Even though my win rate isnât quite so spectacular, as a hunter main, Iâd like to add some details to this (though Iâm not sure it applies for everyone since this depends a lot on how the hunter thinks and you canât exactly control that):
This is basic stuff, but you see the timer on the top of the screen while your teammate is chaired? Well, thereâs three sections to this timer. The beginning phase, the halfway point, and the end phase. If you rescue your teammate in the time between the beginning and the halfway point, when they get back on the chair the timer will be set to the halfway point and youâll get some time to plan a second rescue. On the other hand, once the timer passes the halfway point, the next time your teammate gets on the chair will be their death.
Unless theyâre low tier and donât know this stuff, hunters donât want to sit and watch as the timer goes up all the way with no one saving. Thatâs a waste of time doing nothing while your decoding roles are tapping away at their ciphers. So they would want one of the two situations: (1) the saving role immediately saving so that they can skip the beginning phase time or (2) the chaired survivor being saved after they go over the halfway point so that they can quickly send away a member of your team. This is why, as a saving role, you have to time your rescue just right so that the hunter gets neither of these things. Donât arrive too early or too late, and if you arrive too late youâre better off waiting to save them near the end so you can buy more time for your teammates to decode.
Now, in terms of movement patterns, there are a few things that hunters may try to do after they chair a survivor (this only applies for the classic chase and kill hunters though. Mad eyes and Dream Witch players may have a different tactic) They will either (1) walk off to find someone else (usually if the chaired person is a saving role or has a decoding debuff) (2) patrol around the area to try and down the saving role before they get to the chair (this can be done by either patrolling near the chair in widening circles until tinnitus exposes your location or through watching the cipher antennas. The one that stops moving is the direction the saving role is coming from) or (3) wait in front of the chair for you to come to them (sometimes when tinnitus has already activated while chairing and they donât know your location). Depending on their play style, you may have to adapt, and try your best to not get downed before the player on the chair is rescued. If you think you canât do it, you might want to just run away. One dead survivor is better than one dead and one downed.
As for how hunters can trick you, they can (a) attack but at a distance far enough so that they donât hit the chair. A bunch of survivors only look for the attack and not the attack recovery animation and hence get terror shocked. (b) Emoting. âThreatenâ is a good one since it contains actions similar to the attack animation and has a follow up as well. Hunters can use this to fake pallet trampling too to trick survivors into trying to switch kiting locations and hence getting a free hit. The emoting works amusingly well with forwards.
Just like how you know to cipher prime, the hunter knows youâre going to cipher prime too, and may make some seemingly inexplicable movements. Such as: leaving a newly chaired survivor to camp the cipher you were priming. Why would they do this? Thatâs because if they camp the chaired survivor, sure, they can ensure that this survivor will die eventually, cipher prime or not. But then that means everyone else escapes. If the hunter camps this cipher, you canât prime this cipher without getting downed. You canât finish the last cipher. If you canât finish the last cipher, all of you are still stuck in this map with the hunter and you canât escape. You may have to decode a new cipher. This buys the hunter time to send away more of your teammates. The thought is that you can have your teammates but you canât have the cipher. How to counteract a situation like this? If the cipher is honestly nearly done, you can (a) have all the survivors present come to forcefully decode the cipher (the hunter canât down all of you that fast) or (b) decode a new cipher. Since so far I am the only one Iâve run into in rank whoâs done this cipher camping before, and the survivors sometimes seem a bit lost when I do it, I donât know which oneâs better. I just know that cipher camping can turn a 3 escape into a 4 elimination.
You know in the Red Church? The odd cipher in the crumbling wall zone where thereâs one pallet? Near the graveyard exit gate? Yeah. Thatâs a guaranteed survivor spawn location too. I go there first every time on this map and every time I find an innocent trail of footprints running away. If youâre a decoding role who spawned there you might wanna hide. The kiting zone at the edge of the sea near the big ship as well as the wooden hut with ciphers near the exit gate in Lakeside are guarantees too.
Also, if your hunter is a Joseph, thereâs a chance theyâve memorized all survivor spawn locations, so donât just crouch where you are and hope they donât find your image.
4) Remember where your teammates were decoding
Sometimes your teammates will send a âfocus on decodingâ message once they reach a cipher. Use this to determine which cipher theyâre decoding. If they get chased, after you finish your own cipher you can then go finish theirs. I once saw my friend have a match where the total decoding ended up as 700%. You donât need 7 ciphers. You need 5. Reduce the time spent on decoding and youâre giving the hunter less chances.
5) Kiting under detention
Donât take any chances. Donât give the hunter any chances. Throw down every pallet you run into while chased and donât even try to stun them. Switch kiting locations when the pallets are sparse and while the hunterâs trampling pallets. Try your darnedest to dodge all long range attacks. Detention doesnât last forever, only for 1-2 minutes. It ends when your borrowed time ends. Watch your borrowed time timer. As long as youâre at full health once detention ends, you may have a chance to rush the gate or the dungeon.
I donât know how you call it in english but in chinese we call it ć˝ĺ. Basically, if youâre behind a pallet, and the hunterâs right in front of a pallet, if the hunter attacks at the same time as when you throw down the pallet, you will get hit. That sounds hard to do, but survivors who hide behind pallets trying to stun hunters sometimes have a bad habit of throwing the pallet once they see movement from the hunter. My own way to avoid this is to just. Not try to stun hunters at all but sometimes stunning is necessary for weaker survivors to safely switch kiting locations. So just watch their patterns. It takes a bit of experience.
You might want to watch out for Jack while throwing any pallets. As long as the Jack can aim, they can guarantee a hit on you with fog blade while youâre throwing pallets. Even if you stun them, as long as they clicked attack in front of the pallet, fog blade will hit you. They can also toss a fog blade through the wall and hit you if youâve been hiding behind the pallet. A good way to counter this is to trick the Jack into releasing fog blade before throwing the pallet.
titsay
stormborns
gummygunk
