When is Skull Merchant being killswitched/removed/updated?

Not everyone wants to play dashing catch up killers tho and not everyone wants to have to play top tier killers, hell, some killers are legit built for PC gamers only aka Billy, Oni, Trickster, Blight, etc.

Uh, I mean sure.

If you are gonna play someone like Freddy, I don't think you can expect to win a lot of games.

Go work for BHVR then and float your boat when you get rid of her

Thankfully, you don't need to be a game designer to recognize bad design.

Yeah, I guess you could say that I'm saying gen defender Killers shouldn't exist. Killers like SM whose whole gimmick revolves around delaying the game as much as humanely possible are awful for the health of the game, and no, gen defense Killers aren't the meta at all, not sure where you pulled that out from. Do you wonder why Killers like Blight, Oni, Wesker, and Hillbilly are not only more prevalent than gen defense Killers but also more highly regarded? It's because despite not having built-in slowdown like Knight, Cenobite, or SM their lethality in both chase and map mobility more than makes up for it. You don't need to have built-in game delay if you have lethality and map mobility because just being able to down survivors faster than an M1 killer and being able to traverse the map already puts a ton of pressure on the survivor.

Killers like SM, Knight, or Cenobite don't have much in the way of lethality or map mobility so they have to make up for it by having built game delay which forces survivors in extremely unfun scenarios. No one wants to spend 30 minutes in a game against SM trying to break a 3-gen, having to constantly solve the box to avoid having a million chains interrupt you or being constantly chased by a Knight.

Billy having high rewards...thats a good one.

But I agree, we need killers like those (high skill high reward), but not including hillbilly as he requires high skill yet countering him is incredibly easy.

Wheres the fun and interesting counter play to wesker and billy? Probably some of the most boring killers to face even wins feel like a snoozefest

That's repetitive and boring not everyone has a MnK to be able to flick not everyone has fun playing zoom killers and being disorienting and not everyone wants to keep going to loops hoping to outplay someone.

Since is "buff", I never get a skull merchant who three gen at the start... She try at the end, even if the gen is far away from each other

I dunno for the other people who play survivor, but, in my case, I find her better like that in a way, you have to think if you are going to deactivate is drone, when you gonna do that,...

I know there, lot of people are like 'Us vs Them" and, because some people find her fine now, the other are like "that's not enough, she's too weak/strong, if you got down by her, it's because you are weak, it's impossible to loop her,..." She's good for me, people gonna tend to play her in a some "easy way" like Less effort for a bigger reward, but this, if for every killer

Still refusing to play any Skull Merchant until they change her powers completely

Not only are you confusing an extreme minority of the community with the majority but you're literally just cherry-picking examples. Just because one survivor complained here or there doesn't mean they represent the bigger player base.

First of all, Blight is the only one who gets hate from survivors and it's not evenly spread across the whole Killer, people only hate some of the OP add-ons he has like Alch Ring or Compound 33 (and yeah I'd know because I main him.) Other than that Oni doesn't get talked about at all because he's a good Killer apart from some issues that should be fixed like pre-dropping against him, Wesker only gets complained about because he was an extremely common Killer to go against which made the game get stale, not because he's op.

Secondly, I should've specified but pre-nerf Hillbilly was a perfect Killer, and no, he still very much is a threat. I'd know because I main him and those other Killers I mentioned. There's no denying his lethality has been heavily reduced but he's still a very good Killer who just takes a dumb amount of hours to become good at. And once again you're confusing an extreme minority with the majority. Most people who play both sides don't enjoy weak Killers because even if they're weak their counterplay could still be incredibly boring or unfun, and playing as them sucks. Trapper is a killer that sucks and yet despite that you don't see people clamoring for him and yelling out from the top of their lungs that has the most fun Killer to go up against, so quit generalizing survivors into one big group. It shows your bias.

And most people from what I've seen don't explicitly hate the Killer player, they just hate what they have to do to play effectively. No one's out here saying SM players should be hung from the gallows or anything, they're complaining that the only way SM players can play effectively is by holding a 3 gen which makes the match miserable for everyone. Plus, it's not like it's just survivors complaining about these Killer designs, it's also Killers doing the same. I play Killer and I hate SM because the only real way to play her is by holding down 3 gens because otherwise, she is literally just an M1 Killer with no mobility and mediocre lethality.

No, you don't get hate for chasing or anything else you mentioned. Just because a survivor or two out of several games of yours decided to complain about you doesn't mean half the community is out to get you. People just expect the devs to at least be able to discern between what is healthy for the game and what isn't. That new survivor perk that gives you 3% haste for just being injured is extremely dumb and unhealthy, the new map sucks for most Killers, especially ranged Killers like Deathslinger who I play a lot.

Just because I'm talking about crappy Killer designs doesn't mean I'm some survivor main like you automatically assume I am. You keep saying "ya'll" as if I'm someone who has only played Survivor and hasn't touched Killer at all. I have 2.7K hours in DBD and counting and about ~65% of it has been spent on playing Killer. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about. I'm speaking as a person who has a lot of time on both sides and has seen what gets people to DC/Complain. Do you actually think I haven't complained about some things on the survivor side or something? I talked about how dumb the Hillbilly nerfs were, I've talked about how most of the maps in the game screw over a lot of Killers, like Deathslinger, and I've also talked about how dumb the new haste perk is on Survivor.

It's one thing to dislike Wesker, but really? Finding Hillbilly not fun is pretty uncommon. I mean, the sheer fact that not only Killers complained about his nerf but also Survivors speaks volumes. Everyone back in the day absolutely hated what happened to him.

Deja vu got a buff because it wasn't just Gen defense Killers taking advantage of the 3-gen meta, it was everyone. It wasn't a Gen defense Killer meta, it was a 3-gen meta influenced by Overcarge, Eruption, and Call of Brine. They just so happened to thrive in it.

Yup, you hit the nail on the head. All the Killers I mentioned are more popular because they appeal to more of the community than gen defense Killers. With them, there's very little to no Filler gameplay AKA holding W, trying to get to the next chase, etc. That does technically mean that they're just better designed than Killers like SM or Knight. It's fine if not everybody wants to play Fast, I mean I play Killers like Deathslinger and Nemesis who aren't fast at all.

Not every Killer needs to have map mobility and or lethality, I'm just pointing out that by not implementing at least one of those into a Killer you end up getting Killers who for the most part aren't healthy for the game at all. Anti-loop Killers may have several issues with them but it's an infinitely more preferable alternative than Killers who have to extend the game beyond any reasonable amount to just barely squeeze out a victory. Not every Killer needs to be a zoomy fast hit type of Killer but they need to at least have an ability that gives them one or the other. And just because every Killer should have one of these doesn't mean there won't be any diversity in the cast. Singularity, Dredge, Demogorgon, and Blight for example all have map mobility and lethality, and yet none of them are even remotely similar.

Have you read the this forum? Like really spent many hours reading this forum? If you have you would have seen the absolute glut of nonsense threads complaining about people constantly seeing Wesker, complaining about Blight in both just his power function as well as his addons, you'd also see the sprinkle of Oni complaints as well. While I am aware of the fact this forum is ultimately a small portion of the player base it is where I interact the most with the dbd community outside of a tiny bit of twitter. I've spent years reading these things that get said on this forum and usually it isn't great.

^You don't even have to look that hard at the forum to find numerous threads where people's dislike of Skull Merchant goes from "hey this killer has fundamental problems" to "Every Dull Merchant player just wants to hold the game hostage cause their trash". Just to take that point even further to in game where people just dc, give up, and in one extreme case DDOS'd me just for daring to play Skull Merchant. Yeah her problems make her miserable for everyone killers and survivors both, but no killer's ever DDOS'd me so yeah, I am a bit bias against survivors even though I play both sides.

So I guess you're a party to all the endgame chats of I've been a part of and seen everything that has been said in general on this forum. I wouldn't even make that claim and I spend an unhealthy amount of time on here. I've had entire teams try and take the piss outta me for every little thing you can do as a killer. Is it as bad as it used to be? No, but that's mostly due to crossplay matching me with more console players these days than other pc players. I made a general statement of frustration because when you really read what people write and try to parse out the constructive bits and then go into games to apply those constructive bits rarely do I get any other feedback than hate if any all. So for me, for years and judging by again a lot of what I've read here from other killer players, far more hate than appreciation, constructive criticism, or radio silence. Let's be clear about something I made no assumptions about you specifically, none at all. Your post was just a jumping off point for me contextualize rant that has been building for a while.

I'm dead serious about the things I said, I want to understand what survivors and the devs want, but neither group makes it easy. I can not understand what anyone's expectations truly are because no matter what I've done in this game has elicited much more than radio silence or endgame chats full of some of the most vile text. I respect that your experience has been different than mine and clearly has been much better for your sanity. My experience over the years of playing this game and interacting with it on a community level has left me with a lot of confusion and frustration and no small amount of bitterness honestly. Like I know for a fact I'm not the only person who feels likes this when it comes to DBD. It feels like no matter what you do you're gonna get hassled over.

I say "y'all" because I write how I talk and when write on the forum I write as if I speaking to an audience of many people not just the person's post I'm replying to most of the time. I am used to people doing drive by comments on my posts who are generally very dogmatic survivor players who even give me hate when I'm advocating for their side. I'm not a passive voice writer, especially when I'm on a rant, so things come out pointed. It is what is take how you will.

For those defending SM, please direct me to the other killers that get the following from basekit of their power:

1. Can defend 4 gens simultaneously
2. Can lose their terror radius within the drone radius
3. Can cause exposed by not disabling drones
4. Can cause exposed by mis-clicking on the drone input
5. Can track survivors with a claw trap
6. Can cause a pallet to break immediately when vaulted by a survivor with a claw trap

I think that covers everything that's just basekit (no addons) I feel like there is some sort of speed boost as well based on trackable survivors?

Survivors are also punished for both disabling and not disabling drones.

Multiple gens camped requires survivors to try and have multiple drones hacked at the same time to prevent quick re-deployment, which if it's a bad 3 gen, then SM can easily prevent this from happening.

Under what circumstances is this sort of gameplay fun and/or balanced in comparison to other killers?

It's got nothing to do with "survivors wanting M1 only killers with boring powers", or survivors unable to prevent 3 gens. It's simply a fact that there is too much benefit to her power for 0 effort.

It requires 0 effort to deploy a drone at 4 gens and then simply rotate between all 4 and slowly wear down the survivors.

Is there actually any thought put into killer gameplay when new killers are designed?

In that it's considered how they will work across all combinations of current perks, maps and the overall gameplay?

Or is the push to ensure a new killer is sent out on-time the only thing that is really driving half-baked killer concepts into the player base and making us flesh out how they should work for BHVR?

Last I checked, we don't get paid to explain how their game works to them, we're actually paying them to give us poorly thought through killers, survivors and perks and then we wonder why we're left with the bare basics of a game.

Is it really that hard a concept to simply take the time to fix up current and outstanding issues, plan out in-depth how killers should work, how various combinations of perks will work amongst different killers and maps etc?

Because if it is, maybe BHVR is getting in over their heads and they currently have too much content to manage and therefore unsure what to do?

I would remove Trapper from that list. He cannot reasonably trap 4 gens. Hag, Demo and Larry can.

Out of those four, Hag's traps can be removed easily and I do not think she gets a notification for it. It also does not debuff the Survivors to remove it. Demo's Portals are annoying to deal with, but they ultimately do not allow him to win the time war against Survivors, it's close, but not quite because you have ample opportunity to run away if he TP's. Larry gets cucked by EMP's right now, so he's out of it entirely.

Dull Merchant's Drones give her a swath of benefits for holding a 3-gen or a 4-gen. She gets faster, stealthier, built in Dissolution which allows her to play almost any pallet and she gets tracking. Couple this with the fact that Drones CANNOT be disabled immediately, provide Exposed (making working on gens inside of them unviable) AND provide adequate time for gen regression perks like Overcharge + CoB to work and you have a Killer built to hold gens in a way that no other Killer can.

Hell, she even has add-ons to make skill checks horrifically difficult. Have you tried to hit the Overcharge skill-check with those add-ons?