Are Hex totems even viable any longer?

That really does depend on the match though, and what hexes have been brought. And with boon totems now being a thing, it just means whatever chance they had of actually being left untouched during a match, has been diminished to an almost certainty that they will be taken out during the match.

They don't want hexes to bee too oppressive, but they want the boon totems be exactly that, otherwise they wouldn't have made them the way they have. Plus, what the hell is up with them only providing the killer with an option to soft counter it, while the survivors can outright hard counter any hex totem - It's just more of the same awful survivor sided bullshit, sure it's whats bringing them the most money, but without killers the game is nothing - they should remember what role the killers actually fill for the game - vital role, and it is supposed to be hard playing survivors, but obviously they want survivors to able to bully the killer around and make it a laughing joke!

I don't think this will fix it, first step is to make bringing boon totem perks just as risky as bringing hex totems - meaning making killer able to do both cleansing and hexing totems, that's the only way it can even make it remotely dangerous to bring boon totems. It absolutely has to be just as risky to bring boon totems, problem just is, that the killer has more than enough to deal with than to go hunt for boon totems. Also, with how they're making the meta so survivor-sided, obviously they want the survivors to win and the killer to lose, and it also means that the game's title really has lost all of it's meaning. But BHVR will never start to correct the overly survivor-sided "mistakes" they've made, because it's what keeps all of those casuals and competitive tryhards forking over tons of cash for comestics and DLCs, and if this is not their reason for making the game so heavily survivor-sided, guess it just means they're exceptionionally biased and shouldn't be making a 4v1 game.

Boons really should not stack, it's should be a single effects for each, just like hexes, and most certainly not give such insanely overpowered (greatly imbalanced) bonuses and abilities that basically means they're getting free extra perks, which the killer have no way of actually replicating or compensating for.

Whichever is flawed really depends on the approach and what aspects you choose to include, where it's obvious that yours does not include very important aspects, such as how it actually detrimentally affects the killer's time and game play. Also certain situations you're bringing up, are highly situational.

Let's also review a couple of things, which should be considered.

• The implementation of boon totems should give rise to revisiting how hex totems work and how the work in relation to boon totems that also use the totem system, in other words, they should be reworking (adding functionality and features) hex totems. Simply because hex totems was never designed with it mind that survivors should also be using the same totems the hex totems use. IF hex totems are to remain viable, there is definitely a need for hexes being able to be reactivated due to the intensified focus and incentive for survivors to be looking for totems.
• Boon totems inherently conflicts with the balance and viability of hex totems, because they use the same totem system, hence why there is a need for killer being able to have the choice between cleansing or reactivating a hex totem. This part is especially important for strategies and builds that use hexes, so at least the hex user can decide if they want to sacrifice these totems to more permanently for the match affect the boon totem users. Also, the cleanse action for the killer should be around the same time it takes to break pallets.
• The incentive to be looking for totems is even higher now with the implementation and focus on bringing more boon totems into the game, which most definitely hurts the viability for hexes being used altogether, and there is nothing you as killer can do about it, and the killer can't even stop survivors in the same they can stop the killer from using the hex.
• When boon totems are able to re-lit, it only really makes sense for hex totems do be re-lit as well.
• Hexes are High Risk, High Reward. | Boons are Low Risk, High Reward, but it should be just as risky to bring boon totems into the match as hex totems are. So either Hexes are changed into a Low Risk High Reward situation, or Boons into a High Risk High Reward situation. A way to solve this would be to make killer able to choose between cleansing or reactivating a hex totem.
• Survivors in a match can be completely SWF, and thus most likely is communicating through VoIP services - meaning they can easily communicate to each where totems have been found - this isn't something new, but it's an aspect that definitely should be considered as well, as it makes it much easier for the survivors to find totems altogether. Even if finding totems takes time and can be tricky, Small Game helps with this.
• There are 4 survivors in a match, it only requires one to setup a boon totem, in theory it means only 3 can be working on a generator when this happens, but this is really just a minor set back and in most cases there won't even be 3 working on a generator at a time.
• There is only 1 killer, but 4 survivors, having 1 do boon totems won't set back the survivors that much, where as the killer is having to continuously keep hunting these boon totems down and snuff them out, affects the killer's time a lot more than it does the survivors because the killer is only one and thus can only do one thing at once, of course the individual situations affect different and it may not be that obvious there can be situations where it really does hurt the killer's time.
• Snuffing out totems takes a few seconds but that action don't mean much when it will up again seconds later, depending on the situation, it can have quite bad consequences for the killer. So definitely blocking it from being used would alleviate some issues, at least temporarily, and just as long as when they're blocked they don't conflict with hex totems activating on such a totem.
• Boons adding abilities to the survivors is basically giving free perks (much improved versions of these), which the killer has no way of replicating or compensating for or really handling in any meaningful way and the more who're getting these perk abilities and bonuses, the greater the imbalance. Mind you that, it only requires one survivor to run these boon perks, but everyone in gets their benefits while in the area of effect. Look below for more details..

So perk balance between survivors and killer can be summarized generally like this.

• The intended balance is for the difference to be 0
• 1 survivor can bring up to 12 perk levels, and 4 survivors can bring a total of 48 perk levels.
• 1 killer can bring in a total of 12 perk levels, these should be the equivalent of 48 perk levels due their strength (but really isn't)

So if a survivor decides to bring two boon totem perks both at tier 3, it's the equivalent of 6 perk level, which is only a loss for the individual survivor when not gaining the effects of those. But the other survivors who're getting these could be up to 3 other survivors which is the equivalent of 3x6 perk levels = 18. Basically this means, the boon totem perk user loses passive bonuses & abilities with the worth of 6 perk levels, but still has access to them locally, but the rest of the survivors gains the benefits as well. This is what I'm talking about that the killer has no way of replicating, compensating or handling in any meaningful for way. These benefits should be the equivalent of what was lost taking into account that boon totem user actually still can gain their benefits, then divided by the max amount of survivors. Hence why I mentioned the parts below here and in the other post.

These below parts are meant as in a way to better balance boons and hexes:

• Boons should be a single effect - just like hexes.
• Boons should not stack - just like hexes.
• boons should only provide reasonable bonuses, not like the the ones they do now.
• Boons should not offer both abilities and passive bonuses.
• Boons should not offer perk benefits that there is a perk for as it would render it unnecessary.
• Boons should not be able to be placed on a hex, and a hex should be able to be placed on boon - only cleansing is an option if you want to get rid of ether a boon or hex. This way it forces either side to sacrifice a totem to stop the other.

You may think this view is flawed, but what is flawed, is to bring in something that uses the same totem system the has been a dedicated aspect to help the killer complete it's objective, this boon system only endangers the killer's use of the totem system. Hence why there is a need to at the very least to make them similar in terms of balance. Speaking of balance, mind you that there are 4 survivors but only 1 killer, so it's imperative that whatever boons are given are slight benefits, as these are given to EVERY survivor in the area of effect of a boon totem. This is why Boons should not stack and should not provide both bonuses and abilities, and the reason they should not be giving abilities that basically is a different perk, just makes the use of that perk obsolete to some extent.

You think the idea behind boon totems is extremely good, but the real issue is the it's endangering something that has been a dedicated aspect to help the killer complete it's objective. So while the idea might be good conceptually, it's inherently flawed and definitely not suited for the game, UNLESS they rework and improve hex mechanics and the game play associated with it, including reworking and rebalancing boon totems in relation to it.

Yes, this exactly where it's headed, less and less people want to actually play killer, because it's getting less and less fun for the killers. But it's no wonder, they keep implementing things that just causes problems for the killers without actually adding good enough counterplay against it. CoH certainly is prove of that, but there are so many survivor perks out there that actually has little to no counterplay against it, Even looking and base mechanics and lack there of you can see how survivor sided the game play meta is. Just to name one at random - the game has no stun protection mechanic, so the killer can literally be stunned over and over.