Idea: show to everyone how many totems are left

White_Owl said:

@Rebel_Raven said:
Unless you have haunted grounds, then there are 7.

I don't know where you got this information, but it's not true. Totems are always 5.

Killers already have it rather rough as is once you get out of rank 10 - 20, and of the many aspects that are weak about them Totems are high up on that list. You have to realize that when you cleanse a Hex Totem you're destroying an entire perk from that Killer, that's one fourth of their power. Simply put, with how long it takes to cleanse a totem (14 seconds, with Thrill of the Hunt and 5 totems it's 18.2 seconds) they are rather vulnerable, especially when you can't exactly camp your Totem unless you're the Hag and even then if the Survivor has a brain they'll just crouch up to it.

If you were to show Survivors how many Totems are left by default this would weaken them even more and completely take the edge off them once they see that number hit zero. Survivors who might have been keeping an eye out for them despite them having all been cleansed would now stop looking and caring about them, and while that sounds like an obvious and positive thing from a logic standpoint it actually would negatively impact Killers.

I have my own ideas on how Totems could work better over at https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/29773/quick-fix-the-additional-objectives-that-are-totems if you want to take a look, an inane idea but one that would fix two issues in one fell swoop. I might even agree to your Totem counter if these changes were made as it would have some relevance in keeping track of them.

It's a bad idea for several reasons.

First, the killer currently doesn't know how many totems are left and gets no notification when a dull totem is cleansed. There's no reason survivors should know either. If NOED pops or not at the end of the game, the killer can't predict any more than the survivors.

Second, it gives the survivors more information than just how many dull totems there are, but how many hex totems are being used. If they see there are 4 dull totems at the start of the match, they already know they're facing 1 hex. Which hex it is revealed when they touch their first generator and they can see if they have lullaby or Ruin. If not, it's most likely Devour Hope. There's a chance it's Third Seal, but unlikely. Maybe you see there are 2 dull totems, and you know one is Ruin, that means the other two are most likely Haunted Grounds, and all survivors can alter their game play accordingly.

The claim that it would only help solo survivors determine how many totems to cleanse to avoid NOED is not accurate.

Lastly, NOED is super overrated. Okay, sure, you got to the end of the match and weren't expecting to get one-hit down, but you did. One of the other survivors can cleanse the NOED totem, or another opportunity may present itself that you can be saved. If not, you got to the end of the match and definitely pip'ed and got a lot of points.

On the other side of that coin, the killer gets to the end of every match, and doesn't always pip.

Maybe the killer intentionally put together an end-game build, with Remember Me, Blood Warden and NOED. In turn, they gave up A Nurse's Calling, Sloppy Butcher, Brutal Strength, BBQ and Chili, or any other perk that would have helped in the early / mid game. The survivors had an easier time getting points and getting their pip, but sure, let's cripple an end-game build that the killer is using to get his points and pip.

Give me a break. If you see a dull totem, cleanse it. Maybe you avoid a NOED at the end, or maybe you wasted your time because the killer isn't running it. In either case, you don't need any more help. If NOED is that big a problem for you, bring Small Game.

I kinda agree, but it should be only be a notification for all players including the killer. So solo survivors all need to count for themselves how many were cleansed. And Noed users can count as well without using Thrill. Maybe it might be good to come up with a secret offering for an additional dull totem spawning as well.

I think that would be enough to even out the totem count advantage of SWF without weakening Noed too much.