A Case For Thrill Of The Hunt No Longer Being A Hex
It's my opinion that Thrill of the Hunt would be a better perk if it were no longer a hex, instead simply providing a stacking slowdown to blessing and cleansing for every standing totem on the map. There are a few reasons why I think this would be better, and I intend to lay them out here!
1: It simply isn't strong enough. There are examples across the game of non-hex perks that do something similar to a hex, but have a different downside/counter instead of lighting a totem up. Starstruck and Make Your Choice have the Exposed status effect but different requirements for activation than Devour Hope, Haunted Grounds, or NOED, for instance, and Fearmonger inflicts Blindness with a different requirement to Third Seal. It's my opinion that while Thrill's slowdown is underrated, the fact that it scales down with every broken totem is more than enough counterplay to balance its effects, there's no need to also light up a totem to remove it all in one fell swoop.
2: It has diminishing effects that no other hex does. As mentioned above, Thrill's slowdown can be scaled down by the survivor team without the need to cleanse its totem, and maybe I'm missing something but I don't thiiiiink any other hex has that kind of counter? Ruin cannot be made to regress slower, Devour always Exposes survivors, Third Seal always blinds survivors... one could argue that Haunted Grounds having its duration shortened by Vigil counts, but that requires a specific perk and no other hex works this way; they're either active, or they're cleansed. They can sometimes be circumvented, but they can't be diminished before they're cleansed; Thrill can.
3: This would allow it to be a nice, but not obnoxious, counter tool for Boons. I'm not one that would argue that boon totems are overpowered as a mechanic, but I do think that Thrill being a nice niche perk for making blessing slow down permanently unless survivors purposefully eliminate potential boon spots would be a perfectly fair and interesting thing to bring to the table. This is already what Thrill does best right now, but it's hamstrung by being associated with a hex totem that survivors can simply cleanse and then not worry about anymore.
In conclusion; If Thrill weren't a hex perk anymore, it'd be slightly stronger and have a defined niche use. It made sense for it to be a hex when it also gave the loud noise notification as that'd be a little busted to have without any counter, but it doesn't do that anymore. As nice as the slowdown is, it's already not strong enough for a hex and it has other counterplay that is perfectly serviceable on its own to boot.
Comments
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Why did they remove the notification? That was the ONE THING it had to make it viable for hex builds!
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No idea, but let's not fall into the trap of assuming that the notification being removed has made it useless or even considerably weaker. The slowdown that it provides now is just as potent, if not moreso, than the notification- it's just got a built-in counter in a way the notification didn't, so I don't think it warrants being a hex.
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I miss making the alert from it a key part of my four hexes builds...😢
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I think it is strong enough to remain a hex, and is in a perfect place as a totem slowdown perk. Undying only protects another hex once; Thrill could possibly stay up at full strength the entire trial. Survivors have to carefully choose between blessing and cleansing (if either) when ToTH is in play. So much spent time, even if only once in the match.
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I certainly agree that's the case, but don't you think that what you're describing is somewhat undercut by it being tied to a totem? There's a lot less careful choice when you can just cleanse the totem its associated with and completely remove that slowdown from the match.
But, if the only way to lessen its power is to actually break totems, you would have to make those choices. There's no easy out, you either deal with the slowdown or you break a few totems and make it more manageable. Slowing down blessing and cleansing isn't that universally strong of an effect if nobody brings boons and near useless if nobody brings boons and you don't have any hexes, so this feels reasonable to me.
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Awesome idea. This would make hit-and-run come back again, and even be not quite as strong as before for Killers since Boon Healing is still here (albeit the Boon gets up more slowly).
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