Analysis: The Wraith (and why is he the weakest killer in the game)
Hello there! In this discussion I want to talk about my most favourite killer - The Wraith, and why he should be improved or even reworked. To prove you my mind, I'm analysing only his ability (no add-ons and unic perks) by the particular method and comparing him with the others, (mostly) who have similar abilities or just are stronger than him.
And yes, english is not my native language, so feel free to correct me, if I do some grammar mistakes)
To analyze the Wraith, I'm using the following parameters:
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1) Not-chasing mobility - it means possibility to reach any point of any map (but mostly, medium and long distances) as quick as possible for patroling and tracking. The leader of this parameter is, of course, The Demogorgon, which may plant portals wherever it wants, but what's about The Wraith?
His default "cloaked" movement speed is 5.04 m/s (126%) so it allows him to be absolutely faster than 9/17 killers in any distance (The Trapper, The Shape, The Doctor, The Huntress, The Cannibal, The Pig, The Clown, The Plague, The Ghostface).
The Legion using its own ability is not faster than The Wraith, but the ability helps it to get through some complex locations quicker, unlike The Wraith.
The Spirit using her own ability is faster than The Wraith at the distance of 20-35 meters.
The Hag using her own ability is faster than The Wraith at the distance of 10-40 meters, though it's basically situational and undurable.
Surprisingly, The Nurse using her own ability is slower than The Wraith at medium and long distances because of long time charging and fatique.
Obviously, The Nightmare, The Hillbilly and (as I said before) The Demogorgon are much better than The Wraith at this category.
Depending on this information, I put my Ojomo boy in 4th place of "Not-chasing mobility", but keep in mind that this 4th place is a way much further from 1-3 and than from 5-17, so don't think it really means something.
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2) Killing capability - it means possibility to kill a survivor as quick as possible. Here we go to the core of this discussion. Firstly, look at the basic killing scheme:
1] Tracking - finding a survivor and starting a chase;
2] The first chasing - getting closer to healthy survivor to deal a damage;
3] The first injuring - dealing a damage itself to healthy survivor;
4] The second chasing - getting closer to injured survivor to deal a damage;
5] The second injuring - dealing a damage itself to injured survivor;
6] Picking up - grabbing a survivor to transport him to the hook;
7] Transporting - bringing the survivor to the hook;
8] Hooking - feeding The Entity :D
Notes: #2 and #4 are separated because some killer/survivor perks may do completing this phases easier/harder for killer independently of each other (regards to "Dead Hard"); #3 and #5 are separated, because some abilities work well only with healthy or only with injured survivors; #6 and #7 are separated because in phase #6 killer is most vulnerable to stun and lost of the prey; average - brown, slightly - yellow, moderatly - green, considerably - purple, tremedously - red
Of course, in practice some chases doesn't fully accord with this scheme and miss a few phases depends on the situation, tactics and killer's abilities - I just made a shape of average chase to explain the strengths of the killers. So, what's The Wraith's killing cabability?
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1} His tracking is considerably better than average because of his ability. Why not tremendously? Because The Wraith's isn't compeletely invisible at 32 m (and closer) and he makes some noise by growling.
The Ghostface is tremendously better, than average, because he doesn't make any noise and able to crouch.
The Pig is on the same level of this phase as The Wraith, because despite she's able to crouch, she also makes noise by grunting.
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2} His first chasing is slightly better than average because he can catch survivors off guard or bodyblock them. Little sprint boost after uncloacking doesn't work against good survivors and exists mostly to compensate some speed loss while uncloacking.
The Ghostface is moderatly better, than average because of his stealth he can get closer to hit a survivor.
The Pig is considerably better, than average because of her ability to make an ambush attack.
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3} His injure dealing is average. I guess, there's no need to explain.
The Ghostface is considerably better, than average because he can expose (and prevent #4 stage) the survivors as well as just stealthy grab them, when they perform some actions.
The Pig is moderatly better, than average because she can stealthy grab survivors as The Ghostface.
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4} His second chasing is slightly better than average, because he can compensate the survivor damage speed boost by his "cloaked" speed.
The Ghostface is slightly better than average, because he can perform some mindgaming by his crouching and stealth.
The Pig is considerably better, than average for the same reason I said before.
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5} His injure dealing is average, as in #3 phase.
The Ghostface is average either, because there isn't any need to expose the survivors.
The Pig is also average, her ambush attack deals a standart 1 injure.
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6} His picking up the survivor is average. Actually, it's the very specific phase and its 1st place is Trapper, which may put some traps to prevent the saving.
The Ghostface is moderatly better, than average because he can prevent stun by exposing the nearest survivors before picking up.
The Pig is average, nothing more to say.
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7} His transporting is average. The winner of this phase is The Shape being in Tier III, which may easily punish survivors for trying to save their mate by bodyblocking.
The Ghostface is slightly better, than average because he can prevent bodyblock by exposing the nearest survivors before transporting.
The Pig is average.
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8} His hooking is average, as well as all others.
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Now, let's take a look at the schematic killing cabability of our stealthy boys and girl:
The Wraith
The Pig
The Ghostface
As you can see, The Wraith is the weakest of stealth killers in ability to kill. I might compare Philip with other killers, but there is no a big reason - stealth of The Pig and The Ghostface is only part of their abilities, unlike The Wraith, whose stealth is primary and the only ability, so IMHO it's better to compare him with those 2, than others.
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3) (Bonus) Point actions preventing - it means possibility to force survivors spend their time to not repairing gens/opening gates and etc, but something else or just not allowing them to do these actions without personal intervention.
1st place of this category is for The Pig who sets reverse bear traps on survivors' heads to force them to find the key.
2nd place - Plague, which makes survivors suffer from toxicity and find fountain to heal up.
3rd place - The Legion, which may inflict a "Deep Wound" debuff, forcing to spend some time on healing.
4-7 placed are pretty equal to each other, it's hard to reckon exact places, so the row is not stricted: The Demogorgon, The Trapper, The Nightmare, The Hag.
All of other killers (and The Wraith either) are on 8th place, because they simply don't have any own ways to make something in this category.
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Epilogue:
So, after I wrote all this, there is a one simple question - How is to imrpove The Wraith then? Actually, it's more complicated question for me to ansewer. Maybe, I will post a "The Wraith rework concept" in the near future at the "Fan Creations". The main point of this discussion is to take an attention of developers.
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If you agree with my opinion or just like the way I analyzed The Wraith, please leave some feedback in the comments below - this is the only way to increase the chance of taking the developers' attention. Thank you all for reading :D