While there is no voice chat in DBD, the players have developed special ways of talking to each other. Teabaking (or tactical crouching, if you prefer a more complex term) has always been a big part of the game and how you communicate with both Assassins and Survivors, for example.
When it comes to Survivors, it’s usually a token of thanks, especially after you’ve been unhooked and healed. It can also be a thank you for Killers in extremely (and I mean extremely) rare cases, but instead, it’s usually pretty toxic for Killers.
Survivors tend to teabag while foiling the Killer’s plans, jukeing and looping them, as well as at the end in front of the gates. But this movement seems to now be replaced by a different animation after the Dead by Daylight Dungeons and Dragons chapter added a Survivor to the game with a perk called Bardic Inspiration.
This is a perk you can equip to any Survivor as long as you have Aestri/Baermar up to level one prestige. When you press the action button, your character will take out a lute and start playing, boosting the skill controls of your teammates in the area.
It looks absolutely cool when you see a Survivor next to you start playing to boost your skill checks; it also boosts my morale. Although it is very healthy, it immediately took a bit of a toxic turn as you can see from the Reddit thread below. Now, instead of tea making, players will take out their lute to taunt Assassins.
This is quite hilarious and preferable to how it was before. At least that way you also hold a concert for the Killer and not just make fun of them. I really wouldn’t mind the Survivors doing this to me. And if the Killer is poisonous, then they certainly deserve you to be poisonous back.
While most of the Survivors look awesome when blocking, there seems to be a bug with the Aestri/Baermar (original owner of the lute) face model on the PTB; when they pull out the lute they start grinning really wide with all their teeth showing. It is quite unnatural and tilted into the uncanny valley. Instead of the Slayer scaring you, you are scaring the Slayer. Even more use of this amazing benefit!
If you want to know what builds will keep you alive playing the lute, check out the Best Survivors in Dead by Daylight in Pro Game Guides.
