An idea for the boon perks - reactivating Hex perks

sniffedpustulas

First off, this is an IDEA.

I am not saying that it should be done that way or that it needs a fix at all, I am just posting an IDEA. Maybe it is good, maybe not.

So at the moment the boon perks are pretty strong and don't have any downside. If one in the team runs it, it gives a huge advantage for the team, without any risk and without any counter. The Killer can stomp on it, but that only disables it temporarily. If that one totem is placed well, it can have a significant impact on the game. If two or more in the team are running it, it is even stronger.

In addition to that, there is no limitation. If all four run circle of healing and shadow step, they can nearly cover the whole map with last healing and bbq protection. Especially if the team is aware, that they shouldn't destroy totems.

The killer can, as mentioned, only disable it temporarily.

That way the boon totems are only high reward, but not high risk.

Now I do play both Killer and survivor and I do enjoy the perk on both sides, so I wouldn't nerf it. Instead I would suggest the following:

If a survivor blesses a totem, which is cursed/has a hex, that hex is only disabled. Once the Killer stomps the blessed totem, the hex reactivates (maybe even after a cooldown).

That way the Boon totems have a high reward and a mediocre risk.

You do get fast healing and no scratch marks, but you risk not being able to counter the killer OR having to sacrifice map coverage to counter it.

As an example: We are playing on dead dog saloon. The Killer is a blight and has hex ruin, while one of the survivors has Boon:Shadow Step and maybe Boon:Circle of Healing. The Hex totem is in the Saloon itself. Now the blight or the player has issues using the ability in the Saloon.

Therefore having a Shadowstep Totem there, to quickly lose him would give the survivors a significant advantage. Without the change, they would just bless the Ruin totem and have this advantage and got rid of ruin. But with the change the survivors have to decide wether to bless or destroy the ruin totem.

If they bless it, they do have a big advantage in the saloon, BUT if the blight recognises it, he can get his Ruin back and the survivors have to deal with it again.

If they destroy it, they got rid of his Ruin, but they don't have the advantage at the saloon and can only place the boon outside at the smaller houses, where the blight is much stronger.

This way this totem does have a downside or risk, without nerfing it into the ground and does require a more tactical approach instead of just placing it. Sure it is a very situational thing, but I think it would be a first change and make the game more exciting.

dugman

Boons being resettable and hexes not is ok in principle since Boons have two other inherent weaknesses compared to hexes:

• Hexes start the game already in effect with no action required by the killer. Boons take 14 seconds for a survivor to activate.
• Hex effects are map wide regardless of totem placement. Boon effects have a limited radius around their totem (a little less than a typical terror radius)

So the idea is that Boons are resettable as an offset to the above.

Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean a specific Boon can’t be over or underpowered. How good or bad a Boon is will depend on exact details of how it works. Circle of Healing, for instance, is only as good or bad as the percentage healing survivor can do per second while in the radius and how large that radius is. A Circle of Healing that hypothetically only gave you 1% healing speed per second would be worthless for instance, while a Circle that lets you heal to full in 1 second is god like. A Circle with a radius of 1m is much less worthwhile than a Circle with a radius of 30 meters. So to balance the Boon all you need to tweak is those effects up or down, you don’t even need to touch whether or not Boons can be replaced during the match in general.

So basically Boons being resettable and Hexes not is fine so long as the individual effects are balanced accordingly. I have no particular opinion on whether or not the current Boons are too good or bad or ok as they are, I think it’s probably too soon to tell honestly. But I think the overall system for Boons in general is fine.

TheDuhJ

I'm sure they will release a killer with teachable perks that counter boon totems. I feel like boon totems will get balanced with additions than nerfs

SoylentPixie

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/290556/an-idea-for-the-boon-perks-reactivating-hex-perks

I'll be honest and give you my solo survivor opinion if helps. If you did this nothing would change except that nobody would place boons on a hex totem even if it had an area advantage. As a player, I'd choose the smart option. Destroy the totem and put my boon elsewhere, survivors will not risk giving the killer back their hex in most cases.

Interesting idea, but realistically it wouldn't change much. The boons need a use limitation of some such. But it's nice to see opinions that aren't just "Nuke it from orbit" :)

YOURFRIEND

I don't like hexes as a counter to or interacting with boons in any significant way. I don't like hex perks. Don't run em. I don't b wanna be forced to run hex builds to counter broken boons.

Powder_Kegs

Like how plague basically locks out medkits, hex perks should lock out blessings.

A hex perk should only be cleansed. Being able to bless over it has been a poor decision on the devs part.

BattleCast

Blessing a hex totem takes longer so it basically would take the same amount of time to cleanse and then bless the totem. This is completely fair IMO, but instead of having the hex come back after being blessed I would rather they do something else.

I suggest they allow killers to completely crush dull/blessed totems to deny boon totems once the totem in the area has been found.