Skull Merchant is fun to play as and against
You heard me. Skull Merchant is actually fun. Her addons do need some tweaks though. Her iridescent addons are bad but otherwise she's really fun to play as or against and has numerous strategies that she can utilize.
Keep hating. I am going to keep enjoying this game.
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"Numerous strategies"
Yeah, she can put up numerous Drones on gens and hold games hostage.
She's the worst designed Killer. You can say you like her, that's fine. But she's OBJECTIVELY poorly designed in almost every aspect. Even her lore is #########.
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It's just that the majority of Dead by Daylight fanboys are a collective hivemind spewing the same opinionated crap that they consumed from some Twitter or Reddit user and the majority follows them like sheep
Or it could be from personal experience, most of my matches against skull merchant have led to her going for the 3 gen strat either late of early game.
Skull Merchant is boring especially when they 3 gen. What other strat is there that is fun? Throw a drone on all totems and just patrol them, or is it throw down drown at loop and wait till expose and bl 3 kick in? These are the only 'strats' that have been different and they are the major minority, and they are also boring.
Weird how you call people sheep when people share the same experience with the masses.
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Never had a fun match against her
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I love playing as her, too. My favorite part is camping three gens, and knowing the Survivors can't do anything 🤣
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Skull Merchant would work better if the Drones weren't stagnant. If you were forced to set a patrol path closer to Knight, but the drone homes in to apply the tracker on their arm, (maybe +exposed if already tracked) it might work better. Also the 360 degree LOS is both boring and annoying. If you had to play like a stealth game, being forced to stand-still/crouch or stay out of a cone LOS, it would be a lot more interactive. Even if we kept Skull Merchant as is, Survivors should at least be able to play the DDR minigame to remove the trap earlier than 45s, maybe after the first 15s.
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You're allowed to be wrong.
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good bait, nice. was better fiting for april fools but it already passed.
on a serious note, she's the only killer in the game that I don't blame survivors giving up against, we all know what we signed up for once you see her ugly face in the map.
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SM isn't my favorite, but I enjoy playing against and with her. She may not be a masterpiece, but with 31 killers it's not easy to reinvent the wheel either.
Unfortunately, the majority of forum users are only here to spread complaints without providing constructive criticism. You rarely read positive feedback here. And when that happens, you can be sure that the same whiners and haters will always add their two cents. Luckily these people don't represent the entire DBD community. So keep having fun with SM :)
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People are allowed to think she is well designed. It's subjective, not objective.
Do not confuse the opinions of the majority for objective facts.
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People are allowed to have differing opinions, doesn't mean they are wrong.
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It was a joke. Well, mostly a joke.
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Sorry, in this case .. they are wrong.
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No, it's objective.
Her design is bad. It should never be done again and the game would be better off is SM was removed.
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Bait thread. Like seriously people aren't even trying anymore.
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People wanted a shirtless perfect handsome robot.
But she is thirst trap so bad.
Males cant be, only females
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Not even an original joke
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Personally, every killer is fun to go agains, if he's not camping or tunneling.
You wouldn't believe me, but yesterday I really played against non-camping bubba! It's like a seeing a unicorn! Sad that I could put only one "thumb up".
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You do you. We all wish we were you right now.
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While I'm glad you enjoy her, I definitely don't. Nothing is going to change my mind on that.
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Then I am curious, what exactly are the facts that make her objectively bad? Because if she is objectively bad, you must have facts to prove such a point.
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If you can't figure out by yourself how a killer that can permanently lock from the beginning of the game an area making it impossible for survivors to progress the game is bad design, i don't know what to say tbh
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Dull Merchant is the only killer where I think it's completely understandable and acceptable to DC against her at the start of the match. Every game goes 30-40 minutes of just 3-gen camping and it's the worst.
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she definitely badly design but i don't mind her much myself. You can't blame everyone for disliking her tho when she can stall forever.
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I would like to point out my opinions on why I believe her current power design is problematic:
- Regardless of builds, her current power promotes very long matches and stalemates. She is currently designed to lock down an area effectively by making survivors have to stay away from their main objectives in a 3-gen perimeter. It is very hard to break her bulwark of a defense because the drones expose survivors quickly (and the duration of the exposed is very long) and she has eyes on anyone in her drone area at all times.
- Really, the exposed part is the main problem here because it forces survivors to have to get rid of the drones. This idea makes sense in theory because the survivors need a reason to get rid of the drones. However, this promotes Skull Merchant to stay near her drones and 3 generators at all times so that she can instantly down a survivor near her and prevent survivors from completing their objectives. Additionally, in chases, this forces survivors to have to leave loops which is not super interactive.
- The other problem that promotes this playstyle is that the Skull Merchant can immediately place a drone in the area that one was deactivated. If even one survivor is sacrificed or the survivors have no group cohesion, this defense is incredibly difficult to break because the survivors with claw traps on themselves can no longer walk into the drone areas without activating the drone areas, rendering their action of getting rid of the drone useless.
- Her Haste status effect also causes issues. When she is tracking survivors, she can patrol around her drone areas very quickly. This enhances her stalemate and 3-gen potential even more. This also makes chases unfun on the survivor side because the Haste status effect makes looping her rather unpredictable since it throws off timing.
- On maps with multiple floors, these problems are intensified. She is able to protect generators on multiple floors by activating her drones and exposing survivors. Survivors can't even deactivate the drones without even being on the same floor as where they are set up.
You say she has numerous strategies, and yet the only strategy I've seen employed by this killer in my matches is the 3-gen defense that is the cause of most people's annoyance with her. Feel free to disagree though as all of this is simply based from my own experiences playing as and against her.
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Honestly congrats. I don't agree but you're allowed to have an opinion without it being objectively wrong or bait, would be cool if ppl were smart and realized that lol
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numerous strategies in solo q 🤣
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Didn't know that exactly 2 different strategies (Gen-lock and Chasing with Geographical Readout and AMP) counted as "numerous" but hey you learn something new every day
I've taken a shine to playing her with a chase loadout since her buffs but that doesn't change the fact that SM is objectively the worst designed killer in the game, her base design makes little sense, her lore makes no sense, and your only real choice for how you play her is "slap drones on gens", and nothing short of a full design rework is going to change that
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I've not had any fun playing against her or playing as her and I've had at least 10 games of each
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"I don't like Killer xy = Killer xy is boring = objectively bad design"
"Excuse me? You say something positive about DBD? Nice try and thx for the giggle" - DBD Forums mentality in a nutshell
Wise words.
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But she is poor designed. She's has barely a chase power that's essentially gone if the survivor is injured so exposure doesn't work. Her tracking feature is lackluster. Legion has a better feature that doesn't require activation of a device. She only excels in 1 thing.
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Oh dear lord. To be fair, I should have expected a response like this.
Of course I understand possible problems with this killer. That was not the point. It's about subjectivity vs objectivity. What if someone likes the back and forth gameplay that Skull Merchant offers? Obviously that seems rather unlikely but still. Or more realistically, what if someone thinks she is still well designed despite certain flaws she has?
Again, the opinion of the majority is not the same as objectivity.
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If skull merchant is fun why does everyone just DC or kill themselves om first hook? Nobody wants to spend an hour with this boring poorly designed killer. Is by a lot, the worst killer in the game
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I don't think you understand the difference between opinion and fact. Even an opinion that's widely-held is still an opinion.
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I appear to have not gotten the notification that you replied, apologies.
Fact: Her lore is bad. I've not seen a single person defend it and it's been meme'd to death. Even her Tome isn't looking good. I could've wrote something better for free.
Fact: Her power is only good at holding down specific areas of the map. This leaves her with two "viable" styles of play. Totem defender and 3-gens.
Fact: Her power allows her to use Overcharge, Call of Brine and other gen kicking perks to their fullest potential, meaning she can effectively hold games hostage.
Fact: Her power cannot be buffed without it buffing her aforementioned playstyles, I call this, Legion-syndrome.
Fact: Her optimal playstyle (3-genning) is only able to be beaten by coordinated teams willing to waste half an hour of their lives.
Fact: Without her 3-gens or totem defending, she's almost useless. She has a tiny amount of stealth and some of her add-ons make her function like Knight. Place Drone at loop, leave loop, repeat.
Fact: Her chase music is a 1 second loop.
She's the worst designed Killer overall. If you enjoy playing her, that's completely fine. I enjoy playing Legion, but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize that they are also poorly designed
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I would like to point out that those facts only prove that SM is a badly designed killer if the person you are talking to agrees with the opinion that a killer who heavily specializes in territory control is bad for the game.
One could in fact argue her design is very good since she's arguably the best territory control killer we've ever gotten. Our other two main ones are Trapper and Hag who aren't exactly amazing.
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When you hop of a gen as the skully comes by realizing she's just going to ignore you and you're now locked into a 40 minute game of 'who ever gets bored first loses'.
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Do you not agree that SM and her ability to hold games hostage is bad design?
Or are you just arguing the point?
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Her lore being bad also isn't a 'Fact'. Again, there is a difference between a widely-held opinion, and a fact. Please don't misuse such words, it can be dangerous.
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And we found the singular "dark Brazilian manga" defender.
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Why are you being like this? I'm literally just telling you that you're misusing words so that you can try and do better and you're just being rude about it.
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I was actually trying to be funny
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I actually the issue is slightly different. I played some Skull Merchant matches and I never deliberately tried to get a 3-gen, but I discovered that, once we got down to 4 gens remaining (meaning, the survivors had completed 3), it didn't really matter how far apart those gens were, because I could have a drone on each of them and find people that way.
So, if the survivors were uncoordinated, and they weren't trying to hold the claw traps and split up, it always became a war of attrition where I picked them off one at a time when they approached the drones -- not because I tried to make it that way; because it's the natural outcome of placing the drones in the place where they'll help the most -- which is over the unfinished gens.
At the moment, I'm split between thinking that's a problem and the drones should have some other use that's more attractive than having them guard gens -- vs thinking, maybe it's just a different playstyle and, once solo queue figures out the "rules" about when to take a claw trap and run away, it won't be that big a deal.
I do, however, think it's a good point that, if somebody dies, she becomes too powerful. Maybe her number of drones should match the number of survivors alive.
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What even is a fact
Nobody knows.
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I agree with Pulsars points that SM is super problematic, although us going back and forth defining what is and isn't fact won't result in a meaningful discussion. We can all agree that the large majority of people aren't a fan of her given her most organic playstyle right now.
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The Skull Merchant is the only Killer in the entire roster that I'm not fond of. Her drones are too static and only excel in guarding gens whereas every other Killer has other possibilities. The Knight, for example, can be played as map control or his guards can be used in chase. The Knight isn't a strong Killer but at least he has other possibilities and his power can create interactions.
The best bet against the Skull Merchant is just ignoring drones most of the time. I won't even bother with healing; being Exposed means nothing if I'm injured. Her stealth is practically non-existent; oh look, her TR was building but is now absent. It's pretty obvious she's now in the circle and it's time to move. She's going to find me anyway so I don't really care if she does and if I lose from being found at least I've been spared a 40 minute game.
I get what BHVR was trying to accomplish but I feel that she needs a rework. Her drones should be more interactive (eg actively seeking out survivors) and/or possibly having some lethality (perhaps the Skull Merchant could switch control over to a drone a la Victor and explode it right by a survivor). If she could do something else that decreased her ability to 3 gen but increased her effectiveness overall she'd probably be better received and would be more fun to play.
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Disagree. I hate both.
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You are not sharing any facts with us here, but rather your personal opinions seasoned with exaggerations and false information. You are free to share your dissatisfaction with Skull Merchant and DBD in general in what feels like every thread in this forum, so that every DBD Forum user knows your opinion. But please stop calling your dislikes for certain characters "facts".
Fact: Her lore is bad. I've not seen a single person defend it and it's been meme'd to death.
Imagine that just because you don't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I for one like her lore, and apparently I'm not the only one.
And you make rude jokes about it.
This leaves her with two "viable" styles of play. Totem defender and 3-gens
No. If you know how, you can also play her chase-oriented. Few killers in DBD have more than two effective ways to play. Why does this make a killer bad? Good killer strategies are usually a combination of chase, 3gen, strategic camping, tunneling and slugging. Blindly committing to a strategy doesn't work with good survivors. You always have to adapt to your opponents and to the RNG and remain flexible in terms of your strategy.
Her power allows her to use Overcharge, Call of Brine and other gen kicking perks to their fullest potential, meaning she can effectively hold games hostage.
Since Overbrine was nerfed, this problem no longer exists.
Fact: Her optimal playstyle (3-genning) is only able to be beaten by coordinated teams willing to waste half an hour of their lives
It's not rocket science to beat a 3 gen. There are killers like Nurse or Wraith where it is much more difficult to defeat a 3 gen. Strangely, my SM matches last between 10 and 20 minutes. And I pretty much only play Solo Q. If my mates fail at SM, they'll fail at any other killer as well. So it's not a Skull Merchant problem.
I enjoy playing Legion, but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize that they are also poorly designed
You think Legion is poorly designed, but you still enjoy playing them? That does not make sense.
So before you presume to describe a killer as objectively poorly designed, you should at least formulate criteria to support your assessment. But you didn't do that. Therefore, it ultimately remains your personal subjective opinion and nothing more.
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The earth revolves around the sun. Thats a fact. What is so confusing to you?
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I've got no problem with SM being capable of using her power to slow games down. However she does seem to be too good at it. So from my pov, she's more of a balancing problem than a design one.
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To be fair, the fact (ha) that most people think their opinions are facts makes it seem like the definition of fact is in fact changing.
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