I Don't Care About the Change Made to Ruin HOWEVER
I have issues with BHVR's REASONS for the change and the way they presented why Ruin is being changed. Not only that but the fact that a major issue they should have addressed and looked into is only brought up, but not expanded on, and it is never stated as being a reason they looked at the perk. TL;DR at the bottom because this is a little longwinded.
First I would like to state the following:
- Ruin was overrated and overused, it was overused for a reason though.
- I never use Ruin when I play Killer. And I rarely play Killer.
- Ruin needed to be changed but this may have been the wrong way to do it.
Now then, on to the thing:
"Recent data show that Hex: Ruin is used in over 80% of all games in the red ranks, and across the entire userbase it appears in about 45% of all games."
This is in the first paragraph of the Hex: Ruin changes section of the Designer Notes (link at the bottom of this post if you haven't read them yet).
We are informed that recent data has shown a MASSIVE amount of Killers use Ruin in red rank games. Something many of us already knew. It also lets us know that less than half of Killers run it overall, though this would 100% include players who have not unlocked it yet on Killers/at all.
What does this tell Players? That there must be a reason it is used so heavily, especially in high rank games. We can accurately conclude it is for two reasons: 1. Players need something to help reduce how fast Gens are getting completed and 2. Ruin is the easiest of these perks to access/players probably end up relying on it
But! What does this tell BHVR? Apparently nothing as the very next sentence/paragraph is as follows:
"We took a close look at the perk to identify what makes it so frustrating to play against. Three key issues were identified:"
Umm... excuse me? Play against? You were just discussing Killers, why are we talking about Survivors now? Is there a paragraph missing here? How does the amount Killers use it lead you to look at Ruin to identify why it is "frustrating to play against"?
We are told, in a single sentence, they looked into it because there must be a reason it is frustrating to play against. Its confusing sentence and paragraph structure. We were just talking about Killers, not the effect it has on Survivors. State it is frustrating first and then state you looked into it to find out why it is frustrating. @.@
Anyway, let's move onto the issues they identified:
"1. Its punishment of new players or those who can't hit Great Skill Checks. Newer players trying to help veterans with generator repairs tend to make the situation worse rather than better."
So? Not only are they only going to encounter it about 45% of the time, but if this is a reason you are changing it then there are A LOT of things you need to look at (lol).
Hell, to name a few: Stealth Killers, Trying to Pull yourself off Hook, Totems in general, Deep Wounds, RBTs, FLASHLIGHTS.
All of these things are things New Players need to learn about, and fail hard at without knowledge of them making things worse for their team.
"2. The passive nature of the gameplay pressure it provides means that there is a huge amount of potential with very little effort or risk on behalf of The Killer."
It usually gets popped within 2-3 minutes. Also, no risk? Survivors that can hit Great Skill Checks can just ignore it and once it gets popped you are down a perk. No effort? Either the Killer patrols the totem or they don't, both require effort and keeping it alive can be difficult.
"3. Its inconsistency due to the random nature of the appearance interval of skill checks."
This one is confusing. The inconsistency of Ruin makes it frustrating for Survivors how? Skill Checks being random is not a Ruin issue. How does this make it frustrating to play against? Survivors already know Skill Checks are random, Ruin doesn't make them more random.
After this they talk about Gatekeeper. No one used Ruin because of Gatekeeper. Well, maybe some people did but most did not. They used it because they want to slow down Gens and, for many, this Perk was the one they were most comfortable with.
Then they discuss the changes. I don't care about the changes. I never used it and after the changes I still won't. It might be interesting because you won't have to kick gens, since they will regress automatically once everyone stops working on it, but not getting points for kicking Gens (and not being able to use PGTW) is kind of a downer.
As we can see BHVR did not change Ruin because of, or for, Killers. Contrary to what they want us to think with the Gatekeeper changes, changes that needed to happen anyway, because they are acting like Ruin is a major factor when it comes to this Emblem. I have never, not even once, seen or heard someone state that they need Ruin to ensure a high Gatekeeper score.
They made the changes for, and because of, Survivors and this is a scary thing to do. It has been stated before that BHVR makes changes without considering one side (usually Killer), but it was never as blatant as now. No change should be made to benefit one side, no perk should be buffed/nerfed without looking at how it will effect both sides.
You state that it is the one of the most used perk in Red Ranks at 80%. Its probably the most used. But you did not seem to account for this, you only wanted to change it to alleviate frustration on the Survivor side without looking into why Killers are using it so much and looking to address these frustrations.
Also, do not let them fool you. They know this is a nerf and it doesn't matter how they try to spin it but they straight nerfed this perk, one many of us has argued isn't even that good, because some Survivors find it frustrating.
Quote: "... Just a straight-up nerf without considering the consequences for that Emblem wouldn't be a good plan. ..."
BHVR, this looks like favouritism. I am not saying you actually favour Survivors. But you have to admit that this looks pretty bad from most any angle and just feeds the fears many on here have already been spouting for a while.
TL;DR: BHVR made changes to a very popular, and overused Killer perk solely for 3 issues that they state cause frustration for Survivors. They did not make the changes for Killers, and they nerfed it because some Survivors find it frustrating. This is a bad way to go about changes, as all should be done with balance and both sides in mind.
@Peanits said:
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Welcome to our Designer Notes, a series of blogposts presenting the fine details of upcoming design changes. Today, we’ll be going over the first update of 2020, which includes changes to The Doctor, the Gatekeeper Emblem, and Hex: Ruin.
DOCTOR UPDATE
In the next mid-chapter update, we will be changing core elements of The Doctor's gameplay. He's been a polarizing figure since his release, and we felt it was time to revisit his kit with an eye to making it less frustrating to play against him. We will keep his core identity as a Killer who shocks people with electricity and causes them to go insane, suffering several different kinds of afflictions and hallucinations. Some of his abilities and most of his add-ons will get an update pass.
We identified a major source of irritation to be his Static Field. The problem is that The Doctor gets periodic notifications of Survivors' locations in his Terror Radius due to their Madness levels increasing passively. It's the lack of action needed on the part of The Doctor to find nearby Survivors that makes it feel annoying to play against. With that in mind, the update centers around removing Static Field and replacing it with another ability.
The new ability replacing Static Field is called "Static Blast"; this is mapped to the Active Ability button. After charging the ability for a short duration, it releases a blast of static electricity throughout The Doctor’s entire Terror Radius. Any Survivors caught in the area of effect are shocked causing them to scream and acquire an amount of Madness. If their Madness level increases, they also reveal their location to The Doctor as usual.
While charging Static Blast, The Doctor's movement is significantly reduced, and the ability has a long cooldown. The idea behind the design of Static Blast is to make it powerful as a location tool, but very difficult to use while in a chase, hence the limitations on its use.
As Shock Therapy and Static Blast are now linked to separate inputs, we've removed the different Treatment and Punishment stances to improve the gameplay flow. The Doctor's base movement speed is still 4.6 m/s (the "regular" movement speed for most Killers), but he can now use Shock Therapy more easily as he doesn't have to switch stances to gain access to it. So we've added a brief pause after using Shock Therapy before he can attack or use another ability.
One last thing we've addressed is the frustration of using Snap Out Of It to drop from Madness level III to Madness level II. After the update, missing a skill check during Snap Out Of It will cost the player 25% of their progress instead of resetting it entirely. Also, if they stop the interaction before it's complete, they will not lose their progress and will continue from where they left off on the next attempt.
HEX: RUIN AND GATEKEEPER UPDATE
The upcoming mid-chapter update will also include a major overhaul to Hex: Ruin, and an associated update to the Gatekeeper Emblem. Recent data show that Hex: Ruin is used in over 80% of all games in the red ranks, and across the entire userbase it appears in about 45% of all games.
We took a close look at the perk to identify what makes it so frustrating to play against. Three key issues were identified:
- Its punishment of new players or those who can't hit Great Skill Checks. Newer players trying to help veterans with generator repairs tend to make the situation worse rather than better.
- The passive nature of the gameplay pressure it provides means that there is a huge amount of potential with very little effort or risk on behalf of The Killer.
- Its inconsistency due to the random nature of the appearance interval of skill checks.
We also looked carefully to see how it functions as part of a Killer's loadout. Beyond the obvious desire to slow down generator repair, Hex: Ruin functions as one of the very few perks effective as slowing generator repair in the first couple of minutes of the Trial. This is important to Killers' rankings because the Gatekeeper Emblem highly rewards keeping as many of the 7 generators incomplete as they can for as long as possible.
Because Hex: Ruin is one of the few tools a Killer has for getting an Iridescent Gatekeeper Emblem, the update needed to respect that. Just a straight-up nerf without considering the consequences for that Emblem wouldn't be a good plan. So before getting into the Hex: Ruin change, let's go over the Gatekeeper Emblem.
Currently, Gatekeeper's underlying points are scored as a number of points per generator remaining to be repaired multiplied by which minute the match is in. Additional points are scored for any remaining generators at the end of the Trial. This provides much less of a reward to a Killer who loses three gens quickly, but then doggedly keeps the last few until the end of the match.
The new version of Gatekeeper is simpler: one point is scored per generator remaining to be repaired per minute for the first nine minutes. At the end of the Trial, if both Exit Gates remain closed, additional points are scored. With less focus on keeping seven generators up, we can move on and change Hex: Ruin without making it significantly harder for Killers to do well in Gatekeeper.
The new Hex: Ruin is simple:
All Generators are affected by Ruin; if a Generator is not being worked on, it regresses at [1/1.5/2] times the normal regression rate.
The Hex effect persists as long as the related Hex Totem is standing.
This version of the perk has many benefits:
- Survivors who are working on generators are unaffected as the perk no longer affects Skill Checks.
- Killers must be active in pushing Survivors off generators to get value from it.
- It is less useful in the early game, but very useful in the late game. Survivors now have a more interesting choice about when it is necessary to find and cleanse the Hex Totem.
The changes outlined above, along with the Lery’s Memorial Institute rework, are slated for the mid-chapter update and will be available to test on the Player Test Build (PTB) starting tomorrow. Please be sure to let us know what you think once you’ve had a chance to try them out!
Comments
good im in the 20% of red ranks then 🙂
Press x to doubt https://imgur.com/a/9bipeqm Leaksbydaylight leaked the ptb patch notes for 3.5.0. They are also removing ranks from the tally screen it's a big brain fix for their ######### matchmaking lmao
I am not making assumptions. I am using the info we have on the Ruin Changes and discussing the Ruin changes. If they've changed other things to accommodate, then we'll see that when it happens, but from what BHVR themselves have told us I am not making any assumptions.
Honestly wouldn't be surprised at this point. 🤷
Just about. 👍
I’m also in the same boat. I run corrupt intervention and surveillance and discordance and whatever other perk. I need these three perks to slow down gens. Killers have been mentioning that gen completion rate is always on turbo speed, and it only gets fast in the higher ranks. This has nothing to do about emblems,(even thought its much harder to rank up as killer...I’m sure their stats also show this) it’s about giving killers a chance and Making the game fun for us and it feels like we’re being totally disrespected and disregarded.
Our time and devotion we put into the game is not being respected. I spend money on cosmetics, I spend my time and this is just another slap is the face. Legion, Hex Ruin, Nurse and debatably Spirit. Let’s wait and see about The Dr... but as someone who used Dr it seems frustrating. The huge buff to kindred. Let’s see next how killers get gutted.