Why is Self-Care still so popular?

So, rather than talk about the solo queue argument since it's self explanatory, I'll talk about situations where it's a good idea. SC has saved my ass more times than I can count, and I completely disagree that it makes you "play worse and waste time". In my opinion, it makes you play smarter. I never take gen perks, and almost exclusively run SC, Botany, Kindred, Empathy. I would argue second chance perks of any kind make people play worse. I've seen more players using DS play worse than those using SC, because even with self healing you can't be reckless, as you can with DS.

This is a team game, and in solo queue, information is king. The more you and your team know, the better off you'll be. My perk choices keep me alive and my team mates aware of who is down, injured and if the killer is camping so they can work on gens.

In the case that you have unhelpful team mates, it can save you. And in the case that your team is on gens, it can save you. Time not on gens is time the killer has to win. The killer interrupts your heal? Good, more time for my team to work on gens. So, it depends on your perspective really.

If I were to hazard a guess it is because the ability to self heal without needing to bring a med kit that you'll get 1-2 heals out of instead of the 'unlimited' heals that SC gives is very appealing despite the time sink. However, taking up 2 perk slots to self heal is probably much less appealing.

I've seen it a lot in various builds/meme builds on various content creators which might also play into its usage rates. It also prevents you from being reliant on a teammate either because they won't heal you, or can't heal you when you need it.

Another point on its usage might be the prevalence of Sloppy. If you get interrupted while using a medkit, you might end up with no heal and no more medkit/not enough medkit left to get a heal. Or if you're interrupted with a teammate, it might be a while before someone else can heal you. Whereas with SC, you can at least start over again if you get in the clear.

Is self care good?

Eh, I largely don't consider it worth a take on its own and needing a second perk to make it somewhat tolerable to sit through the incredibly long heal. It often leads to people spending huge amounts of time trying to heal themselves while teammates are going down and gens aren't getting done. I won't go so far as to say it's a 'Killer perk', because used decently well I think it can be a boon.

However, I don't think those situations are frequent enough to warrant its use and I think it's more likely to end up being a net negative in any given match. I've seen plenty of survivors who would not allow me to heal them in favor of them self caring. This was especially annoying when I'd pulled them off the hook and was running We'll Make It. lol

Do I think people would still run it if it was nerfed more?

Most likely unless the nerf is something huge and glaring. Ex: You heal yourself but are rooted to the spot for 20 seconds with a neon sign over your head that says "free down here". Then it's usage would drop. The ability to self heal will always be massively appealing, especially to new players. It's also more effective than a lot of other self heals.

Inner Healing is a good alternative, but if you're new then you don't know totem spots well and if all survivors who want self healing bring inner healing, then the totem wars begin. Plus, Inner Healing took a hit with the rise of Pentimento.

Pretty sure its a very popular perk in Asia. Im still of the belief that its not that bad of a perk, especially in a SWF

Self-care + botany is faster than old self-care, Combining other stuff you can get the self-care down to faster than medkit if you have a whole build for it.

I'm a big fan of Self-Care for a couple of reasons.

I like no item builds:

If I bring a med kit, I will only get one heal out of it. Ideally, you need to guarantee two heals at least per game, one for each time you're off the hook and maybe an extra heal for the end game.

Since I don't escape often, I always run out of med kits anyway. I'd rather spend my BP on unlocking and leveling up perks & prestige characters that I don't use, than spend it on multiple bloodwebs in the hope for a supply of med kits to appear.

Unreliable team mates:

Since I don't usually like to be healed under the hook (unless the killer is in chase or they've got We'll Make It), many players will abandon you if you decide to run for some cover. Or maybe the killer returns and you both need to run. So it's good for those circumstances.

I'm selfish:

I always combine it with Botany, a great team perk that I wouldn't otherwise be bringing.

Yes, it's a team game. But ultimately, I'm playing for myself and to be the last Survivor standing with the chance for a hatch escape. Self-Care keeps me healthy in those matches where all else is lost. I'm sure we've all had those games where you're the only player to touch a gen. That's not to say I'd never sacrifice myself so that someone else can maybe get out, by the way. But I do like to stay alive for as long as I can. With the security of an extra health state, it also lets me make riskier endgame saves or to run for an open gate.

I use Selfcare not to heal, but to mind game killers with Bite the bullet.

Do you happen to know why this is? It’s so strange how a perk is regarded as terrible in one place but somehow meta in another. Is there some way to use it that some of us don’t know about?

Japanese Twitch community has a Semi SWF system where viewers can swf with the streamer based on a rotation system. Said viewers can join a discord voice channel but they are muted and can hear the streamer communicate. This means that it is harder for viewers to rely on communicating their need for heals and it makes more sense to just heal themself if the need arises. This is where Self Care + Botany comes into play. Fewer players also suicide on hook as well because of said system.

The attitude towards camping and tunneling is also much more neutral as compared to the almost hostile attitude that english speaking players tend to have in general against players that employ such tactics. I see more calls from Japanese players on their social media accounts to think of casual Killer players especially when things like AFC/Survivor UI were announced as it leads to more handholding for Survivors.

I may be biased because I spend more time watching/playing/interacting with said community than the English DBD community but I definitely agree with their takes over the people crying in this forum or on twitter about getting camped or tunneled out. At the very least a good portion of the Japanese community will acknowledge that tunneling and camping is a part of the game and if their team lost because of it, it was because they did poorly in chase rather than pointing fingers at the Killer and shouting for nerfs. That outlook is far more positive than complaining about A being too strong and moving on to complain about B after A gets gutted by the devs.

It takes time to find totems. Pentimento is very common. And if all four survivors ran Inner Strength it still wouldn’t be more efficient than using Selfcare, which allows for unlimited healing at around the same cost investment.

Pair it with small game, it's just a more efficient SC + BN build, 5 free heals cause let's face it, no one tries to find totems except for me, hence my name, lol

They see me healing, they hatin 😎

I run Renewal, most of the time I struggle to activate it because everyone heals each other, and when I do, I get lemons trying to heal me when I'm broken.

Who is struggling to get healed by team mates exactly?

It used to be meta, you know? It is impossible to count the amount of times SC was the only reason someone was able to escape.

That doesn't go away just because BHVR decided to ruin that perk.

Unless you’re SWF, you can’t guarantee that no other survivor will cleanse totems though..

The finite quantity of totems and capricious autonomy of other gamers beg to differ.