The Skull Merchant changes are interesting
So changes to Skull Merchant's power were undeniably inevitable. But with that being said, here's my thoughts on the changes.
Claw Traps giving Skull Merchant a haste effect for each one in the match is a good change. This will make her better in chases (which she desperately needed) and maybe help her with map pressure. This combined with the pallet-addon being base kit will make her way better in chases. The only complaint I have is the removing of the mini game for removing Claw Traps.
Her 3 gen strat was also nerfed, by making drones disabled until Claw Traps have expired. This is also a good change as her 3 gen strat was very impressive and boring, making games longer than they needed to be.
The only other complaint I have is that her stealth aspect is still super weak.
Comments
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The removing of claw traps had to be axed otherwise you could hold her drones hostage easily which would be super unfun for her
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I'm optimistic about all the changes, expect I think the Skull Merchant needs a 5th drone so she always has a Power in chase. regardless of how organized the opponents are. Its just great to see bHVR take action.
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But on the other hand, she'd also have Haste forever.
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Im not sure if trading gen control for haste is that great... That should be left at the killer's decision, which I am glad BHVR is putting emphasis on.
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I'm not sure if it really is bad, but I think it would be fine if the survivors were able to hold the claw traps/drones hostage. It'll have huge risk to it giving the SM a 7% haste, pallets would break if they vault one and never being able to hide with the tracking while the battery last.
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On further thought, she'd lose Haste as soon as the batteries ran out anyway since it only counts tracked survivors, so yeah there's no reason to not pop the traps off ASAP.
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I agree a 5th drone with these changes would be better.
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I do agree her stealth is still a bit underwhelming, but at least they buffed Adaptive Lighting. That combined with the reworked Ultrasonic Trap Speaker might actually be kinda fun. The Haste will definitely help her in chase. She's still an M1 killer, but she's going to be faster than 115% very often and that's a big deal.
The claw trap removal minigame had to be removed though to prevent survivors from holding her power hostage. It would've been PTB Pinhead all over again where survivors just keep the box for eternity. The Haste effect is for each tracked survivor, so a trap with a dead battery wouldn't have counted for this, meaning there'd be no incentive to ever remove the trap since they also can't recharge anymore.
On top of that, the basekit pallet breaking wouldn't have been fair imo without the traps automatically being removed once they're dead. Before with the addon, you couldn't outlast the effect in chase because a dead trap still destroyed a pallet which was dumb. So you were forced to play at windows or slow vault pallets which isn't always an option. Now you can counter it by lasting 45 seconds without a pallet vault.
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It's a large part of what I suggested (making her power more about buffing her than focusing on trying to stick exposed on Survivors), although the route taken is kind of interesting.
Although, I do wonder if being stuck at one trap per initial Survivor might work out too low given you can only reset them at all once the timers expire. 5 wouldn't seem to break things too much--and at least then you'd have some access to stealth, exposed, or other addons if everyone goes and gets a trap.
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I've played quite a bit of her and she pretty much 3 gen or you lose atm. The haste is nice but she will still have to deal with pallets and windows which could make the haste effect completely pointless. I have a feeling she's just going to end up a weak killer that will still have to chew up a ton of pallets before she can get a hit but we'll see.
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I do feel this will make her stronger in chase but honestly I feel this isn't the right change for her and I'm predicting it's going to be even more of a slog playing against her. Hear me out here with this.
The main issue I have is this.
First, The Skull Merchant will now gain a growing Haste effect for each Survivor tracked on her radar. This bonus starts at 3% for one Survivor, raises to 5% for two, 6% for three and 7% for four. Both Claw Traps and active drone zones will contribute to this, and the Killer does not need to inspect their scanner to gain the benefits. This will reward the Killer for efficiently using their Power to keep tabs on their prey.
My first issue is this - Essentially she gets a buff if someone is either within the range of a drone currently scanning or is wearing a tracker? On its own I find that to be fine but in conjunction with the following I find that this is actually going to cause 3 genning to become worse on this killer and not solve anything.
Second, vaulting a pallet with a Claw Trap will cause that pallet to break, destroying the Claw Trap in the process. This was previously part of the common Ultrasonic Trap Speaker Add-on. With this change, being chased with a Claw Trap attached becomes a lot more dangerous.
Because of this change - If you do not preemptively remove the trap by throwing a pallet down and fast vaulting it early to remove the trap without even being in chase you are either actively killing your teammates or yourself if you end up in a chase with her. I wouldn't have an issue with this if it were not for the final addition.
Second, drones will enter an unhackable state whenever a Survivor with a Claw Trap is near. This will prevent a single Survivor from running around and disabling every drone, meaning the Killer will always have some combination of four Claw Traps or drones available to them. Combined with the changes to Claw Traps mentioned above, The Skull Merchant will always get value out of her ability whether it’s through deployed drones or traps.
I'll just say it - This is a good dynamic of survivors that keeps one survivor always occupied - Now with more limited options it makes the survivor have to preemptively drop pallets and fast vault them to remove the traps or accept that Merchant has free movement speed constantly to patrol and end chases quicker. I feel overall these three changes in combination with each other will make three gen'ing much worse. Because now if a survivor cannot disable drones every single survivor will either risk being exposed or go down quicker in a chase because the M1 killer will be going faster and eventually what ever pallet you fault will just break as if the killer had Dissolution.
I absolutely feel these changes will make her even more unfun to play against from a survivor perspective and not change the three gen situation. She still has nothing going for her in chase except she runs slightly quicker if survivors are trapped and now you are forced to juggle dismantling drones as survivor and in solo queue this will be even more frustrating dealing with.
Do note - I am assuming you can at any time drop a pallet and fast vault it to remove the trap.
If I'm overlooking anything feel free to correct me - I just haven't seen Merchant since the first 3 days and outside of the PTB I have zero intentions to touch her again.
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'One Survivor can totally disable a Killer's power' is not a good dynamic. It's actually a terrible one if this disabling is the entirety of your power. It'd be like if Pinhead didn't even have the minor anti-looping his chains provided (and a tendency to force people well out of the way, and the chain hunt was terrible).
If one Survivor could run around giving her only a 2% speed bonus and denying any other application of her power, that would be game-breakingly bad. She'd make Trapper look like an S-tier god by comparison.
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Compare it to Pinhead - Imagine if you had to do rotations for the Lament Configuration. Solo queue wouldn't survive because even with prompts everyone wants to do their own thing if they're not directly communicating with the other survivors. Having one survivor having the ability to use all their time outside of doing the objectives to focus on killer power is a good dynamic. It gives survivors flexability and freedom to help each other out on a whim. It doesn't mean it will happen all the time but it should be an option.
It's a function that's present with every single killer in regards to interacting with their power in some capacity whether you're physically disabling bear traps or burning a killer with a flashlight so they can't use their power. Also if a single survivor is using their entire time walking around the map disabling a power I'd take that over 2% because a player has willingly taken theirself out of the game just to hinder your power.
It'd be like if Pinhead didn't even have the minor anti-looping his chains provided
Although regarding Pinhead and Merchant - Pinhead focuses on slowing survivors down while in chase and eventually the game. Merchant doesn't focus on one particular thing at all with her power and being honestly it's not entirely clear what BHVR even wants to do with this killer. Is she meant to be a stealth killer? A defense killer? She doesn't particularly excel at one thing although I will admit I am glad we're shifting her from gen defense to chase but I don't see it preventing 3 gen situations because it's going to force survivors to rotate around the map more swapping roles.
Post edited by Dustin on2 -
The fact a single determined Survivor can go around totally disabling Trapper or Hag is outright detrimental to their design and performance, though.
It's generally not needed, but the idea that if 1/4 of the Survivor side feels like it (and for Trapper and this theoretical SM, without any item or investment), a Killer doesn't get to have a power and is in a 3v1 with literally just an M1 and addons denied? That's awful. It might technically be a massive amount of slowdown, but it's well over into unfun gameplay design.
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There's no way the haste buff lasts until the next killer survivors will instantly start complaining that she's far to fast
And then poor Merchant will go back to F tier
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I'm hoping that's not going to be the case, but (unfortunately) that's how it usually goes.
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I have considerable doubts regarding the efficency of these changes. She'll only get her haste bonus when a battery is active, that's merely 45 seconds. And these things will destroy themselves right afterwards thus removing her haste effect. She'll be back to being an unviable 115% m1 killer. You will NEVER be able to have all 4 buffs from your traps stay active for long enough at the same time.
Consider how long it takes for her to get to a survivor who wears a claw trap, then consider the absurd map design which gives survivors several loops and pallets to abuse just to waste your time even harder. All they need to do is leave the loop after using up their pallet (which they'd do anyway if you attempted to place a drone at the loop itself) which would change NOTHING about her chase gameplay.
Meanwhile her only strength (gen defense) will be stripped from her thus leaving behind a low C tier killer at best. These changes are missing the mark. Drones should expose survivors twice as fast, also double that effect if they're already wearing a claw trap. Her base exposure time would be at 5 seconds then (down from 10) and 2.5 seconds if the target wears a claw trap.
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I absolutely understand where you're coming from and personally I feel that both Trapper and Hag have problems with their kit regardless of that issue. I'd love for things to improve with them as I used to main Trapper at one point so I get how it is. I just feel it's a necessary component enabling the 4v1 Asym game. If it was restricted it would become a 1v1.
Even with the person they're in chase with that person can ruins Hag's chase potential if they have a torch and a good enough loop. Hag is basically confined to her webs on the map to do anything with her power and setup takes forever. This is why you see a lot of Hag players camping because the time investment to leave their web is game throwing. Trapper is similar to a lesser extent but at least they move at normal speed and their traps are deadly when they work.
If we look at every other killer though - Would you ultimately change them? The only one I can think of that's absolutely not shared is Plague and that one is more getting rid of a debuff.
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Her haste is activated whenever a survivor is being tracked on her radar, either by a drone or a trap. The haste effect is not solely applied by claw traps. Her power now offers a give-and-take interaction similar to Plague: if you don't remove the drone, those areas will be denied due to the exposed build up and the killer will be faster when you run through them. If you remove the drone, the killer is granted guaranteed haste for 45 seconds, you cannot interact with other drones while the claw trap is on and will immediately make those drones activate when walking near them, and pallets you vault will be broken. It's a pretty cool power compromise imo and makes sure that the Skull Merchant always has something going on for her, whether that be defending an area or chasing effectively.
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I feel like they'll be a disaster. The most important part of these changes is the fact they have cancelled her PTB nerf that allowed one clawtrapped survivor to disable multiple drones, which made her power extremely reliable in giving information. Pair it with haste effect and she'll be able to hold 3 gens much more reliably than she could before.
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The problem with Skull Merchant was that she could hold a 3-gen from the very start of the game and camp it with extreme efficiency. Now that drones can be disabled for long periods of time, it will be much harder for her to do that. And on occasions where she still gets a strong 3-gen, there will still be more counter to her ability by disabling the drones and preventing Exposed, allowing survivors to scrape through the 3-gen. Then she'd be little better than a bottleless Clown holding a 3-gen.
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I think it's only the trap-based Killers that suffer so much from denial of power. Then again, that's because they're the only ones that actually leave their powers lying around to be disabled.
Everyone else either gets some sort of status infliction that they need to deal with themselves, but potentially at the cost of using team resources (Plague, Wesker, Nemesis) or isn't affected at all (their power just does its thing, or the resource isn't shared).
The main exceptions are Sadako--who needs a bunch of things looked over, including the same 'one Survivor can go around disabling all your teleports and then return the tape' issue that turns you into an M1 Killer--and Pinhead, and Pinhead's the only one who gets a good balance out of it, since the box spawns out of the way, must be attended to, isn't everything he can do, and he can infer where it is and interfere (plus the teleporting means it's not even risk-free to solve).
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I believe these changes will not be enough. She is still gonna be a pain to go against and not a balance
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ok, drone is disabled, cool, but in exchange clawtrapped survivor can't disable more drones, which results into a different configurations of drones/clawtraps giving constant info to the killer one way or another. Don't forget she also has haste from all that now.
Unlike her previous iteration, she couldn't have that because she had to constantly waste time and lose info due to one person disabling multiple drones and taking away value from them.
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The info was unimportant and the time wasted was negligible because they came back so quickly. Drones were easy to replace, which is what secured the 3-gen. Now they aren't.
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then what, according to you, makes skull merchant 3 gen so powerful? exposed? please. or maybe skillcheck addons?
if anything, her current 3 gen playstyle would be simply focused around maintaining haste effects through the drones and clawtraps, both of which give unavoidable downsides to survivors one way or another.
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disabling killer power is one of the most ridiculous concepts in dbd. trapper and hag definitely suffer from same problem. apart from obvious trapping killers, I think Twins can suffer from victor being disable for 40 seconds if the survivor purposely holds the killer power hostage. Another killer who survivor can manually disable the power is freddy dream world.
I do not think that any killer design that has revolved around the survivor disabling the power has ever been strong. It has always been weakness with no real positive.
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Freddy's just a bad execution, the awake/asleep distinction is fine.
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I was really happy to hear about the changes. They responded to this really quickly, which hasn't usually happened with new releases, and as far as I can tell, everything looks pretty appropriately geared towards making SM more dynamic. More chase power and less gen power, and her drone placement is less of a no-brainer, especially when she won't have an easy three at a time. I can see solos still really struggling to coordinate, since one person can't handle all the drones on their own, but it's not like before where a lack of coordination just meant you were stuck in the match for half an hour.
Looking forward to seeing how she plays in her altered state.
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