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Is Playing Killer More Stressful?
I know gaming in general can be stressful, but playing killer in this game to me seems far more stressful than playing survivor. Did the devs purposely design it this way? I'd be curious to know the chances of a person playing killer developing white hair faster than someone who always plays survivor. Just a thought I had so I figured I start a discussion. I wanted to get a survivors perspective.
Comments
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Depends on the person. I find survivor more stressful cause I have to rely on my team or I die. As killer everything except luck is on your ability and I find that better.
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Killer is incredibly more stressful. As survivor, you get moments where you can just stop somewhere safe and think about what to do next, but as killer you have to go go go at all times nonstop just to keep up with the four other players. You don't get to breathe, you have to think fast constantly, and you have to deal with the increasing stress of falling behind as the survivors complete generators.
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Yup that's why im hoping 2 killer mode which unfortunately not going to happen anytime soon. My hope is that new bubba game will be popular and force dbd to add it as it will have 3 killers vs 4 survivors mode.
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It’s definitely more stressful
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Yeah it's a lot more stressful but that's appealing and more fun to me. You're constantly in the action and typically playing the tougher side in the map/balance scheme of things. That makes the role infinitely more satisfying to do well at. Survivor is boring/terrible IMO. It's boring breaking the game in a coordinated tryhard SWF or basically unwinnable/unenjoyable in solo queue where people dc/kill themselves every other game
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This comes up every now and then and it shows the different mind sets between killers and survivors.
I can't imagine feeling the same level of tension as a killer as I do as a survivor. As a killer I never feel out of the game. Even when I feel like I'm being outplayed as killer I know that a turn around is possible. As an example: one bad hook rescue by the survivors and I can suddenly turn the game around. The things a lot of killers mention about tension, the gens popping around you, don't even bother me.
Plus, as killer I win a lot more games than I lose.
As survivor I never feel 'safe'. Even when I feel like we are winning, I know the game can turn. 3 gens, NOED, basement hooks, etc. are all ways that the game can change really quickly in the killer's favor. Not to mention the game can collapse early, once a survivor is out the killer has such a huge advantage. Even after five gens are done I don't really feel like I'm safe until I'm out of the gates.
And as survivor, I lose a lot more than I win.
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Stress and pressure is the only reason why I play killer. Both roles are stressful for different reasons as well. Stress isn't inherently bad and if I want to play a non stressful game, I just play Stardew Valley.
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The only thing that stresses me out on survivor is seeing a teammate doing nothing all match. I probably find killer more appealing because everything is 100% on my shoulders. I do enjoy improving at survivor but it's not worth it with so many survivors who don't care and every other killer not actually improving my chase because they leave me if I get 10m+ from their 3 gen.
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It can be, but it only really affects you if you let it
If you intend on winning, then I can see how the stress might get to someone, but if you play because you want to do meme strats, then it probably won't affect you as much
All boils down to how you want to play and what you want to do tbh
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I can play Microsoft jewel or play on my phone while on a gen and only kinda have to pay attention to the game, survivor is much more relaxed than killer.
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Meh, the game is designed about getting about 2 Kills. However most Killers play like they get 4K or Loss.
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Playing as killer isn't meant to be as stressful as it has become. A lot of the pressure placed on the killer is time related and not having enough. Killers in a lot of ways can dictate the pace of the game, but it requires us to build up and snowball. Survivors on the other hand have gotten much better at taking control of the game much faster even as soloq players. So right now survivors dictate the pace of the game which means killers need to absorb more mental pressure. Killer is also more mechanically complex so you have to deal with your power on top of learning to approach the game on a macro level which is thought intensive.
Also doesn't help that community wise, dbd's got a rep for being almost as toxic as ranked league of legends. Hell is other people and dbd makes you directly responsible for each other's fun.
Playing killer over the years I've met and still meet people who will win and be toxic. If they lose they're even more toxic. Also doesn't help that it feels like the devs' balance decisions lately are purpose built to frustrate killers more than anything. I don't believe that is the case, but it feels like it when you constantly see your tools getting kneecapped which makes it even harder to wrest control of the game back from survivors.
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No its not.
The "stressors" are different however.
As killer you juggle playing against all 4 survivors so there isn't really down time, but as killer you (in theory should) have more control over the game pacing as you limit the survivor's ability to contribute to their goal.
You also suffer no threat of elimination and can play basically how you wish in a lot of scenarios.
I'd say the main stressors about playing killer are driven more from a sense of ego and frustration because you go into a game kind of expecting to control it but often end up reacting to how survivors play and once that happens you lose control of it.
It often comes down to how well you react to/manage loss which dictates if you can pull it back or not. How obnoxious your opponent is about it can also impact immersive game enjoyment.
For survivor, if you work well together you can dictate the game, but mostly you react to the killer and run a high risk of early elimination and even non participation.
These threats keep the tension high but that heightened tension is dispersed between spates of being relatively "safe" when the killer's attention is elsewhere. So its feast and famine for tension that progressively ratchets up the more of your team gets eliminated. (Its why I don't like the new "in chase" indicator because it removes the need to look around because you don't know where the killer is, thus killing some of the tense horror movie experience).
Again a lot of the survivor stressors stem from not understanding that non-participation and elimination are the threats you are trying to escape and the expectation that you'll be viably participating in the objective for the entirety of the game is a purely deluded one.
So no one side is more stressful than the other they are just different and a lot of the perceived stress comes from people's misconceptions about, and expectations from, the game. Shed those and you'll never stress over a game of DBD again.
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Killer is by far the more challenging role. You have to make several decisions like committing to a chase, stop it and go for another one, should i camp in this Situation, different killer-powers etc.
On survivorside u sit at the gen holding a button and press spacebar to vault or drop a pallet, thats it. Of course u need to decide how to loop, but apart from that, there isnt anything else.
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i get much more stressed as a Survivor than i do as killer and i am not even good at killer but my game is not ruined by teammates or a killer the player decided to play or how they decide to play it (camping/tunneling/3 genning..etc) as killer i can do whatever i want so i just have to worry about improving my skill more than anything.
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Depends on your attitude. When I first started playing, yeah. But 1500 hours later, I don't even care. And let's be honest. Both roles kind of suck... at least if you're a perma-solo queue.
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Yeah.
It’s like a night and day difference. Not even close in my experience. I play solo queue when I feel like relaxing.
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Killer is like ten times more fun than SoloQ and I'm high enough MMR that I get killsquads rather often and since I don't tunnel or play Nurse/Blight, those matches are a complete loss. But at least there's something you can do, you can chase the amazing survivors to learn their patterns and improve your own mindgames. Getting blinked on by a tunneling Nurse or watching a 3 genning SM while your teammates are throwing themselves on the hook to go next removes pretty much all interactivity and fun.
The two are just really not in the same ballpark, but it is true that some SoloQ matches can be really chill when the high MMR monster is running the baby Bubba for fives gens and this rarely exists for killer since there's always something to do.
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Playing killer is pretty intense. You can't really stop at any time. You have to make every second count.
If you have control of the match (2 dead and more than one gen left) it gets a bit more chill and you can muck about in chase without worrying about gen times too much.
Survivor I die a LOT so I still find it stressful but only majorly so if I'm on the cusp of escaping solo against a killer. Sitting on that exit gate after hatch is closed or indeed looking for hatch is stressful af lol.
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Killer is way more stressfull than survivor. SWF is the most chill on you could hear music while playing and still win a ton of games.
Solo que is also pretty mutch chill. Teammates are anoying sometimes yes, but you can still win the match and if you lose you can clearly see where the problem was.
Playing killler is an other thing. Depends on the killer you play its getting more stessfull than others. Is the killer weaker its more stressfull, because you arent able to create presure as good as others. Early in the game its the most stessfull, because if you dont get the first down early its going to be an very hard match to win.
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I think it depends on whatever your main role is. I simply wanna win more as survivor and feel more pressure when the team falling apart to do something (which is often). Killer i feel nothing most of the time unless a swf. Beside that i feel in complete control most of the match which is kinda boring to me. I play both roles about the same amount probably killer slightly more just because i can relax.
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I would say so, yes.
Survivor is more frustrating and Killer is more stressful
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Yes. It's a 1v4 and you have to pressure gens, chase and down survivors, hook survivors, deal with loops, etc.
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It makes sense in a way.
Killers are bassically always in the action. They are always in all chases and everytime you aren't in chase you want to get in chase asap
Survivor has a lot more downtime. You have nothing to do while hanging on a hook and doing gens isn't exactly the most nerve wrecking of tasks
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In my 6k hours I’ve never been able to stop and eat entire meals ( like 100 different dishes and snacks), travel to the other side of the house to get the front door, 💨🍃 mid-match or focus on my Twitch chat 100% ignoring the game on Killer without it all impacting the final result even if it’s only minor
As Survivor I’ve hit extended great skill check streaks with one hand eating wings, taking shots on stream or 🍃 offstream , looping good Killers while having side conversations with company and listening to music. My friend still has a clip of me falling asleep mid-match and lightly snoring on stream 😂 I gave two free hooks while afk and woke up at the hook with crows to still get the escape and a good final chase
Even in the matches I’ve dominated as Killer I still never felt the level of security I feel when playing Survivor, especially when in a SWF. On my mains, the majority of teams they throw me against (obviously ignoring the random baby teams they feed you sometimes) would have a field day with me if I tried any of the first part consistently against them since I play a lot of M1s
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"Just don't care about getting kills" and "let everyone escape and you'll never stress again!" If you want a 2k you better be ready to stress out!"
Of course, you won't stress if you're just dicking around letting everyone escape. What is this logic!?
The forum is filled on a daily basis with people crying about losing a few matches but it's the "others" who are stressing too much about a 2k...?
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Killers need some kind of “breathing room” or ability to chill.
For example: I’m on gen, I see someone getting chased, I can relax.
This same principle should apply to killer somehow.
What if all gens were blocked every time someone was hooked? Just saying that killers should have time where they can “relax” too during the match.
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Yes, but by the inherent nature of playing solo.
It's one of the reasons I play killer less often than survivor, because all attention is on me. My mistakes feel twice as big because everyone's paying attention to what I'm doing at all times, and people teabagging at my mistakes only makes it feel worse.
When someone's in a chase while I'm a survivor, I can sigh with relief and focus a bit more on the one task I'm doing rather than the whole match. When I'm killer, however, I have no one to fall back on, so it's definitely more stressful.
It's not balance related, though. I can see already some people playing martyr here in the forums. But even winning more than 70% of my killer matches, I still pause for a second before starting a killer match.
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