Kill Switch update: We have temporarily disabled The Legion due to an issue that allows for infinite power spam. The Legion will be re-enabled once this issue is fixed.

http://dbd.game/killswitch

Another Better (Ish...) Direction For The Skull Merchant

jesterkind
jesterkind Member Posts: 9,771
in Feedback and Suggestions

So, the second Design Preview for Skull Merchant has been posted, and while certain things were improved from the first time I'd argue it's broadly net worse for a few reasons. Last time a design preview was posted, I decided to pitch an alternate rework that'd better preserve Merchant's identity while filling the same design goals BHVR have stated or implied in their posts.

I'm going to do the same thing here, with a twist. This time, I'm going to assume someone high up on the team said something to the effect of "We need to make her more like the popular killers, give her a dash or a projectile".

The devs chose projectile with this and the previous preview. In my opinion, IF that is how we have to do it, they should choose dash. Here I'm going to pitch what I think that could look like.

First, we're actually reverting Skull Merchant back to her release framework, the AOE drones that give status effects for being inside them. Don't freak out, we're taking out everything that could plausibly be used to 3-gen and we're only giving her a few effects back:

  • Undetectable.

The big one. Skull Merchant gains Undetectable while within her drones' radius, and it lingers for a short duration when leaving it. This is how it worked before, but it would probably have to be a bit stronger, the first version kinda sucked.

  • Tracking.

Similar to before as well, survivors within the drones' radius will be tracked on the radar, but with a twist. This version of the tracking would be fooled the same way the current scanlines work, by crouch-walking or standing still. This allows for doing gens without being seen, but it also pushes survivors to make decisions about whether to move fast or to move stealthy while crossing through a drone's radius.

-

That's it. That's what happens when you're in a drone's radius, very different than before and very simple to understand: She can see you, you can't see her.

To compensate for this, Merchant has two extra things to keep in mind:

  • Hacking a drone inflicts a Claw Trap.

This puts you on her radar regardless of how you're positioned, but doesn't inherently do much else. I imagine a good few addons would be dedicated to improving this, but by default, just tracking.

  • The Skull Merchant gets an Ambush attack.

The focal point of this rework, Merchant gets something similar to Pig's Ambush, a charged M2 dash attack that hits quickly. This would be usable in loops on its own, as Ambush is too, but would be at its strongest if used from the stealth of a drone's field, encouraging survivors to hack the drones even if skilled survivors wouldn't really care about the fact that they're just on her radar otherwise.

This, to me, preserves her identity as a "track and attack" kind of hunter, while shifting her away from the trap playstyle people clearly aren't going to accept no matter what. She'll be a dash killer, the more popular kind, but still maintains a stealthy playstyle and a more macro-focused tactical perspective.

TL;DR: Merchant gets stealth field drones back, and has a Pig-style Ambush attack instead of scan lines.

Now, I want to be clear, I do not think this is the BEST way to handle Skull Merchant. The best way forward is to not rework her at all and just fix the minor issues she has, and if you are going to rework her, I think my previous pitch would be better by far. This is just how I think you can reconcile "Skull Merchant needs to be a dash/projectile killer now" with who she is as a character.

A couple more notes:

  • Addons would play a big part in this, since I imagine there'd be addons for things like the pallet-break for claw traps and a few other things. She'd be closer to her original incarnation in that she'd be a "choose your build" killer again, I'd imagine.
  • Obviously this isn't Merchant's mechanical identity as it stands now, this is a way of changing her mechanical identity to be at least narratively fitting.
  • The knee-jerk concern would be 3-genning, but she really wouldn't be able to do that just with Undetectable and an Ambush, or Pig would be a top-tier 3-genner type. The reason her original version was so good at 3-genning was a combination of the perks used, and the fact that the Exposed made it impossible to reset and take a hit to run away.
  • Any version of Merchant is gonna have a slightly higher killrate because interacting with objects or having stealth inherently inflates the killrate against lesser-skilled players. This is fine.
  • People probably still won't love her, but I firmly believe that's not achievable now. The well is poisoned, the ship has sailed. I think this is a killer people would tolerate, that'll have to do.
  • A lot of details would need to be tested, like the drone field's size and how long Claw Traps last, etc.

Comments