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Give Spirit Phasing Scratch Marks
Spirit does not give any tell to survivors that she is using her power or where she is, even though she has scratches, sound, and collision to detect them. This is creating a huge discussion about her being OP which is not true. She is just a guessing game for survivors. She can react to survivors changing course Mid phase to stimulus, but they cannot.
I believe her phasing should show scratch marks to survivors. (This is possible already through Fixated on the survivor side) This would allow the survivors to actively react in some way to her. They would need to pay attention to the ground, adding an element of skill and counterplay on their side. Seeing over pallets and windows will be difficult at times, and scratch marks do not immediately appear, so it allows Spirit to still have an advantage. For the Spirit, she can use this to fake survivors around loops by doubling back on her marks, like they do to her. However, she would no longer get the cheap hits standing still at a pallet unless survivors aren’t paying attention.
Additionally, this makes a survivor perk like Fixated have a downside, as you may not be able to read her through your scratches as a survivor.
This change would add actual counterplay without changing her power and adds additional ways to play against her and as her.
Edit for below comments: Several people suggested her scratches be Icey blue. That would be great. I also think the survivors should scream if they walk over the scratches to give a buff to her as well. The scratches would need a small appearance delay to be balanced.
Comments
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Not completely sold on it tbh, the surprise attack is kinda her whole M.O. Though if her scratch marks were an icy blue, that’d be kinda cool.
But they completely destroyed Freddy’s power and made him some weird Hag/Doctor hybrid so, I guess something huge like this wouldn’t be out of the question.
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I'm not for Spirit getting nerfs but giving her icy blue scratch marks while phasing actually seems kinda cool.
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OK, give Spirit cool icy blue scratch marks and let her see survivors while she phases. One change deserves another lol
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If a survivor walks they don't make marks to be seen while phasing. Works pretty good for me and I suck.
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No, this would absolutely kill her power. If they know EXACTLY where she is and she doesn't then we have a problem.
This means the survivors would have a very clear advantage over her.
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This sort of change would defeat the entire purpose of her power.
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Nope. Git gud
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Considering the fact that scratch marks slowly fade in behind someone half a second after they've been in that spot, I'd say it could be a good change. Obviously there's no way to tell if this would make her completely underpowered without actually seeing it in game, but I think it's a solid idea to make her gameplay less guess work and more prediction based.
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Spirit is a killer that is designed to be more predictive rather than reactive. This would absolutely kill her power.
She needs subtle and non obvious telltales, not literally scratch marks on where she is.
Stuff like the glass cracking if she starts phasing, or a directional phasing sound, stuff like that is what she needs. Not something so blatantly obvious that any survivor worth their salt would just walk on the scratch marks to avoid colliding with her.
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The problem is she is both predictive and reactive, but survivors can only predict, not react. That needs to be more balanced.
She can react to scratch marks, grass movements, and pain sounds while phasing. Her initial movement is a prediction, but after that she can use those sounds and indications to correct for any prediction errors. Survivors don’t have that.
Even if survivors could better hear her, it wouldn’t allow them to correct their course if the made a bad prediction. They need something clear, but also vague enough that they are not 100% sure where she is
Scratch Marks take a small bit of time to appear, and they cover a large distance, large enough that you don’t know exactly where someone is (as any Spirit player will tell you). The same would be true for spirit. They would allow some counterplay by survivors, but Spirit could also use it for mind gaming, which will add some different play capabilities to her style.
Also, I love the suggestion of Icey blue scratch marks. That would be amazing.
Heck. You could even made it so that if survivors run over the scratch marks, they scream like the new addon for nurse.(Not sure if they have existing coding for that.
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It was the best idea I had to make it more fair without changing her power.
They could delay the scratch appearance a bit more than survivors’ normal to allow her to keep the surprise and jump scare aspect. She would just have to use corners for hiding the marks if she goes long distances for grabs. IOW, she would still have the same scare capabilities, but would have to be smarter about using them.
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What do you get good as for survivor? What are you given that allows you to make correct decisions on whether to run or vault and in which direction?
Spirit can predict your movements as a player, but can then adjust if she was wrong in the prediction via sounds and grass movements and scratches. Survivors have to 1) predict IF she is using the power 2) predict where she is going 3) have no way to adjust and validate if their predictions are correct while Spirit is using her power. This is the main issue with her. Not that she is OP, but that she is not interactive when her power is used. It is only a guess.
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That's why I said we should know more about when she is using her power. Nothing too obvious that would make her power a detriment to her, but something that gives survivors a clear clue at where she is and whether or not she is using hher power.
I still think scratch marks would completely destroy her power, she should be predictive and reactive to survivors. But survivors should not have a clear indication on where she is at. The Spirit should but survivors shouldn't. Because this game is not a 1v1, it's a 4v1.
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She can still see the grass and hear breathing (with Stridor) and sounds of pain. That is why she has an addon that takes away scratch marks entirely and it doesn’t stop her lethality. She doesn’t need the scratch marks. That addon (Mother-Daughter ring) is an ultra rare, so that kind of demonstrates that scratches are not really critical.
if a survivor walks, she can hear them and see the grass movements, just like with the mother daughter ring. She can still know where they are and correct her prediction errors. Survivors have 0 chance for that.
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1) Her animation resets and her glass shards start glowing
2) Her footsteps have been made louder with the last update
3) Given the above, you predictions will be mostly accurate, provided that you pay attention to her
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That is why the scratches can be delayed a bit for appearance. Survivors would not be able to tell around very short loops.
Scratches are also so broad that you could not tell where she was.
imagine forcing a window vault as spirit by starting phasing, moving a meter to the right to clause scratches to appear and panic the survivor, then doubling back and waiting for the vault. That would be a new mind game.
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1) I have not seen any evidence of that playing against her. The glass glowing is faint and does not work with skins.
2) if you can hear the footsteps, you are in range of an attack. That does not help. Not to mention that hating those kinds of sounds in the game are difficult with the music, and impossible as they are usually bugged.
3) the two above do not allow for accurate predictions. More importantly, you are missing the point that survivors can not adjust with those indications if their predictions were wrong. Spirit can with her indications.
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It would, and I will admit it sounds interesting. But I still think Survivors should react to what Spirit reacts with. Their noise.
I say if Survivors moves grass and she can see that, survivors should also be able to see her move grass.
If she has to track by noise, so does survivors. That's basically the gist of my argument on how to nerf her without absolutely gutting her. It's both predictive and reactive.
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1) Even if it did, you won't notice it especially during a chase. Which is what's most important. Even the most observant player won't notice her animation resets. And her glass shards don't glow as much as they should, if they even do that.
2) I have seen a couple of Spirits ingame as a survivor, I can safely say her footsteps are not that much louder. Not enough for you to tell where she is.
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Oh I forgot to mention that there is currently a bug that you can hear her phasing sound even in her terror radious.
I think those are helpful enough. When I come across survivors who know how to counter her, they are pain in the neck for me.
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No killer moves any grass. Adding that may be a problem for the devs.
Also, there are entire levels without any grass. The survivors would be in the same condition they are now on those levels. It would not address her power.
Spirit is different for targeting than avoiding. She is targeting a survivor and just needs to turn toward sound. A quick sound is enough to identity what direction Spirit needs to go. In order for you to avoid something by sound, you need one sound for an initial direction, then another a small amount of time later for knowing what direction they are going in (to shift your direction). By that time, you are already targeted.
Edit:corrected spirit name from autocorrect
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I tested footsteps sound in SWF. You have to be within attack distance for it to be heard. She can hear your breath and pain in that distance, so with any decent Spirit you are going to be hit if you can hear them.
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If you know the general area of where she is, it would allow you to confidently pull off some tricks to mess up with her tracking.
I've had moments where I ran into a building, crouched behind the frame and walked right outside the moment the Spirit comes out of phase.
I could've been out sooner if I knew she had entered the building and escape her without her knowing where the hell I went to.
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That is not enough to allow reactions by survivors and adjustments on the fly. The same issues would occur.
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How about instead of lettering her see survivors, they scream if they step in her Icey scratches. That would allow her to know if they double backed and juked her or if she overshot them.
Edit: that would also give a new aspect to her power in lactating survivors trying to hide. In tall grass or Blendettes
it would give her a buff.
edit edit: it should be locating, not lactating
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Why nerf spirit?
Spirit is ok where she is right now.
Be happy you got nurse nerfed and be finally quite.
The game is so fking hard for killers right now, stop making it worse.
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Which is why scratches would help survivors to know the general area Without too much knowledge. Grass and sounds are not viable for that.
grass is not in all maps or areas of maps.
sounds are not reliable, are frequently bugged, and are not sufficient for juking.
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I think a basic idea can be just make the basic spirit like the add on where she see the blood and not the scratch marks (make scratch marks visible only on that add on) while she phasing. Also modifie the non rumors add on maybe to an oblivious state add on when she reappearing.
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Spirit, arguably the best killer in the game is another one of the problems as to why the game is so unbalanced for solo players compared to SWF who can often win without a sweat.
The signs that she is phasing should be more apparent to the player she is chasing. One idea is that the shards actually glow a lot more, also on some skins, E.G. her new Halloween skin, it is much harder to tell if she is phasing or not.
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