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Let's talk about Trickster and his changes
** LONG READ AHEAD ; SKIP TO TL/DR AT BOTTOM IF UNINTERESTED **
The Trickster buff came today and I'm sure the small amount of Trickster mains including myself leap up with joy ━ however including the same buffs came some unexpected changes I'd like to talk about that I even made a forum account for.
I've played around 5 matches now with the new buffs and took him to his strongest map (Grave of Glenvale) on my first match and noticed that his blade count was reduced to 44 when I spawned in. I didn't think it would be much of a problem until I actually got to playing. I'd like to note that, yes ━ while I am a complete simp for Trickster I also came to love his gameplay despite his glaring weaknesses; and, I'd like to consider myself a decent Trickster player with a decent winrate with him. I've been dedicated to learning him and playing only him since his release just cause he's that much fun to me.
I've been struggling with him a bit. And it's not my gameplay nor have I been going up against survivors who excel at playing against a Trickster. I love the buff to his laceration meter but I think what I've been struggling with is his laceration decay change and the number of knives he now carries.
About the number of knives change...
Before the changes, I could get 2-3 hooks before I needed to reload my knives (sometimes 1-2 if the survivors looped me well and caused me to miss a lot). Now I'm noticing that I need to go to reload between every 1-2 hooks which takes up the time I was supposed to save with the maximum laceration buff that impacts his gameplay more. At least the time it took to down a survivor before benefitted me more because I was mobile and able to control the generators more effectively. Even if I didn't get a down a survivor would take me around the map naturally as they loop to other gens being worked on and indirectly give me gen control. Now that same time I'm stuck reloading with restricted sight and needing to recalculate where the rest of the survivors moved to. Sure it only takes seconds to reload but with a weaker killer like Trickster who already has slower movement speed, it's a bit more interruptive to the gameplay and every second counts if you want to do well with him. Using the add on Bloody Boa helps out a lot but it goes back to the same issue from before of "needing" to use certain add ons to keep up with the speed of gen repairs and his lack of gen control.
About the laceration decay meter...
I noticed I also struggled with how fast the laceration decay is now especially with indoor maps (we won't even discuss Raccoon City PS ━ expect to get entity displeased when playing that map with Trickster unless you really have an understanding of the map cause you'll be spending more time trying to figure out how to get around and what loops are good for power usage than actually chasing). There are a lot of times where I need to get one more knife to down someone and beforehand I would chase them until I got close enough to land a guaranteed hit. Now, the laceration meter starts going down before I can even catch up around corners; and by the time I reuse my knives to get the meter back up even without missing they're already at another corner. I've noticed a couple of other forum threads talking about this issue and almost every match I played I've had what would've been a secured kill lost because of the quick decay and slow base movement speed. I feel like a 10 second change was too much, and the time before the decay starts should be increased to perhaps 14-18 seconds if anything (was 20 seconds before).
What can be done?
Since Trickster's release in PTB I stood by the belief, along with many others, that his only problem was the slow base movement speed along with the additional movement speed penalty when using the knives. I think if he had the normal 115% movement speed it would fix a lot of problems he's been having while also still being a killer that required skill to use their power. With someone like Huntress, her 110% makes sense because her hatchets can take down an entire health state. Trickster needs a little more time to take down an entire health state and has more spread than Huntress's hatchets. I think the slowdown when using his blades and Main Event are fine since while using those your skill level and aim will counteract the movement speed penalty and become well balanced (as all things should be). I love the changes to his maximum laceration meter, but the reduction of the knives carried as well as the laceration decay meter made him weaker in areas he was already struggling at before. Survivors breaking line of sight is even more detrimental to his chases and time, while open areas or low loops are a guaranteed down. He was already very strong in open areas/low loops and the changes now only make him stronger in those areas while not fixing his main fundamental problems. He's a lot more of a black and white killer who more heavily depends on the map and survivors playing now rather than a grey area one who can still exceed depending on the player and the amount of practice they have with him.
Overall I think the changes are a great start to getting him to be a better overall killer. I feel like my good aim with him is well rewarded now only needing 6 knives. But I feel like I'm indirectly punished now even more with certain maps with his still slower 110% movement speed.
What do you guys think? Do the other Trickster mains here feel the same way after his changes? I'm still going to keep trying to get used to these changes and seeing if it's a case of not being used to them and continuing to adjust my gameplay to see if it helps :)
TL/DR : The maximum laceration change is great and feel more rewarding for players with good aim/power use timing - The laceration decay meter change makes it a lot harder to chase in indoor maps with corners and breaking line of sight - The knife amount change wastes a lot more time between hooks and his knives should stay at 60 so he can keep up with his already lacking gen control or he should have the default 115% movement speed.
Comments
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EDIT: After some more matches Melodious Murder + Bloody Boa are the most effective add on combination that feels the closest to the old Fizz-Spin Soda + Melodious Murder combination and is providing good results in gameplay. It's still lacking the extra initial throw rate of the blades but some of the additional time it takes to get the 6 hits without the faster throw rate is countered by a faster reload speed at lockers.
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Still a killer that can’t be played on console.
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So far i've found i needed to change my view of trickster.
With the prechanges spamming was the way to go. you needed 14-16 knives in someone so then i generally just filled the air with knives vagually towards who i was trying to hit. aiming on the fly
With the new changes I've found it to be better to be more slow and precise, aiming before i throw. only holding the button down when they go in animation lock.
missing blades is a lot more punishing now and i'm trying to pay attention to not waste as many unnececary.
Not sure yet if it's for the better or not but that attitude change did help somewhat
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I played with you/ or someone with your username in the PTB. Was that you?
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nerfing his knife count is stupid.
at least give him 50 knives
and why would I want the add-ons? 4 knives? that's not even 1 health state
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The buff seriously missed the mark. They made him less fun to play by punishing him in areas where he already struggled, and overbuffing him in situations where he was already benefitting. The buff should've focused on reworking his kit to be more enjoyable and useful all around, not just a "instantly kill anybody in the open and nowhere else" buff.
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My name on steam is Tricksters Wife but I didn't play the recent PTB with the Trickster changes but I did play the PTB when Trickster was first released on it :)
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I guess someone else must using your username on steam... 😱
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I agree, the 4 or 8 knife increase really isn't that much but it does help a little bit with feeling like it's the old Trickster with 60 knives and also helps with not reloading between every hook or every other hook. I also saw somewhere that people did the math and that 44 isn't divisible by 6 and it doesn't make sense with the current laceration meter.
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Exactly! He already excelled when it came to open areas, long hallways with no quick corner, and low loops. This buff makes him insanely OP in these instances but extremely weak in the areas he already had a hard time with. It's such a hit or miss with him now rather than being enjoyable for both sides. Either he's gonna wipe the entire team if it's an open map or he's gonna fail completely in other maps. It's going to be less likely to have a fun and balanced match now.
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There can only be one! I guess me and all the others will have to duel 🤺
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I have no idea what changed with Trickster but he's still weak. He isn't threatening at all.
Just finished a game against a Rank 2 Trickster. We all got out easy.
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I'm gonna be honest with you. Killers like Trickster and Spirit should not be strong imo. They're incredibly easy to use compared to other killers. I understand that many people want their main killer to be strong but if you take in account their skiil cap and how low it is for Trickster or Spirit, then I think these changes are alright because he still stays in weakish killer tier.
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Yeah, Trickster takes a lot of practice to become really intimidating which is why I'm glad I stuck by playing him constantly since his release. I haven't gone up against many Tricksters (probably because I drop my item for every single one I see when I play survivor and they'll allow me to simp for them), but I've gone up against one that wasn't nice to me back. They were easy to loop but I don't blame them since they were rank 16 if I recall correctly because I was playing with my friend who was new at the game. He just requires a lot of time to understand and do well with even if you're good at aiming especially in red rank games.
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I agree with this also. Conceptually he's not hard to use and his power is easy to understand what it does. I'm okay with him staying on the weak side and only being strong when there's a good player behind the controls because it feels a lot more rewarding to do well with him in red ranks. I think where he was beforehand was better overall than now, I feel like he's less fun for both sides now. Either he'll be incredibly frustrating to the survivors in open areas when the Trickster player is good or to the Trickster when the survivors are good at looping.
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Is it weird that I prefer the old Tricky? His update kinda sucks
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I prefer the old him too as of right now, he felt a bit more balanced even though he was still weak. But I'm hopeful for future balancing changes that'll tweak him a bit more :)
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