I've been playing Blight non-stop since release. Here are my thoughts:
The short version
He kicks ass and is tremendously fun to play.
The long version
The Blight easily has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game. I'd argue that Nurse is a bit higher, but not by much. His power requires acute memory of all tilesets in the game, familiarity with your mouse DPI, and good reflexes.
This makes learning him quite a task. But my god if it isn't fun once you do. Here's a quick summary of what the Blight has going for, and against him.
Strengths
- Map Pressure
The most obvious of his strengths, the Blight moves at 230% movement speed while rushing. That's the same speed as Hillbilly's sprint. But unlike Hillbilly, Blight is not limited to going in a curved line. By "pin-balling" against obstacles you can cover a distance of up to 138 meters if you perfectly time and distance your rushes! This gives Blight the best mobility in the game par none.
Combine this with the relatively quick recharge of his power, and a decent amount of practise, the Blight becomes unwaveringly oppressive. Especially if combined with perks like BBQ, Surveillance, and any other perk that benefits from arriving at a location within seconds. If he's not chasing someone already he's going to start very soon.
- Chase Potential
Although still susceptible to very tight loops, the Blight can shut down quite a lot of otherwise safe positions for survivors. Some of you might question how he can do this since you might think that his lunge is predictable and can't be easily controlled. Allow me to explain how this is not the case.
The Blight's lethal rush propels you in the direction you are looking. But while rushing you cannot look more than around 60% to the left or right. However, attacking out of a rush will push you in the direction you are attacking. Also remember that the lethal rush cannot hit walls and is exempt from the dreaded "aim dressing", allowing you to curve around obstacles and get hits.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn this skill. Especially since Blight has a very generous attack hitbox which can hit survivors who aren't even on your screen! Trust me, that thing puts Huntress's thrown mini-fridges to shame.
- Strong add-ons
With the exception of his farming add-on, and the ones that increase slam duration, every single add-on the Blight has is good. I'm honestly hard pressed to say there's a best combination. He's got insta-downs, wallhacks, better steering, breaking pallets and walls with his face, and training wheels for when you're learning him. You really can't go wrong with any of these.
My personal favourite is a tie between the insta-down + reduced rush tokens, and stacked animal add-ons. Using both the blighted rat and the crow you can go up to a staggering 270% movement speed on your final rush! Survivors barely have a chance to register your terror radius before you're right on top of them.
Weaknesses
- M1 Perk Anti-synergy
This is my biggest problem with the Blight, not that I have many. His lethal rush does not count as a basic attack. Meaning that 2/3 of his perks don't work with his power, including every single other M1 perk in the game.
I'm not a fan of this design pattern at all. It just reinforces the incredibly stale meta of PTGW and BQQ since many killer perks have heavily discouraged use on most killers, (but not the most powerful killers in the game for some reason). Demogorgon, Pig and Legion all have the same problem and I wish the devs would stop giving new killers the same problem.
- Indoor Maps
This point is very self-explanatory. But it's not as bad as people think. Lery's and The Game reduce the Blight's overall map presence since he has so many walls in-between gens. However, I've found that these maps offer much more use of his power at most loops. Especially running his ultra-rare add-on that allows him to quickly break pallets by rushing into them.
These maps do take some getting used to. But with enough experience on them a good Blight can still be just as effective.
- His P3 looks bad
It needs waaaaay more blood.
Summary
I'm really baffled by the community response to Blight so far. Many people claim that his power is useless at chases, calling him clunky, and some even have the sheer audacity to compare him to Legion in terms of power.
He has so many things going for him. Constant map pressure, good chase potential and good add-ons. But so many people just write him off because they haven't taken the time to learn him.
I've had at least 40+ games with him since his release, and although I typically don't like using antidotes, I've 4K'ed in 90% of those games. I know for a fact how strong he is and I hope this post has convinced you of the same.
Comments
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He's my favorite. I'm a natural with him.
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Have been using brutal strength and make you choice on him today and it definitely makes him very threatening. Quickly breaking a pallet and catching up to the survivor if possible is nice. And when make your choice does go off and if not in Chase watch out. Believe I had 5 downs from make you choice in one match which I think is great value and is particularly nice against swfs who communicate when to get saves. I have not really used any of his addons just so i can get used to his base stats. He is a little difficult to use in certain situations but you just have to learn when and when not to use his power.
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I disagree that he is a great killer, however, that could be due to the limitations of console, where you do not have the mechanical precision that you do on PC. He just feels too limited, and that his dash hinders more than helps sometimes. He has his moments, but there are times where other killers do what he can do better, such as Billy or even Demo.
Note: I also play without addons when learning a killer, so I cannot say anything about them.
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It took me tonnes of frustrating, embarrassing losses with Blight (went from rank 3 to rank 10), but I’m FINALLY getting the hang of him, and letting go of ingrained things that work with other killers that simply don’t help Blight.
I’m having fun with him now, actually getting some pips and double pips, and his perks are great. Damn hard to use. Fun and rewarding once getting the hang of him. I still find attempting to use the power at most loops frustrating rather than helpful, but that might be a PS4/console thing.
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Ive been pretty successful with him at mid ranks but im definitely being carried by the hex:undying/ruin combo and compound 21 addon.
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He reminds of Hag in that sense that he curbstomps bad players, but gets countered very easily against good survivors.
I mostly agree with all your points, other than his hit box being generous. I actually think the complete opposite.
Wish they'd change his slam duration addons to something else. They actually actively hinder you significantly. You'd be better off with no addons than using those addons imo.
The "flick" and lunge post rush is very unforgiving. It needs the treatment that Oni got on his most recent buff to its degree of turn. You end up feeling cheated out of a lot of hits just because the survivor 360's and you hit an invisible wall limiting your turn radius to turn as far as they do. Given the skill requirement on this killer (which I love) I think they could stand to be a little more generous here. The counter play for good survivors is just too easy.
That all said, I do think he's very strong. It's just whether or not he gets those small flick and lunge tweaks as to whether or not he has a chance at being swf sweat squad viable, which is personally all I really care about. Winning against the average survivors that are mostly potatoes is pretty irrelevant to me, as winning against players because they were simply bad doesn't do anything for me.
I'd say as him I'm 3-4k 90% of my games, but as survivor (in solo queue mind you), we're 3-4e every game vs him as well. Rank 1 PC.
That's quite a polarizing experience I'd say.
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His counterplay Is too easy with his lunge and his camera is horrible..if those get tweaked..hes set..even if I wish his pallet smash wasn't an addon
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So that curving is why adrenaline vial is considered OK... I know the turning is bad but now I understand the look angle I imagine that 110% look angle really allows for some nasty hits
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This entire post sums up how I feel in a shellnut. Blight has some insane potential. Paired with the right builds, he can cover Totems using Thrill of the Hunt. He can hop to and from hooks like nobody's business, and even moreso, he has the power to absolutely STUFF cocky SWF players who BM instead of pounding out gens ASAFP.
Well-done review of Blight, as you actually showcase the hidden gold the prospectors have been searching for!
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I absolutely adore this Killer, both as a Survivor and Killer. I love going against him, and I love playing as him. Best Killer they've released so far, imo.
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Survivor wil learn to abuse his low turnrate and there is nothing you can do against that. Atm they dont rly know how he plays what he can and cant (thus so many run in straight paths while it is better to make sharp turns / running towards the spots he will most likely bounce of etc).
He is not as bad as a Clown but i dont see him being too strong vs smart survivor..only time will tell
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Haven't seen a single good blight so far. To me his weakness is that when you see him coming and he uses his ability you run at him since he can not hit, get behind him and once you are there he is not able to turn enough.
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The only 'good' ones I saw are the ones using compound 21 and after playing as him I understand. When I took it off I was completely doodoo.
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I agree! It's so refreshing to see this post, as Blight is waaayyy underappreciated.
Most killer mains would, unfortunately, prefer to complain instead of improving their skills.
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Ayy I think so too since almost everyone using blight don't even use his perks which is just dumb considering how strong they are.
I also noticed how some think he's weak in chase which I don't get
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Yeah I personally find him scary to go against as survivor with that insane speed. Plus he has great TR and chase music.
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Are you paid by the devs? He sucks ass and is far from viable. Strongly map dependant, not able to cut off loops with his power, weird POV, weird lunge range when coming out of his rush, very limited turning during rush etc etc... Learning his ability requires a high skill cap for low reward at best. Try to sell this killer as "fun to play" is ridiculous. His Power is useless when it comes to catch survivors at common loop spots (shack, jungle gym, basically any sort of loop, where survivors can cut tight corners). His ability is waay to predictible. He's a basic M1 killer for most of the time, which makes him even worse than the legion. I already regret that I paid money for this pile of #########.
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I'm just gonna quote Monto in response to your confusion towards people saying he's bad: "If you say he sucks, it's because you're bad with him".
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I'm gonna state the opposite: If you think he's good, you haven't played against good survivors yet.
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So what you're saying is us controller users are out of luck? Gj dude.
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The blight is another overnerfed killer as always that devs release one new chapter.
Why turning is such bad while his power doesnt instadown while The Oni have better one and he does.
FOV is low as hell,allowing to lose sight of survivor and isnt according his height (Not saying he should be tall but he should be freddy FOV)
His rush could break pallets (just an idea)
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Imma compare him to legion, legion is my favorite killer, and blight is legion and billy's love child with downing potential. If you want something to be offended by, wait till someone compares him to clown
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He's really strong I agree, but he also has fair counterplay, which makes him so well designed in my opinion.
Objects, especially round ones, that aren't tiny,l are still very good against him, since he can't turn 180 degree with his lethal rush lunge, though he might be able to use a nearby object to proppel off of that and get a good angle on the survivor.
But he's certainly really strong, and I really love his high skill cap.
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Fix his terrible lunge and his crap addons and boom. Mid tier killer.
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Very good assessment of the Blight. I agree he is a very competitive killer and I've come across a number of very impressive Blights as a survivor as of late! People are definitely getting the hang of him.
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Meh I'm not that keen on him. I don't really enjoy any killer whose ability gets rendered useless by Dead Hard, especially so with Nurse/Blight because even if you line up your shot well you're going to end up stunned and on cooldown and you're dependent on the survivor to make a mistake. Likewise with Huntress/Deathslinger. Add to that his lack of ability to counter loops and I just can't see myself playing him very often. It's not something I enjoy.
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perfectly summarizes my experience. escape every game vs blight in soloq, win most games as him. I have feeling his lunge might not get changed because the way to outplay his bad lunge is to instantly hit a wall, then run at survivor and try to adjust your turning angle in order to get a clean diangle lunge in a constricted area before they realize to turn a corner or use an object but this method is so artificial, like the Blight is expected to pinball multiple times to get an angle on survivors and yet playing this way punishes you heavily. I love playing Blight but I feel like the "Highly skilled Pinballs Plays" are not rewarding/impossible/Hard countered to utilize and the simple Pinball gameplay is the only way to play him.
So Contrary to popular opinion, I think Blight has very low skill floor and a high skill ceiling that is not getting actualized and it is being repressed by his Lunge which is removing a lot of high skill possible gameplay.
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