I'm starting to see to see just how crazy strong boons can be

SweetTerror

I'm of two minds on this. On one hand I do agree that boons are too powerful. I played a solo survivor match the other day, and I was put on a team that like me - I kid you not - all had circle of healing. It was quite the wake-up call of just how powerful boons could be in the hands of a 4 man SWF. We were all fairly decent at looping, and while the killer was busy chasing, we sought out every totem there was and lit them which meant that almost the entire map had 100% healing speeds. What made it worse is that every time the killer snuffed one out, someone would just automatically relight it again, thus defeating the purpose of snuffing it out to begin with. The Killer did get one kill in the end, but the fact that we were able heal each other so fast at almost anywhere in the map prolonged the match to an insane 20 minutes!

Now all that being said, I think boons are a great component to the survivor gameplay. It gives survivors an optional objective, and it can definitely be a great team mechanic. However there definitely needs to be a cool down. It's kind of nutty that boons can be automatically relit right away. Personally I think there should be (at least) a 60 second cooldown once the killer has snuffed out your boon.

All of this just made me pondered what it would be like as the killer to play against a four-man SWF that all had every strong boon perk there was. If they're good at communication and looping, then that's going to be kind of crazy.

The_C12H15NO2

I like boons in the game. But killers need to have the option to break the totem or snuff it out. This way killers can have options to better control the map.

To help balance the boons, each of the boon perks out now just need split into multiple boon perks. COH should be either faster healing speed or self care (without boosted healing speed). Shadow Step should only hide scratch marks or aura, not both. Exponential has self pickup or faster recovering. If these skills apply to everyone in range of the boon, they shouldn't have multiple effects per perk.

tak47888

@BreadTube said:

Boons are only a problem for killers who allow it to be a problem. They shouldn't be nerfed bcuz people can't handle a new challenge.

Same could have been said for some sort of Killers, and still they got nerfed one week after release. Anyways, I like the Boon Totems very much on the Survivor Side. As a Killer, they can be annoying, but I don't think they are game breaking.

LoneSlinger

@BreadTube said:

Boons are only a problem for killers who allow it to be a problem. They shouldn't be nerfed bcuz people can't handle a new challenge.

Someone who's never watched high level matches confirmed ^

Tubby_Squirrel

I think it should take longer to light them each time they're snuffed. Say 4 seconds or so longer each time. So 16 seconds to light it, if the killer snuffs it out, it should take you 20 seconds to light it again. If they snuff it again it should take you 24 seconds to light it a third time. and so on.

Ravenlord4711

boons need to have a count, 2 tokens and its gone. that allows each person to relight it once. i feel thats fair.

Ink_Eyes

Make the killer able to destroy the totem instead of just snuffing it, we can't re activate a hex perk anyway so destroying it wouldn't be that bad of an idea...

SweetTerror

@Tubby_Squirrel said:

I think it should take longer to light them each time they're snuffed. Say 4 seconds or so longer each time. So 16 seconds to light it, if the killer snuffs it out, it should take you 20 seconds to light it again. If they snuff it again it should take you 24 seconds to light it a third time. and so on.

I think that's perfectly reasonable. There needs to be something. Either tokens, a cooldown, longer relit times, etc. Unfortunately you can't just single out one boon by itself, so if one boom were to receive a nerf, then they would all have to receive it, and I see that being a tough pill to swallow for the devs/survivor mains.

Barbarossa2020

@JPLongstreet said:

I like the idea of diminishing returns for COH, much like Built to Last has. First blessing is normal, but once snuffed it has reduced range and healing % each time it goes back up. Don't have to change anything else about it imo.

Makes it worth the killer's time to find it and stomp.

Or add a cooldown to the amount of times you can use the boon, so that one just cant keep taking hits running off and healing.

VikingDragonXii

@sizzlingmario4 said:

Tbh if you have a full boon squad, a 60 second cooldown probably isn’t even enough.

I played with some solo queue survivors yesterday who brought two COHs on ironworks (meaning one of them was at the top of the building) and this huntress basically had no chance. It was ridiculous how easily we could undo her pressure, and this was a decent huntress too.

Btw, that was all without stacking medkits or any of that stuff that makes it even more ridiculous. I’ve seen some people say that’s the only problem with it (and it is a problem) but removing only that doesn’t fix it at all.

I have seen people even defend medkits saying they are not a real issue with CoH.....I just want to smack them hard with a fresh fish for those comments.

SweetTerror

@Entinaty said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/2704011#Comment_2704011

Honestly in the right hands both are very powerful but lets make sure we get the entire situation out there before so it can be fairly judged.

COH takes 15 seconds to bless a dull totem and about double that for a Hex Totem. Medkits were already considered by most to be the most useful and beneficial item in the game and healing was already a strong counter to most killer's pressure. COH catapulted that into the stratosphere the way that it currently is now. In some cases killers can no longer hit and run which was a good strategy to not only build pressure but to also allow the Killer to break off of unfavorable chases. Now with COH that is no longer possible as it allows a safety net where the Survivor can heal within seconds.

Devour Hope on the other hand, is very different as even though it is powerful and can inflict a permanent Exposed status on Survivors it can only be done after it gains 3 or more tokens. That is very different from COH in a number of ways. You have to chase, down, hook and be at least 24 meters away from the hook to even gain 1 token. This process in and of itself can take several minutes unless the killer can snowball multiple downs and hooks while being 24 meters away from any hooked Survivor long enough in that situation to get a token. Also, it can be broken before getting any real value out of it as it is lit up at the beginning of the game therefore making it easier for it to be destroyed. Even Ruin: Undying, which protects this perk somewhat, isn't strong enough to protect in a meta where Survivors are actually "doing bones" (the irony) and unless you have a map with decent spawns (Midwich, Lerys, some swamp maps) then the majority of the time it will be found eventually before the Mori aspect even becomes a threat.

NOED on the other hand, is somewhat situational and can't really be gauged as well since it only activates after the Survivors power all five generators. In other words, it only activates in most cases when the Survivors are in a position to win the entire game and acts as one last hurdle to go against. It may get some kills unfairly but in most cases it can only be used effectively is to have a build that is made around the end game, such as NOED, Undying, and No Way Out or the other Survivors are making stupid altruistic plays.

Overall I find it truly ironic that the overall Totem mechanic, which was brought in by a Killer, is getting more mileage with a Survivor perk that is honestly more useful in more situations than any other Hex perk in existence right now. In my opinion it should be brought down to size a bit without taking a total hammer to it because the only alternative would be to bring Hex perks to the same standard to actually have an even playing field but that already happened once with old Ruin: Undying and we all know what happened to it.

It is truly hilarious that bones are proving to be more beneficial for survivors than killers. Hexes were implemented as something to help aid killers, but it's such high risk high reward that many players like myself don't use them. The first time ruin was cleansed 15 seconds into a match for me I stopped using it, and now because of boons survivors are seeking out totems more than ever now which means hexes are getting cleansed incredibly quickly.