Skull Merchant and unavoidable hits.
https://twitter.com/g0rejira/status/1766161396339786066?t=nQ6glDsmHuQXifofkip-DA&s=19
I just don't understand how people enjoy facing Skull Merchant when stuff like this happens so often. They got outplayed at the most unsafe loop on RPD and got rewarded for it??? Yes, the survivor could've crouched, but they would have got M1'd anyways since you need to compensate for server lag and crouch for longer than necessary due to it. Can you even argue that it's avoidable?
Comments
Perks not withstanding Nurse is the only other killer I can think of that would get a hit like this after being stunned in this scenario.
I don't know if it's been covered in here yet, but I wanted to just stop by and say (since I've seen a lot of debate in this thread about why crouching matters).
If you pay attention to a drone, and the color of its scanners you'll notice one of two things.
I hope that helps! ^^
She didn't get injured by the fact she went to an extremely unsafe pallet, nor did she get hit as a result. Watch the video instead of looking at the thumbnail please and then talk about the clip. This "hate train" isn't going to dissapear because it's not a hate train, very simple thing to understand here.
No need for the harsh response, mate.
But either way, the video shows a play made around a dangerous pallet. If the killer was Huntress or Deathslinger, the outcome would most likely be the same.
Getting a hit on that scenario isn't something that only Skull Merchant can do.
I think everyone should take a step back and address the obvious: should a player drop a health state from being scanned by a passive rotating beam in a PVP game? Like, at least Plague has to aim something. SM is such a bad power design. It's auto pilot.
Yep. I don't understand how people aren't getting it.
Skull Merchant plays herself. There's no real skill component to her power.
No need for the "hate train" comments either, people's opinions are worth more than that. I mean how do I tell you kindly to watch a clip instead of assuming everything based off of a literal thumbnail whilst you're just blindly defending Skull Merchant?
Plague comparisons came out of the blue and now SM defenders are making Plague seem overpowered and way better than Merchant, even claiming Plague has the best power state in the game.
Well apparently placing drones strategically takes a ton of skill and survivors just don't understand the thought process.
But I have not used it to dismiss your post, or anyone else's posts on this thread.
It is a fact that a "hate train" against Skull Merchant exists, because of her problematic release. The same thing happened with Legion years ago. And because of that, a scenario where multiple killers would have gotten a hit gets far more attention, simply because the killer is Skull Merchant.
The assumption that I haven't even watched the video is also wrong. I watched it then gave my opinion about it. It is the whole point of this thread, is it not? I am just participating in the discussion you've proposed, so I don't think a harsh response was warranted.
Sure? The beam is a weapon, and weapons typically take health states.
You're describing everyone's opinion if they don't like Skull Merchant as a simple hate train. You've done it on basically most discussions, stating that with time it'll be fine. You have complete disregard for people's opinions and think it's just a trend of some sort. Sure, some might be on a hate train of some sort, but it's not everyone as you describe it to be.
You didn't watch the video. You said that going to an extremely unsafe pallet caused her to get hit, these are both false assumptions based on the thumbnail because it wasn't the tile that got her injured, nor was she hit - the drone got her. She actually pallet stunned the killer so any discussion regarding the unsafe tile causing the drone to get her doesn't really work.
What's fun about Merchant games if you don't mind me asking?
I only have 42 comments talking about Skull Merchant, 43 after this one is posted. None of them ever dismisses someone else's opinion as a hate train, nor have I ever accused anyone of being part of said train.
Same as you, I acknowledge that it does exist. And I do believe it will dissipate with time, because this is being based on the experience we've had with Legion, but the proper feedback will remain. There are no dismissals on my comments, there never have been.
You didn't watch the video.
If there are any dismissals in this discussion, here it is. I can record my screen with the video playing in its entirety if you want me to.
The fact that the tile is unsafe matters because it means different killers could have gotten a hit there. The Skull Merchant eats the stun, but the drone gets Meg. A Huntress, for instance, could have respected the pallet and get Meg while she was locked in the animation. Deathslinger would have just shot her at the spot.
Meg had already been scanned twice, and we don't know how those scans happened.
That doesn't mean the killer is perfectly fine as she is, or that she has no need for changes, I just think this video in particular has other aspects that need to be taken into consideration when used as an argument.
But that's where we disagree. Not every thing in the entire game needs to have some complicated mechanical skill. Sometimes, it is ok for things to be simple and require strategic skill. The SM there has tons of things to consider.
And lastly, with your logic there, there are many killers here that you would see the same way, do you see the same for:
I could go on but you get my point, there are many killers in the game where they aren't about some hefty MECHANICAL skill. STRATEGIC skill is still a valid way to have the game work and create interesting killers around. If you want something with heavy mechanical skill you are playing the wrong game. You probably want an FPS or something, probably something like CoD where its about twitch reflexes and aiming rather than something a bit more on the strategic side like said CS2.
Ok. A passive power that requires little to no input from the player and damages the opponent. It could be a beam, a banana peel, a bowl of ice cream, or anything really. Point being, it requires literally no skilled input from the killer to benefit.
Almost 130 responses for such a simple conclusion that SM has bad design.
We're never making it out of the trenches are we?
Well, that's not true. You need to know positioning, timing, and even a little bit of aim.
I think people kind of get duped into thinking Skull Merchant's drones require no kind of skill because they keep seeing survivors who stalwartly refuse to counter them, and any power looks kind of skill-less if the opponent is just running into it over and over. If you're going against survivors who put literally any effort into avoiding beams - and please note I'm not invoking the mythical "good survivor" here, this doesn't take much skill on the survivor side either - it becomes a lot harder to benefit from the drones in an actually passive way.
You have to start, y'know, actively using them. Picking the right spots, chasing in the right direction, maybe making use of the active rotation-switch ability.
They only passively injure with no input from the killer if the survivor lets them in 99% of cases. Otherwise, both killer and survivor are exercising their skill in trying to play around the beams.
130 responses in which some people are trying to point out the evidence provided doesn't support the claim being made.
Its futile but I'll bite anyways.
Why does the clip matter when the killer is just poorly designed anyways?
Like there's so much scrutiny being applied to what is essentially a drop in an endless sea of moments where SM proves she is not well put together.
Because that's what this thread is about?
Counter arguments to any other point about why this killer is poorly designed would be seen in threads where those points are the ones being made.
This thread is about a specific argument, and that specific argument is wrong.
I don't think its wrong, the drones should not injure you under any circumstance, they should simply provide info/boost the killer in chase and that's it. I don't have anything else to add that hasn't been said already however, so I'll see myself out.
Chalk it up to me having no counterargument. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
💐
I like figuring out different strategies to overcome her. It’s exhilarating to pull off escapes again her.
goodbye mike, i´ll also miss you
The most liked comment. Yes, would love another rework for her please. Every single sm post people are complaining about her being a killer
wah wah Skull Merchant wah...
good job trying to mindgame a terrible pallet that almost every killer can get a hit in...
Just give up. When i hear her TR i immediately kill my self in the firt opportunitty. I refuse to play against this killer. This killer has a ZERO skill to play as, like that, absolutelly unsafe pallet and, just put a drone, and? Hit... I dont try do nothing against her, i just seat and wait for a hook to kill myself. Im waiting anxsually to a complete rework on her
Yeah, I'm not a Skull Merchant hater myself, but objectively speaking there are still problems with her kit due to the lack of counter play. 1 of the big issues affecting Meg here is there is no way to remove a stack once she has it, so having 2 at the start of this clip kinda meant she was a done deal no matter what happened....
I'd be interested in your thoughts on my proposed rework:
I doubt it'd make her a popular killer, but the hope is to remove some of the more annoying interactions of her kit and at least give Survivors something they could do.
she can keep track of the lines and crouch for a bit to avoid it. she had the distance for it. she can also stand still while it passes, but it's better to crouch there.
also why try to mindgame this pallet at all here? just a bad idea against a good killer.
the other 2 stacks were maybe avoidable too. maybe even more easily.
the killer is using their power, you gotta give something up, be it distance, resources or the hit. it's normal stuff. if trapper or hag had a trap, she would need to go around it. if there were projectiles, she would need to dodge, etc etc...
you can't always just run forward
What killer with a chase power can't get a free injure here? Knight, Clown, Plague, Nurse, Blight, Artist and Chucky are all examples of killers who could get free hits at this pallet
And not to Mention EVERY M1 KILLER WITH EVEN A MOODICUM OF SKILL COULD GET AN EASY HIT HERE
Except that this Skull Merchant was so bad that she did not even get a hit in there. But got a Hit, because she is so poorly designed.
You can wah wah as much as you like, but this does not change the fact that a bad Killer got a free hit.
I mean, I get that, but the precision required from the survivor vs. Skull Merchant is very mismatched. I could explain, but I dont have to, you can see the difference in skill required to win this exchange. We can see this Skull Merchant gets completely outplayed, and yet the Meg has to land pinpoint precision actions to get away clean.
I like playing Skull Merchant, but it does feel very lazy to play her. She has skill expression I'm her kit, but there isn't really a need to use it most of the time, because of the relative difficulty for survivors vs. SM is pretty insane in her favour.
I posted my rework suggestion to offer some alternative methods of mediating the skill difference, and actually allow good survivors to outplay SM a little more, and make her have to actually work for hits and downs.