Returning to DBD has been...difficult
Hey all,
I recently decided to return to DBD after a fairly long hiatus. I got really burnt out on the game early last year and hadn't really played much until yesterday/today.
My experience has been...well, awful.
My survivor games have gone fine. Fairly average, I escape some, die others.
My killer games though? They feel entirely unbalanced. I've not managed to get more than a 1k in my killer matches. When I played this game a lot, I hovered around rank 6. Not the best killer, but not bad. I cannot reliably get more than a kill or two now. I'm a bit rusty, sure, but I've been booted all the way back to the lowest rank, every match I've joined, at least 3 survivors are between ranks 1-3. I know rank doesn't necessarily indicate skill, but it still shows time investment.
How am I, after being knocked all the way back to the lowest rank, going against this level of survivor? And they are all good, map knowledge on point, optimal looping (most of the time), splitting up to do generators, rocking most of the strongest perks from across multiple characters.
I'm happy to see that DBD matchmaking thinks I can somehow stand a chance against these survivors, nice vote of confidence, but I'm not at that skill level, even when I was playing the game every day.
Is this just how matchmaking for killer is now? Am I having bad luck as a returning player?
I want to keep playing, I enjoy playing killer more, but this is getting very disheartening to be stomped every match.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
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Survivor queues are longer due to so many people in queue. This leads to unfair matches since the system needs to find the a match sooner or later whether it’s balanced or not
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I could see that. Unfortunately DBD has returned to being pallet town over the last few map releases. Big maps that are extremely pallet dense, but now the strongest killers hit over every pallet anyways.
If you are playing one of the weaker killers who can't hit over god pallets, good luck these days unless you are willing to devote a ton of time to gitting gud.
The games progression has gone from pallet town ---> deadzone by daylight ---> back to pallet town
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It's entirely possible you just need to play a few games for the MMR/SBMM system to pin down the right numbers for you. If it's been a year since you last played, it very well may not have enough data. Cause if i remember correctly, it didn't automatically bump everyone down to the lowest numbers. There was a period of time where it was in the background, gathering information on your matches before it was actually deployed for matchmaking. It could just be that it's going off the most recent data it had on you, which may not be accurate anymore.
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DBD has been out for years and the population of experienced players has increased. Even if you take a break you are going to face players that know what they are doing.
Think about what went wrong and try to adapt, but in the end, maps, killers, perks, opponents, and offering choices are a gamble. Just do your best and focus on blood points.
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A bit of both.
You left before some significant changes. MMR and Boons.
I just started with this game some time before these changes so i still know how the old worked. (better in some areas)
Survs heal a lot more and generally faster. That destroyed some killers and tactics. This is part of the reason where these camp and tunnel thing came from.
SWF still exists and are stronger than ever before. They know how to split, how to loop, how to play overall. Only a few killers can compete with this.
The MMR should balance and match you with players of your skill but i just doesn´t work half of the time. You get matches which are completely off - from very good to very bad. Depends on time, region, wait times.
Also the killer population has gone down. So there a fewer killers to be matched.
Playing killer is rough these days.
For me it is getting stomped a few times and then get players who i can stomp (which i don´t as i am to empathic in these cases).
Sometimes there are some balanced fun matches in between. But that is the state of the game - at least for me.
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Unless you go against average solo queue players, the game is extremely balanced in the survivors favour. It can also be very RNG based so if you get bad RNG you are more or less doomed to lose based on that alone, which doesn't feel very fair.
There is also massive perk bloat with survivors having so many 2nd chance perks or just plain broken perks (like COH) which make things harder still for killers. Gen speeds are generally pretty rough but for killer you have many band aid solutions to fix this underlying problem and the game tends to push you towards oppressive gen control builds just so you have a chance.
I think the game is not in a good place which is why I am not playing at present and coming back now would be pretty rough for that reason.
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There's chase perks like Enduring, Spirit Fury, Bamboozle, Brutal strength, STBFL.
But who cares about end chases fast?
GEN PROTECTION GEN PROTECTION above else lads! 4 of them for the win, not even BBQ for the points. I'm using Enduring without even Spirit Fury because its legit.
Killers nowadays are snoozefest. They just throw 4 slows and pray.
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That's really smart actually. You might be right! I'll keep on the grind and see if my killer matches get any better! Thank you 😁
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Well said and informative words my friend. It's unfortunate that some matches come down to RNG. I played a match on Larry's against 4 Aces. All but 1 seemed very skilled. I only got a kill because I downed the weakest of the 4 and camped during the EGC. Felt scummy af but I wanted the kill.
I hope the game finds its way into a healthier place eventually.
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You came back when the game got worse. Killers, their perks, and add ons regularly stay nerfed. Survs are still getting 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chance perks and existing ones buffed. Maps are still surv sided. And Boons exist yet killers can't rekindle their totems back still...
Get ready for worse of the same.
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What time of day are you on? Killer is consistently more unpleasant to play the later it gets in my experience.
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Yeah ever since Circle of Healing got added you can really only stick to certain killers that have strong anti loop or else you cant really split pressure without wasting the time you spent injuring someone as pig or freddy for them to heal by the time you get to the next person.
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I'm usually early morning or early evening. I will say, my games have been slightly better today as killer. There still seems to be at least 1 or 2 very skilled survivors per game, but I can reliably get 2 kills now. I'm hoping to get back to my 3k average sooner or later 😅
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You've got this! I think you'll need some time to sort out what works for you in the current state of the game. As others mentioned, metas have shifted, there are new perks and killers, etc. you will find your groove again! And hopefully even have fun experimenting with what the game offers now.
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You're a lovely human for the supportive words ☺️ Thank you!
I want to enjoy this game again! I'm sad that I seem to be having way more luck with Nemesis than I once did with someone like Pyramid Head (my favorite killer!) But it's definitely more fun after playing enough games!
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Hey, let’s not go around lying to our returning friend and others yeah? The newest survivor meta perk is Boon: Circle of Healing, due for its second nerf next week. Ghost Face and Legion are both getting base kit buffs and add on changes in the same update.
Word is the newly remastered Haddonfield map is now killer sided as well, though I can’t speak from personal knowledge on that one. And it’s been disabled until release with the above patch.
Edit: So to be clear, no existing survivor meta perks have been buffed. The newest one has been nerfed, and is getting nerfed again. Additionally, the devs have stated they are looking into changing Dead Hard, another meta survivor perk. Though it’s unclear when and how.
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It's certainly not lying. Bane of Healing can literally break games, no matter how much they nerfed it, which should be into the ground because it never should have existed. And wow 2 killers that were nerfed before, with Legion being nerfed into the ground. Not going to make a big of difference except for those die hard mains. Haddonfield. One map that "may" be killer sided in a veritable sea of surv sided maps. And...? To be clear they'll probably get around to DH in a year if we're lucky, as opposed to the quick, fast, unnecessary nerfs killers get at the drop of a hat.
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If Haddonfield is a killer sided map by my definition, I will become a survivor main. That is how confident I am that the map will be the same as literally every other map in the game. There was only ever one map that was truly killer sided and they deleted it instead of reskinning it. What a coincidence!
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When was Ghost Face nerfed? From PTB? I genuinely don’t remember. OG Legion was busted, you have to have blinders on to not agree with that.
And I appreciate you taking the time to address the alleged buffs to the survivor meta perks that never happened.
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He is probably talking about when they buffed him, but nerfed his add ons. The recovery, specifically.
So? He was hilarious. Bring him back.
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I remember what rank 6 meant and yes, it's about where the majority of players are.
The difference is, unless you are a great generalist, you got your rank using two or three killers. Now that rank has been assigned to all of them. In theory, you'll have to lose a handful of games with each killer to have their MMR is adjusted enough to get balanced games.
Besides, as someone has pointed out, the game has changed since you've played. With the boons, the pressure on killers has increased even more than before. (I don't believe they can balance the boons properly unless they make them breakable one way or another, but that's another problem. And before some understanding-challenged player starts crying about the CoH nerf for the next release, it means that boons will either end up being too weak and useless but unbreakable, or strong but breakable.)
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Git gud in this game, for killer, is just losing until you get weaker survivors, and then you win.
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As designed, the current meta is for survivors to 'bully' the Killer in order to most effectively waste their time.
The second chances and tools survivors are given, in the game's current state, are mere toys in the hands of noob survivors - but coordinated veteran survivors are able to bend the game into knots.
What you are seeing is a byproduct of complete and utter confidence instilled into the survivor community given the game's current state.
Not only are you not in control of the match, but the survivors are made abundantly aware that this is the case - and those who can capitalize on it find the greatest clemency in match.
For instance, there's a survivor (B) with a Styptic Medkit, a Dead Hard, BT, and boon CoH up.
The survivor on the hook (A) has a flashlight, DS, Sprint-Burst, and Unbreakable.
There is another survivor (C) with We're Gonna Live Forever, Dead Hard, Prove Thyself, a strong Toolkit, and an active Soul Guard.
Even if you are directly in front of survivor A - who is hooked, you look to see an injured survivor B and survivor C nearby.
Normally, it would be best if they left the hook and got to objectives, survivor B would understand that they are injured and survivor C would know that it's best to tackle objectives while you are busy with the hook.
In the current Meta, Survivor C and B go for the hook. If you hit survivor C - he runs towards the boon and survivor B gets the save. If you go to hit B, they use their Styptic and tank it. Either way, Survivor B gets the unhook.
After the unhook, B uses DH and makes A tank the hit with Borrowed Time. (You just wasted more than 6 seconds and were unable to prevent the unhook)
Now you must choose, who do you chase.
If you chase survivor A, they will use their DS and you will lose the match. By the time you finish chase, B and C will have healed up and finished much of the generator. If you slug A, C will sweep in for a save - or they will use their Unbreakable to get away.
If you chase B, they will use their distance to get to loops. Even without DH, they have so much distance that you will take several seconds to down them. By the time you may win the chase, the others will have healed within seconds and be nearby once more. If you pick up survivor B, survivor A has a flashlight - forcing you to drop B. If you slug B, C will sweep in to pick them up. If you lose them in chase or give up, C and A could finish a generator quickly.
If you choose to chase C, you will have an extended chase, having to chew through three health states (Dead hard is a virtual health state in this situation). By the time you down them, the other two are healed and on their way or on a generator. While their generator speed is slower - they are likely nearby with that pesky flashlight for a save. And you cannot slug, because you know Survivor C has Soul Guard.
And if you turn around and try to defend the slugged survivor C, Survivor B will swing in and pick them up - and DH through them to force a Soul Guard proc anyhow.
With a couple of Dead Hards and a few meta perks with normal items - the survivors have placed what SHOULD be a win-win trade for you into certain defeat.
No matter what you choose - the amount of second chances and tools survivors have create a wealth of opportunities for them to defy your effectiveness, which can easily make a Killer feel helpless.
What is worse still is that these situations can occasionally backfire. Survivor A misses their DS, Survivor B flubs their DH, Survivor C is eating chips and is distracted - not knowing what's going on, etc.
Even in these situations, understanding just how powerless you, as a killer, have become in that circumstance - is the sobering moment that breaks the enjoyment that this game has.
The moment where you understand, the match you're currently playing is completely and absolutely skewed against you, and even if you play perfectly, they still have the upper hand.
Even if they throw the game away in front of you, it just reminds you of that bitter sensation that the match was always theirs to squander - in spite of whatever effort you may have put into it.
5 -
I got crushed after my return too, I quit 2 weeks after Twins got released and came back after Artist came out.
Got all the missing DLCs to get my perk collection back to full and just looked at what changed. Ranks looked weird, but i've heard they're meaningless now, so let's jump in, a bouncy baby killer touching their old main after ages.
I didn't expect to win any of my matches, since I kinda forgot everything. I knew that every killer had their own skill rating, since it was the reason they locked swapping them in lobby (which is stupid, by the looks of today's ruthless matchmaking), and by picking my main i knew i asked for beating.
I didn't expect a win, or even a hook, but I expected the game to last more than 3 min? Like I remember that gens take like 80s to complete without speed-ups, and I didn't remember any gen-speed perks coming out except the older ones. Games feel 10x shorter than they were ages ago. And it went on for like 20 games in a row.
As a survivor tho my games were stupidly easy, i hit the highest rank in few hours. I got rank-ups sometimes for literally nothing (being afk for some reason and killer pushed me out of the gate).
I feel literally forced to play survivor now to have ANYTHING out of the game. And those entitles survivors only cry how the game is killer sided. I can literally play any stupid/meme/troll build on survivor and still win without even sweating, and on killer good luck doing something if you're not playing 3-4 slowdown perks or you main Nurse\Blight, cuz they're immune to survivor BS.
I just wish i could go back to playing my old main without being completely obliterated. I didn't touch Killer for weeks now, cuz I don't see the point, the 2h torture on killer will give me the same amount of points as 20 min on survivor.
Playing killer should be more rewarding than survivor, at least just to make people want to pick the killer more
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This is all accurate. I have been playing for a few months and am very middle of the road killer (a bit better on survivor, but that is not as much fun imo). I could pretty easily get a 2k-3k before MMR changes, with fairly frequent 4ks (at least once a day). Now getting 1k or 2k is a terrible experience, and every survivor team is vastly more experienced than me. If it's an SWF on top of that, I am even more screwed.
The survivors in my games all seem like they are having fun though.
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Your message reads like a transcript of my last 10 or so killer games.
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The game's state rn is just crappy for both sides.
Anyone who plays both sides would understand that the game is not balanced nor healthy atm.
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True yet dangerous words for these forums.
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if this was the reason a killer would play with worse survs
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Not really. There’s much less killer players than survivors which leads to worse killers facing good survivors and good killer facing bad ones since the system needs to accommodate matches for everyone
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Agreed entirely. I've been played both killer and survivor all day today and it has been fairly miserable regardless of which side I'm on.
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Spoken like a true surv main. Next...
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Update: I see more and more survivors burning Macmillan estate map offerings, tbagging at the exit gates after I score only 1 kill. God damn the game has become even more frustrating and demoralizing to play.
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Stick it out champ, keep playing both sides, and try to find a killer u like playing even when u lose
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It doesn't get any better, what you see is what you get.
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