Trying to get Better as Killer
Hey, survivor main here. (Don't worry, I'm not here to whine about how unfair and unbalanced everything is like every other survivor main.)
I've been maining survivor for well over a year now, but always REALLY struggle with killer. I know things aren't always stacked against killers like a lot of people like to think, because while I usually stay about rank 5-6 as a survivor. I'm no good in a chase and usually don't survive.
I'm also really bad at chasing as killer. I'm easily looped and usually can't keep up with half the survivors I chase. I refuse to camp, slug or play in a toxic way. I also get really embarrassed when I'm doing bad as a killer, and sometimes throw an easy kill just so I don't get matched with higher ranked survivors. Overall I just get into a self-defeating mindset that I know isn't healthy.
TLDR of it, I could use some good advice on keeping a good mindset while playing killer. What advice helped you killer mains improve at chases? What tactics do you use to turn around a bad round?
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Remember that slugging isn't all that toxic. Waiting for people to bleed out when you could just hook them? Yes. Slugging to apply pressure? No. It's a pretty good tactic, applies just as much pressure as hooking a survivor and you don't have to waste time picking the survivor up and taking them to a hook, you can just get straight into another chase.
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The best advice is just practice. If you're worried about criticism or ridicule just close aftergame chat and leave. Everyone learns differently and no one can/should judge you for it.
As for more immediate solutions, find a Killer that fits your playstyle. You have a really noble playstyle not slugging and etc., but the higher you go the more that's gonna come back to haunt you. Just how the game is played unfortunately. If you have problems with loops maybe an anti-loop killer, like Freddy?
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I wouldn't say slugging is always toxic. Slugging is a great way to put up pressure, and sometimes necessary unless you wanna eat a DS or Flashlight/Pallet Save.
Another good thing would be to learn what are mindgameable loops, and what aren't. There are a few loops where the best thing you can do is "Hold W until the drop the pallet, break pallet." If the pallet is strong, break it. If it isn't, don't. I'd suggest starting as easier killers to learn, Legion, maybe Wraith or one of the stalky boys, then slowly go on to other killers. It really all depends on your playstyle. Mindgaming is harder to describe, but I find if there's a wall that a survivor can't see you through, hold still for a few seconds. Unless they're very patient, they may mess up and run to close to you. I've done it plenty of times as Survivor to realize that.
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Y'all are right, I shoudn't worry about looking bad slugging if another survivor is nearby. I'm working on my mindgames and trying to get moonwalking going. I put on I'm all ears when I played after posting this and it's been a big help with that.
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If you're bad at chases as both killer and survivor you should look up how to loop tiles, there are plenty of good Youtube videos out there (personally I like Fungoose), when you have a good grasp of how to loop the tiles, this should aid you in knowing what to do as survivor and what to avoid as killer.
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I agree with others in that you just need to practice. Unfortunately since there's no practice mode you're stuck practicing against higher-skilled players. This can make you better, but it can also make learning Killer a chore since rank doesn't mean anything. Just today I was playing with ranked twenties survivors that had maxed out perks from other survivors.😕
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As an survival main i gotta say that the thing that most pick me was when the killers know the loops and read your moves, newer survivals will not know how to react or will start being confused and start doing stupid errors
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Sluging isnt all that toxic, some ppl just run into u so hit them don't hook them and go after someone else it makes other survivors move to downed person and get them up. What I do is if I face a good looper I ignore them and go after someone else always keeping them of the gens even if that means not downing one survivor. Run good slow down or gen defence perks. (My build for most killers is ruin, undying, enduring and spirit fury pretty nice wombo combo). Also don't get stressed or embarrassed when loosing just spam continue button and keep playing. When I face good survivors i always spam continue button and q for the next game. Little advice play in evening for easier matches 😜. U can also watch some tuts on yt on some killers and maps
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Slugging takes some of their attention off gens and creates new opportunities to find those coming in for the save.
Since you are newer a tracking with like whispers will help you find them dinner throughout the game.
The big thing for me when I got better was picking up small details like distant scratch marks and crouching. Anything to find them sooner and cut them off when they run away.
For practice, go ahead and skin one or two players at a time, ignore hooking, and engage in disrupting those still standing. Get practice at snowballing your attacks on them. Survivors are surprisingly altruistic for the points and will run into you more when you keep knocking them down and patrol the gens.
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Watch YT vids from Truetalent or Monto and see what they do. Also slugging is not toxic. It's a viable strategy to add pressure and chase more important targets.
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Learning the chase from killer side will improve your survivor play as well. Look up tutorials if you have to, some great killers like fun goose and, I believe, scottjund have done these. Play an m1 killer like wraith until you have the fundamentals of chasing, pallets, and basic mindgame. This will all help you later both as a survivor and as killers who don't depend on chasing down Survivors.
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Chase them away from the places where they can loop you. If you can't, don't waste time and go check gens bc most likely their bet was that you will be looped for the needed amount of time to finish a gen or two.
Idk if anybody mentioned it, but try to have unfinished gens in the map center in the mid game, as close to each other as possible. You will be able to patrol them properly, and in my experience it's impossible to win this situation if the killer doesn't participate in chases that will lead him away. Eventually, you will get someone from the gen and hook them in the middle, creating the triangle. Now, anyone trying to do a gen or save a hooked survivor is doomed.
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If you actually want to improve at the game then I'd say make sure you're ready to lose plenty of games.
Killers that camp/tunnel/slug win most games against solo survivors especially but they have to do this to win because they lack other skills in the game.
Find an aspect of the game you're not quite good at, ie mind games, looping, tracking and practise that. You see a good looper? Chase him, to win it's the worst idea, to improve it's the best. Bring the slow down gens and practise how to pressure multiple gens while still chasing and hitting survivors.
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Practise and learning survivor habits will help you best in the long run. You've already got some experience as a survivor so you know how survivors may think in certain situations. In regards to chases this video improved my gameplay massively when it came out, as I still wasn't very good at Red Stain mindgames due to using a controller on low sensitivity at the time.
And this one is more for just killer in general, though it might be a bit outdated by now.
Otzdarva also has some great videos on what builds to use to boost specific killers powers further or to cover their weak spots.
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I actually just finished a match that SWF We're all looping me like crazy. Doing so well, that I had 0 hooks and they had 1 gen to go. They got cocky. 3 kept looping me and I took them all down. The. Ran to the 4th. Got him down. Then they all quit. So no. Slugging isn't always bad. Sometimes you need to
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What killer do you main and what's your perk build? And if a chase goes on too long realize when you should abandon it.
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First piece of advice is always to remember to have fun. It sounds pat, but losing in an asymmetrical game like this can feel frustrating, which is why you see so many people griping in the forums (I myself am occasionally guilty of this). Don't forget to have fun.
Two: If you're going to be playing by the "survivors rulebook" (i.e. no camping or tunnelling) it's essential that you have a good gen regression perk to buy yourself the time you need to win. Unfortunately in the current meta that only leaves you with Pop or Ruin. In more general terms you'll need a good perk build for every killer you play as.
Three: when it comes to looping think of DBD as being like a racing game; you'll need to hug walls as much as possible and take turns as tight as possible to gain as much distance as possible. This is true for both roles.
Four: You'll need to learn some good tricks for mindgaming. If you've mostly been playing survivor up to this point you've already got a good start, since you'll know how survivors think and where they like to run. The best source for learning mindgames is streamers. NotOtzdarva's youtube channel is your best bet. You can also try tru3tallent.
Hope that helps.
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Some simple tips that can help:
- Always consider which side you break the pallet on. You don’t want to push the survivor towards safety, ideally you want to break it so that they have to run away into a less safe area.
- Don’t just hook someone on a random hook. Consider what’s around. Hooking in a dead zone is good; and it’s not always worth it to hook someone in the basement, especially if you’re crunched for time.
- Don’t chase a survivor in an area of safety. Always try and survey what’s around to understand whether you should commit to a chase or not.
- Don’t just kick gens every time you see one with progress. It’s usually better to engage in a chase, and kicking a gen at 5% is barely worth the time the animation takes.
- Learn when and when not to use your power. You probably don’t want to use Legion’s power on an injured survivor unless you’re using it to leave them and find someone else. You don’t want to use Doc’s blast at the corner of the map. You don’t want to stalk as Myers if the survivor is across the map. If you’re playing Hag, you need to be setting traps constantly.
- Make sure you’re chasing a tile the right way. You basically want to force the survivor away from an easy fast vault, which means chasing anti-clockwise on a lot of tiles.
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Seconding the advice to play something like Wraith first.
You'll get better game sense than if you start with someone like Freddy, and you'll rank up more slowly. Everyone knows matchmaking is broken, but you're still more likely to get players on your skill level (vs. the match being over in 3 minutes or the survs just massively trolling you once they figure out you're actually a noob) and you'll actually have time to learn how to play and grind BP to get better perks.
Set goals for the match independent of getting kills. You'll lose this way, but I like trying to hook all the survs once before hooking them again. I get to practice with people of different skill levels and play styles, explore the map and tile spawns, and often survs will be pretty friendly at the end, giving you a chance for either practicing your power or farming some BP.
Watching streamers helps a lot. There's a lot of good ones, but I like Otz because he's super chill.
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I am a noob killer and would always hook ASAP so as not to appear toxic. But in the lower ranks so many survivors will run to the hook that you get accused of camping so I will almost always slug the first survivor for a bit to try and pressure a gen. Sometimes you'll be labeled as something no matter what. Anyway, I am terrible at chases so I have to try to slow the game down by running whatever perks I have that do that. I seem to do okay with Hag as you can prepare for some loops and catch them off guard. Good luck and feel free to add me if ya wanna practice customs. Gt is PulmonaryRex.
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