Survivalist

[The_Pharoah]

I know a lot has been said about the Survivalist perk so I decided to try my hand at it. I'm now at Level 24 and I can honestly say, I now understand what the purpose of the Survivalist is and I will liken it to the 'Allrounder' role in cricket ie. someone who isn't a specialist batsman or specialist bowler but a specialist at doing both well (maybe not to the level of specialist but handy). I've also realised it allows me to join my two favourite weapons in KF2:
1. HZ12 - THE best up close trash cleaner in the game; and
2. M79 - the other best trash cleaner in the game.
3. Add to this, the medic grenade has saved so many lives that I've had players thanking me after each level lol! (esp when there's no medic)

Yes it does struggle a bit from the lack of perk upgrades that you get from specialist perks (eg. ammo count, damage, etc) but you still get some really good upgrades (eg reload speed, explosion damage buff) that makes rocking the shotgun + m79 (and/or RPG at higher levels) worthwhile.

Looking forward to seeing what TWI do to this perk.

 

[infntnub]

Survivalist is a lot of fun - it's just bad structure the way they split the skills up between "3 groups of this perk" or "3 groups of this perk".

For example, the reload bonus should be for all perks if you choose it, as it is a jack of all trades type perk.

You're right though, it's effective to run a demo weapon and support weapon along with the med nades. I also usually take the melee expert skill for added survivability. Sometimes you just need to drop a nade and whip out your knife for a full retreat to live another day.

I've been running mp5, rpg, med pistol a lot lately. Any of the smgs are a lot of fun with the zed explosion skill at level 20.

 

[The_Pharoah]

Good tips. I saw the melee improvements but wasn't game to use it because we don't get the health regen as zerkers do.

One thing i do hate is the random weapon that you spawn with, esp one that you've never used/tried before (as in my case with the pistols, etc)

 

[2Clicks]

Your cricket analogy is correct but its not really a specialist at either. Just better than using off-perk weapons and equipment. Which is sort of the point.

 

[infntnub]

One thing i do hate is the random weapon that you spawn with, esp one that you've never used/tried before (as in my case with the pistols, etc)

I refuse to spawn as Survivalist.

Either go Support and give your team some extra wave 1 ammo or go Zerker and start banking some dosh to accelerate your loadout acquisitions.

The random nature of the spawn weapon makes sense to some degree, but again, with how they have the skills split in the perk's tree it can just be annoying to spawn with a gun you don't have the reload bonus selected for. So I just avoid it entirely.

 

[The_Pharoah]

yeah TBH I wish we could choose our starting loadout (Tier 1) rather than it be random. Nothing worse than starting with a weapon you don't like or have never used before.

Again will be interesting to see what changes TWI come up with re Survivalist. I do like the concept though and yes its better to run survivalist rather than go offperk.

 

[PurpleFanta]

The best part by far of playing survivalist is that you can use any of your two favorite weapons together.
My least favorite part is being forced to pick the 2 level 20 skills and being forced to pick between 2 dot grenades at level 10.
I dont even personally mind the grenade change at 10, but I LOVED the support grenade for dealing damage over the molotov. I personally pick the medic grenade because I enjoy supporting/healing and its always been my favorite, but sometimes I wish I could go back and pick up the support grenade again if i'm doing an explosive damage build and we already have another medic.

I dont like how it enforces you to mimic other perks rather than actually building your own. I know this has been said before and I'll say it again. You shouldn't literally pick between reload speed for half the guns or half the other guns, it should be reload speed for ALL of the guns OR something else for ALL of the guns.
If the upgrades were more global and about actually building a perk rather than chose which aspects of other perks you want to copy, I think it would be alot more fun to use.

As for how good it is, I dont really mind. I mostly just pick it to mess around when playing with friends anyways. Maybe .2% more damage per level, Idk. If there were a skill for damage at some point it would probably be less of a problem.

 

[The_Pharoah]

You shouldn't literally pick between reload speed for half the guns or half the other guns, it should be reload speed for ALL of the guns OR something else for ALL of the guns.

Good point and something I've also thought about ie. they should change perk 1 to be either:

1. Fast reload for all weapons; or
2. extra ammo for all weapons

thats the trade off isn't it? the ability to carry much more ammo than standard but slow reload or vice versa.

 

[flashn00b]

Lately, i've mostly been playing Survivalist as a stopgap towards a Pulverizer before switching back to Berserker.

To better help with this, I've been getting these skills:

Heavy Weapons training if i can afford an M79, otherwise, i'd go for the MP7 and Tactical reload
Melee Expert (Switching from Berserker, but can still get use from the Crovel if my guns are empty)
Ammo vest (Not expecting to carry more than 15 weight blocks)
Spontaneous Zed-Splosion if using a bullet weapon, Make Things go Boom if rolling with M79