Why is W key meta a thing?

Even his pallet destruction makes loops a lot weaker. He is amazing anti loop. If they aren't infected, you get a bit of slowdown when they go to vaccinate and vision to pursue them again at a weaker area of the map, potentially.

Or just a zombie blocking a path. That is pretty strong anti loop.

Because they either nerfed most loops into the ground (look at ormond rocky loops) or some new killers can deal with ultra safe loops.

1 Make pallets some does other do nothing.

2 when they go vaccinate slow down doesnt worth the lose of a chase the starting of other.

You're not understanding what killers are complaining about. It's not about holding W being too strong, it's about bad game design. When the BEST/MOST EFFICIENT thing you can do is to hold W, to make distance, then the game is designed poorly.

It's a complaint about game DESIGN not game balance.

You're annoyed by the W key because it works against you.

Again I will say it - you cannot condone camping and tunneling and not condone "Holding W." They are all flawed game designs, but they are all approved tactics. And again I will say it - play how you want just so long as it is not against the rules.

You get that with actual balance no one wanna play a m1 killer and turn around a loop till you break it.Okay go Full W but make most pallet unsafe.

With actual balance kpoper cant wink wink anymore :(

To the OP, Less safe pallets/god pallets(better tile design) and less sprint burst from health states would greatly help.

Despite what OP says, Knowing when to hold W is a very important skill for survivor. It requires understanding of routing to pallets and knowing how long it takes for killer to catch up to you. Inability to do this effectively will result in you using too many pallets too quickly or taking extra health state hits from your poor routing errors.

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@xEa Survivors did not adapt. Survivors have been doing this for 5 years ever since game out. Its cool that you've just figured it out after 5 years but everyone that knew how to play survivor properly has been using this strategy for very long time. Deathslinger is not strong enough of a chase killer. in fact this strategy soft-counters his gameplay. we never got strong chase killers, instead we got trickster, aka depipster-level killers.

When I get stunned and also hit the survivor as killer, hit validations takes the hit away from the survivor. It happened 3 times in a row in one of my games the other day.

I'm the same as you as survivor though. I stun the killer with a pallet and get downed at the same time. I don't think the game likes me lol.

It appears holding W is clearly (and i mean it) the BEST way to save time in chase.

You loop a little, fake pallet, loop one more time, take a hit, hold W, during the boost and after, to cross the complete map, find another pallet and ye, without any skill you saved 1min+ 😂.

Problem is the hit boost given to survivor is way too long or killer stun after a hit is too long.

The current state of the game is, without too much exaggeration, hold W and 3 gens will pop.

People aren't complaining survivors are running away from them.

They are complaining how utterly effective it is.

There is a big difference between the 2.

That said i don't know how they could nerf it. Except for what they are doing and adding more oblivious effects in the game to deny survivors their headstart.

Maybe in BHVR didnt make so many killers that are just M2 to mindgame, it wouldn't be so bad. Against most killers, they don't have any counterplay other than just holding w.

I think he was talking about it in a way that why is it possible to do so. I dont know how to fix the problem other than better map design

killer dream map design is mma cage with two unsafe pallets

Killer main here. I don't really feel like holding W is that bad. Playing as survivor and trying it I found that 9 times out of 10 they catch up really quickly unless I already have a lot of distance.

As killer you can't chase behind them. You have to angle better when you walk, that's where the faster movement speed comes into play. If you're walking a short distance and at a faster pace, you'll catch up quicker. But don't be afraid to break chase if you see them anyway too far away. Just pressure someone else.

The ones that want you to chase them, like the ones standing there pointing or waving at you to chase them, are not the ones you want to chase. Find those weak links and make it a 3v1.

Killers like Nemesis, Pyramid Head, Spirit, Deathslinger and a few other additions have changed the meta. These killers powers ignore loops entirely, so it doesn't matter how good you are at looping, because someone like Nemesis, gets a hit no matter what choice you do.

The older killers didn't do this, they had powers focused on the 1v4 and weren't so focused on dominating the 1v1. Like Billy or Huntress for example.

Since these new anti-loop killers have become a thing, more and more survivors have realised that putting distance between yourself and the killer is the best defence, since if both of you are holding W in the same direction, it can take like 20-30 seconds to just REACH them before any loops happen if they begin running at 20 metres plus.

But then, survivors realised this also works against every single killer. It's largely why I love playing Wraith, he just negates the entire holding W meta.

Because as the game has progressed throughout the years, there's less pallets, there's more unsafe pallets and a lot of killers with anti-looping powers. Holding W would have been the best strategy years ago too. But back then there were double pallets, 2 vaults at jungle gyms, vacuum pallets/windows, old DS, etc the list goes on. Now the game is more balanced than ever, players have adapted (even though it is literally just by holding W more) to be more optimal with their pathings.

It's not particularly an exciting strategy but it's often the best. If you loop a decent Nemesis or PH like they're an M1 killer, chances are you're gonna get hit. If you pre-drop and hold W you won't be hit and they might end the chase then and there since it's not worth the trouble catching up to you.

If you want to make the hold W meta less effective there are still killers that can negate it. Namely: Blight, Wraith, Nurse, Spirit, Hillbilly. Honourable mentions: Clown and Pin Head.

I've neither condoned camping/tunneling nor have I not condoned Holding W. I merely explained that this complaint is about design, not balance.

But to go where your argument is heading - I don't mind survivors holding W as much as I don't mind killers camping/tunneling. I know that those things are in many situations the best thing you can do. So there is nothing wrong with the action of doing so.

The issue I take with this is that all of those things add nothing of substance to the gameplay. I don't mind people using it but I mind devs not designing their game in a better way.

DbD is in a weird state, imo. It should be a horror game so running away from the killer should make sense but the community mutated this game into a pseudo competitive hardcore PvP game in which just running away doesn't make sense.

Take it as you will but in my opinion there "just running away" is not engaging and interesting for anybody as much as camping is.

Pick and choose your battles. If they know you're coming, try different angles or guard the gen for a bit. Either way, a survivor can run away any time, but ultimately it doesn't make them infallable, and having a core part of gameplay dubbed as meta just seems incredible to me! Besides, it's part of the chase and I would look closely at how best to deal with every situation as I find it.

If it really was as powerful as it is made out to be, killers would be lucky to get 1k at a time. I genuinely do not see it as a problem at all, and has never made me have cause for concern on the gameplay.

Okay, so this is a video that appeared on my feed which shows how to learn to outplay a survivor who just runs and yet is outplayed by simply observing them:

So, firstly this video is during a chase and not from a gen, but I'd argue the same rules apply, but what you note was how by learning a survivor pattern you can find ways of cutting distance down amazingly well! So that would show an example of understanding a survivor pattern and that a chase isn't just running after, but using techniques like herding or kiting survivors.

With your example, you've absolutely pointed out chasing a survivor whilst 3 gens are done would be a mistake. However, that would only happen if 3 gens were being worked on by 1 survivor each and the runner would be leading you away from gens, which would be a red light to me - although that is also the hardest to deal with. Or it's a poorly judged chase where you could have cut your losses early and focused on another survivor or patrol. It's fine to give up a chase if you feel it's more productive doing something else. It's not a "hold W" meta, but simply changing tactics.

Ultimately, where's a survivor to run to? They have to return at some point, and even by watching where they run to, you can judge where they are and how likely they are to hang around. If they wait and you do, because you know they're all nearby, then it's their error.

Running away is just part of the game. It's up to you whether to pursue, use tactics, wonder where it's best to be, etc.. You'll win some and you'll lose some. But running away isn't meta. If it were, then no killer would be doing well.