Dead by Daylight has announced what may be its biggest overhaul yet, and meta perks are one of the biggest targets, some of which are being made less powerful. Several parts of the game are being reworked, and that includes a decent chunk of the game's perks, both for better and for worse. Both killer and survivor mains will want to be aware of these changes.
Since the beginning, the balance between the strength of the killer and survivors has been an important part of Dead by Daylight. When the survivors have too many advantages, it can be painful for the killer to do anything at all. Likewise, making the killer too powerful ruins the game for survivors. That is why killer powers and perks from both sides need to be carefully balanced to ensure that everyone can have fun. While fan attention has been largely caught by announcements such as Dead By Daylight's Hooked on You dating sim, the perk reworks are less flashy, but still deeply ingrained in the game's future.
Most of the strongest killer perks involve slowing down survivors' generator progress, and several of them have been nerfed. Ruin and Pop Goes The Weasel now deal less damage to gens, and Ruin also automatically deactivates after a survivor dies. Corrupt Intervention, which blocks several gens for up to 120 seconds after the match starts, now deactivates the first time a survivor is downed. In addition, the powerful endgame perk No One Escapes Death alerts survivors to its totem, letting them deactivate it more easily. However, in exchange for these nerfs, generators now take slightly longer to complete. After losing these powerful perks, killer players will need to master their chosen Dead by Daylight killer's abilities, like the Plague's heal-preventing sickness, to continue effectively bringing the fight to Survivors.
Dead By Daylight's Strongest Perks Will Lose Their Strength
On the survivor side, the always-useful Dead Hard will no longer automatically dash forward, and must be timed with the killer's attack to do so, turning it into a counter of sorts. Decisive Strike, which can let survivors immediately escape the killer, no longer works once all generators are completed. As for perks that don't involve direct interaction with the killer, Spine Chill no longer grants a boost to vaulting speed while active, and Self-Care now heals the at an incredibly slow rate. To compensate, a lighter version of the highly popular Borrowed Time perk is now in the survivor's base kit. It's expected that playing solo survivor in Dead by Daylight will probably be trickier when missing these tools, but skilled survivors will still be able to win the day
One of the most surely controversial changes is one that will affect both sides. At present, there are two perks that can award extra bloodpoints post-match. Barbecue & Chili offers extra bloodpoints for killers hooking survivors, and We're Gonna Live Forever awards the same to survivors who unhook each other. Following the update, these perks will no longer offer bonus bloodpoints. Since these to perks were very popular specifically for their bloodpoint bonuses, this change will likely limit their use. Because bloodpoints are required to prestige characters in Dead by Daylight, losing these bonuses is likely to be unpopular.
Once the update goes live, Dead by Daylight matches will likely look very different from the way they were before. The nerfs to the most popular perks are going to create an entirely new meta for future games. The full effect of these changes are yet to be seen, but it is certain that Dead by Daylight is evolving beyond what it was before.