What is the Proper Way to Deal with SWF Voice Coms?

I enjoy DBD, at times. But, the single biggest thing that drives me away from it is SWF Voice Com Squads. So, to be honest, I go in spurts with DBD. I'll go for months without playing it. Come back to if for like a steady week, only to get frustrated to the point of just walking away from it for months at a time again.

At this point, I frankly don't even talk in end game chat anymore when I play as Killer. Nothing good ever came from it. I would get so worked up over this issue that it would devolve into a flame war. The Survivors would say horrible things to me, unpunished. But, if I delivered back to them what they dished out, I would be punished. So, I learned it's best just to keep my mouth shut.

I find myself playing Survivor most of the time, because it's the only place I don't have to deal with this. But, while fun for a while, I personally find I get bored quickly because I find Survivor very easy to play. I get out alive about 3 out of 4 games. I don't do the other things to rank up, I just focus on popping gens and getting out alive. And, to that point, it's very easy to do. Just keep popping gens while everyone else is either on the hook or saving people on the hook. Most of the other people who join are SWF anyway and they got each other's backs. So, I don't need to get involved with that mess. Just keep popping gens, and go for the gate.

I play Solo Join Survivor. So much so, that even when I tried playing with people I added to my friends list I would have to tell them that I don't communicate in matches because I feel it's unfair. One guy, who seemed very nice, would not stop texting me asking me for info after I died in the match. To such a point I actually unfriended and blocked him over it.

I think this mentality of mine comes from two points. One, I know what it's like to play Killer and be on the other end of that and how unfair it personally feels to me. Second, I come from a background of largely fighting games like Street Fighter and Moral Kombat. So, fairness (as in everyone chooses from the same characters and have the same chances based on their personal skill) means a lot to me and is a gaming tenant.

The problem DBD Devs face is that DBD is an asymmetric game. These are notoriously difficult to balance for and usually fall apart over balance issues. I think Star Craft is about the only asymmetric game most critics agree on and really consider to be the gold standard of balance for this type of game design. If I'm going to be honest, I feel the DBD Devs live in a bubble and continue to balance the game around the idea of solo joins. Why else would they keep creating aura perks that are useless to SWF Voice Com Squads who already get those advantages from the voice coms?

I talk about this issue a lot because it's the very reason I don't spend as much time in DBD as I'd like to. The graphics are amazing. The game play can be fun, intense, and competitive. But, in the end, this sense of unfairness ultimately overrides the joy I sometimes do get from the game. I can tell when it's happening too. We all can. It's not difficult to figure out. Especially if you play Freddy. You put three people to sleep, watch them all run in different directions. Then, they all meet up with the one awake person 'all of a sudden; what luck? right?' and are all woken back up instantly. It puts the coordination in events like synchronized swimming to shame. It's frustrating and sad to watch, but funny in an ironic way.

The main reason Freddy is such a bad Killer in DBD is that he's designed with the philosophy that voice chat doesn't exist. It's the same reason useless perks like knock out exist. Freddy depends entirely on awake Surviviors finding sleeping ones being a difficult thing to do. The Devs didn't consider that SWF will find each other in about 2 seconds. This renders Freddy's power almost entirely useless; which is why he's considered the worst Killer in the game.

When facing off against Solo joins, I usually average about 2 to 3 kills a game when matched with roughly equally ranked Survivors. When set to that same scenario with SWF I am lucky to get 1 kill. And that's only if I spitefully face camp someone and the three of the remaining Survivors can't get that person free to spite ganging up on me with flash lights.

It's also key to note that this issue is linked to rank. Rank 20-14 Surviors are mostly solo joins or very bad SWF Squads. Easy. Once you hit Rank 15 and above as Killer; prepare to face off against almost nothing but SWF Com Squads. That's almost all the game is at that point.

Unless this is ever balanced for, what do I do to combat this? Everyone says, 'punish the altruism of SWF wanting to save each other.' To that I say, yes and no. On lower ranks, this does work. But, as I ranked higher as a Killer, I saw for myself that this doesn't work anymore. Better coordinated SWF groups make a pact ahead of time to agree to cut their losses and take one for the team. They will let themselves die on purpose to waste my time for camping them and everyone else lets them die to pop gens.

To that I get told, 'don't camp.' Well, easily said. Why didn't I think of that? But, what option do I really have left to me? When I walk away to find other Survivors the one on the hook tells them that I walked away from the hook and someone gets that person off the hook in about 3 to 5 seconds after my leaving the hook. So, I can face camp the squad member out of spite and get 1 kill. Or, I can try to find other Survivors and end up with 0 kills. Or, I can play against solo joins ranked the same as me and end up with 2 to 3 kills. So, yeah, SWF makes all the difference in the world.

Does anyone playing Killer out there know any actualy useful strategies for combating SWF? It changes everything about how I go about playing as Killer and I simply don't know how to deal with it.