How To Make Snuffing A Totem More Impactful
Or at least, how to maybe do that.
This is a bit of a hot-button topic right now, and I do agree in the broad strokes that there are situations where snuffing a totem is only partially beneficial to you. There are situations where it isn't beneficial at all, but since the solution in those situations is to just not snuff the totem, I'm focusing on the hypotheticals where a survivor goes to relight a totem very quickly after it's snuffed.
Here's my idea for how to address this without breaking the intended function of boon totems: Make it so that, for a period of time after a boon is snuffed (First draft gut instinct suggestion for the specific period of time is 45 seconds; it can't be too long or you'd run up against the perk not being usable often enough to warrant running it), attempting to bless that totem again takes twice as long.
This change aims to emphasise the idea that continually reblessing a totem is valuable, but it's also a timesink where you're not doing anything to actively progress the game while you're setting it up. This debuff could potentially be on the perk and not the totem, thus slowing down any attempts at blessing, but that doesn't feel quite as necessary to me.
Comments
45 seconds does feel like a long time. And that coming from me. Boon unliker.
Cut that time down maybe 10-20 seconds and that seems more reasonable. It cannot be instantly reblessed, but it's still viable for the long term.
And another thing I just thought of is since it takes 14 seconds to bless and 10-20 seconds to recovery. That adds up to around 24-34 seconds of downtime.
Twenty seems good, yeah. Just enough that they can't immediately jump back on it and bless it again with no downsides, that strikes me as a little much.
Could work in fiction, too, with the explanation that they have to right the totem again after the killer scuffs it with their shoe.
How about permanently add time to bless for each time your boon get snuffed?
Cool-down that isn't really cool-down and short does nothing. Even if you would bring long cool-down where you can't use boon totem at all, we would just counter it with 2 players usig CoH and just take turns.
That's also a solid idea, you'd just have to be very careful about what the numbers are and probably give it a hard cap. You don't want people to end up with multiple minutes of bless time, at least not too quickly.
Well, then it's just choice, either find really good spot to use it so it's worth, or don't use it. It just punishes survivors that use boon on bad spawns like next to gen, inside shack etc.
When you are against 3-gen it would definetly be worth to wait and use it.
Right, but that brushes up against the same problems the "snuffing a totem should break it" argument has- it is better for everyone if the survivors can choose to try and make a specific spot work many times over, and it's worse for the killer if they scurry off to find a new spot that's potentially away from the action.
So, hard cap that stops it from getting out of hand and keeps it a potentially reasonable timesink for the survivors.
Problem is that's just not how it works now, they are dumb if they use same totem spawn over and over again, if it is on easy spawn for killer to snuff it, so that change to permanently add time doesn't change it in any way.
I would not make that totem specific, it would take longer to bless any totem.
You don't need much just 4 seconds for each time it get snuffed and I would probably disable option to bless different totem, if first one is still active... Alternative would be not make it based on killer snuffing totem, but you blessing, so you can bless different totem any time, but it would take longer anyway.
Just make it so every totem on the map has 1 "boon charge". After being blessed (and snuffed out) it loses this charge and can't be blessed again.
Alternatively they could just double the time required to bless a totem each time it is reapplied.
Alternatively, since there are 5 dull totems per map, they could just be limited to two blessings per totem, per trial. Survivors would then need to be more selective in when and where they choose to bless.
How about snuffing a totem destroys it?
Yeah I think too about that, for each time a totem is snuffed, the next blessing would take 10-20% more time to be blessed.
The intent for this change is to preserve the current idea of boon totems, not toss it out in favour of making the perks temporary and unimpactful to the trial.
There are many reasons why these are bad ideas but I'd rather this thread not devolve into that argument if at all possible.
Even one use per totem wouldn't be inconsequential.
Inner Healing gives you one heal for one totem.
CoH could still net you several heals between all survivors before it gets snuffed.
Again, the intent is to preserve the current idea for boon totems, not repurpose them into temporary additions to the trial.
Literally just let me destroy the totem. I don't run hex perks, I don't care about noed. Just let me break the thing.
The problem with boon totems is that there is no limit on them. They can be put up straight, heal more then one person over and over with no cool down.
I have said this before, Boon totems should not be a perk, they should be an addon just like a medkit. Have a base time or an amount of uses, then have extra such as extended time / uses, be able to move it once, speed of healing, radius and so on. It would then become more tactical of where to put it and when.
Now it's just a permanent, unlimited medkit for all. Get more then one and a killer is stuffed, because survivors loop to the boon and heal as they go. You then either give up chase to snuff out the boon, or carry on and hope you get their first. If you leave chase you lose the survivor and they heal on the other one.
Again, the point here is to preserve the core idea for boon totems and help achieve the potential counterplay, not to make them an annoying chore the killer tries to get out of the way as quickly as possible and that the survivors get limited use from. The timesink wouldn't be worth it if the killer can permanently break it.
That idea is a nonstarter here.
That's not a problem with boon totems, that is boon totems. If the current effects are too strong to be limitlessly available, then those effects should be nerfed, because that back-and-forth is clearly what the mechanic is supposed to be adding to the game.
It's uniquely frustrating that people seem incapable of separating the overall mechanic of boon totems from the effect of the boon perks. They're independent factors- one or both can be tweaked to achieve the intended goal.
The core concept is a safe zone for survivors to ignore half the tools a killer has at their disposal. Making it a limited resource linked to the number of totems in a trial makes it commiserate with all the other tools survivors have to go mitigate aura reading and damage states. The core concept is still there, but when a killer snuffs a totem it depletes a survivor resource and gives them tacit pressure. Makes the action worth something.
Putting a single survivors perk on cooldown is nothing. It's the equivalent of making them sprint burst or dead hard without the immediate threat of a down. There are still 2-3 active boons while this one is on cooldown. Your idea is undoubtedly a nerf, but it is a pointless one. Much like how the blindness effect on mindbreaker was a pointless buff. Accomplishes nothing.
You keep saying the same thing, but people keep saying that boon totems do not work. The mechanic of the boon totem does not work. It's not even great for a survivor to have to run away from a gen to get healed up. It waste time with a person finding a totem to bless, when they could be doing a gen or running the killer.
On the killer side, it is a point where they can run into to lose a killer with no skill, or heal to their hearts content. Saying it is that way does not make it work better.
We all know the mechanics of a boon totem, a safe zone for killers, to all heal up before they rush the next gen, then when you try to stop them they rush back to heal up again.
It's great for a swf team, who all work together, not really great for the solo player who wants to just do gens and get out, who may not be great at avoiding the killer, but has to try because one player is walking round the map trying to find a totem to bless, then spends their time around the totem so they can escape when everyone has done the gens.
Not so great for the killer who is not so great on catching, who finally out smarts a survivor and gets the first hit, then struggles as the survivor DH's towards and sprints off towards the totem, heals up and then the killer has to start again. It's not like med kits where they run out, not like having to find another survivor, or having to try and hide while making screams of pain. Find another survivor near the totem and you are well away.
It does not work simple. The only defence is for a killer to go look for it, taking precious time when gens are being done, and then it pops up again. Not like ruin that once it's found its gone, or Noed that they can cleanse all the totems and it's just a wasted perk slot. This is like a survivor having DH on steroids. It would even be better if every survivor carried self-care, at least then it is 4 of 16 perks slots taken.
The mechanics of totems do not work, which is why it needs a complete rework or just to be taken out and maybe give Mikaela some, quick life heal, that she can use of the injured survivor when they find her.