Tricksters Issues and Suggested Fixes

StibbityStabbity

I'm going to try and make a comprehensive list of Tricksters issues and shortcomings, as well as a list of fixes that would make him overall better. I will edit this first post to include suggestions that seem good and aren't set on over/underpowering him. I feel like he's intended to be average at best, so that's the current aim for the suggestions.

ISSUES

• The current amount of knives required to injure a Survivor make them hard to use in typical scenarios where ranged is useful. While it's obvious that Trickster is intended to be forgiving to missed shots, even hitting every shot makes him far weaker than all other ranged Killers. Compounding upon this is how often LoS is lost in tight loop scenarios, which makes using his knives in these scenarios offer little to no benefit.
• Laceration decay makes any kind of strategy involving hitting Survivors without injuring them almost useless. Furthermore, in strong loops, Laceration can easily decay to the point of making the chase seemingly worthless. As it currently stands, Laceration Decay is essentially similar to Ghostface or Myers losing stalk charge because they stopped stalking for a bit. It's very detrimental to any long term strategy and punishes an already lackluster power.
• Main Event currently acts as a complete detriment for Trickster. Automatically firing while moving at a slower pace completely removes the ability to use it at loops, as it broadcasts where Trickster is, where he is aiming, and where the Survivor shouldn't go. His slow speed allows them to get away with no real option for Trickster to do anything about it, and combined with the automatic fire, does not allow Trickster to trick Survivors into meeting him head-on while he has the ability activated. Main Event only being available during specific windows of opportunity also make it never seem like an option when it would be worthwhile to use, as it often shows up when a Survivor is only one or two knives away from being injured/downed. As such, using Main Event often gives the Survivor more time to get away than if Trickster simply finishes his attack as normal. Main Event is currently regarded by the community at large as being ENTIRELY detrimental, and simply not worth using in almost any scenario.
• Losing Main Event charge by using a Standard Attack seems far too punishing when the rest of his capabilities are sub-par.

SUGGESTIONS

• Reduce the amount of knives required to injure from 8 to 6. This would still give Survivors opportunity to get to safety before getting injured, but tighten the time required to secure an injury so Trickster does not feel like he is handing out free escapes. This would also make landing opportunistic ranged attacks around loops feel more useful and rewarding.
• Make a single ricochet per knife basekit. This would allow Trickster to make some trick shots around certain kinds of loops and keep pressure. It would add much needed identity to the character, as he would have a capability that no other ranged Killers have. Currently, he operates similarly to other ranged Killers, but at a complete deficit. This would alleviate that and open up his playstyle dramatically.
• While not a major suggestion, it would be nice if Trickster gained some kind of benefit from hitting a target with his knives at range. Currently, he gets a score bonus for hitting targets beyond 16 meters. Adding extra damage to such hits on a SINGLE knife throw would be pretty cool (perhaps double Laceration charge to the Survivor), and would reward trick shots and skill shots from a distance. This would give the player a form of skill expression, allowing them to utilize their mechanical skills and get rewarded for it. This would also give the single knife-throw function a definitive use, rather than feeling tacked on and inconsequential.
• Laceration Decay should only occur after being healed. Essentially, it would be treated much like Ghostfaces stalk charges. On landing a Standard Attack, Laceration on the Survivor would reset. Upon being healed, however, Laceration would decay as normal. This would allow Survivors some interaction with the Killers power, give some much needed slowdown for Trickster, and would allow Trickster to benefit from anti-healing perks. This would also make stacking Laceration primarily strong against health Survivors, while giving injured Survivors a way to circumvent Laceration stacks. Outright removing Laceration upon healing would be fine as well, so long as Survivors maintain Laceration over time to give Trickster some kind of benefit from not having to lockdown a target. Trickster would greatly benefit from being able to behave both like a Ranged Killer and a more strategy-oriented Killer, and would make his requirement of multiple hits to injure feel justified and strategic.
• Main Event should charge as usual, but be stored (similar to Onis Power) and used at will. This would allow Trickster to pick opportune moments to strike with it. The automatic fire function should be removed outright, allowing Trickster to choose when it fires in order to use it during situations where he does not wish to broadcast his trajectory. While active, Standard Attacks can be outright disabled, or otherwise have them active but using them will disable Main Event. While active, Main Event should only cause Trickster to slow down when active firing his blades, allowing him to move and aim at normal speed and unleash his flurry of blades when a target is primed. This would create more strategic use of Main Event, as it currently feels rather blunt and unintelligent. This would also remove many of the issues that cause Main Event to be a net deficit to the Killer. Interacting with Lockers, downed Survivors, Pallets, and all other interactables can simply shut Main Event off.
• Main Event should no longer lose charge when using a Standard Attack. Similar to Legion, this simply penalizes playing Killers as intended. If changes are made that make Showstopper and Main Event strong, then perhaps this penalty could be warranted, but currently it simply is not. Trickster is over-penalized and underperforms.

I really do hope that this gets to the proper developers and is taken into consideration. Trickster could present a very neat opportunity to have a unique ranged Killer that combines strategy and ranged combat that is both friendly to beginners but sufficiently strong in the right hands. Tricksters currently iteration is sadly quite lacking, and many of us would like to see him become a respected Killer, and not the butt of many jokes concerning weak-powered Killers.

immoraldemise

Please stop comparing Trickster who is ranged to Stealth killers and their powers. Its already a well known fact that Myers needs a buff and has for years.

I guess Killers have a problem with SWFs. but Solo, Trickster is demolishing everything. If i use Trickster, half the Survivors typically DC or first hook suicide.

Laceration Decay is fine, because of how badly the killer community tunnels the snot out of one person. If you don't do it thats you. You cannot speak for the rest of the community who's sole intention is to ruin the game for other people, knowing full well they wont get in any sort of trouble for being toxic.

Buffing him too much will make him P2W, and he's not exactly in a terrible spot with how often he gets 2+ kills per game. I'm sure if you ask BHVR they'll gladly post the stats. But i'm sure they will soon anyway, as they typically do after some time has elapsed when a new killer is released.

Decay starting after they're healed is kind of an oxymoron? that's like if I went to the hospital and got patched up, but i'm still bleeding profusely.. They could treat it like mending, but halved timer that if it runs out causes Broken Status. But being healed should remove the decay all together. As it is, his knives don't trigger BT. That alone makes it OP and folks are abusing TF out of it.

Doubling the damage from a single knife throw would be OP and heavily abused. Or it will be wildly useless. It depends! There are way too many inconsistencies with their crappy servers. The only thing I 100% agree with is being able to store his power. I really wish you guys would rail BHVR to fix the QOL aspects of the game versus buffing specific killers. The servers are the biggest problem with the game, crossplay coming in hot at an extremely close 2nd.

Danoobiel

Honestly you could give him all these changes and he would still be worse then Plague.

But, yeah devs, take heed because this is sound advice.

BTW I don't believe for a second that people DC or hook kill themselves against Trickster... if you can find somebody playing him that is...

Maybe at rank 20, I don't know.

Yords

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/2100706#Comment_2100706

"I guess Killers have a problem with SWFs. but Solo, Trickster is demolishing everything. If i use Trickster, half the Survivors typically DC or first hook suicide."

You lost me when you said that trickster is "demolishing everything" in solo queue. This is just not even remotely true.