Killer main, trying survivor
It really is a different world.
People always say "play both so you can see both sides", there is some merit to that. I feel like I can understand some of the survivor rage a bit better. I can see firsthand how annoying camping is, how frustrating bad/selfish teammates are, and why certain killers suck to face.
It's interesting how my attitude changes. As killer, I am SO SICK OF LOOPING AND PALLETS. It's not fun to run in circles around waist-high obstacles or eat pallet after pallet after pallet. As survivor, I feel like a boss every time I loop the killer for more than a few seconds. My attitude about pallets goes from "I hate these and wish they were removed" to "TASTE THE WOOD!"
I also find it much more relaxing and enjoyable to play, for the most part. Doing gens and totems is downright peaceful compared to the stress of "must be hunting every moment, can't waste a single second". The most frustrating thing, honestly, is teammates who DC at the drop of a hat. Knowing the game will be that much harder, the dread of a slow attrition loss.
I also get why survivors hate NOED so much now. Escaping is worth so many BP, and survivor side is definitely short on those compared to killer (why?), so doing everything right, risking death multiple times to rescue teammates and do gens right under a killer's nose, just to be tagged and insta-downed right at the end is... pretty lame, I have to say.
I played about half a dozen games of survivor, solo, only escaped once. Still had a lot of fun, though. Rank 19-20.
Played 1 game of killer afterward. Stressful, annoying. First time I've ever DCed in a match. Rank 7. I have no desire to go back and play until rank reset. Even then, I'm not sure.
While I feel like I'm beginning to run out of steam for this game in general, I definitely had way more fun playing survivor than killer. I'm not ready to declare myself a survivor main just yet, but it's nice to be on the other side of the pallet for a change.
Anyone who got through the wall of text and has advice for a newbie survivor is welcome to share it. I've been playing David King so far, mostly for WGLF and Dead Hard.
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well when I was new to the game premonition and spine chill were god sends
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I’m currently in red ranks on both sides, only thing that annoys me is latency (getting hit through pallets or windows I’ve already vaulted and phantom hits/grabs/chainsaws) I experience stuff like this as survivor more so I usually find survivor more stressful. Noed isn’t a problem for me since I cleanse totems and as killer I adapt to how survivors are playing so it isn’t as stressful for me.
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Get small game is some good advice, makes totems useless (to an extent).
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I'll probably give that a go. I'm happy to cleanse totems whenever I find them, but finding them has been a bit of an issue. I still don't have map layouts quite memorized and since I'm in potato ranks, I feel like I'm often the only one doing gens.
The points you get for cleansing are great, though I have mixed feelings about those points coming from the Boldness category.
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Killer is a lot more focused and stressful, if I have okay teammates as surv or my swf I can relax.
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I don't know about you but I find survivor more stressful
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Guess you've never faced a quad bully squad swf.
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Survivor is loads of fun. Loads of frustration too. But of a different kind from killer.
You've only been through half of what the game, would be a shame if you lost steam now. And if you found Survivor to be more fun in general (it's really less stressful as long as you aren't frustrated by getting facecamped and tunneled all the time, which is a real issue) the first thing to remember is that Dying is Fun. Think of the game as a Rogue-Like. You're not supposed to survive most of the time.
Once you've gotten that out of the way, learn to focus on one of either two playstyles for now: either Looping or Stealthing.
Looping you're familiar with as Killer. Just do it in reverse. Learn the loops and how to run them and you'll go a long way as survivor. I personally don't find this very fun so I never got good at it. But your mileage may vary.
Stealthing is where the game is at for me. When stealthing I don't mean cowering like a coward in a corner. The most satisfying moments of this game are when you are right beside the killer and sneak right past him, crossing that very narrow line between life and death. They are very few and far between, but they are the ultimate joy.
As a stealth player you'll need to learn how to sneak around properly and how to juke. Your experience as a killer teaches you how killers think, so you'll better be able to predict and mindgame the killer to do your jukes and evasions.
The perks you'll be focusing on are different for both sides as well. In general, these are the perks you'll want to get:
Looper: Dead Hard, Balanced Landing, Lithe, Adrenaline
Stealth: Spine Chill, Urban Evasion, Fixated, Iron Will, Quick and Quiet
Perks Every Survivor Needs: Borrowed Time, Inner Strength, Decisive Strike, Bond
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I have and at that point I don't really try
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I got too "TASTE THE WOOD" and laughed my ass off. That was not good phrasing xD
It really is a different world. I don't usually play survivor since randoms press all of my anger buttons, but I do enjoy playing survivor from time too time.
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I appreciate the thoroughness of this post, thank you.
I'm not sure whether I fall into the looper or stealth role yet. I enjoy both, it's quite satisfying to slam dunk a pallet on a giant creepy dude's face as he tries his best to murder you. Knowing that I'm annoying killers in the way that I've been annoyed is also entertaining. It also feels very David King-y to engage the killer in full COME AT ME BRO mode.
But it's also nice banging out generators while the killer wanders around like an idiot on a fruitless patrol. And it's a huge spike of adrenaline to be crouched in a corner or behind a short wall and have them come this close to spotting you, but miss and give up.
I'll take a look at those perks. I've been clinging to WGLF due to the crutch status of BBQ on killer, but I'm not sure the survivor version is quite as essential.
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In the beginner ranks I’d say use borrowed time it will help with all the campy tunneling killers in that rank.
umm if you like immersion distortion is great for covering up your aura. It’s highly underrated imo if you like immersion.
empathy and bringing a sabo toolbox and doing hooks will get you a ######### ton points and save your pals.
Post edited by HeroLives on0 -
Oh yeah well if you are gonna prestige WGLF is necessary. I stopped using WGLF a long time ago because I already have 5 fully-prestiged survivors and 2 of them have all the perks.
But I was running WGLF for a long time at first. But I realized I was just killing my own enjoyment of the game, and WGLF teaches you some bad habits when you run it. My escape rate was abyssmally low when I was running WGLF, it got a lot better after I stopped running that perk. It gets you in the mindset of, "It's okay if I die I am gonna get more bloodpoints anyway!"
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Honestly I find Survivor boring compared to Killer! I much much prefer Killer, even with the stress!
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I can have fun with both. I've gotten to the point with killer that I'm proficient enough to not stress out. With survivor, which I'm not as good at... I play "Operation: Hide like a #########" and get work done before stealthing away. Survivor feels kinda exciting when I'm trying to get work done with a killer nearby. If I have a rough game and get annoyed at ######### teammates... I swap to killer where I only gotta rely on me.
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I'm like this in reverse, survivor main trying out killer. So far I have only found one game truly stressful, when I got matched with a squad of flashlight warriors. I like to eat pallets especially early game. It is when they don't throw them for 3 or 4 loops that I get frustrated. Currently I am maining hag so looping isn't as much of a problem for me. I find killer more intense but less frustrating than being left on the damn first hook while everyone runs out the door.
Good on you, I do believe everyone should try both sides and there would be more understanding about the frustrations on both sides instead of finger-pointing.
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For me, it's mostly that I have nothing on survivor side. David's my highest at level 6, I think. And yeah, I'm not escaping most matches so I've just tried to get as much BP as I can while getting as close as possible. I suppose I can see the bad habits forming that you're referring to.
I think I'm just burnt out on killer right now. Even on Freddy, I'm not really having any fun. It could just be the rank disparity, but one thing I like about trying survivor is that the game kinda feels like a survivor horror again. There are both lulls and climaxes in action, whereas I feel like killer is just nonstop go-go-go.
I'm kind of a loner by nature and that's part of what makes killer appealing to me. I'm willing to concede that maybe I've just ranked up beyond my skill level and perhaps I should just eat a few losses to fall back where I should be, but the whole game is starting to feel stale.
I don't really feel anything when I play killer anymore, survivor feels like an actual "experience".
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I never understood why those "I main X and never play Y" was a thing.
To truly main a side you need to play also the other to get an understanding for them.
As a survivor you need to know how a killer work to counter them.
As a killer you know how a survivor reacts and what pathing and objectives they have.
I ultimately enjoy killer more, because I fight a clock and have to outsmart my opponent.
As survivor it is mostly m1 simulator and you honestly don't want much interaction with the killer.
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Nice. I'm awful at Hag, but maybe I'll check out some guides and give her a try after reset. I've been thinking of doing the same with Nurse, even with the incoming nerfs. Maybe even a little Trapper, idk. It's the same old chase game that's begun to feel so stale to me, honestly. As I keep facing off against better and better survivors, the chase goes from thrilling to tedious.
Well, I picked this game up because there aren't many games that let you play a horror antagonist. That's pretty novel. I didn't really have any interest in playing a survivor, because... well, why play James when you can play Pyramid Head?
But I'm finding survivor to be a pretty novel experience in its own right. I hear that "M1 simulator" thing a lot but I don't feel that way at all.
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I'm like this myself. To be honest killer is not stressful at all in the lower ranks. Since I don't play killer past Rank 15 I don't think we've really experienced what it means to be a stressed-out killer.
I find killer fun, I'd play it more if I the queues weren't so long. But I think I'm a survivor-main through and through. The game is just better for me as survivor, even with all the camping and tunneling and instadowns and moris.
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Yep, I stopped enjoying killer pretty much the moment I got into purple ranks. That's when it went from sweat lodge to sweat factory, I'm up against red ranks more often than not, and even when I do well, it's just not that fun. It doesn't feel like it has anything to do with horror anymore, just about being the speediest, most meta dude possible.
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Yeah, I hear red ranks is stressful but I played before the patch and as a beginner killer I had a ton of purple and green rank survivors and a few red rank survivors too. Usually managed 1 or 2 sacrifices. I guess coming from a survivor side mindset I'm not too pressed about 4king. I just want my blood points and to level up my killer to unlock perks.
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@Xboned Hag is fun. Statistically the devs say she gets the most kills. If you like to chase though you may want to rethink her. Due to her movement speed she can be easily outrun and you should never go into long chases, but you learn to funnel survivors into your traps. I had no idea about her range when I first played her but now I know how to better counter her as a survivor. I started out playing trapper. I watched a ton of killer games to get some ideas about non-obvious trap setting. It is really gratifying to have someone step in your trap.
On the other hand killers like Freddy have been hard for me to play because of managing all his different powers. Yikes, I need some more experience. I don't like playing against Nurses or Spirits so I am not going to touch those guys anytime soon.
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This is actually precisely why I prefer to play in the low ranks. I do not want to be red rank at all.
A lot of people here tell you as Survivor to get into high ranks ASAP because you're just playing with useless potato teammates at low ranks. I couldn't disagree more.
Playing Survivor at high ranks is not fun. Not because you are losing. You can win a lot in high ranks. It's just that the matches last five minutes and you just did one gen and you're already opening the exit gates. It's either a complete stomp on your side or the other, it's not fun, it's just sweaty tryhards not really enjoying the game anymore.
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Well, my reasoning is that if I'm not enjoying stock chases anymore, maybe I should try killers who either rely less on chasing or have a different way of doing it. I think I would be happier if I spent my killer time practicing skills rather than chasing rank or BP, anyway.
I like the idea of Nurse, not sure I'd like her as much in practice. I'm doing everything possible to avoid playing Spirit tbh, I'm not a big fan of her character or her power.
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That's... a little disheartening, but I suppose not terribly surprising.
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@Xboned I didn't know you have never played survivor! It really is a different worldview, in terms of what's frustrating and what isn't.
One big thing I would point out, especially at the rank you're in, is that it's really hard because survivors literally don't do anything at that rank. They don't finish gens even if someone loops the killer for minutes at a time, they let people die on the first hook, they just sit and hide. It gets easier as you climb up into the high yellow/low green ranks, because people have started to learn how to properly play the game and make progress.
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You actually have a point, and I doubt that I would ever get stressed playing as Killer. I just don't buy into the whole "Must get 4K!" mindset that every killer seems to suffer from, which makes them feel so stressed while playing. I let the illusion of "must escape!" go so long ago as Survivor.
I'd have to get into Red Rank Killer to test if it's true, but I can't imagine myself getting upset and stressed the way killers describe it. I've even run games where the survivors ran circles around me as Killer and smashed palletes into my face all game, wasn't stressful at all.
Sort of how killers can't imagine that being face-tunneled or Mori'd in under a minute is stressful.
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Stress is the reaction some players choose to have to those things, whether they know it or not. It's what leads them here to make enraged posts about how everything is BS and unfair, and to try to turn "killer mains" and "survivor mains" into political parties.
Getting pallets smashed in your face, being blinded by flashlights, getting one-shot downed by EW3 Myers, getting one-shot downed by Huntress running red hatchet add-ons, Spirit mindgames, insta-heals, keys, Brand New Parts, NOED, Moris, "gen rush," whatever -- it's all part of the game. If I see a dude insta-heal in a chase, or if I get tricked by a standstill Spirit, I just go "darn, I got outplayed" and continue with the game. People can teabag or flashlight-click all they want, it's fine, whatever. I accept the game as it is.
I have put forward ideas in other threads on how to change this or that, or where it's realistic to expect the balance of power to sit, and you all know by now that I am more than happy to express frustrations about the grind. But regarding the game as a moment-to-moment rage-inducer -- and then continuing to play it anyway -- is just silly.
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I didn't end up in purple ranks because I wanted to be there. I was much happier in green. It's just what happened when I did a marathon grind during Blood Hunt.
My goal on killer isn't a 4k every game, it's to hook everyone at least once for BBQ and keep the survivors scared. I like 4ks, I certainly don't mind getting them, but I don't treat it as an expectation.
I had a lot of fun in lower ranks because SWF groups were less common, not every survivor had every map memorized, exhaustion perks weren't ubiquitous. Moonwalking wasn't necessary to mindgame at every loop.
The higher in rank you go as killer, the more precious each second becomes. I personally find that stressful. Again, not even trying for a 4k, but against some of the late night red rank SWF groups, I've been struggling just to get a 1k. Hooking all 4 people, let alone killing them, just isn't happening.
I'm not saying it can't be done, or that I couldn't do it with more practice and better optimized loadout, just that I don't currently find it to be worth the effort. That feeling of "I'm gonna play hard and wreck their plans" has been replaced with "why bother?"
It's a mix of the utter predictability of each game with the tedium of going from survival horror to time management simulator. Maybe I'll find some renewed sparkle in different killers after reset.
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Yeah, it still feels like a 1v4 in many ways as a solo survivor. It can be quite aggravating to watch teammates blow it at crucial moments. One of the reasons I stopped playing MMOs is that I don't like relying on the chance of random people's competence to have a good time.
Pissing killers off is still a fun experience, though. In a way, it's more rewarding to dunk on a giant murderer than it is to kill some little girl in hot pants.
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Yeah unless you're really, really bad at the game you will naturally just level up eventually if you play enough.There's a point where some level of skill is needed to weed out getting pips, but getting into purple also annoys me.
My "real" skill level as a survivor is around purple. This is the level that I am challenged and must put in a lot of effort to win and/or pip. Frankly I rather stay in green so I can goof off and have fun. But I level out of green a little too fast and without any real effort.
As for the game being a "rage inducer" I know BHVR doesn't want to design the game that way but you're right, a lot of us don't have as good control over our emotions, that includes me. I imagine if I get killer-stressed long enough I'd also hate it. I think I probably just don't play enough killer to be affected by it.
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Right there with you, I am currently climbing purple-rank survivor pips inch by hard-fought inch. Most games are a safety pip, and I have to be on-point to get anything better. This is where I reliably end up at the end of every season these days, though. I really wish the effort to get a pip was flat all the way from 1-20.
As far as rage-inducing design, eh, it's a problem of the genre. These games are highly adversarial by their very nature, and that's going to lead to a lot of angry people. I just wish more folks here could step back and actually evaluate their emotions, what's making them feel that way, and why they can't self-regulate and accept the game for what it is. I suppose it's a personal failing of mine that I post and discuss things here under the assumption that most of us here are well-adjusted, normal adults like I (mostly-ish) am, when a lot of people are probably just impulsive kids who are unlikely to have that level of self-reflection.
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Well, I don't have a problem with that. This is the internet. When I post here on this board I wear two hats mainly. My "adult hat" and my "bi-partisan survivor main hat." And I am not ashamed of wearing either. Heh!
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Now your post make much more sense to me.
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yeah it sucks when youve done 4 generators and then you get killed and no exit bonus
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Hi dude! You're a smart guy so I won't give you basic advices. The biggest difference between killer and survivor is you can play with friends and that's where the fun is. If you play with friends I recommend a risky rewarding gameplay, solo I recommend a safe survival gameplay. Run an exhaustion perk for great chases and an avoid the killer perk like premonition or quick crouch. Then a healing perk. Personally I use bond so I can see others then they heal me quick. Last perk well the bp perk for David is great for quick grinding and getting new perks faster.
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Speaking of Bond, Bond by the way is probably the single best perk you can take if you are starting as Survivor.
Trust me on this one.
Bond does so many things and more importantly is a learning aid. It lets you see how others play so you can learn how to play Survivor more quickly.
When your teammate is being chased it lets you figure out where the killer is, so you can plan your movements accordingly. When injured, it lets you find teammates to heal you. When genrushing it helps you find people working on gens so you can double team the gen.
It also tells you who your worthless teammates are and what not to do as a survivor.
It is just such an amazing perk, all beginning survivors should use it.
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Welcome.
I encourage you to play R1 Solo Survivor for a month and see how it goes.
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@Xboned I had a similar post a few months back. In June, after playing only killer for the past two years, I finally gave survivor a try. I had the same observations as you. I found the games to be much more relaxed as a survivor than I ever did playing only killers. In addition, my experiences being looped as a killer helped me learn survivor much faster because I already had some routes to run when being chased by the killer. I play both sides pretty equally now. I play killer when I want to earn BPs faster and survivor to chill out when the killer matches get too stressful.
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Hey awesome I'm really glad your experiencing both sides it really helps to understand the frustration on both ends and really change up your game play.
Becoming a better killer helped my survivor game play so much as now I know what they maybe doing and style of play to combat it.
Just remember to have fun my guy your in the new zone so game play is going to be more of a chore as both sides are learning hopefully you can rank up and experience better killers that actually can play.
It's all learning and I'm so glad you have opened yourself to understanding both sides I wish more would.
🐷💖
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It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.
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I've heard great things about Bond before, but I've been afraid to give up Dead Hard and WGLF. I'll give it a shot, though... it wouldn't be a proper survivor experience if I didn't spend at least some time Baby Dweeting.
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Playing solo survivor is one of the most frustrating things in this game and it's mostly a free 4K for the killer.
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######### even at red ranks they don't do anything, swf is almost a must at red ranks because it's like 1 in every 5 matches you MIGHT get decent randoms if you're lucky, but most of the time they can't even properly run tiles or even power through ruin
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I also got buffed, so now you will have to deal with me more often! >:D
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I'm in red ranks for both sides. I see that red rank survivor games are much more frustrating because everyone has such an ego that they made it this far, they make it seem like teamwork is subjective for the game to win, but to outperform the other side. Killer games are much more frustrating in the sense that competent survivors will often ruin your day, unless your LIVE Nurse and Spirit.
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I understand. As far as perks go, I'd say try giving Dwight a shot. Bond is one of my go-to survivor perks, with spinechill being my other.
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The thought of giving up Dead Hard really hurts, but having Bond and Prove Thyself could be pretty sweet. It seems like I need to shepherd my fellow teammates.
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Bond greatly helps coordinate things, even without using coms. You'll be able to tell where gens are, by seeing your teammates auras working on them. You'll be able to tell if your teammate is about to run the killer through your area, so you can make yourself scarce. The other day, had a teammate manage an unsafe unhook from the basement. Both of em ran out injured with the killer on their ass. Because of bond letting me know what was happening...I jumped down the stairs behind them to give the bodyblock they needed.
Spinechill on the other hand... That I use to know when the killer is coming my way. I'll stay busy until I see spinechill turn on for afew seconds, then kinda just ghost away.
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