Did you guys have to gut SM?
There was so many other options that could've been taken.
-Drones radius cant come within 5 meters of a gen (Remove drone minimum spacing and and give another drone as compensation to make her more spider like)
-Moving Drones that steer around areas (Forgot the complexities of it but someone gave a great idea for it)
Instead the best way for you guys was to give her a boring, dumbed down, uninteractive power on both ends?
The amount of problems I can list with this rework is already immense and depressing! Injured survivors truly have absolutely nothing to fear in drone areas now whereas before in chase youd get UD and always know their exact location + get a small speed boost, you can now run into a SM trapped zone worry free as you'll just get deep wound lol, Removed ALL tracking so using them smartly in chase to get reads is completely gone (Seriously why would you buff the scanner knowing she can't even use it anymore? So she can pull it up for aesthetic?), Removed manually reactivating drones because thats just far too OP somehow meaning survivors now have your power ENTIRELY in their hands and lets be real SM drones are insanely easy to avoid triggering as a surv so this just makes drones that shut off completely useless even more so because why would a survivor need to deactivate one thats shut down manually? It serves zero function AT ALL and will only hurt you in the long run while leaving SM with no power so now her drones are high risk extremely low reward, her drones only function at flat barren loops since the beams are crucial to her power walls pretty much entirely nullify her meaning she will be less than useless on indoor maps and on maps that have a lot of trees or such she'll be even more garbage, I can seriously keep going if anyone wants me to I'm just so frustrated. Third main of mine in a row that BHVR just nerfs to the ground for God knows what reason and atp I don't have anyone else in the killer side whos enjoyable or fun for me to play oh but lets leave Blight up he's perfectly fine the way he is right BHVR?
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I don't see how anyone can make an accurate determination of Skull Merchant's power level based on the text explanation that lacks any concrete numbers.
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I would encourage you to give it a try first. There are a ton of changes in this upcoming PTB and it's nearly impossible to say how things will play out just from reading them alone.
That said, those suggestions come with their own problems. Preventing a drone's zone from coming within 5 meters of a generator sounds great on paper, but falls apart when you get into a match and realize that 90% of the map is now a no-fly zone. Generators are spread as evenly as possible throughout the map, so the number of places you'd actually be able to place a drone would be very scarce. Moreover, this doesn't make her power any more practical during a chase, so it would be an outright nerf to her.
Moving drones also does not address the issues with her power. Having them move is all well and good, but does not prevent her from placing them next to and having them patrol generators.
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Did you have to gut Skull Merchant?
Yes.
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They specified the numbers that did receive changes. Using that logic we can say the numbers which weren't specified have been unchanged
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Okay can you give me a reason why I as a survivor, would ever go hack a drone that's inactive in the rework? SM can't reactivate it so they pose little to no actual threat, and the biggest worry I'll have is some newbie teammate might reactivate it not knowing what it does and then even in that case so what? 15 seconds of an active zone that doesn't really do anything and realistically won't be around important objectives so what threat does an inactive drone actually pose now compared to before especially with how easy it is to avoid triggering a deactivated drone? That alone is just 1 of the many already big issues I can point out
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"did you have to entirely rework the most problematic killer ever released into something resembling a chase-oriented killer?"
Chess grandmasters when dev blog drops:
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I literally never 3 genned with her this completely nerfs and invalidates her chase and I already listed so many reasons why this makes her so atrociously bad but yeah keep up the hate band wagon. Also most problematic killer ever released lol just because everyone hopped on a hate band wagon doesn't mean shes the most problematic killer ever released
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Go gloat somewhere else everyone already knows your take
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Name one killer that is/was more problematic on release. A literal baby killer managed to hold the best team in the world in a game for 52 minutes using this killer and a very easy strategic. Not even release Freddy was this bad, and release Freddy was really bad. I don't think anyone who's played this game for any length of time disagrees that SM is the actual worst thing that ever happened to DBD.
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I think knight was way worse same with nemesis on launch. Not to mention that video everyone loves pointing too not only did the team win but they didn't even play properly the entire match and made a litany of mistakes including being PETRIFIED of her even coming close for whatever reason. Idk why you guys act like shes some monster in chase with no drones
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SM will definitely be more powerful in chases. Don't underestimate that. She could very undetectable in high tiles when deploying drones which makes it hard to see her red stain. And she is still an anti loop killer. You stay in the loop too long, you may gain lock on stacks and be injured automatically with no speed boost as pointed out.
Chase merchants will flourish with this update
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SM sucks in her current state
a killer being viable because it's easy to essentially force 4Ks/wins due to survivors just getting mentally exhausted is not good. She's a guaranteed W for most players who play in that manner and skill is not even relevant
any rework is a step in a better direction
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Need to see it in action first... I said a while back that the issue is the active drone mode when deployed, its an instant area shut down.
The most appealing part to me was scout mode, the need to Metal Gear Solid your way past the drones scanner... literally stop still whenever it looks at you, which seems to be the direction gone.
Its good to see claw traps now the focus on her power, though I found tne new lock on a little surprising, was not expected to be wounded if caught 3 times by the scanner... she now seems like a stealthy trap based character, which I actually am happy to see more of this type of Killer so its not exclusive to Trapper and Hag.
It seems like it might be pretty cool actually. Survivors be Solid Snaking up to traps, Skull Merchant be Sam Fishering up to Survivors... seems like a big stealth off. Will have to see how it plays out, but cautiously optimistic 😁
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I'm honestly tempted to believe they are CM9i since they defend the old design XD
In all seriousness, no Killer should be able to turn their brain off, listen to music and be able to stall a game for nearly an hour against a vastly superior team.
The fact that some people don't play like that doesn't mean that the vast majority of people do play like that (hell, CM9i made it worse for a while) and that 99% of teams simply can't deal with it. The best team in the world on comms was held hostage, how the hell are SoloQ players supposed to do it?
The rework hasn't yet been truly demonstrated, I'm pretty sure some people will find another way to force lose-lose situations even with the rework. But at least Dull Merchant's days as a "chess player" are numbered.
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Heres my socials since you wanna make some weird accusations
Insta: Itsafterweride
Twt: Chrissythatgurl
Really annoying that I cant just be a fan of a killer
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As a Chase Merchant I am seriously struggling to see how she will flourish. She can no longer really use any area denial or pre plan. The biggest nerf shes got which completely makes her unable to utilize this new playstyle is SHE CANT REACTIVATE HER DRONES meaning survivors are in complete control of her power. Its extremely easy to just avoid her drones beams and any loop that has high walls will be her bane considering the beams can only go through loops which have big gaps
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The problem is the drones still go inactive and SM cant turn them back on herself meaning the survivors technically need to be caught FOUR times by the drone just for it to take affect and as is its already easy as hell to avoid being hit with her beam. Top that off it removes pretty much all agency from the killer. Now shes much less skill reliant to use in chase just throw a drone and hope the survivors are stupid enough to get hit with a beam.
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This is a case where I really can’t tell yet if she will be good or not. The only thing that’s for certain is 3-gen Merchant is dead which is good. But even for those who played her in a chase-oriented way (myself included) she’s still going to be very different.
We do know from another thread that getting scanned does still grant the SM Haste for a few seconds, so even for injured survivors the drones are not a complete non-threat without a claw trap. But overall I think it’s far too early to assess her rework without having seen it in action.
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The biggest thing that cant be denyed is she takes MUCH less skill now no matter what and has lost almost all agency when it comes to actual chase
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Playing new Skull Merchant in a chase-oriented way would be far more skillful than old 3-gen Merchant was.
I think really she benefits more from playing like a setup killer now, not on generators but at strong loops or strategic chokepoints. Kinda like Trapper except she doesn't have to go collect her power first. I suppose a lot of it will depend on her new addons too though, the old chase addons definitely won't be a thing anymore or at least won't work the same way since active zones are gone.
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I've addressed why playing her like a setup killer with the reworked version hurts her HORRIBLY and is extremely unviable.
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Well I guess we'll find out tomorrow. If it turns out she sucks now then I'll stand corrected. And to be clear I don't want her to be completely gutted, I want her to be fun for both sides.
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My take is that SM is literally the most problematic design they've ever released and that there was little salvageable from her kit.
So yes, I'm glad everyone knows my take.
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How could she possibly take less skill than 3-genning.
Even just via numbers, she takes more skill because she has more Drones to use, allowing for more skill expression.
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Pulsar there is a bit of spite in that comment, Im an Empath, I can feel it. 😆
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I've had enough 3-gen games to be a little spiteful.
In all seriousness though, she needed a near complete kit re-design. If SM mains wanted her to be better, they need to accept that she's got to change.
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Just because she was problematic before doesn’t mean she should be made useless.
Not saying she is useless though, I don’t know how strong she is yet. The only thing that needed to be gutted was the 3 gen Merchant and they did that. Now we should be focusing on making her a decent killer that is both fun to play and fun to face.
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Already complaining that they "gutted" her?
Her changes haven't even been released to the PTB yet.
Wait until you actually play her.
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Prolly a case of the 3% or so SM players that didn't play her as a 3-genner only seeing their killer being gutted and flayed. I'd say that other 97% made this happen.
Too soon to tell though, we shall see.
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If she is gutted, good riddance. If she was to be removed I doubt many would miss her. She is the only killer I ever DC against as I simply know that if she does the 3 gen thing, me and my 2 other solo Q team mates are not going to be breaking it and I dont have an hour to kill. Simple as that.
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This still has to make it's way through the PTB. If she is weak then she will likely get buffed before release.
Then we will discover that she can hold the gate switches hostage somehow, and the cycle will begin again.
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I did not say she should be useless. I said i thought gutting her was justified. As you said, we don't know yet.
Her new design is almost guaranteed to be less problematic though, which is a good thing.
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Fair enough, I guess I interpreted gutting her as making her useless. Which, the 3-gen aspect of her definitely deserved.
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Maybe just wait out the PTB first, play it, try out the new mechanics, and then give constructive criticism? IDK just an idea 🤷
I for one, love that she is becoming more chase-based from the sounds of it. Considering that is the most fun aspect of the game and not staring at gens repeatedly. Unless they put a picture of Michael on the gens, then I wouldn't mind the staring.
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Seems like I don't have to go back to DBD...
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Seems like mix of Artist/Plague so far.
Just worse...
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"Drones radius cant come within 5 meters of a gen"
I do not get how anyone can actually suggest this when gens are important things for killers to keep tabs on. Skull Merchant putting drones on gens was never the issue. Only walking between the closest 3 gens was. Gens spawn all over the map and in loops so not letting SM put drones near them would make some loops unplayable even for a chase merchant.
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For Sure, the only ones who will be mad are Chess Merchant Mains and well, its time that was a chapter in the dbd history books.
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We'll see once the PTB drops. Also both Plague and Artist can be very strong killers, so that doesn't sound too bad to me.
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"Just worse" is quite important part.
Her rework is missing either part that makes those two strong.
I can imagine her being strong on indoor maps, but she will be really bad on open maps.
From what I get, she lost movement speed bonus, which is kinda big deal imo.
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She is not losing the movement speed buffs, Peanits confirmed this in another thread.
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the concern part is last sentence of the post where is "We have reviewed The Skull Merchant’s Add-ons, adjusting some and giving new effects to others.". that will somewhat decide if she is worth playing or not.
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Yeah we’ll find out tomorrow. A lot of her addons are going to be completely different I’d imagine, several relied on active zones which are gone, they essentially made a stronger version of Randomized Strobes basekit for survivors with claw traps, they definitely wouldn’t keep Expired Batteries the same anymore since claw traps injure now, and the addon that reduced the time for her stealth to trigger wouldn’t be relevant anymore since they changed how that works. I also doubt they would keep the skill check addons since they want to make her power much more chase-oriented.
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Oh my god no one cares like do you get paid to harass people for liking a killer I swear its all you do💀
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Its unironically the other way around lol
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Dont need to play her to understand these mechanics. She cant turn drones on meaning she cant shut down areas, if a drone becomes inactive a survivor needs 4 stacks of lockdown (1 to wake the drone up, then the normal 3), as is the beams are already EXTREMELY easy to avoid meaning your power is now entirely in the survivors hands and relies solely on survivors messing up and not your own skill in chase, agency no matter what has been removed from skull merchant and using her drones effectively in chase now just boils down to guessing and hoping the survivor is horrible at the game
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So just because shes chase orientated means she needs to be 10000x worse? Got it
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Hey, I survived what... 2 years without a proper Killer I could main?
Wesker saved me.
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Your idea would also be trash in small maps or maps with 2 floors because as was said before you would create 90% no-fly zones.
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We do not even know if there's even an active zone anymore. From what I understand from the text, it could also just be the searching mode all the time (in stealth or hunter, or however they worded it). That would also explain why SM cannot reactivate them again. As Peanits wrote, just wait for and test SM in the PTB, before jumping to conclusions!
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