What is a "good" KDR?

[Modular]

1.01+:1 is good

This. If you kill more than you're being killed, you're doing well. Especially if you're over the age of 25 and have a job/only play games a few hours a week.

Most of these people on CSS and the like with 3+:1 kdr's have played for thousands of hours. Not worth it to me.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

An ideal KDR is exactly 1:1. I'd say good is anywhere between 1:2 and 2:1. If it's outside of that, you and your opponents are poorly matched and you should probably find another game.

KDR can't tell you anything at all about your personal skill level, just whether or not you're well matched against your opponents. If you're looking at it for any reason other then to tell how well matched you and your opponents are, you're using it wrong.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

1.01+:1 is good

yes, but....there is more to good gameplay than kill counts or scores usually take into account. of course, if i'm looking at an even kdr or, gasp!, negative then it's time to change that or call it a night.

 

[Agent11]

It can be fun to play kamikaze, buy a cheap gun like the p228 and rush mid to the enemy spawn and see how many you can headshot before you die... Not good to do it all the time though.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Well ignoring suicides the average KD is just 1.0, every kill you get is someone else's death. Anything above 1.0 is above average.

It does depend on your opponents, whether you're playing on a pub server or in a clan match, it also depends on the level of self sacrifice for objectives. For random pub games if you can maintain >2 KDR over long periods you're doing pretty good.

 

[Destiny]

Sometime... having fun is more important than having a good KDR...

 

[Agent11]

Once you get really good the problem is falling into bad habits. There isn't much margin for error at the top 10% in games like CS.

 

[you2]

Pardon me:

BUT WHAT IS KDR ?

 

[Childs]

Sometime... having fun is more important than having a good KDR...

hahaha You would give me bad habits. Like on Metro, and our team is holding A and B, and you would always jump down the escalators. In the back of my mind I would always think..."there goes my KD". lol

 

[_Rick_]

So, what about assists?
I play a lot of support in DotA2, where my KDR is supposed to be <1 (die instead of the carry, leave the kill to the carry), but I'm supposed to collect as many assists as possible, so that the team gets a benefit.

Similarly if you play as medic or engineer instead of sniper or heavy in any of those coop role-based shooters. In a team game, KDR of the team is what matters, and you have to work toward that as a goal. If you sacrifice yourself, so that your team can make two clean kills, then that's no good for your KDR, but the team gets a net gain.
Even in some arena shooters, KDR isn't important, because the only thing that matters is getting kills in, before someone else does. A 5:1 KDR is worthless, if someone else wont the match with 10:8 kills

A good KDR is NaN. Don't kill anyone, and don't die

 

[Clinkster]

Depends on the game.

If it's an FPS, winning matters above all. But if KDR is your focus, anything above 1.0 is good.

But if you were playing a game like DotA, a KDR of 0 on a support hero is ideal.

 

[Midwayman]

I'd rather see someone with 50 kills and 45 deaths on my team than a guy who goes the round 5:1 KDR means very little in terms of how much you contribute to a team game.

 

[Red Storm]

KDR shows some stuff up to a point, but it doesn't reveal everything. You might have two equally skilled players, but one is more likely to do the dirty stuff that gets him more deaths but gets his team the win while the other would prefer to play it safe and improve their rank or whatever. KDR would tell you the latter is the "better" player.

 

[Regs]

1.0 is fair, 1.5 is good, 2.0 is either godly or hacking.

If I played with the same gun and set up every match, I could maybe pull 2.0 but that would be freaking boring.

 

[dpodblood]

In my experience it's pretty easy to maintain a KDR of 1:1 in most FPS's. First starting out a new player needs to learn basic skills like aiming quickly, and accurately, moving frequently, and coming to grips with the controls.

To come above that average though I think it becomes more about map knowledge and advanced tactics (flanking, lines of sight, using cover properly, etc.) Anyone can learn to twitch shoot with enough practice, but I find that alone will only let you win in a gun fight about 50% of the time. To get on good streaks you need to out think the opponent.