Skull Merchant Rework - Emphasizing the Tracker Playstyle
[Power Changes]
•The Skull Merchant now draws a path for her Drones to patrol, rather than dropping them in one spot. Hold the power button while moving to cast a path, which will drop a Drone when finished. The path can extend to a maximum of 32 meters, and can be ended prematurely, so long as the path meets a 16-meter-length threshold.
•Once the Drone is deployed, it will retroactively begin following its own path, back and forth, emitting scan lines. The scan lines no longer injure Survivors, and can no longer be evaded by crouching/standing still through the beams.
•When a Survivor is scanned, they immediately are given a Claw Trap. Claw Trapped Survivors are afflicted with the Incapacitated effect until the battery runs out. (Minimum 20 seconds basekit. Incapacitated Survivors cannot do conspicuous actions, except unhooking.) Once the Claw Trap battery is dead, Survivors can manually remove the device. Entering a scan line recharges the battery.
•Claw Traps with an active battery will also break vaulted pallets, and block vaulted windows for 7 seconds for all Survivors.
•While any Survivor has a Claw Trap on them, active or not, The Skull Merchant is granted the Undetectable status effect, and can track their location on her radar.
•Drones cannot be placed within 16 meters of any hooked Survivors or generators, and will return to Skull Merchant's inventory if a Survivor is hooked too close to an already-active Drone's path. There is no cooldown to placing Drones. (7 max.)
•Survivors can disable Drones, which temporarily deactivates them, leaving them motionless. If the Survivor disables a drone while having a Claw Trap, they are injured and suffer from Deep Wound. Claw Trapped Survivors cannot disable a Drone if they are already injured.
•Survivors no longer instantly lose their Claw Trap upon being downed, grabbed or hooked.
Comments
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Any thoughts on this, readers?
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Were you a SM main before you came up with these changes? It's difficult to tell what would be good for her these days.
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No, but I have played her quite a lot, both in her first version, and her subsequent rework. Played her only once or twice after her recent nerfs.
I made this post because some community members expressed wanting a better focus on stealth & tracking.
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There is simple issue. You want her to basically waste time using power, exactly as Knight, but the effect is way worse than Knight.
Unlike when chased by a guard, drone can't do anything to me. Skully needs to catch up to me, if she wants to injure/down me.
Then you have even more issues. If detection by drone will be easy and using it fast, we have 3-gen king again. Just give as many survivors you can Incapacitated status effect and defend your Ruin. If drone won't be able to easily effect survivors, then it is kinda useless, no?If getting claw trap will be too easy, there will also be tons of crying about "underserved" value. If it is too difficult, then she is completely without a power and using her power only wastes her time.
This concept is not possible to balance and even less possible to make it fun for both sides.0 -
This power you've written is quite powerful. I assume you have 6x drones. But even if its less, you have multiple AI Doctors floating around Incapacitating. Incapacitation is kinda their thing (so you're stepping on doctor's toes), but also its really powerful.
The idea of multi incapacitation anytime a drone procs is wild, but with drones that walk around LoS blockers is even more wild.0 -
I disagree on a few accounts.
- She doesn't lose distance like Knight because I specifically said "while moving".
- Claw Traps here are meant to give Skull Merchant the ability to capitalize on her info with near-constant, unpredictable Undetectable.
- The Drones don't enable "3-genning" at all because, as I stated once again, you can't place Drones near gens. Claw Traps also give basekit Dissolution and brief Bamboozle.
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It is a dangerous status effect to work with, I agree, that's why the base time for it is 20 seconds.
While the casted paths for Drones can be quite long, the width of the scan lines themselves are unaltered, as well as rotation speed from her original versions. They should be easy enough to maneuver around. (Excluding some indoor maps. Can't cover everything)
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She doesn't lose distance like Knight because I specifically said "while moving".
Ok, how would that work?
Drone is going to travel basically only where you have walked before → unlike for there to be surivors, or skully will just hold W meanwhile (which can be often worse than just standing).Claw Traps here are meant to give Skull Merchant the ability to capitalize on her info with near-constant, unpredictable Undetectable.
no, it's constant only if you manage to detect with your drones regularly, which will create completely new issues to other side. And it is already worse than her current undetectable.
you can't place Drones near gens.
Then as long survivors stay on gens, you are not able to detect them with your drones at all? I can just run to unfinished generator and be 100% safe? Seems flawed to me.
Claw Traps also give basekit Dissolution and brief Bamboozle.
Sure, but let's be honest, if you compare it to any of two versions of skull merchant, this is simply worse on all levels.
What is this supposed to be better at? If it is not better at something, then it is simply going to be miserable to play as.
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She's a setup Killer. Always has been. She was never conceptualized to be an anti-generator Killer. So you have to play accordingly.
My advice for this playstyle idea? Place Drone Paths that cover multiple loops, or cover a high-traffic location. Then, corral Survivors into your Drones. If they are avoiding the Drones, this can also be a good thing, because they waste time maneuvering and you potentially spend less time chasing.
When tagged, looping becomes harder for Survivors because they risk losing pallets fast. Your mindgames are enhanced with no red stain (Undetectable), windows become only a brief respite, and they cannot heal nearby teammates for a time.
Sure, Survivors can work on gens unimpeded by your power. So what? They have to move into your Drones eventually, if you're smart about playing her.
I fail to see how this rework fails to be satisfactory.
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There are several issues with this rework. It would be a different version of Knight path with infinite patrol. This on it's own isn't really engaging.
Would the incapacitated effect be for 3 scans or once you are scanned? Not only that this could bring back 3 gen merchant, but would make game insanely boring with already existing stale perks like DMS or Grim… How would you counter the drones? Disabling them would give you 1 stack already if not two when you cannot longer crouch or stay to not get scanned. This just seems like it would bring back the eruption meta like Mechant which in my opinion would be more ass to go against than any of her previous versions. The scan lines beam is about 18m I believe, not sure though.
The claw traps seem to do too much, if you can't do gens, you shouldn't be punished in chase. Breaking pallets by base and blocking windows for chase would make absolute no counterplay to her in any aspect of game mechanics. This rework just negates any possibility and fun you would have in game.
So in a game as a Skull Merchant as you spawn you direct 7 drones in a area of you wish. Now you found a survivor that enters the area and get claw trap. He gets to TL walls, blocking both windows and get hit, he moves to filler pallet, that he can drop but cannot vault. This just means guaranteed hits, like Chucky that is aslo very unpopular foe. I'm afraid we have to wait for rework to actually make her more fun to play and more fun to verse. Your rework is just "get scanned to not be able to to anything". I also offered a rework that is in my opinion more engaging for both sides. I'll leave peak here:
- You have 4 drones that can be deployed to create active zones (like original merchant)
- Survivor aura is revealed in the radius and mechant gets undetectable inside the area as well as survivor revealed on radar, additionaly she gets 10 % bonus to vault, breaking pallet and damaging gens.
- Claw traps are gained for drone disabled, that reveal you out of drone range. Claw traps give you 10 % debuff to heal and repair and lasts 45s, than can be manually removed and giving you immunity to be tracked for 20s.
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Place Drone Paths that cover multiple loops, or cover a high-traffic location.
That sounds useless to me… If drone is not stationary, it's completely random if you catch survivor or not (time when you chase survivor there)
Also survivors can simply decide to not chase there, if effect would be bad enough.So this concept sounds kinda useless to me.
She's a setup Killer. Always has been.
Doesn't mean she should stay this way. They have tried this concept twice, didn't work.
Sure, Survivors can work on gens unimpeded by your power. So what?
So they are not dangerous, your whole pressure has to be created by you chasing survivor. As base movement speed killer. All of your downs will have to be done M1, you have nothing as long survivor won't drop the pallet, if they manage to stun you, they can just run away.
It's setup, with 0 chance for snowball unlike Hag and 0 chance for instadown unlike Trapper. Also would take longer to setup. In what world that can be good?
They have to move into your Drones eventually, if you're smart about playing her.
Even if they run into drones with you chasing them, it's nothing strong really. So you have to play "smart" for nothing really.
I fail to see how this rework fails to be satisfactory.
Well, that's probably core of the issue, isn't it? It would be terrible beyond saving, we have had enough of those.
Not like devs are ever going to use suggested concepts on forum anyway, forum is only for feedback in reality.
You know what would be best way to play her, 3-gen again. You can't put drones next to gens, but you can create a border around the gens, push survivor into it and leave them, why would you ever chase survivor, who can't do anything?
Survivors would have to let you hit them, or run into drones and just watch gens regressing.0
