decaying winter tier list

The supplied Decaying Winter tier list places Sovereign, Hivemind, and Lazarus in S tier, but it is one player's preference list dated October 4, 2023, not a verified current ranking. A second source describes community voting on TierMaker, yet its captured text does not include the images needed to recover individual placements. Use the dated list as an attributed opinion, and treat a current consensus tier list as pending confirmation.

What the sources actually establish

FrostMakesSkins explicitly introduces the ranking as personal preference and says every perk can be useful in some situations. That framing matters because the post is not presented as a controlled comparison of damage, survival, or completed waves. Its visible S-to-D text can be reconstructed, but its preference-based reasoning must travel with the placements.

The TierMaker snapshot describes an aggregate of submitted lists and shows the tier labels S, A, B, C, and D. However, the supplied capture contains neither the ordered perk images nor text connecting each perk to a tier. Its presence therefore establishes that a separate community-ranking source was collected, not that it agrees with the player's list or supplies a newer replacement.

S tier in the dated player list

The post places Sovereign, Hivemind, and Lazarus in S tier. The author identifies Sovereign as a main and personal favorite, describes Hivemind in strongly favorable terms, and presents Lazarus as a useful second main. These are the author's reasons, rather than measurements showing that the three outperform every other perk in the current version.

The Sovereign entry also includes a personal maximum number of thralls. That is an anecdote about the writer's experience, not a demonstrated cap, requirement, or repeatable benchmark. It is not used here to invent a summon limit or to convert the preference ranking into a numerical power comparison.

A tier and the reasons attached to it

The A tier contains Prophet, Zealot, Executioner, Survivalist, and Immolator. Prophet is valued as support, Zealot for defensive usefulness, and Executioner as the author's preferred frontliner. The same post favors Survivalist's general utility and Immolator's combination of combat options and helping allies.

The separately supplied field guide provides useful context for those preferences without independently verifying the A-tier placements. It describes Survivalist as a basic perk with no active ability and assigns several other perks to frontline or support jobs. Those role descriptions can explain why a player values a perk, but they do not prove its position relative to every alternative.

B tier is an opinion about fit

Crosslink, Mindflayer, Riskrunner, Drifter, Arbiter, Vagabond, and Apostle appear in B tier. Some explanations are explicit preferences for another perk, while others concern ammunition use, pathfinding, or how satisfying the author finds the playstyle. The short Arbiter assessment is especially opinion-based and does not establish an objective limit on its performance.

The field guide describes ranged specialists as needing weapons, ammunition, space, and protection to perform their team job. That makes resource availability relevant when reading the player's complaint about Riskrunner, but it is not evidence that Riskrunner belongs in B in every group. Keep the rank attributed to the post instead of turning one player's experience into a rule for choosing a team.

C tier and a misleading D label

The C tier contains Artillerist and Blitzer. The author says Artillerist did not feel useful enough to them, and the Blitzer discussion is influenced by concerns about how other players use the perk. Neither explanation supplies a current damage test, a complete comparison, or a guarantee that these perks are poor choices for a coordinated team.

The D section lists Berserker, Tickspider, and Damned, but the author defines D as perks they have not tried rather than perks they rank lowest. The original post spells Berserker as “Berzerker”; the name is normalized here using the other supplied material. Treating this D section as a weakest-perk list would contradict the source's own explanation and overstate what the research establishes.

Role context from the separate field guide

The field guide divides perks into frontline, backline, support, and basic categories. Frontliners emphasize melee work, backliners focus on ranged combat or related tools, and support perks help the team through summons or other assistance. Basic perks are treated separately because Survivalist and Damned do not have active abilities in the supplied descriptions.

The same guide recommends supplying frontliners with melee-related resources and providing backliners with guns and ammunition. It also advises protecting vulnerable teammates and sharing resources according to the job each perk needs to do. That is more specific than picking a letter from a ranking, because a preference list does not describe the supplies available in your run or the jobs already covered by teammates.

Reading the community source responsibly

TierMaker's captured explanation says rankings are averaged from published submissions. That is a different method from a single player's preference post, but the actual aggregate placements are missing from the supplied text. An editor cannot reconstruct the missing images by copying the personal list into the community tier labels.

The capture also contains a displayed update-date string, but it does not resolve the date format or establish the game version behind the submitted rankings. A recently displayed page date is not proof that every contributing list reflects current balance. Current placements, version relevance, and the relationship between the two sources remain pending confirmation until the missing ranking content is provided.

What to use when choosing a perk

For this research set, the usable output is the dated player's placements together with their stated limitations and the field guide's team-role context. Choose whether you need melee work, ranged fire support, team assistance, or a basic general-purpose role before treating a letter rank as a recommendation. The material supports that role-based comparison, but it does not support a definitive latest-version ranking for solo play, Holdout, or every team composition.

There are no verified numerical scores, damage comparisons, or mode-specific rankings in the usable tier-list capture. Accordingly, this page does not assign invented scores or promote the 2023 opinion into an official ranking. A complete current community table is pending confirmation, while the historical S, A, B, and C placements and the unusual meaning of D are clearly attributed above.