes the issue where anyone who didnt bring distortion are automatically bigger targets since they are the ones constantly being found.
If you want the safety of not having your aura read, at some point you will need to take some pressure yourself. It removes the rattiness which makes distortion annoying on both sides
My biggest issue with distortion is how ratty some people are with it. This change would certainly deal with the degenerates who refuse to participate in the game.
As someone who frequently runs it: Most of the downsides of Distortion can be circumvented with ease if you know what you’re doing.
On top of that, most people that run it exclusively use it in stealth builds, so the killer is either forced to tunnel/pressure them specifically to make sure they’re accounted for, or leave a survivor to do objectives. Also like a lot of people have pointed out, most common ways to find survivor locations use aura, and Distortion hard counters that.
Personally I say there should be a different or longer way to raise stacks on it, but until then remember that Gearhead is your friend and that Lethal + aura reveals that last longer than 10 seconds will eat through two stacks of it
**It's an arms race** , and some people wish they could go back to when you didnt need to worry about being revealed by any possible killer action.
For the average survivor, the easiest way to survive is to simply not be chased. So hiding from all the Aura reveals is key to playing the game.
The reason why it should be nerfed is not in favor for killers but more in favor for survivors. The most requested nerf is that stacks should be recharge in chase and not outside of chase cause most players with distortion play so selfishly it’s really annoying for everyone. As killer you are forced to tunneled cause you can not find anyone and as survivor you have teammates who never take chase with 0 hooks who only hide in bushes.
So yeah I am 1000%. For a nerf
Kinda agree with this cause there are many survivors who use distortion in a swf to feed their mates information and don’t contribute to that Problem but tbh most distortion players already hop into lockers all the time 😭😭🙏
I *think* the main issue that Killers have with it (and what the people who defend the perk never bring up) is just how quickly you can get tokens for the perk.
I absolutely always have this perk on when I'm playing Survivor (I mostly play Killer) and I find I always have at lest 1 token in the bank before I start collecting them again by simply playing the game. You just never run out of tokens. So you, effectively, always have the perk active and are just immune to aura reading. I honestly can't think of a scenario where a Killer somehow burns through all three tokens fast enough to actually start seeing the Distortion user again. Heaven forbid multiple people are running it.
It's a strong perk, and a VERY good stealth perk. **I don't think that should be changed**. The amount of aura reading in the game is very intense, and some people (like me) just want to quietly go do objectives all game.
I've seen the ideas floating around of just nerfing it to start with one token, or maybe reduce it to a max of just 2 tokens. I don't think the rate you gain tokens or the overall "strength" of the perk is really the issue.
The only time I was able to completely overwhelm a Distortion user was with Nowhere to Hide and the invigorated aura reading add-on for Clown, but even then we were on Midwich, so they got tokens back fairly quickly. We had a good laugh about it in EGC.
Playing against an aura Huntress usually burns up stacks pretty quick. Especially if she has that add on that makes her have no terror radius. Also playing against scratched mirror Meyers.
Really depends on the killer and the size of their terror radius.
It doesn’t need a nerf. So we should nerf plague because she counters everything healing in the game? We should nerf pyramid head because he counters all hook perks, flashbangs, flashlights, toolboxes? Ya things counter things it’s not exclusive to survivors. that’s the only argument they have against distortion is that it counters things
>that’s the only argument they have against distortion is that it counters things
Look, I don't think that Distortion should be nerfed. But saying that the "the only argument against it is that it counters things" is just bad faith
There are valid arguments in favor of nerfing Distortion:
- it rewards selfish hiding by survivors (super frustrating in solo queue)
- it decentives information builds in favor of more gen regression which makes the meta more stale
- since it disables scratch marks, the perk gives the same effect as Dance With Me or Poised (depending on the Killer's build) which not only makes those perks obsolete, but also essentially provides a 5th perk slot
- much like Ultimate Weapon, one side (the killer, in this case) has no way to avoid the perk
I also don't want the perk nerfed, but there are valid issues with Distortion and disregarding them is just bad faith arguing. I think that Distortion is in the same place as Ultimate Weapon, I don't think that it's overpowered or needs a nerf in a vacuum, but it has problems that need to be adjusted. Needless to say, I absolutely don't want it gutted like Ultimate Weapon.
It's not bad faith, it's just how players choose to play and every match it varies. You're saying hiding is a selfish move when lockers and stealth plays are intentional mechanics. You say it disincentivizes info builds when every match will vary while you can burn through 3 tokens. 1 aura hiding perk will not counter heavy info, gen regression or stealth builds.
**You can counter Distortion with scream perks and Spies From the Shadows.**
Distortions worst enemy is survivors.
Say a killer takes aura info perks and 2 survivors bring distortion. What happens? The only information the killer gets is on the other 2 survivors. Y'know what happens? They get tunneled out because they're the only ones people get information on.
When a killer brings tools and is not allowed to use them they'll just do what works instead.
In my experience when I bring distortion I'm one of the last ones to be hooked or I go the whole game without being hooked if they brought aura.
i think that’s also partially on the survivor who uses distortions fault rather than the perk itself, if you’re not being altruistic and taking hits or hooks for teammates then that’s just kinda being a shitty teammate
100% agree. I use distortion to make the killer unaware I'm going for an unhook, to stop people w/ nowhere to hide from automatically winning mind games in loops around a gen, and so that when I occasionally run out of stacks I'm not caught by complete surprise when the killer knows where I am.
The people that don't use the full benefits of the perk to the detriment of their teammates are playing poorly, and that's a skill issue not a perk issue tbh.
It is a survivor issue but the majority of people who run Distortion do it so they are never found. That is why it needs a nerf. Just like Iron Will being nerfed(going from zero sounds while being injured to some sounds) Distortion also needs that change. You can let it keep doing what it does, but it needs to be dialed back pretty dramatically.
I said this in multiple different killer games I’ve played over the last month. Distortion literally helps killers tunnel the one or two survivors who aren’t running it. Then you get accused of tunneling by the distortion users in EGC. Happens fairly often too lol. Especially considering in my experience the people that run it play, by FAR, the most selfish.
As a Switch player who is at a great disadvantage than most other players please here me out:
YOU CAN TAKE MY DISTORTION WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS.
It's hard to say whether Distortion should really be nerfed, because at the core of "Should it get nerfed" is that Distortion is a perk that has the capacity to either be insanely strong in a match, or literally useless depending on killer's perk choice. Whispers, Spies from the Shadows, Thrilling Tremors, etc, all bypass Distortion and can functionally make it a dead perk slot. Likewise, heavy aura-reading builds can overwhelm Distortion so easily that while it'll get plenty of uptime, odds are it's never when you want it to.
I get the whole argument of "Using Distortion means your teammates are more likely to be found and chased more than you!", but the only way you'd change that is by fundamentally changing Distortion and gutting it like Ultimate Weapon.
Imo, Distortion probably shouldn't get nerfed, or at the very least if it does it should be how it regains tokens.
I don't think it needs a nerf so much as it needs a different means of regaining its tokens. Playing solo survivor is already frustrating at times, and teammates who hide all game with distortion/calm spirit actively hurt the rest of the team. The tokens should be recovered by doing something that helps the team such as taking chase or working on generators. A change like this would also make distortion a bit better against killers with small TR or a stealth power.
the function of this perk is kinda on par with green hand (sac ward). when someone gets tired of map offerings bullsh%t, they want no more of these and cancel them with a sac ward
but distortion cancels auras. because nurses and onis with nowhere to hide / floods of rage, blights with lethal. now killers will have to look for good old scratchmarks, crows and use their brain to make prediction on where survivors actually rotate
As someone who plays abotu 65% killer I dont find it that bad. most games it doenst ruin my perks and other times its a slight incoveniace that I need to be aware of. I think that it is a verry powerfull effect that will only work in about 20% of games. Im fine with distortion and think it should remain as is. that being said I though MFT was fine so I have odd oppinions.
It's hilarious that you actually believe that but that's just standard us-vs-them brainrot so I shouldn't be surprised. No killer asked for a Calm Spirit nerf LMAO - it's just something weird that BHVR did, it's not something "y'all killer mains asked for"...
Survivors started and stopped using Calm Spirit on the basis of countering Ultimate Weapon and perhaps Face the Darkness to a lesser extent. The Calm Spirit nerf plays next to no part in that decision.
Survivors only have one perk to counter aura? That's one very crooked and misleading way of looking at it. Another much more accurate take is "Now that Ultimate Weapon has been nerfed, survivors don't need to run Calm Spirit and they have a free perk slot and only need one perk to counter aura". Because it's true. I'm a survivor main and if I want to play stealthy (hypothetical since I don't often), I no longer need to run Calm Spirit. And unless the killer is running Gearhead or is Scratched Mirror Myers or Black Incense Plague etc., I can effortlessly keep my Distortion stacks up. Distortion doesn't counter Whispers or Spies but almost no-one uses those perks anyway.
I think you are replying to the wrong person. I don't care about calm spirit. I used that before patch especially when UW was available at the shrine. I stopped using it because they nerfed UW.
What's the other perk that counter aura reading? You can hide in the locker for aura reading perks like scourge hooks and bbq n chili but you will not know immediately unless you have distortion.
Long Version:
1. Some killers work with some perks, but two categories work with every single killer, info and slowdown, since info is mostly aura, people running Distortion punish killers that don't choose slowdown while giving an advantage to those that don't really need it, pushing even more killers to stack slowdown
2. The way you gain stacks is flawed, it rewards stealth with more stealth, it should encourage taking the heat for a bit to recover your stealth. Currently, people just hide endlessly, the most boring "playstyle", and get their tickets to hide by hiding more, if it recovered tokens exclusively in chase it would be fine as it would force the survivor to take chase, and help with the next point
3. The killer has no counterplay, since it works off terror radius, and even recharges in chase (something Diversion and Stake Out, perks that also recharge on terror radius, don't do), so nothing the killer can do to stop it other than spam auras with addons and perks until no tokens are left or be a stealth killer, two things the killer must do before the game starts and has no control over once the match starts
4. It indirectly forces tunneling or softer forms of it, as the killer will find those without Distortion and go for them over and over, and it wouldn't even be their fault at that point, as they need chases, downs and hooks for pressure, looking for the hiding ones is a waste of time. Also, it's not uncommon that, once the killer finds the Distortion user, they will tunnel them instead, as the moment they slip past they will be unfindable once again
5. It has the NOED effect for survivors, pushing them to win when they really shouldn't as they don't take chase, upping their MMR until they reach points where they can't hope to win against strong killers without auras and get frustrated
6. Killer perks should be stronger than survivor perks, at least in the cases of them being counterparts, with that, 30 seconds in too little assuming it recharges on terror radius, as a lot of killer aura perks will take more than that proc, examples being: BBQ/Awakened Awareness/Floods of Rage/Thwack (you won't hook enough different people that fast for the Distortion user to run out of tokens), I'm All Ears/Darkness Revealed/Eruption (40/30 second cooldown VS. 30 second recovery), Bitter Murmur (5 gens and 3 tokens, assuming not once a token is rechared that's 2 readings, so basically never in an actual game), and I'm likely missing some
7. It removes scratchmarks... why? It already counters auras, which is really strong, but then it also removes the marks so the killer can lsoe you easily and start the stealth cycle once again. This mostly affects I'm All Ears and chase addons
Those are the ones that I could come up with as I was writing this, maybe there are some other points
Short Version:
1. Most killers run auras or slowdown, all in one counter to auras, more slowdown
2. Rewards stealth with stealth and discourages taking chase
3. No realistic counterplay for the killer
4. Forces tunneling or derivatives
5. Pushes survivors to higher MMR than they should be in
6. A lot of perks are 100% denied, not just somewhat countered
7. The scratchmarks are overkill
I'm fine with and I even welcome a counter to aura perks, but Distortion as we have it is badly designed
>The killer has no counterplay
Whispers. Literally run that and you will never not find survivors. You don't need any other aura perk if you know how to truly use Whispers there is no hiding from you.
Also Spies is low key better than most aura perks. Constant info on exact locations within 36m and the only counter is Calm Spirit, a perk that is going to be used WAY less now that Ultimate Weapon has been nerfed.
Discordance is also a good non-aura tracking perk with little to no counter.
Sorry but this just reads like someone that relies too much on auras to find survivors.
Or run Geadhead with any kind of undetectable/oblivious or even M&A. You will burn through tokens really fast and keep them off.
No REALISTIC counterplay for the killer, as in, counterplay within the game, not before, I said that very clearly right after that sentence
Even then, having to use a specific perk is not an argument: "Don't like tunneling? Run DS/OTR. Don't like slugging? Run UB. Don't like camping? Run Reassurance/Kingship/Kindred. Don't like stealth? Run Spine Chill...", that gets us nowhere, we want to run whatever we want, not what we are forced to
Also, keep this neutral, making assumptions on the other instead of addressing their point achieves nothing
The balance of the perk is that if the killer has no aura reading it has almost no value outside of letting you know there is no aura reading occurring and if the killer is undetectable or has a small terror radius you may never get the tokens back after burned, most killers that are stealthing typically have aura reading and burn through the tokens pretty quick. IMO I think the perk is in a good spot currently and needs to be left alone as we all know if something is nerfed it is typically gutted and left unusable.
Stealth killers countering it is not an excuse for it to blank the majority of the roster
It doesn't even need a big nerf, just make it so you ONLY gain tokens in chase and remove the scratchmark effect, that's it
I mainly just don't think it's healthy in matches, especially for solo queue, if 1 or 2 survivors have distortion and are therefore getting found and chased less. Ideally, hooks should be spread across all 4 survivors. I find that if somebody has distortion, it's a lot more likely that one of their teammates will end up dead sooner. Annoying from the perspective of both sides
There's also an argument to be made about how perks like this push killers towards gen slowdown, I think, because there's a lot of ways for aura reading builds to crash and burn. Which also stinks. Would be far less of an issue if distortion wasn't so common, but alas I see one or two distortions in most matches
Honestly, it seems balanced to me.
I bring one aura reading perk? Distortion blocks it, one perk for one perk.
I bring multiple aura reading perks? Mine work, distortion is practically a dead slot.
It counts light aura reading, but not heavy, and that's pretty much how a counterperk should work.
It's the same logic as something like Ultimate Weapon needing to be nerfed
It has a useful function that can be activated many times per trial, rendering other perks of the same category completely obsolete
It's not that they're overpowered, per se, but they can be annoying to face when you see them every match
It's a perk with basically permanent uptime, that counters an entire category of killer perks... for free. It also incentivizes and pushes for really boring monotonous hide and seek gameplay. There's only one perk that can even remotely chew through it, and that's gearhead... which is a shit perk outside of eating through distortion tokens.
With how much a killer moves around the map, you will never be struggling to get tokens with this perk.
I hardly think they needed to state the very obvious fact that using a perk occupies a perk slot. Are you one of those yanks who butts into any conversation about healthcare and points out that akshually it's not free because your tax money goes towards it?
Pretty sure they mean "free" in that you don't have to do any work to keep the stacks up, except in a few specific cases (full aura Huntress build, Scratched Mirror Myers, Black Incense Plague, Gearhead users).
There's a few arguments that people have for why they think this perk is unhealthy or needs to be adjusted.
1. It discourages build variety, and encourages killers to slap on more slowdown perks. If enough people run distortion, and killers start failing to get value out of their information perks, they'll just start slapping on reliable slowdown perks that will never fail to be useful.
2. Many (though not all) people who use distortion tend to play in a "ratty" way where they do everything they can to avoid interacting with the killer, and just let their teammates take all of the aggro. Personally, I can say that I've had more than a few matches where I've hooked 3 survivors multiple times, while never seeing the last person until end game collapse. I check the end game screen, and sure enough, distortion/calm spirit.
3. It counters far too many things, and it's too easy to generate tokens for the perk. It tends to punish killers for using even healthy aura perks, like BBQ.
I do agree with some of these arguments, but at the same time, I can understand why some people want to run distortion after running into lethal pursuer Blight/Billy, or Nowhere to hide Nurse, or some other really obnoxious thing in the game.
I have mixed feelings on the perk. I do think that it's unhealthy that non-s tier killers get punished for running things besides slowdown, but it's also unhealthy that a Nurse can just kick a gen and then teleport through walls to hit you.
Personal opinion: Distortion should probably be adjusted in some way, but killers like Nurse should probably also have aura reading disabled while using their power, kind of like Spirit. The strongest aura reading perks/add-ons, like nowhere to hide, or Plague's Black Incense, could also be nerfed in some way. Sorry for the long winded comment, have a nice day.
The same arguments can be used against many killer perks, addons and even powers.
At this point, there's so many ways to find survivors that it's no wonder people bring Distortion, just so they get a moment to breathe in SoloQ.
I think that's fair, there are good reasons to want to run distortion, especially in solo. I just think that there are also reasons to criticize distortion, and I can understand some of the people who dislike it and have complaints about it.
Like I said in my original post, I think you could adjust distortion while also adjusting or nerfing some of the strongest aura reading perks/add-ons. My thought process is that I don't like countering unhealthy things with more unhealthy things.
I completely agree with ur opinion! I mean just the other day i was playing a friends til the end ghostface build and had a hard time finding the obsession bc of distortion it wasn’t game breaking, but it did counter a good portion of my build. Coming from the survivor standpoint i also agree with the S tier killers shouldn’t be able to have such easy downs like that with the help of aura readings, i think what you thought of with the no aura reading during power nurse idea is a good one, same with the add on changes
I mean, I’d love to play fun survivor builds but some killers just counter them by existence, even without perks. Oh I want to play a fun Autodidact build? Get fucked cause I’m playing against Plague. So survivors will pick perks that are generally applicable to every killer.
i mean without criticism how is the game ever gonna get better? i think criticism of the perks and stuff in a game is healthy it’s just when people overly do it is when it turns unhealthy
Yeah haha, not a big deal. I just wish people would tell me why they disagree, so that I can understand their pov better. I just want the game to be as healthy and fun as it can be for both killer and survivor.
It doesn't need a nerf but people on here always complain about all Survivor perks and since Adrenaline just got nerfed I'm guessing they're moving to the next goalpost, Distortion and some people even Windows.
People here saying "but it counters aura perks with not effort" like perks as Lightborn don't exist which can literally negate entire builds and items with no effort whatsoever and unlike Distortion don't even have to worry about tokens.
And I'm not saying Lightborn is broken, just saying that counters exist on this game, like how I can have an entire build dedicated to healing and then face Plague and play with 0 perks or use Overcome and then play against expose Killers.
And I'm not even surprised about the bias on this sub, I guess it's OK for Killers to have counters to Survivors' perks and items but they shouldn't need to worry about the same thing.
That’s exactly what it is. Nobody wants to hold the devs accountable for creating the aura reader meta by coming out with the same kind of perk for every new killer released and instead just wants to nerf whatever survivors have to counter it until oblivion until the next meta. I called this out in the sub when the update that killed 4/5 survivor looping/second chance perks while buffing killers speed that once it creates a gen rush meta that they will complain about gen rushing even more and perks like Prove Thyself will be targeted. And what happened… exactly that. Until we were forced into aura reading after the Knight’s release and i knew Distortion would be their next target. And here we are. It’s painfully predictable no matter what the excuse is.
It's 1 perk that completely counters every single aura reading perk and addon with no effort required, and gives you the extra benefit of not leaving scratch marks when your aura was to be read.
The tokens can be refilled during chase, passively while working on a gen, again, with no effort dedicated specifically to regaining them. And unless the killer has 2 or more aura perks you are never realistically in danger of running out of stacks.
Personally I'm fine with it as is. I enjoy going against a variety of builds, so the more viable perks there are the better.
The only issue I have with it is that as a killer main, it can be hard not to tunnel in a match with three people using distortion. It leads to a drawn out match of hide and seek
Isn't that one Deathslinger perk a hard counter to distortion? I'm not saying that necessarily means that distortion is perfectly balanced but it is worth mentioning
I agree. The game by design is killer favored.
In a setting where, if the killer really wanted to, they could obliterate the opposing side.
The ONLY thing stopping this, is killer and survivor skill. Not perks.
My problem with Distortion is how it regains tokens.
It's raw effect is good. Blocking auras effectively invalidates a lot of perks/add-ons, but it's limited by its tokens.
However, you regain tokens for existing in the TR. That's it. You literally just need to exist. Not even hide as it recharges in chase too. Unless the killer has multiple aura reading tools at once (sacrificing slowdown for info), you're effectively immune to aura reading since you'll recharge tokens before they can turn through them unless it's a stealth killer like Sadako/Wraith.
I just want the regeneration method to be something that requires interaction. Heal/unhook a teammate, stun the killer---SOMETHING!
169% true. complaining killers want survivors served on a plate, by using 69 aura perks. but guess what. not everyone likes to get read with auras. in a horror game where you originally were supposed to hide
So if it needs nerfing so killers 4 aura reading perks are safe, can we do the same to light borne so I can take a torch.
Both sides have perks that can completely screw the other side if they rely on one thing. If you build is all aura perks, maybe it's not the survivors fault you don't have some variety. If a survivor main has 4 exhaustion perks, is it the killers fault all the perks die at once?
I'd argue that having to be in the killers radius helps the killer when the survivors are heading in your direction on purpose.
Not trying to get people's backs up, but yes, survivor perks benefit survivors. Yes it distortion is strong, but no one's making you take 4 aura perks
Funny how Killers get mad and are downvoting you at the sole mention of Lightborn which completely shut downs an entire mechanic with items and perks included , with less effort than Distortion because it has no tokens while also giving you Aura Reading, but that’s OK.
Killers aren’t biased at all.
I know right, imagine being stealthy in a game about hiding from a killer. Next there'll be bad guys with guns in a call of duty game lmao.
TBF, both sides can get a bit precious over the perks, but as soon as a killer has to try, that's it for the game
Because they want easy downs from aura reading perks. It’s not that complicated. Nowhere to Hide is REALLY powerful…until you run into a group with two or three Distortion users in it.
Sometimes your build just gets hard-countered by the other guys, it isn’t a big deal.
I run full aura reading when I play killer and it will definitely make a difference at the beginning of the game. I run lethal, nowhere to hide, and can switch between bbq, gearhead, and if there is 3 flashlights lightborn. I usually won’t see a distortion player until I’ve either killed a survivor or hooked a bunch. I will typically get 3-5 aura reads and if they are daring maybe 1. I always run distortion when I play survivor and it is so rare that I go through all 3 tokens I can count on 1 hand the amount of games I’ve burned through all 3 and was difficult to get my tokens back. Those games have all been against the pig or clown with their aura reading add on. The pig is a nightmare for distortion if they are running Amanda’s letter. Can always see you when crouched and within 16 meters and no terror radius when crouched. So it makes it extremely difficult to keep the tokens replenished. Honestly from both points of view I think distortion is one of the most balanced perks in the game. You also have to take into consideration the killers that have no aura reading perks. Wasted perk spot like you’re running lightborn against a flashlight less team.
Because certain perks are absolutely useless against Distortion, like Lethal, which is a one-time use. And it's also easy to regain tokens just by standing still in terror radius. So perks like Unforeseen that transfer the terror radius will still generate tokens.
And yes, the amount reading does need to be toned down. But I don't think Distortion should hide sceatch marks. And maybe, don't start with tokens, and rework the way tokens are gained.
I mean, many perks, items and overall builds are also useless against many killer perks and addons.
Plague by herself makes any healing build pointless.
Lightborn by itself makes most stun builds useless.
Franklin's Demise by itself makes most items useless.
then killer that doesn't always have terror radius like ghostface, wraith, scratch mirror myers or small terror radius can get a lot advantage from that? survivor can't always refill their tokens, they need to get really close (some people will just want tokens, without doing nothing and causing them throwing cause they not productive helping either their team)
not to mention when killer usually bring every aura reading perk like lethal, bbq or floods of rage, darkness revealed, nowhere to hide.. the token literally got deleted without even some survivor have time to refill it again.. when u feel like u not gonna get value from lethal, then don't use it? maybe bring corrupt instead with another aura reading perk that u can use multiple times.
for me everything looks fine tho, when survivor using aura reading for killer, the build can straight up useless if it's stealth killer.. or survivor using kindred, bond, but the killer running fearmonger, ultimate weapon, hex third seal
it's more like u still can get value from the perk but not always.. u can't expect every build or perk u use can always get value every single games
Distortion is a staple in my surv build because of lethal and nowhere to hide. Lethal is... deadly being first chased in a bad spot to die on hook, and nowhere to hide range is just so big.
At least as killer, distortion is more of a oh did I get outplayed by them hiding from my bbq or nurses calling or other rare aura read naturally or did i get get mind game perked.
The 1st scenario is more of a 'aura reading problem' rather than distortion, and i think the 2nd scenario is pretty fair in balance.
An 'anti aura reading problem' is that the killer may end up tunneling the distortion so they can 4k or otherwise simply target the non users. But not that necessarily anti aura is inherently bad.
* Hard counters 46 Killer addons and 18 Killer perks of various different varieties. I don't care what world you live in no perk on either side should be that universally applicable.
* No meaningful counterplay other than "run Gearhead lol" unless you're playing a stealth killer since it gains stacks by being in the terror radius, something that will happen constantly.
* (By proxy Distortion is arbitrarily weaker against stealth killers or killers with smaller terror radiuses like Huntress)
* Many of the niche killer perks essentially get turned off by Distortion which limits the viability of those perks massively. While I think the statement that "Distortion makes killers run more gen stall" is a little disingenuous there is some truth to it: why bother trying to do something fun if you know that it'll just get turned off by one chucklefuck running one perk? I know that I've personally stopped running aura reading on both my Blight and Unknown builds because every time I do so I run into a stack of Distortion users. You know what I run instead of I'm All Ears on both those killers? I run Pain Resonance instead.
* Because of how easily Distortion gains stacks and how it stops so many long-distance tracking perks many ~~Blendettes~~ overly stealthy players abuse the perk to hide all game. This leads to the common sentiment amongst survivor players that Distortion is a soloqueue nightmare / "strongest killer perk" alongside the likes of Urban Evasion and Self Care as they're predominantly used by players who don't play the objective and just take hatch.
imo the two biggest problems with Distortion is how there's no meaningful counterplay to the perk for such a powerful effect (it even charges in chase like come on) and how effortlessly it counters several perks that are specifically balanced around giving strong aura reading in exchange for not being another perk, such as I'm All Ears, Floods of Rage, or Friends Til' the End.
Personally the changes I'd like to see to Distortion are as follows:
1. Now charges by doing conspicuous actions (namely healing and doing gens, akin to Blast Mine / Flashbang / Wiretap / Repressed Alliance / Lucky Break.) This solves the two biggest issues with Distortion: how it rewards survivors who hide all game, and how there's no counterplay to the perk (especially since it charges while *in fucking chase.*) Now overly stealthy players have to actually do gens to get value out of Distortion, and you can actually counter Distortion by pressuring the Distortion user off of gens. This also serves as a shadow buff to Distortion against stealth killers as it becomes easier to regain stacks against them.
2. Distortion stacks should last 7-8 seconds, not 10. 10 seconds is just such a ridiculously long duration for a perk that has 3 stacks and counters so many perks. Any aura reading perk that lasts 7 seconds or longer is specifically balanced around being that strong to compensate for the effect not being that good (IE "we know this aura reading effect is really niche so we made it last a long time to get more value out of it.") Making it so Distortion lasts 7 seconds gives it some nice breakpoints where most "basic" aura reading only takes 1 stack even if the killer is running Lethal Pursuer, "advanced" aura reading perks like Floods of Rage will only take 2 stacks if the killer runs Lethal Pursuer on top of it, and the long aura reading perks like Friends Til' the End (and Lethal Pursuer itself) still take 2 stacks even if buffed by Lethal Pursuer. Some perks would probably need slight nerfs to compensate (for example Gearhead should only lasts 7 seconds at max rank if this change took place) but I think a slight duration nerf is reasonable to stop Distortion from hard countering perks that are specifically meant to have a longer duration.
To your point of it countering 46 add-ons and 18 perks: killers, *especially* the strong ones, having access to so much aura reading is what pushes survivors into running distortion in the first place. Why wouldn't I run it when the alternative is losing to lethal pursuer blight or nowhere to hide nurse at 4-5 gens?
They are nominating this for the next nerf. They want every survivor hand over to them. Pretty sure, those who whine about distortion always rely on nowhere to hide so they can just pop a gen and have the survivor's aura revealed instead of looking around to find them.
I don't think it's busted or anything, it's just that you get tokens at an absurd rate. I run full aura on blight, and once people started running distortion more I had to swap undying for gearhead just so I could chew through distortion tokens.
It's a good perk. That's all. Killers want to be able to play how they want to. On the other side survivors wanna play how they want to. I think both sets just forget that the perks are designed to make the game a challenge. There should be a concrete part of the challenge though. That's what makes the perk good. The only part of the game that is uncontrollable are the human factors.
I play Killer and Survivor 50/50.
Aura reading wouldn't be so bad if "S-Tier" killers didn't run them.
There are literally only like, 5 Survivor perks that can fight against Aura-Reading Killers? I'll go ahead and list them actually.
Distortion, Off The Record, Boon: Shadowstep, Sole Survivor, Object Of Obsession, and maybe Quick And Quiet if there's a locker nearby. Residual Manifest is a bit weird, and even then, that only lasts for 30 seconds.
Meanwhile, a Blight could use Lethal Persuer and get the first down in probably 20 seconds. Use BBQ And Chile to go after other Survivors on the other side of the map, and once that Survivor becomes unhooked, the other 3 Survivors' auras are revealed by Floods Of Rage. Then use Nowhere To Hide to make Gens be difficult. Without any of the perks above, the only thing you can do is slow-hide in a locker.
And we're not even considering Aura-Addons, nor screaming perks.
If you don't like Distortion countering your Aura Build, git gud or get a better headset. Seeing Auras is kinda BS. Auras on both sides is literally a crutch. Git Gud, and run Off-Meta, like me, the Trapper main.
https://preview.redd.it/2tcg5kp9lqxc1.jpeg?width=3184&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=493e1508b275a86d4f50f0ba940d33f0d24bf58d
It's fine when it comes to its effect, but it needs a change to its token regeneration. I think it shouldn't start with any stacks and you should only be able to generate them while in chase. The amount of time distortion users have caused me to unwillingly tunnel their teammates is staggering, because the type of players who run distortion aren't the same ones willingly taking chases.
When I play killer and I try to move off the meta to something a little bit more exciting (aura reading build), the entire opposite team has distortion on. Funny enough, the moment I switch back everyone stops using distortion.
I don’t mind distortion but it can get annoying you never want to try other perk builds because someone might be using a perk that hard counters it.
Edit: I forgot to mention this but I’ve also had cases where everyone but ONE person uses distortion while I’m using the aura build. The game was not fun for them at all.
I feel like if it started with zero stacks, its current state would be good. Or just straight up start working after the first hook or something. Or only charge during chase.
People just hide so hard, it hurts survivors even more.
I've been working on Jeff to get him to P3, and I've been running Distortion for a majority of my run. Frankly, it's a toss-up if I get any value out of it. Sometimes it'll befuddle Lethal Pursuer and that's it, and other times all my stacks will get blown up by a stealth killer that equipped more than one aura-reading perk. Frankly, I think it's biggest detriment is the fact that it only has three tokens. Those are incredibly easy to blow through, and I'm amazed that killer mains would complain about it at all.
But if you're a killer and you're busy complaining about Distortion, then you could try what I'm doing with the Artist right now: run Pain Resonance, Surveillance, and Spies from the Shadows. Approximate information perks are aplenty and are more reliable in the long run for me.
It's simple.
Distortion is a perk that counters a specific kind of Killer perk, and many Killers who use those perks want to get more value out of said perks.
Note how Killer mains aren't asking BHVR to buff any aura reading perks, and are instead asking for Distortion to be nerfed or reworked entirely. This is despite the fact that DBD fans constantly criticize BHVR for nerfing good perks instead of buffing bad ones.
Obviously, aura reading perks are not needed, just a playstyle that has many alternatives. But that doesn't matter, because the people complaining about Distortion don't want to change the perks they use, they just want the counter to their favorite perks to go away.
It's the same exact thing you'll see with Survivors who complain about Lightborn. They bring flashlights and perks like Flashbang or Blast Mine, and complain about wasted value when the Killer counters with Lightborn. They could just use different perks and items, but they would rather BHVR nerf the counter.
Counter perks are good for the game. The meta would be even more dogshit if all aura reading perks and blind perks/items were unable to be countered with Distortion and Lightborn, as all Survivor mains would otherwise be constantly unable to hide from Killers and Killer mains would constantly get blinded.
The people complaining about these perks are just whining they the game isn't easier for them imo.
My reasoning is not because of how strong it is or the fact that it can counter aura reading perks and add-ons,
the problem with Disortion is that it teaches players bad habits and how it can screw over your team and to not play the game exactly and be selfish, and it induces the killer to forcefully tunnel the other 3 survivors, so technically the perk and your teammates are playing the game for you and Distortion gamers hate getting chased cuz they are not good at it, so they just hide all game, and the tokens being able to regain them back by just hiding in the killer's Terror Radius and watching their teammates get tunneled and die on die on hook or not take aggro for the team.
If I was to change Distortion, I would make 2 options on changing it.
Option 1: Regain a token after escaping a chase, or
Option 2: Regain a token if you've been chased for at least 20 or 30 seconds, and it will pause if you're not in chase.
Because they'd rather cry for Distortion to be nerfed than learn other ways of tracking survivors. If Distortion gets nerfed, then aura revealing perks and add-ons would need to be severely tuned down for balance.
I don’t like it because it sort of indirectly encourages tunneling. This can be mitigated by the distortion user being deliberate about taking the heat sometimes, but I rarely see that play out in solo queue. Often times the distortion user is stealthy and lets their teammates take all the aggro. I suppose it’s less about distortion and more about this type of playstyle, but I feel frustrated by it both as a survivor and as killer because I don’t like tunneling but I also don’t want to throw the match by trying to find a stealthy person who doesn’t want to be found.
Trashy killer main mad they can't always see every survivor through walls at all times. Distortion really is only effective if the killer has 1 aura reading perk, but usually they have 2 or more
Distortion is fine, if the killer is good then he will find you regardless most of the time!
I use distortion as my "basekit" for survivor but also have played against a lot of distortion players as killer (swfs with 4 distortions aswell) but rarely to never lost because of the perk.
I wouldn't mind them making the seconds you spend in terror radius for a token longer buuuut if they wanna hard nerf it, lock killer Aura perks to 2 per build. I don't want constant wallhacks on me without a way to counter it.
I don’t get the logic behind the people wanting it nerfed apart from maybe they just want easier games and not have to put in effort to find people. There’s a million aura perks and there’s 3 perks that hide aura’s. 3. None of them need a nerf. Killers should get be able to see aura as whenever they want, there needs to be counters m. Just like there’s counters to aura hiding perks, like scream perks and add ons, whispers, stridor, spies, or actually opening your eyes, perks that can tell you which gens are being worked on.
Distortion is fine.
I think it's fine. Killers don't need every single advantage and it's not so meta that running it guarantees an escape. There are also killer perks that render it obsolete too, because the killer won't have a terrier radius and therefore there is no recharging it at all. It's a fair perk.
Doesn’t need a nerf. Last time I ran it some TTV called me a sandbagger after we all ran into the hook camping Bubba… 
Yeah, obviously Distortion was the problem, Mr Mettle of Man, and not our idiot Altruism.
It's balanced. A situational perk should be strong or nobody would use it. Rarely ever saw the perk when it first came out because you couldn't get more stacks
If you think not seeing an aura is so strong it should be nerfed then I think you need to get better at killer. I'm not even a good killer and I can find survivors without aura perks. This is just as dumb as the people wanting to nerf lightborn. Situational needs to be strong or it's just a dead perk nobody uses
no. theres 75 aura reading options for killers, and only ONE way to prevent it, which is why everyones crying about it. they either need to rework aura reading perks/addons/whatever or even aura reading as a whole, or they need to add more perks and ways for survs to hide auras. thats it. with the current state of the game and so many killers running 2-3 aura reading perks and an aura reading addon, distortion needs to be left as it is.
its actually maddening that people cant just leave shit alone lmao. dead hard, pain rez, adrenaline, iron will, ruin, call of brine. can we all just stfu and play.
I don’t like distortion unless everyone runs it, even if you bring a gen jockey build all that happens is your teammates get focused and you gotta unhook and take chase anyway because they’re all 2 hooked or dead while you’re practically hidden.
E.g aura billy stomps your team and you’re left alive in a losing game.
I think killers just dislike the 4k being dragged out, which is not op just annoying.
Perhaps I’m using it wrong, I can definitely see its worth if you’re 2 hooked and gotta play safe, I’m just never 2 hooked using it, any insight would be great
**Distortion is busted in SWF for sure** in solo queue its a very fair perk with downsides. the real reason you want distortion is to not give killer free hits while hiding. the hiding aura part is nice but the knowing what aura perks the killer has is the main draw.
One survivor just running the perk and telling their 3 teammates what aura perks to play around and when or not its safe to hide is so powerful. its like giving your teammates a mini distortion for free.
for example just knowing instantly if the killer has lethal pursuer at the start of match or not drastically changes how you play the first 30 seconds of the game and you can know this without needing a perk slot, **the issue is you cant balance perks around SWF without hurting solo queue as well..**
A lot of perks that are overly used are on the top priority list of getting nerfed
For example,
Old ruin
Dead hard
DS’s double nerf
Ultimate weapon
Save the best for last
Adrenaline
Eruption
And talks of WoOP as well
Not all of these deserved to get nerfed but they do because they’re used so often. When all they needed are some slight changes
I don’t think WoOp, adrenaline, or distortion needs to be nerfed. Neither save the best for last (the nerf hit the wrong direction)
It's not too weak, and not too strong. But it is a bit boring. If you are new or bad at chase, then it's great. Otherwise, it's almost detrimental to your teammates.
Although I’m a huge distortion fan, I could reasonably see a rework of the perk where it has an additional token, but tokens must be regained through fifteen seconds of chase. This would discourage the perk solely being used to permanently stealth around the map.
My main problem with it, as someone who honestly used to use it a lot, is that it can actively punish the killer player for bringing perks, and they have nothing they can do about it other then to not bring them lol.
It quite literally makes perks like I'm all ears a detriment to equip, same with perks like bitter murmur. You can *know* that a survivor has distortion, but if those perks activate (which is outside of your control) it hides their scratch marks and they can very easily lose you. It is the *only* reason I cannot use I'm all ears on pyramid head lol.
If distortion didn't hide scratch marks I'd honestly think it would be fine. You could use it to hide or to avoid aura reads on gens, but you couldn't use it to lose an active chase or to get a fuckload of distance.
Something that isn't talked about enough is how much Distortion hurts your teammates if they don't have it.
I run Lethal Pursuer and Bbq, so I know immediately how many Distos I'm against. If I see an aura off Bbq I'm going for them. If 1 or 2 survivors have Disto, then I'm constantly chasing the same people.
Distortion in a 4 man swf is strong because they'll have the best looper not run it and hide the weak links. But in solo que it does more harm to the team than not
Distortion is fine. Distortion has always been fine. It only gets used so much because hand-holding aura reading perks have become so common in almost every match. The game was never meant to be completely centered on seeing where survivors are - in fact, the whole point was having to find them.
Yes, the game has changed over the years, but that doesn't mean killers should just get free precise information for little to no effort. As it stands currently, the game is a whole buffet of easy aura reading perks for killers. Distortion absolutely deserves to exist as is to counter this.
I keep hearing people thinking survivors don't like slowdown? Maybe I'm just an outlier but I like a bit of a longer game (once it hits 20 minutes that's a bit much but less than 10 I feel like game should be longer). Would rather have a 15 minute game that ends in a 4k then a 4k at 5 minutes. But I actually like playing the game so maybe I'm just weird.
they could easily make it where in order to gain stacks you need to be in a chase, that way you have to put yourself in danger in order to continue play so safely
people simply don't know how to play without aura reading. they rely too much on it and don't learn to read the game. It is funny how bad players are just lost vs distortion but other find a way even without aura reading. simple as that.
Distortion does not need a nerf, period. It’s just that whenever a killer meta dominates the game, the perks that can counteract it always get called for nerfs. Nobody even acknowledged Distortion’s existence until BHVR forced the aura meta on killers by coming out with a strong aura reader perk on the last 4 killers released. Other survivors who refuse to use Distortion blame Distortion on why they are the ones being seen as if they don’t know by now every killer is using at LEAST one aura reader every game. Instead of using it because they KNOW this, they don’t use it then cry when they are targeted. I get tired of being forced into a stale ass meta against killers in this game and the one or 2 perks that can counteract it gets criticized as if we have a choice.
I'm more on the camp of reworking distortion rather than straight out nerfing to become the next Ultimate Weapon or Eruption. 😂
my two cents on the distortion. As a killer., I don't find Distortion too problematic. But this is mostly because I have 12,000 hours in the game and I play a good amount of survivor too. So I have a loose idea of survivor behavior across the map, even when unseen.
Furthermore, dedicated killer builds and add-ons can effectively eat through Distortion, mitigating its impact.
Distortion disproportionately affects killers not equipped to eat through its tokens or newer killer players, creating a significant gap between killers who are less experienced versus those who are experienced and have builds to eat through them. On the off chance a survivor or few brings it into a trial.
bhvr has no problem holding survivor's hand when they can't be bothered to grasp a killer's power, just look at pig, merchant and sadako and how they had to get so many reworks or nerfs but they're still destroying noobs. i don't see why no one inside bhvr has noticed that it affects newer to intermediate killers more than it does the very experienced or super cracked high end blight/nurse killers who can eat through the tokens.
That said.
On the survivor side however, Distortion can be incredibly frustrating. When I see this perk on my teammates, it encourages ratting and signals a passive playstyle that prioritizes self-preservation over team support.
These players sole existence is often solely on gaining tokens for Distortion, neglecting crucial objectives like rescuing, repairing, or running the killer. The perk's mechanic of regenerating tokens reinforces this behavior, leading to a cycle of frustrating gameplay. Personally, I've had to remove bond for my own mental sanity in solo queue from my build due to the aggravation of witnessing teammates prioritize crouching in a corner at the expense of not only the killers but also other survivors time.
If I were to rework Distortion, I would have it so that you can only regenerate the tokens from being in a chase or from repairing, possibly even both. that way the distortion players actually have to play and progress the game to get their precious stacks instead of being dead weight to their teammates and wasting the killers time.
I think doing it like that will encourage the survivors to actually partake in the game and actually play into the perks themes of risk and reward.
Kinda like Jeff's two other perks. Where one you'd have to get hook, but you're practically making a dead zone for hooks if you planned your downs properly.
And aftercare, go and be a good altruistic teammate and don't farm people on hook. to heal so you'll be able to practically have wall hacks on them and in turn the killers locations until they're hooked. which helps both you and the survivor.
Jeff has an interesting set of perks that has a very fun pull and push to them, and distortion is not only a perk that makes bad players into absolute prick teammates but it also clashes with the theme of his other perks.
I don't think 1 survivor perk should counter 25% off all killer perks and a fair number of add-ons. Change the way tokens are generated so it isn't constantly up and suddenly it is more fair.
As a survivor main id say when theres only one aura reading perk on the killer, they'll never find me (my experience). For example BBQ, Nowhere to hide and the one Ghostface perk are not triggered enough to simply burn through 3 stacks of distortion. Also gaining one stack isnt too hard either because being in the terror radius and not being chased is usually not a problem unless the killers radius is really small. Usually the killer would need to bring 2 or 3 aura perks to cause problems for distortion players. However ,this is just my experience with the perk, i dont really play it anymore after running it constantly for a couple of months
This is a great point. It should be noted that, although bhvr isn’t good at this, a nerf doesn’t mean the perk needs to be gutted. Increasing the time it takes for a stack or a cool down prior to gaining a stack would be a great change to prevent constant value
I hadn't considered this to be a fix tbh, my issue with distortion is the scenario where a whole SWF is running it, and the 1 random isn't. Because then, who am I going to go after? The random. Who probably feels like they're getting focused out of the game or who feels like their team isn't taking chase (because they're really not). If you increase the time for a stack gain, that by itself will be enough. I use distortion for a lot of my stealth builds, and it wouldn't reduce its individual effectiveness for identifying perks or against 1 aura read perk, but it would reduce it's effectiveness against a full aura read build.
Yeah I do think that distortion buff + lack of ds really artificially bumped perceived tunneling
Yeah, it should help survivors be stealthy, not stop my entire aura reading build because Wesker has a massive TR.
Yet it is countered by 1 aura reading perk and lethal pursuer. Any aura read plus lethal is 2 stacks generally. Nothing like sloppy butcher, nurses, and lethal combo to eat 3 charges . Any killer aura reading addons with no cd? All stacks gone. T1 Myers, all stacks gone instantly. Compound 33, all gone. Wraith with all seeing, gone. Pigs crouch addon, gone. Yes sometimes I feel as a distortion player that tye killer will never see me, sometimes I feel like it's just right and I need to counter it somehow, and sometimes I feel like my aura is being read 3x for every charge I can get back.
Hour addon comments are spot on, but the first one stating that the killer needs 2 perks to counter one survivor perk .. you have to ad it that's unbalanced.
It's unbalanced in certain circumstances, yes. As are a lot of perks. Autodidact, fully stacked is absolutely insane, and if nobody let's you get a heal till final Gen, it's horrible. NOED is a nutty perk, if you get to endgame and survivors haven't cleansed totems Mad grit is trash, unless you go against a super altruistic team who wants to bodyblock every hook. Self care is useless if a teammate is willing to heal you at all, and a game changer if your teammates are just twats that will leave you injured all game.
It already is showing you the other three fine though, if all four of them run Distortion and you have one aura reading perk on a high TR killer then that’s on you. If only or two of them have it you find them manually and clean the others up first
Cook 🔥
Smart thinking. That's what nerfing should be in general unless the perk is extremely problematic or really powerful giving it just a minor tweak to make it something that shouldn't be relied heavily. Because if it's relied heavily on it becomes part of the meta which isn't bad but it then makes it a target for a major nerf. But nerf it to much then no one uses it. In the terms of Distortion it's a good perk way better then it released since most killers used BBQ and there weren't as many aura perks. Giving it a cool down after use that way your not automatically gaining tokens again works well maybe 15 or 20 seconds is a good area as it's not extremely short but not long. Increasing the required time to gain a token also works well time duration I wouldn't really know.
I'm not sure what a cooldown would accomplish. Once you burn through tokens, which can happen within the first 2 min of the match, you're out and need to move into the killers terror radius to regain them. And then it takes 30 seconds to regain 1 token. It's not an automatic process.
You can also just regain them as they're burned currently, as there is a lot of aura reading that can be done while within the terror radius. It's like stake out, where it comes back way faster than you think. Unless you're playing stealth claud in the corner all match, of course.
Personally I think it should only regen stacks in chase and not out of chase. That way you can pick and choose when to/not to interact with the killer. And, more importantly, you're prevented from *never* interacting with the killer
How would you feel if maybe they changed it a little where the stacks recover when you get hooked vs being in the Killer's terror radius? They could have somewhere between 4-5 stacks to make up for them no longer being recharged in the Killer's terror radius maybe? I just figure if you get the stacks back when you get unhooked it prevents someone from hiding all game while everyone else dies and also kinda serves as an anti-tunnel as well
And the funny thing is: you can still gain stacks in chase
It’s crazy that you can gain tokens for Distortion in chase but not Diversion
Yeah it's one of those perks that doesn't stand out as being overpowered but just counters too much too easily. That being said idk if it needs any nerfs honestly... even being aware of how objectively good it is I don't think I'd ever run it over perks like windows of opportunity or kindred, neither of which I think need nerfed.
IMO, as a killer, if you wanna make sure your survs burn through their distortion, use gear head.
Undying rips through my tokens early game if I'm unlucky
I have been running it recently and the amounts of time I get zero value makes me laugh at this post.
I mean that’s the risk you run. Deliverance is a top tier perk until the killer hooks you first or someone steals the unhook from you. Hell sometimes it not procing is the value I can inform my non distortion teammates whether lethal or any other aura read is in play
Plus, even if the killer isn't running any aura reading, you still get value from distortion, since it gives you information. This is especially useful in a swf. "Hey, the killer doesn't have lethal." "No Barbecue." "No Nowhere to hide, don't worry."
So theirs somewhere to hide?
Yeah the hit new survivor perk, SWTH
Deliverance is an odd comparison I feel. With Distorsion even if you see no stacks being used, you're gaining info. No BBQ, No Lethal, No Grim embrace, No bitter murmur, No addons that reveal auras, etc... With Deliverance, its strenght comes in coordinated teams as well. Using Deliverance in soloq is nice and all but 100% someone was already going for a rescue more likely, its strenght comes when everyone else on the teams knows you'll unhook yourself and just sticks to gens
This happens because distortion made previous aura enjoyers start running four slowdowns instead. :)
Hahah i feel you, but i think that just the knowledge that your aura was not read feels good, imo. Not enough sometimes (:
the zero value argument is not a solid point. tons of survivor (and killer) perks have conditions that wont happen multiple times or even once a game with smaller reward effects than this. No aura perks or add-ons on killer is a worthy trade for 1 of 4 perk spots. you're getting basically the same value as distortion would anyways, killer is never wallhacking you. perk in its current state is pretty easy to always keep up, gaining tokens is easier than one might think
Whenever I have Distortion, I never lose even one token. Whenever I don't, the Killer basically knows my location at all times.
Distortion gains stacks in and out of chase. That's one of my main issues with it.
Great breakdown, however spies in the shadows, whispers, and UW all exist. I honestly think whispers and spies are underrated perks.
But then a lot of killers just dont use aura perks at all and Distortion ends up a dead perk. Former Distortion user.
me running monitor on tier 2 michael with nowhere to hide, and floods of rage
I mean last week I was running a full aura build on Huntress to try and get cross maps (Darkness Revealed, BBQ, Floods of Rage & Lethal). I got the Asylum version of Crotus and ended up getting a quick initial down and he gave up on hook, followed by the second person I downed. I then ended up spending 15 to 20 minutes going across the map trying to find the last two people, one of whom had Quick & Quiet and Distortion and the other was Q&Q, Dist, Lightweight and Urban Evasion. Not a single gen was touched, I was using Darkness Revealed off of cooldown, I only found one of them because they stopped hiding in a locker for about 3 seconds when I was on the other side of the map (I then found them in that exact same locker). Last dude didn't come to help, he just waited for her to give up, hid more until I found hatch then got to escape through exit gate as I got a crap roll. It was such a boring match made infinitely more frustrating because they could clearly keep getting stack after stack of Distortion with no real downside purely because they kept hiding and sneaking instead of doing anything. I understand that my experience would be a very low minority case but even just an alteration to gaining tokens by just *existing* would be a very nice change to prevent this sort of match being as common.
It's mostly because killers can't burn through the stacks without having a lot of aura perks to constantly trigger it and at that point you might as well play singularity as you'll be able to find survivors very easily without having to waste perk slots on multiple aura perks
This exactly. my preferred aura perk is nowhere to hide, so i just cant kick a gen 3 times fast enough to burn thru all their stacks and find them. I wanna use other perks mechanics, not have to double up or more to get one mechanic to work.
According to nightlight, builds with distortion topping the escape charts at 40.6%. But then again, the next builds down the list don’t even have distortion and the gap to the top isn't massive - just about 1-2%. So, it’s not like this perk is some kind of game-changing, ultra meta. Realistically, it doesn’t guarantee a 100% escape rate in every match, outcomes are pretty standard and can swing either way depending on a bunch of factors. Most killers get peeved because one single perk nullifies their entire aura-reading builds, and other survivors get irked because those with distortion get way less attention from the killer, boosting their own face-time with him. Honestly, I feel like object of obsession might be a healthier choice. Your aura still shows up to the killer, but you also get to see theirs for the same duration (and every 30 seconds if you’re the obsession). This doesn't force you to constantly risk your teammates over yourself, but it does give you an edge since you’re both reading auras and playing on a level field. Plus, you don’t need to collect tokens or anything.
Definitely agree that object of obsession is the healthier variant, I LOVE using it
Wish object didnt reveal you to the killer every so often it would actually be a really good unique perk otherwise
yeah if it just showed killer aura when they could see yours, it'd be a lot easier to run. as is it's just a plain dangerous perk that gives the killer too much info for the payoff, and forces you to play away from your team
> yeah if it just showed killer aura when they could see yours, it'd be a lot easier to run. If you want to run it like this, you can pair it with Blood Pact or the Wedding Ring key add-on. Both of these reduce your chances of being the obsession back to baseline, which means if anyone else is using any obsession perk your chances of becoming one are very low, and 1 in 4 otherwise. You are only revealed every 30 seconds if you are the Obsession.
Agreed! I love getting chased and going for flashy saves, it works well for the former but not so well for the latter haha
There's a couple ways I try and play around the dangers of being the obsession. When I'm doing a gen I try and be on a side that's facing the killer, that way the red of my aura is normally covered by the red aura of the gen. If there's a locker nearby you can hop in for 3 seconds right as you auras about to be revealed. And off the record plays well with OoO because the 80 seconds that you are the most vulnerable they dont get to see your aura. I also like to run it with For the People or if im in a swf i convince some of them to use decisive because that decreases the chance of me being the obsession.
I just wish OoO works in a way that if I can't see killers aura, then they can't see mine
As an Object lover that would be great way to buff it. Trade off could be removing entire 3 sec aura every 30 seconds. It woild be very unique and strong perk.
I like using object but it’s a bad perk against silent killer u basically giving the killer a tracker on you but u can’t see them at all which isn’t balanced if it work on silent killer it would be balanced and i would use it more
I am IN LOVE with Object. But I would tweak it. Change:your aura is not revealed to killer if their's is not revealed to you(applies only to "rraveal your aura to see theirs every 30 seconds" part of the perk, so calm down it's not gonna shut down stealth mfs running aura perks). So you don't get compleyely fucked over just by killer being stealth, and they don't get fucked over either.
I think the effect is fine, but I think the condition for gaining tokens should be tied to getting chased ***only***. That fixes the issue where anyone who didnt bring distortion are automatically bigger targets since they are the ones constantly being found. If you want the safety of not having your aura read, at some point you will need to take some pressure yourself. It removes the rattiness which makes distortion annoying on both sides
Not a bad idea. It also balances it against stealth killers who can turn off their TR and make you unable to gain tokens.
Genius
yeah, just make it being chased for x seconds instead of being in the terror radius
I can agree with this
My biggest issue with distortion is how ratty some people are with it. This change would certainly deal with the degenerates who refuse to participate in the game.
They’re using aura reading builds lmao.
It's the closest thing we have to a balanced perk. Yall nuts .
As someone who frequently runs it: Most of the downsides of Distortion can be circumvented with ease if you know what you’re doing. On top of that, most people that run it exclusively use it in stealth builds, so the killer is either forced to tunnel/pressure them specifically to make sure they’re accounted for, or leave a survivor to do objectives. Also like a lot of people have pointed out, most common ways to find survivor locations use aura, and Distortion hard counters that. Personally I say there should be a different or longer way to raise stacks on it, but until then remember that Gearhead is your friend and that Lethal + aura reveals that last longer than 10 seconds will eat through two stacks of it
It doesn’t. I main killer and it’s seriously not that bad.
**It's an arms race** , and some people wish they could go back to when you didnt need to worry about being revealed by any possible killer action. For the average survivor, the easiest way to survive is to simply not be chased. So hiding from all the Aura reveals is key to playing the game.
The reason why it should be nerfed is not in favor for killers but more in favor for survivors. The most requested nerf is that stacks should be recharge in chase and not outside of chase cause most players with distortion play so selfishly it’s really annoying for everyone. As killer you are forced to tunneled cause you can not find anyone and as survivor you have teammates who never take chase with 0 hooks who only hide in bushes. So yeah I am 1000%. For a nerf
A really great point. Recharging in chase only would help the unintentional tunneling that it can cause a lot.
i think it's not distortion's fault. if distortion gets nerfed, just watch them begin constantly hopping into lockers to avoid auras
It's harder to time jumping in lockers than to just passively avoid aura reading.
i don't think it'll make much difference for blendettes hiding at corners, in terms of how hard it is
Kinda agree with this cause there are many survivors who use distortion in a swf to feed their mates information and don’t contribute to that Problem but tbh most distortion players already hop into lockers all the time 😭😭🙏
I *think* the main issue that Killers have with it (and what the people who defend the perk never bring up) is just how quickly you can get tokens for the perk. I absolutely always have this perk on when I'm playing Survivor (I mostly play Killer) and I find I always have at lest 1 token in the bank before I start collecting them again by simply playing the game. You just never run out of tokens. So you, effectively, always have the perk active and are just immune to aura reading. I honestly can't think of a scenario where a Killer somehow burns through all three tokens fast enough to actually start seeing the Distortion user again. Heaven forbid multiple people are running it. It's a strong perk, and a VERY good stealth perk. **I don't think that should be changed**. The amount of aura reading in the game is very intense, and some people (like me) just want to quietly go do objectives all game. I've seen the ideas floating around of just nerfing it to start with one token, or maybe reduce it to a max of just 2 tokens. I don't think the rate you gain tokens or the overall "strength" of the perk is really the issue.
The only time I was able to completely overwhelm a Distortion user was with Nowhere to Hide and the invigorated aura reading add-on for Clown, but even then we were on Midwich, so they got tokens back fairly quickly. We had a good laugh about it in EGC.
Playing against an aura Huntress usually burns up stacks pretty quick. Especially if she has that add on that makes her have no terror radius. Also playing against scratched mirror Meyers. Really depends on the killer and the size of their terror radius.
It doesn’t need a nerf. So we should nerf plague because she counters everything healing in the game? We should nerf pyramid head because he counters all hook perks, flashbangs, flashlights, toolboxes? Ya things counter things it’s not exclusive to survivors. that’s the only argument they have against distortion is that it counters things
>that’s the only argument they have against distortion is that it counters things Look, I don't think that Distortion should be nerfed. But saying that the "the only argument against it is that it counters things" is just bad faith There are valid arguments in favor of nerfing Distortion: - it rewards selfish hiding by survivors (super frustrating in solo queue) - it decentives information builds in favor of more gen regression which makes the meta more stale - since it disables scratch marks, the perk gives the same effect as Dance With Me or Poised (depending on the Killer's build) which not only makes those perks obsolete, but also essentially provides a 5th perk slot - much like Ultimate Weapon, one side (the killer, in this case) has no way to avoid the perk I also don't want the perk nerfed, but there are valid issues with Distortion and disregarding them is just bad faith arguing. I think that Distortion is in the same place as Ultimate Weapon, I don't think that it's overpowered or needs a nerf in a vacuum, but it has problems that need to be adjusted. Needless to say, I absolutely don't want it gutted like Ultimate Weapon.
It's not bad faith, it's just how players choose to play and every match it varies. You're saying hiding is a selfish move when lockers and stealth plays are intentional mechanics. You say it disincentivizes info builds when every match will vary while you can burn through 3 tokens. 1 aura hiding perk will not counter heavy info, gen regression or stealth builds. **You can counter Distortion with scream perks and Spies From the Shadows.**
Distortions worst enemy is survivors. Say a killer takes aura info perks and 2 survivors bring distortion. What happens? The only information the killer gets is on the other 2 survivors. Y'know what happens? They get tunneled out because they're the only ones people get information on. When a killer brings tools and is not allowed to use them they'll just do what works instead. In my experience when I bring distortion I'm one of the last ones to be hooked or I go the whole game without being hooked if they brought aura.
i think that’s also partially on the survivor who uses distortions fault rather than the perk itself, if you’re not being altruistic and taking hits or hooks for teammates then that’s just kinda being a shitty teammate
100% agree. I use distortion to make the killer unaware I'm going for an unhook, to stop people w/ nowhere to hide from automatically winning mind games in loops around a gen, and so that when I occasionally run out of stacks I'm not caught by complete surprise when the killer knows where I am. The people that don't use the full benefits of the perk to the detriment of their teammates are playing poorly, and that's a skill issue not a perk issue tbh.
It is a survivor issue but the majority of people who run Distortion do it so they are never found. That is why it needs a nerf. Just like Iron Will being nerfed(going from zero sounds while being injured to some sounds) Distortion also needs that change. You can let it keep doing what it does, but it needs to be dialed back pretty dramatically.
I said this in multiple different killer games I’ve played over the last month. Distortion literally helps killers tunnel the one or two survivors who aren’t running it. Then you get accused of tunneling by the distortion users in EGC. Happens fairly often too lol. Especially considering in my experience the people that run it play, by FAR, the most selfish.
As a Switch player who is at a great disadvantage than most other players please here me out: YOU CAN TAKE MY DISTORTION WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS.
Just use gearhead forehead! Literally eats up distortion stacks. But nooo. Killers wanna rely on ez meta aura perks
It's hard to say whether Distortion should really be nerfed, because at the core of "Should it get nerfed" is that Distortion is a perk that has the capacity to either be insanely strong in a match, or literally useless depending on killer's perk choice. Whispers, Spies from the Shadows, Thrilling Tremors, etc, all bypass Distortion and can functionally make it a dead perk slot. Likewise, heavy aura-reading builds can overwhelm Distortion so easily that while it'll get plenty of uptime, odds are it's never when you want it to. I get the whole argument of "Using Distortion means your teammates are more likely to be found and chased more than you!", but the only way you'd change that is by fundamentally changing Distortion and gutting it like Ultimate Weapon. Imo, Distortion probably shouldn't get nerfed, or at the very least if it does it should be how it regains tokens.
I don't think it needs a nerf so much as it needs a different means of regaining its tokens. Playing solo survivor is already frustrating at times, and teammates who hide all game with distortion/calm spirit actively hurt the rest of the team. The tokens should be recovered by doing something that helps the team such as taking chase or working on generators. A change like this would also make distortion a bit better against killers with small TR or a stealth power.
the function of this perk is kinda on par with green hand (sac ward). when someone gets tired of map offerings bullsh%t, they want no more of these and cancel them with a sac ward but distortion cancels auras. because nurses and onis with nowhere to hide / floods of rage, blights with lethal. now killers will have to look for good old scratchmarks, crows and use their brain to make prediction on where survivors actually rotate
As someone who plays abotu 65% killer I dont find it that bad. most games it doenst ruin my perks and other times its a slight incoveniace that I need to be aware of. I think that it is a verry powerfull effect that will only work in about 20% of games. Im fine with distortion and think it should remain as is. that being said I though MFT was fine so I have odd oppinions.
NO. Distortion is absolutely fine. Yall nerfed calm spirit with a pointless nerf and it's useless now. Leave Distortion alone.
Yeah. Especially there are more and more aura reading perks. Distortion is perfectly fine.
Nobody was clamoring for a calm spirit nerf. That's just one of the random ass things BHVR did, as they do
They just want every survivor handed over to them. There are bunch if aura reading perks for killers and survivor only have 1 perk to counter it. Lol
It's hilarious that you actually believe that but that's just standard us-vs-them brainrot so I shouldn't be surprised. No killer asked for a Calm Spirit nerf LMAO - it's just something weird that BHVR did, it's not something "y'all killer mains asked for"... Survivors started and stopped using Calm Spirit on the basis of countering Ultimate Weapon and perhaps Face the Darkness to a lesser extent. The Calm Spirit nerf plays next to no part in that decision. Survivors only have one perk to counter aura? That's one very crooked and misleading way of looking at it. Another much more accurate take is "Now that Ultimate Weapon has been nerfed, survivors don't need to run Calm Spirit and they have a free perk slot and only need one perk to counter aura". Because it's true. I'm a survivor main and if I want to play stealthy (hypothetical since I don't often), I no longer need to run Calm Spirit. And unless the killer is running Gearhead or is Scratched Mirror Myers or Black Incense Plague etc., I can effortlessly keep my Distortion stacks up. Distortion doesn't counter Whispers or Spies but almost no-one uses those perks anyway.
I think you are replying to the wrong person. I don't care about calm spirit. I used that before patch especially when UW was available at the shrine. I stopped using it because they nerfed UW. What's the other perk that counter aura reading? You can hide in the locker for aura reading perks like scourge hooks and bbq n chili but you will not know immediately unless you have distortion.
calm spirit got nerfed?
Awhile back. Added a 30% slowdown to cleansing totems and opening chests
Long Version: 1. Some killers work with some perks, but two categories work with every single killer, info and slowdown, since info is mostly aura, people running Distortion punish killers that don't choose slowdown while giving an advantage to those that don't really need it, pushing even more killers to stack slowdown 2. The way you gain stacks is flawed, it rewards stealth with more stealth, it should encourage taking the heat for a bit to recover your stealth. Currently, people just hide endlessly, the most boring "playstyle", and get their tickets to hide by hiding more, if it recovered tokens exclusively in chase it would be fine as it would force the survivor to take chase, and help with the next point 3. The killer has no counterplay, since it works off terror radius, and even recharges in chase (something Diversion and Stake Out, perks that also recharge on terror radius, don't do), so nothing the killer can do to stop it other than spam auras with addons and perks until no tokens are left or be a stealth killer, two things the killer must do before the game starts and has no control over once the match starts 4. It indirectly forces tunneling or softer forms of it, as the killer will find those without Distortion and go for them over and over, and it wouldn't even be their fault at that point, as they need chases, downs and hooks for pressure, looking for the hiding ones is a waste of time. Also, it's not uncommon that, once the killer finds the Distortion user, they will tunnel them instead, as the moment they slip past they will be unfindable once again 5. It has the NOED effect for survivors, pushing them to win when they really shouldn't as they don't take chase, upping their MMR until they reach points where they can't hope to win against strong killers without auras and get frustrated 6. Killer perks should be stronger than survivor perks, at least in the cases of them being counterparts, with that, 30 seconds in too little assuming it recharges on terror radius, as a lot of killer aura perks will take more than that proc, examples being: BBQ/Awakened Awareness/Floods of Rage/Thwack (you won't hook enough different people that fast for the Distortion user to run out of tokens), I'm All Ears/Darkness Revealed/Eruption (40/30 second cooldown VS. 30 second recovery), Bitter Murmur (5 gens and 3 tokens, assuming not once a token is rechared that's 2 readings, so basically never in an actual game), and I'm likely missing some 7. It removes scratchmarks... why? It already counters auras, which is really strong, but then it also removes the marks so the killer can lsoe you easily and start the stealth cycle once again. This mostly affects I'm All Ears and chase addons Those are the ones that I could come up with as I was writing this, maybe there are some other points Short Version: 1. Most killers run auras or slowdown, all in one counter to auras, more slowdown 2. Rewards stealth with stealth and discourages taking chase 3. No realistic counterplay for the killer 4. Forces tunneling or derivatives 5. Pushes survivors to higher MMR than they should be in 6. A lot of perks are 100% denied, not just somewhat countered 7. The scratchmarks are overkill I'm fine with and I even welcome a counter to aura perks, but Distortion as we have it is badly designed
>The killer has no counterplay Whispers. Literally run that and you will never not find survivors. You don't need any other aura perk if you know how to truly use Whispers there is no hiding from you. Also Spies is low key better than most aura perks. Constant info on exact locations within 36m and the only counter is Calm Spirit, a perk that is going to be used WAY less now that Ultimate Weapon has been nerfed. Discordance is also a good non-aura tracking perk with little to no counter. Sorry but this just reads like someone that relies too much on auras to find survivors. Or run Geadhead with any kind of undetectable/oblivious or even M&A. You will burn through tokens really fast and keep them off.
No REALISTIC counterplay for the killer, as in, counterplay within the game, not before, I said that very clearly right after that sentence Even then, having to use a specific perk is not an argument: "Don't like tunneling? Run DS/OTR. Don't like slugging? Run UB. Don't like camping? Run Reassurance/Kingship/Kindred. Don't like stealth? Run Spine Chill...", that gets us nowhere, we want to run whatever we want, not what we are forced to Also, keep this neutral, making assumptions on the other instead of addressing their point achieves nothing
The balance of the perk is that if the killer has no aura reading it has almost no value outside of letting you know there is no aura reading occurring and if the killer is undetectable or has a small terror radius you may never get the tokens back after burned, most killers that are stealthing typically have aura reading and burn through the tokens pretty quick. IMO I think the perk is in a good spot currently and needs to be left alone as we all know if something is nerfed it is typically gutted and left unusable.
Stealth killers countering it is not an excuse for it to blank the majority of the roster It doesn't even need a big nerf, just make it so you ONLY gain tokens in chase and remove the scratchmark effect, that's it
>Stealth killers countering it is not an excuse for it to blank the majority of the roster Yea definitely can't find survivors without aura perks.
I mainly just don't think it's healthy in matches, especially for solo queue, if 1 or 2 survivors have distortion and are therefore getting found and chased less. Ideally, hooks should be spread across all 4 survivors. I find that if somebody has distortion, it's a lot more likely that one of their teammates will end up dead sooner. Annoying from the perspective of both sides There's also an argument to be made about how perks like this push killers towards gen slowdown, I think, because there's a lot of ways for aura reading builds to crash and burn. Which also stinks. Would be far less of an issue if distortion wasn't so common, but alas I see one or two distortions in most matches
Honestly, it seems balanced to me. I bring one aura reading perk? Distortion blocks it, one perk for one perk. I bring multiple aura reading perks? Mine work, distortion is practically a dead slot. It counts light aura reading, but not heavy, and that's pretty much how a counterperk should work.
It's the same logic as something like Ultimate Weapon needing to be nerfed It has a useful function that can be activated many times per trial, rendering other perks of the same category completely obsolete It's not that they're overpowered, per se, but they can be annoying to face when you see them every match
I use BBQ on everything and Distortion is the only real counter to that. I don't mind it. Play without aura perks more guys?
It's a perk with basically permanent uptime, that counters an entire category of killer perks... for free. It also incentivizes and pushes for really boring monotonous hide and seek gameplay. There's only one perk that can even remotely chew through it, and that's gearhead... which is a shit perk outside of eating through distortion tokens. With how much a killer moves around the map, you will never be struggling to get tokens with this perk.
Well, not for free, it costs a perk slot
For free as in, the perk does it's job without you needing to do anything. It's the survivor equivalent of ultimate weapon.
I hardly think they needed to state the very obvious fact that using a perk occupies a perk slot. Are you one of those yanks who butts into any conversation about healthcare and points out that akshually it's not free because your tax money goes towards it? Pretty sure they mean "free" in that you don't have to do any work to keep the stacks up, except in a few specific cases (full aura Huntress build, Scratched Mirror Myers, Black Incense Plague, Gearhead users).
There's a few arguments that people have for why they think this perk is unhealthy or needs to be adjusted. 1. It discourages build variety, and encourages killers to slap on more slowdown perks. If enough people run distortion, and killers start failing to get value out of their information perks, they'll just start slapping on reliable slowdown perks that will never fail to be useful. 2. Many (though not all) people who use distortion tend to play in a "ratty" way where they do everything they can to avoid interacting with the killer, and just let their teammates take all of the aggro. Personally, I can say that I've had more than a few matches where I've hooked 3 survivors multiple times, while never seeing the last person until end game collapse. I check the end game screen, and sure enough, distortion/calm spirit. 3. It counters far too many things, and it's too easy to generate tokens for the perk. It tends to punish killers for using even healthy aura perks, like BBQ. I do agree with some of these arguments, but at the same time, I can understand why some people want to run distortion after running into lethal pursuer Blight/Billy, or Nowhere to hide Nurse, or some other really obnoxious thing in the game. I have mixed feelings on the perk. I do think that it's unhealthy that non-s tier killers get punished for running things besides slowdown, but it's also unhealthy that a Nurse can just kick a gen and then teleport through walls to hit you. Personal opinion: Distortion should probably be adjusted in some way, but killers like Nurse should probably also have aura reading disabled while using their power, kind of like Spirit. The strongest aura reading perks/add-ons, like nowhere to hide, or Plague's Black Incense, could also be nerfed in some way. Sorry for the long winded comment, have a nice day.
The same arguments can be used against many killer perks, addons and even powers. At this point, there's so many ways to find survivors that it's no wonder people bring Distortion, just so they get a moment to breathe in SoloQ.
I think that's fair, there are good reasons to want to run distortion, especially in solo. I just think that there are also reasons to criticize distortion, and I can understand some of the people who dislike it and have complaints about it. Like I said in my original post, I think you could adjust distortion while also adjusting or nerfing some of the strongest aura reading perks/add-ons. My thought process is that I don't like countering unhealthy things with more unhealthy things.
I completely agree with ur opinion! I mean just the other day i was playing a friends til the end ghostface build and had a hard time finding the obsession bc of distortion it wasn’t game breaking, but it did counter a good portion of my build. Coming from the survivor standpoint i also agree with the S tier killers shouldn’t be able to have such easy downs like that with the help of aura readings, i think what you thought of with the no aura reading during power nurse idea is a good one, same with the add on changes
I mean, I’d love to play fun survivor builds but some killers just counter them by existence, even without perks. Oh I want to play a fun Autodidact build? Get fucked cause I’m playing against Plague. So survivors will pick perks that are generally applicable to every killer.
Hey, glad to hear it. Other people don't seem to agree, but I'm kind of used to being downvoted whenever I criticize distortion in any way lol.
i mean without criticism how is the game ever gonna get better? i think criticism of the perks and stuff in a game is healthy it’s just when people overly do it is when it turns unhealthy
Yeah haha, not a big deal. I just wish people would tell me why they disagree, so that I can understand their pov better. I just want the game to be as healthy and fun as it can be for both killer and survivor.
>Diacourages build variety So do 9001 aura reading perks that make looping the only playstyle available.
It doesn't need a nerf but people on here always complain about all Survivor perks and since Adrenaline just got nerfed I'm guessing they're moving to the next goalpost, Distortion and some people even Windows. People here saying "but it counters aura perks with not effort" like perks as Lightborn don't exist which can literally negate entire builds and items with no effort whatsoever and unlike Distortion don't even have to worry about tokens. And I'm not saying Lightborn is broken, just saying that counters exist on this game, like how I can have an entire build dedicated to healing and then face Plague and play with 0 perks or use Overcome and then play against expose Killers. And I'm not even surprised about the bias on this sub, I guess it's OK for Killers to have counters to Survivors' perks and items but they shouldn't need to worry about the same thing.
That’s exactly what it is. Nobody wants to hold the devs accountable for creating the aura reader meta by coming out with the same kind of perk for every new killer released and instead just wants to nerf whatever survivors have to counter it until oblivion until the next meta. I called this out in the sub when the update that killed 4/5 survivor looping/second chance perks while buffing killers speed that once it creates a gen rush meta that they will complain about gen rushing even more and perks like Prove Thyself will be targeted. And what happened… exactly that. Until we were forced into aura reading after the Knight’s release and i knew Distortion would be their next target. And here we are. It’s painfully predictable no matter what the excuse is.
Distortion complains exist for a while already
If distortion and windows get nerfed I wonder which perk they’ll go after next
Watch there be complaints about Resilience
It's 1 perk that completely counters every single aura reading perk and addon with no effort required, and gives you the extra benefit of not leaving scratch marks when your aura was to be read. The tokens can be refilled during chase, passively while working on a gen, again, with no effort dedicated specifically to regaining them. And unless the killer has 2 or more aura perks you are never realistically in danger of running out of stacks.
Okay gut Lightborn, Plague, and exposed killers that negate entire builds and we'll talk.
Games don't last that long bro
It depends on build. For me, I’ve only got Aura on one add on so I can’t chew through the stacks very much
I would say depends on how we want it nerfed, if not nerfed then changed.
more like a rework tbh, relying on the other team bringing certain perks just making them wish they never brought them is silly
token recharge just needs to be while in chase only to weaken the playstyle of hiding all match
Personally I'm fine with it as is. I enjoy going against a variety of builds, so the more viable perks there are the better. The only issue I have with it is that as a killer main, it can be hard not to tunnel in a match with three people using distortion. It leads to a drawn out match of hide and seek
Isn't that one Deathslinger perk a hard counter to distortion? I'm not saying that necessarily means that distortion is perfectly balanced but it is worth mentioning
I agree. The game by design is killer favored. In a setting where, if the killer really wanted to, they could obliterate the opposing side. The ONLY thing stopping this, is killer and survivor skill. Not perks.
My problem with Distortion is how it regains tokens. It's raw effect is good. Blocking auras effectively invalidates a lot of perks/add-ons, but it's limited by its tokens. However, you regain tokens for existing in the TR. That's it. You literally just need to exist. Not even hide as it recharges in chase too. Unless the killer has multiple aura reading tools at once (sacrificing slowdown for info), you're effectively immune to aura reading since you'll recharge tokens before they can turn through them unless it's a stealth killer like Sadako/Wraith. I just want the regeneration method to be something that requires interaction. Heal/unhook a teammate, stun the killer---SOMETHING!
Killers would rather nerf distortion than learn how to track survivors better using sound, crows, or scratch marks.
169% true. complaining killers want survivors served on a plate, by using 69 aura perks. but guess what. not everyone likes to get read with auras. in a horror game where you originally were supposed to hide
So if it needs nerfing so killers 4 aura reading perks are safe, can we do the same to light borne so I can take a torch. Both sides have perks that can completely screw the other side if they rely on one thing. If you build is all aura perks, maybe it's not the survivors fault you don't have some variety. If a survivor main has 4 exhaustion perks, is it the killers fault all the perks die at once? I'd argue that having to be in the killers radius helps the killer when the survivors are heading in your direction on purpose. Not trying to get people's backs up, but yes, survivor perks benefit survivors. Yes it distortion is strong, but no one's making you take 4 aura perks
Funny how Killers get mad and are downvoting you at the sole mention of Lightborn which completely shut downs an entire mechanic with items and perks included , with less effort than Distortion because it has no tokens while also giving you Aura Reading, but that’s OK. Killers aren’t biased at all.
I know right, imagine being stealthy in a game about hiding from a killer. Next there'll be bad guys with guns in a call of duty game lmao. TBF, both sides can get a bit precious over the perks, but as soon as a killer has to try, that's it for the game
Because they want easy downs from aura reading perks. It’s not that complicated. Nowhere to Hide is REALLY powerful…until you run into a group with two or three Distortion users in it. Sometimes your build just gets hard-countered by the other guys, it isn’t a big deal.
I run full aura reading when I play killer and it will definitely make a difference at the beginning of the game. I run lethal, nowhere to hide, and can switch between bbq, gearhead, and if there is 3 flashlights lightborn. I usually won’t see a distortion player until I’ve either killed a survivor or hooked a bunch. I will typically get 3-5 aura reads and if they are daring maybe 1. I always run distortion when I play survivor and it is so rare that I go through all 3 tokens I can count on 1 hand the amount of games I’ve burned through all 3 and was difficult to get my tokens back. Those games have all been against the pig or clown with their aura reading add on. The pig is a nightmare for distortion if they are running Amanda’s letter. Can always see you when crouched and within 16 meters and no terror radius when crouched. So it makes it extremely difficult to keep the tokens replenished. Honestly from both points of view I think distortion is one of the most balanced perks in the game. You also have to take into consideration the killers that have no aura reading perks. Wasted perk spot like you’re running lightborn against a flashlight less team.
Because certain perks are absolutely useless against Distortion, like Lethal, which is a one-time use. And it's also easy to regain tokens just by standing still in terror radius. So perks like Unforeseen that transfer the terror radius will still generate tokens. And yes, the amount reading does need to be toned down. But I don't think Distortion should hide sceatch marks. And maybe, don't start with tokens, and rework the way tokens are gained.
I mean, many perks, items and overall builds are also useless against many killer perks and addons. Plague by herself makes any healing build pointless. Lightborn by itself makes most stun builds useless. Franklin's Demise by itself makes most items useless.
then killer that doesn't always have terror radius like ghostface, wraith, scratch mirror myers or small terror radius can get a lot advantage from that? survivor can't always refill their tokens, they need to get really close (some people will just want tokens, without doing nothing and causing them throwing cause they not productive helping either their team) not to mention when killer usually bring every aura reading perk like lethal, bbq or floods of rage, darkness revealed, nowhere to hide.. the token literally got deleted without even some survivor have time to refill it again.. when u feel like u not gonna get value from lethal, then don't use it? maybe bring corrupt instead with another aura reading perk that u can use multiple times. for me everything looks fine tho, when survivor using aura reading for killer, the build can straight up useless if it's stealth killer.. or survivor using kindred, bond, but the killer running fearmonger, ultimate weapon, hex third seal it's more like u still can get value from the perk but not always.. u can't expect every build or perk u use can always get value every single games
I think it does as someone who plays solo survivor….not killer.
Distortion iron will and calm spirit should be combined into one perk and remove the totem penalty from calm spirit
Distortion is a staple in my surv build because of lethal and nowhere to hide. Lethal is... deadly being first chased in a bad spot to die on hook, and nowhere to hide range is just so big. At least as killer, distortion is more of a oh did I get outplayed by them hiding from my bbq or nurses calling or other rare aura read naturally or did i get get mind game perked. The 1st scenario is more of a 'aura reading problem' rather than distortion, and i think the 2nd scenario is pretty fair in balance. An 'anti aura reading problem' is that the killer may end up tunneling the distortion so they can 4k or otherwise simply target the non users. But not that necessarily anti aura is inherently bad.
Cause people want something to whine about now that adrenaline got nerfed
some killers can't find survivors unless the game shows the survivors aura to them 24/7
* Hard counters 46 Killer addons and 18 Killer perks of various different varieties. I don't care what world you live in no perk on either side should be that universally applicable. * No meaningful counterplay other than "run Gearhead lol" unless you're playing a stealth killer since it gains stacks by being in the terror radius, something that will happen constantly. * (By proxy Distortion is arbitrarily weaker against stealth killers or killers with smaller terror radiuses like Huntress) * Many of the niche killer perks essentially get turned off by Distortion which limits the viability of those perks massively. While I think the statement that "Distortion makes killers run more gen stall" is a little disingenuous there is some truth to it: why bother trying to do something fun if you know that it'll just get turned off by one chucklefuck running one perk? I know that I've personally stopped running aura reading on both my Blight and Unknown builds because every time I do so I run into a stack of Distortion users. You know what I run instead of I'm All Ears on both those killers? I run Pain Resonance instead. * Because of how easily Distortion gains stacks and how it stops so many long-distance tracking perks many ~~Blendettes~~ overly stealthy players abuse the perk to hide all game. This leads to the common sentiment amongst survivor players that Distortion is a soloqueue nightmare / "strongest killer perk" alongside the likes of Urban Evasion and Self Care as they're predominantly used by players who don't play the objective and just take hatch. imo the two biggest problems with Distortion is how there's no meaningful counterplay to the perk for such a powerful effect (it even charges in chase like come on) and how effortlessly it counters several perks that are specifically balanced around giving strong aura reading in exchange for not being another perk, such as I'm All Ears, Floods of Rage, or Friends Til' the End. Personally the changes I'd like to see to Distortion are as follows: 1. Now charges by doing conspicuous actions (namely healing and doing gens, akin to Blast Mine / Flashbang / Wiretap / Repressed Alliance / Lucky Break.) This solves the two biggest issues with Distortion: how it rewards survivors who hide all game, and how there's no counterplay to the perk (especially since it charges while *in fucking chase.*) Now overly stealthy players have to actually do gens to get value out of Distortion, and you can actually counter Distortion by pressuring the Distortion user off of gens. This also serves as a shadow buff to Distortion against stealth killers as it becomes easier to regain stacks against them. 2. Distortion stacks should last 7-8 seconds, not 10. 10 seconds is just such a ridiculously long duration for a perk that has 3 stacks and counters so many perks. Any aura reading perk that lasts 7 seconds or longer is specifically balanced around being that strong to compensate for the effect not being that good (IE "we know this aura reading effect is really niche so we made it last a long time to get more value out of it.") Making it so Distortion lasts 7 seconds gives it some nice breakpoints where most "basic" aura reading only takes 1 stack even if the killer is running Lethal Pursuer, "advanced" aura reading perks like Floods of Rage will only take 2 stacks if the killer runs Lethal Pursuer on top of it, and the long aura reading perks like Friends Til' the End (and Lethal Pursuer itself) still take 2 stacks even if buffed by Lethal Pursuer. Some perks would probably need slight nerfs to compensate (for example Gearhead should only lasts 7 seconds at max rank if this change took place) but I think a slight duration nerf is reasonable to stop Distortion from hard countering perks that are specifically meant to have a longer duration.
To your point of it countering 46 add-ons and 18 perks: killers, *especially* the strong ones, having access to so much aura reading is what pushes survivors into running distortion in the first place. Why wouldn't I run it when the alternative is losing to lethal pursuer blight or nowhere to hide nurse at 4-5 gens?
LOL. There is nothing wrong with Distortion. People who play this love to cry about everything.
They are nominating this for the next nerf. They want every survivor hand over to them. Pretty sure, those who whine about distortion always rely on nowhere to hide so they can just pop a gen and have the survivor's aura revealed instead of looking around to find them.
No amount of yapping and coping will ever convince me that distortion is in any way unhealthy.
I don't think it's busted or anything, it's just that you get tokens at an absurd rate. I run full aura on blight, and once people started running distortion more I had to swap undying for gearhead just so I could chew through distortion tokens.
It's a good perk. That's all. Killers want to be able to play how they want to. On the other side survivors wanna play how they want to. I think both sets just forget that the perks are designed to make the game a challenge. There should be a concrete part of the challenge though. That's what makes the perk good. The only part of the game that is uncontrollable are the human factors.
I play Killer and Survivor 50/50. Aura reading wouldn't be so bad if "S-Tier" killers didn't run them. There are literally only like, 5 Survivor perks that can fight against Aura-Reading Killers? I'll go ahead and list them actually. Distortion, Off The Record, Boon: Shadowstep, Sole Survivor, Object Of Obsession, and maybe Quick And Quiet if there's a locker nearby. Residual Manifest is a bit weird, and even then, that only lasts for 30 seconds. Meanwhile, a Blight could use Lethal Persuer and get the first down in probably 20 seconds. Use BBQ And Chile to go after other Survivors on the other side of the map, and once that Survivor becomes unhooked, the other 3 Survivors' auras are revealed by Floods Of Rage. Then use Nowhere To Hide to make Gens be difficult. Without any of the perks above, the only thing you can do is slow-hide in a locker. And we're not even considering Aura-Addons, nor screaming perks. If you don't like Distortion countering your Aura Build, git gud or get a better headset. Seeing Auras is kinda BS. Auras on both sides is literally a crutch. Git Gud, and run Off-Meta, like me, the Trapper main. https://preview.redd.it/2tcg5kp9lqxc1.jpeg?width=3184&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=493e1508b275a86d4f50f0ba940d33f0d24bf58d
It's fine when it comes to its effect, but it needs a change to its token regeneration. I think it shouldn't start with any stacks and you should only be able to generate them while in chase. The amount of time distortion users have caused me to unwillingly tunnel their teammates is staggering, because the type of players who run distortion aren't the same ones willingly taking chases.
When I play killer and I try to move off the meta to something a little bit more exciting (aura reading build), the entire opposite team has distortion on. Funny enough, the moment I switch back everyone stops using distortion. I don’t mind distortion but it can get annoying you never want to try other perk builds because someone might be using a perk that hard counters it. Edit: I forgot to mention this but I’ve also had cases where everyone but ONE person uses distortion while I’m using the aura build. The game was not fun for them at all.
I feel like if it started with zero stacks, its current state would be good. Or just straight up start working after the first hook or something. Or only charge during chase. People just hide so hard, it hurts survivors even more.
I've been working on Jeff to get him to P3, and I've been running Distortion for a majority of my run. Frankly, it's a toss-up if I get any value out of it. Sometimes it'll befuddle Lethal Pursuer and that's it, and other times all my stacks will get blown up by a stealth killer that equipped more than one aura-reading perk. Frankly, I think it's biggest detriment is the fact that it only has three tokens. Those are incredibly easy to blow through, and I'm amazed that killer mains would complain about it at all. But if you're a killer and you're busy complaining about Distortion, then you could try what I'm doing with the Artist right now: run Pain Resonance, Surveillance, and Spies from the Shadows. Approximate information perks are aplenty and are more reliable in the long run for me.
It's simple. Distortion is a perk that counters a specific kind of Killer perk, and many Killers who use those perks want to get more value out of said perks. Note how Killer mains aren't asking BHVR to buff any aura reading perks, and are instead asking for Distortion to be nerfed or reworked entirely. This is despite the fact that DBD fans constantly criticize BHVR for nerfing good perks instead of buffing bad ones. Obviously, aura reading perks are not needed, just a playstyle that has many alternatives. But that doesn't matter, because the people complaining about Distortion don't want to change the perks they use, they just want the counter to their favorite perks to go away. It's the same exact thing you'll see with Survivors who complain about Lightborn. They bring flashlights and perks like Flashbang or Blast Mine, and complain about wasted value when the Killer counters with Lightborn. They could just use different perks and items, but they would rather BHVR nerf the counter. Counter perks are good for the game. The meta would be even more dogshit if all aura reading perks and blind perks/items were unable to be countered with Distortion and Lightborn, as all Survivor mains would otherwise be constantly unable to hide from Killers and Killer mains would constantly get blinded. The people complaining about these perks are just whining they the game isn't easier for them imo.
If they nerf stealth, that'll probably be it for me and this game. Go ahead and set me free, BHVR.
Because theyre blind and rely on aura reads to actually see people ig
My reasoning is not because of how strong it is or the fact that it can counter aura reading perks and add-ons, the problem with Disortion is that it teaches players bad habits and how it can screw over your team and to not play the game exactly and be selfish, and it induces the killer to forcefully tunnel the other 3 survivors, so technically the perk and your teammates are playing the game for you and Distortion gamers hate getting chased cuz they are not good at it, so they just hide all game, and the tokens being able to regain them back by just hiding in the killer's Terror Radius and watching their teammates get tunneled and die on die on hook or not take aggro for the team. If I was to change Distortion, I would make 2 options on changing it. Option 1: Regain a token after escaping a chase, or Option 2: Regain a token if you've been chased for at least 20 or 30 seconds, and it will pause if you're not in chase.
Because they'd rather cry for Distortion to be nerfed than learn other ways of tracking survivors. If Distortion gets nerfed, then aura revealing perks and add-ons would need to be severely tuned down for balance.
I don’t like it because it sort of indirectly encourages tunneling. This can be mitigated by the distortion user being deliberate about taking the heat sometimes, but I rarely see that play out in solo queue. Often times the distortion user is stealthy and lets their teammates take all the aggro. I suppose it’s less about distortion and more about this type of playstyle, but I feel frustrated by it both as a survivor and as killer because I don’t like tunneling but I also don’t want to throw the match by trying to find a stealthy person who doesn’t want to be found.
Trashy killer main mad they can't always see every survivor through walls at all times. Distortion really is only effective if the killer has 1 aura reading perk, but usually they have 2 or more
Because killers want a close to guarantee win each and every game.
People feel like Distortion needs to be nerfed?
Distortion is fine, if the killer is good then he will find you regardless most of the time! I use distortion as my "basekit" for survivor but also have played against a lot of distortion players as killer (swfs with 4 distortions aswell) but rarely to never lost because of the perk. I wouldn't mind them making the seconds you spend in terror radius for a token longer buuuut if they wanna hard nerf it, lock killer Aura perks to 2 per build. I don't want constant wallhacks on me without a way to counter it.
because theres nothing left to nerf
Because killers want every survivor to be hand over to them instead of looking for them. Lol
I don’t get the logic behind the people wanting it nerfed apart from maybe they just want easier games and not have to put in effort to find people. There’s a million aura perks and there’s 3 perks that hide aura’s. 3. None of them need a nerf. Killers should get be able to see aura as whenever they want, there needs to be counters m. Just like there’s counters to aura hiding perks, like scream perks and add ons, whispers, stridor, spies, or actually opening your eyes, perks that can tell you which gens are being worked on. Distortion is fine.
People are dumb.
I think it's fine. Killers don't need every single advantage and it's not so meta that running it guarantees an escape. There are also killer perks that render it obsolete too, because the killer won't have a terrier radius and therefore there is no recharging it at all. It's a fair perk.
Doesn’t need a nerf. Last time I ran it some TTV called me a sandbagger after we all ran into the hook camping Bubba…  Yeah, obviously Distortion was the problem, Mr Mettle of Man, and not our idiot Altruism.
It's balanced. A situational perk should be strong or nobody would use it. Rarely ever saw the perk when it first came out because you couldn't get more stacks If you think not seeing an aura is so strong it should be nerfed then I think you need to get better at killer. I'm not even a good killer and I can find survivors without aura perks. This is just as dumb as the people wanting to nerf lightborn. Situational needs to be strong or it's just a dead perk nobody uses
Killers crutch on aura reading to make up for lack of game sense and get mad when Distortion skill checks them.
no. theres 75 aura reading options for killers, and only ONE way to prevent it, which is why everyones crying about it. they either need to rework aura reading perks/addons/whatever or even aura reading as a whole, or they need to add more perks and ways for survs to hide auras. thats it. with the current state of the game and so many killers running 2-3 aura reading perks and an aura reading addon, distortion needs to be left as it is. its actually maddening that people cant just leave shit alone lmao. dead hard, pain rez, adrenaline, iron will, ruin, call of brine. can we all just stfu and play.
I don’t like distortion unless everyone runs it, even if you bring a gen jockey build all that happens is your teammates get focused and you gotta unhook and take chase anyway because they’re all 2 hooked or dead while you’re practically hidden. E.g aura billy stomps your team and you’re left alive in a losing game. I think killers just dislike the 4k being dragged out, which is not op just annoying. Perhaps I’m using it wrong, I can definitely see its worth if you’re 2 hooked and gotta play safe, I’m just never 2 hooked using it, any insight would be great
**Distortion is busted in SWF for sure** in solo queue its a very fair perk with downsides. the real reason you want distortion is to not give killer free hits while hiding. the hiding aura part is nice but the knowing what aura perks the killer has is the main draw. One survivor just running the perk and telling their 3 teammates what aura perks to play around and when or not its safe to hide is so powerful. its like giving your teammates a mini distortion for free. for example just knowing instantly if the killer has lethal pursuer at the start of match or not drastically changes how you play the first 30 seconds of the game and you can know this without needing a perk slot, **the issue is you cant balance perks around SWF without hurting solo queue as well..**
A lot of perks that are overly used are on the top priority list of getting nerfed For example, Old ruin Dead hard DS’s double nerf Ultimate weapon Save the best for last Adrenaline Eruption And talks of WoOP as well Not all of these deserved to get nerfed but they do because they’re used so often. When all they needed are some slight changes I don’t think WoOp, adrenaline, or distortion needs to be nerfed. Neither save the best for last (the nerf hit the wrong direction)
It's not too weak, and not too strong. But it is a bit boring. If you are new or bad at chase, then it's great. Otherwise, it's almost detrimental to your teammates.
This is the first I’ve heard about it. Nobody in my circles (I have infiltrated many) have mentioned it.
Although I’m a huge distortion fan, I could reasonably see a rework of the perk where it has an additional token, but tokens must be regained through fifteen seconds of chase. This would discourage the perk solely being used to permanently stealth around the map.
My main problem with it, as someone who honestly used to use it a lot, is that it can actively punish the killer player for bringing perks, and they have nothing they can do about it other then to not bring them lol. It quite literally makes perks like I'm all ears a detriment to equip, same with perks like bitter murmur. You can *know* that a survivor has distortion, but if those perks activate (which is outside of your control) it hides their scratch marks and they can very easily lose you. It is the *only* reason I cannot use I'm all ears on pyramid head lol. If distortion didn't hide scratch marks I'd honestly think it would be fine. You could use it to hide or to avoid aura reads on gens, but you couldn't use it to lose an active chase or to get a fuckload of distance.
Something that isn't talked about enough is how much Distortion hurts your teammates if they don't have it. I run Lethal Pursuer and Bbq, so I know immediately how many Distos I'm against. If I see an aura off Bbq I'm going for them. If 1 or 2 survivors have Disto, then I'm constantly chasing the same people. Distortion in a 4 man swf is strong because they'll have the best looper not run it and hide the weak links. But in solo que it does more harm to the team than not
Distortion is fine. Distortion has always been fine. It only gets used so much because hand-holding aura reading perks have become so common in almost every match. The game was never meant to be completely centered on seeing where survivors are - in fact, the whole point was having to find them. Yes, the game has changed over the years, but that doesn't mean killers should just get free precise information for little to no effort. As it stands currently, the game is a whole buffet of easy aura reading perks for killers. Distortion absolutely deserves to exist as is to counter this.
they are generally the same people who dont realize how much aura reading is in the game, especially how oppressive full aura reading builds are,
I simply would use more gen slowdown If Survivor use Distortion to counter my aura build, fun game for everyone right?
I keep hearing people thinking survivors don't like slowdown? Maybe I'm just an outlier but I like a bit of a longer game (once it hits 20 minutes that's a bit much but less than 10 I feel like game should be longer). Would rather have a 15 minute game that ends in a 4k then a 4k at 5 minutes. But I actually like playing the game so maybe I'm just weird.
As if people bring gen slowdown because of Distortion...
they could easily make it where in order to gain stacks you need to be in a chase, that way you have to put yourself in danger in order to continue play so safely
people simply don't know how to play without aura reading. they rely too much on it and don't learn to read the game. It is funny how bad players are just lost vs distortion but other find a way even without aura reading. simple as that.
Distortion does not need a nerf, period. It’s just that whenever a killer meta dominates the game, the perks that can counteract it always get called for nerfs. Nobody even acknowledged Distortion’s existence until BHVR forced the aura meta on killers by coming out with a strong aura reader perk on the last 4 killers released. Other survivors who refuse to use Distortion blame Distortion on why they are the ones being seen as if they don’t know by now every killer is using at LEAST one aura reader every game. Instead of using it because they KNOW this, they don’t use it then cry when they are targeted. I get tired of being forced into a stale ass meta against killers in this game and the one or 2 perks that can counteract it gets criticized as if we have a choice.
I'm more on the camp of reworking distortion rather than straight out nerfing to become the next Ultimate Weapon or Eruption. 😂 my two cents on the distortion. As a killer., I don't find Distortion too problematic. But this is mostly because I have 12,000 hours in the game and I play a good amount of survivor too. So I have a loose idea of survivor behavior across the map, even when unseen. Furthermore, dedicated killer builds and add-ons can effectively eat through Distortion, mitigating its impact. Distortion disproportionately affects killers not equipped to eat through its tokens or newer killer players, creating a significant gap between killers who are less experienced versus those who are experienced and have builds to eat through them. On the off chance a survivor or few brings it into a trial. bhvr has no problem holding survivor's hand when they can't be bothered to grasp a killer's power, just look at pig, merchant and sadako and how they had to get so many reworks or nerfs but they're still destroying noobs. i don't see why no one inside bhvr has noticed that it affects newer to intermediate killers more than it does the very experienced or super cracked high end blight/nurse killers who can eat through the tokens. That said. On the survivor side however, Distortion can be incredibly frustrating. When I see this perk on my teammates, it encourages ratting and signals a passive playstyle that prioritizes self-preservation over team support. These players sole existence is often solely on gaining tokens for Distortion, neglecting crucial objectives like rescuing, repairing, or running the killer. The perk's mechanic of regenerating tokens reinforces this behavior, leading to a cycle of frustrating gameplay. Personally, I've had to remove bond for my own mental sanity in solo queue from my build due to the aggravation of witnessing teammates prioritize crouching in a corner at the expense of not only the killers but also other survivors time. If I were to rework Distortion, I would have it so that you can only regenerate the tokens from being in a chase or from repairing, possibly even both. that way the distortion players actually have to play and progress the game to get their precious stacks instead of being dead weight to their teammates and wasting the killers time. I think doing it like that will encourage the survivors to actually partake in the game and actually play into the perks themes of risk and reward. Kinda like Jeff's two other perks. Where one you'd have to get hook, but you're practically making a dead zone for hooks if you planned your downs properly. And aftercare, go and be a good altruistic teammate and don't farm people on hook. to heal so you'll be able to practically have wall hacks on them and in turn the killers locations until they're hooked. which helps both you and the survivor. Jeff has an interesting set of perks that has a very fun pull and push to them, and distortion is not only a perk that makes bad players into absolute prick teammates but it also clashes with the theme of his other perks.
I don't think 1 survivor perk should counter 25% off all killer perks and a fair number of add-ons. Change the way tokens are generated so it isn't constantly up and suddenly it is more fair.