How many Skull Merchant players do you think just genuinely enjoy playing her?
Meaning they didn't pick her to be toxic, run the most obnoxious builds possible or force hour long matches?
Because I honestly couldn't tell you one fun thing about her kit. I hate Blight with a passion as a survivor but there's no doubt it's a blast ping ponging around like a madman. I think Nurse is busted but for sure teleporting and predicting survivor movement is extremely engaging. Even Trapper you can get creative with the trap placement, you herd survivors into your traps.
But SM? Just press a button at a gen or pallet and walk away. You hit a button to place a drone or you look at her radar or you move a little faster and that's the extent of the interaction you have with her power.
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The thing is with Blight or Nurse at least the game ends at some point and they don't leave chases to check on their designated 3-gen until the server shuts down LOL...
There's one content creator on Twitter that loves SM so much and swears by her being fun but I don't know anyone else.
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There's at least one, right here.
Skull Merchant's potential is strategic, not mechanical. Sure, the actual interaction of putting down a drone isn't particularly enthralling, but figuring out the ideal spot for what you're trying to do and then chasing survivors accordingly is definitely engaging! Right now the only really viable build (other than That One, obviously) is to play her for chase- you run double-purples and set her drones up as traps to steer survivors towards, and that's basically the same draw as Trapper.
If she were changed appropriately, you'd also get to figure out the best places to place her drones to use them for stealth, or you'd bait survivors into hacking the drones so you can use the claw traps, etcetera. Skull Merchant as she is right now may not be that fun, but that's just because she isn't as good as she should be at the many interesting things her kit does.
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There may be quite a few people who actually enjoy the play style, but as far as her lore and visual design, I'd have to say they're as rare as a diaper in a landfill. And at the end of the day that diaper is more than likely full of poo.
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I have no issue dying to a Nurse or Blight, because they have mastered a very difficult power and have shown skill. I'm fine going down to any killer really, if I can see that they are very honed in on that killers power and clearly have practiced with them a lot. Knight and skull merchant have the most brain dead power, requires zero skill to use. If you enjoy the killer, good for you, but I for one am not going to be impressed with your win.
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The fact that Knight's power is literally AI.😭 It plays for you.
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This only true if they do the 3 gen build. If they use it as a chase too then should earn respect.
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I like having MfT as killer.
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Ofcourse but realistically how often do you go against a "Chase Skull Merchant"? LOL.
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I'm not following, sorry. What do you mean?
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I want to play as the Skull Merchant to experiment with ways of playing her that are fun for both sides involved, but I know if I try, everyone will probably kill themselves on the first hook because they're expecting the playstyle commonly associated with the Skull Merchant.
I'm easily overstimulated by lots of information, and when playing as the killer, you're constantly having to keep an eye out for survivors while thinking of what areas you want to defend (if any) and such. You're basically doing fifty things at once, and I've never been good at multitasking. I lose chase with survivors countless times because I simply lose track of them or the chase music will start playing and I didn't even see anybody. Basically, I'm kind of blind when I play as the killer.
So having a killer who a portion of their power is to have a reliable source of information is very comforting to me. The Skull Merchant has a steady supply of information and a means of going undetectable, which are two of my favorite things in a killer. On top of this, she has a means to apply the Exposed status effect and I think she's one of - if not the only - killer who can get a passive speed boost without the use of perks or addons. With all of this combined, the Skull Merchant might honestly be one of my favorites in terms of playstyle.
The problem lies with the association with how the Skull Merchant should be - or just is - played.
The three gen strategy is obnoxious and should not exist in the game in the form that the Skull Merchant can force it to be - basically impossible even for the most skilled and coordinated team. I agree with the sentiment there. Unfortunately, that makes it really hard for someone who wants to play as the Skull Merchant without using this set of tactics. Even if you get a group of players who won't just immediately quit the moment they know which killer it is, the way this topic's original post is worded highlights another problem.
It's implied here that exceedingly few or just straight up no one plays the Skull Merchant without the intention of being obnoxious or toxic. And I'm pretty sure that would be an accurate consensus among the community, that anyone who plays as the Skull Merchant is terrible, is being terrible, and/or is being otherwise morally unsound due to their choice of killer. And I think that's a sad association for the killer who probably has the most diverse set of playstyles given her power is dabbling in a little bit of everything, but everyone immediately equates her to "the three gen strat."
Again, nothing against anyone whatsoever for hating playing against the Skull Merchant's popular playstyle. I'm right there with them. I'm just sad because the killer could be something actually really unique and fun to play against, but a popular playstyle has made her the most loathed killer Dead by Daylight has seen in a long time, if not of all time.
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I think they're referring to how SM's drone zones give her haste like MFT.
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Okay so we have "chase merchant" who goes around and puts drones at every safe loop, camping hex totems and whatever else. I'm still not impressed, sorry.
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Skull Merchant gets a Haste effect for every survivor you're able to track whether that's from a claw trap or them being in the radius of a drone.
- 1 trackable Survivor equals +3 %
- 2 trackable Survivors equal +5 %
- 3 trackable Survivors equal +6 %
- 4 trackable Survivors equal +7 %
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What you described isn't what I'd consider a Skull Merchant using their power in chase to be. Putting a drone at a hex totem isn't relevant to chasing at all, and while slapping a drone down at every pallet is - unfortunately - a possible tactic, I'd say that's less chasing and more herding.
In my opinion, a chasing Skull Merchant would be using their Undetectable status to close distance quickly (and potentially for mid-chase mindgames, but I haven't had the opportunity to experiment yet) while using their passive speed boost to catch up with survivors and/or force them to reevaluate how many times they can safely run a loop.
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Listen, I know what you're getting at. But literally slapping M2 and shutting down a loop (like knight) requires ZERO skill- in my opinion of course. I respect your opinion but I just can't agree.
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Oh yes, I forgot she also gets a Haste effect. Well you can keep your haste and we will keep made for this?
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I agree with this. I'm not referring to shutting down loops, I'm referring to using assets to aid in pursuing a survivor in a loop that isn't in the radius of a drone.
Maybe I didn't make it clear in my previous post, and that's my bad, if so. But I was more referring to using a Skull Merchant's drones as things you want removed as opposed to staying there to guard an area. Free speed boost is almost always helpful in chase if you have even just one person who's recently disabled a drone.
Sorry if there was confusion, but I'm just as equally confused and kind of saddened that the immediate response is to assume a Skull Merchant's only purpose is to camp resources, be they generators, pallets, hex totems, etc. My initial suggestion was more along the lines of using Bubba's power in a chase, but it being equated to Bubba camping a hooked survivor in the basement when they're not at all the same thing.
I do definitely agree that the Skull Merchant needs something to keep her from being so oppressive for such little input (her three gen setup) but that isn't her only possible function. That's all I'm trying to convey.
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Ugh they had such a cool idea that ended up being boring.
Like you have humongous drones pick me up spin me around or something idk gorl. 😭
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I'm one of the people that think the 3% on MfT is fine and they only need to ditch the endurance on it so sure.
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Edit: commented on wrong thread.
Post edited by JonOzzie16 on0 -
I love her, and i hate her bad reputation ( obviously motives) but i said already in this forum during her tome. The REALLY Merchant enjoyers DONT LIKE 3 GEN STRATEGY and play her with a lot of different combinations. I personally love USE Chase Merchant or Skill check Merchant. 3 gen strategy isnt right and fun to play as or against. its unfair playstyle and not fun. 3 gen merchant is a boring and lazzy strategy, NOONE LIKES THIS STRATEGY, people play her with this lie when say they like. Again, Really merchant enjoyers abomine 3 gen strategy.
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I enjoy her and I don't 3 gen with her on purpose. I have unintentionally ended up with a 3 gen with her.
However I don't play her unless I have a daily for her because survivors just dc and I'm left playing against bots that are annoying to chase because they loop perfect and since the read your inputs they are not mind gameable.
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There isn't anything fun about Skull Merchant's power, even when using it in chase. There's no satisfaction, no feedback, nothing to feel at all. Put that on top of a character whose lore and design I can only describe as cringe-inducing and the character has nothing to offer me whatsoever.
I'd rather play Knight, much more fun to predict where survivors are going and drop guards on them, then have a merry little chase around the map with my bros.
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I can't imagine how someone could simply enjoy playing as SM. The only thing she can do to win consistently is 3-gen, which is just a tedious slog for everyone. Using the drones in chase is next to useless against good players, and using them any aside from 3-genning or zoning is boring.
She's the worst killer in the game. Not the hardest to win with, but in terms of fun she is just abysmal.
9/10 SMs I see immediately lay down their 3-gen and then the slog is on. Unlike many people, I never felt ill will to any player for using any killer...until now. Sadly it's gotten to the point where when I know it's a SM I'm just kind of like, "oh, f you".
Not kind of actually, I usually say it out loud.
And that most people feel that way about her would ruin using her even if I enjoyed it. She's just a total loss, imo.
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Most of the skull merchant players i went against really enjoy her oddly enough. Also most of them was pretty nice and rarely camp the 3 gen. I'm definitely in the minority as i seen plenty streamers get the most toxic version of her possible.
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If they don't hump you on the ground at the end and leave you all to bleed out on purpose, then they probably enjoy her. The aforementioned ones are absolutely playing her just to be painful.
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I mean some players find some form of enjoyment...
Some players will try certain things with her... either to come up with something other then 3-Genning
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We enjoy using her as a debuff and ambush killer.
Though with that said, probably 1 in 10 play to not be a "hr-sit-on-3-gens" merchant which is...sad...and irritating...
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Each game I got against her... I think this player enjoying slugging, humping the survivor on the ground until he bleed out and insulting in the endgame chat everyone because of lol, of course
(Maybe is always the same?)
I'm going to think I'm the only one who play her in a "chase mod" instead of "chess master mod"
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I played against a level 76 Skull Merchant earlier this week. It made me think, how can you grind it that much and not be bored when the vast majority of games at least one person is going to kill themselves on first hook or as soon as they see it's her, just run up to her and let her hit them.
Don't remember the last game against her I've played where someone hasn't given up straight away. How would you get enjoyment playing against that sort of team constantly?
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For me there is no difference in playing 3 gen as skull merchant or any other killer gameplay wise, except she is more efficient at it.
In current meta it's like my every other game is 3 gen cause you can't win by playing bad, especially in decently high MMR.
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I'll say... at least 90% of all the ones who play her.
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Ofcourse I'm sure there are I just haven't came across anyone else besides that person that dedicated their time and effort to SM like that
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pretty sure they just like her skins ¬¬
+ just look how many new ones she got after a few weeks , currently she is just a skin seller for BHVR.
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I'm sure most people who play Skull Merchant genuinely enjoy playing her. I don't think most players are going to keep playing a killer they don't actually enjoy.
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Perhaps but just because you and some others find a particular killer to be poorly designed doesn't mean that anyone who plays them is some kind of toxic jerk out to ruin the fun.
You even phrase the question in a loaded fashion, "how many players don't take her just to be toxic?" as if the whole point of taking her in the first place is to be toxic and playing her for fun is the exception.
You never get a balanced point of view from an unbalanced premise.
I'll say she isn't a great design but that doesn't make the players who do enjoy her, for whatever reason, inherently toxic. Implying it does is a flawed premise from the get go.
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Every now and then I play Skull Merchant, I enjoy playing her, but I know why people hate her.
I never place my Drones near Generators, just use them in chase with the Undetectable addons... the except to this is Main Building. I will always put my one Drone is Main Building regardless if it is near a Generator or not.
Anytime I play her, people either DC on first hook or people DC if they get exposed/hooked from me using Drones in chase.
I know most people just 3-Gen with her, and I think it is really boring, and I know using her in chase is an awful idea because the Drones are weak, but I find it fun.
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I think the only people who probably enjoy her are people who are into M1 enthusiasts but don't care about the licensed and she's the strongest of them all anyway. That's about it.
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