http://dbd.game/killswitch
How to buff Skull Merchant in a meaningful way
(My personal opinion please don't scream at me)
The main problem with SM in my experience is that with one scan line her power is laughably avoidable especially since you can crouch or stand still to avoid it. The only reason SM got nerfed in the first place was because of the gen kick meta causing hour long games so my changes are as follows:
1: Why does it not scan people on generators or healing? It takes maybe 3-5 seconds to hack the drone and get back to the objective.
2: Make the drones and their scanners harder to detect. I think this would be a great change for overall map pressure and zoning capabilities of the killer. Not needed though.
3: Claw Traps detection last longer. Self explanatory I feel as if having more knowledge of where the survivors are is quite helpful even though claw traps can be hard to apply at times.
4: Possibly add back the stealth on drone placement to combo with drone removal
I used to play a lot of SM but now it just feels like I'm playing ghost face with worse a worse stealth and chase power.
Edit: removed some unfun/unskilled suggestions for both sides added a new fourth suggestion
Comments
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Sorry but this just kind of sounds like old chess merchant with a new coat of paint.
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That's completely fair but unfortunately SM is really hard to buff without reworking her kit entirely and because of the gen kick nerfs I figured suggesting reverting some of it along with adding some stuff from the suggested rework.
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Having a killer be harder does not necessarily mean they’re garbage or should be written off for another rework. I mean, yeah merchant is bad but after the buffs she received in anti-tunnel 2 electric Boogaloo it really does feel like this killer is sort of finding its footing. It really does feel like to me at least that this killer just needs one or two more patches to really get going. You know what I mean, my guy.
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the only way I’ll play Skull again is her getting reworked. I hate her design after she got gutted.
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Skull Merchant with two scanlines requires little player skill and can be easily damaged by anyone. Therefore, two scanlines should not be desired. The rewards for skillfully manipulating a single scanline by rotating the drone should be increased.
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Loathe as I am to admit it, I have to agree with this comment. Was two scan lines easier to use? Yes. Does one scan line and scan line manipulation require more work? Also yes. However, the added work does provide better skill expression which I'm here for.
As for the OP's suggestions, I have mixed views and will address each point
1. I have no problem with the drone being unable to detect a survivor working on a gen. If the drones scanned someone working on the gen, that forces them to disable them, but since the SM player can see that a drone has been disabled, they are given indirect info on the survivor's position. That feels too easy and provides a lose-lose for the survivor. The SM player should still have to patrol their gens, not just rely on the drones to do the work for them. Even Singularity doesn't get freebies with his biopods.
However, I do agree that survivors should not be able to perform healing actions inside a drone's radius, nor should survivors be able to freely pickup in the drone's radius. If you go down under a drone and the SM goes off to pressure someone else, you as the survivor should be crawling away from the drone. The drones should be relatively risky locations.
2. I absolutely agree with this point. Even if the scan lines aren't perfectly invisible like they used to be before being triggered, they should at least have shorter visible scan lines and the radius should not be perfectly visible. Let the survivor know where the beam is pointing thanks to a little stub of a visible beam, but don't give them the obvious tell they have now. As they currently stand, SM's traps are painted in bright neon light. Why? We don't see Trapper or Hag dealing with this?
3. I could go either way. Personally, I find the claw trap duration fine at present, but I wouldn't toss aside more time to work with.
4. HARD disagree. Undetectable-on-Recall is one of the best additions to her kit and provides way more skill expression and macro gameplay. This change alone has improved my win rate with Skully since its implementation while also bringing back some of the "evil mastermind" vibes I used to feel with her. For context, I've been maining Skull Merchant since her release, and have always played her as Chase/Ambush Merchant.
So yeah. The main buff I would give her to help would to make her drones harder to detect, allowing them to work as traps again, in addition to anti-loop tools. Also, if any tweaks to her kit do go through, please, please please don't remove or mess up laser-tagging as a technique.
Also, props to the art department. I know everyone is clowning on Skull Merchant's only change in this PTB being some UI updates, and yeah, I don't need them since those mechanics are now muscle memory while I play her, but I do see it's a change to help newer players. And I am all for getting more people to play and love Skull Merchant as much as I do. So good job BHVR. You get a genuine thank you for that.0 -
It might be just step before they introduce they dash-slop rework to her. As they stated, it's planned for second half of the year.
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I want to like SM so much, but I don't think it's worth visiting buffs or nerfs until the rework. As she stands her kit is almost entirely untenable. Like trapper and hag she falls into the category of zoning and camping killers as a result of her kit, and the game simply is not being balanced or built around killers with these capabilities. Assuming she sees a 'rework' in the same way Trickster got a 'rework', I don't have high hopes for her becoming much of anything. BHVR is just too afraid of static/camping kits, with good reason, and I cannot see them giving her an actual ground-up rework.
To be direct, I think SM is cooked until the gameplay itself changes in such a fashion that would better acommodate her kitting.-2
