Killer Adjustments - Setup

Laying my cards on the table before I start to give a frame of reference. I mainly play killers (209hrs/1023games vs 7/44 with survivor according to behaviour stats) but I don't have a specific main among them. Playing through a variety has made me acutely aware of differences in effectiveness. I have the following ideas for the adjustment of various killers to improve their performance. In this post, I will focus on set-up killers. Let's start with the O.G. Trapper.

The Trapper

-Slow start to matches due to having to place traps at the beginning and throughout play and lack of any additional tools for chase or finding survivors makes him considerably weaker than many. This isn't to say you can't do well but it more often feels like you have to rely on Survivor's blunders to win rather than having any direct impact.

1. Increase the carrying capacity for traps
2. Remaining traps on the map start active creating some threat from the beginning. I would also add a sound cue for survivors when they spawn to indicate they are against a trapper and the immediate threat from the random traps.
3. Increase the hit detection area for traps on sprinting survivors. This makes traps more effective for chases while still allowing the survivor to bypass or deactivate during normal movement.

The Hag

-Teleporting feels like your walking through mud and often you don't get the hit on trap trigger. There is a counterplay to her traps by erasing them but survivors will typically just trigger them and run as it is more efficient way to counter them. If you teleport, you are still some distance away and as a 4.4 speed, unlikely to gain any benefit. The Hag seems effective only against inexperienced survivors.

1. Persistent traps. Rather than being erased on trigger, they only disappear when erased through interaction or the killer uses the teleport.
2. Hindering traps. Teleport is good but with her slower speed and no other abilities to aid in chase or loops, I believe hindering survivors while in and for a brief period after leaving the trap would open more possibilities for trap use when combined with persistence.

The Ghostface

-Not a trap killer but requires a setup period before power has any effect. The first issue I have with this character is the difference in effectiveness for reveal and stalk that 3rd person and 1st person create. You can be revealed by characters who are in no way visible on your screen and cannot be stalked. The bigger issue revolves around effectiveness of using his power. Stalk to expose a survivor and get a one hit down, sounds good at first but the setup time often offsets the benefit of one hit downs. It often feels like other killers could get two hits in the time it takes to fully stalk and land one making proper use of his power no more effective than a basic M1 killer.

1. Exposed players don't see the red stain. Time exposed is reduced. Playtests would need to be thorough to find the right balance. This gives him an advantage in outplaying the survivor while not directly interfering with their evasion. Right now you can shroud to gain the same benefit but since other players can reveal you, it often gets disabled too quickly to be useful.
2. Drop-sheath knife (haste on full expose) could be base kit or hindering the specific exposed survivor may be more appropriate. This will improve his lethality without drastically changing his play.

The Shape

-With some of the changes he's undergone he's not terrible but similar to Ghostface, has unimpressive reward for the amount of setup. When using tombstone, the instant kill mechanic doesn't seem fun for most survivors since one unlucky moment ends in 3 hooks states with one hit. I think we can all appreciate the jumpscare Myers but this is mostly a meme run and not a serious threat due to the slow movement speed.

1. While canonically he doesn't teleport, I think adding something similar to the cenobite teleporting to the cube where he gets ported to a place nearby but not directly on them would be a good feature to add (only able to be used when not being viewed). The slow deliberate stalk and then suddenly appearing near the target when they are frantically running that is seen in films would be hard to replicate otherwise (the other option being a very high haste bonus when not being viewed but this feels like it would be awkward all around).
2. I have mixed feelings about tombstone Myers. On the one hand, the added stalk time does give the survivors more uncontested progress as a counterbalance but since players don't know they are playing this variant until the first death it can be frustrating. Perhaps adding an indicator for survivors to know when the stalk is resulting in one hit kills could ramp intensity without feeling unfair.

The Oni

-When a match starts he doesn't have access to his power until he wounds a with a regular M1 and collects enough blood. When downing players with his power, there is no blood drop meaning he basically resets to having a setup phase unless you ensure that an injured survivor is left to run around dropping blood orbs. He tends to be a killer that has to snowball to be effective and players hiding out his power effectively makes him pretty weak. He's fun to play but I feel some slight tweaks could be made to reduce the period of time he is ineffective at the beginning.

1. Starts at 50% power when match begins getting into power sooner without effecting normal mechanics too heavily.
2. A group of blood orbs drops on power hit. Not enough to keep him in power constantly, but perhaps 20-30% charge.

These are some ideas to improve characters that I feel have good designs but may be a little behind the curve in terms of potency in normal play. I obviously don't have the experience of some of these 1k+ hour killer players nor do I have much first hand experience as survivor but I feel like these suggestions could improve the gameplay of the listed killers.