Skull Merchant Suggestions
I haven't played the original SM but she looked cool so I bought her after her rework and kinda disappointed on how her current power works, It feels extremely rushed just to kill her 3 gen defense power.
and before I get swarmed with people who think this killer has no counter, go read the wiki and you'll understand how to counter her power, literally crouch walk or stand still before the scan line hits you and you're fine, heck you can even run as long as the scan lines don't touch you.
So my problem here is mainly around her drones, Now that her drones are much weaker and can be avoided by crouch walking and no longer scan through objects, Why are drones in stealth mode still need to scan the survivor with those invisible lines? As long as they are on stealth mode they should scan walking/running survivors who get into the drone's range based on their line of sight and not through the invisible lines, Once they are activated and scouting then they should act as they are now.
Second thing is, Why do active drones in scouting mode feels like I'm wasting my power somehow, Now that you gain undetectable while placing drones it feels like leaving drones active is wasting half of my power, It doesn't make sense, I think her active scouting drones should benefit her in someway, My fast thought of suggestion would be to rework her haste mechanic, Currently she gets 3,5,6,7% haste for tracked survivors, Depending how many currently is tracked, I would say change it to a plain 2% haste for each survivor tracked and 1% for each active scouting drone, Then as a Skull Merchant you would actually pick between either leaving that drone activated for the extra haste or recalling it to get the undetectable buff, It will also give the survivors a reason to disable those drones.
and please change hacked drones color to red.
Thank you.
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I'll make sure to crouch mid-chase next time! Might even stand still next to a hook and see how that works out...
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The idea is not to three gen with her. Use her drones for stealth or to counter specific loops. She definitely doesn't need to go back to how she used to be. That was boring in comparison.
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Don't relly on drones too much, have it more of a bonus, when it works.
Unless survivors don't know what they are doing, you will not get much value against survivors, you don't chase. So 3% haste is usually best you get. 5% when someone made a mistake. You almost never get above that anymore.
It's good idea to leave few drones on best loops like shack etc., but always keep some on you.
Otherwise try to get as much value as possible from her stealth. That's actually something that improved compare to her old version, so use it. Try to sneak on survivors working on gens / healing, so perks like Nurse's calling, or Surveillance can work quite well, or just guess and learn max distance you can travel during stealth. Skull merchant doesn't make much sound, so if you got form unexpected angle, you can get lot of grabs from gens.
It's possible to tell someone is hacking drone (it dissapears for few seconds) and after it aura is slightly elevated, but it's not really easy to tell.
Don't be afraid to check your monitor, if survivor got tagged in chase, so you won't lose mind games. You don't lose movement speed by doing it.
Change drone rotation on some loops, like shack. So it doesn't happen survivor can easily run through. You can do it in advance on most loops.
Most of her addons are just bad, just avoid any around status effects for claw traps. You are going to get very little value of them. Best addons are: Ultrasonic Speaker, Adaptive Lighting, Vital Targeting Processor, Geographical Readout.
Not much, but you can use them based on build. It's worse than used to be, but could be even worse...
I would suggest some builds, but that is going to change after new patch will get live (depends on actual changes), so we will see about that.
If they don't gut STBFL so much, it's actually really fun to use with Rapid brutality, you don't care that much about bloodlust. If you like chases.
Otherwise Sloppy with Nurse's calling will always be good, until they nerf Sloppy...
Gen regression options will change after new patch.
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I agree her rework seems rushed,.. however I think it's a step in the right direction. So hopefully more changes to come.
With my experience, her best plays are with stealth to get close enough too pounce. and her chase tho good only if surv stay at loops. At higher MMR, surv just keep running when in chase, which can make her feel like an M1 killer in chase.
So any perk that helps with stealth, closing gaps work well with her. I'd recommend the exact same perks as @VomitMommy!
Just to elaborate a little more,.. Monitor and Abuse + Surveillance is especially good with Skull Merchant, 'cause of the numbers. You'll be able to hear gens being worked on 28 meters away (with surveillance), and your terror radius will be at 24 meters (with monitor and abuse). Which means you'll hear gens being worked on 4 meters BEFORE surv can hear your terror radius. Perfect opportunity to drop a drone for stealth and ambush.
Also a little tech,.. if you drop a drone and immediately recall it, you'll still keep the 8 second stealth duration, with a 2 second cool down before you can do it again 😉
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But given how 3 gen hostage situations will be impossible next update, I say bring her back to how she was.
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Absolutely not. That is a incredibly boring playstyle. Regardless of effectiveness she is at least fun to play now. Leave her alone.
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