Please reconsider the Skully nerfs, and nerfs she actually needs from a P100 SM enjoyer.
I get that she's hated, and I do think 2 changes would help and they would be nerfs, however the changes we see now will quite literally make her impossible to win as. A single scan line on Drones is insane on its own, but the Haste removal is what actually kills her. She's an M1 killer with no way to down a Survivor other than hitting them, even Trapper has a way to get downs without M1, Hag has high mobility, hell even Freddy has a teleport, Myers and Ghostie can 1 shot, Clown gets basically perma Hinder, you get my point. Skull Merchant is exclusively M1 and her Haste is the 1 thing that makes her chases doable. If I don't get Haste from scans then what's even the point of my power? Tracking is okay but doesn't actually do anything to help with chasing, the Hinder only pops when they have a Claw Trap, and injure takes 3 scans and is mind numbingly boring to play around even as the Skully so now with these changes the unfun playstyle of putting a Drone at every single loop is going to be the only playstyle she has. What's worse with the 1 scan line per Drone this means that her playstyle will literally be just spamming the rotate button over and over and over again until they get Claw Trapped because you can't do anything else. Ironically these changes will make her even less interactive because now she's either a powerless Trapper or just spamming rotate and you just sit there not moving at every loop.
Now what changes does she need? Well I actually like the changes to the Drone Active State. Stealth Mode is completely unneeded and just creates frustration mid chase when you can't pay attention to the Drone itself. Secondly and this is what I have been asking for since her rework, remove the Hinder when scanned with a Claw Trap. When a Survivor gets Claw Trapped they already get punished for it, even if they're already injured she now gets Movespeed and tracking until that Trap is gone, the hinder is just frustrating and Hinder is one of the least fun mechanics in the game and Skull Merchant simply does not need it.
I'm begging you to make my 2 changes instead of the insane gutting you're planning on, it's just way too harsh. If people throw their hatred for her out of their mind there is not a single person who can justify these nerfs in anyway. She's a B+ Killer at most, and in higher MMR Survivors already dumpster her because once you learn how to play against her Drones she loses all lethality. The main complaint I hear is people saying "I get punished for my teammate across the map getting scanned" and yeah that's true, but you also get punished for your teammates doing a lot of things. Plus that doesn't happen in high MMR because if you get scanned outside of chase well… that's genuinely a skill issue because it shouldn't be happening. But even when it does happen again it's the single thing Skull Merchant has going for her. She literally cannot get a down without M1ing, and now with her Haste gone her drones are sort of useless, Claw Traps alone do not matter, and are easily the most overrated part of her kit. I even use the iri addon that reduces their duration by 50% because they just don't really matter at all, the main reason they're useful isn't the injure it's the Haste, without that Haste she's going to be unplayable.
Comments
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I really don't think she should ever get haste for another team mate getting scanned, it's terrible design, makes some chases feel out of your control.
I feel every iteration had you lose for interacting with her power regardless of how you tried to counter it:
1st iteration: getting rid of drones traps you so she knew where you were
current iteration: getting rid of a drone still notifies her its been ridded of she can still return to it.
not to mention getting a claw trap in current gives you like every debuff known to DBD it feels like whilst also buffing her… It's so dumb. She just isn't fun at all to deal with. This needs to happen, that or her drones need severely limited to 3 or something so she can't just place them on gens and every loop hook window known to dbd.6 -
I really don't think she should ever get haste for another team mate getting scanned, it's terrible design, makes some chases feel out of your control.
Why is it terrible design to reward killer for spreading pressure among other survivors? why is it terrible design for survivor to get punished for playing bad? It is not like haste is outside of survivor control. the drones very visible and have very simple counter-play. crouch.
My advice to OP is to just play Clown. that is my advice to all Skull merchant mains. The yellow bottle speed-up is very close to her current ability. it plays a little different then SM but the rewards are similar.
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You really want to ask that? She does nothing but place a drone down and get rewarded, hag doesnt get this, trapper doesnt get this, Legion doesn't get this, the list goes on.
Not even Clown gets these free buffs and debuffs for flork all input. She is a killer for lazy players. Honestly… you all don't play the same game, she is the easiest killer I've ever played and whats your ability you press m2/ctrl and suddenly get 10 benefits. lmao1 -
literally every killer gets benefits for free if they use their power, but ok
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BHVR please listen to Orthane, and other people who have way more experience playing Skully than you do. You like overbuffing or overnerfing stuff, but there is a middle ground. There are smaller steps that you can take, you don't have to always make 1 huge step.
For example, do the simple 2 steps that Orthane mentioned, then monitor Skully's performance after that. If by the last new Chapter of this year she still proves to be troublesome, then you can again introduce new smaller changes.
This is what I wish you've done with many things:
- old Haddonfield - you could have first just trimmed the endless hedges and fences, allowing for much easier passage, as well as shut down god windows. Instead (except for the god window at the basement) you kept the map as it was for a long time, then ditched the entire map and gave us a new one that was bad; and then made it unbearable small and killer-sided.
- old Sadako - you could have first decreased her TVs' cooldown after her teleporting, as well as made the ring drawing addon not affect slugs. SImple changes. And yet, you ignored those simple first steps, and went for a big rework instead.
Simple steps, which can be followed by more simple steps. Much better than huge changes left and right, that you later need to revert or fix.
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No, most require addons and the like, clown requires aim, Skully just needs a drone to exist and she gets things.
I can't with you all coming out of the woodwork to defend this character.2 -
yes clown does get free haste and free hindered. it is like entire ability is based around that.
hag doesnt get this, trapper doesnt get this, Legion doesn't get this, the list goes on.
hag gets full instant-teleport hits for trap triggers. Trapper gets full downs as long is he able to pick up the survivor from the trap. Legion gets free injured. Skull merchant gets haste which is a maybe-hit, maybe nothing. She gets broken after 3 whole scans so survivor after huge time sink in chase or the survivor making multiple mistakes and at highest reward, you get broken which cannot down you like the other killers.
She is a killer for lazy players. Honestly… you all don't play the same game, she is the easiest killer I've ever played and whats your ability you press m2/ctrl and suddenly get 10 benefits. lmao
I think it vastly under-stating the the basic mechanical skill to use said effects. broken, haste, hindered and limited duration undetectable all require manual killer input to be effective. it is not all roses.
i don't think they should remove entire haste effect. only weaken to 1/2/3/4% where it is not a powerful value until she receives a rework the following year.
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not really, the only thing she gets is 8 seconds of undetectable, it´s better than some killers, but worse than others (like wraith)
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The thing is that's sort of the game. If you get a bad teammate who goes around and drops all the God pallets first chase that directly makes your chases harder. I guess a middle ground would maybe be only getting Haste if the person who is currently in chase gets scanned, but the Haste is a integral part of her kit. Every other M1 Killer has some sort of tool to make M1ing you easier now without Haste Skull Merchant is the only one who doesn't.
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