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Feedback and Opinion on Skull Merchant's Rework :)

Jiray Jiray
in Feedback and Suggestions

Hello, after reading Skull Merchant's, I figured I give my input.

Disclaimer:

THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS ON SKULL MERCHANT’S 3.0 Proposal AND HOW I’VE READ THE CONCEPT.

Skull Merchant’s Identity:
One of the issues I’ve seen with a good amount of Skull Merchant mains is how Skull Merchant has lost her identity. While I can understand the reasoning behind her identity being lost, I think what’s lost is her original concept and basekit. Her ability to track survivors, haste/hindred, the claw traps being removed. I feel this proposal is still something that can keep the identity of who Skull Merchant is. Her physical appearance isn’t changing and I can see this proposal still fit a playstyle she would use as a Plan B. 

Drones 2.0:

I'm honestly mixed about this. The drones, at value, sound a lot more creative. But, given their slower speed and visuals on where to locate the scanlines (front of the skull's mouth and 180 degrees behind it), to me, it sounds like her drones may be easier to hack. I don’t think survivors should be rewarded for hacking her drone and seeing her aura. If survivors don't get rewarded for disabling Singularity’s cameras, why should they get rewarded for disabling Skull Merchants drones? The only time I can see a survivor messing up Skull merchants drones is when she approaches and leads into a chase. She gets rewarded and sees the survivors aura, but she’s already in chase with the survivor. She wouldn’t need aura reading. Honestly, the whole aura thing shouldn't be added. Next is drone control. While I like the idea of having more control over the drones, I feel this is a concept similar to that of the Twins with Skull Merchant being Charlotte and the drones, Victor. Twins, an already least picked killer, have a reputation of  being seen as boring to killers and annoying to play against as survivors. As far as the Drone Propulsion, I have to visually see it in the game. 

Red Light Green Light:

I’m not really seeing anything special about this other than just being one of the thousands of things you can do with the Skull Merchant. This action sounds no different than Doctor’s STATIC BLAST, but a lot weaker. To counter Doctor’s blast, you’d have to usually get into a locker as soon as possible when you hear the sound cue. With Skull Merchant, you can just not move when you hear the sound cue. Maybe if she’s approaching you? I’m moreso just trying to figure out all these things you’d have to do with Skull Merchant while trying to land an M1 on a survivor. 

My Overall Opinion:
This sounds like an interesting concept, and I still will play Skull Merchant regardless because, simply, I like the Skull Merchant.  However, this rework, in my opinion, will not fix Skull Merchant’s reputation (which is what the goal seems to be) and potentially make it worse. Skull Merchant’s reputation is never going to change in my opinion, and that is ok. All killers from highly favored killers like Weskers to killers we rarely see like Hag are still loved by many and Skull Merchant is no different. And while some Merchant mains are seeing this as an exciting concept, a lot are not too happy with the proposal and are actually worried. I feel playing Skull Merchant this way will require a lot of work. You’ll have to control the drones, set up a potential propulsion, red light green light, and of course M1-ing. To me she sounds like a mix of Twins, Doctor and a lot multi-tasking similar to Singularity. Her drones sound easy to counter and rewarding with a little bit of aura reading sounds like Skull Merchant’s aura will be seen more to the survivors than the survivors auras being seen to Skull Merchant. 

What I’d wish for Skull Merchant:
As mentioned, I don't think Skull Merchant’s reputation is ever going to change. Even if she were to become the most balanced killer, she will still be disliked (and thats ok)! A lot of people DC'd or gave up on hook when she was in her chess-merchant era. A lot of people DC and give up on hook today while she's in her gutted-era complete with drones that don't even rotate most of the time. Instead of constantly trying to change her basekit, fix what she already has. If I was asked how I’d rework Skull Merchant, here’s what I would propose:
Bring back Skull Merchant 2.0.

  • Drones deployed by the Skull Merchant start off in Stealth mode and will activate when a survivor is scanned in its radius. 
  • Drones have 2 scan lines.
  • Skull Merchant gains (a non-stackable) haste when she (manually) rotates her drone or the survivor gets scanned after Skull Merchant deploys a drone. (Basically how she gains haste now).
  • Survivors scanned three times, gain a claw-trap and become broken
    (Survivors who become claw-trapped should not be put into deep wound.)
  • When a survivor is scanned a fourth time they gain an 8% Hindred
  • Remove immunity from survivors who vault a window or pallet.
  • Decrease The Skull Merchant's Terror Radius to 24 meters.
  • Skull Merchant's Hacked Drones reactivate after 60 seconds (was 45 seconds)
  • If Skull Merchant recalls a hacked drone, she can deploy another drone in 15 seconds (was 10 seconds)

Most Importantly please fix the bug that causes Skull Merchant’s next drone to freeze (we call it low power mode bug) after recalling a hacked drone.

This is just an example but i can see some possible balance here compared to her original 2.0. She doesn't gain these undeserving stacks of haste like she used to. She gains haste as a reward for using her radar to manually rotate her drones. To reward the survivors who hack the drone, they get an extra 15 seconds of the drone being disabled before it reactivates and if Skull Merchant recalls its, she'll have to pay an additional 5 second penalty before releasing another drone.

Many other Skull Merchant mains have also had proposals to fix her 2.0 that made her sound more balanced since her second rework was released up to the present time. While this proposal all sounds interesting on paper, I can see the cons outweigh the pros and will most likely lead to The Skull Merchant getting a fourth rework in the future. 

Thanks for allowing us to give feedback.


Cheers!!

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