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Can someone explain the "healing meta" we're in right now?

Riski
Riski Member Posts: 220

Returning player (stopped around 8th year with a small stint playing again with unkown launch) who's been back a month and stuff feels good. Perk variety is generally high bar those who just run 4 slowdown perks as usual (although I see less of them) and as killer I also see a large variety of perks from survivors with more interesting builds. I keep on seeing people refer to this being a heal meta right now and I don't see it? No change in particular from recent stands out as a significant buff to healing and if anything other forms of altruistic perks such as background player and shoulder the burden seem to push other forms of altruism. The only massive change I could imagine is being health is quite important against springtrap but I think people are talking of a more long term thing. I do see quite a few medkits but this doesn't seem any different than usual and if anything I see a greater use in toolboxes alongside medkits than before. The only thing that stands out to me is I see more people running more forms of off the hook healing such as we'll make it and resurgance but I'd hardly call perks which improve efficency off hooks a healing meta.

Is there something I'm missing? Even when I play hit and run killers like wraith I don't feel like survivors are healing much more than previously. Outside the increase in off the hook stuff nothing seems massively different and if anything I'm seeing a good amount of anti-healing stuff from killer (namely gift of pain/whatever it's unlicenced name is) being ran due to being generically good. What is this healing meta people are talking about?

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Comments

  • Choaron
    Choaron Member Posts: 818

    Just the latest cope that struggling killer mains are having. There always has to be something out of their hands to justify all their shortcomings.

  • TicTac
    TicTac Member Posts: 2,690

    It does not really exist. Well, if you compare it with the stay injured meta a long time back (DH, IW, Resi, later Made for this), survivor nowadays prefer it to be healed.

    But its not really a meta. Yh medkits are the strongest item, but thats not really new. It wasnt rare to play against 4 medkits two years ago.

    One big change is that one of the favourite juicer builds (Finesse + Dramaturgy) requires you to be healthy, but its not really the meta build.

    If we go after pickrates WoO is king.

  • ImWinston
    ImWinston Member Posts: 645
    • I think the people complaining about the "healing meta" are on the Asian servers. Here in Europe, I only see "we'll make it" and "resurrence" being really popular. I REALLY see in every build here in Europe "exhaustion perks," anti-tunnel perks, windows, or entire builds for "gen rush" ​​Yes, I also see toolboxes being used much more than before.
  • Riski
    Riski Member Posts: 220

    This is how I feel feel. I see more healing perks being ran outside of dedicated healing builds but I don't really see healing builds or have it feel like a meta, more so healing perks are viable alongside what was meta. I find the most "average" build is something along the lines of an exhaustion perk, healing perk, second chance perk and than either a second second chance perk, chase perk or info perk which hardly feels like a healing meta but just healing perks existing. I find myself seeing more DH and DSs than botanies and resurgances so would I be more fair in saying it's an anti-tunnel meta? Hell in my last 20 games I'll probably seen more MTFs than botanies.

    Medkits seem common still but that's not a healing meta that's medkits. Medkits provide both utility, safty and timesave while other items only provide one of thse usually which has been the case forever.

  • Poochkips
    Poochkips Member Posts: 295
    edited July 10

    It's hypberolated by killers who refuse to take anything but information and gen slowdown down perks instead of the actual tools they are given to help circumvent the healing. They're complaining because survivors got a buff to a nearly unused perk that brought it up to "used". And as we see, almost anytime a survivor gets something positive, killers behave like they've just been kneedcapped. Then again, as killers they should never be happy for survivor. So basically, they're just roleplaying.

  • Metagamer
    Metagamer Member Posts: 123

    I have personally been experiencing games so goofy that as Blight (base 40m terror radius) survivors will manage to all consistently stay healthy all game whilst running Coulrophobia and Distressing (52m of half healing speed), as a killer that has a very easy to time applying pressure in multiple places. I can promise you the healing meta is very real and it really does feel like 2021 or 2022 all over again with CoH.

    If one of the best pairings for interrupting healing/slowing it down is ineffective, what "tools" are you referring to that killers have to deal with it? Especially if it isn't an S-tier, which most players are not playing.

    Also can you grow up and stop the tribalism? It's really childish to just go around and create/pretend there is conflict when there isn't. Someone asks a simple question and you instinctively start droning on about "KiLlEr MaIn ThIs" and " kiLlEr MaIn ThAt" when literally nobody asked for it. Engage in meaningful, constructive and objective discussion every once in a while.

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276

    please take your toxic “us vs them” garbage somewhere else

  • Abbzy
    Abbzy Member Posts: 2,164

    From what I have met medkits are strong again and healing under hooks can be done like4-6 seconds after unhook which is crazy plus orelas perk can be strong with other healing perks later on.

  • Poochkips
    Poochkips Member Posts: 295

    I better see you on every post where someone says anything pointed to either side inciting "Tribalism".
    I added sarcasm to the post, but clearly i struck a nerve. Unless you've gone through my post history (Which you probably haven't considering you're asking me to explain perk combinations when in my other posts i've stated a few in similar topics) then "EnGaGe In MeAnInGfUl, CoNsTrUcTiVe ObJeCtIvE DiScUsSiOn EvErY oNcE iN a WhIlE" doesn't apply here, because I have been..

  • UndeddJester
    UndeddJester Member Posts: 4,970
    edited July 11

    To be fair, that was mostly me ranting in these forums... 😏

    And my issue with Botany is more the principle, rather than the actual strength. In every game I've ever played, I've hated having 1 option that trumps all other options... I enjoy finding quirky and unique things in games, and the niche value in the different options available to me...

    So when one of the best healing perks in the game loses literally the only downside it has, so that the niche value of every other healing perks is completely eradicated... I got a little upset 😏

    I've accepted it now and just banned myself from using Botany nowadays, so I'm chilling out again 😅

  • kosaba11
    kosaba11 Member Posts: 312

    The toxic side of Killer Mains are upset that Survivors are healing each other. It's the same BS when they claim "gen rushing," just because they were looped long enough for multiple generators to get completed, or how they're upset about Survivors playing with friends (even though that gives no real advantage).

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276

    ironic that you use the word “toxic” while contributing nothing but divisive “us vs them” rubbish into the discussion.

  • kosaba11
    kosaba11 Member Posts: 312

    If you're offended by what I said, then you're the toxic side of the community I was talking about. The majority of Killer Mains aren't toxic - they rarely employ toxic strategies and don't care about the "strategies" that the toxic side of the community claims is toxic.

  • rvzrvzrvz
    rvzrvzrvz Member Posts: 1,186

    I mean it's fine we had to endure old sloppy butcher for years, one week with botany buffed the sky is falling

  • Poochkips
    Poochkips Member Posts: 295

    Good counters to the "healing meta" are
    Sloppy butcher, Nurses Calling, Coulrophobia, Weeping wounds, huge one is leverage, as that directly blocks Botany knowledge. It's nearly the equivalent of the lightborn to healing. 50% is a huge amount. Thanataphobia, Hex Pentamento after 2 totems lit up which isn't hard to pair with other strong perks. You have the ability to give exposed. Friends till the end, starstruck, dragons grip (Meme perk?) Devour hope which pairs well with pentamento, haunted grounds. For the more non camp heavy killers, make your choice is still in the game, just unused…There are addons for some killers with exposed etc.
    Plenty of abilities that have addons that cause hemorrhage, there are so many tools for numerous killers in this game that can be used to help circumvent these heals to a degree. The point is to not make healing so bad it's not worth doing. At that point everyone might as well just run no mither if it gets to a point like several patches back where healing took so long someone recorded themselves taking 2 minutes to fully heal. Considering the amount of complaints, it seems like that's the only thing that might appease the outrage. (Obvious overexaggerating)

    Medkits are 1 to 2 use things at best, and even then, paired against healing slowing builds, they still put pressure on the survivors.
    Yes, medkits are better than they have been in a long time. Franklins doesn't drain, that part I think sucks, but it's still a useable perk especially paired with dredges weave attunement. Still viable so you can see when a survivor is going back to pick the item up.
    Medkits can only be used 1 time, 2 at best with good addons….And any killer that is applying enough pressure will stop people from being able to just heal spam all game.
    I cannot stress this enough, if a survivor is healing, they are not doing the objective.

    Self care wasn't even touched, and botany knowledge didn't change it anything about the "Heal meta" for self care. It functionally pairs better now with medkits, but that's it. The only actual change that happened recently was literally the medkit effeciency decrease being taken away, and since then that's all people talk about is how OP this is now. If the complaint is a medkit is too strong with botany, you get just as much milage running we'll make it, auto at full stacks, Boon totem builds… I can go on and on, list endless perk combinations, but i feel a lot of it would fall on deaf ears. Met with "Why should I have to run these perks" etc. It's why i said. The tools are there. Use them. The game is about countering gameplay. The amount of anger i keep seeing from the community over a small buff Is why I even made the sarcastic comment about it in the first place, because it seems like "players" (Can't say killer apparently because that's tribalism) don't like this change. (Even though you will hardly see any survivor saying "Yeah the healing is too strong, it's got to go" )

    Good day.

  • Volcz
    Volcz Member Posts: 1,298

    Bro don't say that! You know this is a killer biased forum! But you aren't wrong and they hate that.

  • ChuckingWong
    ChuckingWong Member Posts: 1,263

    I personally dont see this "healing meta" at all in my matches either.

    Might just be your region OP


    We'll make it is something I see from time to time, but botany and self care is pretty rare.

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 7,337

    I havent really been paying attention tbh. I can pick up most perks they run throughout the game (Chem trap seems to have noticeably increased in use) but i haven't paid much attention post-game to builds. If i notice it becoming widespread I'll just bring Gift of Pain and/or Leverage, or maybe even Dragon's Grip or Make Your Choice. I quite enjoy changing up my builds. With 6 new perks coming soon (TWD) survivors will have new things to mess around with anyway.

  • BrightWolf
    BrightWolf Member Posts: 602

    Makes me wish they'd rebuff Sloppy just to help some of the low-tier killers gain some semblance of control again. Never mind gen regression or kicking, just slowing down heal-times would be nice. Especialy since you can almost get a six second heal off on your own.

    As you said, not nearly as bad as the old CoH meta, but still rather irritating if you're not playing B-Teir or higher killers.

  • UnicornMedal
    UnicornMedal Member Posts: 1,530

    Given how the game is, I don't know that it should ever be a surprise or something you can really blame players for.

  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 17,620
    edited July 11

    There is not really a Healing Meta. Botany Knowledge and Desperate Measures were buffed and suddenly those are the current things why Killers lose games. There has always been something, most of the time new Perks or buffed Perks.

    In reality the changes were obviously not that big (the Botany Knowledge Change is the equivalent of a brown Add On for example) and while healing got a bit better, it is nowhere near problematic. We had times were Survivors could self-heal in 5 seconds, THOSE were problematic times. But not what we have now.

    Post edited by Aven_Fallen on
  • MDRSan
    MDRSan Member Posts: 748

    Killers got used to healing being so slow that survivors just didn’t bother with it. Now healing is fast enough with certain perk and item combinations to be worth bothering to do. The presence of a second health state they have to deal with past the first hook is confusing and angering to killer mains.

  • SoGo
    SoGo Member Posts: 4,258

    You may be onto something.

    The Asian community plays much less altruistically and with a bigger focus on self-healing and anti-heal, if I remember right.

    So things like Mangled nerfs, Botany buff, and some other things might have caused a big change in the dynamics.

  • Rokku_Rorru
    Rokku_Rorru Member Posts: 2,796

    The medkit arguement is a silly one, it's been made more accessible to use Medkits with healer builds. Suture is still the biggest offender for fast medkit healing, those great skill check heals if you're consistent with skill checks (which most experienced players are) are far more efficient, as they don't use charges.

    Healers being able to use the item that's designed to be used for healing is barely an issue, suture is a problem because it curbs item charge consumption. I'd much prefer suture brought down and the base skill checks be brought back up from before the medkit rework/healing rework.

    Please don't nerf healing in a tunnel/slug meta. It's the only thing fighting it back right now if even that.

  • CrossTheSholf
    CrossTheSholf Member Posts: 868

    They should revert the changes with mangled and hemorrhage as a whole as well as sloppy

  • BrightWolf
    BrightWolf Member Posts: 602

    Agreed, something needs to be done, because Medkits are just a too strong at the moment.

  • mecca
    mecca Member Posts: 554

    It's just the usual crying from killer mains where they literally cannot get enough handed to them. Survivor is already miserable to play, and it is baby easy to inflict damage to survivors and they don't want survivors to heal so they easy 1 tap. It's disgusting to say we are in a "healing meta" when literally survivors can't do anything else.

  • francesinhalover
    francesinhalover Member Posts: 376

    idk man, no one brings them in my games, seems it's a pro player thing idk.

  • Rookie1978
    Rookie1978 Member Posts: 143

    Anyone calling it a 'heal meta' is deranged and out of touch.

    For survivors, it's actually a 'free distance' meta where they're given a lot of arbitrary extra time in chase from perks like Sprint Burst and Lithe; and to a lesser extent Finesse. These perks are all within top 5 picks by survivors right now last time i checked nightlight(SB is 2nd I think?) and are ridiculous to play against.

    Literally everything wrong with playijg killer right now IMO (other than questionable killer balance design) is the insane amount of extra arbitrary chase time that gets added whenever survivors use these BS zero thought zero skill perks.

    Gens popping too fast? Survivors always seem to be healed up by the time you find them again? Killer just seems to be 'harder' to play now? It's because every single survivor is bringing a perk that's adding like 10-15 seconds to a chase for zero skill and zero thought. You have to catch up to these perks just to start the actual ######### chase. Survivors don't even loop anymore they just hold W.

    It is the worst ######### part of the game right now. Everything wrong with DBD is concentrated in Sprint Burst and Lithe.

  • killer_hugs
    killer_hugs Member Posts: 189

    the funny thing about people acting like the medkit + botany thing is overpowered is that botany always applied to the syringe heal speed. thus you could always get a fast normal heal with botany using the charges on your medkit+any charge addon, then syringe yourself for an extremely quick heal while in chase or doing a generator anyway.

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276
    edited July 13

    Just the usual divisive “us vs them” garbage from survivor mains who claim that playing killer is “baby easy” even though they’ve never done it themselves before.

    By the way, what is your overall escape rate, anyway?

  • mecca
    mecca Member Posts: 554

    Killer mains always love to say people don't play killer if they say killer is easy. If you win way more playing killer then by definition it is easier and you can conclude it is unbalanced.

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,166

    Nah killer is easier. I'm a super fair killer. No tunneling and no camping. I also give unhooked people time to heal and will swerve if I stumble on them on accident. I give hatch a lot. Even being chill and merciful my kill rate is average at 60% and I still manage to get 4ks regularly.

    I'm significantly better at survivor and do much worse (below the 40% survival rate). I take breaks from surv solely because I get tired of losing.

  • Omputin
    Omputin Member Posts: 152

    Aren’t you contradicting yourself a bit there? Of course playing killer is going to feel easy if you go out of your way not to tunnel or camp, and even give survivors a free escapes. By doing that, you’ll stay in easier lobbies, consistently stomping players who are a lot worse than you.

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,166

    Playing fair isn't going "out my way," I'm just not being a dick. I don't understand what the point of even playing is if you only get hollow wins with cheap methods. What's satisfying about slugging everyone or tunneling them out with no chance for them to recover and engage properly?

    The game gives me MUCH better players as killer than as surv. I can easily identify when they're better than me yet I still beat them because, again, killer is easier. Eventually even a great survivor will screw up or misjudge.

    Because my surv escape rate is low, I get saddled with both bad killers and baby survivors when in soloq. I'm a P80-something and everyone else in my lobby is like a P5. If my soloq team sucks or is selfish we can't win, even against trash killers, so I lose to killers that are worse then me. The same way I win against survivors who are better than me. That balance is the same regardless of which side I play.

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276

    I’m not a “‘main” anything. I play both sides. I have proven it with my stats, unlike you. Every time you have been called on out this, you just deflect rather than prove me wrong. The invitation always stands for you to provide evidence otherwise.

    What is your escape rate, anyway? I’m very curious to know what escape rate is leading you to the conclusion that playing survivor is “impossible”. I’ve shown my stats on this forum - I’m right around the 40% average for solo queue. Many others have shown this as well. If you consider winning 40% of the time to be “impossible”, you’re welcome to that opinion but I think it’s a very unreasonable one.

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276

    can you share your stats? I give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re being truthful, but I’m a bit skeptical based on my experience. I feel like I’m a an average-skilled survivor, yet I have been able to achieve 40% escape rate in solo queue. Killer experience is highly variable. I’ll get stomped sometimes by coordinated SWF teams (or even very good solo squads) and sometimes it’s a cakewalk. But it’s definitely not consistently easy match after match.

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,166
    edited July 13
    Screenshot_20250713_123158.jpg Screenshot_20250713_123129.jpg

    I'm only a little under the escape average but look at the difference in matches played as each. I'm better at survivor. I win many chases, get lots of pallet stuns, run a build that blasts through gens, and am a big team player with unhooks, heals, and taking hits for people in dire situations, even strangers.

    On the flipside, as I said, I'm a fair killer and dole out a good amount of mercy, and still maintain an average rate without much effort. It'd probably be a 70-75% if I turned it up a little.

    Meanwhile, I'm desperately trying to get my escape rate up, yet it's not uncommon for me to die 10 matches in a row. For me to play double the survivor matches but do much worse is not balanced at all.

    I agree though, I don't believe it easy every match. It's just generally easier. The difference is my killer matches, even when the people are skilled, are easy like every other match or so. As survivor, even if we destroy the killer the whole match, they'll just panic and start slugging, or they'll have NOED. The issue is more that the game rewards bad killers but never rewards bad survivors.

    @I_Cant_Loop

  • joeyspeehole
    joeyspeehole Member Posts: 292

    Some people are just agreeing with others who don't see a healing meta emerging right now.

    I've run Botany Knowledge for years. I used to pair Spine Chill with Circle of Healing, plus two floating perks depending on the match. After both of those got nerfed, my go-to setup shifted to Self-Care, Botany, Deja Vu, and one flexible slot. Honestly, I rotate builds all the time. Sometimes I go anti-slugging/camping, other times I run sabo builds.

    Saying there's a healing meta feels off. Players adapt their loadouts based on perk changes and personal playstyles. Just like me, people build around what works for them, not necessarily what's dominant. There will always be combos that click for different players.

    Players are always going to find something to complain about, it's just part of the game's DNA. I complain all the time too! Personally, I wish they'd introduce more comedic-style killers. Imagine something absurd like a sock puppet monster, a chaotic Muppet from the void chasing survivors while whispering nonsense. It'd be hilarious and terrifying all at once.

  • mecca
    mecca Member Posts: 554

    I don't bother keeping up with my stats but I know how it feels to play both. I would say I win one or two times out of ten and those wins are purely RNG, killer playing nice, throwing, etc. On the flip side I win a majority of killer games and when I lose it is because I played nice, too easy, etc.

    If you a good survivor, 40% is not balance. Sorry but you should be winning more.

    Bad survivors shouldn't automatically lose all their games because the game "gives" killer an automatic advantage.

    It's a PvP game, not a power fantasy whatever.