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Will people stop saying Spirit doesn't take skill?
This is a statement I've heard far too much and it irks me the more and more I see it.
Make no mistake, I'm not arguing that a killer that is completely opaque in everything they do and can stand still for a few seconds to get free hits is somehow fair/balanced. I will however argue that those that say "Spirit doesn't take skill" are very, very, VERY wrong.
"But all you need is a good headset!"
Yes, having a headset helps massively. She is a killer that relies on audio, whereas other killers like Nurse rely on visuals and LoS.
Saying Spirit only needs good headsets is like saying Nurse doesn't take skill because she only needs a good pair of eyes.
There's a lot more to it.
There's identifying the survivors' pathing — are they running INTO you, towards a pallet, slow/double-vaulting a window, etc. You need to be able to understand where the survivor is going, especially if you're phasing at a distance before you can even hear anything.
Measuring the distance between you and the survivor - You rely on your ears and with how sounds are in this game, that's a lot harder than it sounds. Some survivors are louder than Demo after stubbing his toe, and then you have Ace with his built-in Iron Will. You need to understand how far a survivor is before you end phasing, which means learning how loud a survivor is when you're X amount of distance. Complicating matters are things like Stridor that makes survivors louder, Iron Will that silences/muffles grunts of pain—it's going to take a bit of practice.
Managing your gauge - Any Spirit main knows how bad of an idea it is to use the entity of your power gauge unless you need the speed to reach somewhere like to Pop a gen or something. Considering the gauge depletes by 5 seconds default, that's pretty difficult. It requires you to learn when you should be using your power and when best to conserve it. Or hell, when best to wait for it to recharge before phasing somewhere to catch a survivor off guard.
I'm sure a good Spirit main will be able to list a lot more ways Spirit requires a lot of practice (I don't often play her; I'm just an edgy Legion main). I will reiterate; I'm not arguing if Spirit is balanced or not, or that her add-ons aren't more busted than a poor door after it jammed on Oni—I'm saying, playing her isn't playing "easy mode" where you just need a headset/Stridor and you instantly win (though it would be equally asinine to say those don't help).
Is she as hard as Nurse? No. Nowhere close. Is she as easy as Freddy with a good headset? Maybe against rank 20s, but against good survivors, no. Winning against good survivors means being good with Spirit; not just that you have a good headset.
Comments
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Idk slap on stridor and it's not like you'll have a hard time. A hard swf is a hard swf regardless of which killer but I'm not gonna sit here and act like Stridor spirit has a massive skill cap. Without Stridor i'd agree with you, she takes some practice and skill
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Make no mistake, Stridor definitely tips the scales in the Spirit's favor and covers for her major weakness (Iron Will). It's still going to take a lot of practice, especially if you're not used to Stridor and have to readjust for it if you play other killers too.
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I want to see a blind folded rock with awesome headphones play spirit
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Spirit does take skill. I mean, you are playing against survivors that are hypothetically invisible for a good chunk of the game. That said, a skilled Spirit is a damn death sentence with almost no counterplay.
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I won't disagree. As I said, I'm not saying Spirit is balanced/fair in her current state; I just argue against the belief she doesn't take skill.
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It does take skill in a way. Just not much of it. You can try to rationalize it how much you want, that's not gonna change. It may bother you that it doesn't actually take big brain to make short phases to close distance, listen to the survivors (yes, you can even hear the grunt when they slow vault), and occasionally standing still 'bigmind-game' and simply reacting to (not predicting) what the survivors does.
That's more of an issue with you seeking validation for your choice of your killer of preference. Because this is basically what that all rant boils down to, despite you trying to disguise it. Here's the thing: play what you like. You don't need someone else's approval. It's a casual game and enjoyment is more important than skill.
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a rock
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There are aspects I disagree with and would dispute, but I agree with the ending message. We'll agree to disagree on all but that.
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No point arguing with people saying this or that killer doesn't require skill. They do anything to put you down if they can't throw salt on your killer they blame your perk combination saying it doesn't require skill if not the add ons. Until you go play knife man clown without perks/add ons. Just play whatever you want.
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The really does not take much skill. She is no Freddy, but her skill cap is pretty low. If you have Stridor and a Headset you are basically good to go, you might not 4K every game as a potato, but you will have decent results.
Especially compared to Nurse, you will not have that much worse results than with Nurse if you are playing Spirit more often, but you will not have to go through the learning process.
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Thank you so much for clearing this up!!! I'm a spirit main and it honestly nauseates me whenever someone says she requires no skill. Saying any killer in the game requires no skill is brain dead. Her skill ceiling is so much higher than people realize. I find myself improving after every match and learning new tricks. I don't think her skill ceiling is nearly as high as nurse, huntress, slinger, and maybe hag, but it's still pretty significant.
All your points were very good and provided a lot of detail to back it up, while the only argument I have heard people that believe spirit doesn't require skill have is "all you need is a headset and stridor." Might as well say "all you need is to learn how to bump into things to play blight" or "all you need is to learn to aim to play huntress." Not saying these killers don't require skill, I'm just trying to make a point about how the "headset" narrative is kind of stupid.
Now, I can agree that her 1v1 is very unbalanced and needs a tweak. I don't like it that she gives little to no info for the survivors to work with. I understand the frustrations from survivor mains and I understand everyone wants to have fun playing the game, but I don't think it's necessary to completely come after spirit players saying we are playing a skill-less killer and calling us tryhard and trash. That kind of behavior is childish if you ask me.
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put stridor and a headset on a rock
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monto did spirit blindfolded with 5000K dollar headphones...
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I feel like the main reason people are quick to say she's a no skill killer is because she's horribly oppressive if the spirit player is good / running stridor as that makes even iron will moot.
And when people don't like something that's oppressive they complain about it.
Also spirit has this whole syndrome during loops where it's like "ooh she's the best at mind games!" Actually no, survivors just have to guess so it isn't really a mind game so much as it is a guessing game every chase which isn't exactly fair to survivors and this sucks because I'm not sure how they can ever balance her to be more fair without crippling her power.
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I think the bug where her breathing was able to be heard was pretty good. A good enough to warn survivors, but infrequent enough that the Spirit can still make plays against them. There's an actual exchange going on.
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And someone did the same with Nurse. Your point?
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it takes some portion of ability
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If spirit really took no skill you would see more good spirits, which I never see. I've bumped into a few sweaty spirits but not many.
I've seen more good nurse players than spirit players tbh.
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I really do not understand you. You're making multiple post about a rock. Are you agreeing with me? Disagreeing? I'm so confused.
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Monto is literally one of the most skilled players I've ever seen play DBD. I guarantee he can do the same thing with other killers if he tried. Basing this kind of argument off of one person's experience isn't fair, because there are many people that don't have the right mentality or practice to play spirit and there are some that do. Just because one person does it easily doesn't mean everyone else will.
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I am both and none at the sametime but sometimes all at once but never everything...
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Here's the guide to be "skilled" as Spirit:
- Decent Hearing + Headphones + Stridor
- Watch some Spirit gameplay
- Be Rank 1 survivor or killer
If you know how Spirit is meant to be played and your using good Headphones it doesn't take much skill. Other killers take more skill and are a lot weaker.
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If spirit was so much spirit
a rock could 4k as spirit
a cat could 4k as spirit
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Do go on a win streak with Spirit doing just that. I'll like to hear if it was as easy as you say.
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I just started a match as spireh wif headphones and stridor, i'm not gonna do anything else. Easy 4k without me doing anything but picking perks and a killer and headphones...
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I'm cooking foods, but i can see my gameplay...spireh is not doing #########
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I had headphones, i used stridor, but spirit got 0k. I don't understand, all i need is headphones and stridor to 4k all the time
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I hate playing as Spirit, i only play her occassionally. i have a lot of troubles finding survivors with her, and in chase. Only when they are injured its easier to catch them
that being sad a lot of killers are still trash nowadays and still needs to be buffed
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i did another game with spireh and headphones and stridor, i should instant win, but it's not looking like that as i'm still cooking. No effort = easy wins for spireh though, #########...
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"Will People Stop Saying Spirut Doesnt Require Skill?"
No, because she doesnt.
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Spirit was the first killer I ever bought. She was my favourite killer, and still would be if not for one thing. I really, really like playing Spirit. Or I would, if not for the fact that she's so damn easy.
Seriously, if all else fails, if you're like me and don't really use sound, if you struggle with tracking for whatever reason... You can just 50/50 every loop.
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I've never understood why people keep saying that. All killers require skill. There's a huge difference between a skilled Spirit and an unskilled Spirit.
But at the same time playing Survivor also takes a lot of skill. But a lot of people here like to pretend that playing Survivor is brainless and is just holding down M1 and W.
So touche I guess.
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That's one aspect I will concede needs to be looked at. She's far too opaque and it makes those scenarios guessing games for survivors, something that's just flat-out unfair.
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That's one of the two biggest things that make her easy - survivors have nothing to react to, and even when they do (like back with the bug that gave her breathing sounds in phase) she moves so fast in her power and gas such precise control that even if survivors could physically see her there would still be nothing they could do to prevent her from hitting them.
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I'm going to sleep, but i queued up a spirit game with headphones and stridor...
I'm gonna ez 4k dis ######### lulz
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As someone who has only touched Spirit twice in the years I've owned her, there is a level of skill that is needed. Despite what people think, you don't just pick up and get a 4k. But, at the same time, standing still at a pallet faking a phase to get a free down? That' doesn't need much skill.
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Would love to but I'm hard at hearing lol it's why I added the "decent hearing" part. Especially now with the departments involving hearing being closed due to the pandemic.
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lies, i'm sleeping with heaphones while using stridor...4k city all night long even against SWFERS
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I mean, there is no counterplay to her, and her power does a lot of the work just by being what it is.
That doesn't mean there is not the usual amount of skill ANY killer would require; but playing spirit and doing well is substantially easier as her versus say, Clown.
There is a reason most major killer mains that stream don't play her as often.
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Oh #########, I hope things get better for you soon, mate.
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It's fine lad it's no worries lol I'm not deaf but my ears get blocked quite easily and I need them checked every few months.
Sorry if it seemed like i was trying to catch you in a bad spot there lol
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Nah, easy 4k, and if you use undying my cat can 4k
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Funny thing is spirit is so easy you don’t even need a headset. Just look at the grass.
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Maybe because it's not normal for a killer to kill by standing still.
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She really doesn't take anything besides a good headset.
Started as spirit some time ago, 0 experience with the killer, got 4ks after 4ks while being within the 1-4 rank for survivors.
It feels too easy and it's like nurse for dummies, but way more efficient than her, which is to say something.
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She def. Require skills. But compare to most other killer, she require very very little skills.
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I agree with you. I started out as Spirit. I now play as Huntress, and I believe she is so much easier to play with. All killers hear the same thing so I don't understand why using that is seen as having no skill. I actually get frustrated with Spirit because she is so slow unless you use Yamaoka's haunting. When you're hunting someone, yeah you follow scratch marks quickly. However, all experienced players know they just have to crouch to throw a spirit off. Then they can loop Spirit for days while your haunting is on cool down because she has NO speed! You have to play mind games. You do have to predict where they're going. With killers such as Huntress, Ghost Face, Plague, Legion or essentially every other killer out there minus Pyramidhead, you close in on survivors so fast that you rarely need to "predict" where someone is going. Ooh you went left around a tree. I'll just go right and lunge attack you. You always see them. Whereas, as Spirit usually you use your skill because you see them ahead of you. So you have to think, "Okay, they see my husk so they're probably going to run into this building to try to loop me or they're going to crouch and sneak in this area."
Anyway, it doesn't matter who you play as. Someone is always sore in the endgame chat and will say whatever they want to make themselves feel better. If you're skilled with any killer, they'll always say you have no skill or you're a hacker. 🤣
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Spirit and doctor are the killers that I play the most. I will be the first to say that spirit takes very little skill. She also becomes completely busted with her top add ons. I honestly lol'd when someone br9ought up her cooldown as a negative. Her cooldown is so short you can use your power several times in chase if needed and cross the map with ease. The same power that I can easily tunnel a hook if I want to while still getting MYC and devour hope credit. Some people are just in denial. Oh and I never use stridor and I feel that way. Stridor isn't necessary if you have ears. Iron will don't matter if you just short phase or chase them regularly. If you need stridor you're bad.
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Idk, maybe not the easiest killer onto learn but pretty easy with very high reward. You get to actually separate the good spirits from the bad in matches without her running stridor and with multiple survivors running iron will - either it doesn't seem to make much difference at all or the spirit falls apart completely.
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No because she doesn't take any skill outside of basic killer skills. There's nothing spirit specific to learn with her. It's literally just audio tracking which is something all good killers know how to do.
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