What is wrong with Trickster, why, and how do we fix it? (Suggestion for Changes)

DontleaveSayorihangi

As I am sure we are all aware The Trickster is not exactly what someone might call 'good'. In fact he is one of the weakest killers in the game. After carefully considering exactly what other killers have that he does not, I have come up with a list of the things that currently plague Trickster:

• Movement Speed of 110%. This is a very big issue because of the way laceration works, the fact that the meter begins decreasing automatically after a short time means that The Trickster needs to be very close to a survivor in order to make sure that he can hit all 8 knives in a short enough time. Knives cannot be used at long range for the fact that laceration automatically decays, he is in no way a long range killer and needs to be be able to get up close to use his power.
• Knife Holding Speed of 92%. This adds on top of the issue above as it takes him a long time to get close enough to a survivor to make use of his knives, and then when he does finally get close enough bringing out his knives to use his power slows him down to slower than survivors. This means that unless you are so close to the survivor that you could just M1 them or at a waist high loop by the time you have hit them with 3 or 4 knives survivors will have been able to simply outrun you ahead and force you to lower your knives to catch up again which then begins the slow process of getting close enough at 110% movement speed on top of needing to worry about the automatic decay of the laceration meter. Very often you will not be able to get close enough to the survivor in time due to pulling our your knives forcing you to slow and then the travel time of the knives themselves giving them enough leeway to round the corner of the loop.
• Reloading at Lockers: This is not something that needs to be fixed or removed, but it is something that needs to be remembered and taken into consideration when balancing Trickster. Unlike every other killer bar huntress, Trickster needs to reload at lockers and this both takes away your map pressure and if you find yourself in a locker-less area then you simply turn into a 110% M1 killer, A.K.A. true suffering.
• Main Event's Uselessness: Main Event is much more of a hinderance than a help in it's current state. Firstly you have no control over when to use it, for a brief period after landing 20 knives it is available and if you do not use it during that small window you lose the power until you refill the ability meter again. Second is the fact that Main Event slows you down to 92% movement speed. This makes using it in any place than in wide open spaces with no rocks, trees, pallets or walls is a detriment due to allowing survivors to just outrun you and be invulnerable until you cancel the power or it runs out itself.

This all culminates in The Trickster's biggest weakness~ speed. Or rather, lack of speed. These are all the ways that Trickster is forcibly made to slow down.

• Base Movement Speed of 110%
• Knife Holding Speed of 92%
• Gets slower and slower as knives are thrown
• Final Knife Throwing Speed of 67%
• Main Event Speed of 92%
• Needs to reload at lockers

As you can see, The Trickster is forced to slow down in so many different ways that all make it so that he rarely is able to maintain map pressure as using your abilities in any way forces you to move slower than survivors and just default walking is slower than normal as well. Stack that on top of how he needs to reload at lockers and Trickster simply feels like a bus with two deflated tires. His slowness also means he has almost no map pressure, it is impossible for him to get from point A to point B fast enough to make any difference and even if he can throw knives across entire 100 meters of map towards survivors working on a generator he still needs to hit 8 whole knives and if they are not constantly pelted the laceration they caused will just decay down to nothing.

In order to fix these problems, I suggest these changes to the Trickster:

• Base Movement Speed to 115%
• Knife Holding Speed to 100%
• Final Knife Throwing Speed to 80%
• Main Event Speed of 105%
• Laceration does not automatically decay, instead survivors need to stop and pull the knives out (basically a reskinned to mending)
• New Special Ability: Locker Swapping

Now you might be asking what Locker Swapping is, well I believe it is a new ability that could be given to Trickster that would fit in perfectly with his namesake as well as give him some much needed map control. At any locker Trickster would be able to press the Special Ability Button to enter said locker. From inside he is able to look around 360 degrees. The auras of Generators are highlighted to him as well as the single closest locker to each generator. In a similar manner to Freddy or Demo, Trickster would then be able to select one of the highlight lockers to swap into. He can do this an unlimited number of times with as many lockers as he wants until he presses Space to exit a locker at which point the ability goes on recharge for 1 minute. There would be no indication of any of this to the survivors and the only way to know he using lockers is to see him entering or exiting. When inside of any locker he gains Undetectable and only loses it when he exits. Locker Swapping does not reload Blades.

I hope that the changes I have suggested are suitable, in particular I think that an ability like Locker Swapping would be a very nice addition to Trickster's kit and give him much needed map pressure without letting him just teleport directly to survivors and also gives him an identity. That last one in particular is something he desperately needs as of now.

Dino7281

• Base Movement Speed to 115%
• Knife Holding Speed to 100%
• Final Knife Throwing Speed to 80%
• Main Event can be stored and activated later.
• Laceration does not automatically decay while in chase
• fix knives for chaser emblem

Do this and I am happy trickster main.

Locker swapping would be so much fun to play with, but there is almost no chance that will happen.

TheDankosaur

I double posted like a dummy, editing this to ease the eyes. sorry.

TheDankosaur

He has no niche. Huntress does his job 100000x better. (this has been said a million times, but it is very true). Hitting a survivor 16x, even from range, is a hard thing to do against good survivors.

I believe from a dev perspective he is meant to be an escalating and oppressive mid range killer, but it just doesn't work out like that. On top of that, his power is friggen useless. It has niche use when survivors are grouped up, but honestly I've played games where I just ignore it. His daggers could likely be refined and buffed, but idk what theyre gonna do about his power. It's CD is long, it takes time to stack, it runs out, it has a massive stun afterwords (and a build up). It's like a stalk in terms of time needed but with little benefit.

You are definitely right to add to his kit (the locker thing you mentioned). He has very little going on for him. He NEEDS something to seperate him from other range killers. In particular it needs to feel worth it to play him alongside DS or Huntress.

Personally, I would speed him up base, and increase his slowdown for successive throws. This sounds counter-intuitive to his playstyle, but he needs SOMETHING to speed up his oppression. As he is now, he has long and hard chases, and nothing he can do about other survivors during this time.

edit: he's getting a buff now, but I honestly do not think it addresses the core issue.