The Path To A Functioning Trapper Update

Lord_Dem

Seeing the latest dev blogs regarding the upcoming changes does not seem that there has been much thought put into the trapper. While being the first killer in the game he sadly is and has been the most forgotten. Addon changes, while welcomed, are not things that actually fundamentally fix issues with trapper. I have been a trapper main since forever and really enjoy the killer. I have managed for years to reach Rank 1 on the old Ranking system using just trapper but he is always a struggle especially as you face more experienced survivors and teams. Here bellow I will list core issues and suggestions to be taken into consideration for actually fixing trapper issues.

Time wasted for picking up traps across the map

Each map spawns traps across the map on the floor. On certain maps. like for example Swamp, the traps actually spawn at the very corners of the map where trapper has absolutely no need or any killer for that matter would actually have any reason to visit that corner. Being forced to go all the time across the map to pickup your power is just wasting time for trapper, and considering not only he has to go pick up but also setup the trap, he already loses 2 gens at high level if not 3 just by trying to place 2 to 3 traps to make a setup.

My question is that if you compare this to Hag who starts with 9 phantasm traps, all available, which can also be recycled, why does trapper need to be punished like that when he doesn't get anything extra, in fact he is gifting time to survivors by the time he needs to do this and that goes for all the maps.

Also why does trapper need to start with just 2 traps on hand and need to use addons (this is from the dev blog post that is a change coming) to carry more. Is not a gift to start with 2 traps and I wish people don't glorify it as a really good buff for trapper. Everyone with a power starts with at least 4 (clown) or 5 (freddy) or even 9 (hag) with so much more benefits while trapper needs to be always punished and be unable to rush his power and setup.

Seeing also the addon addition, (the purple bag you start with all traps but you cannot pick them up again), why is that considered a good idea. Tiles change, pallets get broken, gens get done, why would you want to keep a trap at a wasted tile.

My suggestion for an actual quality of life and good change for trapper would be to actually let him carry not 2, but 5 traps off the start, and have an additional 6 in lockers where he can easily recharge and make his bag addons not give him extra traps but make the maximum amount of traps he can recharge from a locker as a balance.

MOBILITY AND TRAP DISARMING/CATCHING PEOPLE IN TRAPS

Trapper lacks mobility as a very basic M1 killer. Also vs teams who are on coms trapper traps are very easily called out and disarmed. There is no trapper in the world that likes hearing his trap disarmed 2 seconds after he places it down and moves away. There is little to no risk for survivors to do it, it can be done without a toolbox, while Phantasm traps for example need a flashlight to be deleted or someone needs to deliberately step over them. This makes survivors feel extremely confident when facing a trapper and often reduce him to a mere M1 killer with no mobility to traverse the map or reach a trap fast enough.

To increase the risk ratio or survivors vs trapper, an extremely simple change would be for trapper to get a passive speed boost, an agitation if you would like, each time a trap is disarmed or each time someone is hooked. This can be like a passive speed boost of 5% for 10-20 seconds depending which stacks if more traps are disarmed within those 10-20 seconds. So imagine Trapper being angered because he hears people disabling his traps or agitated because he heard a survivor snap into one

Why would this help trapper?

First of all facing trapper will become much much more dynamic. Survivors will have to think twice to disable traps of trapper because if trapper is in a chase, he can use the speed boost to catch the one he chases faster. He can also get a speed boost to get back to the disabled trap or the person who was trapped hoping to catch them before getting out. This will add also the needed mobility and survivors will have to think twice for disarming his traps.

TRAP HITBOXES

There is nothing more annoying for a trapper than placing a trap and watching a survivor sidestep the trap because he placed it 2 pixels to the right instead of the absolute centre. The hitbox of the trap is attrocious. When a trapper places a trap in front of the pallet, he shouldn't need to worry if survivor will sidestep the trap to go around it while you as a trapper will need to take the long loop because you cannot go through your own trap. I am not suggesting an increase of the hitbox to the side of hag phantasm traps but at least give it a decent radius that doesn't allow survivors to go around it.

Also allow the trapper to be able to step into his own traps and go over them. Why can't hag trigger her own traps when she goes over them?

Furthermore, placing a trap at a window, placing it too close, if a male survivor vaults from the other side of the window, the trap will not work but if a female survivor vaults from the other side of the window the trap will work. If you place it far out to catch male survivors, if a survivor vaults from the trap side, they can spam vault while rushing through the window and gain i-frames as they initiate their vault and literally run over the trap without the trap triggering.

These are fundamental bugs that actually need fixing for trapper so if he makes a correct setup to actually get a benefit from it and not feel cheated from the game mechanics. You have to worry about looking down, where the trap is placed, be certain you are placing it perfectly correct and so on. Hag can place the trap 2 meters away, force a survivor to actually look at the phantasm trap when it is triggered and can even step over it without triggering it. Trapper has to make a lot of giveways by trying to force the survivor to run a loop a certain way and if the survivor realizes that there is a trap there he can very easily avoid it.

These are my suggestions for actually making trapper a more interesting dynamic killer with changes that actually help him and not just quality of life changes with addon changes. I hope the above can be taken into consideration when making final decisions on trapper after the PTB.

Lord Dem