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When they were first introduced, it seemed like Boon totems were going to be a fun, new element to Dead by Daylight’s core loop. A few years later, and we can confidently say that many were too optimistic about how Boons would change the game. So what happened? Why haven’t Boons been as successful as Hexes were – and still are – for killers? Let’s talk about it.
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man, I have some stuff to say about Scourge Hook: Hangman's Trick. I think it was actually a niche, but useful perk in its original state, being able to respawn used hooks so you wouldn't have deadzones where you couldn't hook the remaining survivors. The first rework turned it into a perk to proactively combat hook sabotages, which is one of the most niche playstyles out there, and our current version is an even worse version of that because now it only shows the aura in a short range around Scourge Hooks exclusively. It's been unnecessarily nerfed time and time again to continuously become a worse perk at countering a very niche survivor playstyle which has been vastly out-shined by Background Player + flashlights/flashbangs, as they are a much more consistent way of preventing someone from being hooked.
TL;DR Hangman's Trick is in its darkest timeline.
Honestly the best fix for boons when they released was to make a cooldown of when a boon could be reactivated after a killer stomped it out. It could have been 1 minute or 2 minutes or they could have just made shattered hope base kit. Obviously they needed to change certain boons, but these fixes I mentioned could of made it more balanced
They could have left boons really strong they just needed to have the risk that Killer hexes did. Old CoH would have been fine if once it was snuffed out it was gone. But for some reason they gave them the power of hexes without the clear balancing drawback.
I think they saw a major problem with the teamwork perks, it is that they aren't really special of bringing much "teamwork". Healing another survivor isn't really teamwork, it's just you doing the work.
And I know why they gave it that trigger effect, it's because actual teamwork actions are impossible to make happen (finish a 2 people heal, finish a gen with someone, most of the time someone leaves before the action is finished).
And then there the simple fact that staying with someone is a bad idea in general and a very bad idea against some killers.
Then on top of this, it's near useless when playing with randoms and even in swf you usualy want your friends to go away once in chase to the killer only pressures 1 person and not 2.
Prove Thyself is already the best teamwork perk in the game and Bloodpact is also arguably a better version of a teamwork perk because it provides aura reading when you need it.
So even on a thematic standpoint these perks fail because there's already perks that are based on teamwork, so creating a new perk category "teamwork" doesn't make much sense, they're just perks that need another survivor to work like there's been since the game came out.
To me the problem with boon perks is that the design of them makes them very limited and boring, with how they're all just a small range and they get combined into one totem there's not much else you can do with them other than "stand in the range and get x status effect". You can't really have one that has a map wide effect or that's lit automatically or from the beginning of the match because how would that interact with the other boon perks? Hexes dont have this problem since they're all separate totems so you can have a lot of different and varied effects from hex perks like haunted grounds, third seal, plaything, pentimento, undying, etc. With how boon perks are designed though you cant really have stuff like that and all the boons are forced to have the same formula of: find a totem, bless it, and then get status effects when nearby.
Boons of healing is completely trash
I run the healing boon a LOT and even have a boon build with all but the haste one, (Deja in its place), that haste boon is the weakest link! I'd love to see more Boons. 14:4 is not a great ratio.
There are rumours online that this new survivor coming this month is coming with a new Boon perk.
29th 🙁
I want old Ruin back and other hexs stronger. COH should get his self heal back with 50%.
When the killer kicks boons they get damaged and survivors can repair them and bless agin then. That would be balanced.
I think the issue is that Scourge Hooks are inherently kinda boring and Boons are super bottlenecked in their design and need a ground-up rework.
Every new Hex the past two years have been doing something interesting with the totem mechanic itself so it’s not as if BHVR is losing much creativity.
I think behaviour should bring back those, but only with an appropriate character though, it felt weird to have Jonah coming with Boon perks.
Here are a scourge hook and a boon totem perks idea from differents chapter i created.
(Not to flex its just to show that if a random in a comment section can come up with these, the devs can definitely do it and better)
Scourge Hook Danse Macabre: Blind Murder is not the way at the court, it takes refinement and knowledge in order to strike precisely at the right time. At the start of the trial, 4 random hooks are changed into Scourge hooks. After hooking a survivor at these hooks, Danse Macabre will trigger and last for 20/25/30 seconds, within that time all survivors suffer from the exposed status effect. When a survivor is put in the dying state, the perk reset immediately.
“Today you wear the victor’s Laurels. But can you keep what you have taken ?”
Ambrus Császár.
Boon: Totemic Guardian: You are under the protection of ancestral beings. When any injured survivor is within 24 meters of the totem for 12/10/8 seconds. They will be granted the endurance status effect, for as long as they are within the Boon's range.
The perk deactivates when the boon is snuffed.
“I know i wasn’t much of a believer but please protect us”
Isha Olson.
To quote an answer from the last reddit AMA in regard to boons and scourge hooks:
"I agree that our perk types are pretty interesting and should see some new action, but I can't promise anything. We always try to match the theme of the attached characters / IPs, and we also try to support underused strategies and/or counter over-used strategies where possible. Sometimes these elements take us to specific designs that don't always line up with specific types."
So they are waiting for the perfect opportunity for these perks. Here's hoping we get some fun and interesting boons and scourges in the future.
Also, I'm surprised you forgot Scourge Hook: Monstrous Shrine XD
WHERE IS THE INTRO; HAND IT OVER
I’m not sure if anyone has listened to BHVR’s new podcast “Crafting the imaginary in to play”, but Mathieu Cote said that BHVR would just crank out content and move on from it. He said that was the intent for DBD before it sold a ton of copies shortly after release. This seems to be the mentality they have with a lot of features in their game. They come out with a new feature, use it for like, a year or so, and then move on. As stated in another comment, the teamwork mechanic is another one. Or the mini games for killer powers like with SM. You can tell they care about the game, but I feel like instead of fixing a cool but faulty mechanic, they forget about it and move on. They should instead improve the mechanics and put some thought and effort into it.
Ruin wasn’t the issue, it was ruin with undying
Imagine tho, that they were added 5 days from now, and you making this video?? LOL
Damn I understand how broken the perk was but man I miss circle of healing at its best 😭😭😭😭
In retrospect, it's always bothered me that killers got more and more Hex perks over the years after the Flesh and Mud chapter introduced them, yet survivors didn't get any more luck-based perks after Ace. Then instead of updating that system in any meaningful way, BHVR created the Boons and really thought that no one would have any issue with CoH in it's original state. So it's really sad that they just nerfed the strongest boon and didn't seize the opportunity to buff the other three and put them all on more equal footing with each other. Let Shadow Step have infinite range like Empathy. Turn Dark Theory into Boon: Made For This. Literally anything instead of just abandoning this cool idea that everyone thought was going to be a new era of survivor meta! Also, Haddie 1000% should have gotten a boon instead of Jonah. That dude is the last person to believe in magic or the supernatural so why the hell does he have one? Even Vittorio would be a better candidate for one since he has knowledge/history with the Observer. Unfortunately, maybe it's for the best that the boons stopped. If boons are just going to be buffs of basekit actions of survivors, then they have peaked already in a way. The next boon will just be increased wiggling, vaulting, or generator speed and it won't last and will share the same fate as CoH.
Thank you if you read, Das Food. ❤
wait wait wait but how did you go from October 2021 to 8th of January 2024? xD
CoH allowing survivors to self care was the only thing keeping boons worthwhile imo, at least in solo queue where it’s often hard enough to get a survivor to let you heal them never mind get them to go over to a boon.
An idea I’ve got for a hex is sort of a NOED for Mori’s but the twist being it’s active all match but only works once the gates are powered.
I can't believe he came from the future, 5 days from now. To warn us about Boons. WE MUST PREPARE BOYS!
How about this for a boon idea, also for any Yu-Gi-Oh fans, think of this like a Gemini card
Boon: Sacrilige: The presence of a higher being grows evervescent with your faith
Each time you make a new boon totem, this perk gains stacks.
The first stack the boon literally does nothing (no it doesnt remove other boon effects, it itself gets no effect at first stack)
Second stack, removes the boon noise to killer (making them have to see the boon)
Third stack:extends the range of all other boons tied to this one one, extend by 6 meters
4th stack you no longer scream while within this boons aoe
5th stack grunts of pain, no more grunts of pain while within the boons radius
This isnt meant to be op and would likely create annoying players who just go around booning non stop all game but that would be such a long waste if they did, thats why imo the 3rd effect is worth most going for. But boons genuinely made me quit for half a year due to how strong CoH was. And do to it and gen kick meta, yeah games sometimes lasted near hours for me aa survivor
I don't know how much it's benefitting me overall but using overzealous and dark theory is kind of fun.
I could see a perk like Boon: All Seeing Eyes allowing the killers aura to be revealed (even when undetectable) inside the boon and to have it linger for 1-3 seconds and in exchange the totem breaks upon snuffing as a trade off.
As per scourge hooks and teamwork perks I can hope for more of em as they’re really unique and hexes too (but please make totems a little harder to find they’re like finding a car out on a street in the neighborhood 😂)
The reason? Every single killer, killer main, and fog whisperer complained non stop for years… till the devs only listened to the killer sided game, and 92.39% of fog whisperers being killer mains.
And only skill issues want shattered hope base kit, that would break the matches to be far more killer sided too.
Daddy Food is never an idiot 🙈
Balogne
I would like more variety with the scourge hooks, teamwork perks, and boons but with the devs unable to decide if they wanna balance the game for fun or for competitive play it makes any ideas we would want or be excited about in the future either super broken or so weak/worthless it joins the huge pile of unused perks. I love boons but they just don’t feel worthwhile to use with their effects being very limited and not worthwhile in the current meta. Now the devs do say they have some changes coming but we have no way to know if their changes will be effective at all. Yes as players we have hundreds of ideas but we do not make the game and it would be nice to see these unique types of perks be used aside from the same 7 we always see.
And while circle of healing was very strong with allowing survivors to self care themselves it being nerfed effectively killed off the boons because SoloQ is very rough still and being forced to either have a medkit, rely on teammates, or use anywhere from 1-3 perks just to heal themselves. Teammates are not very reliable and basically having a full healing build for yourself can be very boring and even a waste if the killer tunnels you out or chooses to ignore you or just 3-Gen so you lose to the timer. I loved running boons in SoloQ but now it’s basically a waste unless I am SWFing since I know the perks will be worthwhile and I can get value from them. If it was like it is now but lets survivors still self care (just super slow so it was faster than Self care but longer than medkits) I would run it in SoloQ. Even when I play killer I would only get annoyed at a boon if it was Shadow Step because it’s a more problematic perk. I am not a very good killer but when I was just starting the game and learning killer I was more understanding of survivors healing but no scratch marks is just insane and very broken, especially on maps where you don’t have good line of sight or have multiple floors.
I think a boon: vigil would be cool. U got a 50% reduction to all negative status effects. And also a boon wiretap would be cool, while in its radius u can see the killers aura. And make it a smaller radius then regular boons to maybe balance it.
The devs are most likely afraid of the backlash they’ll get if they make a strong boon totem near the level of old COH, which is why every totem after that has been decent to weak, and why they haven’t made any new books in years
CoH at 50% healing speed was fine imo. Right now it's just not ever worth bringing CoH in a match.
off topic but I love the clown gameplay <3
Yeah I want more scourge hook perks.
in my opinion circle of healing didn't need to get nerfed. it was such a good perk for Solo players, i understand that it was way overpowered when organized SWFs runs it but in that case isn't every perk Overpowered when organized SWFs use it? they are organized and know how to get huge value from the simplest perks. Solo queue been miserable ever since this nerf everyone just gives up way quickly because there isn't a way to heal yourself anymore. 1 charge medkits while you're playing solo obviously is not enough and let's not talk about Self care :DD
I propose this rework to all boon mechanics, #1 if a set up boon gets snuffed it automatically breaks the totem leaving survivors in 5 maximum uses(per 5 totems on a map.(also could have changes to Inner Healing and Counterforce to work with boons.)) #2 boon stacking, if a single boon is already set up(for example CoH) and another survivor has a different boon, that survivor would be able to set his boon on the same totem extremely fast. #3 If multiple boons are applied to a single boon, its maximum range would be increased by 6 or 8 meters per single different boon and the most boons you can have on a totem should either be 4 or 6( if they make 2 more boons). #4 final interactions, if you have a boon set up, you cannot boon another totem. The sound coming of a boon should maybe remain the same. Let me know of any problems with this.
I hope so.
In my opinion I thought boons were a bit stronger then hexes. The ability to relit totems after the killer snuffed it out, that's the reasons why I thought that.
I mean yes we got shattered hope to destroy boons but in all shattered hope became a worthless perk. There was no way to know if a survivor had a boon. Back in the day i had hopes for them to make shattered hope Basekit without the arua reading ability of course.
Personally I'm glad boons got nerfed like they did.
Anyone who knew what they were talking about knew the idea of boons were terrible even just conceptually. BHVR learned it the hard way, so they nerfed them into the ground and never made any more.
I think that they should bring back the strength of Boone circle of healing so survivors can heal themselves, but maybe make it so that if the bone is snuffed out three times in a game that you can no longer light it
they should make boons have a much larger range since as of right now none of the boons are game breaking, right now the range is to small to be useful… exponential is the only boon perk that could be problematic but it can be reworked.