I think 必死 is the word I'm most leery of these days; there are certainly times when 'desperation' is fine but quite a lot of uses where that would be exaggerated and you're better off not having an equivalent word and just using strong wording for the rest of the line.
https://twitter.com/BuddyWaters/status/1668268871394947072
「必死」は、私が最近とても用心している言葉です。確かに「desperation」でいい場合もありますが、それだと大げさになることが多く、訳さずに文自体を強い口調で訳した方がいい場合も結構あります