Hex Perk Balance Adjustment Idea
Suggestion:
Make hex perks light a totem when they're activated, as opposed to lighting them immediately at the start of the game. In addition, make it so that when a hex perk is cleansed, the perk loses token(s) and remains dormant until it is re-activated. In this case, the perk would re-light another totem when its activation conditions are met once again.
Example:
A killer starts a game with Hex: Ruin, Hex: Devour Hope, Hex: Third Seal, and Hex: Hunter's Lullaby.
At the start of the game, only Hex: Ruin will have a totem associated with it because its activation condition is simply entering the game. Since this condition is limited to once per game, once ruin is destroyed it can never respawn on a dull totem.
The killer then hits a survivor, activating the Third Seal which then lights on a random totem. The killer hits two more people with the Third Seal, bringing its token number to 3. A survivor then cleanses it, removing 1 (or more) of those tokens and disabling the perk temporarily. When/if the killer hits a survivor again, the totem will light a dull totem and re-activate the perk until destroyed again.
The killer then downs and hooks someone. This gives Huntress' Lullaby a token and activates it onto a totem. Like with the Third Seal, Lullaby will continue to gain stacks as the killer hooks more people. If a survivor cleanses the perk, it will lose a stack or so and remain dormant until its activation condition is met again. The same scenario can be applied to Devour Hope, but with its activation condition being unhooks at 24m away (as it is currently).
Benefits:
Currently it is possible for totems to spawn on the opposite side of the map from the killer, and literally in front of the survivor's screen when they spawn in. This often leads to the totem (and perk's!) immediate cleansing and leaves the killer short of a perk for the entirety of the match, and in a way they had no control over. This system will prevent hex perks from being rendered immediately useless from unfortunate situations, but still significantly rewards survivors for seeking out and cleansing hex totems. In addition, the RNG totem placement would actually make more sense and be less punishing for killers, knowing that any unfortunate hex totem spawns are more of an inconvenience or a delay, rather than the complete loss of a quarter of their build.
This system will also strengthen individual usage of some hex perks (devour, lullaby, and third seal), while leaving ruin unchanged (not re-activatable) and nerfing NOED somewhat by reducing the chance of its activation when used in conjuction with multiple hex perks. After all, NOED can't activate if no dull totems are left, and chances are there won't be many left if other hex perks continuously occupy them.
This change will also encourage the hunting of totems as secondary objectives in general, without making them feel mandatory (which I know some would not be fond of), and could potentially lengthen the game a bit in a subtle and natural way.
Also, for anyone wondering about NOED and its activation condition - it activates when all the generators are powered. This only happens once per game, so aside from the slight nerf when its used in conjuction with other hex perks, NOED will remain unchanged compared to what it is now. It may even be harder to activate since more people might be inclined to cleanse more totems in general.
Comments
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Another thing worth mentioning is that, under this system, killers will know which totem is associated with which perk depending on what activated it. This can allow them to control their perks a bit better, as they'll be able to choose which ones are worth defending and which are worth sacrificing at any time during a match.
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