The Skull Merchant's Core Design Is Not A Failure (And Here's Why)
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No
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Worst is how she looks and walks. It's like she was made to please 13-16 year old guys not adults.
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At least you're honest.
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How does that relate to anything in this post, though?
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Still funnier and more entertaining than any match against skull merchant ever played.
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Yeah, and it's boring.
Usually though, those killers can do something else skillful. Artist has crossmaps, Knight has CTA and unfortunately, SM has her 3-genning, not what I'd call skillful.
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your points are valid, skull merchant is only really hated because people keep holding the game hostage with her. And ya know, her mori sucks and tbh her design is mid.
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Basically her gameplay is not interesting as there is not really a way to apply skill with her, her visual design is boring, her Mori is basically Freddys but worse. Her backstory is uninteresting and she is one of the most annoying killers to go against in the game. In summon she basically just sucks and does not have any redeeming qualities...
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This is highly subjective though and why is a high skill ceiling a prerequisite to a killer being valid?
Should Wraith be deleted because his skill ceiling is very low and once you figure out how to body block with him you've basically mastered them?
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Wraith is a bad example just a few days ago I heard Laser I think it was say that Wraith has a rather high skill ceiling, since you can use the movementspeed bonus to have an increased lunge attack for exampel and many other things.
It is not that a killer has to have a high skill ceiling but a killer should have some things to learn, current skull merchant has nothing drop drone at gen put around 3 gen kick gens resett drones repeat, that's it... a monkey can do that. The issue is not that it is easy, it is that it requires no learning at at all.
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There are two issues with this comment.
The first is that it's not true, it's hyperfocusing on just using her to 3-gen and actively ignoring any other way of using her power.
The second is that it's by no means a hard requirement of the kind of power she has. Because she can already do things that aren't 3-gen strats (albeit not very well), it's not hard to see how her power could be changed without completely redesigning it to improve on that concept.
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It's not.
I was merely pointing out that other Killers who have the boring "place power at loop, Survivor must leave or die" usually have some other thing that they can do that's somewhat skillful as an alternative.
SM doesn't. Her boring "place power at loop, Survivor must leave or die" IS her alternative playstyle.
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Which is what 99% of Skull Merchant Players do because it seems to be the most effective strategy... Basically no one uses her differently, so why would we focus on playstyles that are neither effective nor played often?
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I would rather face skull merchant than have a bubba staring at me on the hook like
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I'm sorry, you've lost me. The whole thread is about how she doesn't need to be fully redesigned but does need changes in general, so I'm definitely not saying that most Skull Merchant players are going for her proper playstyles?
I don't think literally anyone in this thread denies that her most popular strategy is 3-genning, honestly. I think you're arguing against a position that isn't actually being held by anyone here.
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You said I would ignore other styles played on her, but basically nobody plays her differently so why focus on those styles? That's my whole point.
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Saying that Skull Merchant has "nothing to learn" and has no skilful gameplay in a thread about her overall design kind of implies that you're also talking about her overall design, to be fair. Why bother focusing on her current issues when this isn't actually a thread about that?
Her other styles of playing are much more relevant to this thread.
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Only if I agree with your point and I didn't. I don't think her current design is redeemable. And she is in need of a rework.
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I mean, the thread is about that whether you agree with it or not.
You also weren't talking about that disagreement, you just bluntly said that Skull Merchant has nothing to learn and ignored her other playstyles, both her current ones and her potential ones.
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Her current ones are neglectable because they are inferior to the 3 gen thing and barely played and potential is such an open term like... Sure if they rework her and give her other things to do she can play differently but this is just so blurred, like what is the assumption of her changed power? There is nothing we can talk about when it comes to potential playstyles because we dont have any idea what it would be.
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I disagree, learning that distance isn't that hard and it's almost not even unique to wraith anymore since you can attach coup de grace to any killer and get a similar effect not to mention Spirit exists and has a lunge but is also better while also being more difficult and besides lunge and bodyblocking wraith doesn't do anything.
I also disagree SM doesn't have anything to learn because unless you know your fundamentals of m1 chase you're not getting downs as SM, of course this is not unique to SM but I'd argue it does make SM a very good choice for people just starting DBD because you get free tracking to get into chases and a killer where you have to learn basic chase fundamentals which will carry onto any other killer that person plays after and I think having beginner accessible killers like SM is good for DBD overall.
Yes SM has abusable aspects that need to be addressed but as long as her ability to stall the game is removed I think there's nothing wrong with a killer that's easy to play.
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Wraith is still a better option for newer players I think, first of all he is free and accesable for everyone and then again if you don't do the bodyblocking or using the increased lunge then you have a standard m1 killer.
He has a higher movementspeed during his post uncloak lunge attack so it is not that comparable to coup de grace but can be used around smaller loops to get a hit and is actually quite fun to do. And it is definitely more than what any other m1 killer can do.
Ok you can learn m1 killer gameplay on Skull Merchant, however I obviously meant killer specifics. And there is basically nothing to learn in that regard put down drone, hold 3gen the end... Or when doing the looping for some reason put down drone at loop chase around a bit/keep survivor at loop get exposed/free hit or survivor somehow reaches next tile, repeat. There is just nothing I would consider skillfull.
Sure there is nothing wrong with (mechanically) easy killers like Trapper, Legion and so on. But I always think that a good killer design is one that offers a low skill floor where you can easily pick up the killer but he has some depth and things to learn. For example trapper has many small things you can learn and even legion has some for example the legion tech where you get blinded at a pallet vault and then hit as a normal m1 to get a down, it is not much but it is something, and it just feels like skull merchant hast nothing in that regard.
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No. SM's power is undisputedly broken. She was not designed with DbD's core gameplay-loop in mind. Her power promotes the absolute worst parts of the game and the only way to salvage it is to re-work it from the ground up. I'll address your points and explain my issues with them.
"With all that setup done, what is the Skull Merchant's core design? Personally, I would break it down into two key concepts:
- Placing down AOE drones in key areas to capitalise on their effects, and;
- Those effects being versatile and almost modular in how much they change depending on what addons and perks are brought."
The first point is accurate because area control is a fundamental part of SM's power. The second is not. Perks and add-ons are not part of any killer's core design. They are augments to that design. You can use a killer's power without perks and add-ons, but you cannot use perks and add-on's without a power. This is a small issue but still worth mentioning.
"If we look at that, rather than the numbers and specifics of what her drones do on live, it's easy to see why this core design would work. It's a strategic and versatile idea, one that asks the player to create a gameplan before the match starts and craft their loadout accordingly. Even with some of the specifics we have, it's easy to see how she'd end up working; hypothetically, if numbers and specific addons were different, you'd get to build her for chase via setting up trap drones you steer survivors into, for chase via baiting survivors into hacking drones and then capitalising on the claw traps, for information via the drones being set up in pathways between generators or in spots that are difficult to reach, and for stealth via setting the drones up in those same pathways but using them yourself to get the drop on survivors."
You fail to address the biggest issue with SM that is the reason why her design fails. Her ability to lock down 3-gens. You can make all of the theoretical number changes to her power that you want. That doesn't change the fact that the most efficient way to her will remain as your her tent and waiting for the game to kill the survivors for you. Even if you were give her buffs that encourage her to actively chase survivors, that won't change how her power is fundamentally designed. And it is designed to be most effective at camping 3-gens.
The only way to fix this problem is to re-work SM's power so the most engaging, and viable way to play her promotes interactivity between players. Something like allowing her drones to hover around the map would be a good start.
"Can she do all those things effectively on live servers right now? No, but that isn't what we're talking about. We're talking about whether the core of her design is something that could work, and it absolutely is.
When I look at the Skull Merchant's core design, I see the killer with the single most potential for genuinely varied builds in the entire game, and I see one of the most strategic killers we've ever had too."
This paragraph proves nothing. All you've done is state how great you think the potential for SM's power is. You have once again ignored the issues that plague her core design. You have a fantastical version of what you want SM to be that is massively at odds with the reality of the game she's in.
DbD is at its most fun when players have the option of making meaningful choices. Having a killer power revolve around keeping survivors away from a specific area is antithetical to this. That is why SM's power is fundamentally flawed. It doesn't promote interesting choices. It promotes doing the same thing over and over again.
"It would be a shame, in my opinion, for BHVR to over-correct on the current issues and redesign away all of the massive potential this killer has, and I think the rest of the community could do with being shown what's possible considering how few people are interested in treating the Skull Merchant seriously as a killer. I hope to shed some light on that myself, here and elsewhere."
I agree. I would rather DbD be given more options for fun and interesting killers. Instead of less. But if they seriously want SM to be one of these options they're going to have to do an overhaul bigger than Freddy's. And considering the content pipeline that BHVR is determined to keep supporting, they're not likely to divert so much time and resources to fix a killer as broken as SM.
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Yes
Anyway, SM is the concrete proof that Trapper should never start with all traps.
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I think every part of her kit is amazing idea for dbd...except the drones themselves, the core part of her kit :| maybe just make her tap into Drone "stations" where she can fly the drones out from them, but not too far from the station? I dunno. There has to be some way of keeping this whole tiny 3 gen thing from happening.
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Interesting to invoke "others have said" in a thread where maybe three respondents actually bothered to read the post, lol.
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Unlucky that the Majority of people still hate everything about skull merchant no matter what your post said.
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Also I already tried to adress your post in the proper way and did not get a response to it so I guess when it comes to not readings posts you belong to majority of people who don't read it...
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There were a lot of posts, and after enough of the mocking ones I kinda checked out, sorry about that.
To address your points now, though, I haven't the first idea where you're coming from. The drones aren't individually versatile, they're versatile because all of them do a number of things that you can choose to build into. Each drone is capable of providing information, giving you chase buffs (via addons), applying Claw Traps when hacked, and enabling stealth via Undetectable. That makes them versatile because you can use them in a number of different ways, the drones don't need to individually do different things to be versatile.
They're versatile right now. My preferred outcome is for BHVR to lean into that and not completely redesign her.
As for the 3-gen issue, I believe SM can be brought down to in line with the other killers in that regard. I don't think the drones being a stationary AOE must always necessarily lead to 3-gens being impossible, it all depends on what the drones actually do and how they're interacted with on both sides.
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But overall all they do is prevent people from staying in a certain area, and that's a problem, her basic design of area defense works in that way. It is not the same with Hag and Trapper whereas they make loops in a certain area unsafe but don't necessarily give you disadvantages for doing a generator in a certain area, it is just riskier. The problem with Skull Merchant is that by applying all these effects onto you while you are doing a gen, Trapper and Hag take quite some time to put their web up again if you remove traps or disarm them, whereas all skull merchant has to do is be close to the gen and press the button, you don't even need to think as gens are highlighted, you don't need to chose a good space as to where exactly place them in the loop just the general direction close to the gen is alright and that is a big issue, as many said before with this being the most effective way to play you don't need to learn much, you just put the dron down and that's it. The single most skillfull thing for example we saw in the skull merchant vs. team eternal showmatch was that he placed the drown in the basement, making it harder to disable, but since the correct play seemed to be to just ignore the drones even that didn't matter.
I don't think of it as good design to just put things on the floor and then they just work in a wide area without any imput from you. How can you possible tweak some numbers or change smaller things without a complete rework and have a different outcome? As harsh as it sounds, what else are you supposed to do with the drones? All area defense killers choose a certain area (usually like 1/3 of the map or so) in which they place their web, shut down loops and then basically never leave them, because why would you? But as skull merchant why would you place the drones on loops?
I think it is hard to describe like... The reason you place something on the loop is to make it less safe, or shut it down completely like hag or trapper. But with skull merchant you already protect your goal with the drones and scare everyone away by patrolling them, you don't even need to keep chasing. Removing any of the abilities she currently has on her drowns would probably significantly weaken her power to 3 gen, take away stealth and you can pre run earlier, take away exposed and you can a hit and just keep running, and so on, but then she would be even worse, because then the drones just would not do anything in a chase either? without exposed or bonus ms what is the reason to set it up on a loop? You can just moonwalk to avoid showing your red light. I just don't see a way to remove her capability of 3 genning without completely ruining her chase as well and turning her into the worst killer in the game. The easiest thing to avoid 3 genning is probably just to removed the ability to place them around a gen and basically force you to chase, but then she would be literally the worst killer in the game. that's my whole point, her core design is flawed. And if you basically need to change entirely what her power does then that is a rework.
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The thing is, her drones don't inherently prevent people from staying in a certain area. Think about it, the drones themselves are just a light show, the thing that makes them potent is what they do.
So, then, what parts of the drone make staying in that area unthinkably dangerous? It's not the tracking, that just means you have to be a little more careful. Ditto for the stealth, unless you're doing a generator in a really cramped area with only one entrance (So like, the upper story single person generator on Badham, that kind of thing) you'd just be playing as if against a stealth killer in general. The Haste is useful in chase but less useful for actually closing significant distance, so it's not that either.
What that leaves is just the Exposed from Lock-On as the threat, and that can very safely be removed from her kit with the right additional changes. It already barely helps for chase and doesn't help at all for information or stealth, so playing Skull Merchant actively/properly won't be affected, it'll just stop the drones from being thoughtless area defence.
That isn't a full redesign, it's a pretty small change all things considered. I didn't go super into detail on that in my original post because I was more interested in elaborating what I think the distinction between 'core design' and the killer's specific implementation is, but that is where I think the devs should go. Remove Lock-On, and buff her other playstyles now that 3-genning is back down to where a killer like Sadako or tier-2 Myers would be able to achieve the same thing.
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Hags and Trappers Traps are somewhat hidden so it is kind of a gambling game when you enter their web whether or not you will activate one, which isn't fun either but at least you can hope to find them and avoid or take some not so good pathing where you hope to not step into one, but Skull merchants drones are visible even that part is missing, like it is not like you can force people to activate your trap, they know it is there, they just need to decide if they want to play the loop get the stun or make her break it and make it to another loop before going one shot due to the exposed or if they just run away right away because the loop is unsafe and this is just so similar to knight or Artist in the sense that they setup their power on a loop and if you can reach a connected or close by loop they do it again and if not you get hit, it is basically the same issue, at least artist can also do cross maps or the shotgun method.
They could have done so much fun stuff with it like for example motion detection maybe even give survivors a small motion detector for like 24 m range and have no hearbeat while they are in her territory so skull merchant can be sort of a stealth killer and must avoid being in visible line of sight to the motion detector to avoid being tracked, but then again the alien chapter already does that better with the flame throwers.
It is just that there were so many good ideas the community had and what we got is a terrible killer and everyone was mad, justified... What many expected was some sort of a gear up killer with pieces of equipment spread around the map and that would have been great, imagine her having different modes, maybe one that is oneshot but easy to spot, a sneaky but slow one, maybe a range one? That would have been awesome, let's say she had to gather her stuff and then be active you have drones in your area to spot people, then you decide where to go either sneak or not depending on what approach, people could have decided on how to play her, she would have been really versatile with different approaches that give the player the option on how to play, but what we got was a killer basically without chase power and somewhat two playstyle, 3 gen or chase, whereas one is clearly superior in chances of winning.
That's another reason why everyone says her core design is flawed, because they had this ideas of what she could be and in the end she was none of it, just boring.
She is a chase killer without a cool chase power to get good at using, she is an area defense killer without needing strategy to properly set up your web and think ahead of time as to what path survivors may take and where to place a trap... She is just a disappointment.
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What prevents them from staying there is the combination of lock on exposed and stealth because if you play the 3 gen way and only ever chase them away maybe destroy some close by pallets they used to not get one shot then at some point people are unable to do that gen without going down for sure, the only reason that didn't constantly happen in the showmatch was because they were on coms and called out when she was coming back to another gen.
If you removed the exposed in a loop then she just plays normally, even the bonus movementspeed is somewhat a bad idea because an m1 killer with 120% ms or 125% or whatever just plays differently and often leaves the survivor with not much space to outplay the other side because even safer loops are becoming really unsafe.
It is up for debate if that would still not be a rework, but if you change how a killer power works without small number tweaks it is basically a rework, I mean think about doctors rework, where they got rid of his two modes, he kept his shock in loops in the end they changed a part of his power to do something else, which I consider to be a rework.
I would even say the changes to Bubba were basically a rework, when they gave him charges for his chainsaw, and that is not really that much in terms of what changed, 3 instead of 1 short charge.
I would not say either that rework and core elements are excluding each other like, bubbas core that he uses a chainsaw in the way he does did not get changed, he did however get reworked. And if you need to change for example what the drones do overall, then that is a rework, it doesn't necessarily change her core elements, but her core gameplay, if the drones couldn't be used for area controll. But maybe just tracking?
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one does not follow from the other.
also, he already can with the right add-on. he still ain't doing #########.
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I've been consistent in saying that she does need changes and that when I say she doesn't need to be redesigned, I am referring to changes like the ones Freddy got. I even cited Doctor and Leatherface in another response as the kind of changes I think she does need; the core power remaining the same, but the way it's implemented being tweaked to be healthier and smoother.
If you remove the Exposed, players who want to utilise her drones for chase would need to bring tools that make the drones better in chase. Maybe implement one of the current chase addons into the basekit so she's not totally dependant on them, but other than that her addons need to be overhauled to better represent her modular nature. She needs better chase addons that aren't purple tier, basically.
And that's just if you want to use her drones for chase. Let's not lose sight of what her power design's actual strength is: you don't need to, because it does other stuff as well. You could lean into using it for surveillance, or try and bank on the Claw Traps instead of the drones themselves, or you could use it for stealth. She doesn't need to either be "nightmare 3-gen simulator" or "use drones directly in chase". There are currently other options, and those options need to be improved alongside the 3-gen element being nerfed.
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That's a rework then, are we just debating about semantics or what? If we basically need to change her power so it does completely different things then that's a rework, depending on if you see her core just as puts drone down or as drone that does specific things we could even argue that her core gets changed but in the end she needs big changes.
But if you use her drones for stealth, where other then on gens would you place them for you to have a longer duration of no heartbeat for a survivor that stays somewhere long enough for you to go there? That's like the problem of it? Basically the only usefull place to put those drones is around generators.
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It's a rework, yes, but it's not a Freddy tier rework that makes her power do completely different things. Her power currently does everything I've just mentioned, I am solely and specifically asking for those to be improved while her area defence (in the form of Lock On) is weakened. This has been my position the whole time, to be clear, even if I maybe slipped up and used the word 'rework' when I shouldn't have. I don't know if I did, I'd have to go back and check lol. To be even more clear and direct: The Skull Merchant does not need a Freddy tier rework that fundamentally changes her power. She does need a Leatherface and Doctor level suite of changes that keep her power intact while changing specific elements of it.
For your last question, you'd probably want to put them between generators rather than directly on top, because if your Undetectable actually lingered for any meaningful amount of time you'd still be stealthy while the survivor wouldn't necessarily know to expect you at any second because they aren't sitting inside the radius. Putting them between generators would also usually translate to them being better placed to use in loops, and while stealth isn't the most useful mid-chase power, it's not nothing either.
But, I do have to question- at what point does it matter if they're put on generators? If they aren't being used for area defence/3-genning (because they aren't actually directly threatening) and they just happen to be near generators because that's where you'd get the most information/stealth/chase potential out of them, is that actually a problem?
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But if we change what her drones do, we do make her power do make completely different things? Her drones are just a place holder do apply certain effects, her core is put something down that applies effects, so the essential part is the effects that are being applied. Just as Huntress and Clown both throw things at survivors the core is the effect of what those things do.
I would say it still helps in defending a 3gen, because you may get an easier hit with sloppy to then kick it again or even a down to activate surge/eruption. A power that let's you control gens easier will (almost)always be problematic for a 3 gen scenario.
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If I were suggesting changing those effects to something else, yes, but I am not. I am suggesting removing one effect, and improving all the others.
Again, her power does everything I've mentioned right now. Boot up the game, launch a match of Skull Merchant, and your power will give you information, chase, and stealth. It won't be good chase without addons and it won't be good stealth no matter what, but it does it right now.
What will change is how people play her, but that's not even slightly the same thing as her power being fundamentally changed.
Also, any killer's power makes defending a 3-gen easier, that's not the bar. The bar is bringing her down to where other killers are, as well as making her better at doing other things to make 3-gens less appealing.
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Is removing or adding an effect to power not a form of changing effects? Like I said semantics...
I wouldn't agree that powers necessarily help in defending a 3 gen, most of them help gettings downs, except for the area defence killers. Her power however directly allows you to controll the area around a gen.
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...But I'm not suggesting adding any. The only change to effects I propose is removing one, and the one I am proposing removing is the one that helps the least for when she's played normally. That's not a Freddy-tier ground-up redesign that makes the power completely different, that isn't a case of semantics at all. The power remains roughly the same for everyone that wasn't 3-genning with her, it's just improved and tweaked.
Her power does that now. If there weren't any direct threat from Exposed, it wouldn't. My entire point is that her power only needs changes to the power itself, not starting from scratch like people suggest, to fix that issue.
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Ok then, but I would still not agree that a small tweak will work. Let's just say you did that and putting the drone down at a loop has a proper effect to the chase, then what? Will it make facing her more fun and interactive or will it just be Artist/Knight all over again? How do you create such a power that gives you more choices than leave the loop or take the hit with such a concept? We have a rather limited amount of effects those drones could grant currently and if we don't add any and removed exposed we are stuck with undetectable and movementspeed changes. Is she just gonna be clown then? In the sense of her power will be undetectable + movementspeed changes to her, the surv or both? I think it should be something that is different to other killers.
What would be an effect good enough that still allows interaction in chase? There needs to be at least a general concept how that could be accomplished otherwise this is way too cloudy and undetermined.
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You do bring up a good point with the Knight/Artist problem, that's kinda why I'm on the fence about giving her some chase effects basekit. I do think she'd be less obnoxious than those killers because those killers pressure you away with guaranteed loss of a health state, whereas Skull Merchant just gets a buff/debuff out of the situation and she also has to wait for the drone to become active, but it is a concern to be aware of.
Still, to be entirely fair, lots of killers can just force survivors to run out with their power, so it isn't a unique problem. It's kind of a game-wide issue to solve, rather than a specific-killer issue.
To your other points... Clown doesn't have Undetectable, I have no idea what you're talking about there. They also function completely differently? Like, the mechanics are completely different, as well as how you'd use them. Clown has a straightforward mid-chase power, Skull Merchant has a versatile power that shines best when it isn't used mid-chase.
You're still focusing a lot on mid-chase interaction when that isn't the only thing this power does. Remember that the strength of it is how it's used overall and in how many other different playstyles it would enable, not just by dropping a drone mid-chase.
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When there is a connected tile the playstyle of put power down at loop of Knight and Artist still does not guarantee a hit, but it is really annoying.
I was talking about the different effects of the drone because undetectable means nothing in chase, other than hiding your red light but you can just moonwalk so not that big of a bonus. So if her drones should give her chase abilites that already exist now then it has to be a movementspeed bonus ight? Because that's what some of her addons do, and basically that is clowns power - the blurry vision part... How does her power shine when not being used mid chased except for controlling a 3 gen currently? Isn't that the two current options? 3gen or putting down in a chase at a tile similar to knight or artist, what else is there currently with her drones?
What other playstyles are there? Are you going to play a worse Ghostface or what? :D That's my whole point when you think so much about what could be we don't really have certainties to grasp we cannot really say what will be good or bad with uncertain changes so we can only focus on what is now or if we agree on certain changes. So to be clear...
Currently her power does those things:
- deactivating them gives you a claw trap that will insta break pallets if you vault them with it
- exposed if you stay in there too long
- bonus movementspeed according to how many people have a claw trap
- tracking over the thing in her hand when people are in her drones/have traps (not sure how this one works exactly to be honest)
- no heartbeat while in drones area
And now you said get rid of exposed and buff the other ones, correct? So just we can have a base on what to argue.
The stealth aspect is worse than Myers or Ghostfaces or Wraiths, the movementspeed part is basically clown and the insta break with clawtraps only comes into effect when you deactivate a drone which we would need to argue about why you would ever do that.
Is there anything to add to her power and would changed with your proposed changes?
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Right, I can see where the confusion is.
So, no, those are not the only two options. In terms of what her power does and what playstyles could be used with a few buffs, you'd have the following:
- Set drones up ahead of time and chase survivors into them, for chase buffs. (This one works on live right now and is her best build, but requires purple addons)
- Defend totems. (This one also works on live, but would be harder without Exposed)
- Set drones up in positions between generators to be stealthy and get the drop on survivors. (This one doesn't work on live but is the easiest to make possible)
- Put the drones in hard to access spots and use them for information, bringing chase perks to basically be a speedy and well informed M1 killer. (This one kiiiinda works on live but it's always going to be the most finnicky)
- Bait survivors into hacking drones so you can use the claw traps. (This one is always going to be a bit inconsistent because it relies on survivors performing certain actions, but it should be an option. )
Part of the issue with conversations about Skull Merchant is that a lot of people don't really consider any way of using a power that isn't 3-genning, very straightforward mid-chase activation, or sometimes camping. Skull Merchant has a power that you'd use to empower your killer fundamentals more than activating in the middle of chase, and that's okay, not every killer has to have something that's geared solely towards chases in the most straightforward way.
I do think it's a little misleading to start asking "well isn't that just [x] killer" because there are only so many power effects in the game and there's going to be overlap. You could easily argue that Sadako, Ghostface, Myers, and Wraith are all too similar because they're all stealth killers, but that would ignore that they all work differently and all bring their own specific flair that a player might prefer over others.
In short, you do not have to use a killer power just in the middle of chase. When I talk about buffing her other elements, they are not all intended to be chase abilities in that way.
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How is totem defesen a playstyle? What if they just ignore your totems? Defending a totem like that is somewhat camping it, it can be partially used but it is not like a full thing if you know what I mean? 1. You would only need to use like 1 or 2 drones for that and 2. you still need to somehow get downs and stuff to get value out of probably devour?
The chasing people into the drones is tricky because unlike trapper or hag your drones are visible so they might just not go there, because it is fairly obvious, especially experienced players will notice when the skull merchant goes faster while being close to her drone, so they will just take different pathing.
Set up between generators only works when they are close together and you need to have line of sight blockers, I don't think that one is viable and as long as this works you might as well just place it on the generator itself.
Hard to access spots? You need to explain that a little bit further, the whole problem about her drones is that they are rather easy to avoid going into, unless you place them on a generator, why would a survivor enter a drones radius if he can just go around it and loose like 2-3 seconds? Unless in chase i guess.
Why would they hack the drones though? That in itself is also not really a playstyle, that's just something that happens or not, it is not even in your control if it happens... Right now in the 3 gen scenario at least eternal thought in the end that removing the drones is not even worth the time, which is why they ignored them, which brings up the question how to design it to be worthwhile to get rid of.
Out of the 5 you mentioned I would argue only 2 qualify as playstyles: Trying to force survivors into pre set drones, and setting them up in between or on top of gens... So ok, we now have 3 total playstyles... Out of which only 1 is viable currently.
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Totems do things, and those things both affect how you play and are things survivors want to stop. Totem defence is a playstyle for other killers, it'd be a playstyle for SM. I'm not even necessarily saying it's a great one, I get how totem defence can be annoying, but it's there and it wasn't mentioned, so it warranted being on the list.
I don't know what to tell you, man, it works. Survivors have to run away from you, and the drones have pretty big ranges. Plus, they're a lot harder to see when they're in scouting mode, so if you hold off on activating it until the last second they often don't have anywhere else to run. This is Skull Merchant's best playstyle on live, imo, as long as we're looking for a playstyle that leads to you winning and not the game force-ending after an hour.
Set up between generators would be a little map dependant but it'd work. It really depends on how the stealth is buffed, if you can at least make it last a noticeable amount of time with addons you'd have a lot of freedom to put the drones in more spots. Either way, it's a playstyle that would be possible with the right changes. Remember that this is to use the drones for stealth, not for chase or area defence, so placing them on generators would just make them easier to hack and wouldn't necessarily help you ambush survivors doing anything except working on that one generator.
For the hard to reach places, I'm thinking like the top floor of stronger structures, or down in the basement, or just generally not immediately out in the open. It's finnicky because you can't get mapwide coverage (and nor should you be able to), but it is doable. Remember that drones are only super obvious when they're in active mode, they can be easy to miss and depending on where they are you may not have a choice of where to go anyway. Plus, if they aren't actively threatening, more survivors might choose to just stay in the zone without hacking the drone. It'd be hard to use and I'd imagine you'd usually want to do that plus something else, but it's definitely an element of her kit.
For hacking the drones, that's why I said it'd be inconsistent. You'd be baiting it, basically, and it's another one you'd probably want to split with another playstyle. Still, people run RNG type builds on other killers all the time, so it'd be something some players would want to do.
So, out of the five I mentioned, we have... five. It doesn't matter how many are viable currently, because we're talking about changing her kit to better enable these playstyles. It's also important not to fall into the trap of just nitpicking apart how useful any one of these playstyles would be, because the wider point is about how her power is one that can enable a wide variety of approaches and how she's not just a 3-gen machine inherently- especially when she's even capable of some of these things on live right now.
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It is, 3 Gens should be survivors' mistake, not a strategy for killer. I main Trapper and I always against idea of giving him 8 traps at the start. 8 Traps around 3 Gens with extra 2 addon, every match.
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The problem with trapper is that people get out of traps so fast that you cannot really spread your web too wide...
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The question was how to use her power in a playstyle to win the game, how to you get downs from protecting a totem? You can add it to a strategy and then use her power to protect that totem sure, it cannot work on its own, therefore it is not a playstyle in itself.
Yeah drones have a pretty big range, and their circle is really easy to spot, you have to be blind to not notice it before running in, sometimes the exact border of it are not that easy to notice, but it is like impossible to miss them, I have not once not seen the drones radius, I don't know what to tell you.
I mean the game ends after 1 h and all 4 survivors die, seems like a win to me...
Easier to hack is the point, they would need to be close enough so you can use the stealth to sneak up on people but not to close for them to notice? Drones are so easy to spot unless you're on an indoor map you always see them, it is really not hard to not run into them, I don't know what to say, they would need to be stealthier for this stuff to work.
For the hard to reach places, why would survivors go there in the first place? Survivors would always need a reason to be in or close to the drones radius for any of this to work, why would they be there? Mostly because there is an objective, so back to camping gens I guess.
How do you bait it though? What could you possibly do to make them break the drones?
3 Of those things are just hoping that survivors react a certain way even though they don't have any reason to do so... What can I tell you man, how is it a playstyle when you are not doing anything, you place a drone and hope for them to disarm it wow, how is this supposed to be a playstyle? What even defines a playstyle if that counts as one in your book?
Disarming the drones is a decision on the survivor side whether it is worht it or not, you as the killer can only influence this decision by the location you put the drone, but in the end it is the survivors decision.
So tell me what defines a playstyle? I would say on Trapper for example there are several possibilities, you can spread your traps out around the entire map, you can try to hold a 3 gen and put all traps in close web around that (basically just starting the game out with placing all traps at hand at this area), you can just use the traps in chase when needed, or you can use the traps only to shut down one specific location for example basement. I would call trapping totems rather an additional strategy and not a playstyle since you're just securing your perk, for that to matter you need to down and hook survivors in other ways, so this one does not qualify as a playstyle you can use for the entire game, you can just add it to the playstyle you chose. Just to give you an idea on what I see as a playstyle, you can generally divide them into defensive or agressive playstyles on all killers, it is just easier to show on setup killers.
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