I still don't understand skull merchant hate

Yeah, basically.

I think the manga stuff is just a little campy flair to an otherwise fairly grounded story, at least as far as any story about murderous psychopaths in service to an eldritch being can be grounded. The rest of her story is pretty straightforward, like I said earlier she's basically a CEO version of the antagonist in The Most Dangerous Game.

It's just hard to see the campy appeal when you're approaching with the knowledge of how obnoxious her gameplay was at launch. The well was poisoned, so to speak.

1: Apart from scans not literally only happening when people are being pushed away from gens (there are hooks to contest, chases to hold, and so on, too), this is something I suppose you'd just have to see in action. There are numerous instances where survivors accumulate multiple lock-on stacks in a matter of seconds, such as when Merchant pushes them off, pretends to leave, but comes right back. And sure it also depends on just how favourable her gen setup is, and to an extent on how much survivors mess up, but nobody plays perfectly, especially in drawn-out, repetitive, tiring matches where they have to also constantly be on the look-out for a potentially Undetectable killer.

Hacking drones comes at the risk of being interrupted while doing so, and often the time you invest to hack one (and let alone multiple) isn't worth it when compared to the time it takes her to reset them while she is patrolling anyway. Upon which they will be in stealth mode, at that.

2: Approaching cautiously with regards to the possiblity of Merchant still being around means not going all the way up to the gen as fast as you can because that could result in you then being hit, or worse (scanned and downed). Again, something to see and experience in action. You usually have to stand still/crouch multiple times traversing a singular drone zone, and there's usually multiple drones to worry about, even with potentially overlapping zones. Even if it only takes 3 seconds more than running up to the gen would, that's 30 seconds over 10 patrols on any gen, which is already as much as Deadlock does on 1 gen, and it only does so 4 times a match.

3: With regards to comparing her to other killers the point was that her power needing to gradually build up doesn't matter much as her power will inevitably build, and then is much more threatening than most around a 3-gen. Her ability also stalls the game to begin with, particularly around a 3-gen, much more so than most other killers. The other point was just another angle to highlight the fact that Merchant inherently benefits from/gravitates toward this sort of gameplay.

4: Apart from the fact that her Hindered isn't strictly worse than Clown's (it can last longer and she doesn't need to throw a bottle to effect it, and besides, Clown's slow is very potent, hers being weaker than it isn't too decisive of an argument), I just will not agree that her power is not as potent around a 3-gen as Clown or Myers or whoever. Undetectable is already huge, as is having people injured, the tracking, the mending, the slowdown, the speed. Imagine Plague with the wallhack add-on and frequently being Undetectable and you get more of an idea of how problematic it can be, and that's without a whole bunch of other stuff Merchant has going for her here.

5: I'm afraid the "massive misconceptions about her power" and people "randomly getting themselves scanned" are part of the killer's strength in a real-life setting. A kit not being easy to understand for the average player or difficult to play around for one reason or another, good or bad, have to be factored in when designing a game that includes the average player experience. But that's beside the actual point which is that you can absolutely still have matches in which people actually try and get a sense for the ratio between how easy it is to 3-gen as her and how strong it is, for which I just cannot tell you anything but that your sensibilities right now seem far off from reality to me. Or again, get friends or people from the official Discord server or whatever to play against you. Preferably including matches without voice comms, which aren't all too common in pubs.

I've been trying to find some of the (few) tournament games I've seen of her where her 3-genning was problematic even against highly coordinated teams of survivors. I guess I will try to get back to you with that or other videos that showcase how potent this strategy is on her.

6: A damning reflection upon the community I would understand as something that reflects on the general state of it, particularly insofar it relates to future game development. I don't see that that's given here because this isn't a general phenomenon, it is very specific to this one design, largely unprecedented and hasn't happened since either. Obviously we have differences in opinion on whether this response of the community is at all warranted, calling it baseless outrage to me is as absurd as the community's sentiments seem to be to you, but regardless, while I do feel for you if you genuinely mourn the loss of original (and current) Merchant, the game at large is not losing so much (not least because she has a very low pickrate to begin with and many of her matches aren't actual matches), nor can it be expected to lose other things in this sort of fashion in the future. It can also be noted that Merchant will soon have been in the game for a year, with some 7 months before she got her extensive rework and 5 months and counting in her current state since. Months of gameplay in which some Merchant mains I'm sure have racked up hundreds if not thousands of hours of game time is more than players regularly get out of other games altogether. Not too damning a prospect.

I do appreciate your general... "plight", let's say, that you look to uphold a narrative of a certain reasonableness against the admittedly often rather overstated complaints regarding this killer, or a certain dismissiveness or casualness with which people can dunk on her entire design. I will even admit that I personally could do better in terms of being more willing to look to any positives she has, and not to assume as badly of Merchant players as I do either, thinking they mostly just enjoy how easy it is for them to kill people as her. That said, I do genuinely like this game and many or most killers in it (with few if notable exceptions), and I genuinely just do not like Merchant much. I honestly don't even know why I engage in lengthy discussions on her, much less because I know these won't sway the devs any which way even if they were to follow them.

I tire of talking about her, but just to lead this somewhere potentially more fruitful: What do you think of the proposals made in this thread: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/405988/skull-merchant-improvement-proposals?

That’s actually an excellent question how did that go live? Lol

I think she's fine, could have hindered or haste removed/changed in some way because I feel having both is kind of overkill but she does excel in being kind of a 'jack of all trades' kind of killer. I love running her as a stealth killer for sure.

I will say though, her lore is kinda bad in my opinion. The main problem I have is she's clearly smart and knowledgeable with her being able to create her tools and such but it boils down to her more being a cosplay killer and not really her own person. Feels more like a Batman villain to me than a horror killer.

I do think her lore could be redeemed a bit better if her name was more tied to her dealings in business instead of a Manga adaptation, like ties to the black market or something.

I can confirm that. Ya saved me a lot on our trials, my friend :)

I try 🥹

Agree to disagree i guess.

There's literally none in some circumstances

There's literally none in many circumstances. You're forced to be injured. It's hideous

People are just blindly hating and I stopped even pretending to care about their baby rage.

Plague and legion exist lmao being 'Forced to be injured' is a very common part of certain killer powers. Merchant actually has more counterplay than these 2 with plague only needing a few vomit projectiles and legion only needed essentially a free hit if he's any good

100% disagree. At least with plague there’s remedies from being injured such as pools. You’re also not hindered and she’s only undetectable with certain perks etc. SM has an unwarranted boost of speed and can be perma-undetectable. You’re entitled to your opinion though :)

id like to see an extra mechanic that can remove scans. It’s definitely needed in some regard

I can’t say all SM’s have entailed this behaviour however in OCE, majority do. I somewhat agree

100%