Bro... with all due respect, if you care about stealth that much then that is exactly what stealth is; hiding and letting your team mates take all the aggro while you hold M1.

Don't get me wrong, if you actually do gens you are still better than 90% of the survivors in solo queue and I have no problem if you want to play the game like that as it isn't like tunnelling where you do ruin the experience of others.

I know this mindset as I was like this early in my DBD days but you said it yourself "avoiding chases" so you are still putting the burden on the rest of your team, who also do objectives as well as take killer aggro.

The more you play the more you'll realise that chases ARE the fun part and holding M1 on gens is just the boring stuff you do to progress the game when the killer is not on you. If you are going to stealth though, at the very least when you see a team mate is on death hook then make yourself very available to take a hook state or even trade a hook rather than let a team mate die while you have not been hooked.

I see that far too often with stealth players

Stealth is still 100% viable, if it wasnt my playstyle would have changed a long time ago.

Ive been playing a long time now, which helps me recognize what perks are in effect and how they opperate. Many of the perks have conditions or windows of counterplay. When many of these perks were released and pick rates high; I began just expecting them and using the counterplays even if there was no evidence of them in play.

If there is any one perk that completely boosts my stealth play its Alert. This one perk allows me to make smarter decision and create situations where I can track the killer.

I find stealth to be very viable, my hardest games as killer are when I struggle to mind a survivor quickly for first chase. Getting as much progress as possible before the first hook or two is what largely determines escapes in my experience.

Being extremely stealthy while death hook is very strong as well as being able to deny the 3v1 is also powerful especially if the killer is actively trying to find that person while ignoring others.

However if you're only stealthy and can't be bothered to protect your death hook teammates or stealthy at the cost of gen progress then is when it becomes a hindrance.

People understand that last part that's why we have so many Distortion threads as most people think that's the type of people Distortion users are which isn't completely unwarranted but I think many players don't understand the former two concepts very well.

The person who actively seeks out the killer because "chases are fun m1 boring" are putting their team at risk just as much as the overly immersive survivor.

I dont care for scratch mark either but knowing how they function can be used to break los and escape chase while the killer searches a loop. Ironically I find them completely useless as killer. It wasnt until I practiced with the perk that makes them visible that I got a much better understanding of where and how they trail behind.

Having blood trails as a second tool makes sense as a very minor penalty for the failure of being hit. Since there are perks that can remove either of these making tracking all the more difficult ; half a loadout seems like a fair trade.

Noise notification I find acceptable, its a good way to curb the benefits of rushed action with risk. I hardly consider them an issue since silent versions of the actions are available. But if they ever decide to remove hook notification for both sides Id be in full agreement.

I feel stealth is undervalued but at the same time it's also detrimental when it's not communicated among your team that's how you will be playing and gets the non stealth players of your team focused out. If you have a teammate that's good at running the killer it's not really an issue if people are doing gens but in most common games that's simply not the case.

I do feel there are varying levels of stealth but my view of what most people refer to stealth as is as you mentioned. Past that I think it's fine to play stealthy and usually smart as well. Eventually the killer will find someone and it's ideal it's not someone doing the objective or on death hook.

My only gripe with "Stealth" is a very specific small pool of players who will absolutely take zero chases and run Distortion / Urban Evasion and just hide and will not do anything risky even if they have zero hooks and your entire team is all on death hook. Those players are what makes stealth an annoying concept in DBD at least from a survivor POV. They took zero risk in the game and likely either they'll be the last alive or they will die on first hook because their team cannot take a risk to save them if they even have a team at the end of the game.

Playing stealthy is usually the smart thing to do though -- But at a certain point you have to show up to help take pressure off of your team.

I pretty well accept it and fortunately those type of players I mentioned are rare but they absolutely leave a stain on the idea of stealth in DBD even though it's absolutely smart to play to waste the killers time.

At the same time though I would agree that stealth is underrated - A lot of people don't really do enough to remain hidden but at the same time I feel a lot of people get discouraged with the slew of tracking perks the killer has now and it's a guess whether it's worth it to try to hide or just leg it.

I'm fine with either playstyle though as long as survivor players do their part in a game.

But why aren't you just running perks to prevent being found?

Someone who wants to have chases and be good at it will most likely run chase perks to be better and there are perks to make you more stealthy. The only thing you cant counter at all is killer instinct and that's by designe

what should i tell you buddy thats how the game works.

i get what you want to say but perks are a important part of the game and for specific playstiles you need the right perks to boost them. you can be stealthy without any perks but ofcourse then you are not gonna be as stealthy as you would be with perks and the killer is using perk slots to find you so you should need to use perk slots to not get found.

the scratchmarks are a total diffrent thing and as of right now bhvr wants them to be a somewhat relieable way to follow them untill you find a survivor but even they have perks that make it harder and they already have a basekit way to deal with it but that comes like you say with being slower.

and yes it sucks when you dont have the perks you need for a fun build but that is part of the grind

I guess, I don't like the status effect either, but the scream is also really not that much, unless combined with DMS or so.

I don't feel like it's too weak, it's quite effective in some situations but I don't do it anyways most of the time. I find it incredibly boring to do myself, same with mates doing it and playing against it, I just feel like it takes the best thing (chases and mindgames) of dbd and removes it straight up.

I like being good at looping or dying much much more than this.

I’m like you in that I prefer stealth. It’s true that it feels like the game has shied away from stealth.

One of the biggest problems however are other Survivors. They seem to really hate when other Survivors play stealth. There’s many reasons for this but none excuse working with the Killer to get you eliminated.

At least Sable’s new perks are a step towards stealth gameplay, even if they are high risk high reward.

i see a lot of people arguing that stealth is bad because it "hurts the team". I can understand frustration with teammates that don't share your play style. But if you run around the map without a care, don't keep a low profile when the Killer is nearby and enjoy looping over being stealthy, that's your way to play. You can't expect it to be mine. I can't loop very well, so my preference is to be stealthy and to evade the Killer if possible. Just the other day, I enjoyed crouching in the bushes outside a house on Haddonfield while a Huntress kicked my blast mined gen. These are the things I enjoy most in DBD. I like being a couple of meters away from the killer yet able to avoid detection. It's just as fun to me as looping is to anyone else.

Besides, which scenario is better? I do a gen but hide when the Killer approaches, wasting a bit of their time looking for me, getting back on the gen after they leave OR I don't hide, last about 20 seconds in a chase before hitting the dirt and now somebody has to stop what they're doing to come get me off the hook. I know which one I prefer.

The Survivor side of DBD is not a team game. I mean, it is right up until it isn't. The Devs have made this very clear by the way they reward solo escapes and not team performance. If I knew I could improve my MMR by sacrificing myself for the team (which I still do on occasion), maybe I would be inclined to be a team player. But that's not how the system works. The Survivors are a team until things start to look bleak. They we are on our own.

It's better if stealth dies, it provides nothing to the flow the game.

I enjoy playing stealthily, mostly because I suck at chases.

It's also funny to see the killer just walk right past me.

One good match I remember was against a Doctor, there was 1 gen left and there was 1 gen on 90% (this was before the regression cap).

I was actively hiding and trying to fix the gen, and he just kept circling around it and not finding me.

I died at the exit gates, but still, it was a good match.

I tried to make a post about stealth and people eviscerated me for it. I think stealth is the optimal playstyle honestly (killers are faster, some have ranged attacks, ping says I can't loop) but it doesn't work if the whole team isn't being stealthy.

It is frustrating for a killer to go against a stealthy team, but it can also be frustrating when you want a real game and some survivors are just making it too easy with their flashlight clicks and teabags, you down them quickly because they want your attention but they're not that great at looping and then you're steamrolling the team because they started early unhook pressure on the team by getting caught immediately and no one is doing gens lol.

Stealth is the best option when there's no pressure to NOT be stealthy. Unfortunately so many people think if you get in a locker, you're being useless. RIP Built to Last, head-on, inner healing, flash bang, not to mention avoiding aura-reading events. So often someone harasses me in game because they saw me get in a locker 🙄 when I'm literally running streetwise/built to last or trying to head-on the killer if they're coming and the team just tries to give my position away.

And with killers now like the Unknown, who can not only range attack but teleport, stealth is key in most games.

In short: Down with ultimate weapon, basekit lightweight for all!