How to play Plague effectively?
I'm really struggling with Plague. I love her design and I think her kit is interesting, but I can't seem to translate that into consistent gameplay.
Plague mains (or killers who play a lot of Plague), how do you play her? Do you try to get everyone infected at the start? Abandon chases to find other survivors to infect? Do you infect gens to track/delay survivors at the start? If you have corrupt available early on, when do you use it? When everyone is injured or when you know where they're all at or when you have a lot of pressure (for example one guy hooked, another slugged nearby)?
Also, her power... Do I always wanna go for the M1s at loops? For example the short rock/tree/pallet loops that spawn on Autohaven/Macmillan maps where I don't have LOS of the survivor. I'm pretty sure they're not hitable there? Should I treat those loops similar to how Huntress would play where I only go for infection in open areas? What about the standard jungle gym tiles? Do I abandon those loops or just try to eat the pallet?
Lastly, perks! What perks do you use? I've tried Corrupt Intervention but I don't feel like it actually helps me. Either survivors tend to be immersed or they just find another gen to work on anyway and I'm stuck in my early 1v1 while the rest of the survivors are on gens. I put on Discordance for tracking, I quite liked that. Gave me a good start. Would Whispers be an idea at all? I recently added Infectious to my build and I LOVE it. If I have them all infected then it's typically a pretty short chase + it helps me know when to slug. I also run Brutal Strength for loops (if I get them broken during a chase they tend to panic and drop pallets early) but I think that could be swapped for something better. Lastly, I run BBQ for the bp.
Best Answers
-
I play plague a lot and would gladly help you, first off the plague's base kit is ok but can be real op with specific add ons, the build i use on her is the following:
Hex: Ruin (soon to be replaced with corrupt intervention)
Thanatophobia
Monitor & Abuse.
Surge.
thanatophobia is an absolute must on plague, survivors tend to not cleanse when going against plague, so you can use this to your advantage.
monitor & abuse cuz you're a tall 32m terror radius killer, and if survivors stay broken they can hear you coming and will get into postion, but with monitor you can sneak up on them and they won't be able to position themselves near a pallet soon enough, also the 10 fov degree is icing on the cake.
Surge i started using on her recently and i gotta say it's rly good on her, she lacks map pressure and surge helps her make up by regressing nearby generators without the need to waste your time going around smacking gens, and since you're gonna be an m1 killer vs injured survivors this perk will be activated a lot.
ruin or corrupt to buy you time early game so that you can infect survivors and get the ball rolling.
as for playstyle i like using ashen apple (or blessed apple) and once all survivors become injured i use the pool and start snowballing if possible, if the window is narrow for puking on a survivor cuz they're in a jungle gym or a god loop or whatever then just puke on them and go, they'll get injured eventually, also her 2 ultra rare add ons are pretty god damn good, you see black incense is like i'm all ears but on steroids, it's free wall hacks, and iridescent seal (gives you corrupt purge when a gen is repaired) while not as good as black incense, it's still pretty decent, you see as plague or any other killer gens get popped when you're in a chase, and when that happens as plague while you're running this add on you can pretty much end the chase instantly, you get free corrupt purge mid chase without the need to waste time and go pick up a fountain, however you must run worship tablet cuz the seal has a lot of nasty downsides and worship tablet helps nullify them. oh and also if you pick up corrupt purge from a fountain survivors gain an audible notification that you have corrupt but with this add on when a gen is popped survivors dont get and audible notification. unless you pick it from the fountain instead of a gen popping
that's all, ofc you can replace surge with pgtw if you dont have demodoggo.
also if the gens are too close avoid puking on them cuz most survivors won't repair them and it will just turn into a really long and boring game, especially if you're running corrupt
1 -
First, tips
For one, you have to understand how Plague functions before using a lot of her tricks. Plague works off of sickness over damage, if The Plague doesn't put everyone into sickness, than you won't be using her effectively.
Here's the thing, like Legion, Plague works off of damaging her Survivors OVER downing and hooking them. The thing is though, unlike Legion, Plague can keep them in the injured state for the remainder of the game, this is due to the fear of her "Super Vomit" that will insta-down anyone that's injured and healthy.
what's "super vomit?"
The Super Vomit or "Corrupt Purge" has little cool-down after hitting someone and can be easily swayed to hit a lot of areas UNLIKE hatchets. Hatchets are more accurate, while Corrupt Purge is more versatile and usable in a lot of scenarios and areas that's too difficult to land with hatchets.
In a sense, if a Survivor heals themselves FULLY at a fountain, than they'll Corrupt the Fountain and allow The Plague to gain her Corrupt Purge ability and easily down anyone she comes across. This is why Red Ranks never heal against her, and anyone below that Rank will also not heal... but it's more likely to happen due to this mutual agreement not being shared with each other, like Red Ranks usually have.
What should I do in-game?
Simply put, once you spawn in you should start infecting any nearby generators that spawn around you. This can be done in a few seconds AND while you're walking to the next generator nearby.
If you have a Hex totem, you should also vomit on it to infect it. Why should you do this? Because it'll alert you to anyone that randomly gets sick during a chase OR when you walk away from the totem.
It isn't a guaranteed fact that they got sick off that totem, but Survivors will mostly avoid any generator that's sick, so they'll most likely get sick off of that if anything else. It's good to investigate though, as it'll land you an easy find and chase if the totem is out of its way from any pallets or loops.
Than, once you have a Survivor in your sights, healthy or sick, vomit on them and insure they get infected with the Broken Status effect. Some Survivors will naturally sway side to side to avoid and accurate hit with the vomit stream, so don't be afraid if you miss most of your vomit.
As long as you get a decent amount of hits with your Vile Purge, you'll eventually put them into the sickness. AND, it gets easier to infect them when they go straight for a pallet, simply follow behind them with a fully charged/almost charged Vile Purge and start to vomit on them RIGHT before they get to the other end of the pallet.
If they're smart, they'll either keep looping or they'll drop it and easily be infected afterwards. Remember, use Vile Purge to infect Survivors (obviously), but if it's a narrow space they have to walk through or intentionally go through, than make sure you're charged or decently charged to get a VERY EASY infection off on them!
second, perks/builds
Due to the change that patch 3.5.0 will bring to Ruin, i'll be altering my build to better reflect a suitable build for you to use.
What you'll need is Corrupt Intervention, Dying Light, Thanatophobia, and BBQ & Chili. You can also still use Ruin, but the point of this build is to actively slow down generator progress while having some tracking capabilities.
- Corrupt intervention [Plagues Perk] (This is a good alternative to Ruin, and it's arguable a better pick INSTEAD of Ruin. This perk will block 3 generators that're the farthest from your spawn for 80/100/120 seconds depending on it's tier. Simple AND works great with Plagues ability and tips, simply infect any nearby generators to your spawn and walk to the farthest generators that're blocked, you'll either find a Survivor hiding around the area OR going to the closer generators. Those generators are infected, so you won't be gen rushed off the spot)
- Dying Light [Myers Perk] (This perk is best suited to be combined with Thanatophobia, Thanatophobia simply regresses the Survivors Healing, Sabotage, and Repair speeds WHILE Dying light puts a flat 3% debuff to those categories. Now, 3% isn't a lot at first, but when you fully stack Dying Light, it can add up to a 24% debuff at the max 8 token stacks! To get tokens, just hook any Survivor that ISN'T the obsession)
- Thanatophobia [Nurse's Perk] (Thanatophobia works very well with Plagues inherit ability to keep everyone Injured for most of the game. All Thanatophobia does is give a 4% debuff to Healing, Sabotage, and Repair speeds like Dying Light, which when all 4 Survivors are injured goes up to 16%! Meaning, when combined with the 24% max debuff from Tier lll Dying Light and Thanatophobias 16% max debuff, that's a 40% debuff to all of those action speeds! This is why this build is considered to be one of her best, debatable the best for her)
- BBQ & Chili [LeatherFaces Perk] (Simple perk, it gives a aura reading for any Survivors outside of a 40 meter radius AND a bonus 50%/75%/100% BP increase in post-game. Every Tier has the same aura reading radius, but the BP percentage increase depends on the tier it's in)
As for Ruin, the new Ruin can work with Plague as it gives a 200% (PTB Version still) regression penalty to any generator that stops being repaired. You can try and use this with Plagues build, but Corrupt Intervention is a better fit, and if you don't have Hags DLC, it's more accessible too.
last, add-ons (summary)
This will be a summary of some decent add-ons to use, I won't go over everything as my fingers will fall off from typing every possible combo... this happened with the Wraith build suggestion, so i'd rather keep things simple. If you want some other combos, than do read the ones that're below to get an idea for lesser budget combos to use.
infected emetic + incensed ointment
Simple yet effective, this is one of the best combos to use that borders on the line of expensive and budget! Infected Emetic simply makes the Vile Purge effectiveness Moderately better, and combined with Incensed Ointment, it makes the cool-down for Vile Purge Moderately decreased while also making the movement speed for holding Vile Purge Slightly faster!
Think of it like Demogorgons Rat Liver, it makes it easier and faster to turn around a corner with a fully charged Shred, same with Plagues Vile Purge, a Fully charged Vile Purge is easier to maneuver with AND the cool-down is decreased, making it easier and faster to do rapid vomit hits on generators and other things.
All of the Emetic add-ons are great to use, so keep that in mind.
Vile Emetic + Black Incense
Easily her best add-on combo, hands down. Vile Emetic just Considerably increases Vile Purge effectiveness (making it A LOT easier to infect Survivors, like a lot...) and Black Incense gives you a 5 second aura reading for any Survivor that vomits during their infection.
Why is this amazing? Well, if your entire team never heals to avoid the Corrupt Purge (Super Vomit), than they'll vomit constantly and let you see their auras for the entire match!
An amazing combo, easily her best.
Vile emetic + infected emetic
This is just for if you want to instantly infect the entire team with little effort, it'll infect every Survivor insanely fast and make it easier to get into the debuff progress for your build (depends on her build...)
Basically it Considerably and Moderately increases Vile Purges effectiveness, what more can I say? Decent combo indeed.
Vile Emetic + Ashen Apple
Now this combo can work with Infected Emetic as well, but this is the better of the two. Vile Emetic increases Vile Purges effectiveness Considerably and Ashen Apple gives The Plague one free Corrupted fountain AND also increasing the infection times on objects Slightly as well.
Why is this useful? Well, the fact nobody heals on The Plague is one, and 2nd, it'll give you a lot of Corrupted Fountains, mainly because everyone won't stay in the infected phase if they can get one shot slugged by a stream of Corrupt Purge, or they won't heal but easily get downed if found.
Pretty solid build, and it's very unexpected if the Survivors don't see that fountain beforehand.
end note
If you want to use add-ons like Iridescent Seal or Devotee's Amulet than go ahead, but it just increases the time Corrupt Purge is active and or makes it easier to move while holding Corrupt Purge while hindering the time you have with it (Which is what Iridescent Seal does...)
Why don't I have any above in the summary? Because nobody ever heals at the fountains against Plague... at least not in Red and sometimes Purple ranks. It's a waste of add-on slots if you know this, so that's why I didn't add any above.
If you wanna use them with Ashen Apple to HOPEFULLY get everyone to heal at fountains than go ahead, otherwise it isn't worth it in my opinion.
conclusion
This took a bit of time to write up still, so I hope it adds to the guides above or gives more information that you might not of known.
You can always mix and match perks and add-ons to how you want them to be, but this is a solid idea of what to use with Plague.
Stay safe out there,
see you in the fog...
Post edited by FireHazard on2 -
I generally main Plague along with Freddy.
For perks it depends on which addons I'm using. For example, if I'm primarily focused around getting survivors sick, I'll use incensed ointment/rubbing oil or infected emetic. With Monitor and abuse, thrilling tremors (could be swapped for your perk of choice there) Play with your food (or BBQ, you can change either of the second and third perks) along with ruin. Even with the new ruin, I'm fairly sure that it'll still be viable. With this all you want to do is spray them a little bit and then move on. If you find your obsession just toy with them a few times until you get about 3 stacks of PWYF so that way once everyone is completely sick you can get 3 downs easily. If you want to be even nastier about it use ashen apple.
Now, if you're where you can't get good LOS on survivors due to where they are, vomit on pallets, and vaults. This will force them to move into LOS if you hit them. IF they don't drop a pallet or vault because they don't want to get sick, it can land you a down. (if you want you could even use save the best for last if you want faster hits.)
If I want to get people down fast, I'll use iridescent seal along with devotee's amulet. Play with your food is a must on those since you'll move slower. Stick with monitor and abuse, you could run ruin with it (that's your choice. If they're all sick by the time they break ruin and pop a few gens the job is done.) Infectious fright or stridor for more information (could use BBQ up to you.)
You will want to respect pallets when you have corrupt purge since they can take your power away once they pallet stun you or get in a locker to use head on. However, if they're fully sick you'll know if they're in it.
5
Answers
-
I don't play enough Plague to give you an full, in-depth guide on how to play her, but I can give you a couple of tips when it comes to using your Vile Purge. You should definitely vomit on every generator you see at the start of a match to delay generator repairs and/or get survivors sick. This is the main reason why those that use Corrupt Intervention on Plague do so, because it makes it easier to infect every available generator at the start of the match.
Bear in mind that the amount you charge your power is proportional to the amount of time you'll spend vomiting afterwards. Generators only require a tiny splash to get infected (and I don't believe that the amount of vomit that hits them affects how long they remain infected for, though I could be wrong and would have to test it to be sure). So you can save time by only charging your power up a little bit instead of all the way to infect generators.
You can also do the same thing with pallets and vaults during chases, which can be particularly helpful around those tight loops. Once a pallet or vault is infected, any healthy survivor who vaults the window or pallet, or drops the pallet if it's upright, should become infected. From there, even if you can't hit them with your Vile Purge attack, it's only a matter of time until they become Broken and you can down them in one hit.
1 -
Thanks a lot, this helped :)
0 -
Monitor and Abuse is an odd choice, how come you use that in your build? Is it for the FOV, or is it because the FOV is with the decreased Terror Radius outside of chases?
0 -
It gives me a decreased TR. Normally when I play Plague and people know that I am, they try and get a faster head start. This way I only have a 24M TR. I've often caught people trying to hide in a corner where I can easily block them in and get a full vile purge on then a down. Some people get annoyed by it. Plus I've noticed when I have a larger TR, survivors kind of stop working on gens to try and hide. So, with the new ruin I can see Monitor and abuse being a really good perk
1 -
I mean hey, unpredictable perk combos have proven to catch people off guard...
Not sure how, but if it works IT WORKS.
0 -
You should give it a try. But at the same time, I think a killer is good when you feel confident in the perks you're using. I honestly feel perks come down to a person's play style in the end of the day
0 -
Right, its not bad to suggest perks, but at the end of the day it really just depends on what you think is useful for you.
And if it works for you, than that's fine! That's why I don't really care if someone uses NOED anymore, but I personally believe it's stunting that players progress for using it. (By that I mean they don't improve if they depend on it too much).
But we all have opinions of course.
1 -
I think NOED is okay for starting to learn the game a bit better. However, at higher ranks NOED doesn't work as much because either A: all the totems are already cleansed. B: you get maybe 1-2 hooks before someone cleanses it. I've had a game where it spawned on a totem I was cleansing. O o ps
0 -
I rarely see people cleanse totems at Red Ranks, because I rarely see NOED in Red Ranks on both sides.
I main Killer (insert Killer main btw meme), but I also play Survivor as well. Recently I've been going half and half, but mostly staying towards playing Killer more.
The point is, I've see Red Rank Killers builds and played against Red Rank Survivors, they hardly think about cleansing every totem in the match UNLESS the match is going extremely well for them. And if they do, I benefit from it because I never use NOED EVER.
You're right that it's ok to start out with, but to improve and grow, you need to ditch it... If a Killer becomes dependent on it to get the job done, than they'll never improve and be able to play with out. So that's why I don't really recommend it to people, as NOED ensnares new Survivors to keep it in their build for more than it's needed.
At least that's my opinion, if they want to use it than go ahead, I just don't recommend it.
0 -
And honestly, I've been playing on live servers, I'll let survivors cleanse totem and wait about 2 gens in to start chasing them and hitting them. I barely notice much of a difference. If anything, I think the new ruin is kind of more helpful. I wouldn't have to be going back and forth kicking gens that're close to finishing. IF anything, i think the new ruin will help survivors not 3 gen themselves so much
0 -
That's another topic, but I get what you mean.
I don't see the new Ruin making the Dying Light + Thanatophobia build a terrible one without it, that's why the build works even when Ruin is removed from the equation. All an all, specific builds like that or not, the new Ruin shouldn't really ruin anything build wise.
I mean, it honestly just opens up more potential for builds now, since even my builds are suffering from "Ruin overuse." Off-topic though, the point is, this should work well with any Plague build if done correctly.
1 -
Thano and dying light with plague is too boring in my opinion. And my concern is that killers will probably use thano and dying light with ruin. Probably even surveillance
0 -
I mean, they might.
It's her strongest build/one of her strongest builds, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was combo'ed into the pre-existing build that Dying Light + Thanatophobia offers.
We'll have to see though, it's still the PTB and things can rapidly change if the right circumstances are met. Unlikely, but it can happen.
0 -
Yeah. Unfortunately, I think people concern thsemselves too much with gen times (Yes it is an issue)but don't make the game boring
0 -
Right, we'll see how things unfold after the PTB and a bit after the LIVE version.
0
