How I would nerf Blight (before BHVR gets ready to rework him)
It is without a doubt that Blight is the most hated Killer for having some of the worst impact on the game's health and design as a whole. Some people would argue Nurse is because she is stronger, but Nurse has surprisingly had a more benign effect on game design by introducing more Line of Sight blockers in Maps (which does increase Skill Expression in the game as it allows for more mindgaming to be done) whereas Blight mandated the much maligned Pallet Density update because he eats through so many pallets with his power alone, necessitating so many garbage pallets as well as pallet chains. Both of these are hated by both Survivors and Killers because the former feels so useless in Chase while the latter forces the Killer to waste so much time breaking pallets that would make life difficult for Killers susceptible to them. While the best nerf to Nurse would be to simply disable aura-reading during her power, Blight would need a different approach.
One of the strongest things about Blight is how having 5 bounces not only gives him 5 opportunities to hit a Survivor, but also how each successive bounce makes him faster. This level of mobility is not only absurd, but extremely versatile. It allows for a Blight player to do pretty much anything from crossing the map in no time, win chase and put immense pressure on Survivors. Here is a change I would ask for:
● 5 charges —> 2 charges
● Increase the duration of each Rush by 5 seconds
● Increase the turn rate during Rush by 70%
WIth these changes proposed, Blight would have a reduced power ceiling, but the skill floor would also be released; by reducing the charges, Blight's overall map mobility becomes greatly reduced and his speed becomes much more reactable to Survivors. In addition, less Charges means that loops become more difficult for Blight to navigate. But, the increased duration and the increased turn rate makes playing Blight much more forgiving for less experienced players to pick up and play. This ultimately would bring Blight down to a more appropriate level, but the buffs to his Skill Floor would keep him away from being a garbage-tier Killer. He would still be strong as 2 charges is still good enough to end a good number of Chases on its own (especially with better turning), but he would not be as oppressive for Survivors to face as he would no longer have the mobility to move across the map faster than Killers like Dredge and Springtrap with the letality of having 5 rushes blindsiding Survivors before they can respond.
Thoughts on these suggestions?
Comments
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His cooldown would still need to be significantly reduced. the problem with him using only 2 tokens and getting a hit is that he'll get his power back in 4 seconds, which isn't fair at all. Assuming your suggestions were his basekit, he should have a set cooldown of 8 seconds for getting a lethal rush hit. If all this was his power, Blight wouldn't be at all problematic
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I politely dislike your idea. Blight would become Wesker with higher turning rate.
Trust me, you wouldn't want to go against a Blight with 70% turn rate, even if it becomes weaker than he already is. Would be a Kaneki with more steps.
To me, his problems lies on him being 4.6 and having speed addons. Maybe if the was turned into 4.4 and had another addon pass (removing the speed addons) Blight would be in a much better spot than he is now.
But, to be honest? To me, i don't have an issue with Blight. Its more rare than anything to go against a good Blight these days that i don't mind having a killer with this strength. Those of us who survived the Mother's Daughter Ring + Amulet era can withstand anything haha
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I feel that would be a good addition to put the cooldown to 8 seconds yeah. Still shorter than the overall 5 Charges, but still notable to change.
And it's fine to dislike or disagree! I do understand how making him 4.4 m/s would be a nerf, but I must respectfully disagree with it myself. Making him 4.4 m/s was something that I originally considered but came to the conclusion that it only raises the barrier to playing Blight without really addressing any of the problematic aspects behind Blight's power. People who are already good with Blight will still terrorize games with him because 4.4 m/s doesn't mean much outside of niche scenarios as he's still rushing with so much mobility that he can cross maps with ease and still can end chases quickly. Meanwhile, less experienced Killer players trying Blight will feel frustrated with trying to play him because of the 4.4 m/s speed feeling awful to play with alongside his power still being too difficult for them to play with as the turn just isn't good enough to hit with.
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Im sorry but this just isnt it. Your proposed changes quite literally make everything you are trying to address even worst.
Lets talk mobility first, assuming he's travelling in a straight line, right now he's got 3 seconds per rush (5 total) at 9.2m/s, meaning he gets roughly 138m of travel with one use of his power and then he has a cooldown of 10 seconds. With your suggestion, we are talking now 8 seconds per rush while running at the same speed and now a cooldown of 4 seconds. So instead of 138m every 10 seconds, its 147m every 4 seconds.
Now to address the rest, one thing I find funny is how you mention that LoS breakers have been added more and more as time goes on and that does have an impact on the Nurse. Well that equally has an effect on Blight, moreso in fact since even lower obstacles still prevent him from directly running on top of you. You also say he has 5 chances to hit when really you have 4 since you cant attack out of the first one (this also means your suggestion gives him a singular lethal rush to work with) You dumbed him down from a skill expressive killer which requires you to learn how to use bump logic to a hold W bot who has mobility which is leagues better than any other killer. Sure his skill floor is lowered, but not every character needs to be easily accessible. Its ok for a killer to be difficult. He also doesnt move faster after each rush, thats only with add ons
Pallet density in theory is actually good against him since there is still quite a bit of clutter around the maps that you can use to try to avoid him, the problem is you dont get rewarded enough for making a correct play. You can still very much keep his identity the same as a ping pong by simply tweaking some numbers. In another post about the Blight I suggested these changes which addresses the above while still keeping his high skill ceiling and skill expression:
-Reduce Rush count from 5 to 4 (Makes the Blight have to be more precise while still maintaining his current playstyle)
-Increase time to recharge tokens from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds each (ensures he keeps the same cooldown when all tokens have been exhausted)
-When stunned out of a Rush, tokens only start recharging at the end of the stun instead of at the beginning. (This is related to pallet density. A good chunk of pallets can simply be walked around and even if you get a stun, he can still get right on top of you since most of his tokens are already recharged by the time he's recovered. This way he at least gives survivors a bit of breathing room)
-Breaking a pallet consumes 2 tokens (Basically the same reasoning as the previous point)
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