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Biggest Skull Merchant defender's opinion on the rework
So, if anyone at all remembers me its probably from my rigorous defence of all things Skull Merchant and my 'I told you so' about her rework. While my original statement ended up being true, the devs have done some tweaks on her from PTB -> live release and I decided to bite my tongue as some of the changes seemed to big for me to really accurately account for most possibilities with esp with the lack of variables. So I've been on a DBD binge and exclusively playing Skull Merchant every single killer game I play and after extensively playing her re-reworked state, my conclusion is...not bad. Theres still some issues Id like addressed sooner rather than later but overall they have aided in a lot of the initial issues I had with the previous iteration of her PTB state.
Now, if you're reading this I'm sure you'd rather hear the negatives first so I'll knock those out of the way.
- Too many mid or bad addons - enough said, I'll cover the add ons later
- Stealth drone can sometimes hurt you in chase - I have poor vision just normally and sometimes its very hard to see which direction the stealth drone is spinning and it sort of looks like a ball of blurry lights, maybe add a beam that only skull merchant can see so she can better plan and predict it while also making stealth drones deadlier in chase?
- Punish Free Drone Disable - I mean I dont know who thought this up but its probably my biggest gripe with her atm survivors can endlessly just disable drones with no punishment at all. I don't know what the punishment should be, maybe like they can be scanned on the radar for 10 seconds after or maybe they just get slowed down for 10 seconds that way doing them right in her face isn't a smart idea? Just something to make it so a good team can curbstomp her by just having one person run around making me an M1 killer in late game.
- Sensitivity to her drone selection - When pulling up the radar to reverse a drones blade rotation, I feel its extremely sensitive and often times I find myself accidentally reversing another blades rotation or sometimes accidentally recalling a different drone. Maybe make it so the arrow will slightly prioritize the drone thats closer to you so that way its not as frustrating and sensitive to deal with esp since we use the feature in chase a lot more now and with the two extra drones taking up screen space it can be a challenge sometimes to really lock on which drone you're trying to mess with.
- Huge speedboost from claw trap - Yeah I don't get why they get THIS huge of a speed boost because at that point whats so different as if I hit them myself? They just gain a bunch of distance and move to the next tile but thanks to this speed increase it doesn't really hinder them in any way this is a huge problem esp early-mid game where a web might not be set up enough to punish an injured claw trapped survivor. Which brings me to my next point
- Injured survivors with clawtraps suffer very little - So basically unless a survivor is transitioning tiles, they don't really suffer from the clawtrap being on them and even then some maps have pallets so close it doesn't affect much.
- Restricted playstyle - One thing I LOVED about old Skull Merchant is that she had so many ways you could play her. Sure they might not have been the most effective but they were there but now she just feels stuck in chase merchant mode. I would've loved for the rework to focus on expanding on the other ways to play her and make her more effective outside of gen defense, while also bringing down her gen defense instead of shoving her down the chase only path.
Now, I'll only mention the highs and lows of her add-ons to keep this brief:
Highs
- Ultrasonic Speaker - Decreases Survivors' scan line immunity duration by 25% (This add ons very fun to use and play around with! Definitely has helped me in chase a bit from what I can tell esp with the ability to switch rotation so props!)
- Prototype Rotor - Increases drones' rotation speed by 10% (Also pretty fun and makes drones just that much more lethal overall nice addon)
- Low Power Mode - Decreases Eye In The Sky's cooldown by 25% (Just nice to have QOL wise and makes her feel a little bit smoother to play, but imo wouldn't hurt buffing it)
Phew now the lows...
Lows
- Vital Targeting Predecessor - Increases strength of hindered on claw trapped survivor by 3% (Everything about this add on irks me, the fact its supposed to be like a weird counter to made for this, the fact that the value is so low for effort and effect, I could really go on. Why not bump it up to 5% or better yet, make it so anytime any survivor is hit with lock on they get 5% hindered for like 3 seconds make it like old randomized strobes so it makes her drones more lethal overall
- Adaptive Lighting - Increases duration of undetectable by 25% (Okay first why not just say increases undetectable by 1.6 seconds? Also please just make the add on 2-2.5 seconds it isn't that strong of an effect either way and it has a cool down so she can't even spam it just please make this add on worth the slot its taking up...)
- Powdered Glass - Hitting a claw trapped survivor inflicts mangled and hemorrage (Really? Just make it inflict mangled and hemorrage when a survivor gets a claw trap why would I take up an add on slot on a worse version of sloppy butcher?)
- Loose Screw - Survivors get exhausted for 6 seconds when receiving a claw trap (This is by far the most niche situational add on she has. Why not make it so everytime a survivor is scanned with a drone they receive 3 seconds of exhaustion? its really small changes like this that would make these add ons so much better.)
Overall with all the cons I have with this rework, I enjoy it and Im glad they took it in the right direction after the PTB and brought back some skill element to her. Hopefully they release a tweak wave in the next patch to address some of these issues but overall she's in a decent albeit still slightly weak place but shes at least in a playable state.
Comments
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vital targeting predecessor is kinda good. in comparison, the randomised strobes is not very good however both add-on do have synergy. If I was improve strobes to make it more distinct add-on, I would make it so that being scanned by drone gives 1.5 lock stacks instead of 1 lock-on stack.
adaptive lightning is decent when paired with low power power mode. it gives her decent stealth.
I think most of her add-on are all very usable. if there was any small adjustment to her that would be nice. I would like them to change 3 of her add-on's.
Supersonic increases Extends the Battery life of Claw Traps by +15 % -> 25%.
Expired Battery increases strength of haste of survivor tracked by 25%, reduced the claw trap battery life from 50% -> 25%.
High Current Upgrade: Increases duration of tracked survivors by 1 second -> 5 seconds.
these add-on look like they should have good effects but their number are a bit off. her add-on list is scales very good and reminds very much of plague's add-on list where everything has purpose and can be used in creative ways.
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i think adding 1.5 lockdown would be a bit OP but about the synergy, I don’t feel that I should need a purple and green add on to make my power useful. I’m not saying they should be base kit, just that for two add ons to only be good with each other kinda just sucks.
and again same thing with adaptive lighting. The add on shouldnt need so much for it to be useful because the effect itself isn’t all that strong.
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I know I am most likely not the target here, but I sincerely want to know why you main or play Skull Merchant. I've played as and against her and I completely dislike everything about her.
When I play her I feel so dirty, since there's lowkey no skill involved imo. Your drone gives you a strong Haste Effect + Undetectable, while slowing Survivors with the Hindered Status Effect. With all these effects you get easily a free hit and if not, don't worry your drone can damage survivors too. Sure they don't scan you if you don't move, but that's not possible in a chase. Deactivating drones does basically nothing: You can't hack them in a chase and she can instantly recall then replace one. I see so many survivors dc'ing against her and I honestly can't blame her.
Now this is not meant as a whole rant about why I dislike her, more to see what you have to say about her. Why is she fun? What weakness do you see and what strengths? Because right now I think she is overtuned af.
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they further empower her anti-loop if you have claw trap on. the default is decent enough to play almost every dropped pallet so I would not consider it neccassary but the add-on are not useless or bad. they empowered specific niche.
lots of reasons. the first reason is that many pallet that are dropped are typically in survivor favor. with drone haste and hindered, they give opportunity for skull merchant to win at dropped pallets. a dropped pallet for skull merchant does not necessary involve killer kicking the pallet. many of killer are often forced to break pallets. the haste in particular is amazing counter to MFT. her new found undetectable allows her to get opening hits with her drones. this undetectable was previously not very good as it only last 2 seconds beyond hiding red light for mindgames but now you can use her stealth to get opening hits. lastly, she has situational tracking if survivor misplay vs drones.
lots of these positives she had her previous iteration with geo readout and strobes add-on so I am not sure why people only played her 3 gen character. sure, she was strong at 3 gens like any trapping control killer but she was always capable in chase with add-on's. I think people over-prioritized 3 gen with her without considering other more fun play-style options.
Post edited by Devil_hit11 on0 -
Thank you for your answer! I really respect that. Can you tell me where you see her weakness and what counterplay survivors have to do?
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her anti-loop has same weaknesses as clown. when you have no claw trap, you want to chain loops together to delay lock-on and prologue chase as much as possible. when you do have a claw trap, you want to go safe pallet/god pallets and pre-drop them. camp the long side of the pallet and use check-spots to slide as killer swings. isolated loops are not worth going for and will result in you acquiring a claw trap. when HUD shows that nobody is in chase, avoid working on generators as her stealth is a lot better than previously so opening hits can happen more easily. resume working on generators when someone enters the chase. crouch/stand still to avoid being detected by drones. never take any lock-on stacks outside of a chase. it makes chase harder for your teammates.
overall, she is little bit of clown, little bit of wraith/gf and little bit of hag with wiping of traps/disabling drones. she is not 5 gen chase killer that you can bully but it is not like she gives no counter-play options to extend chase provide the map is not heavily killer sided.
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Thank you for your feedback. I didnt know she only gets the haste effect with claw traps. I thought she gets it with people being in her huge drone radius. My only complaint right now is how more and more maps get paletts reduced and it's basically a gg against her then. But I think I got a better understanding to play against her.
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