What does "Spread pressure" even mean anymore?

Umm we're not entirely sure if you're looking for like our definition or something else so we apologize but ask for clarification.

Just because it's complained about doesn't mean its not something that spreads pressure. I'd advise ignoring said complaints as ICL did above. The assertion that follows his advice is ridiculous, but the first part rings very true.

I dont personally feel 'spreading pressure' is a thing. Like one of those anthems people cry out as something that just is. Like survivors hiding in a corner with old Distortion. We all know it was BS and extremely rare to have happen, but it was still the anthem of the Distortion haters. Just an example to compare to, not something I necessarily believe. ;)

Then for us it's keeping survivors occupied with something other than the gens or creating a risk for ignoring things other than gens.

One example being the common 1 hook, 1 chase, 1 rescue, 1 on gen scene. You have 3 occupied and 1 working ideally. If 2 are working and if you down and hook the chased one then the killer will either force no one working or people hitting the next hook stage if the killer finds one of the remaining.

Another is all survivors injured. They can keep working, but the killer can easily snowball because each survivor can be downed and hooked much quicker which then leads to a much more risky version of the above.

In either case it either makes Survivors focus on something else or risk being in a worse position that would require a full reset to try and comeback from.

i am saying that hooking and spread pressure are two different concepts. spreading pressure is injures 2-3 survivors than chasing 3rd survivor or one of the injured survivors. the problem is that you face too many med-kit to do this and pre-run shift-w makes it inefficient time investment. like survivor heal faster in grouping than your ability to spread injuries.

I mean, I've given my definition of pressure and it includes more than hit and run injuring. Is there some other definition you think is more instructive here?

Just defining spreading pressure as hit and run doesn't seem all that helpful in this context.

What's the fun way I can try to win that's gonna result in ppl dying and saying "That was EXACTLY the kind of match I come here for. I had so much fun."

There is no answer, because most people hate losing, no matter how fair the loss is. That's just being a sore loser.

And you can believe me, because I'm a sore loser, so I know what the mindset is like. There's no pleasing people who aren't pleased with anything less than victory.

Pressure is anything that makes Survivors do anything other than be on gens.

Pinhead with Pentimento and Plaything? Pressure.

Trapper blocking areas and making them dangerous, forcing Survivors to walk rather than run? Pressure.

Ghostface having people possibly 99ed at any time and able to down them if they touch a gen he's near and don't keep moving? Pressure.

Houndmaster being able to send Snug to scout elsewhere while she scouts a different area? Pressure.

Dredge being able to teleport to lockers right near a generator tactically? Pressure.

Chase? Long Downs? Keeping an eye on a hook that is near a gen cluster that Survivors now HAVE to come to because the other gens are done? Getting rid of lots of resources? Pressure, pressure, pressure.

Every Killer has a different form of pressuring, and they can all work really well depending on the player; generally MOBILITY pressure is one of the strongest kinds, but all forms of pressure are still tools that get Survivors off of gens and engaged with something else. In fact the Killer just BEING there is pressure, so the best way for any Killer to Pressure is to find Survivors and engage with them. Some perks pressure other things too, like how gen perks pressure gens.

Pressure is also what Survivors can exert on the Killer, mostly only in the form of gens or a few niche perks. The other perks are more just there to save their skins and buy them time to do actual pressure. Chase is also for buying time for your team to do pressure.

If anyone is complaining about Killers and their intended playstyles, you can safely ignore them. Hate the game, not the player, if you don't like the way a Killer plays that is not the player's problem or even BHVR's problem. It's a perspective and an "I believe EVERY single Killer player ever is a sweaty no good poopy meanie butt! >:(" issue. Basically, it's a YOU issue if you complain about how Killers are intended to play.

This is also why tactics like tunnelling or slugging do not always work - those are very niche cases, you're not supposed to do those all the time or for very long because they are not just unfun, they're a two-edged sword: you are throwing away so much pressure on everyone else for the sake of that one Survivor. Yes, there are cases you may need to do this because a situation is spiraling out of control or you know you can get just this ONE person but not all of them, and yes, some Killers excel at these tools. But that's all they're supposed to be - tools, very blunt ones like a hammer or a mallet, not something fine-tuned to really put the screws on Survivors, because they can do as much harm to your game as they do help. So if your whole playstyle is to slug everyone at five gens… what will you do when the Survivors know how to play around that? If your whole tactic is to just tunnel the first person you see, ok, but what will you do when you pick someone who actually knows how to run a Killer for ages?

And no, Killer strength does NOT matter here either. Knowing what to do when is what counts. Playing a back-to-hook Nurse works great! Until you run into the team that can sabo-wiggle and use WGLF and all these perks that PUNISH returning to hooks, then you look at the Myers off in the corner who knows how to spread pressure and use his perks and power to his advantage and wonder how this "weak C tier" is doing so well but your "powerful S tier" can't hack it. The answer is… because experience and flexibility in playstyle, and knowing HOW to pressure in several ways, almost always wins more than just brute force in this game. It's not the easy way, but it is the best way, and it also means you won't skyrocket your MMR by sweating all over everyone until you only meet these nightmare SWFs that know how to snap your Killer in half.

The best Killers blend a mix of knowing how and when to use their power, how and when to spread pressure with their presence, and how and when to use brute force if they absolutely have to. They never just settle on one specific playstyle because one size doesn't fit all.

Pressure distribution is just a "this is how we want it" that survivor mains want it to be. Unfortunately, in the current game balance and design, the killer's optimal solution is to promptly camp or tunnel one person out of the game early and create a 1vs3 situation.

Hate to be off topic but the fact Cheryl was attempting kamikaze on hook on a winning game. This a prime example why I only 4 man swf.

Back on topic I see pressure as doing things that forces survivors off the gens like doing multiple injuries. Pig and pinhead fits as prssure mostly. Pinhead hook player 1, player 2 needs to rescue, player 3 is chased and player 4 needs to do the box.

Pig trapped one person with rbt and now the other survivors will put rbt person in danger for completing a gen and ofc rbt person has ro avoid being spotted, most time has no time to heal and can be tunneled even easier etch.

I guess slugging ofc is another factor as much as I hate to agree with it...but yeah that is pressure. Another one sorta is being able to at least down 2 people and hook them fast.

In regards to the 5 gen slug, I think they were referring to more when its premeditated than when its reactive to the situation. If you're playing Myers and get a strong Infectious Fright chain with a T3 pop, it'd be pretty stupid to just ignore people and focus on just hooking one at a time instead of slugging in the moment. But going into a match with a full knockout/deerstalker focused build says that group slugging was the plan from the start, which I think is more what they were going for. Honestly I agree with both of you, the unfortunate situation is that slugging is a lowest common denominator strat, so you both need it and need it to not be the optimal play at the same time.

The fact of the matter (imo) is we got to the slugging meta through a combination of alternatives getting weakened paired with survivors getting incentivized for being hooked. This always leads to a resurgence in LCD strats as they are (near) universally effective across the roster (though some are obviously better at them than others,) and they are disproportionately effective for their skill and tactical requirements.

TLDR: Slugging shouldn't be as strong of a carte blanche strategy as it is when prepared through ones loadout, but likewise it should always be viable in situations where it is the actual smartest play.

The problem comes from it being the smartest play the majority of the time, both because other strategies have weakened and properties that benefit from being hooked outweigh the actual act of hooking. What we need are more healthy playstyles being incentivized and promoted and the level of oppressiveness of group slugging to be reduced simultaneously. I'll even argue that perks like knockout and deerstalker have their place in the game in their current forms, but that they simply synergize too strongly with the current meta that has been growing around group slugging. Also make hooks feel like less of a liability, then make them more desirable compared to the pressure that slugging provides.

Pressure is a vague macro play term (big picture aka a whole match not a single chase or gen) for the time bought through your own actions usually forcing survivors away from their primary objective like generators and onto secondary objectives like healing, going for saves, cleansing hexes, chase, ect. Or buying time for your teammates to complete generators through chase, or stuns, or forcing extra hits with endurance perks, running in advance, ect. Now while pressure can come from perks as well as just regular play some players assume that you can gain enough pressure to stall survivors long enough to win a match without perks or stall a killer long enough without perks.

Now yes this is technically true there will be matches where you don't need to run slowdown perks or perks / items to speed up gens to win with just the basekit amount of pressure you as a player can apply, this is because the amount of pressure to win a match varies from game to game, so depending on your skill level, what character you play, what map you end up, what layout ect there are a near infinite number of permutations for the amount of pressure you need to apply match to win. And usually players prefer to overdo it rather than underdo it. Tunneling even if they might not have needed to, slugging when they might not have needed to, camping when they might not have needed to. And of course, using slowdown perks when they might not have needed to. Strong items, Strong perks, Strong map offerings. Both sides overdo it because its safer to overdo it and win then it is to underdo it and fall behind then lose.

In general killers lose when they can't apply enough pressure or apply it fast enough and survivors lose when they can't apply enough gen pressure early game to make up for the late game slog if the killer is apply enough pressure through cycling hooks or tunneling or slugging ect.

The problem with pressure and that most players have with it is that its well vague, there isn't really a concrete measurement to say exactly how much pressure you apply or a visible indicator of how well you are applying pressure until you take a step back and see the outcome of the match on a larger scale.

Slowdown perks and perks and items that speed up gen progress are two sides of the same coin, when you as a survivor cannot apply enough pressure to get through a killer playing well you might want perks to decrease the effect of the pressure the killer spreads through gen speed perks and toolboxes, If you as a killer cannot spread enough pressure through your gameplay or prefer to spread pressure in certain ways or ignore certain parts of macro play and not want to suffer the punishment, you can supplement it with slowdown perks.

Its naive to expect everyone to play the perfect meta way every match or play like otz or hens or some other 10k hour dbdtuber, sometimes you want to take long chases, sometimes you don't care if you aren't creating deadzones then corralling survivors to it, sometimes you let a 3 gen go because it would just be a boring match. Play how you want to play / how you feel you need to play and don't listen to people saying you should do X instead, because usually its not in your best interest.

its a buzzword used by survivor mains to try and gaslight killers into thinking that tunneling is not necessary.

example:

"ur playing pig on badham against a 4 man? stop complaining about anti-tunnel, tunneling isnt necessary bro, if ur good then u can spread pressure"