Anybody else get stressed out when playing killer?
Just wanted to ask this question, because sometimes playing killer for me is pretty stressful. Especially when I play against a swf, or just flat out good survivors with meta perks. I don't really play very much matches of dbd because of it, I only play about 3 or 4 matches a day. But I guess it's good to pace myself to not get burnt out on the game. I just wanted to know if everyone else feels this way, maybe it's just that I'm an "anxious killer" or whatever it's called. Or maybe it's just that I'm newer to the game, I've only got about 30 hours and I got the game 2 days before Christmas.
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No i'm chill
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Killer can be kind of stressful sometimes. It's a role with no downtime and most of the audio cues you get are "hey, you failed to do something" or a demand you go be over here right now.
Sometimes, it really does get super stressful when trying to play a completely relaxed role and then wandering into people way about your skill level (because of matchmaking) or who just brought a full meta setup. Of course, that can happen the other way round, too, but BNP and gens flying straight away really doesn't make for a good start.
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Or maybe it's just that I'm newer to the game, I've only got about 30 hours and I got the game 2 days before Christmas.
100% this is it. DBD is not like a lot of other games where there's a ramp for new players. You are tossed directly into the fray and, while the game gives you quite a bit of information about what is going on, it gives you surprisingly little guidance about what you should do with it. That's something you learn from experience.
Ultimately, there's two kinds of knowledge in this game, and you'll see them referred by these terms on the forums a lot:
- Micro play - this is your mechanical, short-term play. Mind gaming at loops, knowing how to get hits/downs with your killer power, even just knowing the basic controls, etc.
- Macro play - this is managing the overall state of the match. For example, knowing when you should abandon a chase to go pressure generators, knowing where survivors are (or are likely to be), knowing what perks and/or items are in play and how they are likely to affect the outcome of the match, etc.
Typically you will get better at micro play first, which will result in you ending chases sooner. Macro play takes a bit longer to develop because a lot of it is based on intuition that is "programmed" from seeing how prior matches have played out.
For example, it's common for a lot of killers to feel super stressed or discouraged when 2 or 3 gens are completed around the time they get their first hook. However, they don't understand that this is because 3 survivors have been free to work on generators. Once the hook happens, someone needs to come save, and you should also be trying to engage in another chase. This means you have one hooked survivor, one rescuing survivor, one chased survivor, and one survivor who can work on gens, so just by hooking and finding someone new you have cut the survivors' gen pressure down to one third of what it was.
And this assumes the survivors coordinate. The two survivors who aren't being chased and aren't hooked might not know what the other is doing. If both go for the save, now nobody is on gens. If neither do, you get a second hook state for free by the time they realize nobody is trying to unhook.
So yes, I would say at your level being stressed all the time is normal. There's a few reasons this shouldn't be the case long-term. First, as you get better game sense you will feel more in control of the match. Second, you should eventually come to the realization that bad matches happen, especially if you are given a team on comms. While it is easier said than done, you should be using these matches to practice your micro play and not let the loss bother you that much. Matchmaking will create games that you realistically can't win at your skill level; this is an opportunity to observe good players and learn from them. And realize that the opposite is going to happen a lot, too -- you will be fed teams way below your own skill level.
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it depends on the people.
For me I started as surv with friends - managed to get almost 150hours in December last year. We just f*ed around. It was glorious and I couldn't get enough.
Then people got busy while I still had time. I started playing a lot of killer. I actually found it more relaxing than survivor. Mostly because as survivor I struggled to find things and tiles and maps were just a giant maze. Idk why but to this day (almost 2k hours now^^) my orientation as killer is so much better. Back then the highlighted gens and being able to traverse the map relatively carefree (aka boldly in a straight line and however I wanted as opposed to sneaking around and panicking when a killer when a killer was behind me) helped me massively to understand spawns and layouts and all that.
Now, as for the stressful/anxious part. I'm extremely chill, regardless of the role I play and while I do pretty darn well in 9/10 killer matches, that one game that doesn't go so well tends to put me in a worse mood than the 4th time in a row getting tunneled for 3-5 gens and then getting killed as survivor. - As survivor it's, at least for me, easier to just say "f it" and move on. If I get hard tunneled and see that by the time I'm dead the remaining three have a pretty good chance to get out I'm happy with what I achieved - and if they don't get out thats not on me. And if it's a hard sweating killer and I die two minutes into the game? I just go next and forget about it. --- As killer those bad matches hit harder. If you have a good chase (as in fun) but two or three gens pop it's hard to make a comeback --- and it's "all on you" .... at least until the endgame screen and some loadouts help explain what happened during the match (e.g. bnp). But by then you already felt stressed and unhappy. Same for matches where you know the other side is on a whole different level; as survivor you can take aggro, get hooked once, then twice and then just go next, as killer you have to watch it all while not being able to do much about it.
Adjusting expectations and going full meme build or doing something very different to readjust expectations always helps. What also helped me not feeling stressed/disheartened was to give myself alternative goals. Usually it's "M2 only" or "12 hooks". It makes it much more likely to have fewer kills -- but at least I am in a completely different zone where I just don't care much about kills. And if it's a rushing swf .... then I'll just do my thing while they do theirs and we all go next.
Long story short: stress and frustration are an integral part of dbd and I think everyone who sticks with the game finds their own way to deal with it. Personally I prefer the chill fun route, some people sweat extra hard. You'll figure out what works for you over time.
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Killer can be stressful but imo it's a good kind of stress imo
That being said burn out of games, work, etc is real so if you ever feel you are in the verge of burning out, a nice break is very refreshing.
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I'd say it can still be stressful to have 3 gens pop after a first chase no matter what; either that first chase went really badly (90s on gens) or they brought toolboxes to clear it faster, which is never something that stops being a pain. And, obviously, it meant that everyone spawned spread out a bit, which sucks for early pressure.
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It's not ideal, but it's usually far from an unmanageable situation. The early game is in the survivors' favor, and that's something a lot of killers don't seem to realize, even though it should be obvious (nobody is hooked or injured, they have nothing to do but gens, weird tome challenges aside).
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Not stressed, but helpless and frustrated, especially when they tbag at the gate and not leave
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Yeah, but it often sets the tone to "Oh, it's one of those games". Where the early advantage is really magnified (and if it's a bad chase, unless it's terrible map spawn turning pallet into pallet) it doesn't help.
Even if you can turn it around later, not being able to get any breathing room sucks.
Sort of related to this is why getting e.g. Corrupt Intervention, either from buying Plague and getting her to prestige 1 or when it comes into the Shrine, is just all around good; it forces some early slowdown to buy you time to get into chase and do something. Alternatives on licensed killers (Lethal Pursuer to immediately get into chase from Nemesis; Deadlock from the Cenobite to stop a bunch going all at once) also exist. Which is probably the best way to make early game less stressful before getting really comfortable with playing with few gens left.
And having a little bit of breathing room at the beginning helps to enjoy the chases more, I find.
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Yes, mainly because I always get paired with bully squads and sweaty, high ranking teams. Can't not bring gen regress builds because gens go flying within literal seconds and commiting to a chase (especially at the beginning of the match) will get you gen rushed. Most maps are extremely survivor sided and on some maps there's literally no point of playing (Garden Of Joy + Borgo specifically).
So yes, it's overall a stressful experience.
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no. you need to play killer enough that you have a general strategy for each map (know where the 3 gens typically spawn, how to patrol etc) and have a gameplan for creating pressure and of course know when you really should just drop chase. i think a lot of killers basically lack strategy, lack the ability to keep their gens safe, lack the ability to get quick downs etc. so their success entirely hinges on survivors making mistakes and when your success is dependant on the survivors playing poorly of course you're going to be stressed.
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Not for me, but I'm not competitive. I don't care if I get steamrolled, I frame it all as good practice and experience going forward.
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Sometimes I do....but I have a Heart Condition and always had a bit of stage fright, so I have this 100% automatic & unconscious reaction when booting up a match. Doesn't always happen, but it does and even if I think, feel and say "I really don't give 2 shakes about how this match plays out"...I'll till feel my chest tighten and ache a little and feel butnof stage fright (or is it a bit of adrenaline?) Kick in. It's partly one reason I stopped playing for such a long time. Plus getting upset wasn't good for my health, and off on stuff in DBD can def get on my nerves.
But as a whole it's like 60/40 on the stress & health stuff gets to me VS it not. Have to take breaks and atm only aiming for like 5 matches max per day, or sitting if play throughout the whole day.
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This game is intense for people with 100 times your playtime, so yeah. The game's dodgy matchmaking is gonna do its best to not help in that regard and throw you to the dogs.
Just keep at it and try not to get too invested in your matches.
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Yes, as killer you have no down time, are always against the clock, since survivor dictate the pace until you manage to turn things in your favour with the first down/kill, and you have to micromanage against 4 other people in 4 different places.
It's the reason why i still have only 300 hours in this game despite playing since release. I regularly took breaks between medium long playing streaks.
Even when playing relaxed and casual, survivor nowadays don't give you much room to breath and the best is when they start to rub in their wins when you didn't even try hard.
The combination of stressful gameplay and toxicity as an alternative made me finally quit for good in December '21.
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I'm a little more stressed as killer as it's a more fast-paced gameplay with no downtime.
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Not really.
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Trust me, you're not alone with this feeling. I found it helpful to step back from the strongest perks and play a killer that really challenges you. That way you know that sometimes you're just not meant to win and can at least learn a killer.
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This survivors you described are the power role, blame the devs that cather to them because they are where most of the money behavior gets. Killer is stressful yet no buffs to the basekit of each one.
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10 seconds added to gens, 10% reduced cool down on weapon swipes, 10% less distance made by Survivors after losing a health state, 10% original Pop upon kicking a gen, buffed BloodLust. These are meaningful buffs to Killer basekit.
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not really, i play for chases so idgaf if i win or lose
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no they arent
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The terrible map design always results in stress sometimes rng makes this game stressful
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More stressful playing survivor to me. I Mainly play killer to vibe out and still usally win 80% of my matches. Which is a nice change of pace giving how terrible my solo q record been lately. I feel whatever side u main will probably be more stressful to u.
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Sometimes, but not often, even against strong teams. A lot of stress comes from expectations. Remove them and the game becomes less stressful.
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