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The Problem with NOED

Glipngr
Glipngr Member Posts: 19

Let me just begin that I do play killer a lot, probably more than survivor. That being said, even as someone who favors killers, I do believe that it is fairly obvious that an aspect of NOED can be considered "unfair," which is of course the fact that it's a Hex perk.

I know a lot of survivors have a problem with the fact that it's an instadown that is activated by all of the gens being done. They say that it is a crutch and that a killer shouldn't be given such an ability for failing one of their objectives. It's true that it is an extremely strong ability to have for the killer to have for doing nothing, but that does not mean it isn't counterable. The most obvious counter is just run away from the killer. If everyone is alive by the end of the game, there's a good chance the survivors have been looping the killer pretty well a lot of the time. Continuing to loop and out maneuver the killer until the team finds the totem (If they're looking. If they're not looking and you're the first one found, you're just unlucky, and luck is a part of this game, so try not to be too mad about it. If noed is known about and not taken care of, your team is as much responsible for your death as the killer) will keep you alive.

The second strategy is the ever-hated "do totems" strategy. While it is entirely possible to do all the totems, as some survivors have said before, totem spawns can be extremely inhibiting, especially on maps such as the swamp. Small Game is obviously the work around, but it still has quite the small range, no way to know how many totems are done, and takes a perk slot. The perk slot issue is not an issue I personally believe in because I believe that mixing builds is part of the fun of this game, but I know that a large portion of the survivor community does not want to have to change their builds to find totems. As for the issue of not knowing how many totems are left, this is the one that validates survivor complaints the most. It's absolutely true. There's no way to know how many totems are left, and so if you do have a map like the swamp or temple of purgation, getting all the totems could be impossible for a solo.

The best way I can see to "fix" noed would simply be to add a totem counter. This would solve the biggest issue, and make it more viable to destroy totems, because you know whether or not your survivor teammates will be assisting you in preventing noed. If the whole team does not want to do it, then the team can suffer for it. As for the people who want to reply with "But that wastes time! While we're breaking totems, we could be doing gens," this would be a secondary objective, something everyone has been asking for for ages. With the totem counter, it would be like doing a smaller, faster gen with the intent on making sure you get out rather than powering the gates. Even if the killer doesn't have noed, each totem gives 1000 BP, so it's worth it for survivors anyways. With Small Game, it's easy BP, and without it, it's still easy BP. Sure, it takes time, but it's an entirely viable solution to noed, and with the counter, is entirely doable.

The other alternative is to revert it to a previous version. The version I speak of is the Timer version of the perk. Make it on a 120 second timer rather than a Hex, and make it only activate when a door is opened rather than when all the generators are completed, while giving the killer a 4/5/6% speed boost. This means it can not be removed by survivors, but they are the ones who decide when to activate it. I know this change seems extremely one sided to killers, but in a situation where you're chasing a survivor after all gens are done, there is very little chance they will be able to escape you with noed active if a survivor opens the door, and the speed boost can help chases.

Of course, there is the Blood Warden technique of waiting to open the door until everyone is there, but the insta down and speed boost should allow you to catch any survivors making a break for the door as long as you are chasing them proficiently. If you can't catch them even with a speed boost and an instadown, you simply couldn't catch them. Sometimes you get the kill, sometimes you don't. Killers are not entitled to kills the same way survivors are not entitled to escapes. The point of NOED is to give you a second chance at a kill since you couldn't get it without an instadown, and if the chance doesn't go your way, oh well. You have to realise you just couldn't catch them and move on to the next game. No matter what you lose your offerings and addons, and you still should get an ample amount of BP if you were playing well, because despite what many people believe, killers are not extremely underpowered. Survivors may be strong, but not so strong that it's impossible to win, so if they do win, killers shouldn't be salty about it, no matter what perks, items, or addons they are using. You won't even remember their usernames in a couple games, so why stay mad? But I digress, this is a post about noed, not the people of DbD.

In conclusion, current NOED is counterable, and survivors can definitely escape with the killer using it. That does not mean that NOED shouldn't be tweaked at all, because a few simple changes could make it a bit less awful for survivors while staying viable for killers. If a survivor is killed by NOED, they should accept the loss and move on, if a killer gets no kills with NOED, they should accept the loss and move on.

And just a reminder that I play both killer and survivor equally, so no, I'm not terribly biased.