Ghostface change Ideas
I don't know when or if BHVR will do a revision on Ghostface but i'll leave some ideas.
I think Ghostface is the best stealth killer bar none. He has better tools than everyone else in his category but since his release he was hit pretty hard by power creep from the following killers, those being Oni, DeathSlinger, Pyramid Head, Blight and The Twins. But GF has Stealth on Command, 1 shots, Mindgames, set up and all of these require less hassle, by requiring less time or just being more practical aplications of the mechanics than on other stealth killers.
Unlike Wraith he can attack when being stealthy, unlike Pig he can actually crouch effectively and do crouch Mindgames and attack from crouched without announcing it, unlike Myers he doesn't need to slow down massively or completly lose element of surprise to build those 1 shots.
Ghostface has an 8 meter range where he can stalk Survivors without being revealed, from 32 to 40 meters, it will logically be hard to always be safe when stalking or have an LOS at this distance but this is a thing that exists. He can hide himself better than Myers when stalking. GF has 1 shot potential from the get go, he doesn't need to stare at Survivors for 10 seconds, then +5 secs every other time nor does he have a limit to how manny times he can 1 shot. He can get ready for a 1 shot down in 2.5 seconds. In a perfect scenario GF will find someone quickly, stalk and Mark them and 1 shot them faster than any other stealth killer and he will down Survivor faster than most other killers aswell. Altho this is a not always possible the potential is undeniable. GF's crouch mindgames are unrivaled, only 2 killers can crouch but GF clearly has the advantage when it comes to using it to trick Survivors. Unlike Wraith's Stealth which doesn't allow for attacks, GF can attack anytime he wants without announcing his presence, he doesn't give a sound cue or has a period of time where he transitions from stealth to attack mode, you simply press attack and GF attacks, meaning using stealth in loops is far more pratical and viable.
So he stalks faster, crouches faster, has unlimited 1 shots, has better stealth, how is he struggling? He is struggling because of a few things. First he can't do anything besides crouching when not using Nightshroud, no stalking, no 1 shots, no stealth, then there's a perk Called Spine Chill which will warn Survivors when a killer is looking in their direction within 36 meters, this directly counters GF's stalking and stealth. Second, his reveal mechanic works in a 360º radius, you could be stalking someone and a survivor can come behind you or just outside of your FOV and reveal you, completly cutting your hopes of stalking someone and cutting your stealth aswell. Third the cooldown on Nightshroud is 30 seconds, it's too long by default, without Nightshroud you're as good as Clown or Trapper without Traps or Bottles, you'll still be able to do crouch mindgames depending on tiles but you're just that weak. Hitting a Survivor while under the effect of Nightshroud deactivates Nightshroud, you're punished for using your power and you're punished by having to endure the cooldown.
His strong suits are really strong but his weaknesses are very strong aswell. You'd say this is Balanced right? Well i honestly don't think so, some of his weakenesess are stronger than his strengths and force GF out of power. Spine Chill being the first and the revealing mechanic being the second. Against Spine Chill the only safety GF has is stalking from 37 to 40 meters, a 3 meter window wich is hard to gauge let alone find an LOS, so you'll need to learn how to hide as much of your body as possible to avoid being revealed but then Survivors can just as easily get out of LOS so you're still not getting your stalk and leaving that and trying on another Survivor is X amount of time lost + Y amount of time needed to do it all again on someone else and the result can be the same, so you're in a circle of getting some progress in stalking but not getting downs, not pressuring gens, all this because of 1 perk. Secondly as discussed before the reveal mechanic is bonkers and there's ways to manipulate it from both sides. Which is why you'll get revealed after you've rounded a corner, after you crouched, etc or why a survivor won't reveal you, their camera positioning is wrong or you're not showing enough of your body to allow survivors to reveal you even tho they can see you. The Reveal Mechanic needs revision.
After all this let's discuss these ideas for changes.
- Reduce cooldown of Nightshroud or Buff the Chewed Pen add-on. Make it 20 sec by default or Buff Chewed Pen in 50% so it gives 12 second reduction. Meaning using Chewed Pen would make the recovery time be 18 secs in total. One of this changes will make using his power immediatly better.
- Allow Ghostface to keep Nightshroud if he Marks and downs a Survivor without being revealed. This rewards the GF by making exemplary use of his Power. No killer should their ability because they used it effectively. This would create an off Meta build with Knockout. Keeping GF in Nightshroud while making slugging useful by denying other survivors information on where the slug is while keeping the usual counters, like Spine Chill, SWF, comms.
- Rework the Reveal Mechanic. Make it so the Mask is what you need to see so you can expose GF. This makes exposing GF immediatly more consistant since GF has to expose at least half of his Mask to stalk someone so it gives Survivors a concrete thing to look at while still giving GF some room to avoid being exposed. This Means the Reveal Mechanic is no longer a 360º radius wich massively helps GF not lose his powers when he hooks someone, or someone gets behind him.
- Do an add-on Revision. Improve crouch speed, fix the Detection Range add-ons.Buff the camera/lenses add-ons. Rework the stalk movement speed into something useful, maybe have those be on hit effects like Mangled, Blind, etc. Those would give a minimal boost without requiring the use of a Perk like Sloppy Butcher. Outdoor Security Cam can stay the same since i think the other changes make using GF more consistant and would allow for more stalking. GF Caught on Tape could be something new, Full Map Terror Radius, using Nightshroud will only remove Red Stain, an experimental perk to see if Survivors get paranoid about where GF is and who he could be stalking.
So with this changes, we make using his power better for the killer player by reducing the cooldown, it will reward stealthing and Stalking more by keeping your power active, it makes Revealing GF consistant and we're improving his add-ons.
Comments
Point 2. would be strong yes but still with counters. Think of it this way, if that's an isolated Survivor why should GF lose his power? He accomplished his goal, he went in unannounced, got the kill and left before anyone knew anything. It only removes information on where the slug is not that there's a Slug, everyone will notice the change in status for that Survivor player in the HUD. Plus there are Survivor perks that counter Knockout such as Empathy, After-Care for example.