I don't like the sound of the upcoming Plague changes.

Now, before you grab your pitchforks, I'm not calling Plague overpowered. I don't think anyone in their right mind would ever call Plague anything other than low-to-mid C tier on her absolute best days. But being a weak Killer does not excuse the fact that Plague is, frankly, one of the worst power designs in the entire game—and this upcoming change puts a major highlight on that, I feel.

Here's the issue I have with Plague. If she vomits on you and you get sick, it doesn't really do much. Surviving while sick is hardly different from surviving while normally injured, with the exception that you can neither heal nor be stealthy—

And there's my problem. Being sick all but removes two mechanics from the game. You literally CANNOT heal by conventional means against a Plague, and stealth is just about deleted because no matter what you do, you will be constantly broadcasting your location to her if you try to sneak around her, and you leave a trail of infected objects if you try to sneak away from her. Urban Evasion, Iron Will, Quick and Quiet, Fixated, literally any healing Perk in the entire game—these are all Perks that are, no exaggeration, completely useless against the Plague.

Of course, the meta is looping and you can easily loop while injured. But there are plenty of players who DON'T like the meta. They like to be stealthy. They like to heal themselves and others. They like to explore different avenues of play that aren't just "me run around pallet, me rush gen with adrenaline". But if they just so happen to go against a Plague? Too bad, buckaroo, your build and playstyle literally do not exist anymore.

This is what makes Plague so unfun to go against for me, and is why I think she's badly designed. She encourages the boring, overpowered Survivor meta because two of the most popular off-meta playstyles are completely disabled against her. It's not strong at all, because they're off-meta playstyles, but she just... she just disables them. Completely disables them.

And if you want it back? If you want the opportunity to heal? If you want to be stealthy? Well, then you have to give her one of the strongest, most braindead anti-loop abilities in the entire game, and even then she can take away all of your stealth and healing again with the mere press of the M2 button in your general direction.

I think that this is a terrible set of decisions. You either sacrifice your off-meta build in exchange for making Plague the most M1 Killer in the entire game, or you take back your off-meta build for a fleeting instance in exchange for temporarily making her one of the strongest chasers in the entire game. The imbalance between choosing to be sick or choosing to give Plague her Corrupt Purge is so poorly weighted, and neither option is anything short of infuriatingly annoying. You should never cleanse against a Plague because she is a pathetic, sobbing mess of a Killer without Corrupt Purge, but then you have two entire game mechanics literally deleted from the game for the rest of the match. It's no fun for anyone involved.

And then to top it all off, with the upcoming change that gives Plague a basekit pool already corrupted, you don't even get to make that choice until she's already expunged her Corrupt Purge. No strategy involved on your part. No good to come out of your actions. You either keep your healing and stealth and give Plague her bastardized lovechild of Huntress and Bubba, or you get rid of your healing and stealth... and give Plague her bastardized lovechild of Huntress and Bubba. Every single choice is a terrible one.

I think this new change is a perfect example of Plague's terrible game design. Survivors were given a choice of what to do against her, and the choice was always terribly obvious because one option made Plague insanely strong while the other made her insanely weak. But in exchange for making her weak, genrushing without healing and hugging loops all game goes from the M.E.T.A., the most effective tactic available to the O.E.T.A., the only effective tactic available. Now, with this upcoming change, until Plague uses her Corrupt, that choice is made for them. Whether or not they choose to turn the M.E.T.A. into the O.E.T.A., they still have to deal with that braindead chase power, even if only once in the match—and with the right build (pronounced "Infectious Fright"), that one time could be all the Plague needs.

In short: I think the Plague is terribly designed and in dire need of a rework, if not to her power, then to the effects of the different types of vomit, and this new change exemplifies that. I think being sick should be significantly more of a threat than just removing two non-meta playstyles from the game, and Corrupt shouldn't be nearly as strong as it is. The two should be more in-line with each other in terms of how powerful they are so that the decision of whether or not to cleanse isn't so painfully and utterly obvious as it is right now, but at the same time, the Plague shouldn't be given the opportunity to almost break the game for people who don't like to sweat the meta with a mere press of the M2 button. Being sick should do something like directly affect your ability to loop with something like slower vaulting speed or making it more difficult to move in a straight line while running, or hamper your ability to do the objective with substantially difficult skill checks or something of the sort. Something the meta actually gives one about. Meanwhile, Corrupt shouldn't be nearly as powerful and cheesy as it is. The range and amount of the vomit should be cut back to a point where it gives Plague an edge in loops rather than an iron fist. She should be able to punish people for messing up loops with it, not able to punish people for being in her line-of-sight.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.