The conundrum of MMR
This applies to when I play Killer but not Survivor. I've found that running stuff like meta Perks or endgame builds or full aura reading builds tends to make my matches far easier and enables me to steamroll easier teams, which results in sort of boring matches. However I find that this then boosts my MMR way too high and I get stuck with really good teams that obliterate me regardless of whatever builds I have because they complete all gens before I can get a single down.
Most of the time I try to run meme builds or tame builds (stuff like Brutal Strength, Fire Up, etc) but I've found that the results are the same. Whatever small or big advantages I have will cause me to steamroll weaker teams and get rolled by better teams. It hardly ever feels like I have an even match. I'd rather get a match with 2 kills and 2 escapes and felt like I had a fun even match, than a steamroll with either 4 kills or 4 escapes that's over in a couple minutes.
I keep trying to think of ways to try to "control" my MMR so that I can hit that sweet spot of even matches, but nothing works. Sometimes I even try to run no Perks or add-ons at all for a while and honestly I get a lot of close, even matches that way, but all it takes is one of those matches against a SWF with one or two teammates that are way out of my league to convince me that I need to "at least run one or two slowdown Perks" to get me stuck in that MMR cycle nightmare again.
Does anyone else go through this cycle of obsessing over balancing not wanting to be boosted but not wanting to play handicapped? I can never tell when I'm going overkill or when I'm sabotaging myself with how I choose to play. Matches that are too easy and too hard are both pretty boring, but I find most matches tend to fall into one category or the other. It doesn't help when so many matches have Survivors that give up instantly on the first down so it boosts my MMR even more inaccurately.
Comments
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I just run meta, or something I've found that's better, all the time. No point in losing a match for no reason because you chose a build expecting to beat a mid team. I won't run NOED, I'll run Rancor. I won't run gen defence (lol), I'll run Spiri Fury/Enduring. Only big decision of mine that'll change match to match is if in the end, if I'm on the back foot, I'll settle for the 2k or I'll try go for a slug and get the win. Or, since I usually tunnel, I'll just forget to do so and probably regret it. But I don't like how MMR works either. I'm always getting sweaty survivors as killer, but never as teammates. That's why I always err towards killer being weaker than popular opinion suggests. Are we losing because the killer's OP, or because our team sucked?
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I feel like Killer is definitely weaker than Survivor if all 4 Survivors are good. But at low and mid MMR, aka the majority of the player base, all 4 Survivors are not all sweatlords. So more often than not I have Perks that give me huge advantages that turn matches that would've otherwise been close, even, engaging matches into boring steamrolls which are just as boring to me as getting steamrolled. It feels like running meta is just overkill on casuals and doesn't help at all against actual sweaty teams. I'm not saying your playstyle or preference is wrong by the way, this is just my experience. I'm more of a casual player, I don't mind losing, but I at least want the match to feel fun, like I tried and actually got to play the game, not just have it be over in 2 minutes because the entire team did nothing or because they genrushed and left instantly. It's boring either way.
So my problem is trying to find a build that isn't too weak but isn't too OP either. That's mainly what I'm trying to figure out.
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The problem with the game is that MMR causes Killer to be more fun when you ONLY sweat, or NEVER sweat. That means either turbo tunnel and proxy camp and run meta on the current top 5 Killers, or 8 hook the Survs then take a 5-min walk IRL. Neither direction helps actual enjoyment of the game, which is what is contributing to most people's dissatisfaction/burnout with the game.
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Matchmaking barely works anyway so trying to play around mmr is just pointless just play whatever you find fun your matches will be mismatched regardless
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What playstyles/builds do you both use and enjoy playing with? I'd like to hear about some other players' experiences and how they still manage to have fun despite dealing with this weird MMR system.
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Yep. MMR doesn't seem to matter or actually change most of the time. You'll lose 10 games in a row and still face top-tier opponents before facing 5 games of absolute babies before repeating the cycle with no rhyme or reason as to why the matchmaking system decided to make you suffer or bored, with absolutely nothing in between.
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I make my own rules up to try to make things a bit more difficult for myself (and hopefully to better control my Killer MMR):
- No more than 1 slowdown or gen regression perk.
- A grace period for recently rescued Survivors (e.g. No tunnelling off hook).
- No targeting of weaker team members until only 2 gens remain. If they get to 2 hooks before this point and I can remember that, I leave them alone.
- No intentional proxy camping.
- I play a little more chill if Survivors are really struggling (sometimes I end up losing when I do however, so not always a smart move).
- I might run a fun meme build with no regression if I see very low prestige Survivors (Risky though, as sometimes these turn out to be experienced Survivors and the trial will be miserable for me).
- I always let one Survivor go and only 4K if I face a full SWF / bully squad, someone in the trial put me in a bad mood or I want to definitely get the Survivor who brought the map offering.
Does it work? I don't know. But then I don't think MMR does a great deal in this game anyway. What you described is just the experience of playing Killer in DBD in my opinion.
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In general, I find mentality more important than matchmaking in the sense of I'd like to be paired with like minded people, whether they want to chill and have fun or be super sweaty. I'm down for either, but there's no way to know before a match.
IIn General I have Surge on pretty much every killer I play, and rhats the only gen slowdown ai use. My basic formula is 1 slowdown(doesn't have to be gen related, roundabout slowdown like Sloppy and Hexes count) paired with 1 info perk.
This event for example I've just been vibing with Chucky and Unknown. Chucky I've been using a basic build of Surge, Monitor, Franklins Weave and Unknown with Lethal, Nowhere to Hide, Unforeseen and either Nurses or Surge.
Nothing too insane, but I feel flexible enough to have enough tools to deal with tougher opponents but not get super bent out of shape if I run into something funny like 4x Distortions or 4x Background Player. I can sweat my butt off for the 3k but I'm fine enough playing around 2ks.
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I now do the 8 hook strat (without the walk) and it is far more enjoyable, since my MMR will change the same no matter how good I did. That means I can try or goof off and since I know the results are exactly the same, I don't have to worry about how well a new build is. You can run all auras, you can run all lethality, you can run all Undetectable, it doesn't matter anymore, because you are allowed to have fun again rather than forced to follow the current sweat build.
Personally my favorite build is always running Devour Hope (+Undying). You only kill people with Moris, or Vengeance kill the one person who cleansed your totem. This naturally helps keeps MMR lower, because a cleanse means 1k max even if you would otherwise win, and people who can't cleanse are gunna die in a 3/4k regardless.
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I just had another match against sweatlord Survivors that were way above my skill level and I seriously can't stand it. I prefer matches where I can play casual and chill but I get so many matches against Survivors that are literal babies or that give up instantly that it boosts my MMR so high I'm forced to deal with these 10000 hour psychos that drive me crazy and are out to torture me. I seriously can't stand playing this game and honestly I don't know why I bother anymore.
I can't solve this problem. Do I either play with as many handicaps as I can so my MMR can stay low so I can get casual matches? Or do I play absolute sweat tryhard mode myself every single match if I'm going to be forced to go against constant sweaty tryhards anyway? Which one???
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Yeah, it's this dilemma that drives me insane. I keep going against players that are waaaaay better than me, probably because I get so many matches where Survivors give up that now the game thinks I'm some kind of Killer god when I'm not. It's so frustrating. If MMR were real, then I'd think maybe I should play with handicaps so that way my MMR stays low so I can keep my sanity and play casual. But if I'm going to get paired against these hardcore bully squads no matter what I do, then it only makes sense to run full meta sweat myself every single match and act like every match is a tournament with my life on the line. It feels like there's literally no room for anything in between and tbh I really don't know which path to take.
I feel like I've been trying to play chill/casual but it doesn't matter. I only get two types of matches: Survivors that throw and give up at 5 gens on the first down or the tryhard god loopers that finish all 5 gens before I can get a single down. Nothing else.
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That's the problem, you basically have to purposefully tank your MMR down to a playable level again, then when it starts to feel good, you have to intentionally go for a 2k+2e. The problem with tanking your MMR is that the system has a softcap for the top 25% of the population. That means when normally playing before long/top MMR, you have a 55/100 Killer going against a 51/53/57/59 Survivor group. The top end now shifts to newly 75/100 Killer against 75/75/75/75 or potentially even 75/80/85/90 Survivors.
The way a Killer has to play in order to be ready for that jump, is to purposely only chase the best Survivor each game (before reaching that softcap). The Killer can naturally lose until their real MMR is much higher than their listed MMR (say 85 real, 75 listed). If I tunnel the weak link each match, my MMR will slip past my real skill (say 65 real, 75 listed). Once we reach that 75% MMR threshold, you can't drop below with a single loss anymore like a normal MMR system would. You have to lose multiple times over and over and over again to finally drop below that threshold, but then a single win puts you back in that (lets say) 10 loss scenario before your MMR can drop again.
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I notice such a huge difference when I play a Killer like Freddy compared to Sadako. I rarely ever played Freddy, and when I play him now I get extremely casual matches where I could win or lose, but it still feels fair and relaxed either way. I play as Sadako however, whom I unfortunately mained during 2.0 iteration and got insane winstreaks on, and I consistently have to go against Survivors that are cracked out of their minds and completely destroy me. Not just genrushing, they go out of their way to abuse me as much as is in their power to do so, and I'm forced to just DC and stop playing for the day. I seriously can't take it anymore.
I've since gone on massive losing streaks as Sadako, but it hasn't helped. It's been half a year and all it takes is one or two matches where the Survivors give up on the first down and all sacrifice themselves on hook, and I'm back to the bully squads as her. It's made it so I cannot even play Sadako anymore. So then I move on to Freddy for example and now I'm paranoid about winning. I feel like I actively don't want to win, but having to put so much effort into NOT winning feels counterintuitive and silly. Not to mention difficult, since Survivors are really prone to giving up.
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SBMM doesn't work, period. The sooner you accept that, the better. I will will escape multiples matches in a row as survivor and then get paired with trash teammates. I'll lose multiple matches in a row and then get paired with god-level teammates. As killer, it's the same thing. It's completely random, and nobody will convince me otherwise unless data are released to prove it. There's a very good reason BHVR have never released MMR data and why you don't see MMR scores in the game. Doing so would reveal what is already plainly obvious.
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Yeah even with massive loss streaks, the softcap of MMR is too sticky/clingy. We need to significantly reduce or limit the softcap, and allow for natural MMR adjustments. The best way to make due with the poor system we are in, is to make the mental win-con an MMR loss. That's why I like the 2-hook and release playstyle. Most people agree that if you can get 8 hooks (without a kill) before the gens pop, you 'won' already, even if MMR doesn't agree. It requires more skill to track who still has hook states remaining, and intentionally down someone else fast enough to make sure they are all still alive.
Not much you can do about Survivors giving up though. Even if both sides are playing to lose MMR, Survivor usually has the easier time. A Killer can drop the Survivor out of the gates, but a Survivor can hide out the timer and die (or give up mid match). That means it is easier to reach the topcap MMR as Killer, and makes getting out of the hellhole of matches all the more difficult.
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I usually go the zero perk route, but then generally play all out. Sometimes I hit teams that make that a bad decision, but it makes the average game far more competitive and enjoyable.
I think people overestimate how finicky MMR is. If you have 100s or 1000s of games, a good/bad run of 10 games is not going to move the needle that much.
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