Counterforce needs a rework
The way the perk is made is not coherent with the reason why it is used. Counterforce is currently the only perk that is reliable against totem builds, which you are not even going to face once every 6 matches. So it is already a big gamble for using it. It can be used with other totem perks like overzealous and inner strength, but unfortunately those builds aren't very strong to use so you are still not getting a lot of value compared to other perks.
Main issues with it: The progressive increase in speed on cleansing totems is bad design and the mechanic to see the farthest totem instead of the closest is useless.
Progressive speed in cleansing: It is a mechanic that slightly nerfs the perk itself to make it strong later in game after you have cleansed other totems.
- Why is it bad design: When facing totem builds (which is the whole point of using this perk), killers are often running Hex: Thrill of the Hunt, which will make cleasing the totems way more difficult (especially the first one). Since that first totem is the most important totem, it would be way more satisfying having more cleansing speed in the start and less later than less at the start and more later. For that reason, I would recommend removing the whole progressive speed in cleasing totems mechanic from the perk and making a constant value. Make it between 60% and 85%, more than 100% would be unbalanced and less than 50% would be pointless to even make a change.
Aura reading ability: The aura reading of the furthest totem is kinda of pointless.
- The reason: If you ever played with a totem cleansing build, you know that you are obligated to bring a map with the Sharpened flint addon to see the aura of the totems, because if you dont, finding the first totem might take a while, and even after finding the first totem, the next totem the perk provides for you to cleanse is usually on the opposite side of the map, requiring a LOT of time wasted on rotation, when you could just use a map and see the closest other totem. Not only that, since you are so far away, if you don't imediately go to that totem, the chances of not knowing the exact location or straight up forgetting it are very big. And even if you make the argument that "it at least shows you the whereabouts of another totem for later", that information any person with average knowledge of the game already has by knowing totem spacing, what people don't know is the exact location, which is something that this perk should provide. For that reason, I believe it should be changed to instead of the farthest totem, be now the closest totem. It will make way more sense, and won't actually be a nerf, because sometimes you are better off looking for a closer totem than rotating to the other side of the map and wasting maybe a whole gen worth of progress. This one tho I am very disappointed in the devs for even implementing this, it is not helpful information at all. In any case, if changing it to the closest totem is not agreed upon, I would rather it not have any aura reading ability, and instead buffing it in other ways, like adding another mechanic or just straight up adding to the cleanse speed, since the current aura reading ability the perk provides is mostly useless
My conclusion with this perk is that the dev team did not consider the rotation time it takes to get from one totem to the other. That time is usually more detrimental to the survivor than the time it takes to cleanse itself
Comments
Perks are not meant to give you value every match. You can run unbreakable and not use it 20 games in a row. You can use healing build and face Plague. You can run exposed build and face survivors with vigil.
I agree with Elan. Counterforce is in a good place. Your complaints are valid, insofar as speed and distances, but in exchange for those downsides this perk can single-handedly counter an entire killer perk build. That seems more than reasonable to me. If you encounter someone with no totems, that's normal balancing counter-action. Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.
The problem is that the game has perks that are generalist and also very strong, so niche perks that are less strong lose out
I can't remember a single general survivor perk that is any good. Can you name one? Spine chill, deja vu, resilience, no one left behind, this is not happening? Those are meme at best and with diminished far beyond, same on killer side.
They mean perks with general use, not General Perks. So that would include stuff like Sprint Burst, Lithe, Resurgence, Resilience, Vigil, Dead Hard, etc.
It's stuff that's going to make an impact pretty much every single game, while Counterforce is still a bit underwhelming even against Jasons with hex builds.
I actually think Counterforce is perfectly balanced. My bias is I almost exclusively play SWF when I play survivor, and I’m always the counterforce player but I view it has dedicating 1 of 16 perks I have to support me versus 1 of 4 for my solo queue warriors out there.
Counterforce is completely enough to absolutely melt the nastiest of hex builds, I think buffing it will make hex perks unplayable because they’re already glass cannons as they are.
I am also of the side I would like to see each side have more fun powerful ######### rather than constantly nerfing each others cool perks. Except for Shoulder the Burden gtfo with that mess.
I kinda disagree. Counterforce used to be afwull but now you start with 25 % cleanse speed for free. So perks that pretty much make cleansing impossible - combo of face the darkness, thrill and oblivous/undetectable are countered. I believe and I said it about "Shattered Hope" that perk can be insane and still not give you a value. Aka as we saw with cross examination against stealth killers/perks, infectious killers etc. You can run the best perk ever but it can literally does nothing - aka sprint against mindbreaker
The perk is fine, it has a good synergy with overzealous and inner strength, even if the killer doesn't have any hex build, you still get value.
If I were to buff it, I would make it to increase the blessing speed as well, but the perk is fine as it is
rock-paper-scissors perk design is just bad in general i will add, premising the outcome of the match on entirely blind guessing sucks
It is one perk out of 16. If one perk doesn't get value it's very unlikely that'll lose the game.
Moreover as already mentioned there are other synergizing perks that guarantee it gets value. Run those with it and you'll always be good.
Agree! My problem with the current design is, as I said, even when you are supposed to get value from it, you don't even get it properly. Differently from Unbreakable, when you do get a chance to use it, it completely changes the outcome of a match, whereas with counterforce, the current design makes you feel like it doesnt affect much, even when it should