Playing to a killers strengths rather then to cover their weakness's.
Something i've seen forever in the dbd community since i was brought into it is the constant crying of people to use perks that slowdown the game. Ruin, corrupt intervention, pop goes the weasel are all toted as some of the most viable perks (although for good reason) however what you don't see truly enough of is the fact that these are all technically crutch perks (though not in the same way that perhaps noed might be.) Let me explain.
A simple example of this would be that trapper, an incredible killer at times, and an absolutely abhorent killer at others, can simply be feast or famine depending on the build you play with him. However, dumping ruin and corrupt intervention on him simply cover his (admittedly huge) weakness of an early game, but don't play into his strengths. Whilst they might buy you precious time to set up traps, the top tier trapper mains out there don't typically use these perks on him, or at the very least switch them out very often. we can agree to disagree on this, that otzdarva is a talented trapper, yet one might not see him play with those perks on him very often. Because covering a killers weakness's is honestly one of the worst ways to play them. Trapper is incredible at steam rolling the game, making it go from a complete loss and switching it on its head like a coin flip, and perks such as stbfl, infectious fright, etc are so much better for him then simply wasting survivors time. i'd argue that one of the reasons players suffer whilst playing arguably lower tier killers is because there attempting to brute force covering their weaknesses rather then playing to their strengths.
Take nurse as the middle ground example. people always run, bbq, tracking perks and anything in order to get information on survivors. this is a good demonstration of weaknesses becoming strengths as at base kit nurse has zero tracking ability and only becomes even better upon adding it. whilst using ruin/corrupt wouldn't be a bad idea on her they are not at all playing to her strengths of finding survivor's and finishing chases easily. because whilst her tracking might be a weakness, her ability to capitalize on information is not, which is why information perks are incredible on her. her weakness is coverable yes, but in a reverse way players are unintentionally playing to her strengths (or intentionally in the case of high tier nurse play, where you will typically see infectious fright, whispers/bbq, im all ears, and possibly a slowdown perk such as pop due to her ability to easily patrol generators.) information is both the nurses biggest weakness and her greatest strength when she has it.
And to take leatherface as my final example. he is arguably one of the weakest killers in the game due to his difficulty patrolling, and downing survivors in a chase, with no tracking by default (excluding his teachable bbq which im not including.) and yet put insidious on him and he becomes a nightmare. put pwyf on him to cover his singular chase weakness causing his chasing ability to become nigh unbeatable. Whilst in a way you could argue your covering his weakness's i'd argue your playing to his strengths! he is incredibly good at maintaining area pressure, whether thats within the basement or otherwise, and once he gains any form of speed, his instant down chainsaw is on par with billy/myers, perhaps even better due to the fact it can take down multiple people. and yet i still see people arguing for using slowdown perks or tracking perks on him despite his steam roll (akin to trapper) being his best aspect. Sure it might be difficult expecially for a newer player to capitalize on a snowball, however it is arguably a more fun, rewarding and powerful playstyle then chucking slowdown perks and enduring/spirit fury on him.
TLDR: main point of rant is to basically say that just trying to cover a killers weakness's doesn't make them powerful. putting ruin, pop, sloppy etc on a nurse doesn't make her powerful, it just buys her time. using sloppy, nurses etc on a ghostface as yet another example, plays into his power and makes him deadly.
thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Comments
You're kinda right and kinda wrong. Playing into a killers strengths is good, but ignoring his weaknesses is really detremental for your matches. That means killers that don't got the ability to put constant pressure on the survivors should still try to longer a match, if they wanna pip and don't camp and slug. I mean you can play basement trapper, because he got a strong basement game, but some people just don't like playing around the basement.
Im not saying people should be forced into playstyles with certain killers. just that some combos are better then "ruin bbq, enduring spirit fury" ie doctor is better with distressing
Yeah, i can completely agree on that. There are no M1 killer imo.
bingo my man. Just want to bring attention to the fact that there are better more viable playstyles for certain killers whom some would just put "meta" perks on!
same with survivors tbh