What do you think about the upcoming changes?

I never said SM didn't need changes, in fact I have been very vocal that Skull Merchant needed changes, but this is the wrong way to go about it. She was absolutely problematic, I don't think a single DBD player thought she should go unchanged, HOWEVER these changes don't even address the (I will admit very good) points you made.

She still have auto resetting traps, she still has the problematic stealth, she still has all her problematic lockdown, and 3 gen features, they just neutered her chasing ability. Taking away the haste was the only positively received change I saw, cause it was the most BS mechanic ANY killer had. The issue is, this won't make Skull merchant more fun to go against, it just makes her less fun to play. Its a lose, lose for both SM players, and survivors.

Also, its painting a very broad stroke to imagine every single SM player, plays with the intention of making sure others have a bad time.

Yippee! :D

And the Devs didn't see this as problematic… why?

We really do not need instantly recharging Lithe twice in a chase just because someone got off the hook recently. There's too many times where sometimes the only person a Killer can find has JUST gotten off hook through no fault of their own, and not for lack of trying.

And this is the LEAST problematic buff this update. When are you and the other Devs going to STOP kicking all strong Killer perks in the metaphorical nards, and start giving Killers a means to control matches that now fly super fast? When are we going to see a reduction to perks, items, and tools Survivors ONLY use to genrush?

@Peanits

This question isn't directly in relation to the changes seen this patch, but rather seeking information on what hasn't been in any recent patch notes. Many of us Pig players have been wondering where her RBT has gone in lobby. The beartrap Amanda holds in lobby has been missing for many months now, coming up almost on a year. Many patch notes have passed with no fixes yet. This issue has been well documented, reported in the bug section, and we still have no word on any updates on if/when fixes are coming or any official acknowledgement. Is there any information you can share with us here or at least alleviate some of our concern on this pesky visual bug?

Here is a photo with it in her hand in lobby before and missing from her hand after.

Before:

After (Missing RBT):

Thank you for your time in advance if you do end up responding to this.

Deathbound may have the unintentional consequence of never deactivating if the killer intends to slug everyone instead of hooking?

while it is bad design, what I’m talking about right now is there very poor mishandling of balance, rather than fix any of her issues, they decided to gut her in the hopes people would stop playing her, and focus on a rework in 1-2 years. It’s awful and hostile balancing, and I want a refund on my blood points

fixing an issue would require her to be in an atleast usable state, not one where her kneecaps are broken, and using her power makes her actively weaker in chase. Keeping the hindered at 10%, adding sound cues to when she places a drone, KILLING THE HASTE, allowing survivors to remove scans via hacking and a making it a single scan line and there you go, a C tier killer, no need for a rework, but this isn’t health design, she was an unhealthy killer but doing this feels like a slap in the face for anyone who invested any amount of blood points into her, I want my blood points back, if they plan to leave her in a near unusable state, while keeping everything that made her toxic was the worst case scenario.

Also, I am sorry about your meg, you deserve a refund.

see the problem with 5% Hindered is that it comes at the cost of bloodlust, and the thing is, the killer have 5% speed is WAY better than the survivor having 5% hindered, the slow she applies is way too weak to warrant using her power.

you see, normally that wouldn’t be a problem since with 2 scan lines it’s impossible to dodge (which is problematic) I actually like the single scan line because it forces skull merchant players to use… actual skill, not as much as huntress, or spirit, but actual skill in terms of timing and placement of the drone, and timing when it comes to switching directions, it requires actual zoning skills and line ups rather than the spit out the drone playstyle. Removing a scan line actually a REALLY good change, however, due to the single scan line, dodging it is really easy, and every time you switch you reset bloodlust (last I tested, it’s been awhile since I played SM tbh)

This brings me to my issue, she is still absolutely a noob stomper still, they didn’t fix any of the issues that made her toxic, they just made her chase weaker.

Mori changes were both unnecessary and unwanted. They're not nearly as bad as the previous iteration, and I'm happy we aren't getting the whole slug situation with ruined DH and Rancor again. But they're still pointless negative changes, and I don't get why mori offerings themselves are being changed into yet more bloodpoint offerings, which will be vastly inferior to puddings simply because they are conditional. A pudding is a guaranteed extra 20-35k - even when a killer performs badly, they'll score near 20k. If a killer nails the round, that'll be closer to the 40k ceiling. So if an offering is only going to give me bloodpoints if I get a 4k, it better be giving me double that.

Just scrap the offering changes and it'd be fine. Let me use an ebony to mori all four survivors, whether I want that because I want to deny DS and pallet saves, whether I want that to show off the new killer's mori to everyone, or whether I want that because I want a survivor to come play Bardic Inspiration while their teammate gets stabbed.

RIP to prop mori kills, sometimes survivors crawling under a table and getting dragged out or getting roasted over a fire barrel was what made the mori great.

Distortion was overnerfed. Changing it so that tokens recharge in chase would have fixed every actual problem with the perk - survivors religiously avoiding aggro all game. The fact that Distortion actually worked to counter aura perks was not a problem.

I don't mind DMS getting nerfed? I guess? Not sure how I feel about this one. Removes room for killer synergies, which is a shame, but at the same time, I won't really miss it.

The perk buffs mostly look good, and I'm excited to try the new Crowd Control in particular, but I don't really get what's going on with Blood Rush now. And Zanshin Tactics sounds overpowered. There's no cooldown on it? Just 10 seconds of wallhacks every time the survivor goes near a pallet? There are way too many killers nowadays who can hit over pallets that can use this info without any opportunity cost.

I mean her entire kit is cobbled together with scraps and duct-tape. That's kinda why we are where we are now. If they actually had a good idea for the Killer beyond 'area lockdown' from the onset, she never would have been a problem. They have scrambled to make her a stealth Killer and a loop denial Killer and a Chase Killer all while keeping the area lockdown aspect, and she just needs 1 focused vision.

The problem is also since she was drawn and quartered in 4 different directions, that you get fans of her right leg, pulling against the fans of her left arm, pulling against fans of her left leg, pulling against fans of her right arm, all cheered on by people who just want her dead, leaving her a mangled mess of poor design. There is no making her whole, since too many people want different things out of her.

you know what she could really use? Focus, she does way too many things and it’s overwhelming for survivors, take out the stealth, take out the haste, and focus on the Claw traps and the hindered, focus on rewarding good placement, and good timing when switching, focus on what makes her good, and clean up the clunkiness.

Bringing the radar up to 4.6 from 4.4 to remove the self-slowdown would help in that regard. That way in a sense she partially is getting that 5% haste back in another form. I'm not even against her having stealth, its just everyone with basekit stealth has sound cues other than her, and that is a horrible design flaw. If she had a sound cue, her stealth would be fine.

she doesn’t lose speed using the radar?

I don't think there can ever be enthusiasm for such a system. It just seems so wrong, so…Un-DBD. Maybe it's just me, but I believe if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

actually i just realized ts because i usually use that perk as survivor

When I'm playing killer, I would be thrilled if all 4 survivors ran Quick Gambit. I can think of a lot worse perks to go up against.

I don't care about most of the changes, but the Mori being changed to once per match needs to be put in the trash. Make yellow mori basekit and then leave green and iri skulls alone.