Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on these and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.
Access the survey HERE!
Skull Merchant changes were a failure and her playerbase is owed an apology.
Ever since she released, anyone who dared play her has suffered from harassment both in and out of the game from people who not only didn't understand her kit but didn't want to.
The most recent changes made to her do nothing but give the impression that the devs side with serial harassers and bullies.
Comments
-
The reason is that a skull merchant gets a very high value from her power with almost no effort.
On the other hand, it requires a great deal of effort from the survivor to withstand it against her.
The result is a very boring killer to play against. You will get hit no matter what the survivor does. You stay in the loop, get hit. You leave the loop and go to another loop. She will throw a drone and the first scenario will be repeated.
Even disabling the drone is useless, she will retrieve the drone and throw another one in its place as if nothing ever happened.
4 -
- no they don't
- Skull Merchant players (the anti gen/3 gen ones) are literally the reason all the passengers on the SM hate train exists
11 -
Just don't walk into the drones.
- Yes they do.
- "People played X character in a way I don't like therefore it is okay to harass people who play X character"
Wow you are exactly the kind of entitled serial harasser I am talking about.
4 - Yes they do.
-
The hate now for Skull Merchant is no longer reasonable, but it's still there. The community has pretty much rejected this killer no matter the changes. It'll take more time to subside, if that's even still possible.
3 -
Just don't walk into the drones
Did you read my comment? She will throw dorns at every window or pallet you go to, you as a survivor can't stop her from doing that.
Add to that the huge speed difference where the survivor will receive a slowdown in movement speed and she will move faster.
2 -
I don't think it'll ever subside. Im a firm believer that SM will always be hated by the community no matter what, even if the rework next year makes her the best design killer in dbd ppl will remember 3gen SM and hate her for it. Also let's not forget ppl hated her even when she was teased bc of how she looked and her lore, the 3gen stuff only made the flames of hatred hotter and blighter.
2 -
Nearly every killer uses their power at windows and pallets. That is the ######### point of killer powers.
3% haste is barely anything and YOU THE SURVIVOR gave it to her by tripping her power. Do you think survivor perks like sprint burst, lithe, and balanced that give survivors MORE HASTE FOR EXISTING should be removed too? Or are you only applying your "logic" to killer?1 -
Her playerbase are the reason why she got changed
0 -
they changed skull merchant exclusively because survivor were d/cing excessively and increasing kill-rate.
The changes were not meant to be successful. all they were meant to achieve is reduction in disconnect rate and reduction to her kill-rate.
7 -
She was a flop from the very beginning. Her reputation will never recover, and survivors will still DC against her out of pure pettiness just because they can and they won't forget the time she could force a server shutdown.
Also, most people (myself included) dislike her lore filled with fluff and her weird mask, which will always be the same.
0 -
I am probably one of few who thinks that that 3 gen mechant was more boring than nowadays merchant. While the 3 gen merchant could be defeated by only very coordinated team, I didnt go against many of them that we didnt beat. However new skull merchant is boring in all aspects, as she can not hold three gen hostage, she can still stale 3 gens effectively when needed. Plus she is super boring in chase. You get to loop, she throws drone and you get injured eventually, with one beam it is not as fast as it used to be. If she only gets the injury and deep wound whatever. But the haste and hindered is just omega boring. You get slowed by 5 % was 10 %, which means you move at 95 %, can be 92 % if she has the green add on. She walks 115 %, with scan 117 %, two scans 120 % plus blood lust 125 % to 135 % speed, so most of them just hold w around loop to get you injured and catch you with haste. You can chain loops, not really, because scanns dont decay so every scan counts, and as she gets downs slowlier she still does. I have similiar problem with Sadako changes, I only spammed teleports so survivors cant turn of tvs and I get them in 30s back and i got 2-3 condemned mories every game without single hook. Those types of gameplays are simply not engaging or fun. I personally love the drone visual desigh, not really the merchant design but whatever. I think there are ways to rework her to make her more fun.
0 -
When sm came out i was quite interested in her despite all the hate for her character model, i thought she was hot so i just liked her anyway, even bought all her cosmetics. But as i tried to play her more it was obvious that everyone just hates you for existing because there were disconnects in seconds, people running up to you begging to be killed off the moment they see you etc. And i enjoy playing the fair playstyle going for hooks over kills, but every skull merchant ive played against would tunnel/camp/3 gen and thats probably where the hate grew to all the playerbase. And its probably why people still dc/suicide to this day as they affiliate someone who plays as her usualy plays that way. Same reason i hate weskers while everyone else loves him, because every wesker ive met since ptb triple tunnels off the hook
3 -
Yes how dare people play the ######### game
The Skull Merchant hate brigade literally does nothing but harass people for playing a character.2 -
So let me get this straight. They nerfed a killer to the ground because that killer was fundamentally flawed and they wanted to sweep these problems under the rug and now they are responsible for the harassment SMs get from other players?
That's next level mental gymnastics. The killer was hated before that, so people would already be unhappy about playing against her. Meaning, the harassment existed either way. If it got worse, then that's because people can now bully her ingame but that is a problem with the playerbase again.
Don't get me wrong, they definitely messed up here but you can't seriously blame the devs for the harassment you get from other players.
As @SoGo said, Skull Merchant will always remain a killer many of us dislike. It starts with her visuals (What is her walking animation?! How am I supposed to believe that David wouldn't just knock her out with a few punches?!) but it also affects her sound design (I hate her chase music and drone sounds with a passion.), her power (Stationary drones are not a good concept. She either becomes a territorial killer or she denies loops.) and even her lore (Seriously, devs. Take all the different things you have in her lore and only use what you absolutely need, then reinforce that. The manga stuff is irrelevent and her ambition is mentioned but never actually expressed in what she does as a killer.). It is too much for them to fix. Even if they were to rework her power to be decently fun for both sides, the other parts would still apply.
2 -
Another chance to plug my lore rewrite? 🧐
j/k xD
On topic, the treatment of Skully by the survivor community was somewhat understandable, but also completely unreasonable. There were a genuine and long list of complaints to be made about Skull Merchant, but the asinine, childish and pathetic treatment of the character and her playerbase is simply not defencible. Not every Skull Merchant was a Chess Merchant contrary to what her detractors would have you believe.
Most players didn't even want to try and discuss how to improve her, to make the concept work, and shut down every discussion and idea with the same level of thought and quality of argumentation as your average youtube and facebook comment.
I respect Scott for example, but on SM he is insanely biased and refuses to concieve of a world where she can possibly exist. I can quote his as saying "After you've played the game a while, you get a feel for things that can and things that can't work, and SM can never work". Bullshit.
She absolutely could work if people got their head out their backside and really thought about it, but people didn't want to. The community had already decided, and so nothing could be done to improve the character. The last version of Skull Merchant still had problems, but she was absolutely fixable.
I look forward to her future rework, because I still like the idea of having a Ted Bundy/Patrick Bateman-like attractive psychopath killer with a surveillance system I have to sneak past Metal Gear Solid style. Her walk and everything is a part of that, and with a few improvements to her lore, is a character I actually like quite a lot.
1 -
"fundamentally flawed"
She is trapper with extra steps. What the hell are you even talking about. Can't take you seriously.
Yes I can blame the devs for harassment especially when they are effectively catering to the harassers.
you aren't knocking out anybody armed with a foot long blade with a few punches, dude. You aren't a superhero.1 -
Just don't run into the drones
Killer can have a drone at every usable tile
Only counter is therefore to run to unusable areas of the map
This gives free hits
Translation: "Don't like going against SM? Just give her free hits lol"
Why do so many defenses of annoying mechanics on either side boil down to this? "If you don't like this thing, do something that gives me free wins."
2 -
She is more comparable with Hag and we all know survivors just love to play against Hag.
BHVR have nothing to do with those that harassed you. It's as simple as that. They didn't cater to them. They saw a problem, decided that that problem was of utmost priority and they did something about it. They nerfed Skull Merchant because survivors hated playing against her. She had a way higher kill rate than normal and that never changed. They also track the dc rates and deemed this to be too much. I don't think that they chose the best way to adress this issue but that's besides the point.
I never claimed I'm a superhero. But David King, Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine and many other survivors in DBD are trained to fight. A single punch to the head can be enough to knock someone out cold. You don't need to be a superhero for that.
1 -
Pressing m2 and getting 7 benefits for 0 thinking deserves no apology for the washing machine.
0 -
Back up a second, 3% was not that huge? Oh but 3% mft was and had on billion qq topic to nerf.
0 -
The only people who are owed an actual apology are people who spent real hard earned money on one of the worst chapters ever released imo.
Though hating a character and voicing your disdain for said character does not make you a "bully" and whoever you're referring to probably does it to more than just SM players. Some people are just scummy like that.
Saying BHVR is "siding" with those people is objectively wrong though.
People got (and still probably do) harrassed for using dead hard
People got harrassed for playing AFK pig
People got harrassed for infectious fright starstruck nurse
BHVR still changed them because it was overall the right decision to make.
Personally I will probably always hate Skull Merchant for many reasons, 70% of which are down to personal preferences.
1
