What to do when you can't just 'bait it'?

So, the oft-repeated advice for dealing with Dead Hard is 'bait it out'. Ignoring the situation where you can't do that because you'll eat a pallet as a lose-lose situation where you at least want to swing and get rid of the DH itself, what should you do if you're playing a Killer whose entire thing doesn't go with the idea of sitting on someone's butt waiting for them to press E?

Mostly Spirit comes to mind, I guess Nurse would count but I don't really play Nurse. Stop phasing and just wait hopefully? Kind of anti-synergetic (not to mention all the many ways this can go wrong with collision)

Comments

  • SmolBlob
    SmolBlob Member Posts: 399

    You swing just before they're close enough to drop the pallet. Then they're forced to Dead Hard, but cannot drop the pallet, and you will likely catch back up with them fairly quick.

  • Gamall
    Gamall Member Posts: 487

    Nope, it's a 50/50.

    Many times a surv does not drop the pallet after hitting DH because they expect you to swing and save the pallet for later.

    So you can wait it out easily and then swing

  • RainehDaze
    RainehDaze Member Posts: 2,573

    kind of banking on the situation being that the DH is used before reaching the pallet, rather than the choice being 'swing at distance, they DH and can get away' or 'try to get close, get pallet dropped' which was what I was referring to. Not 'preemptively using DH because I'm in non-lunge swing distance and there's a pallet'.

    ... also not even the situation I was asking about???

  • Xendritch
    Xendritch Member Posts: 1,842

    I always swing rather than eat the pallet in that situation because either they're in a dead zone and I catch back up and down them or I can go pressure someone else while they mend.

    It doesn't make sense to eat the pallet when you'd still have to go through DH anyway if you did.

  • RainehDaze
    RainehDaze Member Posts: 2,573

    Again, I am not asking about the pallet. I'm more interested in what you think it's appropriate to do with a Killer who's really expected to just swing out of their power, not run on someone's heels (which is the alternative), especially with the whole potential for overlapping hitboxes.

  • Maelstrom808
    Maelstrom808 Member Posts: 685

    I only hold my swing for dead hard in two circumstances: 1) If I know they have it, I'll wait until I'm close enough that I don't need to use a full out lunge to hit them. 2) If they suddenly turn into me or come around a corner at me, I'll wait till they pass me as they are usually baiting a swing that they can dead hard as a last ditch effort. I should say I try to wait because sometimes my reflexes get the better of me.

    Any other situation and I just swing. I try not to lunge if I can, and do as little as possible to telegraph, but otherwise the ball is in their court to get the timing right. I'd rather just take the chance to end the chase right now, and if I eat the DH, then at least I know it's no longer an issue.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,343

    This. They're going to DH 99.99% of the time if they're looking back at you as they approach the pallet with you in lunge range. Tap M1 at the last possible split second. You either get the hit or proc DH+get the pallet drop.

  • Shroompy
    Shroompy Member Posts: 6,631

    I mean, whats stopping them from just throwing the pallet? If you can only get to them doing a full lunge then them just throwing the pallet beats both options you have.

    If you're closer how ever then its a read since they can't throw down the pallet during the animation which is a bit longer than how long Endurance lasts, meaning if you wait just a bit you can still get a swing. The timing is pretty tight and hard to get consistently but still very much possible.

  • Shroompy
    Shroompy Member Posts: 6,631

    I mean the only time you can't just bait it is at a pallet, so yes I'm going to be "banking" on that considering its the only situation where its applicable

  • Deathstroke
    Deathstroke Member Posts: 3,507

    Debends how far you are if he can react to lunges but mostly new dh is used on prediction as it does not have I-frames at least on console. It's hard perk to use exactly correctly now so it's fine the counterplay also is not super easy. Those who are very good with predictions are annoying to face though and on pc it seems to activate faster than on console.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,343
    edited January 2023

    There's almost always plenty of time to wait on Nurse. And it's usually fairly easy to tell when they have it by looking at their head position. Nobody is timing up a DH if they're not looking at the Nurse. And the only reason they're going to be watching me and not looking in front of them is if they're trying to time up my swing.

    Spirit should get out of the habit of swinging out of power anyway. There's no real reason to do it unless you're at a window or pallet. It's a really bad habit.

  • RainehDaze
    RainehDaze Member Posts: 2,573

    But it's a score event (not really a good reason) and funny when it catches someone right as they're trying to double back through me (also not a good reason, but still fun).

  • squbax
    squbax Member Posts: 1,483

    One of the only good things slinger has, I don't have to deal with dh as much.

  • GrimReaperJr1232
    GrimReaperJr1232 Member Posts: 1,703

    What do you do?

    No choice. You just brute force it. Waiting it out isn't an option and they know it. If you try *not* swinging, then they'll catch on and turn every instance into a 50/50.

    Just charge like a brazen bull. Hopefully you're a strong killer and can power through the third health state.