http://dbd.game/killswitch
Hot Take (Not Really): Running 4 Slowdown Is Bad...
Youll normally see in your matches that people tend to run 4 slowdown perks as Killer. And while this can (often) be an effective way of playing, I personally think it is bad for the game for multiple reasons. Not only does it lead to less diverse and interesting gameplay from both sides, but it ultimately serves to be less effective than other builds that can be used on Killer.
For a Killer like Blight or Nurse, I think 4 slowdowns is definitely the meta, but for mid-tier and low-tier Killers, I think that including chase perks and running 2-3 slowdown perks tends to be more beneficial.
However the conversation shifts when you talk about mid-tier and low-tier Killers since one of the biggest issues that mid-tier and low-tier Killers have is getting downs in a meaningful time. Having 4 slowdown is cool, but you need a means to get access to that slowdown, which is why chase perks are insanely good to run on them.
To put it bluntly, you are putting all of your eggs in a single basket, and if all the eggs fall out, you are just screwed; which is why spreading out your builds across multiple fields can be more beneficial, since you have some assets you can call back on if you need it.
For the sake of presenting interesting gameplay, I also think more diverse builds tend to be more healthy (this statement is applicable to both sides).
Off-meta picks, while not the best, do have benefits that often get ignored or pushed out of the way. Perks can fundamentally be good but still not be meta, and I find it makes the game more fun and more enjoyable to use perks like that. I also was performing on average better in my matches since people often lacked the experience to counter off-meta picks or playstyles.
To make it abundantly clear as well, I am not talking about "meme builds" or "meme perks", Im talking about perks that are actually good but do not get picked as often because they are not considered meta by a majority of the playerbase.
Keep in mind, the title is 100% hyperbole, I think there are instances where running 4 slowdown perks just makes sense, but I think people underestimate how beneficial it can be to diversify your builds.
Comments
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Running 4 slowdowns on nurse or blight is definetely not meta.
I dont even know what the build would look like but it would be horrific having 0 aura read on both of those killers.
Where are you getting this idea that anyone even runs 4 slowdowns as a perk load out?-1 -
Running 4 slowdown perks on Nurse or Blight is definitely not meta.
Pop Goes The Weasel, Eruption (information + slowdown), and SH: Pain Resonance are the best perks to run on Blight and Nurse, they have the mobility to make amazing use of the perks and the information and slowdown from Eruption is actually insane when you consider how quickly your chases are and how easy it is to hold a tight Generator spread.
Personally, never needed to run Aura Reading on Blight or Nurse, their chase powers are insane and I dont really lose matches with the lack of Aura Reading. General game sense and knowing how to use the Killer's power goes a long way.
Where are you get this idea that anyone even runs 4 slowdowns as a perk loadout?
Maybe from my matches?
Maybe from social media?
Maybe from the infinite well of content creators that only use slowdown perks in their videos and streams?
I wouldnt be talking about it unless people were doing it.
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Almost every Ghoul I go against uses Pain Res/DMS/Surge/Pop or Pain Res/DMS/Grim/Surge
No exaggeration, I wish it wasn't that common
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Nurses and blights run at least 2 aura reads in general.
Lethal + something else.
Either NWTH or floods
Heres actual stats one what nurses and blights ACTUALLY are running at any consistent level of accuracy:
Nurse:
Blight:
As you can see its a pretty obvious pick with lethal on nearly every build. And you want to compliment that pick.
Blight without lethal or bbq is just a huge question mark in general.
And nurse with 0 aura read, you should be winning every single one of those matches against her. That is just someone who has no clue how to play nurse. And if the nurse is winning these matches…. then jeez thats a problem on the survivors end. You can just HARD stealth each time she kicks a generator.
Me personally I only run PR on nurse. Then its lethal/floods/agi talking like several hundred wins in a row and I am non-giga chad streamer or anything. Dont even play her seriously anymore either.
Definetely some brand new killers to the game if they are running 4 slow downs on nurse or blight. Or straight up cheaters as they are pretty horrific killers without some form of aura read. Nurse in particular. These ones are pretty easy to spot if they are doing it-2 -
So does every killer. Having to run perks so the game doesn't end in 5 minutes is not fun for killer either. I'm not biased, slow down and regression are mandatory if you care about winning. Dbd is a competitive game which is why so many people complain. Ik I'm no better but come on, if killer got rewarded for skill instead of camping, tunnelling and slugging then I promise things would be different. A casual mode would be good and I wish things could be different, been like this for so many years but I don't see anything changing now. As long as devs add fun perks and killers, I'm sure the game will be fine.
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Not saying I don't get why. It wasn't a complaint just giving my experience
I was just saying it's very commonplace.
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Yeah, four slowdown perks combined usually isn't a good idea.
A mix between information, chase and slowdown tends to be the best approach, but it depends on which killer you play… well, most of the time it depends on which killer you play. These days all you will really see is Pain Res + DMS combo and the occasional Grim Embrace.
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Very good killers (for example from the comp or scrim realm) don't run aura perks because it is wasted perk slot for them. If you have good game sense you know what every survivor is probably doing right now, especially in a more restricted comp setting. I still play them because survivor behaviour in public matches can be quite unforeseen and it takes away some of the guessing.
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This post just screams of "I just watched the most recent Scott Jund video"
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Not even supa alf the guy who has 1163 consecutive wins in a row. Probably worlds best nurse, runs without aura read.
So if you can point out who you are talking about let me know1 -
slowdown will keep the game going long enough to increase the chance of punishing a survivor mistake but if they make no mistakes and there's no weak link then stacked regression has severe diminishing returns.
id rather something that can cheese a down that nobody expects to get the ball rolling. I prefer a fast down with 1 slowdown perk.
good survivors can play the attrition game if you just can't punch through their defences. I want to smash through that, whether it's Enduring or Machine Learning or Forced Hesitation or whatever.
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My issue with running all slowdown is that it teaches you to be too dependant on it and you start naturally suffering in chase, loops, mindgames, and generally game sense since you can somewhat skip out on those if you stall gen progression long enough to where survivors run out of pallets and hook states.
If youre running one gen regression, you have to focus a lot more on other aspects of being a good killer which just naturally makes you a better killer player. Like yesterday during a match vs 2 flashlighters, I had downed someone, and via game sense, instead of picking up, I did a lunge attack along the wall to a corner and smacked an injured iron will flashlight saver right in the face that was hugging the corner. It entirely looked like a cheat, but it just came down to knowing how to cope as a killer with little gen regression - being able to focus on survivor shenanigans mitigation instead of just holding w in chases until bloodlust kicks in while 4 regression perks do all the work.
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I havent.
I had a match against an Onyro that was complaining about losing with 4 slowdowns because they couldnt get downs to turn that slowdown into anything meaningful. I wanted to talk about the topic because of that match.
But I guess I cant talk about a subject if some content creator that I dont care about happens to have covered it because it automatically means that I cannot talk about it.
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I'm sorry, "for the sake of interesting gameplay?" What gameplay? The four minutes of gameplay you get before gens finish if you run zero slowdown?
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You missed the point completely.
Im not saying to run trash perks. Im not saying to run meme builds. Im saying you can use (but are not forced to use) perks that are not meta but are still good and viable, reasonably you should not feel the negative impact of running them.
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Frankly the only perk that is absolutely disgusting is the one that "locks" the gen for almost a minute. Same thing as 9 years ago. Most games even against ghouls can be won if survivors minimize downtime and get on gens. Its really no problem. But being semi forced to move away from the gen or wait 40-50 sec is bad design.
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All my years as a Nurse main not once have I've seen the meta be 4 slowdowns on her. Not that players didn't do that, but certainly not the meta. I'm not wasting time kicking gens thats for sure.
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Yeah, usually when him or otz make a video suddenly there's posts on the forums being like "i have this great thought that nobody else has ever thought before"
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I think the caveat there is that comp survivors tend to be a bit more predictable. Teams tend to position similarly depending on the map. Public matches are a lot less predictable
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Frankly yes, stacking 4 slowdown on most of the roster is pretty much always a bad idea. It often boosts Killers out of their intended effective niche, which is how you get tunnelling Ghostfaces and Springtraps hardstuck against really good teams who can kick their butts.
That said, it's not always meta on all Killers. Aura is more meta on mobile Killers for example.
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I don’t even know what “slowdown perks” is suppose to mean. Every killer perk is a slowdown in some way. Every killer perk either directly or indirectly serves to keep survivors from completing their objective faster.
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I use one slowdown (Corrupt) and no regression. I mostly use chase perks as quick downs and hooks are my priority. My breaking gens milestone was at like step 8 by the time I finished my hooking survivors milestone. I find I just don't need the extra assistance in that area as the playstyle I've gravitated to (ie the one that naturally works for me) just doesnt need it. My biggest asset while playing killer is honestly my experience playing survivor, that helps more than any perk could. Diversifying my builds is something I've always done too because I honestly get bored playing the same stuff over and over anyway lol
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block a gen or regression on a gen.
Anything else is not a slowdown perkMy biggest asset while playing killer is honestly my experience playing survivor, that helps more than any perk could.
Preach it!
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Insidious is really bringing survivor progress to a screeching halt
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For me it depends on the Killer. I use two max on Killers that are low mobility and one max on those with high mobility. If I use two it's usually something strong that I can boost with something else - Surge and Pain Res, Grim and Thrilling, etc. - or block AND pop, something like Surge and Thrilling. If I use one, I favor gen block over pop or regression; my favorite one is actually just plain ol' Thrilling Tremors because it pulls double duty as info and some light gen block. I diversify the other two or three slots. Experience does the rest, because you can't replace that with a perk.
How is Lethal Pursuer slowdown? How about Coup de Grace, you know, the perk that actively is about letting gens get done for a longer lunge? There's a lot of perks that 100% are NOT "slowdown in some way" because they aren't a form of slowdown in any way.
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I've said this before but complaining "3 gens pop before I've done my first chase on weaker killers" and then following it with "so I have to run pain res + dms etc and if they nerf these perks it'll hurt lower tier killers" shows 0 understanding of perk builds and killer needs. If you're not downing survivors quickly these perks get worse and instead perks which either buy time without hooks (deadlock, corrupt, ruin) or help you get downs thorugh info (discordance, lethal) or chase (Bamboozle, brutal) are a better solution for your problem. Unironically see people play wraith with 0 chase, passive slowdown, anti-heal or info and then complain when they're 4 hookbased slowdown build does nothing when they fail to get a down early. Even a build with a single non-hook based perk (such as my wraith build with discordance, surge, leverage and gift of pain) does infinately better on 80% of killers than your average dms, pain res, grim embrace and surge/gift of pain.
In this regard even on some high tier killers who aren't the top like Oni or Plague this remains ture as they need more time before downs rather than afterwards. 4 slowdown is bad if it's the wrong slowdown and just running 4 slowdown because "it's the meta" and "I need the best to make up for being low tier" shows you don't know nor really care about what your perks do for you, your play style, or your killer. To slightly generalise I find this kind of philopshy lazy, people who want to optimise their chances of winning without putting in serious thought into why what they bring makes them win and what can make a perk good. That if a perk isn't top 6 it's bad and not worth it and if a killer isn't top 3 then they need to rely on the top 6 exclusively.
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It's an abstract way of thinking. Having a survivor on hook or on the floor is slowdown as someone needs to stop working a gen to help them. Similarly chasing a survivor is slowdown because they're not on a gen. So info perks which increases the proportional time in chase and chase perks which increase the proportional time someone is down or on hook are, in an abstract sense, slowdown. This is more so a way of thinking which is suppose to combat the idea of "without X slowdown perks how to I stop the survivors doing gens too quickly?" with the answer being info and chase also, in an abstract sense, provide their own down form of slowdown.
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block a gen or regression on a gen.
Anything else is not a slowdown perk
There are also gen/action speed reductions (thana/penti/gift of pain, dying light).
Also, incapacitation would fit this (which isn't on perks anymore, though I do occasionally see people ask for it back).
Perks designed around missing skill checks (not that they're good, but this is what they are intended to do). I suppose the missed skill check "chunk" is regression, but that's generally not what people mean.
And, without attempting to be too broad (because I agree nearly anything could be considered slowdown) you have perks that force gameplay by simply existing: weave (dropping your item in a corner is functionally similar to corrupt), and 3+ stacks of devour will shut down gen progress entirely as people go looking for it.
Most hexes fall into this category, and while "the time to cleanse the totem at the start of the game" is slowdown, that by itself isn't enough value for people to run these most of the time.
I also argue there are perks that can "speed up" gens in this same category. Things like starstruck, or lightborn discourage lurking near chase, and those perks will force survivors back onto gens instead.
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I never run 4 slowdowns at once. I change my builds depending on the killer.
Generally I build after 1-2 information, 1-2 chaseperks, 1-2 slowdown and 1 utility (if possible). Of course the number always depends on the rest.
In huntress case I like to crossmap so I play with lethal, bbq, floods of rage and for the reloadspeed iron maiden.
In singularitys case it's lethal, bbq, surge and rapid brutality for the down in 5 seconds sometimes xD
Most m1-killer have the basic build of bbq, brutal, bamboozle and pop.
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While i would agree that some killer dont need much info, it can sometimes increase their lethality enough to slow gens down more than a fourth gen perk. It depends on the killer like how chase perks are neccesary on some, but useless on others.
Comp players dont use them for many reasons.
- Perks like Nowhere to hide are banned. Otherwise it would be a good pick on nurse. In the end survs would adapt and run away instead of stealthing near the gen. Its also banned bc it limits survs choices. If for example Lethal was allowed nobody could stealth corrupt anymore, bc it would be too risky.
- The gameplan is different. If you want to tunnel someone out/camp, info isnt that important.
- Survs are limited too. You couldnt use the comp strategy if they have anti-tunnel and other strong perks against average killer. Well, info perks wont help either. Except you play against players who cant loop and just hide + bash gens.
- And yh they have a lot more gamesense. They know which gens to protect, when survs need to rotate. And the survs need to be on those specific gens or they lose. BBQ would be a complete waste most of the time.
So an info perk can be the most optimal pick, but it must be the right one for the killer and too many are just so people can autopilot and are detrimental.
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I use only pain res with aura build half the time with him. Other times pain res and DMS with some chase perks. It's my sweat build but could probably drop pain res as DMS is alone already so disgusting. That perk should get nerfed.
I myself don't need it it makes me win 5-4 gens left instead 3-2 gens left. So I get bit of challenge without it but I see in my survivor games how even bad killers use it to win or killers that should lost the match.
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I tend to run two regression perks and two chases perks. Or two regression one chase and one aura perk depending on the killer I'm playing.
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Before anti-facecamp, even Insidious could help killers snowball pressure if they were camping a hook with it. Now it’s essentially a dead perk and should be reworked or removed from the game.
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Lethal: helps you get your first chase and first down faster, which takes one survivor off gens, another off gens to rescue/heal, and maybe a third off gens if you get to another chase more quickly. When paired with other aura perks like Nowhere to Hide or I’m All Ears it’s immensely helpful in finding/downing survivors more quickly, thus slowing them down from working on gens.
Coup de Grace - helps end chases more quickly, which allows you to get back to patrolling gens and starting other chases more quickly.
Anything that helps killers find survivors, chase survivors and down survivors more quickly is also slowing down their progress on gens.
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Gen perks are those perks that specifically pressure or control gens directly, in this context.
Lethal is not a gen perk, it doesn't directly control any generators. It helps you naturally find people and do the basic pressure every Killer already has. It's an info perk. Its purpose is info. Info pressures by controlling how fast the Killer can find someone to chase or shove off a gen. That's all it does.
Coup is not a gen perk, with the exception that it activates when gens are done - it is a chase perk. Chase perks control chase pressure, not gen pressure. Coup is not helping you make gens more difficult to do.
Just because a perk helps Killers pressure better, doesn't mean it's specifically helping them pressure generators better.
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Well for survivor 4 slowdowns are absolutely miserable to go against and even more so on high mobility/S tier killers.
For killers with some game sense, there is no downside to this as you generally have a good idea where survivors are without auras and addons can help even more.
Full 4 slowdown builds should not even be possible, I would rather killers be compensated in other ways, as facing this is just so utterly miserable.
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