Generator hot take

I play both sides fairly regularly, and generator speed is by far one of the most fluctuating and problematic parts of the game. This is because both sides have too many ways to speed up or slow down generators respectively. Both sides can run full builds entirely created to affect generator speed. Prove Thyself, Surge/Jolt, Toolboxes, Pain Resonance, Brand New Parts, Pop Goes The Weasel, Hyperfocus, Call of Brine, etc., etc.. Way too many to list them all here is the point. Depending on who's using what, gens can take anywhere between 3 minutes and 20. (As an example, gens can go even faster or slower than that) New players get hit way worse with it too, I have ~600 hours and anytime I get matched with new players the gens just never get done. I've had 12 hook games at 5 generators, and 6 minute 1-3 hook games. Everything swings heavily based on specific builds and playtime/experience. Sometimes you're unstoppable, sometimes you can't do anything. I know there's 100% issues in my idea that I'm not immediately seeing, but I do have a DEFCON 1 approach in mind.

1. Nerf passive gen regression/slowdown perks, the ones that activate automatically by just playing normally. Things like Surge/Jolt, Hex: Wretched Fate, and Grim Embrace. Pain Resonance already got nerfed and is probably fine now, and I feel like regression perks that require you to actually kick the generator are in a decent place balance wise. The passive ones I see as a problem because they just happen naturally without any effective counter or requirement outside of just playing killer normally. Not to mention Surge/Jolt can hit as many generators are within range at once, which is brutal on maps like The Game.

2. Literally just delete toolboxes. Basic toolboxes save you like almost no time and the strongest toolboxes with focused builds can save you several minutes (something like a Commodious with two charge addons, Scavenger, Streetwise, and Built To Last.) Longtime players will have way too many good toolboxes and addons, while people who don't stick hard to one character or just have less playtime have useless garbage that will do basically nothing for them. I know the same applies to medkits, but at least with a medkit you can generally get a self heal out of a brown with the brown charges addon, unless you miss a skillcheck or a killer perk or addon makes it less effective like Overwhelming Presence or something that gives Mangled. My point is bad flashlight still blinds, bad medkit still heals, bad toolbox (according to a reddit post from 3 years ago, thanks u/MomDidntLoveMe) saves about 5.33 seconds. So… about 5.9% of the time it takes to do a generator. Meanwhile a BNP instantly reduces the required charges by 10, effectively repairing about 11% of the generator instantly and preventing that 11% from ever being removed by regression. Weaving Spiders is similar, but that takes a full minute uninterrupted in the basement to use and permanently injures you. It's not an item you can collect 8 billion of on your prestige 100 character and then use in one second every match forever with no drawback.

3. Encourage teamwork instead of encouraging doing 3 generators at the same time and stacking a bunch of buffs. There are some underrated teamwork based perks that help with gens without just being an automatic speed buff. Prove Thyself seems to barely get used since it was nerfed, and I'm not saying it should get buffed, I'm just saying it's very underused mainly because there are so many good one-man repair buffs. We also have Bardic Inspiration, but I don't think anyone's actually even ever read its description, they just saw a guitar, went AWOOOGAA, and didn't bother to check what it did. It can be a surprisingly big help and doesn't take that long to activate. It also combos well with perks like Stake Out and Hyperfocus because it gives a flat buff to the progress gained from all skill checks. I'm not saying these should all be buffed to become the new generator meta, but I just wish they weren't completely overshadowed by the "25 second generators" types of builds people love to use for clip farming.

I know this would be a wild and probably not very well received change. I know it would be a massive shift in gameplay. I know it isn't going to happen. I know there are issues I didn't consider. I just want to share an idea of how it could hypothetically be made less inconsistent. I don't want soloq players to have way more problems and struggles than premade teams. I don't want killers to dodge lobbies because they see 3-4 toolboxes and think "Well sh*t, I don't want to play against that."

All that said, feel free to tear this post to shreds, I'm actually very curious and excited to see what flaws people find in it and point out. Hope it wasn't too much of an eyesore to read, and have an absolutely wonderful day.