Why legion is near impossible to balance (written by a friend)
Hello wonderful people of the fog. How are you today? I'm doing good thanks for asking. Anyways today I came to talk about probably the most difficult topic to talk about, and I am not exaggerating. This is more difficult than me talking about NOED, and that is saying something. Today I'm going to talk about why Legion is probably near impossible to balance to the point where both the killer playing Legion to feel powerful enough to win games, but also fair enough for the survivors to counter.
(1)
Now First, for those who don't know about Legion, I'll give you a bit ofinformation about the killer. If you wish to skip this part, go to number (3). Now Legion since he came to release was meant to be a killer who delays survivor progress. The whole point for the mending was for him to force survivors to do something else other than doing generators. Now Legion since release has always been rather a problem. To start with Legion took a rather low skill ceiling, since his attacks on Frenzy had no cooldown, plus you can activate it when is very low so you can quickly get a mend off. But the worst part about Legion was his 2)
But that wasn't the worst part. The bugs Legion got were far worst, remember when Frank Mixtape could pretty much down survivors in about two hits when injured (3 when healthy). Legion with Franks Mixtape was the most overpowered thing in existence. But the most hated bug was infinite mending Legion. It was such a hated bug that even the devs would ban anyone who would use the two add ons (or just one of them).
3)
Now the current Legion we have now fits the purpose of being bug free, plus now he fits the purpose we was supposed to do since released. Be a stalling killer. So from design, Legion was supposed to be this killer who if done correctly cannot be genrushed. Though we all know he does a rather poor job at it. While he is one of the best killers to use the sloppy and Thanadophobia combo, he can still be genrushed, heck even he needs Hex:Ruin/Corrupt Intervention. While he is the most consistent killer in delaying the survivor (more consistent than Pig anyways) he is also very poor at almost everything else.
4)
Sure, Legion does have the capability of getting the first injure better than anyone. Sure, he has a bit of tracking after hitting a survivor with frenzy, and sure I bet they are still Legions out there that do well with Legion, but Legion is still rather very underpowered. But is not even Legion's fault, is the way he was designed that makes him underpowered.
5)
You see, Legion is extremely hard to reach a point of balance without it seeming overpowered to the survivors. Legion's power affects survivor, and that by itself is hard to balance out, since the main people affected by Legions power are survivors. Because remember Infinite Mending Legion, or Franks Mixtape when they were both at their prime? They were the most overpowered thing in existence. Now granted they were bugs, but you catch what I'm saying. Is hard for the devs to find a balance for Legion because of how Legion is. One does not simply buff Legion without it seeming overpowered.
6)
Because we can't just let him down survivors with his powers since the power would be too overpowered. He also can't have too long of a mend time otherwise it would also be too overpowered. Is going to be really hard for Legion to find a balance, and I bet you is going to take longer than Freddy's rework. Because at least with Freddy's rework it was understandable why it took so long due to not crossing any copyright. Legion on the other hand is just hard to find the middle. You can't give him too strong of a chase potential otherwise he'll be overpowered, and you can’t give him too powerful of a mend time or he'll also be overpowered.
7)
Plus I can only imagine how difficult it will be to rework him too, since is not just about reworking a killer to seem different, is about changing him for him to still suit his lore while making him still versatile and yet still decently tolerable for survivors to handle. So again, is really hard to find that compromise with Legion. Legion as he currently is, will either be too overpowered, or underpowered, and frankly most of us rather he'll be underpowered than overpowered.
8)
So in conclusion, this is why Legion is hard to balance. While I'm confident the devs will figure it out somehow. After all, they did do a… pretty good job so far with Freddy's rework. But it will take a very long time before we'll see a change for Legion that would actually help him in the game. So again, for now is best for all of us to understand the situation. I hope this was an eye opener for all of you.
Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day in the fog.
Comments
While I have great sympathy for the devs, they should have been working on a FULL Legion rework the minute he got his changes in March.
The problem is the Deep Wounds timer. It's either worthless or exploitable.
In another thread we discussed some things and the better idea that came out of it was to just remove the timer. Instead Deep Wounds reduces repair speed for whatever the timer is and it's a normal status effect like everything else (though maybe it would have a special HUD element on the survivor icon to show killer when it is and isn't active).
Replace all Begrimed add-on effects with Deep Wounds for 120 seconds. Functionally they would be the same as before, only difference is the way the game handles the UI/status effect and the wording of the add-ons.
BT just gives an Endurance hit, identical to MOM. Only if you get hit, you have Deep Wounds for X time (whatever is reasonable, 60 seconds maybe?), and maybe also Hindered to put the survivor in more danger (and to add some risk to BT plays during end game).
Legion now becomes a slow down killer, similar to old Freddy. Filthy Blade increases the effectiveness of Deep Wounds by 50% (so if the penalty is 20% now it's 30%). Stab Wounds Study increase the duration of Deep Wounds. Hitting the survivor more than once resets the Deep Wounds timer, and Frank's Mix Tape makes the timer pause when in the killer's TR or if slugged/on a hook. Killer Instinct now applies to all survivors, even if they have Deep Wounds already. As a counter option, Calm Spirit hides you from Killer Instinct when more than X distance away from the killer (maybe 16m? not sure needs testing).
This is really the only way to fix this. As someone pointed out in another thread, Deep Wounds shouldn't be weaponized, and the whole timer aspect is pointless. The only survivors that go into dying are newbies that don't understand what to do. Against any experienced survivor, the timer is a literal joke. It doesn't slow you down and doesn't help the killer, unless the killer exploits Undetectable/Oblivious which is super lame to deal with as survivor anyway.