Huntress Add-On Rework: some personal opinions and suggestions

rha

First off: I'm not a streamer, not a power player, I'm not and probably won't ever be the console equivalent of Sverkeren with Huntress, don't have experience with game design, play this game only for fun and not competitively. I just love playing Huntress more than anything else. That's why I avoided so far to make any suggestions.

However, Iri Heads are a much discussed topic and I've read some suggestions occasionally that I rather dislike, and so I thought hey, at least I'd voice my opinion so I can say at least I did so if I am disappointed with the result of her add-on rework when it comes 😛.

Huntress doesn't have the standard add-on rarity distribution yet, so her add-ons would have to be revisited anyway. While lots of killers are getting spiced up she has been largely unchanged. While I wouldn't want her base kit to be touched, it would be nice to get some more unique add-ons for her (as for Nurse, I really did enjoy the reworked add-ons).

For those who don't like any of this, remain calm: nothing here is ever going to make it into the game, it would be the first time in my life someone's listening to me :).

Opinions on existing add-ons

Add-on that must go:

Iridescent Head

maybe balanced on players who only occasionally play huntress and miss most hatchets, but I think that addons should be ideally so that players who are good with a killer should still be able to use them without feeling bad.

Also, they seem to crash the game for many survivors.

An idea that has been floating around multiple times was that hatchets are one-shot only at a certain distance. I don't really like this either. It may be correct that this rewards skill, but on the other hand if you don't even hear the lullaby yet and get one-shotted out of nowhere without counterplay because you weren't aware that you were on her radar probably isn't that much more fun than the current version. Not sure if "at least it was a someone with skill" is enough comfort.

Also, if you don't have much opportunity for long range hatchets due to a poor map, you wouldn't get much out of the ultra rare add-on and that's not satisfying for the killer either.

Add-on that should go:

Venomous Concoction

exhaustion add-ons are pretty boring and 90 seconds is a wee bit too much as exhaustion was nerfed since this add-on was introduced without adjusting this thingy. Even better, get rid of both Exhaustion add-ons, but that's probably not happening.

Add-ons that might go/change without me complaining:

Amanita Toxin

not a big fan of a short period of blindness after hatchet hit. I think blindness is only really good in certain situations, such as while you're in a bear trap or on the hook, but not randomly on a short timer. If the Blindness would last e.g. until the survivor's health state changes then it probably would be actually good.

Btw, I looked up "Amanita Toxin" and found nothing about blindness but that diarrhea as one initial symptom, now I must resist imagining how diarrhea would work as a status effect in DbD and whether it would be OP in combination with new Ruin.

Rusty Head/Begrimed Head

woohoo, hold M1/L1 for a little bit longer. So much fun, so interactive. Get this stuff out of my bloodwebs please (I know, no chance).

Haemmorhage add-ons (Coarse Stone/Fine Stone)

would prefer to see one of these go. I think this hurts a huntress more than it helps. While it may help tracking an injured survivor you lost sight of for a bit longer, my experience is that the time you waste doing so at 110% movement speed is often not worth it.

NEW ADDON SUGGESTIONS

"NEW" IRIDESCENT HEADS (Ultra rare #1, "the infectious fright hatchets"):

• hitting a healthy survivor with a hatchet will cause other (healthy?) survivors in your lullaby (terror radius?) range to scream and reveal their position.

Note I explicitly say "hitting a healthy survivor" because I was looking for something to build pressure by switching targets and gaining information about locations, not as an ultimate boredom "slug everyone" add-on, would still need the IF perk.

Might seem a bit uncreative as the Oni has a similar addon, however I've thought about something like this for Huntress long before Oni was released, soooo ...

Alternative was: after hitting a healthy survivor with a hatchet, show other survivors' aura in a radius of x meters around the survivor hit for 2-3 seconds (similar to Glowing Concoction, just on others for the above purpose).

BELLADONNA TOXIN (Ultra rare #2):

"A toxin that causes a feverish semi somnolence during which hallucinations take the place of auditory reality."

• a survivor hit by a hatchet becomes Oblivious for x seconds
• for the duration of the effect the survivor will be hearing the lullaby faintly in the distance, independent of actual distance to the Huntress

Meant to cause confusion, particularly on maps that she currently isn't great on like indoor maps if you don't know whether she's still after you around the corner or has switched targets and leaves you unsure whether you're safe or not.

UNNAMED ADD-ON #1

• hitting a generator not being worked on with a fully charged hatchet causes it to start regressing
• does not count as a "damage generator" action, so no Overcharge, PGTW applied

UNNAMED ADD-ON #2

• increases movement speed to 4.6m/s for 10? 15? seconds after running out of hatchets

I'm against giving Huntress 115% movement speed by default (as some have asked for). There have been suggestions to give her regular movement speed while out of hatchets only which I don't like either because it'd be too tempting for new and "occasional" huntresses to play for the remainder of the chase or even match as a powerless 115% killer once out of hatchets. I'd just be sitting here and shake my head and weep if I'd have to play against such a huntress.

This is an attempt to "fix" this "potential issue" by giving her temporarily more movement speed, with the goal of letting her get to a locker quicker to refill (or if she's right next to a locker already give her an opportunity to catch up a bit again), but not to continue to chase like a trapless trapper for an extended time. Not merely for faster reloads though, it could be very dangerous if the last hatchet was a melee hatchet because of the shorter cooldown.

IDEA FOR "SAME STAT VARIOUS STRENGTH ADD-ONS"

(Bandaged Haft/Oak Haft, Manna Grass Braid/Flower Babushka): probably not gonna happen, but something I'd love to see would be to have these combined to "dynamic strength" add-ons with some useful base stat increase, plus a cumulative bonus (up to a maximum, of course) when you land a certain hatchet shot, e.g. hit a fully charged hatchet from at least x meters, or hit a hatchet on a survivor who wasn't in your LOS when you threw the hatchet (predictive/long range aura hatchets). Some kind of secondary objective to go for during a match to reward players who are actually skilled with her.

THE OUTTAKES

The stuff I dismissed. Only for laughs.

A "SOMETHING TO MESS WITH OBSESSION" ADDON

• You become obsessed with one survivor.
• When you hit the obsession with a hatchet, on the next successful hatchet hit, the hatchet is instantly returned to you
• When your obsession dies, your hatchet carrying capacity is reduced by 1

I never use Obsession mechanics because I find no existing obsession perk that would work for my playstyle. That was just me tinkering with "something with obsession" that even I could put to use, possibly combined with obsession swap perks.

PUTRID CONCOCTION

"Hatchets treated with a strange substance that draws the attention of the entity"

• after being hit by a hatchet, the next vault approached by the survivor while in a chase will be blocked by the entity for x seconds
• vault is blocked for the affected survivor only
• (survivor would see an icon in the HUD that he's subject to this effect)

RUBBERY HEADS

• first time a hatchet hits an obstacle, it bounces off at the appropriate angle.

Sounded exciting at first, but then I realized they would be bouncing off the survivor then, too, without causing any damage.

MOTHER'S WARDROBE

• Opening an empty locker takes you to the customization screen where you can change your outfit during the match
• Removes the ability to reload hatchets at lockers
• Grants 100% bonus bloodpoints for Charged Shot and Precise Shot score events

She's lacking a bonus bloodpoints add-on so this was at least an attempt ... if you hit all your five hatchets fully charged you get max Deviousness bloodpoints and can impress survivors with how many stylish Huntress outfits you own! She's a woman after all.

UniSans

I love these ideas

Kind_Lemon

I appreciate the thought and effort that went into this. I believe Iridescent heads should considerably increase hatchet windup time and only one-shot survivors on a fully charged hatchet (max speed). It should also decrease movement while charging a hatchet. I don't think reducing max hatchets to one is necessary if these changes were made.

WARNING: Rant Below (bc what you said about Nurse and killer changes recently)

"spiced up" I disagree with the implications behind your word choice. Nurse was most certainly not "spiced up", just meddled with and to the detriment of many Nurse players who were mediocre but played just to have fun. I loved Jenner's Last Breath and Anxious Gasp Combo, but now I have no reason to use them. The rest of the add-ons have also suffered from being made uninteresting, worthless, or detrimental. If someone has fun, great. Many people are not and do everything they can to make Nurse play like she used to play.