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.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

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.

Spears get bleed capability from book 3 in the Spear Hunter book series, from Perception Mastery, and from the Serrated Mod. So if you're trying to avoid having the bleed effect then one would have to remove the mod, skip out on the Mastery perk, which you technically can't if you want to progress that tree, and skip out on book 3 in the Spear Hunter series. I see no benefit to that, but to each their own.

The Perception playstyle (at least to me) has always been about playing keep away from the enemies, since spears have the longest hit distance, and snipers are the ultimate distance gun. Out of all the trees Perception is the only one with no damage mitigation perks, or any injury reducing perks. This leads me to further believe that perception is supposed to be played in the keep away style, just like Agility when caught out of stealth, instead of trying to play it like a Strength or Fortitude build where it's all about standing your ground.

Parry was an idea I had to give the Perception Tree some type of damage mitigation, and the expansion to the bleeds was to allow Spears more functionality with the whole "keep away" playstyle. Kiting (in my opinion again) has always been part of the Perception playstyle. Having the expanded bleed effects would minimize the kiting time.

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.

You're also talking about a game where zombies can dig with the power of an auger, and bash concrete and steel blocks with their bare hands. And have you seen how agile and smart zombies can be for something that's supposed to be dead? They can duck and dodge melee hits, and (my favorite) trying to hit a runner or sprinter with a sniper causes them to zig and zag to avoid being hit, despite the creature having no idea you're aming at them. So zombies/creatures bleeding, not a big deal to me. lol.

 

[SabinSnake PS5#1]

Spears get bleed capability from book 3 in the Spear Hunter book series, from Perception Mastery, and from the Serrated Mod. So if you're trying to avoid having the bleed effect then one would have to remove the mod, skip out on the Mastery perk, which you technically can't if you want to progress that tree, and skip out on book 3 in the Spear Hunter series. I see no benefit to that, but to each their own.

The Perception playstyle (at least to me) has always been about playing keep away from the enemies, since spears have the longest hit distance, and snipers are the ultimate distance gun. Out of all the trees Perception is the only one with no damage mitigation perks, or any injury reducing perks. This leads me to further believe that perception is supposed to be played in the keep away style, just like Agility when caught out of stealth, instead of trying to play it like a Strength or Fortitude build where it's all about standing your ground.

Parry was an idea I had to give the Perception Tree some type of damage mitigation, and the expansion to the bleeds was to allow Spears more functionality with the whole "keep away" playstyle. Kiting (in my opinion again) has always been part of the Perception playstyle. Having the expanded bleed effects would minimize the kiting time.


You're also talking about a game where zombies can dig with the power of an auger, and bash concrete and steel blocks with their bare hands. And have you seen how agile and smart zombies can be for something that's supposed to be dead? They can duck and dodge melee hits, and (my favorite) trying to hit a runner or sprinter with a sniper causes them to zig and zag to avoid being hit, despite the creature having no idea you're aming at them. So zombies/creatures bleeding, not a big deal to me. lol.

Depends on what you have Ai block damage percentage at, I have it set on 25% to make em weak to not break through objects so easily, which is not much different from a person trying to break stuff with their fist, it takes more time to do it, you're just asking for trouble having the percentage on high. You can make em walk instead of run or sprint too, I still die a lot even when they're walking, having em run or sprint is too insane. It's TFP's fault for making em smart, too bad there's no option to change it.

 

[Jost Amman]

I think Perception should also give you the capability to see the health bar of enemies (in general).
To enable the health bar normally feels gamey to me, but to have it activate because my toon is very perceptive, makes much more sense.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

Depends on what you have Ai block damage percentage at, I have it set on 25% to make em weak to not break through objects so easily, which is not much different from a person trying to break stuff with their fist, it takes more time to do it, you're just asking for trouble having the percentage on high. You can make em walk instead of run or sprint too, I still die a lot even when they're walking, having em run or sprint is too insane. It's TFP's fault for making em smart, too bad there's no option to change it.

When I play solo I tend to tweak the numbers, but I do the majority of my play on a multiplayer server, so I'm at the mercy of those settings.

Hopefully when the advanced settings come with sandbox mode there will be an option for "dumb" zombies, which will make them behave more like zombies and not do all of the advanced combat maneuvers. If they did this, though, I'd hope they'd give us options to control how the other creature types behave. It would be cool to have Romero style zombies with no advanced combat maneuvers that shamble (day or night), but the Mutated types, Irradiated, and Charged can run during the day, sprint at night, and use the advanced combat maneuvers.

I think Perception should also give you the capability to see the health bar of enemies (in general).
To enable the health bar normally feels gamey to me, but to have it activate because my toon is very perceptive, makes much more sense.

I've been playing with a mod on that shows the enemy health that I forgot this is still not an official thing in the game. That would be a good idea. But what Perception talent to tie it to?

 

[Jost Amman]

I've been playing with a mod on that shows the enemy health that I forgot this is still not an official thing in the game. That would be a good idea. But what Perception talent to tie it to?

The main attribute level: when you reach Perception lvl. (e.g.) 5, you can also start noticing how bad your enemies are hurt.

 

[Ostentatio]

As someone who self-inflicted a Perception-only (+1 non-Perc skillpoint) run, my opinions (emphasis as always: opinion) match a little bit in some spots.

- I agree Infiltrator is a bizarre one, and I do like putting the mine-pickups into Demolitions Expert - not setting off mines and weak floors seems like something that should be Agility-related, though. Or maybe even have a scaling timer depending on the combined "weight" of light-medium-heavy armor, that could be interesting with some related armor tweaking.

- In my Perception run, it took until day 14 (on 2-hour days) to get the multiple-enemies spear book. That sum■■■■■ should be in the spear skill tree, not RNG-based. That one skill book is half the entire spear playstyle, alongside its reach. I am very passionate about this. Because I spent 28 hours without it. In a run with escalating feral sense. And many times more zombies. Penetrating Shaft needs to be in the regular skill tree. There are many expletives I am choosing not to express.

- I kind of think bleed shouldn't be in spear's skills, but instead that the barbed wire mod should be used on spears. (Can it already be? I can't remember.) Weapon-type-restricted mods always kinda suck to find when you're not using those mods.

- 50% is a hell of a high chance to block incoming damage, especially if you combine it with Pack Mule's 25% or Hard Target's 25% - heck, even 25% is a high chance, if you consider the possibility of stacking them. I don't mind Perception getting a damage reduction or mitigation chance, but I'd personally like to see all of the reduction/mitigation chances nerfed somehow (maybe up to 20% but only in the last two tiers).

- Demolitions Expert needs to have recipe cost reductions in explosives. 300 gas per molotov is obscene, as is gunpowder costs for explosives when your ability tree has zero mining benefits to nitrate, coal, or oil shale. It'd be nice if it boosted workstation magazines, too because I'm of the opinion INT is too strong compared to other abilities.


Beyond that, I'd like to add that Treasure Hunter either should apply to locked containers (POI loots, safes) or Buried Supplies should be available as higher-tier quests. In theory, I'd say Perception is a very well-rounded tree: scavenging nets a ton of money and resources, rifles for long range or medium depending on how you do your weapon mods, throwables for medium range, spear at close range is very good WHEN YOU GET THE @&$*%#-ING PENETRATING SHAFT BOOK-


Edit: Be neat if Animal Tracker could give up-down-distance indicators for zombie-red-dots, too.

 

[Riamus]

Spears get bleed capability from book 3 in the Spear Hunter book series, from Perception Mastery, and from the Serrated Mod.

1) Books are not perks that you spend points on.
2) Perception Mastery isn't the main spear perk and can be ignored if you don't want/need those while still getting your main spear perks.
3) Mods are also not something you spend points on.

I didn't say bleed wasn't okay to have from a spear. I specifically said I'd just add the bleed from the bladed weapons to include spears. But there is no reason to add it to the main perk. As you pointed out, it is quite easy to get bleeding effects without doing so.

Spears are just fine for close up fighting. Sure, you can kite. You can do that just fine without changing the perks, though. And they already had to change the damage mitigation stuff because they were making you invulnerable. Adding more damage mitigation means having to reduce it elsewhere to avoid that same problem. There just isn't any need for that.

In any case, that was clearly my opinion on it. You're going to get people who disagree with you when posting suggestions that affect how the game works for other people, just like you'll get people who do agree with you.

I think Perception should also give you the capability to see the health bar of enemies (in general).
To enable the health bar normally feels gamey to me, but to have it activate because my toon is very perceptive, makes much more sense.

As long as that can be disabled by a game option, sure. I don't like health bars and being stuck with them just because I want to play a perception-based character doesn't sit well with me. In the same way, I'm sure that someone who plays non-perception characters but would like to have health bars would be upset that only perception players can see them, even if it makes perfect sense. Either way, I think that will be one of the things that will be in the 3.0 game options update, so it isn't likely to be tied to a perk.

As someone who self-inflicted a Perception-only (+1 non-Perc skillpoint) run, my opinions (emphasis as always: opinion) match a little bit in some spots.

- I agree Infiltrator is a bizarre one, and I do like putting the mine-pickups into Demolitions Expert - not setting off mines and weak floors seems like something that should be Agility-related, though. Or maybe even have a scaling timer depending on the combined "weight" of light-medium-heavy armor, that could be interesting with some related armor tweaking.

- In my Perception run, it took until day 14 (on 2-hour days) to get the multiple-enemies spear book. That sum■■■■■ should be in the spear skill tree, not RNG-based. That one skill book is half the entire spear playstyle, alongside its reach. I am very passionate about this. Because I spent 28 hours without it. In a run with escalating feral sense. And many times more zombies. Penetrating Shaft needs to be in the regular skill tree. There are many expletives I am choosing not to express.

- I kind of think bleed shouldn't be in spear's skills, but instead that the barbed wire mod should be used on spears. (Can it already be? I can't remember.) Weapon-type-restricted mods always kinda suck to find when you're not using those mods.

- 50% is a hell of a high chance to block incoming damage, especially if you combine it with Pack Mule's 25% or Hard Target's 25% - heck, even 25% is a high chance, if you consider the possibility of stacking them. I don't mind Perception getting a damage reduction or mitigation chance, but I'd personally like to see all of the reduction/mitigation chances nerfed somehow (maybe up to 20% but only in the last two tiers).

- Demolitions Expert needs to have recipe cost reductions in explosives. 300 gas per molotov is obscene, as is gunpowder costs for explosives when your ability tree has zero mining benefits to nitrate, coal, or oil shale. It'd be nice if it boosted workstation magazines, too because I'm of the opinion INT is too strong compared to other abilities.


Beyond that, I'd like to add that Treasure Hunter either should apply to locked containers (POI loots, safes) or Buried Supplies should be available as higher-tier quests. In theory, I'd say Perception is a very well-rounded tree: scavenging nets a ton of money and resources, rifles for long range or medium depending on how you do your weapon mods, throwables for medium range, spear at close range is very good WHEN YOU GET THE @&$*%#-ING PENETRATING SHAFT BOOK-


Edit: Be neat if Animal Tracker could give up-down-distance indicators for zombie-red-dots, too.

• I agree that avoiding mines makes sense as agility, though I can see a lesser argument for perception. But not for any others. I'm not really a fan of the change to remove the ability to not set the mines off at all. Sure, if you are not standing still, it keeps you from having to worry about damage still, but it means that if I'm also trying to collect mines and accidentally step on one and don't get a chance to pick it up before it explodes, I lose the mine. Kind of annoying, but not that big of a problem.
• I definitely see value in having the penetration effect added to the perk rather than a book. That has far more value as a perk change that bleed effects.
• Yeah, making it possible to use the barbed wire on a spear could be a good option, though I already max out the spear mods, so I wouldn't have room for it. But it would is something that could easily be added to a spear in real life, so there isn't a good reason to not allow it on spears.
• Agreed. It all stacks up to be way too much mitigation and there's nothing stopping you from taking all of it beyond just number of available perk points. I don't normally take any of them because they just make the game too easy, when it's already an easy game. But I don't care that they are there for people who need them. There just should never be a way to mitigate all damage by stacking perks, mods, and/or armor.
• Probably true, though I've never crafted explosives beyond making the pipe bombs for the challenge. I've never liked using explosives beyond placing mines for horde night just to enjoy the light show. And mines are easy enough to collect instead of craft and still get hundreds around the base.
• Making some change to Treasure Hunter or making the quests higher tier would make that perk more useful. As it is now, I rarely see any reason to take it. I might add it after I'm out of other things to add, but that's about it.
• Up/Down for the red dots with max Animal Tracker might be nice, though I also probably wouldn't put points into it even then. I have never seen any need to use that perk.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

As someone who self-inflicted a Perception-only (+1 non-Perc skillpoint) run, my opinions (emphasis as always: opinion) match a little bit in some spots.

- I agree Infiltrator is a bizarre one, and I do like putting the mine-pickups into Demolitions Expert - not setting off mines and weak floors seems like something that should be Agility-related, though. Or maybe even have a scaling timer depending on the combined "weight" of light-medium-heavy armor, that could be interesting with some related armor tweaking.

The not setting off weak floor boards always sounded more like an agility thing to me too, but the not setting off mines sounds like something a Demolitions Expert would know how to do. Funnily enough, I've always thought that the Demolitions Expert perk was more of a Strength Tree perk than Perception, due to Strength's loud and proud playstyle.

- Demolitions Expert needs to have recipe cost reductions in explosives. 300 gas per molotov is obscene, as is gunpowder costs for explosives when your ability tree has zero mining benefits to nitrate, coal, or oil shale. It'd be nice if it boosted workstation magazines, too because I'm of the opinion INT is too strong compared to other abilities.

That would be a nice utility for this perk and possibly the other weapon perks too.

- In my Perception run, it took until day 14 (on 2-hour days) to get the multiple-enemies spear book. That sum■■■■■ should be in the spear skill tree, not RNG-based. That one skill book is half the entire spear playstyle, alongside its reach. I am very passionate about this. Because I spent 28 hours without it. In a run with escalating feral sense. And many times more zombies. Penetrating Shaft needs to be in the regular skill tree. There are many expletives I am choosing not to express.

Very true and I agree. That same reason is why it sucks trying to go with fists in Fortitude without reading all of the Bar Brawler books first.

- I kind of think bleed shouldn't be in spear's skills, but instead that the barbed wire mod should be used on spears. (Can it already be? I can't remember.) Weapon-type-restricted mods always kinda suck to find when you're not using those mods.

- 50% is a hell of a high chance to block incoming damage, especially if you combine it with Pack Mule's 25% or Hard Target's 25% - heck, even 25% is a high chance, if you consider the possibility of stacking them. I don't mind Perception getting a damage reduction or mitigation chance, but I'd personally like to see all of the reduction/mitigation chances nerfed somehow (maybe up to 20% but only in the last two tiers).

I'm of the mind that as long as its a blade, it should cause bleed theory, but that's just me. It would be nice for certain mods to be extended to other weapons. A barbed or shock spear would be nice.

In my original concept the Parry perk only went up to 25% chance to parry, and Perception Mastery Talent #4: Deadly Parry added the other 25%. It sounds like either that, or just allowing the perk to give its 25% and no change to the mastery perk, would be a better balance to keep from early/mid level tree combining with other mitigation perks.

Beyond that, I'd like to add that Treasure Hunter either should apply to locked containers (POI loots, safes) or Buried Supplies should be available as higher-tier quests. In theory, I'd say Perception is a very well-rounded tree: scavenging nets a ton of money and resources, rifles for long range or medium depending on how you do your weapon mods, throwables for medium range, spear at close range is very good WHEN YOU GET THE @&$*%#-ING PENETRATING SHAFT BOOK-

Edit: Be neat if Animal Tracker could give up-down-distance indicators for zombie-red-dots, too.

I couldn't come up with any good ideas for these two perks myself. These are some good concepts.

I didn't say bleed wasn't okay to have from a spear. I specifically said I'd just add the bleed from the bladed weapons to include spears. But there is no reason to add it to the main perk. As you pointed out, it is quite easy to get bleeding effects without doing so.

Spears are just fine for close up fighting. Sure, you can kite. You can do that just fine without changing the perks, though. And they already had to change the damage mitigation stuff because they were making you invulnerable. Adding more damage mitigation means having to reduce it elsewhere to avoid that same problem. There just isn't any need for that.

In any case, that was clearly my opinion on it. You're going to get people who disagree with you when posting suggestions that affect how the game works for other people, just like you'll get people who do agree with you.

I can agree with the bleed from bladed weapons being added to spears. As for spears being fine for up close fighting (without points into Fortitude) I can't agree with, as that has not been my experience. My experience with that has always resulted it sprained/broken arms, infection, and concussions because spears lack the power of a heavier melee weapon.

 

[Riamus]

I can agree with the bleed from bladed weapons being added to spears. As for spears being fine for up close fighting (without points into Fortitude) I can't agree with, as that has not been my experience. My experience with that has always resulted it sprained/broken arms, infection, and concussions because spears lack the power of a heavier melee weapon.

I am curious what settings you use in your game.

For reference, I run spears every game and rarely use any other weapon except for horde night or long ranged kills of bears or dire wolves and I am right in the middle of the fight almost constantly. I do use certain tactics to help when things get "interesting," but I'm still rarely using kiting as a way to deal with stuff. My settings are mostly default. I don't increase or decrease zombie damage in any way from default. I do reduce zombie speed to Run instead of Sprint, but that's all.

I find that, even on low level spears, I can power attack to the head once and they'll almost always get knocked down. 1-3 power attacks while on the ground, or 1-2 to the head when back up usually means they are dead. That tends to be true at any point in the game because my quality/tier of spear keeps going up as my game stage and therefore enemy tiers goes up. By the time I'm getting larger numbers of zombies at once (assuming I'm not messing myself up by triggering multiple spawns at the same time in a POI), I usually have found the book for penetration. Once I have that, it's easy to knock down or kill multiple zombies in one attack. With upgrading Spear Mastery, I get to where I'm getting stamina back each kill, and with the final Sharp Sticks book, I get full stamina after each kill. That means I'm rarely out of stamina even though I'm using only power attacks. In fact, it's very rare for me to attack with anything other than a power attack, even at low levels. I also don't use armor perks or the perks to reduce damage, and although I do put armor mods on my armor if I have room for them, I don't craft or buy them and only add them if I find them, and only if I don't need the space for other things. I use all Ranger armor, except gloves, which are biker gloves.

As far as tactics go, if it's less than half a dozen enemies, I'll usually just run straight in and fight them. If it's more than that, I'll usually make use of a doorway to funnel them. That's about it for tactics. I don't use traps or junk turrets or trap doors or blocks or anything to slow them down (when not on horde night). If things get too crazy, I'll either run to another defensible position or, if needed, switch to a gun to clear out some of the enemies. There are times when things get out of hand, but that's almost always due to me not paying attention to what I'm doing.

Even in the largest prison POI, I can do that almost entirely with spears. I tend to need to use a gun for a couple spots near the end where I'm outside because there are so many enemies at once in a mostly open area, but the rest I can do with just a spear.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

I am curious what settings you use in your game.

For reference, I run spears every game and rarely use any other weapon except for horde night or long ranged kills of bears or dire wolves and I am right in the middle of the fight almost constantly. I do use certain tactics to help when things get "interesting," but I'm still rarely using kiting as a way to deal with stuff. My settings are mostly default. I don't increase or decrease zombie damage in any way from default. I do reduce zombie speed to Run instead of Sprint, but that's all.

I find that, even on low level spears, I can power attack to the head once and they'll almost always get knocked down. 1-3 power attacks while on the ground, or 1-2 to the head when back up usually means they are dead. That tends to be true at any point in the game because my quality/tier of spear keeps going up as my game stage and therefore enemy tiers goes up. By the time I'm getting larger numbers of zombies at once (assuming I'm not messing myself up by triggering multiple spawns at the same time in a POI), I usually have found the book for penetration. Once I have that, it's easy to knock down or kill multiple zombies in one attack. With upgrading Spear Mastery, I get to where I'm getting stamina back each kill, and with the final Sharp Sticks book, I get full stamina after each kill. That means I'm rarely out of stamina even though I'm using only power attacks. In fact, it's very rare for me to attack with anything other than a power attack, even at low levels. I also don't use armor perks or the perks to reduce damage, and although I do put armor mods on my armor if I have room for them, I don't craft or buy them and only add them if I find them, and only if I don't need the space for other things. I use all Ranger armor, except gloves, which are biker gloves.

As far as tactics go, if it's less than half a dozen enemies, I'll usually just run straight in and fight them. If it's more than that, I'll usually make use of a doorway to funnel them. That's about it for tactics. I don't use traps or junk turrets or trap doors or blocks or anything to slow them down (when not on horde night). If things get too crazy, I'll either run to another defensible position or, if needed, switch to a gun to clear out some of the enemies. There are times when things get out of hand, but that's almost always due to me not paying attention to what I'm doing.

Even in the largest prison POI, I can do that almost entirely with spears. I tend to need to use a gun for a couple spots near the end where I'm outside because there are so many enemies at once in a mostly open area, but the rest I can do with just a spear.

I play on a multiplayer server, so zombie damage is set at default, but the speed is set to sprint.

When it comes to power attacks to the head, I'll get one of three reactions:

1. The attack works and the zombie's head pops. This reaction happens 25% of the time.
2. The attack hits the zombie, but it hits the zombie as if it were a regular strike and not a headshot. This reaction happens 50% of the time.
3. The attack goes through the zombie completely, as if it has I-frames, but the strike hits the object behind it. This reaction happens 25% of the time.

In the case of 3, and the most common effect of 2, that gives the zombies a chance to move in and strike before I can get distance, which leads to the various ailments I spoke about before.

I used the same play tactics as yourself. I'll funnel where appropriate, fall back if necessary to a better position, or use my rifle if things get too out of hand. I also don't use any blocks, traps, turrets, or doors.

By kiting I didn't mean the agility style of kiting where you get in a few strikes and let them bleed. I meant the style of staying out of range so that I can hit with the spear, but not be hit by the creatures.