Addressing Things With No Counterplay
So, let's be real here. The Spirit nerf is outright insulting. The only thing she had that had no counterplay was the standing still 'mind game'. Everything else about her, higher level players could consistently play against. It was never a 'coin flip', it was making a read, like you would in any fighting game.
The new change doesn't make it so it takes more skill to play Spirit or to play against her, it makes it so it takes LESS skill to play against her by doing something that has proven to make her so weak she becomes unviable, and then adding a big red circle to it. And since neither of these things are things the spirit can turn off, they have no skill increase, since THEY now have the ability to see her while she can't see them, the exact condition the devs are pretending they are fixing.
So, I wanted to drop a list of things that ACTUALLY have no counterplay (Except happening to be a specific killer or having a VERY specific perk) in this game;
Gameplay:
99ing Exit Gates: The killer has no way to stop this, no way to undo it, has to go out of their way to prevent it, and it only benefits the survivor. Opening Exit Gates even had it's time reduced a while back, giving killer LESS ability to interfere.
Spawning on Hex Totems: Killers can lose perks in less than 20 seconds into the game because it is still possible for survivors to spawn adjacent to a hex totem, or for the hex totem to spawn adjacent to the nearest generator. Many hex totem locations are not even hidden. In several maps, a killer could make a mad dash for their totem and still not get there before a survivor does to destroy it.
Slugging: Short of having unbreakable, which, while meta, is a very specific perk fix, nothing but your teammate's skill prevents the killer from just leaving you slugged for four minutes.
Hatch: Hatch is a weird one because it has no counterplay if the killer does too well. If you are doing average, you can find the hatch and be prepared for it, but if you kill the 3rd survivor while there are 3 or more gens left, you cannot know where the hatch spawned premptively. There is also nothing you can do to stop the hatch from spawning. Even slugging for the 4 man, the hatch could spawn right under them. Then, if you close the hatch, it is very possibly on a lot of maps that the hatch is so far from the exit gates that even if you ran to the right exit gate immediately, they are already out.
Killers:
Wraith: All Seeing - Blood: While not completely without counterplay, because he is still M1, this removes a LOT of counterplay and reduces mind game possibilities, and can be used indefinitely.
Myers: Tombstone Piece: Even if you are good at avoiding Myers, eventually he will get T3, if he is remotely competent. Then, regardless of how you have played, even if you were never stalked or even hit, he can just gimp you.
Leatherface: Face camping. Like, that's it. No add ons, nothing about his power in the base concept of the game, just that face camping ability.
Pig: Crate of Gears + Jigsaw's Sketch: On some maps, if the gen was triggered before you were unhooked, it becomes impossible for you to do anything
Clown: Redhead Pinky Finger: You can zig zag all you want, but eventually he can get you. Unlike huntress and instant down hatchets, even if he misses, he gets partial effects, and there is no down side. He can reload quicker and throw quicker than Huntress too, and not get slowed down.
Spirit: Only actually uncounterable, no gameplay thing she had was not knowing if she was using her power. You didn't have to say WHERE she was, the sitting idle thing just shouldn't have been there.
Legion: Feral Frenzy has absolutely no counter, but it is also not a 'finish the job' ability, and so Legion's counter play lies in them becoming an M1 after their power works. They are basically just infinite T3 Mikey with extra steps. Weird situation of "Having no counterplay" doesn't necessarily mean effective.
Plague: As above, so below. Getting infected is a little trickier, but if you try to undo the damage, you give her AoE huntress powers. This is horrible combined with either of her Iri add ons, which make it impossible to either not show her where you are, or not give her her super saiyan form. However, once infected, she is just Infinite T3 Mikey again, and can be looped like any other M1s.
Items:
Flashlights: For some reason they added fuzzy burning sounds to the flashlights, when hearing is supposed to be your main counter. The only counterplay to this is good headphones, not actual skill, because with the flashlights also messing with your hearing, you are basically left to just guess if you don't have a good sound device that lets you distinguish footsteps OVER the burning sound.
Keys: Absolutely no counter play. If the hatch is spawned, and a player has a key, the killer cannot stop them from using it in any way.
Maps: No counterplay. There are not even perks that stop aura reading perks/maps from showing totems, so it basically lets someone instant remove a perk in a way you cannot possibly stop.
Maps: These tend to be more RNG based, but there are still plenty of chances for there to be no gameplay as to why a survivor or killer lost.
Shelter Woods: No locations for Balanced Landing, and it can spawn a lot of empty space through sheer RNG.
Suffocation Pit: Similar to above, has the potential to spawn no drops, large amounts of empty space and dead zones, or multiple back to back L-Ts facing each other where a good survivor can loop a killer for an entire game. RNG is king on this map, and can HEAVILY throw the game to one side or the other. I have literally had games where outside of the jungle gym chain, two pallets spawned on the entire killer shack side, including killer shack. One spot was completely open and vacant, other had a hill.
Gas Heaven: Massively weakens killer aura reading perks and strengthens survivors, because it has large areas that block your ability to move, but not your ability to aura read.
Coldwind Farms: If you do not have good vision, regardless of your skill at the game, the recent corn update can make targeting impossible. That is more an aesthetic issue, but there is nothing that can really be done about that except turning your settings to low every time you get a Coldwind Farm.
Haddonfield: Holy #########, there are literally still infinite loops on this map if you know where to go, and even besides them, most of the buildings have god loops where the killer has to follow or they cannot catch you. On top of that, most of the pallets have long spaces and low blockers, so there is no mind game potential and double backing doesn't work. A survivor can just outright see you.
Backwater Swamp: Additionally the wharfs are impossible for a killer to catch a good survivor on, because they have to enter from very specific locations very far away. You just walk to the far end, and wait till they commit to coming up, then leave.
Lerys: (Who is ready for Epileptic Techno?) There are 2-3 god pallets where the survivor can just throw the pallet down and the killer has no gameplay, no chance, just has to break it. (The Library, there is one in the hallway, and one of the shower rooms has a low and long center blockage with no route around it.
Red Forest: The size. Forget anything about god pallets being the problem in any other map, the simple issue is that these are way too big. When I was testing gen speeds versus ability to navigate a map, a survivor started a gen when I got to the Mother's shack, I went to the other side of the map from the gen, came back, and they had finished it. If you do not have a three gen, you cannot win, and even that is hard, because three gens are far more spread out on these maps. On top of the size, Temple of Purgation has several spots with long, low level blocks that make it so there is no mind game to the pallet. The survivor can see you at all time, and it is too long for doubling back to work, so you have to run in circles till they drop it.
Springwood: 3/4 of the pallets in the school are god pallets automatically. The only one that has SOME recourse is the top floor one near the classroom itself.
Gideon Meat Plant: The other holy #########. First off, get the minor thing out first, there are a total of 4 vaults in the entire map, one of which leads into a massive drop, so anything related to vaulting is useless. Then, pallets. And more pallets. And even MORE pallets. I did the math, and if you had to break all the pallets a survivor can drop, and they just held W afterwards, they can finish 9 gens before you get a single hit. The pallets are close together, and almost half are god pallets; once dropped, there is no mind game, the killer just HAS to break it to be able to catch up.
Ormond: There are two god pallets upstairs, and a god room where when you go to the top of the stairs, you can wait there, and the killer has to come get you, and you can always vault in time. There is enough space between the top of the stairs and the room that you always have time to start a fast vault and get out before they can reach you. Even if they break the breakable wall, because you have such a lead time on this, you can loop back up, and because there is so much distance between the stairs and the window, and where the window drops, you can just sit there until they come. I love doing it, it is an instant win in the middle building, and it is reusable, but I know it is completely unfair, as they have no recourse.
Dead Dawg Saloon: The only thing I find to be uncounterable is the amount of brush, how dark it is, and how high it is. If you aren't wearing default Dwight skin with a glowing white shirt, it is very easy to hide in the brush with any character with even slightly dark clothes. The killer can't viably check every bush with their groins, so there are a lot of people who survive that map by just going to a random bush and crouching. If the characters are dark skinned, dark haired, and dark outfitted, it can be outright impossible to see them.
Midwich: The Holding W. Normally, a killer's way of avoiding just holding W after a survivor is to cut them off as they approach a corner. But that isn't an option on Midwich. You can just KEEP holding W. The amount of time it wastes before you ever have to use a vault or a pallet is crazy. While not as big as the Red Forest maps, the inability to shorten it by cutting it off makes it just as bad, if not worse.
Perks: (Addressing more Meta perks. There are plenty of non-meta perks that don't have 'counters', but don't give the same massive bonuses. Not including information perks, because that just lets you know something, it doesn't affect your ability to DO something.)
Adrenaline: Being hooked, trapped, etc at the time of the event does not prevent it.
Borrowed Time (End Game): They specifically went out of their way to remove any way of countering it, so now if the exit gates are opened, and one survivor has borrowed time, it is an almost guaranteed free escape.
Decisive Strike (Unbreakable, Lockers, End Game): While Decisive Strike was nerfed, it didn't actually address it being uncounterable in a lot of situations, it just made it so you couldn't do much while using it. The counter to decisive strike is to slug the person and focus your attention on someone else, because if they didn't touch something, there is nothing the KILLER can do to get gameplay back. Even if you down someone else and hook them, DS isn't lost. However, you can't even do the one bit of counterplay you have if they jump into a locker, or if it's end game, they can just crawl to the door with impunity, because there is literally nothing the killer can do except watch an invincible slug crawl by.
Head On: A bug that has persisted for a while means that idle crows (Or stillness crows, as the perk calls them) does not actually stop this from working. You can sit in a locker all day. Additionally, there is nothing the killer can do to actually get a head on player based on the killer's skill; the only option is that the SURVIVOR has to make the mistake. Which means that this is another survivor perk that has no counterplay.
Iron Will: Similar to Borrowed Time, they intentionally removed the only counterplay options to this perk.
Prove Thyself: It is possible with two people to finish a gen on over half the maps in the game if the killer is 75% of the way across the map, even if they have discordance, simply because of how fast gens can go with this perk.
Sprint Burst: Technically, this is another perk that relies on the survivor to make the mistake, as there is nothing a killer can do to deny a sprint burster from running. Best they can hope for is to get them to waste it, then find them before their exhaustion recovers, but that would be on the survivor getting caught.
Tenacity (With Silence Bug): With a bug that makes you silent on the ground, Tenacity has the potential to make it impossible for a killer who doesn't immediately pick up a survivor to never be able to find them again except through luck or the survivor exposing themselves. A bug that has been in the game over a year, and some survivors think is supposed to happen.
Unbreakable: The only counter is to pick up every survivor as soon as possible, which is not always a viable strategy. There can be flashlights, gens about to pop, they could be under a pallet. Hell, slugging is just unfortunately great pressure, even if ######### gameplay. But since it can often be used with things like DS, there are just plenty of situations where it introduces no counterplay situations.
Bamboozle/Hex: Crowd Control: Introduced to stop some god loops/infinites, it also makes perfectly fair loops pretty unbalanced. If there are other loops nearby, fine, but it is not unheard of for there to be nothing nearby and to get hit just because a key feature of the game can be removed by a perk.
Franklin's Demise: Negates things like white wards, can completely remove items, but it is done with just a basic AA. Unlike things like Sloppy Butcher, you can still choose to heal. If you get downed too far away, or your teammates take too long to save you, items can just be gone with no recourse.
Knock Out: Not a meta perk, but it's only counter is using outside information (Comms) to fix it. Fortunately, it is NOT a metaperk because of how easy it is to use outside comms to fix it.
Any of these you think DO have actual counterplay, besides happening to bring the exact right perk?
(For those wondering, I do not believe camping has no counterplay, as you can do a gen rush and be out before a single kill happens, and I do not believe tunneling has no counterplay, for the same reason. It DOES suck for that person, as it gives no real gameplay to them, but there is COUNTERPLAY to it for the survivors)
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