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Idea For Trapper Changes
Hello Reader! I’m just another DBD player who spends too much time thinking about this game. Here are my opinions on the Trapper.
The Trapper has one of the most potent and simultaneously clunky powers in the game. His beartraps have the ability to give him an instant down and hook on a Survivor if the Survivor gets trapped while the Trapper is nearby. However, there are a number of drawbacks to the Trapper’s power that make it slow to utilize. The first is that the Trapper is only allowed to spawn with one of his beartraps in his base kit; the other five beartraps that he has access too are scattered across the map in random locations in the unset position. This serves to not only reveal his presence but also means the Trapper must choose between setting traps during the early game or pressuring the early gens with only 1 trap available. Secondly, the beartraps are one of the “killer’s belongings” that can be tracked by maps, meaning a Survivor with the right item can completely avoid his power. Thirdly, beartraps can easily be disarmed by Survivors with a simple 3.5 sec interaction at base power, meanwhile the Trapper must spend time traveling back to the trap and resetting it or finding a new place to set it. The following proposed changes seek to give the Trapper more map pressure in the early game and make his set traps more difficult to deal with while not robbing Survivors of their ability to interact with his power.
1. The five traps that spawn in the map should start armed and set at key points in the map
a. For example: Five beartraps should spawn in the set position across the map on either side of a pallet or a vault location
2. The Trapper should be able to tell which traps are tracked and be able to remove the tracking
a. For example: beartraps being tracked by a map should have their aura changed to white and picking up the beartrap will “untrack” that beartrap and revert the aura to red
3. The Disarm interaction should include a skill check at the end of the disarm interaction
a. For example: Disarm time should be reduced from 3.5 secs -> 2.5 secs where the Survivor reaches towards the trigger of the beartrap. After that, the Survivor freezes with their hand in the trap while a Tremendously difficult skill check is given. Succeeding the skill check Disarms the beartrap like normal, but failing the skill check will trap the Survivor’s arm in the trap.
4. Survivors who free themselves from the beartraps should suffer some sort of debuff penalty
a. For example: If a Survivor frees themselves from a beartrap, that Survivor suffers from either the Hindered (if leg was caught) or the Incapacitated (if arm was caught) status effect until they are either put into the dying state or are healed backed into the Healthy state.
i. Note: This debuff is only applied to Survivors who are not rescued by other Survivors or are picked up by the Trapper
The first change is intended to give the Trapper a form of early game map pressure and slow down. If five random pallets and or vault locations are trapped at the start of the game, then the Trapper can attempt to chase Survivors into the random traps if he finds a Survivor while patrolling or setting up other traps. As a Survivor, you would be faced with a difficult choice upon identifying the Trapper as your Killer at the start of the game; do you spend time scanning nearby loops to ensure that they are safe or do you pressure the gens and hope that none of your escape routes are trapped?
The second change is intended to give the Trapper some ability to fight an item that can hard-counter his power while not removing the effectiveness of said counter. The benefit to the Trapper is obvious, as he can actively remove the tracking on his beartraps and make it so Survivors don’t know which loops to avoid. However, a Survivor can also make use of this new feature, but constantly patrolling the general area where beartraps are laid; if that Survivor can pressure the Trapper into thinking he constantly needs to reset his traps, the Survivor’s teammates would be allowed to pressure gens easier.
The third change is intended to add some form of serious risk to Disarming a set beartrap while not making the challenge impossible to overcome for Survivors. This change makes it so that Survivors have to make a choice after discovering a set beartrap. Does the Survivor attempt to Disarm the beartrap, risking getting caught in it if they fail the skill check? Or do they take note of the location so that they can avoid the trap in future chases, which risks leaving the hazard for another Survivor? This choice becomes easier to make if the Survivor is competent in hitting difficult skill checks, but that fact that a skill check is involved in the Disarming process also means that changes can be added to the Trapper’s Spring/Coil add-ons to make the process more difficult rather than simply take longer. The Trapper has Spring/Coil add-ons of all rarities (Common through Ultra-Rare), and unique skill check changes could be added on top of or instead of slower Disarming speeds. For example the Disarm skill check success zone is greatly reduced if Disarmed while in the Terror Radius, the Disarm skill check appears in a random location on the screen, Disarm skill checks rotate in the opposite direction of normal skill checks, etc. These changes could serve to make the beartraps “traps within traps.”
The last change is more of a fun concept rather than a necessity. While looking into how fast and hard a real life beartrap can close I found that a beartrap can not only break a bone when it first snaps shut, but when prey struggle in the beartrap it can actually close tighter. This change would make it so that Survivors who do struggle and free themselves cripple the affected limb and require healing to return to full form, which could serve to slow down game progression.
But what do you think? Are these ideas good or trash?