What my killer playstyle has come down to recently
Survivor is same old, same old. 1-2 people DC at the beginning and ensure our loss, or we completely decimate the killer through gen rush.
I am, more often than not, on the other side of that coin. I like playing killer, so I get those early DC and gen rush games too. But a large amount of my games have felt unwinnable. I don't use Nurse or Spirit, and console Blight is console Blight. So I'm using bottom of the barrel killers, which is what any killer below the so-called "S-tier killers" is. I'm talking Trapper, Clown, Ghost Face, Deathslinger, dare I say Nemesis.
I really want to play Deathslinger right now, because after this coming update when his quick scope gets taken away, which is all he has going for him realistically, he's gonna be so unviable that I won't be able to stomach playing him anymore. But as of right now, I've used trial in error to find the best strategy for using Deathslinger, and the results may or may not surprise you.
I've come to the conclusion that there's no point in defending gens, not with how I play anyway. If you can't apply heavy pressure from the start AND keep it going, like I usually can't, you're never gonna be able to make gen defence perks work. Even if you create a 3-gen, survivors can just overcome it by playing smart. If 4 survivors are still alive, that 3-gen is as good as gone. And most of the time, the survivors split the map anyway. So I'm not using Ruin, Pop, Corrupt, Surge. None of that, because it will only delay the inevitable. So perhaps gen defence perks DO carry killers, but if we're not using them, then what can we use?
Chase perks are usually out of the question. What difference will I'm All Ears make if the survivors never put themselves in a position where you can capitalize on it? What use are you gonna get out of Spirit Fury/Enduring once they realize you have it? Do I even have to explain why Coup de Gras is a bad pick? STBFL is nice on Deathslinger, but increasingly I'm seeing games where I'm so preoccupied with building up STBFL that it's all I have going for me, and it usually isn't enough to turn the game around. And of course the obsession is constantly getting in my way. So what you've got are "chase perks" that can easily be countered, provide no gen defence, and matter little once you reach endgame.
I can't use NOED and endgame builds, because I've got nothing going for me most of the game, so what difference will a bit of catch-up at the end make? NOED will be found, Rancor will make the obsession immersed, No Way Out can be waited out, Remember me is a joke, etc. A comeback at the very end is a pipe dream. It's a romanticized thing you see on cherry picked YouTube videos, because it does not happen like that all the time. In fact, survivors have to throw to give you a win at the end like that, as with any other point in the match.
The once great, but no longer, hit and run tactic is an interesting one. You injure someone, move on to the next person, injure them, on to the next person. Soon, with any luck, they're all injured. It works best on killers like Legion, Wraith, Ghost Face, and Deathslinger. This is getting closer to my current playstyle with Deathslinger, but not quite. Being a 110% killer definitely doesn't help, unless it's a super small map. And you've eventually got to commit to a down when playing like this, but who knows what could happen when you choose to do that? Usually, by the time I down and hook that person, everyone else is healed to full somehow or stayed injured and pushed gens to the point where you've lost already. A lose-lose. You would need the craziest value from Ruin, assuming it's still up, to get this strategy to work nowadays.
Now, camping and tunneling is an easy way to lose the game, contrary to popular belief. But slugging? A very formidable strategy. It used to really not be me style, but I think it's warming up to me. Mass slugging is usually what people tell killers to do when they can't defend gens. Turns out, that's partly true. The problem is that survivors once again have to be the ones to make mistakes. Once survivors catch on to the fact that you're mass slugging, they're gonna bide their time, pick each other up, heal to full, and then start pushing gens for the win.
BUT with a killer power that can cause individual slowdown via deep wound, coupled with perks that specialize in slugging like Knock Out and Nurse's, you've got yourself a well-crafted slugging build that can be hard to overcome since everyone is usually injured. And that is my new build I've found: Knock Out, Deerstalker, Nurse's, and BBQ. Before you call it a lame strategy, let me remind you about a handful of survivor perks that counter this strategy: Unbreakable, Soul Guard, We're Gonna Live Forever, Desperate Measures, Kindred, Tenacity, No Mither. And of course SWF, in which case Knock Out becomes completely useless, which is a huge oversight in its design, I must say. If it is SWF, it is gonna be the hardest race you've ever drove. You're gonna have to down survivors quicker than they pick themselves up AND complete the gens.
And this build has had mixed success for me. If it's SWF, I usually lose, which causes me to lobby dodge some. But even solos can have the right perks/luck to constantly be finding each other and picking each other up. Sometimes the survivors split the map and get really good gates, and/or hold W the whole match, so I can't possibly beat them at that point. For those reasons, the stressful, unwinnable games have not departed. They've only gone down in frequency, which at the end of the day is the most I can expect out of killer.
TLDR: Mass slugging, 1-hooking with Deathslinger.
Comments
Sounds not really fun for you, and miserable for survs.
The question is: What do you aim for.
For me it is a challenge to get a good result without using "unfitting perks". Unfitting being a completly subjective categorie that varies for each Killer. As an example: A Hex does not fit on Ghostface, Thanatophobia does not fit on Cenobite.
Now with each Killer I have a bit of a different goal. I want to use their power to the max potential. As such I like stalking with Ghostface, only mixing some hit and run because I think stalking and insta downing is more fun. I aim for some sick chainsaws while sprinting around a loop when playing Bubba and the match is a "win" for me if I get this right once per game. And as Pinhead I always teleport (unless I just downed somebody) and chase the person that summoned me, I do not turn down any challenge.
The thing is, even with kills now being regarded as a "win", I just refuse to play to that role. You can do this too if you like.
Relax a bit, make a fun build and if needed loose a few matches until you are at the right MMR. At the start of this system I got stomped in most of my Ghostface games because I run no slowdown perks (aside from Surge from time to time). After a while it stopped and now I get desecent matches.
I hope this approach can help you to get more fun out of the game. Maybe it works for you, it did for me.
Well, I would have more fun playing whatever perks I want, but killer seriously doesn't allow for that.
I want the 4k. Every killer should have a chance to 4k. 2 or 3 will do for me, too. If I have to slug and 1-hook people to get kills, I don't care. Because playing for hooks and defending the gens is simply unviable these days.
Does mass slugging really work though? Especially with unbreakable being a meta perk.
I get pretty chill games tbh. Maybe it's because I'm too nice and let people go sometimes. My MMR is probably low. I got a 3K + gave someone the hatch today on RPD with no regression perks. (I gave the last guy the hatch partly because I felt bad for them, partly because I needed to carry a survivor 300 meters. But that's done now!)
So there is no secret that this game still has a fair share of weak killers in this game. I know people complain about gen times, but with these killers the problems already start with themselves. Trapper is getting a buff luckily, though that probably won't make him meta.
Nemesis though is already fairly strong in my opinion, all he needs is his zombies fixed, and maybe addons buffed. But I have been playing with Nemesis quite a bit lately and am getting fairly good results. Even matches that I lost, I was able to do halfways well with Nemesis. In my experience, trying to defend only a part of map is effective with killers like Nemesis, that are powerful enough.
But to be fair, I am not quite sure what my MMR is. It shouldn't be low, but not sure if it's the soft cap of 1900. I'm not that good with killer.
There is no doubt that gens go very fast at high mmr though, so you shouldn't concern yourself too much about how you play, whether its fun for survivors or not. You just shouldn't go out of your way to ruin their fun.
It's the devs job to try and make this game more fun for both sides.
In my experience, gen defense perks are some of the best to use. Again, with stronger killers, gen defense is possible, it's not easy though. What I don't quite get though, if you struggle many times with gens and lose your matches, you should have your mmr lowered and then start going against survivors more fitting to your skill level, but sbmm just doesn't seem to work that well. For reasons that the devs already have admitted themselves, sadly.
It does it your terrible at killer, like me! :)
It's a b*tch to come across, but at least they can only use it once to get up. The increased recovery speed though is forever. I actually don't see that many Unbreakables, except for when the whole team has it, in which case you lose.