Why is cleansing against Plague such a bad thing?
So I just played a solo-queue match against Plague. I escaped alongside one other survivor but one of the others who were sacrificed was very rude in the EDC (unrepeatable language). Their general grievance was that myself and another teammate cleansed a couple of times.
I don’t understand why this is such a problem? I see many others say “never cleanse against Plague as it denies her her power”. Whilst I understand this premise, I also have a counter argument; with Plague you have one of two choices: cleanse and allow her use of Corrupt Purge but this means you can be healthy (two health states), or don’t cleanse but you’ll be injured for pretty much the entire game and she can one-shot down you. I’m not sure which is better or worse?
Also, sometimes you have to cleanse. For example, if you’re going for a hook rescue and she’s camping.
what’re everyone’s thoughts?
Comments
-
Ultimately it is your call how you play against Plague. That being said, it is generally best practice for the team to do either have people cleanse or have nobody cleanse. Having some of your team cleanse and others not is kind of the worst of both strategies.
But again, this is your call as the player and since you're solo queue, you can't really communicate with the other survivors what the plan should be. Honestly the smart play in my humble opinion is that once they saw that you and another player were cleansing, THEY should have been the ones to change their tactics instead of stubbornly sticking to what they wanted to do and getting mad at you for "screwing their plan up". Their refusal to change tactics likely got them killed based on your description above.
9 -
With plague having a guaranteed starting fountain, it's not so much cut and dry to never cleanse to deny power.
The thing is you do have to be smart about it. Prioritizing fountains away from the gens being pressured, multiple survivors cleansing fountains to force plague to get corrupt while everyone is healthy with all fountains reset can put the plague in an awkward situation.
Many people simply didn't adapt from release plague where not cleansing was guaranteed to prevent her from having access to corrupt outside of addons.
2 -
Corrupt Purge is a very dangerous power to be up against. It's far easier to loop an M1 Killer on one health state than a Corrupt Purge Plague on two. Giving her access to more charges of it can be fatal for you or your team.
Cleansing is also not advisable because of how easy it is to get reinfected. She doesn't even need to interact with you at all; all you need to do is touch an infected object and you'll be injured again in no time.
That said, the example of her facecamping is one time you'd want to cleanse. It'd probably end up in a trade due to how quickly she can injure a stationary target with her vomit, but try and cleanse away from the hook if you're going for a rescue against a facecamper.
Gameplay tactics aside, I'm sorry you received abuse like that in the end game chat. Nobody deserves that regardless of how they play, and I hope you reported them for it.
1 -
To cleanse or not really depends on how Plague is set up. What addons she runs really dictate what is the best course of action in general. There are also specific situations that call for cleansing or not regardless.
1 -
Cleansing gives her corrupt purge, the strongest power in the game. It really depends on your skill, do you think you are a good enough looper that spending the game injured is better than dealing with corrupt purge? or will you go down faster injured than against corrupt purge?
1 -
Because if you cleanse, you give her more uses of one of the best chase powers in the game. The only time you should ever cleanse against Plague is:
Endgame
You're on death hook and you have a fountain that's across the map from remaining objectives
She has less than 4 available fountains, and your entire team cleanses with you to refresh all her power uses.
Beyond that, it's much easier to loop a tall M1 killer with a trail with one health state than a corrupt Plague with two.
2 -
It really depends on the map.
You don't want to cleanse on maps with low walls and sparse clutter. It's for a good Plague to have 15 second chases with Corrupt Purge on a maps like Autohaven.
On maps where you can manage distance better around high walls/buildings and lots of random clutter, cleansing is an ok option. RPD/Haddonfield/Lerys come to mind.
It also kind of depends on the Plague player. Some Plagues can't M1 chase to save their life. Other Plagues are deadly even as a basic M1 and you're not safe as a 1 shot. And the best Plagues...well, you're kind of screwed either way.
0 -
Not cleansing can be actually worse than cleansing. It depends on the loadout of the Plague.
Also, most people forget that if you cleanse as often as possible, you force a reset on her power. All fountains reset.
1 -
There are only 2 ways to go against plague.
1- no one cleanses.
A basic m1 killer is simple to loop, and you can always play it safe with pallets and vaults.
2- everyone cleanses
Corrupt purge is very dangerous and requires a good player to be able to loop properly while she has it. But it's doable.
The main thing, is to cleanse in all the fountains, and give her corrupt at a bad time. You can't let her pick the times.
So if anyone cleanses, the plan for everyone should be number 2.
And I cleanse all the time cause it's more fun for me if she gets her power.
0 -
Playing against Plague can be very all or nothing in terms of counter play.
People will tell you to not cleanse because it does severely hamper her lethality and forces her to still go through normal chase cycles. You spend the entire game broken, but if you can handle extended chases then it isn't that big of a deal.
Now the other way to counter her is for everyone to cleanse any time they get infected. This is important to keep in mind that literally everyone needs to commit to cleansing. The logic being that you use up the pools to the point they reset to being clean automatically. This is preferred because rather than having multiple corrupt purge pools she just gets a single round of corrupt purge and after it is over she's reset to vile with the hope that by that point the game is over and most everyone is healed. This is harder to do since it sort of requires the Plague player to play sort of dumb to start with.
0 -
Cleansing against plague isn't always bad, but survivors need to be smart and there are times that you shouldn't cleanse.
In the end it comes down to a team strategy. But with solos it's impossible to predict.
I typically try to not cleanse unless really necessary, like going for a save or being on death hook. But if i have teammates cleansing all the time i will also try and cleanse, if everyone is giving plague her power i will not be broken the entire time.
Just try to use fountains that would make plague waste her time, like going for fountains far away from gens on the edges of the map.
2 -
Depends on the map really. If the map is full of safe loops theres no real need to cleanse since shes an M1 killer who has nothing to aid her in chase. If the map is more barren how ever, its a better idea to cleanse since you can use the first hit speed boost to gain distance towards a safer place
0 -
If you are going to cleanse, do it in a way that is inconvenient to her. Some fountains are on the edge of the map and for the Plague to go there to get her power it, she wastes a lot of time.
There is also another option that might be hard in solo queue though. Overcleasing works pretty well too. Especially when you know she can't infect you immediately again.
Otherwise it is too risky to cleanse against her. You might be healthy after that but it won't take her long to infect you again and your team mates might get caught with Corrupt Purge while they are broken, which always results in quick downs.
0 -
It depends on a bunch of factors like how skilled the plague is, what add on and perks are being run, map, etc. Sometimes it really is better to clean up while others it's a horrible idea to never cleanse.
0 -
The main issue with cleansing is the survivor team dynamic.
If you cleanse but your team mates don't, you could be giving Plague easy downs, as she gets her Corrupt Purge and can use it on broken survivors.
If all survivors are on the same page then either way can work, if coordinated, but that doesn't happen in solo. So for solo, it helps to have one agreed strategy, and the safest tends to be to not cleanse.
1 -
you either over-cleanse to reset her pools or don't cleanse at all, so you can deny her her power. i generally don't cleanse, but if my teammates do i will do as well.
0 -
This is a hard one - it depends. If others are cleansing - cleanse. If others are not cleansing, do not cleanse. I'd suggest you and the other survivors to NOT cleanse. Because you'll probably just get infected soon again anyway - from unhooking or repairing an infected gen.
If the entire team isn't cleansing, I'll only cleanse in these scenarios:
- If I'm dead on hook and am not comfortable with my position. In this scenario I'll immerse as much as I can too without throwing the game.
- If the killer is hard camping and I'm going for the save.
- If all gens are repaired (because you'll likely have to go for an unhook/bodyblock soon).
1 -
Plague main 🖐️
So you mostly already nailed it in your own feedback.
To me it's comical that people "don't cleanse to deny Plague her power."
I've 4k'd teams that didn't cleanse. It doesn't make you unconquerable.
You need to keep in mind also, that as you stated if you do not cleanse..you are one hit down..if Plague is using iri add-ons, there is one that shows your aura anytime you vomit. So now you are one hit down and she knows where you are.
If a team overly cleanses tbh I find it very annoying. I have to constantly re-infect them, and it gives me my corrupt at times I don't necessarily need or want it.
I personally don't even use corrupt that much...if a survivor is holding a strong loop and there is a fountain nearby, i'll grab it. Or if there are multiple survs together injured...or if it's near mid to end game and someone is grabbing a save...then one person gets injured and the other must waste time mending. But I won't ever go out of my way to grab corrupt purge.
It truly depends on your playstyle and your own preference. I wouldn't be influenced by everyone else on the team.
When I play against Plague, I personally cleanse. I don't want to be one hit down..i'd rather try to steer clear when I know she has her corrupt.
0 -
I always cleanse, espcially if everyone else is
if all fountains are used she is forced with the red puke and then loses the other fountains
i never have a problem with pallet stuns so i can make her lose it easily.
tho i rarely go against plague
0 -
I don’t think cleansing is bad after the first few gens are done. Especially considering 99% of plagues run thana + other slowdowns, it will start to take too long to get gens done if everyone is injured/getting one shotted while broken.
0
