http://dbd.game/killswitch
The Nurse Needs a Major Overhaul
The Nurse is inarguably the most powerful and arguably most hated Killer in the game, and the one most neglected by the balance team when it comes to balancing a Killer. Her Power is very oppressive and her Perk synergy is beyond nutty, and she has caused several Perks over the years to be nerfed just because of her mere existence.
There isn't currently plans that I'm aware of of the developers reworking Nurse--although she should be top priority when it comes to balancing or reworking Killers, in my opinion--so the only thing that we can do is hope that they change her sometime in the future. She herself needs dramatic changes in order to put her more in line with other Killers and play in a way that still suits her but makes he play fairly.
But what could they do? This is where I come in again to hopefully garner enough attention so the developers can try to make a better future for The Nurse.
The Nurse
Power: Spencer's Last Breath
- Additional Interaction: The Nurse can now be stunned by pallets or Head On while traversing through her Blink. This interaction is similar to how The Spirit and The Onryo can be stunned despite being incorporeal otherwise.
- Alteration to Blink: Blinking now has a new visual indicator to grant players the ability to see the direction, range and location of where The Nurse will Blink. This indicator is a veil of smoky darkness, which will turn into a red aura to indicate an object where Nurse can travel through.
- The indicator is also present from the Survivor's perspective, as well, granting them the ability to play around The Nurse's Blinks a lot better.
- Alteration to Blink: Blinking no longer requires charging for distance. Instead, distance is based on the direction that you aim the Blink while charging the ability.
- Buff: The Nurse now moves at 4.6m/s when not using her Power.
- Buff: The Nurse now has 3 Blink charges.
- Buff: The base duration of post-Blink Fatigue is reduced to 1.25 seconds.
- Buff: The additional duration of Fatigue based on Blinks is reduced to +0.25 seconds.
- Buff: The additional duration of Fatigue based on attacking is reduced to +0.5 seconds.
- Buff: The window of time to charge Chain Blink is increased to 2.5 seconds.
- Buff: The Nurse now goes into Fatigue from charging Chain Blink after 4 seconds.
- Nerf: The charge time of Blink is increased to 2.5 seconds.
- Nerf: The minimum distance of Blink is increased to 2.5 meters.
- Nerf: The minimum duration of Blinking is increased to 0.5 seconds.
- Nerf: Blink recharge time is increased to 4 seconds per Blink.
- Nerf: Blink recharge time after missing a post-Blink attack is increased to 5 seconds per Blink.
- Nerf: The Nurse can no longer Chain Blink through objects.
- Nerf: The Nurse can no longer Blink through objects without having fully replenished all Tokens.
- Nerf: The Nurse's post-Blink attacks are now considered Special Attacks.
- Nerf: The Nurse now consumes all Blink tokens upon missing her post-Blink attack.
- Change: While Blinking around objects, The Nurse will now slide around angled obstacles during a Blink to give it a smoother transition.
- Change: If The Nurse hits an object head-on with her Chain Blink, she will recoil momentarily for 0.25 seconds.
- Change: The Nurse's Terror Radius has been increased to 40 meters.
Perks
Stridor
- Increases the volume of Survivors' grunts of pain by 30%/40%/50%.
- Increases the volume of normal Survivor breathing by 5%/15%/25%.
- Increases the range you can hear injured Survivors by 4 meters.
Thanatophobia
- Whenever a Survivor is hooked, each injured, hooked or dying Survivor is afflicted with Thanatophobia, and the following effects apply for the next 30 seconds:
- Survivors receive a stack-able 3%/4%/5% penalty to healing, cleansing and blessing speeds.
- Survivors receive a stack-able 5% penalty to repair speeds.
- Thanatophobia will deactivate prematurely if a Survivor is healed.
A Nurse's Calling
- Survivors that are healing or being healed within 24/28/32 meters of your location will have their auras revealed to you.
- Survivors that are healing will become Oblivious.
Add-Ons
While I'm not going to go into detail about the add-ons, much like the Twins page I made back, the best idea for this rework is to make all add-ons affect some aspect of The Nurse's kit, but without re-introducing the old Nurse's mechanics within it whatsoever. (So no add-on that gives her 2 Blinks but makes her Blink through walls again.)
Add-ons that once gave her the abilities she has now would probably have to be reworked or fine tuned into something else, too. And no add-on should basically give her the ability of a Perk, either.
But otherwise, this is the gist of what The Nurse actually would need to become a fairly more popular and favorable Killer amongst the community. This gives her ability some unique flair while now playing within the rules of the Trial for the most part. This also gives The Nurse more popularity amongst newer or older players that are put off by her mechanics and high skill floor, and would likely increase her pick rate as a Killer.
While Twins need a rework that changes so much about them, Nurse needs checks to ensure her Power is balanced, and multiple numbers changes in order to make an overhaul like this work.
If Nurse can get something like this, she would be seen in a far better light than what she is now.
Comments
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It's interesting but it just sounds like Blight with more steps. That said there are some good ideas in there. Honestly, I think just being able to see where Nurse is aiming her blink might be big enough of a nerf to her; that and making blink attack special attacks.
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First of all, we can only congratulate you and thank you for investing in this kind of topic; I saw that you had made one concerning the twins; I know them too little to have an informed opinion on them, but I remember that the topic was also very rich !
Regarding your proposal that the nurse could be knocked out by the paddles and the Head On perk, I remain neutral with respect to the current context.
Indeed, these two strategies do not represent a great risk for the nurse, and do not represent a viable strategy for the survivors either; the timing being extremely tight to achieve this.
Regarding the survivors being able to know, in effect, where the nurse is going to "land", this to me is an idea that would be catastrophic for the nurse.
Indeed, any survivor could be able to react in a fraction of a second by simply looking at the "viewfinder" which would represent the place of arrival of the nurse. The nurse would not even have teleported yet and the survivor would already have the ability to avoid being on the arrival site.
Coupled with the handicap of the concept [only 1 obstacle that can be crossed], this would turn the nurse's blinks into jokes, from the survivors' point of view.
I suspect that your proposal is to increase the number of blinks to 3, and to increase the speed of the nurse to 4.6m/s to compensate for this.
But I'll come back to that a little later.
Regarding the idea: "Nerf: The minimum distance of Blink is increased to 2.5 meters."
This is not a good idea, it would take away a lot of the bluffing moves the nurse can make with the survivors.
An example is the pallet trick: a survivor is on one side of a pallet, the nurse on the other.
If the nurse does an insta-blink, on the spot in short, it can make the survivor think she is blinking on the other side of the pallet and, in a moment of reflex, the survivor vaults the pallet; the nurse then grabs it.
Another example is simply blinking in place when a survivor is glued to the nurse, to stay in place.
Simply forcing the nurse to have a minimum teleportation distance would allow the survivors to come and stick to the nurse without worries in order to simply avoid the attack.
About the idea : "Nerf: Blink recharge time is increased to (...)".
The current nurse recharge time is just fine as it is. Sure, the current Nurse addons can decrease it, but it is only one of the components of whether or not she succeeds in hitting the survivor.
Coupled with the fact that the nurse's blinks, according to your idea, would not be as effective as her current blinks, if on top of that, the recharge time is extended, it would be even worse.
About the idea: "Nerf: The Nurse can no longer Chain Blink through objects."
This idea would destroy the very principle of the nurse.
Example 1: She tp in the shack, but sees that a survivor has taken the opportunity to get out, through the window. She still SEES the survivor. But since she can't blink through the wall, she is doomed to wait, get tired, get her head up, and go after the survivor, on foot, or blink again, when she could have otherwise hurt the survivor.
Example 2: She blinks through a first wall to reach a generator being repaired. This generator is stuck to another wall. By lack of luck, and a tp a little too short, she arrives just beside the generator, but behind the second wall.
She can't finish her race with her second blink, because she already crossed a wall to come. She has to wait, get tired, raise her head, and walk around the wall, or restart a tp, but after having lost a lot of time, and given the survivors the opportunity to leave the area.
Example 3: She is upstairs in Midwich. She blinks on the first floor, but as she leaves, she will hear a survivor breathing where she was, on the floor.
She can't go back upstairs because she has just crossed a surface (the floor). Same problem, she has to wait until her fatigue is over, to restart a tp (allowing the survivor to disappear).
To make it simple : good luck during the games on Lery, The Game, Midwich, Raccoon.
And not only on these maps, because with this restriction, it would mean that once a survivor has seen the nurse cross a first obstacle, he would only have to put a second one between him and her to force her to fall in fatigue.
Good luck also for the hunts in the LT and other tiles with a lot of walls.
Now to the next point: it is obvious that this handicap that comes with her blink chase should be compensated for, and that's why you suggested increasing her blink count by 1 token, and increasing her base speed by 0.8m/s.
However, by doing this, you completely destroy the nurse, what she is, and why she is so special.
You turn the nurse into an M1 killer moving at 4.6m/s, who may occasionally use a different method of movement, but clearly cannot rely on it all the time.
This is very much the definition of Blight.
By replacing the fact of dash with the fact of blink.
But it's still an M1 killer at 4.6m/s that sometimes teleports. The antithesis of the nurse.
And that's the problem. The fact that Nurse moves faster, is 3 blinks, etc. it's actually not the fact that she's stronger or weaker that bothers me.
It's the fact that it's NOT the nurse anymore.
What makes the nurse so unique and charming, and why many players love to play with her, is the fact that she has a unique method of moving that is unlike any other killer's method, making her so special.
Whether the nurse is too strong with this or that perk, we can of course discuss it, it is actually quite relevant.
But here, it is a question of transforming the nurse into something else, which would no longer be the nurse, and that is to go against the pleasure that the hand nurses have in using her.
So obviously I agree that some players like the nurse because they like to take out the disastrous Starstruck build and collect Midwich offerings to feel very strong, leaving the nurse in the closet when they start running out of offerings.
(But for that problem there, I've already pointed out several times, reducing its TR.)
But many other players like the Nurse precisely because she is so different from the other killers and is the only killer that isn't just another 4.6 or 4.4 (whatever) and offers something really different, innovative and new.
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I agree with @Little_Kitten here
Nurse is Nurse because of her unique usage of power - without blink she is nothing. She cannot catch survivor without her power, she is totally dependant of it. This is what makes her "her".
Turning her into m1 killer with ocasional usage of her power would make her something very different... I would say, that if you woud make a NEW killer called "Nerce" with power called "Sparkle's last breath" allowing her to blink 3 times, where first time is through objects without fatigue, and 2 another blinks are just fast travels but put her into fatigue. Make her 4.6 killer... and most people (who actually playes nurse) would find her entirely different character, because of movement and power changes.
To make Nurse a Nurse while "balancing her"... there is very little to do really...
IMO she is quite balanced, but maybe because i was playing her so mach, and rarely against her. Tho i would not mind to make her actually harder to learn and master, and more punishing in time of learning but not removing her potential when finally learned.
I would not mind to reduced her lunge attack from blink attacks. I dont mind increasing fatigue after missed blink hits. I would also thought about making her stop at dropped palette, destroying it at the cost of her blink (tho people would just blink through walls).
Making her harder to learn and use, but not nerfing her potential.
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Your nerfs would be almost enough - if she also got rid of starstruck the way she can abuse it now, I am pretty convinced your nerfs would be enough so she does not stand out to other killers so so much
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It's funny, because you're talking about something that I had just thought of, but that I had totally omitted in my answer.
I don't think there are enough killers (actually, there is only the nurse) whose power is teleportation.
Therefore, introducing a new killer into the game, whose characteristics would be the ones Clockwork_Enigma was talking about, could be interesting.
It could even be linked to Sally, in terms of lore: maybe her brother?
Or one of the patients of the Asylum?
Why not the director of the asylum himself, who would have managed to learn, over the years, how to use (but incompletely) Sally Smithson's power?
Or a man that Sally would have fallen in love with after being transformed; a love that would unfortunately have cursed the couple, preventing this man from being completely human, but preventing him from being completely like Sally?
Because I sincerely think that DbD lacks killers who can walk through walls.
On the other hand, leave Sally's identity and design as it is 🤗
Prevent her from using Starstruck and NOED in the first place 😊
Her lunge attack is pretty good actually; sure, if the survivor is in a deadzone, he'll have the impression that Sally borrowed Freddy's claws 🤣 but if we're talking about intensive chase, in LTs, or complex structures, believe me, her lunge is just fine 😉
As for the duration of her fatigue, it is also quite suitable, currently; again, if there are not too many obstacles, she will not have too much trouble knowing where the survivor is going, but it is enough for her to get tired in the middle of a structure, and the survivor will be able to take advantage of it to bait her easily.
I would like to take this opportunity to come back to a point that seems important to me.
Many survivors do not know how to deal with a nurse. Some, in bad faith, will refuse to admit it, and will prefer to abuse hyperbole and generalizations to try to make the nurse look like a monster that must absolutely be put down. Well, why not? As far as I am concerned, I prefer to discuss with people who know how to exchange and listen.
And so, in this regard, a few days ago, Supaalf posted a very interesting video of 3 games he played against Hens333's team.
He won two of the three games, but I think the last one is not really a surprise, he was on Midwich, and was using the build he used in his 500 win streak, based on Starstruck, Agitation, Gift of pain and Floods of rage.
In the first one, he was also using this build, with 2 perks. Nevertheless, Stastruck was still present.
The most interesting part, in my opinion, is the second one, which will end in a 50/50.
Of course, we should not deduce : "Oh, ok, the nurse's killrate is 50%", it's only a game, and the victory depends on many parameters, but we can clearly see that Hens' team can defend itself very well against Supaalf.
And it was clearly a fight where kindness and friendly behavior had no place. If Supaalf had a hard time on this part, it's not because he wanted to be cute, or that he wanted to let the survivors have an advantage, or anything else. If he had trouble ... it was because he had trouble.
In addition to that, another extremely interesting detail can be noted when he tries to chase the Nea that had a flashlight. This Nea manages admirably to keep Supaalf at bay during the chases.
Some time ago, I had indicated that the flashlight could be very effective against a nurse to prevent her from doing her 2nd blink; I was told that this effectiveness was relative.
I knew of course that this was the case, but unfortunately I did not have any recorded sessions on my nurse to show, to support the point.
Supaalf's video clearly shows what you can do with a nurse when you know how to use a flashlight.
Supaalf himself indicates that on the one hand, this Nea was one of the best players he knows who can keep a nurse at bay and that he almost never comes across players using the flashlight in this way against him in public games.
There is clearly something for the players to practice with this kind of flashlight use.
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I'll go over the perks first and the ability later...
Stridor and Thana seem fine, unless I'm missing something...
But Nurses Calling seems useless with this addition... So when you become oblivious you'll get a hint in the UI... Which makes it fairly easy to deduct that the nurse must have this perk.. So you'll probably just not heal in her heartbeat... Which you should not do anyway, because she can reach you while you're in her heartbeat and stationary... The issue with this change is it will only have an impact if you're outsight of her terroradius when you start the heal... And when you hide behind an object and can spot the surroundings you can probably prevent being caught... But as Nurses Calling is right now you have no information that she might have it... Which I like a lot more to be honest.
Now to the power... The whole change kind of removes her identity... She needs to use the blink to catch up to survivors because she cannot catch up by following... So her greatest strenght (being able to teleport through objects) is also kind of her weakness as she is reliant on it... And this can be used to the survivors advantage... I love this unique form of counterplay that she currently has and she is different from all the other killers that just use their powers at tiles and follow normally besides that. I would just like it if her chase time could not be altered by the use of perks... She has one of the strongest chase powers in the game... Cutting the chase time in half by using exposed perks should not be a thing.
The comparisson to Blight someone else made kind of fits... A teleport is not just moving really fast during it... It is more like appearing and disappearing... Therefore why would she get affected by anything in between? She can blink through an object but can get hit by a pallet? The comparisson to spirit and onryo is lacking because they cannot go through dropped pallets or walls but nurse can... Why should nurse be affected by a dropping pallet but not by the standing one... Does not really make sense...
I had the same idea about a visiual indicator some time ago, the only problem is that it can be manipulated fairly easy... Just flick last second... The same as huntress then this entire feature is useless and you probably cannot even rely on the blink distance.... I think it is good design that you can know the distance of her blink by looking at her hand already... If it is clenched she blinks max distance...
- Also I don't really understand what you mean by
- "Alteration to Blink: Blinking no longer requires charging for distance. Instead, distance is based on the direction that you aim the Blink while charging the ability."
So are you always at max distance? and if so why do you still have a 2.5 second charge time for the blink? I'm not entirely sure how you can regulate the distance you're blinking.... If it is like the further you move your camera up or down and so on... How does this work with blinking through walls or up and down through the floor... I don't like that idea.
I also think by not having to develop muscle memory to know where the blink is gonna land you lower her skill ceiling by quite a lot and by removing the loose line of sight counterplay you're also making it more boring to go against...
Reworking her addons and somewhat getting rid of the synergy with exposed perks would be an easier and better change I think...
Also I find the idea of loosing her blink charges on a successfull hit interesting, but I don't like it... At first I thought it was a good idea... But then again it punishes precise players who only need one blink, so that's why I don't like it... (I was thinking about this for a change for current nurse without changing her basekit otherwise... But because of that reason I don't think it is a good idea...)
Overall I think the changes are way too much... Many people agree that her addons are too strong and the usage of exposed perks is too much... But besides that I think she is fine honestly... There are some things you can try to deceive her and make her loose you, Self-Aware is a great perk against nurse and her mechanics allow a unique form of counterplay and make some tiles (edgemap) viable against her that are otherwise completely useless... I know when somebody has mastered Nurse there is very little you can do... But the same goes for Spirit and blight as well... You are not gonna win those games... But then again why should you? The guy has mastered the killer and you probably have not mastered survivor...
When we look against players of equal skill on those killers... For example the Showcase Hens333 did for Spirit where a comp spirit (one of the best spirits over all) went against Team Eternal (best comp team at the moment) There was still a way too loose this as spirit... Although the player himself was failry sure to 4k them before they got all gens done in the 2nd and 3rd game because he uses pop goes the weasle and not noed... And for the case of nurse we can look at SupaAlf vs Hens333 and his friends .... Alf has a 500 wins streak on nurse with probably no limiations to perks and offerings and the survivor team that consists of Hens and 3 of his friends that are as far as I know all comp players that limited themselves to the rules of their streak... They got over 200 wins in a row with those rules... I think it is a limitation to not use items unless found and kept in trial and not using the same perks more than twice or once... Not sure about that one...
When we look at the Nurse example as above already mentioned by someone else Alf lost one game... So even when you've basically mastered a killer you can still loose to players that have mastered survivor...
I don't think someone that has mastered a skill intesive hard to learn/master killer should loose easily to your average survivor players... I think it is somewhat fair that some killers are worth the effort you put into them... And I would like to keep some hard to learn/play/master killers in this game...
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