Jetpack.

[DazedByGravity]

I just want to say a few things about the Artificer's new jetpack real quick:

my god man, this rules.

Artificer before: No mobility to speak of, fell behind other classes super quickly. Flamethrower was pretty much worthless because even thought its damage output due to it basically being a proccing machine gun was insane it got you killed really quickly.

Artificer now: One hopoo feather lets you use the jetpack to such a great degree, the fallspeed is reasonably slow, makes you feel like an actual freaking magician, and lets her glide across large gaps effortlessly where other classes would need to use an ability. With movespeed this becomes even more fun to hover around with.

Additionally, that flamethrower? Yeah, it sure becomes a whole lot better when you don't have to be on the ground to use it, where all the pain is. Just hover above the baddies and use your R and you're so much safer than you were before.

Tl;dr Jetpack rules and somehow this innocuous feature manages to fix some of her previously glaring issues.

[Xilo The Odd]

gotta be careful with it though, i've had some items like spinal fluid where when it wears off you get debuffed, if it happens mid air while moving quick your pretty much locked floating that direction till you land. has something to do with your mobility going down causing a loss of your air control.

[DazedByGravity]

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

gotta be careful with it though, i've had some items like spinal fluid where when it wears off you get debuffed, if it happens mid air while moving quick your pretty much locked floating that direction till you land. has something to do with your mobility going down causing a loss of your air control.

Oh ouch. A similar thing happens when you use the bouncey geyser things and then the jetpack, where it locks your momentum in the direction you start floating really weirdly, I noticed.

[Ittrix]

I mean... I think some of this is actually due to some proc changes.
Pretty much every proc item benefits from heavier hitting now as opposed to just spamming shots *cough* Commando *cough*.
Artificer hits harder in general. Her fire bolts are like 300% base damage, and inflict burning. Her orb hits for 1300%. While her flamethrower doesn't actually hit for 1800% per shot (I dunno how much each tick hits for), it's great for getting off procs if you absolutely need one.

Now don't get me wrong... I love the jetpack. The jetpack is great. Just uh. One little issue.
It's too great.

Any melee enemy? Nullified. Any enemy whose shots fire along the ground? Nullified. Dunestriders were a joke to me. I used to hate them with a passion.

And, unlike most other survivor's utilities, it stays amazingly helpful throughout the run. I've literally seen people complaining about Commando's utility existing because it got them killed when they used it late in a run, for some perspective here.
Artificer isn't really supposed to have a movement utility in the first place either. She's got four heavy hitting attacks as a sacrifice for no movement utility. Now she has the longest lasting, most helpful movement passive that just nullifies a quarter of the threats in the game? I love it.

But it's too much. Gotta put a cooldown bar on that thing or... something. Anything.

[DazedByGravity]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

I mean... I think some of this is actually due to some proc changes.
Pretty much every proc item benefits from heavier hitting now as opposed to just spamming shots *cough* Commando *cough*.
Artificer hits harder in general. Her fire bolts are like 300% base damage, and inflict burning. Her orb hits for 1300%. While her flamethrower doesn't actually hit for 1800% per shot (I dunno how much each tick hits for), it's great for getting off procs if you absolutely need one.

Now don't get me wrong... I love the jetpack. The jetpack is great. Just uh. One little issue.
It's too great.

Any melee enemy? Nullified. Any enemy whose shots fire along the ground? Nullified. Dunestriders were a joke to me. I used to hate them with a passion.

And, unlike most other survivor's utility, it stays amazingly helpful throughout the run. I've literally seen people complaining about Commando's utility existing because it got them killed when they used it late in a run.
Artificer isn't really supposed to have a movement utility in the first place either. She's got four heavy hitting attacks as a sacrifice for no movement utility. Now she has the longest lasting, most helpful movement passive that just nullifies a quarter of the threats in the game? I love it.

But it's too much. Gotta put a cooldown bar on that thing or... something. Anything.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from with this. Dunestriders and imps especially are just a bit useless against her. I could definitely see an overheat bar or a slightly faster dropoff being used to counterbalance this a bit. I would argue wisps are still a threat to her, but ultimately I feel they just end up pushing her with their lasers and being a bit of a nuisance.

However, the new boss is... a real challenge for her, especially if you encounter it early on. He shoots so many projectiles and... just... so much damage. Even the jetpack can't outmaneuver the speedy homing death wisp missiles he throws your way, much less that many. But then REX just uses his R ability, clumps them all together, gets tonnes of health and nullifies basically all the damage. REX doesn't exactly get the same level of global utility from that as the Artificer gets from her jetpack, but I think it's the first time I've seen hard matchups in my playthroughs.

This is just one boss, though, and Arti's generic utility from the jetpack probably IS a bit too good, lol.

[Xilo The Odd]

i think if her jetpack was given a greater dropoff rate for her hover, kinda like if your falling quickly and it doesnt stop you immediately, using it for too long will decrease its effective hover power on a curve resulting in you eventually jsut landing on the ground. it'd be enough to hang in the air and punish a boss for a bit, but you'll have to risk landing at some point.

[SCamp]

Artificer is now an attack helicopter. Just hover over the grounds and drop bombs, scorch the earth.

All of her abilities are easier to use with a little perspective change (and we don't have to deal with getting fisted from across the map anymore).