Huntress rework
What would be new:
→ Decrease maximum capacity of hatchets to 4
→ Huntress no longer emits lullaby and has 24m range TR
→ Huntress can throw hatchet to any surface to emit a 40m wide lullaby
→ Survivors within lullaby range build up scared meter that can't be removed and takes 30s to fully activate and stays acitve for 60s. Survivors with fully charged scared meter periodically trigger killer instinct for a few seconds map wide
→ Huntress gets 15s cooldown once all 4 hatchets are thrown, no longer has to reload at lockers. During that time she moves at 120 %
→ Huntress has access to one special hatchet that has 20s cooldown and allow her to throw it and reposition to it's trajectory end.
Comments
No.
Disagreeing is fine, but some feedback on why would be appreciated.
Fair. As a huntress main myself, I find the idea kind of irritating. Beyond that, I am terrified of watching BHVR do to her what they did to trickster. That being said I'll go point by point to be direct.
→ Decrease maximum capacity of hatchets to 4
Why. There is no reason to lower her hatchet count, even with the added abilities below. I understand that with the build changes below this would technically 'buff' her, but I'm not a fan of the approach.
→ Huntress no longer emits lullaby and has 24m range TR
I'm actually fine with this one, as I think lullaby's are a bad design and need to be decommissioned entirely. I get there's an atmospheric quality to it, but good grief it's unnecessary and further isolates desire to perk build into anything stealth related, by example. It's just unnecessary for no real payout.
→ Huntress can throw hatchet to any surface to emit a 40m wide lullaby
But why. This feels like something that would be tricky to code, and give very little real benefit. This is the epitome of the Trickster rework vibe of 'adding something without adding anything.' It's NVA.
→ Survivors within lullaby range build up scared meter that can't be removed and takes 30s to fully activate and stays acitve for 60s. Survivors with fully charged scared meter periodically trigger killer instinct for a few seconds map wide
Killer instinct is another mechanic that is just lazy imo. It screams 'we want a killer to be able to find someone! But wait, we already put aura blocking mechanics in and we don't want it to be effected by that.' I get the idea you're presenting is kind of an ISR for her hatchets, but it's not how it would work in effect.
→ Huntress gets 15s cooldown once all 4 hatchets are thrown, no longer has to reload at lockers. During that time she moves at 120 %
I like the idea of not going to lockers on one hand, but I cannot imagine the community wouldn't cry havoc and bloody nerf stomp the living )#*$$ out of a 120% movement speed boost. That being said, anything less than 120% wouldn't be enough to justify taking away her actual killer ability for 15 seconds which is actually quite a long time. It's balanced out, but it turns her into less of a 'ranged killer' and more of a 'toss the hatchets to enter chase mode' killer. Personally, I'm a fan of her being a simple ranged killer without these unnecessary bells and whistles.
→ Huntress has access to one special hatchet that has 20s cooldown and allow her to throw it and reposition to it's trajectory end.
This is another mechanic I'm not very fond of from games. I've seen it play out in enough of them, and it's always underwhelming for a reason. I don't want to 'fly' the projectile like Pinhead, I want to aim and release it. If I wanted to 'fly' the projectile and get what was effectively a speed boost, I'd play Pinhead, not Huntress.
This feels less like a rework and more like a bells and whistles refashion. It would be better suited to an entirely different killer. Nothing about Huntress in her lore, nor her general feel, aligns with the idea of throwing enchanted singing hatchets or fly-by-wiring thrown hatchets. Mechanically it's sound, don't get me wrong, but it's not Huntress. The beauty of Huntress is that she is a very simple high skill-ceiling killer. You learn to aim, you learn to orbital. There's no hand holding. But fly-by-wire and the speed boost would be just that, and motivate people to play fast and sloppy, rather than rewarding players who practice the patience of… well, a hunter.
I don't play enough Huntress to have an idea whether or not this is too much. I mean, it's a rework in the sense that she is buffed in every capacity.
I'll touch on them from a first impressions basis and if I'm missing the thinking let me know.
This obviously changes her entire gameplay loop when you consider her hatchets are multipurpose in this rework. I'd say it's too punishing if it weren't for the next thing.
This is faster than Chag when out of hatchets. It's only 15 seconds but it's 15 seconds of being the best M1 killer in the game. I feel like givng her this kind of speed is a pure revenge fantasy for being abused on a tall rock over and over.
These are all together as this is the crux of your rework idea. You want Huntress to hunt, having a power that shows this. This would give her a really powerful info power that, at 40m from where thrown, would be unavoidable. With her now being able to teleport as a form of mobility via throwning a special hatchet (how would this look?) She'll be omnipresent. The idea of managing a lullaby is very interesting, so even though I'm not sure how this would look in game and definitely think some aspects are overtuned, I enjoy the concept.
But, that's easy for me to say. I don't play Huntress. I don't like playing Huntress. I'm not her audience and by the look of @NeverSolus' comment, at least one member of that audience is skeptical.
PS: KI might be a bit much. Given it cannot be countered and some people still like to play for stealth, having it map wide for a full minute, especially when the way its applied is pretty much unavoidable, will rub some folk the wrong way.