Quick Fix: Wraith Rework

Aerys

First I will start by saying that I'm unsure of if this thread belongs in the Balance area or some other area, but as it will be dealing a ton with game mechanics I chose to post it here. But I know what you're thinking, another Wraith thread by me? Yes, yes indeed, but rest assured this isn't just a copy and paste of the last one (Which you can find here! https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/29685/quick-fix-wraith). Neigh, while my previous thread was a rework of its perks and addons for if the Wraith is to stay the same ol' bing bong boi, this thread is a rework of the Wraith itself. As many of you may know, you definitely don't know me or that I'm a Wraith main, but surprise, that I am. What many of you probably know however is that Wraith is for the most part a joke at rank one, while yes he can be effective and still get 4K's, it'd be a lie to say he's as effective as Hillybilly or Nurse. Or nearly everyone else but Freddy honestly. Why is this? Well, it could be due to a plethora of issues to be quite honest. Here are a few;

• Wraith isn't invisible. while he enjoys pretending to be the fact of the matter is that far more often than not a good Survivor will be able to spot him easily, even I can when playing Survivor myself and I suck at Survivor. Essentially, his stealth is no more than a speed boost that he has to spend time going into and out of, while becoming vulnerable to flashlights.
• He's loopable. More so than most Killers he lacks any of the tools to deal with looping and is what most would call a M1 Killer.
• He's Addon dependent. While my other thread was a soft fix to this by making his Addons better, it still didn't change that fact and in my humble opinion being Addon dependent is an awful design, the word Addon might as well be changed to Core-Power.

While I could go on a rant all day about how Wraith as is gets bodied fairly well by Survivors, I'd like to move forward and share with you the concept of a reimagined Wraith I came up with last night while I was taking a nap. Important to note, when the Devs made him he was most definitely based on the Grim Reaper which plays heavily into my rework. The first major notion is that I would have him wield a Scythe akin to the Grim Reaper's, long and staff-like, with perhaps a cross at its tip, the blade being one arm of the cross and on the back arm having the Bell that he carries with him attached.

Let us start with his M2, namely his cloak. In terms of lore the Wraith is traveling into the "Spirit World" when he goes "invisible", and this is done by ringing his bell. I would say that this concept should remain but is given more of a purpose than just a travel speed boost. To enter and exit the Spirit World I would have the Wraith remain still. Next I would have him enter it at a slightly faster pace with a single bong of the bell as he plants his scythe into the ground. Once in the Spirit World he could then travel faster like normal, but would be 100% invisible aside from the rustling of foliage and a new mechanic for his terror radius, rather than a heartbeat or sound of any kind he would instead cause the Survivors to have cold breath. When near, perhaps 25% of his normal terror radius distance. The next part would be his core mechanic, but upon getting situated behind or near a Survivor he would begin to plant his scythe into the ground while standing still once more. Each time he does would create a loud and ominous toll of his bell, each being 1 second apart or so. There would be no indication of him other than the sound and cold breath, but the sound would not be directional but simply audible to Survivors close enough to hear it. As his bell tolls for the third time it would not be due to him planting it into the ground but rather due to him swinging through the Spirit World and into the Entity's domain, causing a large scale AoE attack. If he manages to hit someone (or multiple someone's) he would then clean his blade for a successful attack like normal. If not he would be granted a temporary speed boost that lasts 3 to 5 seconds(?), as if the Survivor managed to run in the right direction they would likely be quite far from him.

It's important to note that there are multiple strategies for using this ability, going up behind the Survivor would probably be the least effective one. Essentially what you would be trying to do is come within cold breath range but still somewhat distant and then begin your uncloak. If you positioned yourself correctly, at an escape or something else, the Survivor would hopefully run toward you rather than away from you when fleeing. In this sense it is a true surprise and stealth attack, causing a great deal of fight when it lands. Of course, if the Survivor runs in the opposite direction it will miss, thus giving the Wraith his speed boost to catch up.

Just this would change the Wraith's play style quite a bit and in my opinion cause him to be pretty fun, the mind games would be real, but while we're at it let's balance a bit more. I would have his lunge attack act functionally different than other Killer's in that instead of it being a cone it would be a thin rectangle that extends further forward. This would be due to the Wraith's scythe now being of the staff variety and thus being a long weapon that has reach. As he lunges, in the moments before he swings while winding up his attack, his Bell would toll lightly to give the Survivor a warning to dodge his narrow but reaching attack. This is where predicting if the Survivor is going to dodge left or right and the mind games that ensure with that come into play. Importantly his scythe would have more reach during a lunge through things like pallets and windows, so ensuring that you stun him with a pallet or that you don't use a window if he's too close would become key to playing against him. If he hits a pallet or window he would stagger as per usual missed attacks, and perhaps his stagger time would be increased ever so slightly to punish him for failed lunge attacks. I would also have his basic attack have a wider radius around his body rather than the rather short one we have now, and also cause it to toll his bell lightly, even if only for consistency.

I believe that these changes would not only make Wraith a bit more viable, but a ton more fun and horrific to play as and against. As with all things the numbers would need to be balanced while creating his new form, the radius of his uncloaking attack being the most fiddled with I imagine, but ultimately given the time to test and balance it all out he would become a unique Killer rather than just an M1 Killer whose special ability only... well, speeds him up, but drags him down too. Thoughts, comments, concerns? As always try to stay polite and logical in your responses, thanks for reading.

milo77727

The wraith is a good killer as long as you use good add ins or arent randomly walking down obvious paths to survivors. I agree the invisibility can be increased and his appearance be a bit faster but otherwise no speed boosts for a missed attack or anything of that sort.
If he were to have a speed boost or anything more than a slightly faster appearance time then he would basically become an invisible pig.
At that point more people would look for a nerf than a buff. He appearance time definitely slows him down enough to make chases last a long time and his invisibility makes chases begin before hes visible again.

Aerys

I said decreased speed for missed attacks not increased o.o also I said a speed decrease for his appearance time too, that along with that he'd be stationary while doing it whereas atm he can move (albeit slowly and slightly). Overall I thought I balanced him quite well, reread it slower and maybe it'd make more sense.

milo77727

I'm not sure what you mean by the temporary speed boost then is that just during reappearance? If so then I can understand that but no longer than 3 seconds (which is the length of survivors sprint burst). I was agreeing with the appearance time sorry I didnt make that clear. Overall you balanced pretty nicely. I'm just worried that it would be a large change. Hes a killer people have known about for so long. This big of change to his dynamics would need to be implemented slowly.

Aerys

Ah I think I get you now, the reason I said 3 to 5 seconds was due to not wanting to punish the Wraith for being a large distance away from the Survivor after finishing uncloaking, as if he sets up at one escape but they go to the other he would be left in the dust. However, I suppose this would be the trade off of doing that, whereas if you simply uncloak right on top of them you'll likely miss the AoE but could catch up to them fairly well. So it'd be a Wraith trade off you have to choose when uncloaking, the risky option with a chance of injuring them right away, or the safe option where you'll likely not hit them with the uncloak but can still chase them down fast enough.

And yes, it would be a rather massive change and possibly a new Killer altogether that just shares a ton in common with him, but as of right now he just doesn't work out in high rank games so I think a lot of Wraith players and lovers would welcome the change to a Killer that just isn't viable anymore.