Hex: Ruin is overnerfed to oblivion

because they wanted to change meta

Well, I can answer that last question, at least.

Prior to patch 6.1.0., the game had a problem. There were about six perks on each side that you would see some combination of, almost every single game, for years. The meta was exceptionally stale, and not only was that an observable fact, it was an observable complaint. People were very annoyed with always seeing the exact same builds over and over again, and were demanding BHVR do something to address it.

In response, eventually, BHVR did the one thing they could do: An update that would nerf the stuff being used, buff the stuff not being used, and make a few basekit changes to address perks people feel they needed to run. From this perspective, it's impossible for any perk in that "meta" list to have genuinely been "overnerfed", since it was an emergency measure to address a pervasive problem that had grown out of control.

Before this patch, Ruin was in every game. After, it wasn't. Mission success, unironically.

That being said, Ruin is still a little weak these days, and the more viable perks, the better. With that in mind I'd love to see it brought back up to 200% but with the "disables when someone dies" stipulation added back in, to keep it comparable to other tools.

The goal wasn't actually to change the total number of meta perks, though?

I'm sure that would've been a nice bonus, but that patch was an emergency measure to change the specific perks being used because THAT was the thing people were complaining about. Seeing the exact same specific perks, game after game, for years. That was the complaint and that was why that patch happened.

They also haaaave been buffing under-used perks…? They just had to do 6.1.0. first otherwise people wouldn't have ever swapped off. Like, on the survivor side, people still would've been running BT and DS because there still wouldn't be any basekit protection against tunnelling. While those perks - at least DS - are still popular, they're nowhere near as required as they used to be.

Plus, without 6.1.0., some perks - like Dead Hard especially - would still be so overwhelmingly strong that no new or buffed perk could ever reasonably compete, so the patch needed to happen for those perks too. Mostly just Dead Hard, but a few other things were a little too strong too, like Iron Will, Spine Chill, Pop, and Corrupt Intervention. Most of those perks are now still worth it (except SC lol), but they were way stronger before, to the degree that they'd have a chilling effect on any new perks trying to get into the meta.

I don't think it's fair to call it short sighted when what they did was change the meta perks for a different crop AND laid the groundwork for the meta to get more diverse by removing the requirement to run certain perks. Anti tunnel was at least intended to be no longer necessary, regression perks were intended to be no longer necessary, they removed BP bonuses from two perks ran for that purpose while alleviating the grind so they were no longer necessary, they improved chase-related numbers for killers so more perk types could be considered viable…

You could maybe consider some of those to not be successes - the only one I'd mark as a failure there is that anti-tunnel is still heavily incentivised - but it's still very obvious they were trying to build a better foundation for a healthier meta, even if in the short term people still ran similar perks to what they used to. Ideally, that would've been because they hadn't adapted to the new possibilities, but unfortunately the reality was that on the killer side at least, the replacement perks were unbalanced so people just ran those until they were nerfed. That part I will freely criticise.

When you ask what buffed perks "got into the meta", though, I think there's a need to step back and acknowledge that generally speaking, playerbases will optimise to the smallest number of strongest options where applicable. Generally speaking, "the meta" is probably not going to be a huge number of perks, and while it can be expanded, the goal should be considered more to make as many perks viable as possible, and on that BHVR are doing pretty well.

For example, Gearhead and Furtive Chase are legitimately good perks that are worth running now, where previously they were laughably terrible. The latest patch did a lot to help Machine Learning and Oppression, two formerly terrible perks as well. They may not be "meta" because they can't be considered the literal best, but they still do a ton to help out perk variety in terms of what's viable. You do see more than the same six perks every single game these days, or at least I do, on both sides. Sure, there's still "a meta", but there always will be, removing that isn't the goal.

I honestly think Ruin is fine right now and the thing that needs to be changed is the current hex mechanic. Either the totems need to be actually well hidden or they should be indestructible for a period of time at the start of the match( like 60-120 seconds).