Dead by Daylight Doctor Guide: Measuring The Madness

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Trevor Abbott

Trevor is a skilled content writer who enjoys laid-back gaming with friends. He plays versatile genres with a taste for survival horror, RPGs, and Sci-fi adventures. He enjoys video games with rich story elements and otherworldly video game music. He has played prominent titles like Resident Evil, Dead Space, and Dead by Daylight. He finds a great sense of accomplishment every time he tackles challenges in video games.

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Dead By Daylight is a thrilling asymmetrical horror experience where survivors are trapped in a mysterious and dangerous realm in the midst of dangerous enemies. Among them is one of the most iconic and demoniacal killers of all time, Dr. Herman Carter, known simply as The Doctor. He has been a guilty obsession of mine and was my first choice from day one, with a menacing appearance and sophisticated appeal that stood out among the others.

I have achieved rank one with The Doctor multiple times and have reached prestige ten as potent evidence of my commitment to his maddening influence over the minds of countless survivors. There is something infinitely gratifying about having your finger on the dial the entire match.

I’m ecstatic to share my profound insight and passion for this classic killer so you can make survivors go insane while laughing all the way to the asylum! Prepare to get strapped down to the gory examination table as your eyes are fixed open to witness the heart-sinking horrors of Dr. Herman Carter! Welcome to a Dead by Daylight Doctor guide.

Bottom Line Up Front

The Doctor is an original killer from Dead By Daylight with many teeth-clenching abilities that cause disorientation and a lack of progress in survivors. He embodies fear for survivors and causes distressing psychological effects that are potent and lasting throughout the trial.

Playing the Doctor requires skill, knowledge, and the correct application of his powers. These include static blast, shock therapy, and progression through three tiers of madness. He’s thrilling to play, but most survivors are reluctant to face him because their locations are continually revealed with crippling results.

Dr. Herman Carter’s Disturbing Lore

With a fascination for human psychology and a demented passion for inflicting pain and torture on the mind, Dr. Herman Carter’s career led him to the higher echelon of sinister experimentation, inspired by the actual events of MK-ULTRA, which started in the 1950s. Herman always stressed the limitations of morality concerning discovery and scientific advancement. This led him to be recruited to the Lery Memorial Institute, where he was handpicked for an advanced program in neuroscience.

It was a front for covert experimental operations under the CIA. He worked with Dr. Otto Stamper and developed vicious information extraction methods through advanced interrogation techniques. He was known for especially violent shock therapy treatments in the name of national security.

This position suited his sadistic tendencies, but patients and even personnel of the institute started to go missing. An investigation was launched, the location was condemned, but no trace of the Doctor was found. From the evidence, information extraction for him soon turned to bizarre, ruthless, and horrendous procedures of torment. Dr. Stamper was found alive with his brain exposed to active electrodes and sensors, a shell of his former self. Thus, a monstrous and meticulous killer was born. 

The Doctor’s Perks

Overwhelming Presence

If you notice on the load screen that survivors are running some particularly hindering items, you should use overwhelming presence. That’s because, within your terror radius, they suffer from a maximum of 100% efficiency at the highest perk tier. It can make the difference between getting blinded with a flashlight once or ten times.

This is an excellent personal perk for killers who disdain valuable items brought in or discovered during the trial. The inefficiency will translate to all aspects of the game, including healing, toolbox repair, and flashlight spamming. As the name implies, they will be overwhelmed with inefficiency, which can be a game-changer.

Monitor & Abuse

Monitor & Abuse is one of those perks that tend to be used universally by all serious killers. It serves some exciting functions that keep survivors on their toes. First, it reduces your terror radius by 16 meters outside a chase. This means that survivors have less time to react when approaching, and you’re more likely to get into more pursuits because they can’t flee in time.

However, if you’re in a chase, your radius is increased by 8 meters which can keep them off generators and mess with their minds. The final function of this perk is the increased field of view which can help tricky survivors who try to play mind games in a chase.

Overcharge

If you hate getting gen rushed and despise the progress of seasoned survivors, then Overcharge is a perk that will surprise them. After kicking a generator, survivors face a tremendously tricky skill check when returning to it. The regression speed of the generator is increased to 200% over the next thirty seconds if no survivor repairs it, and staying in proximity maximizes and ensures this effect.

If the survivor fails the difficult skill check, it will immediately lose up to 5% of its progress and can stack fast if you keep kicking it. Overcharge is an excellent perk for slowing the match and alerting you when they miss the skill check to initiate a chase. If they hit the skill check, it only keeps the generator from exploding. With this perk, you’re almost guaranteed to thwart some survivors during the trial.

The Doctor’s Weapon & Powers

The Stick

The Doctor’s preferred weapon is known simply as “The Stick.” It’s a sharp metal rod with spikes that protrude and give off a menacing aura that can’t be ignored. Electrodes create a shocking surprise for all those who are misfortunate enough to get hit with them. There are different variations of the Stick, and one of my favorites is the surgeon buddy, a classical surgical tool with an electric spark at the top.

When all other treatments and procedures fail, the Doctor turns to his trusty Stick to punish his victims. It takes two hits to down a survivor with the Stick, and it has an in-game spark animation. If you decide to prestige the Doctor, you can get a special alternative bloody stick that is evidence of your commitment to the killer.

Shock Therapy

Pressing and holding the power button will charge the Doctor’s shock therapy attack. This is perhaps his most memorable strategy that doesn’t do any physical damage to the survivors. Instead, it psychologically affects them by progressing them through the dreaded madness tiers.

Not only that, but it will make them scream in terror as the Doctor pursues them. His movement speed is slightly slowed during the execution of shock therapy, and the range can be altered through various add-ons. It can go through walls, pallets, and objects on the map, like cars and anything else, making it difficult to avoid.

This ranged attack shocks the ground and can be altered to a cone or straight line, depending on the add-ons you choose. Shock therapy is a staple strategy that allows for quick progression through the tiers of madness, inhibiting survivor progression and causing them to lose grip on reality.

Static Blast

The Doctor has a unique electrifying ability known as the Static Blast, which every survivor highly fears. It negatively affects all survivors in the terror radius, revealing their location and causing them to scream. If a survivor is hit with this blast, it will also cause them to progress through the madness tiers. One notable quality of this attack is it will immediately stop the actions of survivors.

For example, suppose you’re approaching an unhooked survivor and utilizing static blast at the right time. In that case, it will stop the rescuer from completing the action, and you can pursue them easily. It has a 60-second cooldown and cannot be activated during this time, giving survivors a needed respite from the shocking treatment. It’s important to note that Static Blast will negate the Oblivious status effect when used.

Madness Tiers: The Key To Unlocking Herman’s Full Potential

Madness Tier 1

When using static blast or shock therapy, you will notice on the screen that the first tier of madness is triggered. You don’t have to spam for tier three in the beginning immediately, and it’s best to spread your attacks throughout the match. Tier one causes survivors to scream involuntarily across a certain distance on the map. This triggers them to reveal their location to the Doctor with lethal consequences.

There is also a 33% chance it will trigger madness skill checks. To escape madness, they must wake up from the state of insanity and waste time that could be spent completing generators. Getting each survivor to the first madness tier is enough to have a good game, but progressing beyond that will put them in Hell with limited relief. Survivors hit with static blasts are immediately in Madness Tier 1 and will scream when hit.

Madness Tier 2

Madness Tier 2 is where things get freaky for survivors going up against the Doctor. You have the same effect of screaming once, revealing a survivor’s location and causing them to panic psychologically. If they’re on a generator and randomly yell, they’re going to retreat from that location in fear of being pursued by the all-seeing Doctor. The special effect of Madness Tier 2 is that survivors will witness illusionary hallucinations of the Doctor at varying intervals.

This can cause you to lose concentration in a chase and distract new players, especially from the objective. In tier 2, it’s hard to discern reality from hallucination, and there’s a moderate chance for triggering skill checks at 66%, The illusions of the Doctor can appear in many different locations. Some of them are comical, like on roofs or trees, which inevitably catches survivors off guard.

Madness Tier 3

If you thought the other tiers were terrible, welcome to Madness Tier 3, where virtually all hope is lost unless they snap out of the madness with a series of complex skill checks. If they miss them, it will cause them to scream again, revealing their location to the Doctor. Instead of crying once, they end up doing it intermittently, so it’s the perfect tracking tool to pin down survivors trying to escape.

Tier 3 also yields hallucinations of the Doctor as an ever-present confusing source of terror throughout the map. Perhaps the most crippling effect of this tier is that survivors cannot repair, sabotage, heal, search, or cleanse totems while under its effects until they snap out of it.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll complete the skill checks, so it’s perilous. There is a tremendous chance at 100% to trigger madness skill checks. Even if they successfully snap out of it, they will be returned to madness tier one and are still hindered.

Notably Effective Add-ons

Iridescent King & Queen

The iridescent King & Queen are two ultra-rare add-ons that sit comfortably on the demented squares of the Doctor’s chessboard of terror. There’s a good reason they are hard to obtain in the blood web, and I find that they always make the match smoother when going up against challenging survivors.

The iridescent King creates illusory pallets that will fool survivors into thinking they can be used, thereby closing the distance during a chase. Every 20 seconds, a random broken pallet is replaced with an illusive one. The King also allows illusion Doctors to be increased by an astounding six seconds. The Iridescent Queen’s effects include the static charge staying with the survivor until discharged.

If you’re near another survivor, then static charge becomes contagious, and you both get shocked like you would with the shock therapy attack. Finally, if survivors are within four meters of each other when hit with the blast or therapy attack, they won’t receive the static charge.

“Calm” Carter’s Notes

“Calm” Carters Notes is an excellent add-on to consider because it can mess with the minds of survivors and increase the Doctor’s terror radius by 8 meters if you have a static blast ready to use. Additionally, it can reduce his terror radius by 8 meters if the static blast is on cooldown. This coupled with Monitor & Abuse, can create confusion and give you an advantage when approaching survivors on generators.

If you’re in madness tier two, this add-on will create an illusionary radius that imitates the sound of the Doctor being near when he isn’t. If you’re in tier three, this heart-pounding sound will be continually present and give you a constant sense of anxiety until you snap out of it.

High Stimulus Electrode

The standard range of your shock therapy attack is generally acceptable, but I enjoy using the High Stimulus Electrode add-on to ensure I get a hit every time. Survivors are fast and can avoid the attack when it’s a shorter range which wastes precious time. It increases the area of effect by 4 meters. This may not seem like much, but it can help when dealing with survivors hiding behind objects to get away.

After playing the Doctor for years, I’ve realized that it’s essential to land those hits to get them into madness as soon as possible so you can start downing and hooking them. The extra four meters help because you’re already losing distance when charging the attack, and it can be tricky to land hits reliably. There are also lower tiers of this same add-on, like the Mouldy Electrode, if you wish to add even more distance to the shock therapy attack.

“Discipline” Carter’s Notes

“Discipline” Carters Notes activates when survivors enter the madness state, so it’s essential to trigger it for it to be effective in the game. Madness tier two will start an illusory red stain and hallucination as if the Doctor were trailing right behind them when no one is there. This effect will happen for 6 seconds after the end of a chase so that they will continue fleeing and waste time that would be better spent.

This is an excellent add-on because in madness tier three, the effects are continuous, and they feel like the Doctor is always chasing them. It’s especially effective against new players who don’t know the difference between madness and sanity. When using this, you will gain the advantage of fear over the survivor’s senses.

A Doctorate Education For Killing Efficiently

Shutting Down Loops With Shock Therapy

One of the reasons I believe the Doctor to be a high-tier killer is that he can shut down looping with shock therapy. A survivor usually has the advantage when a pallet is up during a loop, but if you shock them, you have a short window of time to attack without worrying about getting stunned by the pallet. It cancels their ability to drop pallets so you can lunge and get a free hit.

This is also exceptionally useful for loops with windows because they won’t be able to vault efficiently right after being shocked. This takes time and practice to master, but keeping an eye on them will help you execute correctly for a brutal surprise.

The Doctor can shut down typical strategies of survivors and continue the chase so you can achieve bloodlust tiers efficiently. Keep in mind that Static Blast also has the same effect on windows and pallets.

Using “Whispers” To Optimize Static Blast

Whispers is a perk that lets you know if you’re within a certain proximity of survivors in the area. This goes well with the Doctor’s Static Blast ability because it ensures you get more hits when whispers are active. It’s a guaranteed hit every time, and since survivors tend to flock together, it will increase the collective madness of the team.

There’s nothing worse than wasting your static blast because survivors were outside the terror radius range. They are doing everything possible to get away from the Doctor’s blast. Using Whispers will give you more consistency when using his extraordinary power and maximize its potential to locate and eradicate survivors in a race against time. It also insults injury by allowing you to find survivors more efficiently, not that you need it when playing the Doctor.

Balance Shock Therapy With Standard Attacks

I know it’s fun to spam shock therapy when you’re starting, and every new Doctor player will do it. It can be addicting to inflict terror on survivors and torture them with your ability, but you’re not accomplishing much. When you reach madness tier three, you can’t go any higher, and shock therapy doesn’t serve much purpose except to hinder survivor actions. You will notice that it’s easier to inflict mental suffering as the Doctor, but his powers can work against you without restraint. Try to attack at unexpected time to avoid being outwitted.

Remember, the main goal is to attack and get them hooked and sacrificed before the trial is over. Shock therapy and static blast should be seen as accessories to your killing endeavors instead of the main attack. For example, if you have just been gen-rushed and there are only two generators left, you’ll want to ease up on the shock therapy and prioritize attacking with your primary weapon to damage and get hooks.

360 Prediction & Hit Timing

Survivors can perform a strategy known as a 360, where they dart in the opposite direction to avoid an incoming attack. A well-timed 360 can baffle beginner and intermediate killers, and it’s a highly psychological tactic. However, the Doctor is a bit harder to accomplish this with because you are never sure if he will use shock therapy or go for an attack. He can still be tricked, and hit timing is critical.

Pay attention to survivors looking back at you and trying to predict their movements and delay the attack after turning around to match their 360 attempts. This will result in an unexpected hit and save you some time. Some survivors will attempt this strategy every time, and noting which ones are doing it will help you predict their elusive evasions. Using the lunge in this situation is invaluable because there is some distance when they turn around. Madness tiers will also hinder this strategy and break their concentration.

My Perk Combination For The Doctor

Monitor & Abuse

Monitor & Abuse is invaluable when playing the Doctor and many other killers. You might wonder why it’s so hard to get into a chase, and it’s due to the terror radius that warns survivors of your presence as you approach their location. It’s a perk that gives you a better view of the map and helps you track survivors better in a chase, thereby reducing the chance of escape.

The increased terror radius in a chase tends to make playing the objective more anxiety-provoking because your presence is harder to detect. If you want more chases, Monitor & Abuse can achieve this, as you will catch survivors off guard while repairing. They will assume there is more time to complete it when the Doctor is already very near and ready to administer treatment.

Pop Goes The Weasel

It’s already hard enough for survivors to complete the objective without being tracked down by the Doctor. Adding the element of significant generator damage will prolong the trial and increase your chances of sacrificing them all to the Entity. Many survivors feel the Doctor is one of the most oppressive killers in the game, but the Doctor running Pop Goes The Weasel is almost impossible to escape.

After hooking, you have some time to kick a generator and instantly do up to 20% regression damage to the generator. This is great for buying extra time to get more hooks and sacrifice them efficiently. It’s especially effective against generators that are almost completed.

Whispers

As mentioned earlier, Whispers is particularly effective with the Doctor because of his Static Blast ability. You can hear survivors up to 48 meters from your location and effectively activate Static Blast for a guaranteed hit. This perk is excellent for tracking survivors and saving time by traversing in the right direction toward them. If the whispers ping turns off, you might want to shift directions to approach them and reveal their location with Static Blast.

It’s a unique perk where the Entity creates ominous noises and directs you toward the active spots on the map where survivors might be camping. You can easily know if someone is near and hiding in the bushes because the perk will alert you that someone is close. It makes accurate searching much more effective.

Thanatophobia

In the current meta, Thanatophia is a vital perk, and even though the Doctor can discover survivors, he can’t teleport or move fast to get there. It’s easier to gen-rush him than killers like Freddy, the Hag, or the Oni. That being said, you need an ace up your sleeve to ensure some extra time to conduct your heinous experiments on their unsuspecting souls.

Thanatophobia will slow down action speeds on generators by up to 5%, depending on how many survivors are hooked or injured. If all of them are, it will add up to 12%, which is a significant perk. It ensures you have an advantage from the first hit and throughout the match. Repair and sabotage speeds are all negatively affected and give you more time to hinder generator progression.

The Doctor Achievements & Prestige Awards

• Adept Doctor: Get a Merciless Victory as the Doctor when utilizing only his three unique perks
• Mad House: Achieve madness tier 3 for all survivors in a single trial
• Shocking Treatment: Use the Shock Therapy Attack 500 times in total
• Prestige Level 4 Reward: Bloody “The Stick”
• Prestige Level 5 Reward: Bloody Doctor’s Coat
• Prestige Level 6 Reward: Blood Herman Carter Head

FAQS

Conclusion: The Doctor Sparks The Imagination With Maniacle Strategies & Psychotic Power

The Doctor ramps the terror to new heights with precisely applying his heart-pounding abilities and has a genuine passion for medical scourging. I’m confident you will play him well after taking my advice, and you’ll have a blast learning about his unique contribution to the game. He is a potent killer who can induce confusion, paranoia, and panic among even the most skilled survivors.

No one can escape the Doctor’s clutches in the right hands, and many have succumbed to his bloodthirsty treatments since he entered the Fog. He is one of the most creative killers with a knack for breaking survivors psychologically. This is what distinguishes him from others because it’s these mind games that make surviving exceedingly difficult.

There are many strategies to explore when using the Doctor, and I encourage you to try out different perks than just the ones I listed. Everything hinges on wise strategical decisions when using the Doctor, and you must attain balance between his powers and normal attacks. Now it’s time to pick up the Stick and brutalize your way to the top with a shockingly vicious approach to playing killer that survivors will lament with each psychotic chuckle!