Dead By Daylight best Doctor build (April 2023)

Herman Carter, also known as "The Doctor" is a former neuroscientist hired by the CIA. Fueled by knowledge, the Doctor enjoys torturing people to achieve his goals. He is one of the few playable killers available in Dead by Daylight.

To help you achieve prowess over survivors, we've collected the best tips and tricks, builds, and add-ons for the Doctor in Dead By Daylight. Several explanations about each choice will also be included in this handy guide.

For even more on Dead By Daylight, check out our ranking of the Killer perks, as well as our ranking of the Survivor perks. We've also got the latest Dead By Daylight codes for you to redeem!

Dead by Daylight The Doctor perks

The Doctor has three unique perks that can be unlocked for other Killers via the Bloodweb.

Overwhelming Presence

When Survivors use an item whilst in your Terror Radius, the item depletion rate increases by 80/90/100%.

Overcharge

When you kick a Generator, the next Survivor to touch it faces a difficult Skill Check. Failing the Skill Check results in an additional loss of 3/4/5% worth of progress.

Monitor and Abuse

Your Terror Radius increases by eight metres. Whenever you are outside of a Chase, your Terror Radius decreases by 16 metres and your FOV (field of view) increases by 3/5/10°. This gain in FOV does not stack.

Dead By Daylight the Doctor powers

The Doctor's Power is called Carter’s Spark. Gifted the power of electricity by the Entity, The Doctor is able to initiate two special abilities - Shock Therapy and Static Blast.

Shock Therapy unleashes a ranged, cone shock attack on the ground in front of the Doctor. Survivors hit by Shock Therapy gain an increase in Madness and will scream. As for Static Blast, the Doctor unleashes an electric blast that catches all Survivors within his Terror Radius. The ability then goes on cooldown for 60 seconds.

With these two abilities being used on them, Survivors gain Madness - a status effect that causes them to scream, see illusionary Doctors, harder Skill Checks. Once they reach tier three of Madness, are unable to perform actions like healing, repairing, sabotaging, searching, or cleansing until they snap out of it.

Survivors can negate the Doctor's ability to cause them to scream by getting into Lockers and/or equipping the perk Calm Spirit.

What are the best build and perks for The Doctor?

We would go with the following perks for the best possible Doctor build:

Whispers (General Killer perk)

An entity will whisper when a survivor is within 48/40/32 meters of the Doctor's location.

Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist perk)

Each time a survivor is hit with a scourge hook the generator with the most progression explodes, instantly losing 9/12/15% of its progression. Survivors who are repairing the generator will also scream, revealing their location.

Save the Best for Last (The Shape perk)

You become obsessed with one Survivor. Each time you hit a Survivor other than your Obsession with a basic attack, Save the Best for Last gains one token, up to a maximum of eight.

Gain a stackable 5% cool-down reduction on successful attacks per token, up to a maximum of 40%. Each time you hit your Obsession with a basic attack, Save the Best for Last loses several tokens.

When the Obsession is sacrificed or killed, you can neither gain nor lose any more tokens. You can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time.

Discordance (The Legion perk)

Any generator that is being repaired by two survivors within 64/96/128 meters will be marked by a yellow aura and will trigger a loud noise notification.

Best add-ons for The Doctor in Dead By Daylight

The Doctor’s add-ons don’t do anything that changes his base kit in any significant way, and in that regard can be somewhat disappointing. That said, there are some great add-ons all the same, and here are just a few.

Iridescent King

This Iridescent add-on puts a red, illusionary stain behind Survivors, gives them a faint Terror Radius, and causes illusionary pallets and Doctors to appear. Not only is this confusing for the Survivor, but it’s great for tracking Survivors too as the Doctor is able to see illusionary Doctors and pallets.

Iridescent Queen

With Iridescent Queen, Survivors gain a lingering Static Charge effect when stuck by Shock Therapy or Static Blast. This passes onto other Survivors, who scream as though they’ve been hit by a Static Blast and as such, cause an increase in Madness. Again, great for tracking and controlling Survivors.

Restraint - Class III

Survivors' auras are revealed for two seconds when their Madness increases to another tier. The Doctor can see illusionary Doctors, and it moderately increases the time you can see them.

Overcharge

Damaging a generator will cause the next survivor to interact with it to face a tremendously difficult skill check that will result in a regression.

Dead By Daylight The Doctor tips and tricks

• The Doctor should use his Shock Therapy in areas where he can see the Survivor is going, particularly at pallets so Survivors get shocked before they can drop the pallet and you can hit them. This goes for vaults too as Survivors won’t be able to vault when screaming.
• Don’t use your Static Blast while in corners, it's best used in the centre of small maps so there's a higher chance of you hitting someone.
• Despite it being his own perk, do not use Monitor and Abuse with the Doctor as it actually shortens the range of your Static Blast when you aren't in a Chase. An absolutely useless perk for the Doctor.
• If you can hit a Survivor without the use of your Shock Therapy, then do so. Shock Therapy slows you down to use it and slowing yourself down while in a Chase is not something you want to do when you can easily just down someone with your basic attack.
• To increase your Terror Radius as the Doctor is a good thing for his Static Blast - so use Distressing instead of Monitor and Abuse.
• Non-Stop-Shock is a build for The Doctor that makes it increasingly harder for Survivors to do well on Skill Checks. You’ll need to use perks like Huntress Lullaby, Distressing, Unnerving Presence, and Ruin for maximum effect.

That's all you need to know about the best The Doctor builds in Dead by Daylight. Be sure to check back regularly to see how your build could be improved. In the meantime, check out the killers we wish to see in Dead by Daylight soon, or some games like DBD for when you need a break.