Is it optimal in solo queue to only look out for yourself?
After being stuck on IR3 for days I finally pipped into 2. One observation I’ve made during the 3 day pip ping pong tournament is that while the reason I didn’t escape a particular match varies (misjudged distance from killer, didn’t go far enough/break los after being spotted, ended up in a dead zone, etc.) there was a common cause frequently behind ending up in those situations. I wanted to help.
From dragging a killer away when their angle of approach means they might not have seen people on the gen but know at least someone is there to rescuing a hooked survivor at the end of a match and gambling the killer is far enough away to not catch up in time - most of my deaths are because I bothered to try and help other people.
To be clear, if I were better at looping or more experienced in general I’d not get caught as often either but it seems like worrying about whether others make it out as well short circuits my better judgement. I’m ok at avoiding, slipping past, or otherwise mind gaming killers in a chase but I usually pick my battles there - my risk analysis is less than optimal when I’m worried about abandoning someone on hook. Hell, I just got mori’d in a match by a Freddy because, on death hook, I ran past an already open gate just to freaking unhook some random.
TLDR: Is this like an unwritten solo queue milestone - finally figuring out the ‘yeah, screw other people’ zen of solo queue?
Comments
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Generally, it's worthwhile to look out for your teammates until the gen are finished. Letting someone getting tunneled or die on hook when there's still 2 or 3 gens left won't help you escape.
But once the exit gates are powered, just open them and leave.
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Just go by the 2 2 2 rule. 2 totems, 2 gens, 2 unhooks. If you've managed to lead a good chase in there as well, most likely, you won't even need to escape to get a pip up.
Kindred will help you be most efficient with the gens and unhooks.
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Nope. The best way to do well in solo queue is to always play for the team, because you have absolutely no control over how good or bad they are, but gens take zero skill. If they're bad you don't want them in chase, and you dont want them anywhere near the killer. If they're good, they'll be buying you plenty of time in chase or taking advantage of the time you buy if you're the one in chase. As a bonus, you even get to improve your own play by getting more interactions to learn from, instead of just hiding in lockers for 30 minutes waiting for that 3rd survivor to die while making forum posts about how they will be sandbagging you if you don't survive.
Weak links break chains, and selfish players are the weakest link in dbd.
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Take it from someone who gets to Iri 1 solo survivor every month. The best way to pip is to be the person unhooking everyone. If you are constantly unhooking and healing, it is hard not to pip every game. Generally when you unhook and the killer doesn't come back, you end up jumping on a gen with that person. If the killer does come back you can get distraction or even protection points.
Speaking on "should I only look out for me". As long as there are gens to do, you should be as helpful to your team as possible. As soon as 5 gens are done, you DO NOT want to be the person the killer is chasing or has on hook. The end game is the killers domain now. In solo it is generally unsafe to try and save someone. Just make the calculation do not hook trade after 5 gens are done.
A build I recommend generally to try and pip is Hope, Prove thyself, off the record, exhaustion perk. Hope will keep you from being that last person hooked, prove thyself gets you gen emblem, off the record keeps you from getting tunneled. My favorite exhaustion perk to pip is lithe as it feels the most controllable to me. Both DH and Sprint burst are equally good to better, but require some brain power.
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I am a solo queue player, but if you always see escape as the goal of success, then of course you don't need to help your allies. If you want to escape, or if you want to increase your chances of escape, repairing the generator is your priority above all else.
And you can assume that other solo queue players have that mindset as well. If I am face camped in Canibal, what I would like you to do is not to just stand around for rescue, but to repair the generator. If the face camp results in the three of us being able to escape, then I can be a hero for sacrificing myself to save my three friends.
But, well, I can rescue them. We'll see later if it would have been a better outcome.
As a solo queue, it's not wrong to value your own results. If you still want to help your allies, there is no greater good person than you!
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I feel like this is some sort of psychological experiment. Like - what level of trivial benefits in a low stakes environment (I mean, it is a video game) is required for the average person to tip over to selfishness in abandonment of altruism.
Have a challenge to heal yourself 1 time and make it out of a trial? Try for a few days or as soon as you meet the 'heal yourself' criteria engage in some good old fashioned locker hopping until you're the last one alive and have a much better chance of knocking it out in 1 match.
Want a good amount of blood points on rank reset day? Focusing on objectives alone gets you 1 iridescent badge and escaping without going down gets you another. You risk getting fewer or possibly none when you try to fulfill the other 2 categories. +1 is more reliable to get versus going for a +2 and having it turn into a 0 or -1/-2.
That said, obviously I'm a team player or I wouldn't be so annoyed that I'm effectively self-sabotaging, lol.
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You could try only looking out for yourself and seeing how that goes. If nothing else, I'm sure it would be a learning experience.
I've noticed that in some solo queue games its best to stay on gens. I've had games where I've done 5 gens and all 4 survivors escaped. I've also had games where I never saw another survivor or the killer, concentrated on gens and everyone escaped.
It's really up to your play style and being able to feel out the situations.
There is nothing wrong with experimenting and figuring out when is a good time to assist others and when is not a good time to assist others.
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I've had so many instances lately where people are leaving me to die on the hook, from the first phase. Even when they haven't been hooked themselves. So that's making me reluctant to go for the save at the end game... cause I know if I get downed I'm gettin left behind..
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Also, just because there are 3 other survivors doesn't mean that you have to interact with them. Sometimes theyre just doing quests and they have no intention of helping you in any way.
I've learned from experience. Yet I keep making the same "mistakes". I want to help them, but it's not always the best idea.
A good example is when I've unhooked the other 3 survivors and then when I get hooked I see 2 of them teabagging in a corner while the other one is crouching somewhere. Then I go from first hook, to second hook, to struggle and then I die.
That said, its good to learn how to estimate whether or not its worth it to help the other 3 survivors.
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That's probably because people are working on the rift quests. It happens every time a new level opens on a tome. It is awful. It becomes a completely different game.
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Pretty much. If you think saving your teammate is gonna be more efficient than sitting on the gen, then go for it. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
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I think one universal truth is that prior to the EGC, your odds of escape are tied most directly to how many of your team are alive. Having not been hooked means essentially nothing if gens are on the board and half your team is dead; you'll go from no hooks to sacrificed soon enough with little or nothing to divide the killer's focus.
Even being alive in the endgame is a coin flip at best if you're alone.
Now that's not to say you should throw yourself into the meat grinder just because, but taking hits or a hooking to keep a teammate alive is almost always going to be in your best interest if you want to escape.
It doesn't matter how good you are (or think you are),or how bad your teammates are, being in a 1v1 or 2v1 is not something you want.
Hook states are a team resource, really, even in solo. The more evenly they are spread, the better.
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Being helpful in the endgame is also what kills me the most. To me, the game would be a lot less fun if I stopped doing team plays at that point, but I would probably survive more matches.
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Think about it this way, how often since the recent patch has helping someone in the end game given the killer more pressure than he had already. Another way to look at it, do you often see that 1 hook turns into 2 hooks when trying to save in the end game. Because, in most of my games, that is the case. You end up giving the killer more people to hook than he had originally trying to save 1 person in the end game.
How many bodies are you willing to give up to save that one guy? It just isn't realistically worth it anymore. Even SWFs are struggling to get that person out, what makes you think soloQ has a chance. If the person isn't 1 or 2 hooks from the exit gate, just leave, I promise you things could be so much worse.
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No. The others will catch on and begin to work with the killer to destroy you.
I want to hide my aura from other survivors so badly.
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That's why you gotta do the betrayal early. People think i'm petty for letting 3 people die on first hook with 5 gens left, but to that I say why are all three of my teammates on the hook before I can even get a gen done?
Pretty much anytime it's 3 survivors left, 1 is on the hook, 1 being chased, and it's up to me to save the third I just let them die and get the hatch. The killer and survivors dont expect you to end the game so abruptly; it's the best play when it's clear your team will never get the gens done and it's a hatch game anyways
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It's optimal to help your teammates survive until all the gens are done. I'd say it's also optimal to not let anybody go down two hook stages at any one time.
The reason so many people try to tunnel is taking one survivor out early makes it much easier to 4K before the gens are done.
It doesn't always work out but if I haven't been hooked or only have been hooked once and I'm close to the Killer chasing someone on death hook I'll body block the Killer incessantly until I'm dropped if at all possible.
While I sometimes get abandoned it works out that overall I escape more often than if I didn't do that.
I'll also hook trade against camping Killers because, if the other survivor returns the favour it's often a 3E or 4E.
Being selfish and not helping your team until at least all gens are done is a great way to get killed lots. At only 2 gens left it can be possible but difficult to finish them and get out with 3 survivors At 3 or 4 gens left and only three survivors you'll only get out if the Killer makes lots of mistakes.
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