The Best Doctor Builds In Dead By Daylight (Update 8.2.1)

4 September 2024 - We've updated the page to reflect any recent changes to perks and abilities in Patch 8.2.1 that might impact the best Doctor builds in Dead By Daylight.

The Doctor is one of many terrifying killers in the horror game Dead by Daylight. He can shock survivors across the map, locating them and preventing them from vaulting windows or pallets at closer range.

The Doctor's ability is strong, but it takes some practice to get used to. Here is your guide to playing The Doctor in Dead by Daylight, including the best possible loadouts so you can put your best foot forward when playing him.

The Doctor's Power And Perks

To pick out the best perks for The Doctor, you'll first need to understand his power and how it works so you can think about how the game's many perks may be able to complement it.

You should also learn more about The Doctor's teachable perks since they come with the killer by default and can be used together to earn Adept Doctor.

Let's go over all of The Doctor’s perks:

Perk: Overwhelming

• Your presence alone instills great fear.

• Survivors within your Terror Radius suffer from increased item consumption rates.

Perk: Monitor & Abuse

• Meticulous in your approach, terrifying in your application.

• While in a chase, your Terror Radius is increased. While you are not in a chase, your field of view is increased and your Terror Radius is decreased.

Perk: Overcharge

• You are fuelled by your hate for progress.

• Overcharge a generator by performing the Damage Generator action.
  The next Survivor interacting with that generator is faced with a tremendously difficult Skill Check. Failing the Skill Check results in additional regression.

Power: Carter's Spark

The Doctor's power is called Carter's Spark, which allows him to locate survivors and drive them to Madness.The in-game description reads:

• Successfully striking Survivors with The Doctor’s special abilities, Shock Therapy or Static Blast, increases the Survivors’ Madness, eventually afflicting them with the Madness status effect and triggering increasingly potent effects. Madness affects Survivor Skill Check placement, can provoke hallucinations, can make Survivors scream, and will eventually force them to perform a special action to Snap Out Of It. 

SPECIAL ABILITY: Shock Therapy

• Press and hold the power button to perform Shock Therapy, unleashing a shocking field in front of you that inflicts survivors with Madness.

SPECIAL ABILITY: Static Blast

• Press and hold the Active Ability button to perform a Static Blast, causing all Survivors within The Doctor’s Terror Radius to scream and gain increased Madness.

Best Doctor Builds In Dead By Daylight

The Doctor excels at finding survivors but can have a hard time in some other areas, like slowing down generators. The best builds for Doctor complement his strengths while helping him in the areas where he struggles. 

With so many perks available in Dead by Daylight, there is not just one build that works well on Doctor - there are many choices. Here are just a few of the best.

Beginner Doctor Build

When starting as a new Doctor main, it can be hard to figure out what perks to use. That's why we've put together this beginner Doctor build using only perks that come with the Doctor or can be found in any killer's Bloodweb.

• Jolt
• Whispers
• Sloppy Butcher

• Overcharge (The Doctor)

Overcharge and Jolt provide generator regression throughout the match, ensuring that generators are not completed too quickly. Whispers is a great perk for the Doctor, especially for beginners, as Whispers will show you if you are in the correct range of survivors for your Static Blast attack to hit. Using this attack combined with this perk will make it much easier to locate them. Lastly, Sloppy Butcher provides extra slowdown and prevents survivors from healing, ensuring you can get the downs and hooks you need to win.

Anti-Boon Otzdarva Doctor Build

Boons are one of the most useful tools in survivors' toolboxes, giving the whole team a series of boosts when a totem is blessed. This anti-boon totem Doctor build by Fog Whisperer and streamer Otzdarva seeks to rob your opponents of their most useful counterplay, making it much easier for you to kill all four. Of course, this build is strongest against survivors who bless totems.

• Shattered Hope
• Hex: Haunted Ground (The Spirit)
• Hex: Undying (The Blight)
• Hex: Thrill Of The Hunt

Every time a survivor cleanses a totem, you'll receive a range of benefits thanks to the perks in this loadout. Shattered Hope allows you to destroy boons permanently and see all survivors in the area for a while, while Hex: Thrill of the Hunt makes it increasingly hard for survivors to keep up with totems. Hex: Haunted Ground offers you the extremely valuable opportunity to insta-down survivors if it is cleansed, while Hex: Undying provides backup for all of your other Hex perks and encourages survivors to touch your totems.

Hex Doctor Build

Survivors may be able to bring boons to provide their team with a boost, but killers like The Doctor have a trick up their sleeve, too: Hexes. This hex build uses Hex: Devour Hope as its centerpiece, ideally allowing you to insta-down survivors late-game if your trial goes well.

• Hex: Devour Hope (The Hag)
• Hex: Thrill of The Hunt
• Hex: Undying (The Blight)
• Overcharge (The Doctor)

This build is based on using Hex: Devour Hope to insta-down survivors, while the other hexes in the build serve to prevent Devour Hope from being cleansed. Hex: Undying will transfer Devour to a new totem if it is cleansed, while Hex: Thrill of The Hunt makes it slower for survivors to cleanse totems. Overcharge serves as a further generator slowdown as you must take the time to earn at least three Devour stacks to get real value out of this build.

What Are The Best Perks For The Doctor?

Those are all the best builds for The Doctor, but you might still be wondering which individual perks work best on this killer. After all, creating your own builds can be fun and allow you to try new playstyles.

You can mix and match the following perks to create an incredible build for The Doctor:

• Jolt
• Whispers
• Hex: Devour Hope (The Hag)
• Sloppy Butcher
• Overcharge (The Doctor)
• Hex: Ruin (The Hag)
• Hex: Undying (The Blight)

We recommend mixing and matching the perks in the builds we've provided to create your favorite loadout. As you familiarize yourself with this killer, you'll determine which perks are your favorites and be able to mix and match these perks effectively.