The Skull Merchant Nerfs are fully intentional, and not likely to be changed post PTB

Yeah there are a lot of issues, but for many people SM is merely 'the straw that breaks the camel's back'. There are a lot of flaws with the game, but since they are independent enough they can largely be ignored when you don't reach that critical breaking point.

I think 2v8 is solely responsible for the returning players, but I've lost a 2nd IRL friend permanently to the game because the sum flaws are too great. He was off and on then came back for 2v8, played 2 weeks to a month, then hard quit (as in actually hard uninstalled the game, not even leaving it on the harddrive in a 'I might play it occasionally' kind of way).

I think this is the problem though, her past 8 reworks (hyperbole) all have been focused on being more fun for both sides, and they fail every time. Personally I think they are actually doing 2/4 required nerfs to her, alongside needlessly dropping 2 scans to 1. I think they could return to 2 scans if they remove auto-resets for Drones, and add sound cues/lullaby for her in stealth.

I've had friends quit over things in the game too, but they came back. Much like most who quit, it seems. Even I've taken extended breaks from time to time, it's natural to feel burnt out or overwhelmed at times due to additions/changes.

That is reflected in the steam charts as well, very clearly even. And stalling changes is the main reason we keep seeing this as well.

As far as her reworks, however, I'll give you that. They tend to keep dropping the ball on some things. Some killers have felt better with their adjustments and reworks, like Singularity and Sadako (to an extent. Personally I still think she needs a bit more tuning) while I think SM is just stuck with the stigma, unless drones get a COMPLETE overhaul on how they function.

A strange thing I notice with this community is even when things are drastically changed, they stick to their stigmas of certain characters. Like frosty eyes = NOED, or all Dwights hide in lockers, or every Nea is toxic etc etc. I honestly believe SM will never escape that, either.

To be fair, I think most people joke about the stereotypes more than truly think they comform to them. At the same time, because of the stereotype, it makes the instances of them leaning in or doing the polar opposite more memorable. So if Dwight is a giga-juicer, you are going to remember that one Dwight, or if you run into a 5 gen turbo-tunneling Blight, you are going to go "just another normal Blight main".

In my last 2 SM games (because those are the only 2 matches I've had against her in recent memory), they intentionally bledout for the 4K. They didn't bother to actually chase, or simply hook. They set up a drone-zone, and never leave it, then proceed to bleedout Surv 3 to kill Surv 4. This is kind of what they call "earning the hate". How even if the stereotype didn't exist, they would have created that stereotype on their own, from the actions within their matches.

Yeah the haste was kind of unique, but I think it was a relic of previous design iterations. I think it was fine when disarming permanently reduced the total trap number, as long as it was on the Survivor's shoulder. The only problem with that design, was that Survivors needed to be able to hack unlimited traps, even if they have a tracker already on their shoulder. They could tie the Haste to the total shouldered trap count, and SM couldn't replace the traps freely since 3-5 could be on a single Survivor (back at that version of her).

At the same time, every Killer has Haste in the form of Bloodlust, so it isn't really that special IMO.

I mean if you still think MfT is powerful, that is the greatest self-report to you being a turbo-tunneler, that I never thought I could even intentionally bait that out. To be clear, it wasn't intentional, just a happy coincidence.

SM was overtuned in 4 categories, while having more equivalent kit features than the comparable pieces. Stealth with no sound cues to beat out 5+ stealth Killers, traps auto-reseting which isn't even available for Hag, and an Iri add-on for Trapper, Hindered for a total of 60% compared to Freddy and Clowns ~45%, and Haste ranging from 3-7% (fairly easily obtained) compared to MfT's 3% with much more stringent conditions now. She didn't need a compensatory buff, when she had 4 better versions of sources' main feature.

Lets say power scales from 'why does this even exist' - dogwater - bad - mediocre at best - weak - neutral - strong - nutty - crazy powerful - ultra strong - uber powerful - broken OP. If you are saying it got a slap on the wrist, that tells me it only dropped 1-2 steps. so if its was either uber powerful or broken OP, it only got dropped to ultra strong. I just find it absurd that it would be anywhere above neutral, so 'slap on the wrist' is your phrasing that led me to even go down this route.

Again the only 'harsh nerf' for SM IMO is the double scan line to 1. All others are bringing a multi-effect Killer below the more single-track Killer's effectiveness.

My main thing with MfT is DH is on the Killer to fail, not the Survivor to succeed. That to me basically means you don't (normally) get actual MfT value. SM can force Drone scans or an M1, which guarantees her to get Haste (and Hindered) value or a free hit. That's how I see the difference between those. One requires the opponent to fail, and the other can be forced upon the opponent. That's why I likened it to old MfT, where it was guaranteed on injury, aka forced upon the opponent just like drone scans.

As I've said for SM, other than the scan lines they are actually nerfing the things that isn't liked about her current iteration. Although I can understand not liking the wait for a rework that will likely fail like the last 9/10 reworks they've done (SM, SM, Onryo, Onryo, Freddy, Twins, with Billy probably being the only good rework). She currently is such a terror though because too many people are hard DCing against her because the DC penalty is actually preferable to playing out that match.

I mean SM is in such a bad state right now, I don't remember a single match where I was pleasantly surprised the SM wasn't a jerk or a Survivor DCed or any reason to think that match wasn't a complete and total waste of my time. That basically means a SM pick is near 100% sabotaging any Survivor chance of enjoyment, so the SM pick was intentional BM. Even other Killers that many people dislike can't reach that level of hatred. This is a medical procedure for the health of the game, so I can't blame them for doing it. I can blame them for ever thinking an area denial Killer in the heights of 6.1 gen kick perks was a good idea.

Freddy and SM both had reworks already, as you alluded to, and Myers is still one of the most played killers so people are clearly still having fun with him. He's relatively weak, but who cares if people are having fun? He doesn't need a full rework, and while some tweaks could help him, he clearly doesn't need them for people to want to play him.

I am sure SM and Freddy will both get attention at some point, but they have a pretty breakneck pace for content releases and 37 killers on the roster. Everyone is not going to have their pet change go through right away; things will inevitably take time.

Because people will always hate her because its a meme to hate her. It has nothing to do with her power and everything to do with 'SKULL MERCHANT BAD!' she could have no power and only M1 and people would still say shes OP and needs to be removed

well, for starters she isn't breaking the game in any way to suggest kill switching her…

I imagine the outcry would be worse if they straight up removed her from the game, literally, til she got reworked

I honestly cannot understand why people jump to this conclusion.

It's not as though it's just hate for the sake of hate, and it's not like people aren't aware of the changes made because of the chess merchant playstyle. Skull Merchant's power just isn't fun to engage with, she has really strong anti-loop, and her kit is just bloated making it hard to explain how to counter her.

If you had to explain a whole bunch of different mechanics, and how to counter them for just one killer to someone who's still relatively fresh to dbd, they'd probably question how they're supposed to keep track of all that.

Skull Merchant is flawed by design, and thus far bhvr has not managed to get it right. You'll always have a minority who rage quit and immediately forfeit, but you can get that with any killer they don't like. Hopefully the rework changes her for the better, since it's important that survivors find her fun to play against just as killers find her fun to play as.

I disagree. A killer that's boring to play against is infinitely better than a killer that is frustrating to play against. I believe that the changes they're making, heavy-handed though they may be, will make SM less frustrating to play against. Boring, perhaps, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who'll turn their nose up at a free win even if it's boring.

If the nerfs are, like you say, to make nobody want to play the killer then there's already no need for that since almost nobody plays SM anyway. I understand why you're frustrated, and your complaints are valid, but it's very clear that the devs want SM to be in a healthier spot for both sides. I'm not drinking the devs kool-aid, I'm just seeing it for what it is.

If you want to demand that the devs do better, then by all means do that, but don't hide it behind this guise that people just hate SM for no reason when the hate is justified. It's not just the 3-gen stalemate that was a problem, contrary to popular belief. The whole lock-on mechanic was poorly thought-out, and poorly executed. Drones that act as area denial and anti-loop, with a mechanic that leaves survivors broken after accumulating 3 stacks of being scanned. A radar that doubles as stealth and tracking.

Then there was the whole idea of hacking the drones to disable them only for SM to recall them and just place them back down again. With all that, it's easy to see how SM was destined to be hated.

Exactly. Ik Im a broken record but every time I've argued in favor of her I get people telling me that "SHE NEEDS TO GO! NO KILLER SHOULD BE ABLE TO 3 GEN AND HOLD THE MATCH HOSTAGE!" And its so annoying because it shows they have literally no idea what they're even talking about