Skull merchant with the lowest pick rate and kill rate oop-
Considering she was nerfed because of her killrate, and an ideal killrate is 60-62%, this should mean she should get some massive buffs right???!!!!! AND the fact that she has the lowest pick rate in the game?
Also her kill rate is technically lower than that. Reduce it by 2.5% (which is what the devs used in the discord live stream) and that gets us below 51%!!! Definitely needs some buffs.
Hopefully BHVR can come to their senses and buff her before her rework, considering its 1 year away :)
Comments
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Pretty sure this is exactly what they wanted to happen, anyway. Any Skull Merchant buffs wouldn't be well received in general, so I don't expect anything to happen.
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Devs probably consider this a success since they nerfed her as hard as they did so she would be terrible and ppl will stop playing her till her rework. This is why I and many others called them out on their BS. They killed a character just because she was really unpopular and ppl refused to learn to play against her. Now ppl who do enjoy SM has to wait for a year (hopefully no longer than that) for some rework that could honestly end up being wrost or destroying everything they enjoy about the killer. If we look at their track record, reworks are very hit or miss and usually take longer than a year to do. There no doubt in my mind we will have another twins situation where this so call promised rework will take 2+ years and some how end up being so bad they will have to walk everything back.
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I almost wonder if they want her to have a nonexistent pick rate and the least offensive kill to make people forget that they hate her… so that by the time they rework her into a functional killer again, people might actually be willing to give her a chance this time. Like, erase her from the public consciousness, in a more insidious and effective way than killswitching her in the Skull Merchant Containment Zone for a year. 🤷
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Shout out to all the skull merchant players who bled me out and locked me in 30 minute games. Hope you're doing well!
also why would you reduce the nightlight kill rates? The real kill rates are always higher than the ones on nightlight.
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That not going to happen xD ppl will remember the hate for her. He rep is completely destroyed. As someone who plays legion I still get survivors who hate playing against me because they remember how bad legion was on release. That hate isn't going to just go away unfortunately.
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Tbh I'm still playing her even tho I main her physically. She causes dc regardless of what nerfs were given.
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I believe all of Skull Merchant's recent nerfs should be reverted.
At this point it is very clear that the petty DCs and hook suicides will not stop regardless of how weak she is, so we might as well leave her playable until the rework next year.
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Most based comment I ever read here on the forums, and I am in full support of this!
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I bet they did
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Thank you, my dear friend, I am glad you agree with me here!
Skull Merchant wasn't even difficult to defeat before her nerfs, imo. People only DCed because of their hatred for a character that no longer existed.
Making her one of the weakest killers in the game was unnecessary and they went too far.
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+1
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well dev said they rework skull merchant by the end of mid-year. by rework, i imagine it will just be reverting her claw traps to what they used to be because they're pointless. drones are also fairely pointless as traps now without stealth mode. you can't trap anyone across the map in any capacity and even if you do, you get no haste.
I remember talking to @jesterkind at one point where he was like. SM should not get global haste and not be rewarded as a trapping killer and he even had an idea to make it so that hacking drones removes lock-on tickets so there is no risk in getting claw traps. that idea works just as well as dev's idea of removing haste & adding it to manual scanning.
Oh, look, the killer suffers. what a shocker.
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The rework probably won't fix anything, yes.
The previous ones speak for themselves:
Freddy? Worst one in the history of DBD.
Hillbilly? Everyone hated overheat.
Sadako? So bad it got reverted.
Twins? No need to explain this one.
Sure, maybe someone can point me towards Leatherface. Or the patch that got rid of Old Legion. But the fact remains that reworks always have a high chance of failing.
Skull Merchant was no longer a problem for the game after her changes, she could have been slightly tweaked and it would have been enough.
An execution was not needed.
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How she was before the execution wasn't even that bad to play against. Too many people still remember what she was like on release and all those excruciating slog matches and have no interest of actually trying to play against her in any way.
It seems that all the Skull Merchant players that wanted to create awful matches have gone back to what they had before her, The Knight. After not playing against him for what felt like an age, on Sunday I played 3 out of 4 matches against him trying the 3 genning thing. Sure it can be beaten a lot easier now but it's still a long old slog doing so!
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She does NOT have the lowest kill rate on nightlight. There are actually 13 killers on night light that have a lower kill rate.
One of those killers is demogorgon who they are basically nerfing next patch…2 -
Oh btw, let's not forget the bugs Skull Merchant has.
The Haste doesn't even work properly when you Lasetag, aka you know, aiming directly at Survivor with Drone? It works after like 0.5s afterwards after placing. Also, the Haste is arguably more random from Survivor PoV. It's entirely possible for a Scan Line to hit you and you don't know if it was recently rotated to give her Haste.
At least before, on HUD, if you saw someone get Scanned recently or got Claw Trapped, you could tell there was Haste.
Oh yeah and the Haste from SM's PoV doesn't even show the Haste timer on side. Beautiful.
Couldn't we just keep Haste to Claw Traps specifically and you know, encourage player to just focus on getting Scans ASAP and reward for using Power skillfully?
Remember when they've said the Drone upon placing should spawn in a consistent rotation in Bug Fixes? Yeah, it's still broken. As Skull Merchant, you hae to rely on a very specific bug/exploit now in order to use your Power consistently and as it was intended basically.
Just…. What the hell.
Oh and the Drone can just decide to not rotate after placing. At least before, you could've played around it as SM by using Stealth Mode and use said instance for trip-wire based gameplay. Guess what? Stealth Mode just got removed. Have fun knowing that.
Almost would've forgot, the latter 2 bugs can overlap meaning you try to use your Power, the Scan Line can spawn in off-direction and not move even and you are placed with 10s Power cool-down. And trying to do the other part of SM, aka trap-based gameplay was intentionally removed.
The last bug was an old one but the first 2 bugs are more recent with the 8.3.0 changes.
Yes, we are left with a weak Killer with bugs that randomly but somewhat constantly happen that weaken her further.
Hope complainers have fun because now, if you are losing to her, you should be really ashamed.
At least Houndmaster is gonna help filling the Skull Merchant void.6 -
Too many people still remember what she was like on release and all those excruciating slog matches and have no interest of actually trying to play against her in any way.
But that is irrelevant, the problem was fixed. This would be the same as DCing against Legion today because they were a thousand times worse than Skull Merchant when they released in 2018.
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I agree, I never quit against her but try telling other solo queue survivors that!
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As a Legion main, I still see a decent amount of DCs or survivors complaining in the end game they had to go against a legion. Sure, it's not on the same level as SM, but there are survivors out there who still very much hate Legion because of its release. This is why I personally believe that no matter what they do to SM, people will continue to DC against her.
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I tried, actually. I was vocal against people ruining games by DCing against Skull Merchant after her changes.
I did what I could.
Honestly, I am one of those survivors that still hate Legion because of their release, but I don't DC against them.
There is no reason to. Legion is not fun, but they don't break the game the same way they used to.
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This was exactly the purpose of their changes They intentionally made her the worst killer so that nobody would play her until they rework her and they don't care about her kill rate.
This is why i will not be buying anymore DLC until they fix it, because i think this "idea" of intentionally making something bad for people to not use it anymore is not good.
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Yeah, history has shown reworks don't do too well. Before they killed her SM was mostly fine. The problem was survivors refusing to play against her, and just killing themselves immediately. Her kill rate was only what it was because everyone gave up against her, when actually playing out a match, the game didn't go much differently than if it was a mid-tier killer.
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I agree completely.
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Reworks and killer tweaks is something BHVR struggles with to get right and also in a good amount of time. These changes shouldn't take a year to get around to or more.
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SM never was fine, stop rewriting history. Her kit is insufferable and uninteresting to go against, in every single of her iteration thus far.
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The previous one we just had was completely fine, had plenty of counterplay. Sure some of it was a "leave the loop" type of thing, but we have like 10 killers already where you counter them by "leaving the loop" so what makes her special there?
Her 3 genning was completely gutted because you can just work gens inside the drone. Her area control was mostly gutted. At that point she basically was a light stealth killer who could shut down a loop if played correctly.
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She was, survivors seemed to forget what the crouch button was.
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this is so disingenuous. The killer was not fine and clearly unhealthy for the game.
“She had plenty of counterplay” like what? Leave the loop to just get hit anyway? Also skull merchant players didn’t do themselves any justice with how toxic a lot of them were playing. I don’t mind playing vs strong killers (they might be weak to you). I like playing vs blight Oni Billy. A killer that just gets free status effect for nothing? No thanks
She needs a complete rework. Bhvr made a massive mistake with that terrible chapter so it’s their responsibility to fix her.
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Yes because that is so helpful in chase
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This is the same killer that when played by an average killer main (maybe even below average…), got a 4K against the best survivor team in the world correct?
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I don't think the Skull Merchant actually killed them (maybe just their souls!). It just took them something like 56 minutes to break the 3 gen. It wasn't even the release version either, it was the second version, which shows how ridiculous it was that she was released into that meta in that state.
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No. That version hasn't existed for over a year at this point (and wouldn't even be possible anymore since the gen-regres limit was implemented). Stop using this terrible excuse when you KNOW it is disingenuous.
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Probably the result the devs had planned for. Before the nerf these forums were full of people complaining all the time how bad it is to play against her.
Since she is basically dead now there are almost no complaints in that direction anymore. The only people still complaining are the few killer players that actually liked her but those will also move on to some other killer eventually.
When the remake comes around in late 2025 and it's as bad as everyone anticipates almost noone will care anymore. Same happened with Freddy after all.
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My apologies… I can’t really keep up with the different versions. Is this the same killer who had a kill rate of 70%+? And when adjusting for first hook deaths then had a kill rate of 68%? These figures were released within the past couple of months IIRC.
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Didn’t she recently (like within the past few months) have kill rates released at like 70% or something insanely high? I remember that when the devs removed matches where a survivor died on first hook the kill rate went down to something like 67-68%. It was still really high. Someone here said an older version beat that team but these kill rates were pretty recent (definitely after the anti-3 gen mechanic released). Seems she at least prior to these nerfs was still super strong.
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Nope, she wasn't the same.
Also I think that player didn't kill any of the survivors.
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So it was the same killer I guess they just changed her in some way. I’m reading other sources of info about her. She recently had a kill rate of like 70% and when the devs screened out matches where a survivor died on first hook her kill rate dropped to 68%. This was just before her recent nerf and well after the anti-3 gen mechanic was introduced. I usually appreciate your opinions but you’re wildly out of touch on this one. She needs a total rework—not a buff, not a figures adjustment, not a bigger nerf.
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Few things here. First…stop grouping all sm players together. Not all SM players are toxic. The times I saw her when playing Survivor none of them was toxic as you and others claim they to be. Just because some bad apples played the killer doesn't make all SM mains toxic. If we are using that logic then Im going to say all survivors are bully squads and are toxic as hell since I've seen way more of them than a toxic SM. Btw I don't actually believe but that's what you sound like when you talking about SM and her player base.
Second, do you really believe the devs will actually fix her? Have you seen how they rework killers in this game? It takes years to do some reworks and usually, they end up worse off than pre-work. Billy, Freddy. Trickster and Twins to name a few Twins were the worst since their rework was so overpowered and broken they had to completely throw it out after the PTB, two years of work wasted… Either way, the pattern here is most of the killers they have reworked are either super weak and still considered unfun to play against or overpower and still considered unfun to play against. So if you think SM will be any different you living in a dream world. I bet ppl will still DC against post-rework SM as much as they DC against her now. The only ppl are being punished here are the ones who actually love playing her bc their killer is now super weak for a year or more and after the rework most likely she wont be the same amount of fun for them.
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Her kill rates were pretty high, and that is something I have no explanation for.
With Freddy it kinda makes sense. Kinda.
But Skull Merchant wasn't even difficult to defeat.
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Again, i ask you, how is "leave the loop" unhealthy for the game and means she needs a complete rework when:
- Hag
- Freddy
- Pig
- Artist
- Dredge
- Knight
Exist.
Do all of these killers need complete reworks too?
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“First…stop grouping all sm players together. Not all SM players are toxic. The times I saw her when playing Survivor none of them was toxic as you and others claim they to be. Just because some bad apples played the killer doesn't make all SM mains toxic. If we are using that logic then Im going to say all survivors are bully squads and are toxic as hell since I've seen way more of them than a toxic SM. Btw I don't actually believe but that's what you sound like when you talking about SM and her player base.”
Yeah none of them were toxic, the very reason she got so much hate the first time is because they were all 3 genning. And after that she was still hated and people that played skill merchant took advantage of that and played her in miserable ways. It’s just like bubba players before the anti camp mechanic that just camped hit on hook. Was it all of them? No but it was certainly most of them that did that.
As for the killer reworks, Billy is now one of the best killers in the game. Twins were a lost cause just from their design. Thats bhvrs fault for making a killer like that to begin with. Either way they are still strong. Freddy was a long time ago and they are gonna rework him soon. Plus that was different time in dbds history. They have also buffed killers to make them feel better to play. Doctor nemesis singularity ghostface legion knight huntress dredge again hillbilly. Bhvr has been better as of late. Even Myers is gonna feel better to play just from the basekit buffs he is getting. We will see what happens with skill merchant. I want her to be fun on both sides.
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since when do you need to leave a loop vs a pig or a Freddy? You can loop them normally.
Dredge is a 50/50
Knight and artist are awful but at least they actually have to aim unlike skull merchant who just throws up a drone gets free status effects
Skull merchant was unhealthy. The community knew it. The devs knew it. Period end of story
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Well, Freddy definitely needs a complete rework, but he is the exception here.
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SM had problems across the board.
- Killers saying she felt "weak".
- Survivors saying she sucked to go against.
- Devs saying her kill rate is a huge outlier to the rest of the roster.
All of this leads to only one reasonable conclusion: she desperately needs a rework. Anyone who was looking for buffs before this recent patch was only focused on one of those three, at the cost of making the other two drastically worse. A rework is the only way to address all 3 of these issues.
I still don't believe the devs have handled this situation correctly with the recent changes, but the fact that they are still planning a rework is the correct choice overall.
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Yeah but he needs a rework for different reasons.
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Pig dash, you leave the loop to counter it when she crouches.
Freddy guarantees a hit at many loops if you run into the thing, or if you run around it, so the best choice is to leave the loop as he is setting his trap because he slows down.
Dredge is not a 50/50, the best thing to do is to leave the loop because he is slowed down. Trying to get the 50/50 is bad because its a 50/50. If you just leave the loop its a 100/0.
Knight has to "aim" lol?
Artist doesn't have to aim either, you just set it down at a window or pallet, that isn't aiming.
Also i forgot trapper.
Also you just ignored hag
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Indeed.
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The nerf was to discourage players, to play her until the rework. (kinda crazy to think that she will prob. get reworked faster than Freddy)
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Freddy's rework is in January, before Skull Merchant.
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