The problem with Spirit and the reason she's so strong
Everyone who has played the game for awhile and is aware of the game as a whole, knows that Nurse is the strongest killer in the game. The ability to surpass every loop in the game (pallets, obstacles, windows etc.) is unbeatable. However, the majority of players still have more problem with Spirit than Nurse, and report losing the most games versus Spirit. Why, I wondered for long, and after buying and trying her out, I think I know the answer.
See, Nurse is a very peculiar killer. Her incredibly high learning curve makes games versus her go either completely wrong or completely right, as I've played both the easiest and the hardest games as a survivor versus a Nurse indeed. Spirit on the other hand, although listed as a hard killer, doesn't seem to work this way, players start being good at her at the very moment they start playing her. And I though for myself, how is that possible, if her ability makes her completely unable to see survivors, suggesting a high learning curve and skill ceiling... well, apparently not.
See, hearing survivors isn't hard. Especially with Stridor. It isn't something which you need to specifically practice in DbD itself to be good at, if you have good hearing in general (and good headphones), you're ready to go. So the skillful aspect of her ability isn't really related to DbD as much as it is related to the person and their equipment in general. What makes her so crazy though, is that her incredible speed while in her power makes her catch survivors in no time after getting a hit, to the point where you don't even need to hit them immediately after going out of your ability, you can just use it to close the distance and you're still ready to go and slay chasing normally.
And here comes the actual problem.
There are many killers in the game, that can close distance with survivors using their power, and their power makes them incredible for 1v1 chase-oriented lethality. But they all share one thing in common: the closing of the distance is followed by a fatigue state, which can hurt you if you don't manage to use your ability correctly and hit, hence adding a skill ceiling.
Nurse can close distance very quickly, but she suffers a fatigue which can punish her if she misses her attacks.
Blight can close distance very quickly, but he suffers a fatigue if he doesn't hit or misses which punishes him.
Oni can close distance very quickly, but suffers an animation cooldown if he misses his attack.
Billy can close distance very quickly, but suffers a cooldown if he doesn't hit and even a bigger one if he bumps into an obstance.
Legion can close distance very quickly, but suffers a fatigue if he misses his attack or doesn't hit and cannot use his ability to put them into a dying state.
Wraith can close distance very quickly, but cannot attack immediately and has to uncloak, giving survivors enough time to reposition and reach a loop.
Spirit however, is the ONLY killer in the game, that doesn't have to go through any fatigue or cooldown after using her ability to close distance quickly. There are no side-effects to not directly hitting survivors after closing the distance with your ability, you do not get punished with a fatigue if you miss your attack after going out of phase, she can immediately continue the chase suffering only the basic missed attack cooldown shared by all killers, and again, she doesn't even need to attack immediately after going out of phase, she can just close the distance in no time and then chase them normally, something other killers can only dream of.
And this is exactly why, Spirit, although listed as hard killer, actually has much less of a skill ceiling than the rest of the other chase-oriented killers, there are absolutely no repercussions of not being perfect with her. Hence why, regardless of rank, Spirit performs amazing all around. If her ability required you to hit survivors going out of it, and suffer a cooldown afterwards if you miss the attack, the whole picture would be different, she would still be very strong, but her skill ceiling would actually be high and require players to really put the effort to master her her phase. On top of that, Spirit is possibly the only killer in the game, that can just remain still in front of a dropped pallet, and still get a hit or even a grab out of survivor mistakes, just for the sole reason she's a Spirit.
I do, legit believe, that the new Lucky Break buff is to serve as an indirect nerf to Spirit, because quite frankly, that may be the only real counter to her that currently exists.
Comments
Oh yeah, sure, nailed it, you got it fam, right on the point here. HE SOLVED THE ISSUE, BHVR!
Next update the devs should put on the loading tips:
Playing against the Spirit: Make sure to learn, adapt, or try doing anything. Don't give up after failing once or twice.
I was actually thinking about that too, because I saw someone suggest that Spirit have an animation cooldown after phasing. I thought it was stupid but then realized that's literally how most killers work, why does she get special treatment?
I used to hate when I hear Spirit in a match,, now I have just learned to listen for the clues and try to be as erratic as I can. That at least gives me some space most of the time after phasing to get to a jungle gym or shack to create even more distance.
Based on what information? The way she looks at?
The only way to read a spirit's move, is to notice her movement post-phase. Which is literally a coinflip the first time, practically a coinflip the second time too(especially if she runs Stridor), which equals a down, which equals a hook. You can apply that to every survivor. So it's essentially 8 coinflip scenario's for first hooks, assuming Haunted Grounds isnt triggered, which makes Spirit even worse, because you do not know if she knows where you are, and besides Nurse and Wraith, she is one of the only 2 killers who's M2 ability closes a gap and counts as a basic attack, both Wraith and Nurse have an actual hefty downside to using their power, Spirit has none if you have working ears. Piggy doesnt count, even though landing a dash is much, much harder than landing a phase attack. Legion doesnt count, even though his power is literally just his normal knife, Blight doesnt count, even though he is more difficult to land hits with. Having things like Devour, Make Your Choice and Haunted Grounds work with Spirit gives survivors even less time to read her.
By that time, the spirit player has already seen how you loop, what decisions you make, what movement you make when she phases and how quick you are to adapt. If you adapt quick, it's essentially a coinflip again, if you dont, its a free hit. Which, assuming she played quite optimal and already hooked another person AND the person who unhooked you, means you didnt have enough time to heal up and another hook. That's another 4 essential coinflips.
That only leaves 1-2 remaining plays per person you can make to avoid hits without them being coinflips and assuming you get healed.
The only way to get around this is to get off generators to observe Spirit. Which is even worse, because Spirit is powerful enough to get hits even if you can read her and the time you need to seek out where she is and observe her enough for counterplay is a lot longer than Spirit needs to down you.
The only way that Spirit is not a coin toss, is if you face the same Spirit more than once. Which is ridiculous.
I do think there's a way to avoid that by giving her a unique alternative to fatigue.
What if she gets phasing sickness? For a couple of seconds after exiting phasewalk, she loses the ability to see scratch marks and pools of blood, and loses her hearing.
That way, if she messes up, she does lose a little time, as opposed to just immediately being on the survivor's tail as if she just whiffed a normal attack, but she doesn't have a standard fatigue.
Remove her ability to see scratch marks while she is phasing , make her do something visually when she isn’t phasing compared to when she is instead of “ me use big brain and stand still surviour don’t know yay 10000iq” -_- While your at it just remove her from the game: is used to be fun going up agaisnt sprirt when she was first released I repeat 1st released now I will die every time I see that smurf could not care less,
If he could, spirit would be very much underperforming, since killers have to keep up in a 4v1, so they need to have advantages in a 1v1. This is just nonesense that means nothing at all.