Adiris needs a small Buff
So, after 56 hours of gameplay, i was able to save enough shards to buy a character, so I decided to purchase The Plague. She seems pretty interesting and I was very intrigued by her ability so I went for it. So far I've played her 6 or 7 games only, but I feel some things can definitely improve. It has been fun to play, and I thought she'd be harder to use, but the first games where I thought her ability was more useful were a failure.
I think I'll begin with her problems. Take this with a grain of salt as I literally just got her.
First, her vomit hitbox is the most inaccurate thing ever. I have had survivors walking right in front of me and somehow her vomit doesn't touch them. Even when the animation seems to be going to hit the survivor, it doesnt.
Second, her Corrupt Purge ability should still apply infection to at least objects. It feels weird to me that it doesn't as it doesn't let me use it to infect objects, just to attack. It just feels really weird to me.
Third, infecting a locker in which a survivor is hiding should infect the survivor inside as well. It makes no sense that it doesn't and feels more like an error than something intended. In my last game, I saw a survivor get into the locker so I stood in front and vomited on it. Nothing happened. I had to go get the guy out, hook him, and then vomit on him to get him infected...
Another thing that I've seen in many of the games I've played so far is that the vomit itself doesn't always infect a survivor. I'm not talking about corrupt purge. I'm talking about Vile Purge. This feels like a bug, but it has happened in all my games so far, so I'm not sure if it's intended and I'm doing something wrong. Here's the thing: I use the vomit, it hits a survivor, the survivor gets the animation of being hit, screams, but they get not infected. As I said, it has happened in most of the games so far. The most extreme case was my last game in which I hit a Leon 3 or 4 times with the vomit and he didn't get infected. He only got infected after dropping a pallet which was contaminated. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but that definitely feels wrong.
Now, let's talk about the infection itself.
During my first 3 games with her, the vomit didn't seem to do anything. Sure, they got sick and they were contaminating surfaces, but besides that, nothing. It made them broken and hurt, but I was expecting something more by itself. It was so useless to try to see if the infection did anything by itself that during the first and second games, even when infected, the survivors just finished their tasks as normal (in the second game they didn't even get cleansed), and they won. 0 Kills those games. I even had to ask the survivors post game if the vomit actually did something because I saw no benefit of vomiting on them besides getting them broken and injured. (After that was a game where I tried to use her ability more and play around it but was a fail because I still had the mindset to let the vomit do something useful). Next 2 games I decided to basically hunt the survivors and attack as I would with any other killer and got 3 kills and 4 kills. Even then, I saw no benefit in her ability unless I was chasing the survivor already. Sure, if they don't get cleansed they basically get 1 damage, but they get healed completely if they get cleansed, so it's useless unless I'm already chasing them, which then makes the contagion in objects useless as well for survivors that get away. I know she is a "hard" killer, but she doesn't feel difficult to use, she just feels pretty useless most of the time if you're not actively in a chase with a survivor.
Here are my proposals on how to fix her or buff her a little:
I would make the vomit and the infection more useful. Two entire games where they could complete every task while being infected completely feels extremely weird instead of how it actually plays. I know they can get downed with one hit after the second level of infection, but if they manage to get away, and they never get cleansed, they should get a penalty of some sorts. What I would change would be to add another level of contamination on the survivor. After that third level of contamination, the survivor is downed and their contamination level would be reset to lvl 2. This level of contamination would only increase passively and by interacting with contaminated objects, but not with Adiris's vomit, since that would make it pretty broken. This would make the players actually go search for the Pools of Devotion to get healed. If downing them would be too powerful, then i'd have the survivor gain the following status effects: Blindness, Deep Wound, Exhaustion, Incapacitated, Hearing, and Hindered -15/-20%.
Other issue is the interaction between contaminated survivors. If I hook a survivor and they are infected, any survivor unhooking that survivor should get infected. I don't know why that doesn't happen since interacting with infected objects does so. I know it happens in the second level of infection, but I think it should happen in the first level as well.
The pools of devotion where survivores get cleansed are also weird. I think that when a survivor gets cleansed in one, Adiris should be able to know which fountain was used. There's an addon that does something similar, but I think that should be in her base kit. Just a visual indication of which fountain was used. No need to show the survivor's aura as the addon does, just the pool's.
Another thing about the Pools of Devotion is that they should remove the infection, but they shouldn't heal the survivor. If I hit with a basic attack a survivor, and then I vomit on them and they get infected, they shouldn't get healed with the pool.
In the end, she has been pretty fun to play with so far. I really wish her vomit turned a little bit more severe, and those bugs (because I think they have to be bugs) get fixed, but overall it's interesting to play. I haven't even tried her addons yet, and her perks seem interesting, so we'll see what happens. But for real, a third level of infection would be really good.
Comments
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As a Plague main, some of the concerns you bring up like hit registration with her vomit which is something they were able to fix with deadhard but often overlook specifically with Plague. I think it probably also accounts for times when Corrupt Purge looks like it should hit but does not and goes through them. The difficulty with Plague comes from having to keep track of fountains, keeping survivors sick, and pressuring gens; if you pay attention to placement of fountains, then you know which fountains a survivor cleansed at. Pairing specific add-ons and perks with survivors who choose not to cleanse is usually strong enough to deal with them not cleansing and the penalty is that they are both louder, more visible, and can be downed in one shot so usually you either want to use something like Fearmonger, Blood Echo, Thanataphobia, and/or her iridescent Black Incense to take advantage of them not cleansing or force them to cleanse so you have one of the strongest abilities in the game.
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Maybe so, but she should be more dangerous with her base kit in my opinion. If there's a chance that a survivor can just be sick the entire game, do nothing about it, and still win, that for me is a design fail.
That third level of infection would be really cool because it would actually make players want to get cleansed. There's an actual threat if they keep the infection that way. I'm still not sure which of my two options I like the most for the 3rd level infection compleated, but I would definitely like to see that implemented.
About keeping track the pools, I saw some gameplay videos yesterday and I think at least half of my games so far have been bugged where the pools don't get their aura in white when corrupted. Either that, or in fact none of the survivors ever used them. I hear a noise when they do, but more often than not, i get no visual cues.
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Howdy! I love plague (if you haven't try Play With Your Food with her - she gets some unique value out of it because her green vomit does not cost stacks!)
Learning how to lead survivors even at point-blank range with the vomit is an acquired skill. The visual effect itself is a deceptive indicator of where "the vomit" actually is, which consists of a chain of invisible orbs that the vomit effect "latches onto" to create the visual effect you see (at least, so far as I understand it). That being said, you'll need to learn to whip your perspective pretty far ahead of survivors in order to coat them in a good, consistent stream. It's just how it is. If I recall, there are addons that increase projectile speed? If so, try that and see if you get more responsiveness from the power.
I really like the locker change (in part because it'd also be a cheeky way to screen for survivors hiding in lockers) and agree that hiding in an infected locker should count as 'interacting' with it and cause the infection to advance.
As for the thoughts about infection, I'm not sure if I agree. While the "best" way to counter plague is to avoid cleansing, it is still a greatly advantageous situation for the plague to only need to land one hit to win chases. The prevalence of dead hard is especially noticeable here though, and a dead hard rework could potentially cause Plague's oppressive influence to skyrocket. However, when you have a mix of survivors who do and don't cleanse, your corrupt purge becomes a MONSTER against those who remain infected. It's kind of like a sick prisoner's dilemma.
And you should be happy that survivors can heal using the fountains. It gives survivors a reason to use the fountains even if they aren't infected. Sure, it can be particularly advantageous to them in certain situations (especially in the endgame) but at the end of the day you do want the survivors to use the pools, and they won't do it unless it benefits them.
The issue, I believe, lies in the Plague's need to be everywhere despite having no mobility. In the early game she needs to infect as many objects as possible, and in the mid-to-late game she needs to be chasing efficiently, defending gens, and also finding the time to collect her power from fountains - which smart survivors will intentionally seek out out-of-the-way spots to cleanse. I don't think this flaw merits a buff, though. It's normal for killers to have a weak spot.
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Well, you got a really good point for the reason the pools heal. I hadn't thought it that way.
Fo her vomit trajectory, I'm sure it's lack of practice. If I "aim" to where the survicor will be (just like with the huntress or a kraber in titanfall), it's easier to get then infected. I still feel she's bugged when I get animation and sound effects of hitting the survivors, but they get no infection.
For her infection itself, I just want a way that her infection does something for when you're away. If a survivor away from me interacts with an infected object, I would like that they have a need to use the pools. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of giving them all those status effects to eventually make them use the pools.
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There's absolutely ghosting! Ive had numerous times where just a small amount of vomit causes the survivors to shout as though they were infected, but it doesn't actually hit them. It's part of the pain of hit-validation that we just have to live with unfortunately. The only real solution is to vomit on them more than just a hair, which isn't always possible in those narrow windows of opportunity.
And fully infected survivors infect the objects they interact with, which helps with the spread. It is only impactful up to a point (all survivors max infected), but it's not nothing. That said, causing them to develop extra "symptoms" at random (blindness or obliviousness) would be pretty funny.
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Yeah, it'd be fun. I've never played against a Plague ever, so idk how she feels from the survivor side, but from the killer side she's pretty fun (and disgusting considering I have a phobia for throwing up lol), so i'm happy I'm not regretting the purchase. I hope BHVR staff reads this and thing about making them more sick 👀
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