lets discuss is the skull merchant going to be buffed?
no this isn't a bait thread...she is still an m1 killer at heart
good survivors will run when they are exposed and having a claw trap to reveal their location doesn't really do much in the long run (wow they disarmed it on the other side of the map let me waste time going over there and the take it off before i walk over there).
the haste bonus is usually 3 percent (i rarely get 2 or 3 claw traps active and never once have i gotten all 4). of course putting out 4 drones is setting yourself up for failure since then you don't have any available to mindgame loops
i play a full chase build (enduring/spirit fury/nowhere to hide/bbq and chili sometimes switch it out with franklins or sloppy) as that is where this game is heading in the next patch.
i know other low tier killers will suffer more but lets be honest they arent getting looked at anymore (myers/trapper/pig/clown) and skull merchant was just released so she should be a priority to show that killers are still being tweaked and made more efficient.
so what are your thoughts on how to make the skull merchant at least a high a tier killer?
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Hopefully not.
Anything that makes me see more of her is a bad thing.
Sort of /s
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I mean, if killrates show she needs, she'll probably get it in the next 5 months (I hear BHVR generally waits a few months for people to get used to the new killer and buff based on killers knowing how to play her / survivors knowing how to play against her rather than on stats tampered with survivors not knowing the killer at all).
I only faced her once in live version and I was surprised by her stealth potential. Like, she doesn't have a small TR by base but many many times she jumpscared my friend and I because anytime she goes thtough a drone zone she gets undetectable to survivors and it stays a couple seconds later. (I thought it was only active drone zones but either her TR is super quiet or even scouting mode give her some undetectable).
Maybe there's something to do with like, Monitor and Abuse or something to play further in the surprise factor.
Anyway. I don't particularly look forward to seeing more of her but I'm curious to learn how to play against her beyond apparently being super attentive when next to drones.
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Like yeah technically she needs and deserves more buffs as every killer should be in the B ir A tier, but she is so dull and boring that I wouldn’t care if she was receiving nerfs to make her extinct like the twins
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Anything they do besides a complete rework will still be boring to play against. Kinda reminds me of a certain survivor perk that I have seen in 50% of survivor exhaustion perk slots since I started playing this game for real 2 years ago, lol.
ATM she is just a different version of legion realistically.
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... mhhhm. You say you play her as a chase killer. - Which anyone is free to do; playing any killer as a chase killer. - But I don't think every killer is suitable for that playstyle / will have the best results with that playstyle.
To me, it seems her optimal playstyle is much more "lore accurate", meaning going for semi-stealth surprise attacks that are predictable for skully but unpredictable for survs. Or at least that's the pattern I have observed;
We regularly get 4k-ed by a methodical Skully who sets up their drones for stealth+surprise hits (aka free hits) and has the makro game down. They rarely really commit to chases longer than a few seconds / only commit if they know the surv is easy to zone / they got a good speed boost. If they're good enough at that, resources are depleted before the last gen pops and from there it's just picking us off one by one (granted; we usually don't sweat our butts off. A full meta squad might have relatively little trouble with that playstyle due to max efficiency gens and self-reset options).
On the other hand; chasing Skully is indeed like most M1 killers - just that you have to expect that you're more likely to have one health state. Either because you get exposed at some point or because you give her a free-ish hit to avoid getting exposed and getting to a different loop. How those matches go mostly depends on the resources on the map and how well we manage to utilise them. But still; 4k rarely happens. [I'm excluding 3-genning-skully here because that's probably dead with the next patch.]
Now, I don't really like the "lurking stealth surprise attack" playstyle - mostly because it's not particularly interactive. So I wouldn't mind her being changed into a chaser --- but if she is changed into a chaser (which I doubt will happen) then her stealthing ability would have to be drastically reduced. (Otherwise she'd more or less become the equivalent of a windstorm-clapper Wraith who doesn't need to uncloak..... but basekit.)
TL;DR: If she's supposed to be good in chase then it's not a "buff" that's needed but a rework.
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did you know that she gets free bloodlust on top of that haste effect , if you cant catch a survivor with +10% extra movement speed on a 4.6 killer thats just you playing badly or they were playing safe to avoid going down which is their only option to be fair, you cant loop a killer zooming with bloodlust 1/2 + 3 to more % of haste.
she is currently ok (still boring af to go against but pretty much ok in terms of balance) any good team knows that they just need to push the gens everytime she chases someone by being spread out and not letting her get free preassure on 1 gen only.
(she is good only against bad teams that dont know how to preassure different gens at the time) BUFFs? God , better not...
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the biggest problem with the SM is shes 100% a 3 gen killer and thats it. her drones are useless unless used for gen defense otherwise survivors have no reason to touch them outside that the drones dont do anything. ive played a good bit and the best play is just to throw some drones up a gens and just watch survivor ignore them gens and 3 gen themselves. honestly imo she needs a full rework.
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Man I thought twins was boring when they got released but skull merchant is worse. She needs a lot of changes imo
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do you really run into her that much?
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yeah it is the 3 gen style which i am getting away from to get used to it since regression perks are going to be nailed hard in the next patch(the variation i play is using shotgun speakers with adi valenti making an impossible skill checks/chase variation)...i use her drones in chase with the addons that either cause exhaustion or hindered or the one that gives her haste and that seems to work well just that those addons are the more expensive bp addons
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People still care about this joke of a killer? Just move on to other stronger and better to play killers.
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No.
Even one SM is too many.
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While she is extremely weak and needs buffs they just can’t. She’s flawed in core design. She needs a heavy rework to how she work’s fundamentally.
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she is an m1 killer with no real power though? do gens and run away and she really cant do anything
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I'd disagree that she's 100% a 3 gen killer, but that is absolutely the play she is mostly used for because it's easy yet effective. I played against one the other day who got a 3k (I got hatch) and didn't even use the 3 gen strat. It kinda threw me tbh.
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Repeat ad nauseam for 45 minutes.
Yeah, I know.
I'm just not interested in that style of game.
I play to have FUN, 45 minute games of "do gen, get hit, reset, do gen, get hit, reset" is decidedly unfun for everyone.
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I mean, who wouldnt want a buff Skull Merchant?
...Or am I misreading the title?
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shouldnt you want a variety of killers though? i mean i guess i could just play nurse 24/7
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SM is about the macro game and removing finite resources such as medkits/pallets. Another Killer who has a similar strategy is condemned Sadako.
At this point a full rework would be required for her but it wouldn’t be profitable to remake her ASAP
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I don't think she should be buffed. Problem with her is her drones and the fact she gets info about everything. I would actually nerf her drones from 4 to 3, so she can't "camp" gens with them as well.
Right now she just puts drones to gens and gets info whenever someone goes there or disarms her drone and goes back and puts another drone. Its silly. This is what makes her unbearable to play against to me.
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5% haste is pretty significant with geographic readout. I wouldn't say she's amazing or anything but as far as m1 killer are concerned, she is not that bad at getting consistent benefit. I think primary problem with her now is that if a survivor team is smart, they will NOT power-up your haste for any reason. This leaves you in a problem where... you need to lose 4 gens to start using the ability.
I doubt anyone was really going to main skull merchant because... frankly, there so many other killers that are far far more exciting to play and far more interesting that a killer like her is likely to be left behind.
does my play-style bore you? hahahaha
I honestly still cannot believe that they invented call of brine and then buffed overcharge. oh man, it was a good laugh while it lasted. buffing hostage doc play-style just made me laugh to large degree.
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That's what I do, I load up dbd randomizer and have it pick a random killer for me and I'll play them for a few games. It gets boring play the same killer and build 24/7 for me
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Exactly like Trickster. He is so weak and has the worst kill rate in this game, but, if you simply buff him, He will be OP broken. Trickster needs love too.
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Yeah Tricksters design is a mess too.
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but that was the whole meta from the previous patch...it isn't as effective now (maybe on doc/skull/trap based killers? for a while) but not guaranteed like before
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There is a huge variety of viable killers. Dull Merchant just isn't one of them.
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Remove her horrid 3 gen (and Knight's) then we'll talk
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please name which killers are viable at higher mmr levels ...once i reached gold going into iri the only ones that were viable without depips were the s tier killers dredge and skull merchant for myself
lower to mid mmr sure plague/legion/doc/wraith are fun but then not so much
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I’ve been playing her nonstop these past few weeks since her release and I’ll say: No.
she’s in a great spot with surprisingly good add-on variety and has lots of synergy potential.
really the only bad thing about her is that winning against her feels slightly impossible if she is able to tunnel someone out quickly because she requires effective teamwork to counter.
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in all fairness, its easier with blight/nurse/spirit/wraith (and depending on the gen rng doc/legion) who can all do the same thing more effectively.
hex totem/insta down chaser merchant is what i am playing more at the moment
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Nurse. Blight. Spirit. Wesker. Plague. Huntress. Oni. Hag. Twins. Artist. Pyramid Head. All of them are A tier or higher.
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exactly my point arguably maybe a third of the roster...now which ones do you use and can consistently get 3ks?
oni/twins are sluggers
blight/huntress/spirit require high level skill and are map dependent for the best results
hag not so much with this update
plague only if the team cleanses(any large map/pallet dense map turns her into an m1 killer without the cleanses)
wesker/pyramid head i dont play so concede on those two
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A third of the killers being A tier or higher proves my point. There are lots of solid choices. I didn't even touch on B tier which will still do well the majority of the time.
As a side note Hag was definitely buffed by this update. Her traps can't be removed mid chase and hit and run is much more viable now.
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