⸻How I'd BUFF the Trickster (A Healthy Buff On Top of the current REWORK)

To compile my own ideas regarding the trickster rework, as well as the combination of feedback from other players on the Trickster rework post, I've decided to dedicate this post to creating 1 coherent adjustment for the current Trickster rework, that I felt like deserved its own unmerged post.

BELIEFS
To make sure we're on the same page, let me first clarify what I believe about the current rework and things revolving the Trickster as a killer, as well as ideas from the community:

- The new reworked trickster is well done and better than the original, but has a higher skill cap and is less accessible to newer players. Generally sitting at 1-2k material at a competitive level
- The community at large has not realized the potential in the current style points mechanic, and how to utilize long range/needle shots to charge it up, nor have probably caught on to the value of killer instinct
- The lower laceration time as well as lower max knife count has been a great addition to provide an effective level of counterplay for survivors. Many beginners-medium level players might complain about this, due to them having faced survivors who played better at survivor than they are at trickster, and as a result, ran out of knives due to their misplays, which is deserved, as that is the fair counterplay design of it. This is not a problem; it's a deliberate design choice regarding counterplay
- The devs want the trickster to be 110%, so that when the trickster is within "effective kill range", they can't walk up too closely to survivors to spam knives in their backs in an un-interactive matter
- Especially for a killer as Trickster, we'd want the rework to give massive potential to the killer, without it being too readily available, as due to Trickster's nature, having that available will re-create the "Run Down" trickster that causes full lobbies to DC for the lack of healthy counterplay. Therefore I intend the Trickster rework to be one of a high skill ceiling, in which areas we should try to buff him

ISSUES
Now that doesn't mean there are no issues. In the current state, trickster deserves a buff still, but this should come without buffing a braindead version of him, that would allow him to run down and terrorize lower level lobbies. The issues that I'll address revolve around: Movement, Knife Count and Muscle Memory

A COHERENT REWORK
As the rework I am about to propose is meant to be a coherent whole, I invite you to first try to form a picture of the bigger whole. I will first post the changes (which might surprise or confuse you), followed by the explanations and reasoning on what they accomplish or why they're important. This rework/Buffs are built on top of the current excellent 4.4ms rework with style meter. now let's begin!

DEMON TRICKSTER
Is the name of this rework. For it's incredibly sophisticated high skill cap ceiling, allowing near infinite potential for this killer!

⸻ BUFF: Whenever Trickster picks up a survivor, he gets 6 knives back per laceration he triggered on that survivor. Which means: If he took 2 health states with knives = 12 knives back. One m1 and 1 knife health state is only 6 knives back, and all health-states with knives including endurance = 18 knives back. He also gets 6 knives back when grabbing a survivor from a locker. (Receiving knives back doesn't exceed the 36 max capacity, even if you're running knife capacity addons)

Remember what I said about increasing max capacity being a problem? Well, in fact we can give the Trickster more knives without destroying healthy counter play! And this is how you do it. By giving him a way to replenish successfully hit knives, which allows accurate tricksters to reduce the amounts of time they have to visit a locker significantly, and also making him less vulnerable to bad locker maps. In fact, one of the problems around "max capacity" complaints from actual good Tricksters isn't so much related to how many knives they need to get 1 down, but being able to use the same inventory to get multiple downs! Now, at 36 knives, you'd need to have an accuracy of 33.3% to get 1 down. That's easy! But to get 2, you'd need an accuracy of 66.6%, which is significantly harder, especially taking into account some knives are used for long ranged shots for style points.
Now this is where this subtle mechanic unveils the incredible math behind it:

OLD SYSTEM:
(Formula: knives to kill, aka 12 / total knives * 100)
1 kill = 33.4% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
2 kills = 66.7% accuracy + no laceration decay
3 kills = 100% accuracy + no laceration decay
4 kills = impossible

NEW SYSTEM:
(Formula: ((x + 1) * knives to kill) / (36 + x * knives to kill) * 100 where x is the amount of survivors picked up and where knives to kill is 12)
1 kill = 33.4% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
2 kills = 50% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
3 kills = 60% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
4 kills = 66.6% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
5 kills = 71.4% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay
6 kills = 75% minimum accuracy + no laceration decay… and so on (indefinitely)

For those if you noticing the incredible math behind this, this means that with the new system, trickster could theoretically sustain themselves on knives forever without reloading, though in practice, the best trickster players tend to sit around an accuracy of around 70%.
Now this is where the next Buff will integrate perfectly with this new mechanic, adding another frequently requested buff; movement speed

⸻ BUFF: Whenever Trickster triggers the final laceration with his knives, increase his movement speed by a total of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, up to a maximum of 5% after 7 final laceration triggers. Upon reloading at a locker, his bonus resets back to 0% bonus. (Increase is meant over the survivor 100%. So the max 5% increase should set it to 115%, not 110% * 1.05, which is 115.5%)

Just giving Trickster 115% movement-speed would be unhealthy for the game, as distance + lower max capacity are the only realistic counterplays survivors have against the Trickster that prevent it from just being a guaranteed uninteractive mow-down. That is why, in giving the Trickster movement speed, we double down on the counterplay; The more movement speed the Trickster get, as a result of taking health states with lacerations, the more likely he is to be running out of knives. He could of course reload, but that would then remove the movement speed buff. This makes every dodge of a knife a survivor does that much more impactful, as well as every accurate shot by the Trickster that much more rewarding, as he keeps getting stronger the more accurate he becomes.
With his main event becoming scarcer (which is a healthy change), so would it be better to increase the value of his main event. Killer instinct is already a great addition to make that happen, but with this new mechanic, the value of main event would also be to allow you to deal laceration hits without losing knives, which you would still receive back, allowing you to sustain your buffs for longer without having to reload!

VISLUALIZATION
I created an actual video to demonstrate how this would play out in an actual match in which you can see how the knives-back mechanic affect how many times you'd have to refill at a locker as well as how big your buff could get if you played well.
Knives = how many knives you would have based on our mechanic
Reloads = how many times you'd have to actually reload
Buff = how high the buff is (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% etc.)
Current Reloads" = how many times the Trickster reloads in the actual video without our update

But we're not just done yet! We still have to address another important issue; Muscle Memory

⸻ BUFF: Trickster's knives Ricochet by default (base-kit). A knife that bounced off an object will no longer deal laceration damage by default, but will reset the laceration decay, refills Trickster's Knife count by 3, increases style points and will only be able to deal laceration damage if it's the last knife needed to take the health state

As you might've noticed, this buff makes it possible for a trickster to take a health state even with just 5 knives left, if he managed to make one bounce and hit, causing him to be able to claim the kill with a total of 7 hit knives. This creates an insane amount of potential for high level plays! And more importantly, ricochet is such a unique mechanic, it would be sad to lose it to a mere add-on. It's a mechanic that requires Tricksters to truly rewire their brain and train their muscle memory, which would backfire if it were merely limited by a limited addon. This change would make it so that every Trickster can train their brain for ricochet, and utilize one of the most unique mechanics in the game, while keeping it fair and balanced, not to mention the insane clutch last ricochet shots that may be able to down someone. This could lift Trickster to becoming one of the most theatrical killers, and most enjoyable to watch!

Not only that, but the blade refill mechanic perfectly synergizes with the previous blade and movement speed mechanic mentioned in the earlier buffs. Massively boosting the skill ceiling for Trickster and making Trickster truly deserving of his own name; someone playing for tricks, a true perfectionist. All while keeping this massive potential safe from just running down lower level lobbies.

However, there's still more ways we can buff the Trickster while leaving his chases in a healthy state, and that is by removing boiler-plate time doing chores as the Trickster;

⸻ BUFF: Trickster can throw knives at gens, which causes that generator to start regressing if nobody is repairing it. Counts towards style points + counts towards the maximum 8 regression actions

A big complaint regarding the Trickster being 110% is "having to chase scratch-marks for a long time" before being able to enter the chase. One of the common scenarios where that may happen is where the Trickster wants to kick a gen, and then chase the survivor he pushed off it. This catch up time at 110% can be horrendous, and there is nothing fun nor interactive about it, so we can eliminate it completely! By allowing the Trickster to throw 1 knife at a gen, and instantly initiating the chase with a survivor right after not only perfectly synergizes with his Style meter and concept, it even further plays into our Knife-Back mechanic, as it once again introduces a brand new trade-off! Want the quick gen regression while increasingly running lower on knives and risk of losing your buff to a reload? It all synergizes together perfectly.

⸻ SIDEGRADE: Trickster's laceration decay should stay at a quick 12 seconds, but should scale based on the distance of the last hit knives, where long range shots can cause laceration decay to only start after 30 seconds (estimate)

This last buff is to make long ranged shot more meaningful, yet preserves counterplay when the Trickster is up close

And with that we have a Trickster, who has
- Movement
- Knife Refill
- Efficient Gen Regression
- And the TRICKS; (Altered Ricochet base-kit)

That to me would form the perfect formula for a fully successful Trickster Rework; One of the few that preserves fair counterplay for survivors, yet doesn't shy away for allowing Trickster to be a very strong killer in the hands of people equally dangerous with him~

Thank you for anyone reading ❤️
Feel free to post your own ideas, adjustments or critiques in the comments down below, and share your love for the Demon Trickster rework if you're a fan of it!

BUFF SUMMARY:
⸻ BUFF: Whenever Trickster picks up a survivor, he gets 6 knives back per laceration he triggered on that survivor. Which means: If he took 2 health states with knives = 12 knives back. One m1 and 1 knife health state is only 6 knives back, and all health-states with knives including endurance = 18 knives back. He also gets 6 knives back when grabbing a survivor from a locker. (Receiving knives back doesn't exceed the 36 max capacity, even if you're running knife capacity addons)

⸻ BUFF: Whenever Trickster triggers laceration with his knives, increase his movement speed by a total of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, up to a maximum of 5% follow the previous total increase distribution. Upon reloading at a locker, his bonus resets back to 0% bonus. (Increase is meant over the survivor 100%. So the max 5% increase should set it to 115%, not 110% * 1.05, which is 115.5%)

⸻ BUFF: Trickster's knives Ricochet by default (basekit). A knife that bounced off an object will no longer deal laceration damage by default, but will reset the laceration decay, refills Trickster's Knife count by 2, increases style points and will only be able to deal laceration damage if it's the last knife needed to take the health state

⸻ BUFF: Trickster can throw knives at gens, which causes that generator to start regressing if nobody is repairing it. Counts towards style points + counts towards the maximum 8 regression actions

⸻ SIDEGRADE: Trickster's laceration decay should stay at a quick 12 seconds, but should scale based on the distance of the last hit knives, where long range shots can cause laceration decay to only start after 30 seconds (estimate), to make long ranged shot more meaningful, yet preserves counterplay when the Trickster is up close