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Skull Merchant changes look good, but...
They look good.
But i have this tiny feeling that the devs actually buffed her at 3 gen strats instead of nerfing her.
I might be wrong. But something tells me this won't stop here.
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It does seem better overall. I’m not sure how much drones being unhackable again by survivors with traps will offset the nerfs she got in the 3-gen department. We’ll see if it’s enough next week I guess. She’ll definitely be better in chase though so that’s good.
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3 Gen isn't an illegal strategy mate, its part of the game, like Camping, Tunneling, Looping, Teabagging, Slugging, unhooking your teammates poorly etc. Skull Merchants still need to be able to do basic Killer functions, but if they are out of control, it has to be changed. Its part of the experience, for better or for worse.
So they wont just nerf Skull Merchant into the group to make it impossible for her to 3Gen, like dont expect that.
Don't forget there is a high possibility Call of Brine and Overcharge will be on the cutting board for the Summer Perk Update too.
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Like:
- she now gets free Haste, not just in chase, so she moves around faster
- She still can have all the info she needs
- Survivors being trapped makes them unable to hack drones so they either have to risk expose or wait for other survivors to disable them
- So now she actually gains access to unhackable drones, by tunneling a survivor out of the game.
I am not sure, if she was nerfed in 3 gens. She might actually be buffed in that area. But i am not sure.
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I wasn't saying it was illegal. But worries me that they wanted to nerf her in that playstyle, and she might actually be buffed and even better at doing it.
Again, i am not sure. I really hope bhvr didn't mess this one up.
Because if she is better at 3 gen after that patch. Boy, this forum is going to be fun xD
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Hard to tell from reading it.
Against a co-ordinated 4-man it seems like she's weaker overall at holding a 3-gen and will eventually lose from war of attrition but they'd have to be co-ordinated.
If there's 3 survivors or fewer, I dunno if it makes much of a difference, and may actually just make her better since she can now move between gens faster if 1 disables it and she still has 3 drones left anyway to keep over the 3 generators if 1 of them is disabled by one of the survivors. If 2 survivors do it, well she has 2 drones over 2 of them and can hover near the non-protected one. That said, I dunno how this will work out in practice. It may be that 3 tracked survivors with her haste boost isn't as bad as it seems if they disable them.
Overall though, I think it's a step toward the right direction - but ultimately I think the 3-gen issue is largely exasperated by current perk design and map design issues with gen placement, so ultimately, I'd argue BHVR need to look into them. Maybe if CoB/OC are looked at, this'll seem more bearable - time will tell.
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Like, i can tell she was buffed overall. She is going to be better.
But for an update that was supposed to look at both sides of the issues.
I think they left themselves open for a big surprise.
At least is a win-win for me. If i am wrong, nice, matches against her aren't going to be such a drag. If i am right, man this forum and twitter are going to be in flames. And i wish everyone at bhvr to protect themselves from the chaos.
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It's certainly not going to fix the overall problem since the problem was never Skull Merchant to begin with, but in theory it should help her power not contribute to the problem as much. It was already only somewhat contributing, and this will ensure that disabling drones buys you more time towards the end of the game since it can't be replaced until the trap breaks, which means either a hard timer or she has to come chase you- both helpful in this scenario.
Overall I feel... optimistic, though I'm concerned that her "web of traps" playstyle is going to be hurt too much. I'll refrain from commenting too concretely until I've had a chance to play with the updated kit, I think.
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Can't w8 for them now slapping stbfl all day + the haste, 😂🤣😂
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Now why do they react to feedback on Skull Merchant so quickly and give her basically the haste mechanic I suggested for Onryo during her PTB?
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here's issue with their change. if you place 4 drones by generators. there is no obligation for the survivor to power-up the killer until final generator and even then, now the skull merchant claw traps are more dangerous then her lock on. There is no incentive to ever put get a claw trap because Haste status effect is stronger then Exposed effect. You can outplay exposed by staying injured the entire game rendering status effect irrelevant.
so now what happens is that you will need to use all 3 drones on pre-determine 3 gen, i.e your power is irrelevant for entire game and once all 4 generator have been completed. the survivor will ignore your drones on gens and play permanently exposed on purpose. So these buffs in regard to gaining haste and gaining dissolution will never occur. Her anti-loop is tied behind survivor giving killer anti-loop.
Do you know what killer also has this problem? Plague
Her claw traps are like corrupt puke. Nobody will ever give a single claw trap the entire game and she has no ways to force survivor to willing place a claw trap on themselves apart from Iri add-on. So now her 3 gen is worse while her anti-loop is entirely controlled by the survivor.
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3 genning is definitely nerfed, but it requires survivors to engage with her power and lead her away from the 3 gen, in a way that's much more risky for them. Disabling the drones will actually prevent her having active zone denial over those gens, for as long as you hold the Claw Trap.
In some ways, it'll create a dynamic that's a little bit like The Plague, in the sense that her power will be used in two contrasting ways, depending on how survivors engage with it. Cleanse = Corrupt Purge, no cleanse = easy M1 downs.
Likewise with Skull Merchant. Disarm = chase powers, no disarm = zoning and gen defence.
A good 4-man where the strong runners grab the claw traps will absolutely destroy her gen defence. While a Skull Merchant who can master both strategies will be able to adapt as needed can pressure the survivors who have the claw traps.
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I don't know. I really have this feeling that things aren't over.
If they still allowed for trapped survivor to disarm the drones, but of course, that one she gets back. I think i would be less worried.
With that, i fear for hard 3 gen into tunneling some guy, making 1 drone unhackable while solos need to coordinate to which survivor can disarm the drones and which can't.
I might be wrong, we will only know next week.
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- So now she actually gains access to unhackable drones, by tunneling a survivor out of the game.
But drones don't get returned to your inventory until the claw trap goes away. So if you put 3 drones and they all get hacked, you can only cover 1 generator until all those claw traps go away. She will get 6% haste and know where everyone is at that point but personally i feel like these buffs are not going to be super oppressive, i don't think the claw traps will last long enough to make chases end fast enough for sm to reliably hold down 3 gens.
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But she still gets the haste if you are in a drone area. It's not just the claw trap.
You can't choose between the haste or the exposed. Its either both or just the haste. In 3 gens, thats what i mean.
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Of course it's not over, they're addressing Skull Merchant, not the problem itself.
What this should achieve, hypothetically, is making Skull Merchant herself slightly less effective at this strategy while giving her a clear alternative to pursue so she isn't left twisting in the wind. Remember that while a trapped survivor can't hack a drone, a trapped survivor is effectively forcing one of her four drones onto a cooldown- and once that cooldown ends, the trap is gone, so they can go hack again.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see, but I do think there's enough reason to be optimistic here.
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It's happening quickly before players become too comfortable with her current play style. If they waited then too many people would find the idea of relearning her to be too tedious.
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Sure could be
or/and they might actually start to react faster to these kind of community feedbacks on general. IMO they also did so with Background Player from Renato and Knight.
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6% haste isnt all that threatening when you have PWYF that gives 5% for one stack, and a maximum of 15%.
Besides, I still see survivors cleansing in all my Plague games.
This is definitely an improvement over 30 minute gen hostage games every single game.
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Interesting changes and I am happy they went this fast with them.
I think she could still 3-gen but maybe worse? Idk, I will wait before the patch comes out. But her chase is better for sure, good!
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Pretty excitted about the changes, they look good.
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That would be nice
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oh I see, I read tracked as tracked with a trap on. ok never ever mind then. so it is not like plague where people can avoid ability. it is more like end game killer. she has bad early game but strong late game in 3 gen where she get anti-loop. not sure how it will turn out.
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These changes won't make her any more fun to play against, at least on paper IMO.
I really don't like the pallet break add on being basekit. It reduces her chase to a completely skill-less interaction against players with claw traps. The killer holds W with zero mindgames to force the vault. To counter this, the survivor camps the pallet for the stun or pre-drops and runs. Zero skill expression on either side.
And I'm not convinced the drone changes really move the needle in terms of the forever 3 gen strat. You don't need 3 drones on 3 gens to defend 3 gens. You really just need 1 drone on the furthest gen, 2 drones and 2 claw traps for mobility, etc. If the players with claw traps can't disable drones, you run into the exact same gameplay scenario as before. Players holding W away from the 3 gen who are being tracked and players who need to disable drones to work on gens. It's literally the same thing.
This shuffles the problem around, but I don't think it fixes it. The pallet break add on has always felt super cheap as a survivor, and now it's base. I really dislike the direction killer powers are going overall. Lowering the skill ceiling and floor is never the right move for a game an aging game. You just alienate your vets
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Sweet, my least favorite change from PtB to Main was allowing one survivor to scoop up all the drones, I’m totally down for that change. I was happy with SM as is so…changes didn’t really sour my mood. Seemed like a fair give and take, not letting SM reset immediately but instead giving her more chase lethality. In all honesty, I’m about the tracking so it sucked that a strat was developing to just get the most confident loopers to scoop everything and stopping me from tracking at all. The only saving grace being how quickly you could reset.
Now I can track in peace~
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They 'nerfed' her 3-genning just like they 'nerfed' Knight's. I don't want to say I told ya. But I did.
They simply made her even more braindead hold-w in chase.
The pallet add-on basekit is ######### stupid and unhackable drones if a claw trap is near just forces hold-w away, not committing to chase.
This changes nothing, you simply hold the 3 gen by dumping a drone at a time once another gets hacked.
I guess this just gets swept under the rug as if it was a success and on to the next batch of cosmetics and new chapters.
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I really don't like the pallet break add on being basekit. It reduces her chase to a completely skill-less interaction against players with claw traps. The killer holds W with zero mindgames to force the vault. To counter this, the survivor camps the pallet for the stun or pre-drops and runs. Zero skill expression on either side.
The claw traps have a battery life of 45 seconds. Many of those seconds will be used up between you hacking the drone and the Skull Merchant tracking you down. For however much time is left when she finds you, it's on you to loop without vaulting a pallet. The trap will disable and fall off when the battery dies, and then you'll be safe to loop normally again. If adapting to adversity like that doesn't require skill then I don't know what to tell you.
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She may be faster with the haste, but she now can't place a drone when a survivor has a claw trap on them (so for about 45 seconds). Patrolling the 3 gens was easy for Skull Merchant because the drones exposed survivors quickly, and she could quickly replace them. However, if she cannot replace the drones, the survivors are not at risk of being exposed constantly amongst the 3 generators. Therefore, she'll be great at keeping tabs on survivors and now more efficienct in chases, but worse at keeping a 3 gen situation stable. Overall, this is a good change because it makes the gameplay more engaging, and there is a give-and-take scenario that happens between the interactions with her drones.
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Even if this doesn’t do much in regards to 3 gens, at least it (possibly) incentivizes going for chases more. Not bad changes at all, and very glad they reverted the stupid scream changes.
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So this is my biggest concern with these recent balance changes. Before the buffs release next week, the Skull Merchant is already incredibly strong at locking down gens, using drones to hunt survivors without hearing her terror radius, and on top of all that, has SO MUCH map awareness over EVERY killer in the game. Like you can't have your cake and eat it too. She can either have chase or map awareness but not both. Those are my big concerns with this killer and these soon to be "balance" changes don't really seem to be balancing her but rather just putting a band aid on a gouge that requires 13 stitches.
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3 gen strats (namely ones you enforce from the start of the match) are going to be about as effective as before and that's nothing to do with the killer. Any killer with area denile can chuck on overcharge and call of brine and set up extremely strong 3 gens, you won't have 40 minuet matches as much any more but that's because she'll kill you in 20 now using this build as she has better chase. The removal of absurdly long matches is good but the other frustating part of 3 gens, the killer not actively engaging with surviviors for long periods of time and only playing half the map, is less to do with skull merchant and more to do with the two perks mentioned earlier. Given how this is a small patch though and she had some other problems, these are healthy and good changes to the issue and her but I don't feel like they're the final changes to 3 genning as a whole.
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