Wraith is one of the most boring killers to play against

I never thought this day would come that people start complaining about my bing bong boi wraith, but here they come 🤣🤣

He was very strong before the buff if you knew how to play him, never has he been a weak killer only underrated.

And i never used windstorm which he supposedly needed 🤔🤷‍♂️

But no i don't have the same thought about him as you have 😉

It’s getting that free FIRST hit that makes him strong. That’s why it’s important to adjust to a healing strategy against Wraith unlike other killers. He’s easily loopable like most other killers so as long as you are attentive and can loop then he’s 100% got counterplay.

I mean, I've been maining Wraith for the last three years. Would I preferred they do something more to his basekit? Sure. Doesn't really matter now, as BHVR's balance philosophy seems to be "Buff/Nerf something, never touch it again for three years."

He is definitely stronger than before and his lunge is threatening. I personally think he is in a really good spot right now. I like facing him because Ive gotta be more aware of my position than normal so its a more involved game than normal killers that give you plenty of warnings to when they are coming and can just be looped into infinity. Which Wraith can definitely be looped and countered just not the same as most killers.

Ah yes, the bing-bong-#########.

If you can't tell by that insult, yes, I really hate Wraith.

Depends on the map on how devastating it'll be to face Wraith. One time Shelter Woods we were all dead at 4 gens. Then played against Wraith ran him for four gens then he gave up. But boring doesn't equal OP of course. Since the devs don't balance around how enjoyable it is to face a killer.

Not really, though. He plays a lot like he used to play with purple windstorm, except he has a bigger speed boost and even better stealth now to go with it and of course he has the extra add-on slot free, so he's even more able to use his power effectively. Survivors can't see him coming when there are wide open spaces anymore, they usually hear the bell before the snarling and breathing unless he's basically on top of them, and his speed boost is massive. His easy first hits are even easier now, and now his chases boil down to:

Bing Bong, easy first hit, wipe weapon, recloak, zoom after the survivor, either beat them to the next loop or bait a pallet drop and then beat them to the following loop, easy second hit.

If you're on a map that somehow gives you a bunch of insane tiles right next to each other, like one of those Wreckers Yard spawns with a strong window in a jungle gym aimed right at shack, yeah, he'll struggle. So would most killers. If you're on your average generator when he shows up, he should be able to seriously limit the length of the chase. There's also not much you can do against it without a flashlight.

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Before, Wraith didn't get nearly as much payoff for cloaking mid-chase (smaller speed boost, slower catch up, one fewer add-on to take advantage of if one's locked up in a Windstorm) and it was easier to counter his first hit. He was stuck looping normally as a base M1 killer quite a bit, and he was pretty weak as a result. He definitely did need buffs.

Not like this, though. I'm fine with high movement speed. I'm fine with stealth. Putting both together makes me feel like I'm playing against Victor lol. Unless you have a flashlight to punish cloaking mid-chase it's boring at best and frustrating at worst.

Wraith's post-uncloak lunge functions basically the same as Pig's ambush, except it's harder to easily shut down by running away. Is Pig's ambush a free hit and boring and unfun to go against? No.

I don't understand the hatred towards having to predict what the opponent's going to do that a lot of people on this forum have. With Spirit the hatred's justified as she has much more info on what you're doing than what you have on what she's doing, and that's unfair. But it just seems like any killer that forces the survivor to make a read is "boring" and "unfun", despite the killer having to make loads of reads and guesses in a chase. If we remove 50/50's and having to make equal guesses on both sides, in favour of the survivor always being able to shut down the killer's power without much room for the killer to do anything, then the game would ACTUALLY be boring. That's how you get killers like nu-Billy, whose chainsaw can be hard countered so easily that i just see him as a free win these days, the rare times he does show up. It doesn't matter how good the Billy player is, if you know how to go against him, he is not chainsawing you at any decent tile.

I hope this doesn't seem too aggressive or anything, I'm not trying to be, but it's really irritating how every single killer is seen as boring - and by extension, needing a change/nerf to make them less boring, just because they force the survivor to play differently. Some of these are justified, such as Spirit and pre-nerf Freddy, but Wraith is definitely not. This kind of reductionist thinking is awful in my opinion and I'm sort of glad BHVR doesn't pay too much attention to these forums.

(Also, if Wraith is uncloaking and facing and moving one way, he will most likely double back the other direction. It's basic pig ambush logic, and I use it to counter the lunge whenever I play against him. Of course he'll mix it up, but isn't that the point of an online game? To go against intelligent opponents?)

I could agree with this. A power rework to make it more interactive but still good and give that hit and run playstyle. I would be interested to see what the devs or community could come up with. Id also argue that Myers and Trapper are very outdated and could use some touch ups

even before the buff Wraith was still boring imo, he wasn't (and isn't) overpowered or anything but there was never any real chase if they ran windstorm (which they all did). and if they didn't he basically had no power, which was also boring

now every wraith just plays his hit-and-run style, which is more miserable than forever freddy tbh

Absolutely, Wraith needs a nerf he’s literally broken now. He constantly is getting free hits and most users camp hook with him…

Can’t really say I agree with that tbh. Sure the irl that lets him see survivor’s auras while cloaked is nice and helps with looping but he always had that. Besides it’s an iri and is weaker than plenty of addons other killers have.

It’s strange to me how people are struggling vs. Wraith all of a sudden. It’s not like he got some super buff, the changes were more quality of life than anything else and he functions pretty much the same as he always has.

I think the issue is that people always assumed he was weak because that’s what other people said, so nobody really played him, thus nobody has really had enough experience playing vs. him.

Now all of a sudden people are saying he’s OP etc, because that’s what other people are saying. The usual circle jerking that happens in games.

I don’t doubt that people are struggling vs him but I honestly think it’s because they don’t really know how to play vs. him, and it’s easier to follow the herd and call something OP than it is to adjust one’s approach.

I just wait by Windows, vault as he uncloaks, impossible for him to hit. Or wait by a pallet, drop it as he uncloaks. If he’s good I’ll just pre-drop. If it’s a weak pallet I just accept that I’m probably going to get hit and try to make it to a stronger loop/pallet before I’m downed.

If Wraith commits to one chase for too long it’s game over for him anyways. His lethality is in catching people out of position and he’s a mediocre chaser at many of the loops.

He’s strong sure, always has been actually. But he’s nowhere near the level of Nurse, Spirit and Blight.

I find Wraith extremely fun to play as and against, always have. It is true that while in the past many or most players usually decided to remain uncloaked in chases which obviously makes for fun gameplay if you enjoy barebone chase gameplay, now with the movement speed changes more people have caught on to the fact that recloaking is objectively the better play (it usually was prior to the buff too, especially given the use of certain add-ons of course). But the chase dynamics of a cloaking and uncloaking Wraith are still similarly as engaging and thrilling as those of a barebone chase, and in some respects arguably more so.

Here are some pointers:

If Wraith cloaks and tries to get in front of you to block your path to a pallet or window, you can try to swerve to bodyblock him to prevent him from being able to get around you before you get close enough to that window or pallet. This is actually a super fun interaction between you and Wraith, like a racing game.

At windows, you can often force Wraith to go through the uncloaking action and vault at the last possible moment, wasting more of his time.

If Wraith uncloaks in front of an active pallet, you can stall at the pallet and this opens up a lot of possibilities (make sure you stand close enough to the pallet that Wraith cannot bodyblock the pull prompt). Generally, Wraith will want you to drop the pallet so that he can cancel the uncloak, break the pallet and uncloak right on your heels. You can abuse this likewise by delaying the pallet drop as much into the uncloaking process as possible, that way you get a second or two more out of every pallet. Then if you do drop the pallet and see that he cancels his uncloak, you can try to vault over the pallet before he is able to break it, thus forcing him to again go through the uncloak action until the last moment, at which point you vault over the pallet again. At that point he will be able to break it faster than you would be able to vault back over yet again if he spams the command, but this will have still gotten you yet a few more seconds out of the pallet.

From there, more possibilities arise. Since Wraith will expect you to drop the pallet at the last possible moment and therefore cancel his uncloak action at the end preemptively, you can opt not to drop the pallet at all. That way you can get another loop around the pallet before you are back in the same situation, rinse repeat. Of course, the Wraith can call your bluff and actually go through with the entire uncloaking action and hit you through the pallet, but that is a risk you are taking, whereas the risk for the Wraith of course is that you actually do drop the pallet, either stunning him or at least having forced him to uncloak fully, which will cost him some time having to recloak again after breaking the pallet, giving you more distance.

Further possibilities present themselves: Anticipating that you are looking to drop the pallet at the last possible moment, Wraith can try to use his uncloaking speed boost to rush around the pallet loop to catch you out as you are stuck in the dropping interaction, depending on the size of the loop. This however can give you an opportunity to get more loops out of the pallet if you don't actually drop the pallet. Something that helps with this are bait and bait-and-switch pallet drops as well as late pallet drops. Standing at the pallet facing it with your back, you can turn around to bait that you are going to drop the pallet - for the static pallet drop animation, survivors will always face the pallet, so turning your model around manually is a good way to fake the drop. If you are facing the pallet directly, you can still crouch to try and fake the drop. This might cause Wraith to cancel the uncloak early, resetting the situation, or it might initiate him to try and rush around the tile, you then being able to get more loops out of it since you didn't drop the pallet.

Since Wraith is then however presented with the possibility of only faking rushing around the loop, turning around part-way and actually rushing through the pallet, bait-and-switch and late pallet drops are a good tool to also be aware of. Bait-and-switch means you first bait the pallet drop like mentioned above, then make to turn away from the pallet, only to then actually drop the pallet. This can lead to pallet stuns quite often. Late drops are just where you utilize the full prompt range on pallet pulls to delay the drop to either draw the killer into the stun or to have just a split second more time to decide on whether you want to drop it at all, which can also be combined with bait-and-switches. Of course, from there bait-and-switch-and-bait plays open up... and so on.

Pallet interactions in general have much more depth to them than people usually assume, and while it is true that cloaked Wraith takes some of this depth away, these tips should show you that there is still gameplay involved. And it is pretty engaging still, and actually really fun if you can pull something off like vaulting over the pallet to prevent cloaked Wraith from breaking it. Laughs guaranteed. Of course, the less safe a pallet loop the more of an advantage for Wraith, and Wraith has some really good add-ons that can make it more difficult or downright oppressive ("All Seeing" - Blood plus Coxcombed Clapper, Shadow Dance plus The Serpent, stacked Swift Hunts...), but there are enough sufficiently safe loops and tile setups on most maps to be able to still have non-repetitive chase interactions against Wraith, if you're smart about it. Plus on the flipside, flashlights and firecrackers make for some really fun Wraith counterplay too, by burning him. And if you manage to stun Wraith while he is cloaked, his stun animation will last extra-long.

Good and fast reactions help, as always. Low-latency connections on you and the killer do as well, because latency favours the killer either way unfortunately.

My suggestion is to play some Wraith yourself. Not only is he really fun to play, but you will quickly realize what you as Wraith struggle with, find situations you are not confident in, things survivors do that throw you for a loop, figuratively and literally. This in turn will help you play better against Wraith as well.

Seriously i dont understand how people have trouble with looping a wraith. I played against a wraith on hawkins. After his first down 3 gens were done. I thought easy game, but while i completed the 4th gen, my teammates broke the world record in losing chases. They lost 6 hook states in 2min. I took the chase and didnt get hit for 1min. Then the wraith changed targets, killed two and i got onehooked. Dont get me wrong wraith is not that weak, but everytime i play against him others make so many mistakes.

I've been feeling the same way about him lately but not because of wraith himself, its potatoe team mates that waste all the pallets while he's cloaked or fall for his mind games extremely easily.

It feels like freddy all over again, it's not that he's OP, he just dominates noob survivors more efficiently than alot of other killers and can still apply pressure easily with his stealth speed.