Changes I'd Make To The Perception Tree

[Paiper Zombee]

Just some ideas I had for the Perception Tree after spending a lot of time with it recently and wanted some feedback.

Spear (Weapon)

First, I'd say that spears would always have a chance to cause 1 bleed effect by default. No more needing that from books or parts.

The Perk Tree

The perk for "The Infiltrator" would be removed. It would have it's ability to pick up, take less damage, and the delayed trigger from land mines and board traps distributed across the levels of Demolitions Expert.

To replace the loss of "The Infiltrator" we'd get a perk called "Parry".

Parry
Use the stick/pole that the blade of your spear is attached to to parry incoming attacks.
Level 1 Gives a 10% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 2 Gives a 20% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 3 Gives a 30% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 4 Gives a 40% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 5 Gives a 50% chance to parry incoming attacks

Perception Mastery
Due to the introduction of Parry, it would also change some things in the Perception Mastery and the Spear Hunter Books. Mastery would be restructured as:

Level 1 Blood Rush
Attacks with the rifle now cause 1 stack of the bleed effect. Bleeding effects can now stack up to 4 by using the spear or rifle weapons.

Level 2 Salvage Specialist
Now includes the perks from Cushion Crawler.

Level 3 Counter Attack
Parried attacks will now also cause 1 stack of the bleed effect.

Level 4 Deadly Parry
Parried attacks will now trigger Spear Hunter Vol 7: Deadly Combo as long as you have read the associated book.

Level 5 Blood Shot (Replaces Long Shot)
Rifle shots deal 50% more damage and inflict 1 extra stack of the bleed effect.

For the Spear Hunter Books, only Vol 3 would change.

Spear Hunter Vol 3: Bleeding Damage
Spears have a 25% to cause 2 stacks of the bleed effect. (Changed from 25% chance to cause bleeding damage.)

 

[Riamus]

As a spear player, I wouldn't want to change Spear Master to include bleed effects as part of the perks. If anything, I'd just make bleed from bladed weapons include the spear since it can be considered bladed. I get that some people prefer to kite everything and let them die from bleeding, but I don't enjoy that kind of game. I hold my ground as much as possible and look to kill enemies quickly, which means bleeding has basically no impact. Adding it to Spear Mastery wastes the perks for me. Leaving it in Perception Mastery lets people who want it have it without wasting points for those who don't need it.

As far as parrying, I suppose that is okay, though there are so many damage reduction and negation perks already that I don't think we should have more of them. We shouldn't become invincible. Besides, if parrying was added to the game, it should work for most melee weapons. It would be strange that only spears are allowed to parry.

In short, I like how it is now. That doesn't mean it can't see some changes, but bleed and parry aren't really what I want from spears.

 

[SabinSnake PS5#1]

I don't even know why bleed damage on zombies is even a thing in the game to begin with. People become zombies from either death by loss of too much bood or the virus kills em from exposure to it from open/bite wounds. And suddenly zombies can die from bleeding? Yet movies have shown zombies in skeletal form with no blood... Makes zero sense! Bleed damage shouldn't exist for zombies, since all internal organs are shut down, cept for the partial brain activity.