Self Care - Why Removing or Nerfing it would be good for the game
In my opinion, some of Dead by Daylight's balance issues could be solved, and the game made more fun for all players by removing or reworking Self Care.
It is no secret that a vast number of players use Self Care especially the higher up the ranks you go. It is so powerful that many players think it's madness not to take it, unless they are in a SWF group. Almost every guide I've read and player I have spoken to have said "Level up Claudette first to get Self Care teachable". Overall, I don't think it is healthy for the game. By the way, I play both Survivor and Killer, so I don't have a bias, and I have a background in game design so I'm trying to use that experience here, rather than just saying "Self Care is OP, pls nerf".
Benefits of Removing Self Care from the game (or nerfing it somewhat):
- Helping to extend game time for Killers in a number of ways (see below)
- Encouraging more use of medkits, meaning less toolboxes (i.e. less gen rushing/4 man toolbox teams)
- Promoting more teamwork and also team-based perks like Empathy, as Survivors would need each other to heal
- Diversifying Killer perks, as ones based on injuries and healing detection will be more viable
- Looting perks like Pharmacy will be more useful because medkits will be more valuable
- Not every player at low ranks will be playing Claudette just to get Self Care before anything else
Negatives to Removing/Nerfing Self Care
- Uncooperative teammates may not heal you
- Makes hook saves more difficult/time consuming as you are more likely to be injured or spend longer getting healed
- May be harsh to last remaining 1 or 2 survivors
I feel that removing/reworking Self Care would add some much needed tension back into the game for survivors who use it as a crutch. I personally enjoy my games without Self Care way more, and find it is far too easy to make comeback after comeback because of Self Care. When multiple teammates have self care, it is very hard for a Killer to hunt down and finish kills, and Survivors can come in waves for hook rescues/Killer bullying because they can just run off and hide and self heal. I have escaped in so many games and made so many mistakes because of Self Care. I think it, like Decisive Strike, doesn't punish you for mistakes. It's a get out of jail free card.
In a world with a less effective or zero Self Care, Survivors will have to play more carefully, think before making risky actions, and try to work more with their team for heals. It will help with the game ending too quickly and Killers relying on Ruin to slow the game down "jus' a little bit". Because Survivors will need to heal each other more, meaning they A: need to find each other, and B: both are not doing gens during healing. Or, they're using medkits, making medkits more useful, encouraging people to loot chests and spend time finding them. Which means there may be less toolkits as some people will prefer medkits instead, again making the game slower.
At the very least I think Self Care should not save its progress if you cancel it, have a much longer duration, or more skill checks/harder skill checks (maybe like Decisive Strike?). Self Care is abused a lot at stuff like pallets during chases which not only looks ridiculous but seems way over the top.
I could go on further about arguments for and against, I know a lot of Survivor mains will rebel at the idea. But I think it would add a lot to the game for both killers and survivors, slowing the game down and encouraging Survivors to use other perks. It would add more tension to the game, where survivors feel more fear and rewarding good play, and give killers a better chance of confirming kills.
Happy to hear your arguments for and against, with your reasoning. I believe the devs have said they are not planning to change Self Care but I think it's worth looking at.
Comments
Non of the above is a "counter" to Self Care.
Nothing is preventing SC from getting used, it only make it take a little longer.
And also one hits aren't counter either, most of them are tied to very specific conditions and have counterplay in themself.
They counter it because it does take longer yet hindering the effect of how useful self-care is. I have won games due to self-caring taking to long because of sloppy with make your choice being a thing while slugging..
People (killers in particular) complain about the survivors, mostly because killers are weak.
Survivors complain about the OP killers, because they don't play killers much, and don't know how hard it is.
and yeah. Survivors are not people. :
Yet neither are killers so what's the point of saying survivors aren't people? You can't claim killers are people then turn around and say survivors aren't.
That is a joke. Don't take it seriously. I play killer for 4 days and now I'm concerned that survivors are mostly offensive, teabagging, and annoying af.
Which is called "tunneling", which is another thing survivor will complain about.
And in a lot of situations tunneling will hurt the killer.
Oh I know, I was just ribbing you is all. I forgot to put the
at end
You definition is not the one that is generally used in this forum by the majority of survivor.
These are some of the key reasons that I think a lot of people overlook with Self Care. Of course Medkits provide a safer self-heal but they are limited in use and require a resource investment from the player.
This has been a good thread and I've changed my opinion since my original post. After playing more with Self Care myself here is what I feel:
Good news is, the devs are already considering changes. Now I have a bit more time, here is what the devs said in the Q&A about their suggestions for healing:
I think the healing changes will be really good for the game as it not only slows the game down but gives the Killer a few more precious seconds to locate healing survivors. It should hopefully promote Survivors having to find safer places to heal. With Self Care taking longer as well, there should be more incentive to find teammates to heal you up. I still think that the bar should also reset if you interrupt the heal.
It's all relative. There's loads of situations where one is going to be better than the other. In my experience, I could spend 20 seconds running around looking for someone to heal me, or I could use a perk slot to do it myself in 24 seconds. Sure, I'd be saving an extra 8 seconds, but is that worth a perk slot to me? I'd say no. There's also something to be said about grouping up with survivors anyway to work on generators. After they heal you, you can stick together and head to a generator. They might also need healing too.
SC speeds healing up. Period.
Anybody telling otherwise is unable to do simple math.
2 people injured can a) heal each other or b) heal side by side using SC and need the same amount of time.
But they can do it without ever the need to waste time searching for one another.
They can play the classic ping pong with the killer, they just run away from all gens and the killer has to either tunnel one and has to give up the gens or he tries to pressure the gens and the injured will heal up asap, because he just needs to stop wherever he just happens to be and start rubbing his belly.
For example: all 3 tank a hit to bodyblock a hook and the victim gets free, all just burst of in different directions and the killer has to choose ONE to follow, while all 3 heal up on their own. By the time he downs the injured guy all other are already healed up and ready to bodyblock and tank a hit, leaving the killer with no progress towards his objective (sacrificing).
Without SC and 2 survivor remaining it would make sense to switch targets after a hit, but not if 84% of all survivor run SC. But still survivor complain about getting "tunneled", but claim that SC is is ok, because the killer should down you. #########?
Well @Vietfox is not the majority of the survivors, so you can't compare @Vietfox to the other survivors. Also sloppy and make your choice are direct counters because if it takes them to long to heal they are not doing gens and self-care will take to long so the killer can find them before they finish their self-care if the killer plays it right.
i dont know if they will nerf it but they cant just remove perks especially since its a claudette teachable perk so they would need to find perk to replace it.
It would also a some what non direct nerf to nurses calling
Their change in the Q&A video sounds fine along with recovery and sabotage.
Regression is not the way to go simply because it's not fun.
You could remove Self Care but I'm not sure you'd like the result.
More SWF and even faster games? Yeah, sure.