Skull Merchant changes look good, but...

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.

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.

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?

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

That would be nice

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

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.

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.