Why is the community jumping the gun on The Nurses changes when the PTB isn't even out yet?

introduction

Alright so, this post will focus on almost everything everyone is talking about. It might leave some things out, but it will more so be focusing on the key aspects to why a lot of people are freaking out about The Nurses "nerf" and changes.

Keep this in mind before you continue reading, The Nurses PTB has not even been released yet... So literally nobody has any first hand experience on how she'll actually play...

I draw attention to this point because everyone is automatically assuming she's "trash tier" now... despite nobody even playing her PTB, and despite a lot of people never even touching Nurse or "getting gud" with her in the first place...

Alright, lets get into this train wreck ha ha.

the Nurses base-kit changes

First off, before we can discuss everything people are drawing attention to... we need to discuss the most important thing first... We'll be focusing FIRST on the nurses base-kit changes. Below is a quote from the post that informed us all of her base-kit changes, and we'll be dissecting it...

• Previously, the Nurse could double blink, go through fatigue, then immediately double blink again. This did not leave the Survivors with much of an opportunity to break line of sight. A recharge mechanic for blink charges has been added to limit how quickly she can perform multiple blinks. Rather than immediately receiving all her blink charges following fatigue, she will instead regain charges one at a time. Each charge takes three seconds starting from the beginning of her fatigue. This time can be reduced through add-ons.

Ok so for one, this is by far the most talked about change about the Nurse, her multiple blink charge time changes...

While yes, this is a very new take on her chase mechanics... it overall doesn't really effect her all that much. Let me explain, beforehand as the quote states The Nurse could use two blinks during a chase, go into a fatigue state, than re-use those two blinks for the next portion of the chase.

What they did, is change that 2nd part of what I said, and now has The Nurse wait 3 seconds before she can regain each blink...

Now than, all this change does... ALL it does... is change how fast a Nurse can down a Survivor... that's it... If you want a blunt explanation of what this does, it just makes the chase a bit longer than it usually is... AND it also makes it more realistic for Survivors and even the Killer. For one, The Nurse can no longer just destroy a Survivor in a chase and hook them... they'll now have to focus more on managing their blinks, as well as their limitations within the chase as well...

Nurses will have to effectively decide when to blink now, and also they'll need to focus more on obstacles they blink through, rather than falling back on a second blink and annihilating any hope a Survivors has within said chase...

They can no longer just body a Survivor around a loop, they'll either have to wait 6 seconds to regain both charges, or they'll have to decide if they can pull of a single blink hit at the loop with mind-games, etc... Keep in mind, if the Survivor is at a loop... waiting 6 seconds really doesn't mean anything at all... and if you're good with Nurse, you'll only need one blink to get them around the loop.

This is literally all this change does, it doesn't make Nurse horrible, it doesn't make her less viable, it just makes her more realistic... AND it also makes "Omega Blinks" less OP... And i'm sure most people can agree that having multiple blinks with no punishment besides a small fatigue is quite horrid for anyone to face...

NEXT, we'll add the first point above along with this next point with the add-on changes...

The Nurses add-on changes

For one, I will only be talking about some of the add-on changes... (Not all of them) as if I started talking about ALL of the add-on changes than this post would be 10 paragraphs long and nobody would read it... (It's already long enough as is...)

First off, I want to point everyone's attention to an interesting add-on change.

Jenner's Last Breath

• After blinking, allows the Nurse to immediately blink back to her original position by pressing the Secondary Power Button. Requires a blink charge and must be triggered during the chain blink window. 

This add-on change is very interesting... it actually has the potential to be scary in a chase... Because a lot of Nurses do face Survivors that like to run back towards where they blinked... so with this add-on, you can actually pull of some "sick tricks" by blinking ahead than immediately blinking back to your original spot and hitting the Survivor when they double back to your original position...

Quite a unique add-on indeed, and I for one find it very useful against Survivors that know how to juke blinks. Of course I'm not the best Nurse (I don't main her I just recently got some what gud with her for once after months of avoid her all together because of how boring she is.) BUT! With this add-on, even a pro-nurse can pull off some seriously cool mind-games with it...

Fragile Wheeze and Dark Cincture

• Fragile Wheeze Decreases blink recharge time by 30% (0.9 seconds). 
• Dark Cincture Decreases blink recharge time by 20% (0.6 seconds). 

These two deserve their own spot in this section... they literally decrease the new base-kit blink charge times by 0.9 seconds, and 0.6 seconds... Making the total blink recharge time 1.5 seconds...

That almost makes each blink recharge exactly how it was Pre-change... So if you're someone who despises the blink charge times... use these two add-ons to literally make that change almost non-existent... ALMOST.

It's still going to make each blink phase take a bit longer during the chase, so The Nurse will be almost playing at a Pre-Base-kit level... Which everyone seems to be saying was "fine"

So no issues right?

Matchbox and Torn Bookmark

• Match Box Rarity changed from Common to Ultra Rare. Removes 1 blink charge. Increases base movement speed to 4.2 m/s.
• Torn Bookmark Rarity changed from Common to Ultra Rare. Adds 1 blink charge. The Nurse can no longer blink to locations not in her line of sight.

Now this add-on combo for the Ultra-Rares sounds very scary on paper... While yes the Torn Bookmark changes the distance a Nurse can blink because of the line of sight change... it benefits the player by adding an extra blink to counter-act the effects of Match Box, while also increasing the base movement speed to 4.2...

Now, 4.2 isn't really that fast... it's about say... a tad bit slower than Huntress by 0.2 but in theory, this sounds fairly scary as with the added benefit of walking a fair bit faster than a Survivor now a long with two blinks within her link of sight, really does make it an interesting add-on combo for the future... Of course this does make loops with high walls a bit tricky, it should make looping around these loops a bit more interest when you can snap at them around the corner and get a hit with a blink.

Of course this is in theory, as... nobody knows how it would truly go yet without testing it in the PTB.

Now, lets talk about the last two notable changes to the add-ons, as the rest of the changes are just small little niche changes or they're pre-existing changes.

"Bad Man's" Last Breath and Campbell's Last Breath

• With "Bad Man's" Last Breath hitting a survivor with a successful blink attack grants The Nurse the Undetectable status for 16 seconds.This effect may be only triggered once every 60 seconds.
• With Campbell's Last Breath after reappearing from a fully charged blink, The Nurse immediately blinks at half charge in the direction she is currently facing.

For once, Bad Man's Last Breath sounds interesting, it adds a tinge of stealth in a chase while The Nurse try's to say... mind-game at loops or behind walled off areas in the chase. An interest addition, but besides that nothing much more to say...

But Campbell's Last Breath is a bit different. It the add-on sounds like it gives the option to blink ahead at half a charge, but it seems to be unclear whether this is a effect that happens after every first blink now or not. What I do know is that if that's the case after every first blink, it seems like blinking to a Survivor is a lot faster than it was previously with half the cost of the 2nd blink.

If it's not automatic, that's still half a blink saved for another 2 blink assault on a Survivor...

the main point of this post though

Now, we've noted some interesting add-on changes the main issue above, so we'll continue both of those here... A lot of people are complaining that her base-kit changes and add-on changes are going to make her low-tier now. But that isn't the case at all, from what I've taken away from this, all this does is make her base-kit a lot more realistic to use and face as a Survivor while also giving The Nurse her usual ability to be a Top-Tier threat.

If 6 seconds is a lot to you in a chase with a Killer that can usually annihilate any Survivor (If you're pro with Nurse or semi-pro) than I don't know what to tell ya... that's kind of a narrow minded assumption to make on something that isn't even fully released yet.

AND, her add-on changes can even lessen the base-kit change so this entire discussion really doesn't make sense to me... You don't even need to use both add-ons to lessen the time, you can just use the primary one that reduces 0.9 seconds, and than use a fatigue reduction add-on or something... or even one of the Ultra-Rare add-ons or BETTER YET, you can use something like Jenner's Last Breath...

Let's be realistic guys, and say that this is a good thing for her add-ons. It removes Omega Blinks which has been a controversial topic for years now, and it improves upon add-ons that literally nobody bothers using. Which allows Killers to use different routes and builds in each game they play as Nurse now...

And who knows, maybe this can actually make her fun to play now. As playing a apex Killer with literally no downsides in a chase sounds pretty boring...

And besides, we still have Hill Billy which is one of the most fleshed out Killers in the game, so everyone that's saying "Now we have no Top-Tier Killers to use BHVR!!!" than what about Hill Billy? He still exists... why not use him. He's not the funnest to play but he can fit the bill as a scary threat to face while being a realistic one indeed.

These changes needed to happen guys, it really did... to be quite honest The Nurse is from a dead era of DBD where a lot of the meta was quite absurd and OP. And since that era is gone, the meta has changed and so to must some of the Killer that used to have ability's and such that countered that old absurd meta... Like Nurse.

We don't need a Killer that absurd and unorthodox to play anymore as a end all be all to facing SWFs or a coordinated team... It's time people branched out to other Killers to seek leverage and hey... you might even find one that's fun to play despite being worse than Nurse or Billy... And even if that's the main issue people have... The Nurse is still Top-Tier, she's just less ridiculous now... That doesn't mean she still can't kick some serious butt within a game.

If you were good with Nurse before, than you'll have no issue adjusting to these changes... I promise you that. And if you weren't good with her, you can still learn how to play her... nothing is really hindering you to do that.

One last thing, if you're not experienced or well versed in anything about The Nurse... aka you can't play her, than I don't see why these changes matter to anyone who mains Killer that doesn't use her... If you play without her against a coordinated team or a SWF with say Hill Billy or anyone else, why does this matter to you?

And if you're a Survivor... shouldn't this make you happy?

a small point about console nurses

Also, pro console Nurses exist guys... I don't know why nobody thinks that's the case... This change does matter to console users also, and it very much makes facing them on console a lot easier now.

Of course, if you're a pro with nurse regardless of the platform you'll adjust to these changes in no time, it just makes facing her on ANY platform less of a headache...

tl;dr

Base-kit was changed to be more realistic for Survivors and for The Nurse as a whole, her change doesn't make her any less powerful than she is already... It just makes her less of a massive threat within a chase. And while some people might argue that the only Killer that can counter SWFs or coordinated teams is gone now...

Hill-Billy still exists guys, and despite that The Nurse is still a Top-Tier Killer, her blink change just makes Survivors that're not in a SWF or coordinated team actually have a chance to face the Nurse in a chase now... Instead of being destroyed within 30 seconds of said chase...

They can actually use loops now on her and pallets, and they can use windows and think tactically when facing her now... Instead of the chase just ending instantly every time... How boring is that right?

Also, a lot of her add-on changes reflect a more healthy and generalized pick of what to bring within the game now as a Nurse. Instead of picking say... 3 add-ons now, you can pick twice as much or more... It really does improve the variety with her add-ons and I for one believe that's quite a healthy change.

And lets be honest to anyone who's reading this with daggers in their eyes, this change needed to happen... She was very ridiculous and unrealistic to face as any Survivor and her concept is from a dead meta and era of DBD that isn't around anymore... this change NEEDED to happen despite the backlash and hate towards it... Think of it this way, does facing a Omega Blink, Mori, Ruin, Pro-Nurse sound fun to you as a Survivor? Does having literally no hope of winning with a team that isn't coordinated or a SWF sound fun?

No... it doesn't, and that's coming from someone who doesn't main Survivor and knows how hard she can be to face with previous experience facing her and playing her (Not the best nurse obviously, but I can somewhat effectively use her now...)

It's quite boring, and one more thing... I don't see why anyone should care about these changes if they don't have any experience with The Nurse themselves... that's one more thing I find a bit odd.

And if you're a Survivor... shouldn't this make you happy that Omega Blink is being changed or her base-kit is different and more realistic towards you in a chase now?