Spirit Changes
What changes could genuinely be made without legioning her? I suggested this, when she starts phasing (not charging but actually being able to move in it) on all skins he hair violently shakes or flickers, this would provide feedback on if shes phasing and wouldnt be a map wide give away along with survivors having to be in her los to see it most times. But that's my idea what changes would you make that wouldnt kill her? I'm not talking addons we all know the ones that need change but what about her base kit could be changed if at all?
Comments
That's a part of her mindgame potential. So you want a nerf straightout right?
The problem is if you give an indication that she's phasing then you will lose the mind game every single time against a good survivor. You become an m1 killer in essence which is the exact opposite of what makes killers viable at high rank.
Nothing. Bad survivors need to git gud by learning her counters
I mean, why not?
It is not that this form of Mindgame has any Skill involved. Spirit would still be far better than any M1-Killer.
How so? The survivor still doesn't know where you're phasing, just that you're phasing. The only thing that will no longer work is standing still (which tbh, was never a great tactic).
I don't think this is enough for her to become "balanced". Survivors need to know more or she needs to have more drawbacks.
It's a change, it would still leave mindgame
Her basekit is perfectly balanced, only some add-ons need changes:
Mother-Daughter Ring - cannot see scratch marks immediately after starting charging a phase walk.
Prayer Beads Bracelet - base movement speed is 4.2 m/s.
Dried Cherry Blossom - Injured Survivors cannot hear you (doesn’t work with sound emission of using ability) and cannot see your red stain.
Juniper Bonsai - moderately increased passive phasing frequency and slightly passive phasing duration.
Why? You get a notification and feed back she is not where, if you had it spelled out to you it would kill her, this gives you some feedback without ruining her. And if she phases and makes one mistake in the 5 seconds she has your a 110 killer for 20 seconds
Ok. While nothing is strictly needed here are the changes that if made would not Kill her viability.
Note that I mean individually. Implementing all of these at once does risk destroying her:
The changes I actually support adding are marked with a *. A retroactive trail encourages the existing counterplay and makes it a bit easier to execute while also reducing frustration from unexplained losses (the trail acts as the explanation). The non-direction noises while phasing isn't something that is needed because they are OP, but rather because they lead to potential pay to win via headphone quality. A visual que is mostly QoL but also makes her addons less problematic, which is good because addons can throw off your timing which is very important if you are trying to mindgame a Spirit.
she does have drawbacks.
She is literally an m1 killer until she can use her power, and then she is only an m2 killer for a few seconds before becoming a baseline m1 killer again.
Her ONLY other facet is her ability to stand still at pallets/windows and fake doing things. That is literally her only other ability outside of walking fast for 5 seconds.
It's still a blind guess on the survivors part as to what to do when she is phasing. You have nothing to react to.
That is why you don't use your power all in one go. You use it for a couple of seconds so you don't have to wait the full cooldown. Even if you only phasewalk for 2 seconds it is more than enough to get to the other side of a loop to a survivor. The drawback isn't great enough for the possibilities of the power. You have total free movement and you're invisible while phasing and the only thing you can't see is survivors.
+ mind games
+ speed boost
+ non-discrete power bar
-Can't see survivors or blood (without addon)
-cooldown
-being m1 killer when not using power
-can lose survivors during power
I mean this is just a very rough outline but she seems balanced to me. She has her pros but she also is meh as ######### outside of that like every other m1 killer.
She still lacks counterplay from the survivors. She also offers a lot for the amount of skill needed to play her. As long as you have a good headset it is fairly easy to know where survivors are, even if they're not injured you can still hear survivor footsteps loud and clear most of the time. Even if by some chance you don't hear a survivor you have the chance to bump into them since you don't lose collision while using your power.
But they still hear the sound of phasing (obv not w/ prayer beads), can stop running any time they wish, and can run a perk to make them quiet while injured.
I know using specific perks to have a counter on a killer isn't the best design but in this case I think it's not too bad since it's mostly related to sound which is something you have some control over as a survivor even without the perk.
Then you have still Footsteps, moving Grass and Collision to find the Survivor. Iron Will only makes it harder, but is no counterplay. Also, quite a lot of Spirits I verse are using Stridor lately, which completely counters Iron Will.
I mean the entire point of hearing the phasing sound is to tell you to stop moving and try and hide. The counter is literally built into it when not using prayer beads.
You're right, it's very hard to counter her but I think it's possible. For faking phasing though, I think it should stay that way. It's a gamble to use it and it doesn't guarantee a free hit. If they heard the sound while she's right there that would cut her mind-games down to almost nothing.
Thing is, if Spirit stands near a Pallet, she gets the Hit when the Survivor vaults it. Yes, this is a gamble for her. But, she can still react if the Survivor is moving any way. So there is not really a Risk.
I mean, I can see it from myself that Spirit is not that hard to play and very effective, I am more likely to rank up when playing Spirit than any other Killer.
And there is nothing wrong with that. She is easier to play but doesn't guarantee rewards.
If we have to start nerfing killers for the decisions survivors make the game is going to get very weird very fast.
Without her best addons if she waits at a pallet and you just keep running she won't be able to catch up in a single phase. (To be more specific the window where she can stand still and catch up anyway is very small)
That's why the correct way to mindgame a pallet is to run away at first and then quickly double back after counting to 1 and vaulting the pallet. Do not just stand still waiting unless you are trying to bait them into doing something more specific, but only try that if you have a solid read on them already.
If you don't see your idea as a nerf you probably don't know much about her lol. If you know she's phasing you are prepared. No standing still mindgame anymore.
And that perk can be negated by another killer perk making it entirely useless. Survivors also only hear phasing outside the terror radius making it a useless counter in a chase.
I'd like to point out this is a rare case where a killer perk actually overrides a survivor perk. Normally they have priority over killer perks.
And yes, it is useless in a chase to try and listen for the phasing noise, that's the ENTIRE point. If you're around the map and hear it it gives you a chance to react. If you're being chased you're already aware of her and can most likely see her. You have to decide if she's phasing or not and try to make a read. It's one of the only mindgames she has.