The Doctor or Herman Carter was the fourth killer added to the mix in Dead by Daylight. He is an electric menace with abilities to shock its prey. What are these abilities? Are there any good perks for him? Is he even good or fun to play with? Let’s find out in this ultimate guide to the Doctor.
The Doctor is a hybrid standard chase and ability-heavy killer. Not the most pick-up-and-play character. You will have to get acquainted with his special Madness Status Effect, Shock Therapy ability, and Static Blast ability and use them just right before you see the best results.
Here is a detailed guide that covers everything there is to know about The Doctor in Dead by Daylight to make it easier for you to decide whether to pick him or not.
Is The Doctor (Herman Carter) good for beginners?
The Doctor is a comparatively harder killer, to begin with. You will have to put in some time to understand his unique kit. For the Doctor to succeed, you must take advantage of the Madness status effect his abilities inflict. It is a tiered status effect and is not as simple as other inflictions.
Even with a peculiar skill set, this physician functions as a standard killer essentially. He gets easier to control as time progresses, but you will have a hard time when starting off.
Are The Doctor Perks worth upgrading?
The only perk worth looking into for the Doctor is his Overcharge perk. This perk will let you booby-trap most generators, potentially regressing their progression in the process. The perk is great for prolonging the match and giving you more time to continue hunting.
Pair your Shock Blast ability with the Whispers perk to keep an eye out if there are any survivors in your Terror Radius. When you see the perk light up that means there is a survivor in your radius. Send out the Blast to pinpoint their location.
What are The Doctor Perks?
The Doctor has 3 unique perks with three tier levels:
Overwhelming Presence
Survivors within your Terror Radius suffer from inefficiency:
- When using an Item, its Depletion rate is increased by 80/90/100%.
Monitor & Abuse
Increases the radius of your default Terror Radius by +8 meters for the entire Trial.
Whenever you are not in a Chase with a Survivor, the following effects apply:
- Reduces your Terror Radius by -16 meters.
- Increases your Field of View by 3/5/10 °.
Overcharge
Performing the Damage Generator Action on a Generator applies Overcharge. The next Survivor interacting with that Generator faces a difficult Skill Check.
- Failing that Skill Check instantly regresses the Generator by 2/3/4 % of its maximum possible Progression in addition to the default Progression penalty.
After Overcharge is applied to a Generator, it also increases the Regression speed from 85 % to 130 % over the next 30 seconds.
What Weapon does The Doctor have?
The Doctor comes equipped with The Stick as his primary weapon in Dead by Daylight. It doesn’t look like a stick though! The devs should have come up with something more creative.
What Powers does The Doctor have?
This killer’s prowess lies in his Carter’s Spark power which deals a special Madness status effect. This status effect goes through three tiers with increasingly demented afflictions. Madness is applied and builds up to higher tiers as you land your other abilities on individual survivors.
The effects of these three tiers are:
- Tier 1: Survivors will scream when applied, prompting their location. There is a 33% chance that any Skill Check will be a Madness Skill Check i.e. a harder form of skill check.
- Tier 2: Scream as the Madness tier-up. The Madness Skill Check chance is bumped up to 66%. Survivors will randomly start seeing hallucinations of the Doctor (Illusionary Doctor), causing panic.
- Tier 3: Survivors will randomly scream in this tier. 100% chance of Madness Skill Check. The Doctor can see the aura of the Illusionary Doctor, aiding in tracking. This hinders the afflicted survivor’s ability to use items, props like windows, and interact with other survivors.
Survivors can’t lose the Madness effect completely. They will always stay inflicted by at least the tier 1 of Madness. After reaching tier 3, they can use a special Snap Out of It animation to remove the heightened effects. Even then, it will revert them to tier 1.
The Madness and its subsequent tiers are applied through the Doctor’s other two special abilities:
Shock Therapy sends out a wave of electricity on the ground in front of the Doctor. It adds a 0.5 tier to the Madness build-up. Halts any interactions like vaulting etc. when they are hit and this inability to interact will linger on for 2.5 seconds.
On the other hand, Static Blast goes through the air and covers the entirety of the killer’s Terror Radius. This ability adds a whole +1 tier to the Madness meter of a struck survivor. It will stop them from any interaction at the time of impact but doesn’t have a lingering effect.
Both of these abilities travel through obstacles so you can hit survivors without having them in your line of sight.
Is The Doctor fun to play?
The Doctor can be a fun character in Dead by Daylight given you have put in the time to perfect his playstyle. He is an ability-dependent killer mixed with a regular chase-heavy killer. Finding the right flow of using ability and chasing can be damn entertaining.
However, the madness build-up, the mix of two different special abilities, and insanely complicated perks/add-ons make this killer less approachable. He takes a good chunk of time to grow on, provided you even like this playstyle.
What are some tips and tricks to get better with The Doctor?
Here are some tips that you can employ when playing as this killer:
- Increasing the range of Shock Therapy through add-ons is an easy choice. The Maple Knight add-on will highlight the area of effect of this power.
- Order add-ons will decrease Static Blast cooldown and replace some pallets with illusionary ones to confuse survivors.
- His Madness-related add-ons are extremely complex and add a bunch of different effects to this status effect. Choose them very wisely.
- Use Static Blast in areas where there are multiple Generators nearby. This way, you have a better chance of randomly hitting and ultimately locating survivors to begin the chase.
- Static Blast is great at location prompting so use it when you feel lost. This works better in indoor maps, not open areas.
- When you are chasing, if you see the survivor going towards a pallet or any form of critical action then start charging up Shock Therapy to stop them in their tracks.
- If you end up chasing two survivors or if they are body-blocking you, this is the perfect time to send out Shock Therapy.
- Do not use Static Blast haphazardly, it has a long cooldown. The same goes for Shock Therapy, if the survivor isn’t going for any pallet or any other interaction then chase and lunge them as normal. Use these abilities at the most opportune time.
- Shocking them right when they are ready to vault will block them from the action and essentially corner them if you reach them in time.
- Illusionary Doctor auras are another great method of tracking.
The Doctor is hard to prescribe but if you like this particular playstyle then he is the correct medicine. Take the tips mentioned above to heart and use his abilities in the most strategic manner for the most shocking outcomes.