Fair fixes to boon totems
Ok so with all the talk of boon totems about how they are over there needs to be a way to make them fairer for both sides. I don't want to annoy killers with Boons but I still want them to be strong for survivors too. So I feel there are a few changes to boon totems themselves to make them fair
1. Put boon totems on a timer
I feel putting them on a timer would solve the issue of killers not having time to snuff out the boon totems. They won't be pressed for time as they could just ignore it as it could go away. Make it last for 100 seconds.
2. Make it so that when killers snuff out boons it destroy the totem
(I honestly don't see a problem with this. The killer is putting in time to find the totems and take it out)
3. Only one boon totem can be up at a time. If all survivors have a boon totem perk then those perks effects are transferred to the one totem. All survivors who have a boon perk can still bless dull totems but the totems will just switch locations and not create another boon totem area. To compensate a bit increase boon totem range up to 26 meters instead of 24 ( This could probably change when there are multiple boon perks available)
(This is to help prevent to many safe areas with boon totems)
4.) Make DS deactivated from blessing.
(Seems pretty self explanatory)
These next changes are with the perk themselves
5) make circle of healing not stack with any other healing perks or Medkits as well as lower the speed to 85% instead of 100%
(I'm surprised they didn't do this in the first place. It seems pretty obvious they should have done this. Being able to heal to fast is a problem)
6.) For shadow step keep the aura reading hiding but make it so that survivors leave scratch marks and blood but they only last for 1 seconds.
(I feel this is fair as it doesn't necessarily take away tracking from the killer but if the killer is distracted and does not pay attention then they can lose the survivors easily and it requires some work from survivors)
I feel these changes to boon perks are fair for both sides but if you disagree let me know why and if you have anything to add then please add.
Comments
So I do actually wanna mention something
Destroying totems that are affected would be a indirect nerf to Plaything and NOED
IMO, why not make it to where the boon can't be relit on that totem by anyone instead of destroying the totem, thats all I disagree with
That is true. I think that that is fair as well. I think I agree with not destroying the totem but make it impossible to bless again
I don’t think you need to change how Boons work to balance them. Just tweak the specific Boons effect parameters or radius
That’s a much simpler approach to balancing these that doesn’t upend the whole Boon system in general for these and future Boons.
DS should be disabled for sure.
Destroying dull totems though? If the killer is running ToTH, Plaything, or NOED they're gonna be faced with a lose/lose situation.
In my opinion a change that would make boons way more fair is fixing totem spots. Totems should never spawn next to generators and right next to the open. That would make them harder to find and bless, and also you wouldn't have the effects of the boons while working on gens. They would actually be "safe havens" like the devs intended them to be. Might want to consider reduce the radius a bit more for that to fit.
This would make them useless. I say just make it so med kits and healing perks don't stack with CoH. The boon perks would be 100% fine with these changes. I feel like nerfing them more than that would just make them way too weak. Everyone would just return to the same boring meta perks.
How would tweaking their numbers make them useless? If you barely change the healing speed it would have no noticeable impact for instance. It’s all relative to the degree of the change.
It's only a 24m area. That's not huge. Changes aren't needed. Making healing perks and med kits not stack with CoH is actually a bigger change than you think. The perks alone are actually not OP.
I think you might have misunderstood me. I said
And I say “maybe” because I have no idea if they’re in need of rebalancing or not. But hypothetically, IF the devs decided they are, then the above two bullet points would be the obvious way to go about adjusting them.
Keep them as is, but either the perk is dead when the killer snuff it or each dull totem can only be blessed once.
Then they can still be a strong while having counters, just like Hexes.
Nope. It's still infinite medkits for the entire team regardless of range. A big part of killer gameplay is putting pressure on survivor resources and boons utterly destroy that aspect of the game.
Just limit them in some fashion. Tokens for blessings, destroying the totems. I don't care. No survivor resource should be infinite. I also don't care if it hampers hex perks to destroy the totems. That's just the price the killer pays.
Theres a lot of ways to fix them:
Give boons limited uses per game. 4 its more than enought per survivor per run, in a full team that would meen 16 charges.
Cooldown. After applying to a totem the same survivor goes on a 90/80/70 seconds cool down until it can apply a new one, this would make it a tactical desicion mid game,
Killer should be allowed to destroy or just snuff the totem. This is particularly important as if the killer its runing a hex reliant on totems it can decide if it wants just to take the boons out of the game or keep them for his own use.
Increase the time it takes to bless a totem. 14 seconds its a laguable amount of time, specially when you consider theres 4 survivors, one of them using that amount of time its quite honestly irelevant. make it 30 for a dull and 45 for a hex, THEN survivors can say the blessing its an investment of time.
Aditionally and in all honesty shadow step needs to be separated in two diferent boons, its absurd this thing allows survivors to go virtually invisible, specially if they have iron will, with two perks theres virtually no way to track them down. Make a boon for aura reading negation and a diferent one for hiding scratch marks.
Circle of healing thoug it seriously needs to get the healing bonus reduced, with a few perks and/or medkits the healing speed its just idiotic, it completly neuters M1 killers of any chance to put down survivors
Nah. They are fine. The survivor has to find a totem, then take the time to bless it (not to mention you have to be within 24m and plus the time it takes to heal). Killers can snuff them in like a second. The only changes needed are med kits and perks stacking. Doesn't matter if everyone can use it. It's only within 24m and time spent running to totem AND healing= time not spent doing gens. It's balanced.
How to make boons irrelevant, a thread.
This is a great change if you really want to see DH, DS, UB, BT even more
Trust me I don't want to go back to the current meta but I want boon totems to be fair for both killers and survivors
IF boons need to be tweaked, and that's a big IF because currently they only exacerbate issues already present in the game like bad totem placements and uncapped self healing speed, then I would only posit a very brief cooldown after a totem is snuffed before a survivor can re-bless it. Thirty seconds at most, and even that might be too much.
As it stands, though, the game itself should be changed around these perks because their effects are totally reasonable and the base boon mechanic is pretty much perfect. The only change I'd suggest to the base mechanic, not even a nerf or a buff, is that Plaything and NOED should snuff a boon to make room if it needs to.
I should write up a stock reply that I can copy and paste for this foolishness.
Listen well. Read carefully.
It is a *single survivor* taking out time to give their entire team an extra 2-4 powerful perks if they also have shadow step. The other survivors are progressing the objective just fine while the blessing is being done. The cost evaluation vis a vis time is heavily skewed in the blessings favor. Huge reward, not really any risk.
But killers can snuff it! You say. Waste of time in most circumstances. Even if you hook right next to a boon you're not patrolling gens. How many times have you hooked, gone to a gen you knew was being worked on and caught it at 90-99%? I get that frequently. If I stop to snuff a boon, that gen is popping in my face. That's discounting when a boon is out of the way. If it takes even five seconds to find, navigate to and snuff the boon then the survivor has come out ahead in the time equation. 5 killer seconds is 20 survivor seconds. Congratulations, you've successfully given the killer a side objective and come out on top in that interaction.
The healing meta is the new meta. Boons are the backbone of it. It kills an entire playstyle and weakens many already low tier killers. There needs to be meaningful counterplay to them.
I disagree. They aren't as powerful as you are saying. I don't even feel the need to snuff them as killer unless I'm close to them. They need no changes other than the ones I already mentioned. We'll just agree to disagree.