Buffing and improving Skull Merchant to be better for both sides

MrMori

We all know Skull Merchant is in a bad spot. Some say she should be reworked again, but I actually think her scanline playstyle is unique enough that it should stay, as there's quite a bit of depth to it once you practice it for a while. However, it does needs some tweaks and improvements to make it feel better to use, and a little more utility. She mainly has two issues: Lacking utility/power, and unclear counterplay.

In terms of power, she really doesn't have much going on for herself as a trap killer. All her drones start off active after she places them, so they can't catch any survivor off guard by using them as traps. She still has a clunky radar, so using it mid chase to read the location of a scanned/claw trapped survivor and mindgame them feels awkward. And she only gets stealth when recalling a drone, which again doesn't quite make sense when she's supposed to be a setup killer.

Here's what I think should be changed to remedy these problems, and make her feel better to both play as, and against, without actually changing how she works on a fundamental level beyond a few buffs and tweaks:

Buffs:

• Drones placed outside of chase now start in stealth mode, but stealth mode drones do not rotate
  • One of the biggest nerfs that Skull Merchant got when going from double scanling (Skull Merchant 2.0) to single scanline (Skull Merchant 3.0) was the loss of her stealth drones. They used to spawn without the visible scanline. I think we should bring this back, but with a twist: Now, the scanline is still only a single one. But it is also stationary. This would let Skull Merchant set up essentially "tripwires" on important spots, which could catch unaware survivors off guard. Also, manually "rotating" a stealth drone will cause it to become active and spin, in case a survivor is about to run into it.
• Placing a drone now also gives 6 seconds of Undetectable
  • She recently had this swapped with recalling a drone for 8 seconds of Undetectable. I think she's weak enough of a killer to have both. Not sure if there's much more to be said. I get that there's more high level tactics to recalling drones to get stealth, but at the same time it clashes very directly with her identity as a trap killer. Why would you want to recall your drones when you're trying to set up your web of traps? Having both makes more sense to me.
• Make radar smoother to use, and let Skull Merchant see survivors on her radar without pulling it up at all
  • It's a part of the skill floor of Skull Merchant to know to pull up the radar to check for recently scanned survivors. But, I personally think it would be amazing if Skull Merchant held the radar in a way that it was visible at all times instead of needing to pull it up to see survivors. Sure, it would be simpler to play, but it would make her much, much more accessible and intuitive. It would also give her a whole new level of nasty mindgames against survivors on her radar in loops, which would be cool. It just makes sense to me. It would also be nice if you could rotate, swing, etc, faster after both pulling up and putting down the radar. Just make it "smoother" you know? Speeding up the animation, adding action queue to rotating or removing a drone, just make it "feel" better.

Now for the second part. The other issue with Skull Merchant, how unintuitive she feels to play against. Truthfully, her power isn't actually all that complicated. It's just almost nothing she does indicates what's actually happening to the survivors. That's what will get addressed here with these points:

Making her counterplay more straightforward:

• Any time a survivor is visible on Skull Merchants radar, an "eye" icon appears over their head on their screen to indicate that they are visible on her radar
  
  • Just like in the earlier versions. This would also go hand in hand with the proposed buff to make her radar visible at all times. It would simply make things clearer for both sides. Someone gets scanned? You see them on your radar without needing to pull the radar it up or anything like that. You got scanned? You know that Skull Merchant can see you on radar. Simple and straightforward.
• Add visual effect and sound to newly placed or rotated drones, and a add visual effect and sound when Skull Merchant gets haste
  • Practically nobody knows that Skull Merchant gets 5% haste if she scans you specifically with a drone that she just placed or rotated. Why? Because there's zero indication of it. Not on her walk, not on the drone, nowhere. So, why not give newly placed and rotated drones a subtle, but visible effect to show this off? A slight electric current in the scanline, something small to indicate "This drone will give Skull Merchant haste if you get scanned by it". Nothing too fancy, otherwise it would be confusing. And similarly, add small trail with a similar effect to Skull Merchant herself when she's hasted by her drone, or even a custom walk animation for when she's hasted by her power. Kind of like survivors that have Blighted Serum. Simply put, make it more clear that Skull Merchant has haste in her kit at all, as right now there's zero indication.
• Add an animation to survivors being hindered by her power
  • The hinder happens when a claw trapped survivor gets scanned. Most players don't know this either, because again, it has no indication. What if they receive a small shock or something, with some animation, to indicate that they are hindered? Kind of like how when Clown slows down a survivor, they wail their hands around. Again, everything works exactly like before… It's just now it's clear what's actually happening.
• Add a small sound and visual effect for drones being rotated
  • Simple and straightforward, grants the survivors some counterplay and gives them the indication that this drone rotation is something that Skull Merchant is making happen, not some random thing that happens on its own. It would also add counterplay in loops, though admittedly removing some tricks from Skull Merchant when it comes to sneaky scans using rotations.
• Add a visual indicator for Lock On stacks to the actual survivor model
  • Right now, the only place to see or understand what is going on in terms of Lock On stacks for survivors is to fine comb the HUD for a tiny little triangle, and know that "three triangles means I get broken and injured". That's unintuitive. What if instead, any time a survivor gets scanned, the drone that scans them shoots out a little metal piece (undodgeable, just a visual thing) that attaches to their shoulder to indicate a stack? The second stack attaches to the other shoulder, and finally, the third stack attaches to their back and connects the little metal pieces with some electric wire or something. Just something to visually indicate that something's happening you know? Right now, the experience is very unclear for survivors unless they already know what to look for, where they "know" they were scanned a few times… But then suddenly they get scanned another time and just immediately get injured, maybe even downed by Skull Merchant. Not a good experience, not very clear.

I get that from BHVRs perspective, investing more time into Skull Merchant seems like a terrible idea. But I don't actually think her power is all that awful to play against from a gameplay perspective, or even all that terrible in concept from a killer perspective. I like current Skull Merchant, I think her gameplay works quite well. She just needs a little more utility. A bit more stealth, some ease of use, some actual trap potential with stealth drones to bring back her trap killer playstyle, not just locking areas down with a million spinning drones.

I also wanna point out that none of these changes actually change how Skull Merchant plays all that much. All they do is make her easier to both pick up, and also play against. Although stealth drones would take a little bit of time to get used to for survivors, it would be much more intuitive what was actually happening when they get scanned due to all the new effects and visuals that clarify "Hey, you just got a stack, plus she can see you", and stuff like that.

Oh and one more thing? I think giving Skull Merchant a new, cooler base outfit as well as a new walk cycle, while keeping her current base outfit as a free cosmetic for everyone would go a long way to give her a new identity and give survivors that faced her a fresh outlook on her if these changes went through and players tried her out again. Something worth thinking about.

What are you guys thoughts? Is the problem with Skull Merchant mostly that she's unintuitive to play against? Weak? That the drones just aren't fun to play around in the first place? Or do you think like me that she just needs some quality of life, and her actual trapping power back to be much more viable?

rutterspax

Your suggestions should be hammered into their skull until each vibration is memorized. To be honest, anything would buff Skull Merchant right now because her current state is absolutely abysmal.

I will never forgive them for what they did to Skull Merchant. Just think, this is how they deal with customers. If you buy a chapter and then they decided to completely change or nerf the living Hell out of a character that you LOVE to play then they should be liable for this and you should be able to refund your purchase.

But of course, laws differ and their EULA we agreed to have rules set where they can modify whatever or whoever they want which is absurd to me. I guess it's a concern now about the ethicality of it all but that's a complex topic to discuss.