Skull Merchant still the same
So Skull Merchent recently received quite a few changes to help make her more viable during chase while needing her three gen potential. After playing a couple games however, they kind of failed.
The 3%, 4%, 5% and 7% haste affect is not really noticeable most of the time. Don't get me wrong it's sometimes vital for saving a second in chase to get a hit in, but that's about it. Even in conjuction with her other haste add-ons, it never felt like much. Speaking of its downright impossible to actually achieve 7% since at max I only had two survivors with claw traps and they're all pretty good about avoiding drones.
Secondly she can still three gen pretty well unless the survivors are extremely aggressive about disabling drones, but that alone has a risk too it when killer is watching them closely and even protecting them. If she protects three gens and one drone is disabled, she still has a 4th drone to immediately place down to replace it.
Overall I call the Skull Merchent changes zilch in terms of actually fixing her kit and making her fun on both ends to which she is not.
Comments
It's actually 3%, 5%, 6%, and 7% Haste. In another thread I suggested bumping it up to 5%, 8%, 10%, 12% to make it feel more impactful but I'm not confident it needs that buff just yet.
I'm going to wait a few days and see how the game goes before deciding if her lockdown has been nerfed to an acceptable level. Guarding a 3-gen was never going to be completely removed, it just needed to be weakened enough that survivors could bust through it with enough effort.
As far as I can tell, she will still be very strong at 3 genning, but in a generally healthier way, because now she can go for chases more often, downing survivors, and actually ending the game, as opposed to just defending gens forever.
I would argue that she is slightly weaker at 3 genning now however, and slightly stronger in general. But her 3 gen strat still has potential, it's just not quite as oppressive, and can't force matches to go an eternity as much anymore. At least that's my early impression.