Let's talk about Trapper

My perspective and complaints =)

The Gist

The Trapper concept is great, but the execution and design of this killer in today's game is lackluster.

He needs to be reworked, even if it is quality of life changes. I do fine and even get a number of kills in most games with some red ranks. Regardless, there is a trend I see that should not be overlooked. I only do well because I am feeding pressure off of the weak players on their team or because survivors (make massive mistakes) naively/constantly walk into traps that other survivor teams have no problem dodging or disarming.

Solo vs Teams

Single survivor teams have not given me trouble, unless they are all around good players. It is my theory that Trapper and perhaps killers in general thrive off of the weak links on the survivor team. Any down can add tremendous pressure. I find once there is some pressure on the survivors, or one/two of the survivors run into a few traps nearby the Trapper, the game takes a turn for the Killer. The problem is, it is simple for the survivors to avoid this scenario altogether.

This phenomena I've seen changes dramatically for Trapper when all 4 survivors are competent, less gullible and on voice together. The beginning is rough for each match vs SWF while playing Trapper because usually 2 generators are done before I've collected the traps since they are scattered on the map. The times I get a down early on trapper is from one of the players making big mistakes in looping or I get lucky and they run into a Trap right near me.

Early Game

It is easy to evade Trapper in the early game because his Traps are not all strategically laid and the more experienced survivors leave their generators early before you get close to them. This gives them a massive head start on looping. If you give in to chase at this point, you will be kited at least for 30 seconds to a minute, or more if they are in an infinite loop. In a case like this, it is game over. Often times I find myself in the early stages of the game strategically laying traps and making survivors move off generators as much as I can. I've never seen a good looper get downed early unless you pre-emptively have traps where they will run and if you try to stop their loop by laying a trap, as soon as they see you in the trap animation, they run to another loop/pallet.

Unless you get lucky early against a good team, several generators will be toast. I've noticed a few other flaws that have made my games feel impossible playing Trapper.

Mid Game

More experienced players scope out areas for the sole purpose of disarming Traps. This means that if you have more than 1 area trapped, you cannot defend the other. 2 survivors in opposite areas of the map can keep going in and out disarming traps as they see fit while you scramble to run back and forth while gens are getting touched by these hit and runs too. (In other words if generators are split mid game, you can't defend both because you will have to constantly go back and forth and reset/scoop traps) Experienced players don't walk in grass if they don't have to. Other traps are easy to see even with addons. Experienced survivors know common traps which prevent loops on each map and look for these traps. They also tell their teammates on voice where the traps are.

End Game

The further the game goes with little pressure, the survivors can take their time to finish off the last generator or two by constantly going in and out on opposite sides of the map, usually in teams of two. Lots of times nearly all their abilities are up and the game is lost even if they make big mistakes at this point because they are so far ahead. Trapper cannot chase too long or any trap that goes off on another part of the map (although it is likely to be disarmed during this phase) cannot be capitalized on.

List of flaws that make him very weak against experienced teams:

1) Takes too long to set up, usually several gens gone by the time set up.

2) Extremely unlikely to put early pressure versus experienced survivors during early game unless there is a lucky trap.

3) Easily countered by disarm trap, not walking in grass, checking common loop trap locations, voice and simply walking around the traps (survivors can walk around traps, but Trapper gets trapped by his own traps because he is bigger). Traps have a abnormally tiny hit box for some reason. You can dodge almost any trap easily whether by accident or on purpose, even in small lanes with walls on either side because the traps rarely take up all the space. This is a gross flaw in design if you are gonna give him all the other weaknesses discussed here.

4) Traps that are successful must be reset manually which could be anywhere on map (bullshit honestly). Takes forever to relocate multiple traps to new area.

5) To get real value out of traps, Trapper must be close enough. Lots of times the teams splits up 2 and 2 on opposite sides of the map during mid and end game. Any traps in irrelevant areas at this point take a long time to retrieve or are just a waste.

6) Early game running away head starts and successive looping can not be countered (while the rest of the team farms gens) unless survivor runs into a trap set up in advance; however, this is the early part of the game and maps have multiple looping areas so chances are there is no trap ready to catch an early survivor. Also, setting up trap during a loop chase causes the survivor to run to another loop area during the time it takes to set the trap since it takes forever. Usually this trap is a waste if left behind. In general by the time Trapper would hunt down survivor, too many generators would be completed.

7) Traps take too long to set, too long to pick up, too long to gather, too long to reset. Did I mention they are likely to be obsolete as the game goes on far away on the map, more likely to trigger on you than survivors and can be dodged or disarmed quickly? Also, once they trigger they can be escaped from solo or with an ally?

8) When looking or Trap in Grass or anywhere, red highlight goes away when you're close. This can make some traps difficult to find and cumbersome.

9) Some active traps bug and cannot be picked up, there is no ability to use space because they are in the wall or something. Similarly downed survivors that overlap traps make picking up either by choice difficult.

Summary

This all adds up to Trapper having a hard time against experienced survivor teams. Early gen rush cannot be stopped by Trapper. Trapper is easily nit picked mid game because the clunkiness surrounding his kit mentioned above. This gives the survivors a massive, massive advantage. Unless the Trapper player is an absolute god, the only way he wins against a solid coordinated survivor team is

A) Basically lucky Early-mid game traps

B) Feeding off the weak survivor on the team (careless or poor looping skills) which can snowball his pressure

C) Massive mistakes or carelessness of survivors stepping where they shouldn't or failing to loop correctly.

It is worth noting, even if Trapper gets early pressure, there are still many outs for the survivors to win the game. Only once Trapper gets some pressure out does the game become an even playing field. The problem is you will not get any early pressure against a good survivor team because they have at least an 80/20 spread advantage.

I just want his kit to be up to date.

CHANGES I SUGGEST

Traps can be walked over by trapper.

Traps set/reset/gather faster. 1/2 the current time

Active Traps slightly larger hitbox.

Increase disarm time and always have a skill check for it.

Change red highlight so it persists for all traps on ground at any range so they are easy to identify for Trapper.

Remove RNG for removing trap and make it a set amount of time. I.E. 12 seconds. Can still have ally help you out.

Make default capacity and starting Traps in inventory 3 so bag addons are not required.

Help Trappers early game issue of collecting traps by either:

1) Instead have Trapper replenish Traps in inventory every 8 seconds (possibly reduced by x seconds based on m1s or traps that go form active to inactive). Then set Max Traps that can be on map to 10-12 (can either do this with active traps or all traps altogether)

2) Instead of single traps on map have 3 stacks of 3 traps on the map. This way it is a more solid return in value for running everywhere.