(Probably) The Most Balanced Spirit Nerfs

Vulgun

The Spirit

• For 3 seconds after performing a Phase Walk, the Spirit is in a special state where the next attack is considered a Special Attack.
• If Spirit does not perform an attack after this window, she will suffer from a 1.5 second fatigue to punish trying to circumvent the change.
  • The movement speed penalty for the fatigue when not using the attack is -45% movement speed.
• If Spirit does perform an attack during the window and misses, she will be penalized with 1 second of extra cooldown.
• The animation for when Spirit performs a Phase Walk is now less subtle; you can now visibly see her slightly twitch her hands in conjunction to her head when she starts it.

What these do...

These two changes to Spirit's kit will not affect the general playstyle that she currently has, nor do they change her unpredictability in any way, which is the main hook to the Spirit. Instead, they target what might be a bigger, unseen issue being how her special attack functions, and makes her more in line with other Killers that have similar mobility, such as The Blight and The Legion.

Currently, the attack functions like a basic attack after a Phase Walk; we all know that very well. However, with the first change, this makes it so that the attack is a special attack that now functions like a basic attack, but is still considered a special attack.

Now what that changes is a monumental amount, as no longer can Spirit proc Perks that specifically activate when using a Basic Attack on a Survivor. What perks do these affect?

Here's the list (with few exclusions since even I don't know the extent of the perk):

Dark Devotion

Dragon's Grip

Franklin's Demise

Hex: Blood Favour

Hex: Devour Hope

Hex: Haunted Ground

Hex: No One Escapes Death

Hex: The Third Seal

Iron Maiden

Knock Out

Make Your Choice

Rancor

Remember Me

Save the Best for Last

Sloppy Butcher

Starstruck

Surge

Unrelenting

Basically, the extent of the changes makes it so that it mostly affects Spirit's ability to instantly down Survivors with various perks, as well as try to take advantage of different perks' abilities to circumvent the intentional design of her add-ons. This makes Spirit much more fair to go against, but doesn't completely take away her ability to play the game when used properly.

Additionally, the cooldown penalty and fatigue are added as a way to prevent the ability to circumvent the changes. If Spirit could naturally wait out the clock and then attack, then the first change would be moot at best, so there would need to be some changes in order to enforce this new strict change to her playstyle. The addition of a second of cooldown for missed attacks is to also ensure that she can't get the second lunge in so easily, allowing her to be countered with well-timed spins, vaults or otherwise.

Again, as a whole, this won't change far too much and Spirit will likely still be the best Killer in the game, but she won't be so insufferable to play against with these changes.

The last change is just a supplementary one that allows you to predict her better, but without disrupting her playstyle entirely.

I would at least want to see this on a PTB to see how this would function, as it would be best for it to occur there. It might make for good changes, it might make for bad changes; we won't know unless it's properly tested.

Think about it, she would still be an unpredictable Killer, but she'd no longer be without a complete counter. You can do something about her, but she can at least still be able to do something against you without it seeming unfair or cheap for either side.

gilgamer

So first off this kills spirits ability to use phase walk for mobility which is just a boring change frankly and secondly none of those perks you mentioned are meta so all you'd be doing is pinholing spirits into playing more meta builds which I guarantee would not be the change you want to see

BenihimeWrath

Iron will just became literally the strongest perk in the game, a direct counter to spirit, and there should be no reason at all that any survivor does not run Iron will 10000% of the time. Lucky Break optional.