Holing up, the safe and effective way
-Rants and tips from a bossy player-
The decision to hole up is rarely a good one, but it happens. These tips apply mostly to dealing with poor players on Normal mode.
Tip 1 - Quit screwing around outside, and let us weld the doors.
People like to blast on specimens as long as possible before holing up. But you're not a invincible badass killing machine, no matter what your perk level, and it's a team game not a deathmatch- stop hogging kills like money is important. And it's a waste of ammo firing on individual specimens when your team could be firing into a big crowd. But more importantly it puts your entire team at risk. We can't just seal you out because then you inevitably come back with a horde of zeds on your butt and your unwelder out, and we can't hold the room without you anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've been yelling at the last straggler to get inside while he tries to fend off a zombie horde by himself. Even if he gets to the door it's impossible to weld shut, and welding is important because it bunches the enemy for nades and gives your team time to get comfortable in a firing line so they don't panic and wipe. Which brings me to my next two tips.
Tip 2 - Welding is important
When you leave the door open, it often takes up to 10 seconds for every member of your team to notice the first specimens and stop reloading their guns and stop healing each other and open fire. But when everyones standing in a line with a minute-long countdown to find a good spot and get ready, your team can present a coordinated and clean defense. Also tossing 2 grenades when the door opens can wipe out every specimen currently spawned! A firebug can be particularly devastating. But the most important application of welding is when you have two doors to your room. It is absolutely critical that you keep the second door welded and funnel all attacks through the open door. It's sometimes appropriate to have 3 members (of a 5 or 6 man team) welding a door at once if it's under heavy attack, as long as the other members have a fighting chance on the other door to buy a few more dead zeds.
Tip 3 - Never self-heal
Obviously this doesn't work if your teammates aren't healing you, but that tip is complementary. You should never let your teammates waste time trying to heal themselves a little bit when you can be healing them much more, regardless of your perk. A team which never self-heals and also heals each other is a very strong team. And don't be paranoid of dying.. if your health gets a little low and you're occupying an important position (like berserker in front), it can be worse for your team to run away trailing medigun-flailing teammates than to stand your ground and risk dying.
Tip 4 - Know when to find shelter
If you're standing out in the middle of manor with a few new (broke) teammates and you barely survived last wave, you're just not going to survive. It makes no sense to rambo around the map when you have a perfectly good cave right there that funnels all the enemies together and prevents you from getting scattered/panicked. This is definitely not applicable to higher difficulties or more skilled players, but if your team sucks it's a very smart strategy.
Extra tip - Stop hogging kills like money is important.
If a crowd of clots and gorefasts is shambling towards your team, don't just shoot the clots because they're guaranteed kills. The stronger enemies are the higher priority targets, even though it's less likely that you'll be the shooter who gets credit for the kill. It's not nearly as simple as "always shoot the strongest enemy in sight" but it is as simple as "don't let getting credit for the kill affect where you're focusing your fire." Remember, if you're low on kills and money, that means someone else has plenty. And you'll almost always get a few 50s thrown your way from each player if you ask.
-Rants and tips from a bossy player-
The decision to hole up is rarely a good one, but it happens. These tips apply mostly to dealing with poor players on Normal mode.
Tip 1 - Quit screwing around outside, and let us weld the doors.
People like to blast on specimens as long as possible before holing up. But you're not a invincible badass killing machine, no matter what your perk level, and it's a team game not a deathmatch- stop hogging kills like money is important. And it's a waste of ammo firing on individual specimens when your team could be firing into a big crowd. But more importantly it puts your entire team at risk. We can't just seal you out because then you inevitably come back with a horde of zeds on your butt and your unwelder out, and we can't hold the room without you anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've been yelling at the last straggler to get inside while he tries to fend off a zombie horde by himself. Even if he gets to the door it's impossible to weld shut, and welding is important because it bunches the enemy for nades and gives your team time to get comfortable in a firing line so they don't panic and wipe. Which brings me to my next two tips.
Tip 2 - Welding is important
When you leave the door open, it often takes up to 10 seconds for every member of your team to notice the first specimens and stop reloading their guns and stop healing each other and open fire. But when everyones standing in a line with a minute-long countdown to find a good spot and get ready, your team can present a coordinated and clean defense. Also tossing 2 grenades when the door opens can wipe out every specimen currently spawned! A firebug can be particularly devastating. But the most important application of welding is when you have two doors to your room. It is absolutely critical that you keep the second door welded and funnel all attacks through the open door. It's sometimes appropriate to have 3 members (of a 5 or 6 man team) welding a door at once if it's under heavy attack, as long as the other members have a fighting chance on the other door to buy a few more dead zeds.
Tip 3 - Never self-heal
Obviously this doesn't work if your teammates aren't healing you, but that tip is complementary. You should never let your teammates waste time trying to heal themselves a little bit when you can be healing them much more, regardless of your perk. A team which never self-heals and also heals each other is a very strong team. And don't be paranoid of dying.. if your health gets a little low and you're occupying an important position (like berserker in front), it can be worse for your team to run away trailing medigun-flailing teammates than to stand your ground and risk dying.
Tip 4 - Know when to find shelter
If you're standing out in the middle of manor with a few new (broke) teammates and you barely survived last wave, you're just not going to survive. It makes no sense to rambo around the map when you have a perfectly good cave right there that funnels all the enemies together and prevents you from getting scattered/panicked. This is definitely not applicable to higher difficulties or more skilled players, but if your team sucks it's a very smart strategy.
Extra tip - Stop hogging kills like money is important.
If a crowd of clots and gorefasts is shambling towards your team, don't just shoot the clots because they're guaranteed kills. The stronger enemies are the higher priority targets, even though it's less likely that you'll be the shooter who gets credit for the kill. It's not nearly as simple as "always shoot the strongest enemy in sight" but it is as simple as "don't let getting credit for the kill affect where you're focusing your fire." Remember, if you're low on kills and money, that means someone else has plenty. And you'll almost always get a few 50s thrown your way from each player if you ask.