The Obsession mechanic is under-utilised. My idea to rectify this, + perk reworks
The Obsession mechanic is somewhat useless considering how most of the Obsession perks and items work in the game. There are some perks that involve the Obsession mechanic, but entirely ignore it at the same time.
Take for example - Mettle of Man. There is such a minuscule difference between the Obsession or any other Survivor with this perk. The only difference is after the perk has been used, where you are permanently revealed when healthy beyond x range. There is no reason for this useless difference as it does literally nothing.
The devs’ failure to recognise the potential the Obsession mechanic has, also has led to lacklustre reworks, excessive nerfs (Mettle basically got deleted entirely), uselessness (Mettle again), and unrealised potential (nearly every Survivor Obsession perk).
Of course the Obsession mechanic could potentially do with a rework down the line, I have ideas for full perk reworks. Mostly for perks that are essentially no different for Survivors whether they are Obsession or not.
METTLE OF MAN
If you are the Obsession: After taking two hits from any source of damage, gain the Endurance status effect and keep going after suffering a hit that would put you in the Dying State. If you are grabbed while injured, immediately break out of the Killer’s grip instead. Your Obsession status is permanently locked to you for the trial, to prevent other Survivors from using this effect.
If you are not the Obsession: Perform a total of 3 Safe Hook Rescues and/or Unsafe Heals (finish a heal in the terror radius) to gain the Endurance status effect and ignore one basic attack when hit.
This rework makes it so only one Survivor could use the original MoM while every other Survivor needs to actually work for it. It lets MoM be somewhat of a counter to some of the Killer’s obsession perks as well.
DECISIVE STRIKE
Remove the random obsession that’s chosen when this is the only obsession perk in a trial. That way, DS should always be expected, and the game can also potentially be balanced a little bit around this.
SOLE SURVIVOR
If you are the Obsession: Become immune to all Aura Reading, incoming and outgoing. Lone wolf style, you are invisible to all auras from teammates or the Killer, and cannot see any other auras.
If you are not the Obsession and have this perk: After the Obsession dies, become the Obsession in their place. Effectively allows you to counter Dying Light for a time by becoming the Obsession after they die.
OBJECT OF OBSESSION
If you are the Obsession: See the Killer’s aura while looking in their direction, and be visible to the Killer as well.
If you are not the Obsession: The Killer’s aura will randomly be revealed to you for one second. This effect always happens once every 5-15 seconds, never before or after. When this effect triggers, you are also visible for the same amount of time to the Killer.
And that’s pretty much it for my ideas. Hopefully with this as an idea to be considered for future balancing and rebalancing ideas, the developers could change the way they see and utilise the Obsession mechanic in future. They could also make Mettle of Man usable again, but not overpowered like it used to be.
The main issue with old Decisive and original Mettle was that every single Survivor could use them whether they were the Obsession or not - problems which could have been entirely avoided if non-obsessions had to do something else and work for it to be able to use the perk’s effect, or at least receive a weaker version of the perk’s effect.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Comments
METTLE OF MAN
If you are the Obsession: After taking two hits from any source of damage, gain the Endurance status effect and keep going after suffering a hit that would put you in the Dying State. If you are grabbed while injured, immediately break out of the Killer’s grip instead. Your Obsession status is permanently locked to you for the trial, to prevent other Survivors from using this effect.
If you are not the Obsession: Perform a total of 3 Safe Hook Rescues and/or Unsafe Heals (finish a heal in the terror radius) to gain the Endurance status effect and ignore one basic attack when hit.
This rework makes it so only one Survivor could use the original MoM while every other Survivor needs to actually work for it. It lets MoM be somewhat of a counter to some of the Killer’s obsession perks as well.
Can you please at least try to explain your dislike of this idea, rather than posting a clip of an old cartoon with possibly edited audio? Do you have anything constructive whatsoever that you could share?
SOLE SURVIVOR - best perk for a team of survivors! Immunity to aura reading without downsides!
METTLE OF MAN - old mettle of man on steroids, but only one person can use it. Basically "I gonna follow you around and be splinter in a butt the whole game and you can't do anything about it, deal with it" perk.
The problem with your idea is it gives one survivor an insane advantage of being essentially "Invulnerable" from any damage or misplay to M1 killers. While the secondary feature is going to encourage hook rushing and sandbagging as people try and claim their Mettle stacks
While an interesting idea on paper it simply won't work in execution. Because giving someone a guaranteed third hit just because the killer did their job and hit them twice, is a bad, bad idea. It will also force killers to commit and tunnel the obsession to deny the mettle proc if they have had to hit obsession which is just a bad idea for all.
And then there's the aforementioned hook rushing and sandbagging from other survivors who want their mettle stack which will make solo queues even more of a nightmare. Mettle is just too broken a concept to begin with once you combine it with insta heals, BT, Adrenaline, Decisive Strike
It's just a complete mess
You literally made the obsession untoucheable with your Mettle of Man idea, literally the only counter to this perk would be to tunnel the obsession at the start of the match and get rid of Mettle of Man before the end game. While the other survivors would just farm their teammates with BT to get their stacks. Your idea for MoM is even worse than before.
Being the obsession should be a downside by base mechanics, you shouldnt desire to be the obsession.
Dying light should be a counter to Sole Survivor. Not the other way around.
That would break mettle of man, especially against furtive chase. The obsession could take two hits, then their rescuer could... then all 4 get their MoM procked, then have endurance on top of instaheals and all the other stuff they have.
The only concept I like is DS, but that's because it's a slight nerf to it.
This is what it should be like for obsession:
Lets buff all survivors obsession while all killer's will be still trash except maybe for STBFTL.