Thoughts on Artificer?

[Stafy]

For those who have unlocked Artificer, what do you think about her?

Some part of me really wants to say that she needs some sort of buff, but it's hard to place where. Whereas some characters would love items to improve or complement what they already do best, items on Artificer seems like they fix what her issues are.

For example, she seems really reliant on the Primordial Cube in order to have some semblance of crowd control, and functions pretty well with her ice wall. Along with that, Backup Magazine seems like an absolute must for her in order to get a decent rotation going.

She also falls under the same category as Engineer with her having no form of utility that increases her speed. Unlike Engineer however, her wall does not do enough to protect her. It seems that it is better used as an execution rather than a defensive cooldown.

[ThisWasSparta]

I feel like she's pretty balanced the way she is. She does a lot of damage to compensate for the lower healthpool and lack of movement abilities. And if you aim the fireballs carefully instead of spamming them (The fire rate seems to encourage spamming them) you'll almost always have something ready to shoot at an enemy.

[Mondo Zappa]

I've also been feeling that she lacks something but it really isn't immediately apparent.
Most survivors have a built in form of survivability like Commando's roll, Huntress' blink and to a degree arrow rain, MULT's car form/stun grenade/enhanced base stats/2 use items, and Engineer's, having a fantastic synergy with fungus, turrets, mines and a shield.

The wall is seemingly designed to be Artificer's defensive cooldown by helping you to both lock down enemies and kill them sooner. There are a several problems with this as I see it.

1. It doesn't block(?) attacks outside of freezing mobs.
2. It doesn't freeze mobs long enough.
3. It doesn't last very long in the face of either a large group or enemies that can't be frozen as they just run through it.
4. It doesn't deal good damage.
5. It's relatively hard to even place it right as it doesn't have a marker as to where it'll go, a la Huntress' Arrow rain or even Mei from Overwatch.
6. Some enemies seem to respect it as a wall, forcing you to place it under them. It's also unlike Engineer's mines where monsters feel the need to walk all over them.
7. The skill is lacking in defensive, control and offensive power that would normally be necessary to support a character with a "kill them before they kill me" playstyle.

These are just my opinion but man that skill does not feel all that good to use. Even with the red Afterburner granting 3 max charges it was still lacking, imo.

Another problem I think stems from the item pool as it is right now. It doesn't seem to support a burst character like Artificer nearly as well as it can support rapid fire characters as they benefit so much from proc items and on damage effects.

Artificer is still very fun, you just have to work harder for it than other survivors right now which kind of sucks.

[MrNobodyX3]

Trust me, I've gone 70+ mins with them... THEY ARE A GOD

P.S. Get Alien Head

[Netsa]

Originally posted by mondo zappa:

*snip*

About ice wall:
It does have a marker for where it will go, just hold the button down.

The only thing that feels wrong about the ice wall to me is that it isn't tall enough. It looks like it's meant to just be a row of spiky icicles, not a wall per se. Certain enemies and bosses just float over it, though, making it a bit frustrating. It would be cool if it could at least be placed on walls or ceilings, like Huntress's volley, but it's locked to the floor.

More damage would be nice, too. However, keep in mind that it's particularly fast at killing high-HP enemies, since it significantly cuts their health bar. I've taken out multiple golems at once with it, so it has its uses.

I don't think Artificer has to work any harder than any other character that isn't Mul-T or Engineer. Her damage is still incredibly high and innately AoE.

[Jesmon]

I like her, just wish the Ice Wall was buffed a bit, maybe with the duration or with how large it is. Fine as it is, just feel like the Ice Wall is a bit weak.(or im just bad xd)

[Prolific Avocado]

If you can get an Alien head or a few Bandolier items she is a god, I rank her similar to the Merc in that she is somewhat item dependant and has a higher skill level to use properly but scales like a demon.

[ImpTaimer]

She'd be a more interesting character if she was effect-based rather than burst damage. Reward you for playing creatively rather than just pooling cooldowns.
My main complaint is that she feels like an unfinished character unless you have at least 1 Alien Head and 1 H34D-ST v2. She's effectively a pseudo-melee character with no mobility or defense in her current rendition; might as well play Merc.

-If she's not going to have defensive skills, let her be immune to fall damage and/or have slowfall*. She's already floating.
-Primary Fire needs one extra tick of burn damage and slightly bigger explosion radius to feel good. Even if the explosion did burn-only damage it would still be an improvement with slightly larger radius.
-Secondary Fire hitbox feels slightly too small, even fully charged. I feel like I'm threading needles in a haystack sometimes. I know it has the chaining effect, but it shouldn't require that much precision fully charged to hit a group of Lesser Wisps.
-Frost Wall could get Huntress' Ult treatment where its a two-part cast showing you a preview of wall while also suspending you in air while aiming it. It should also block projectiles, limited threshold if necessary. Frozen enemies being susceptible to enemy friendly fire would also be a nice touch.
-Flamethrower could give temporary flight or at least allow you to suspend jump height. It also needs slightly longer range and/or leave a fire trail on the ground to burn enemies.

[CptnCookie]

I love her playstyle, only her Ice Wall is hard to aim. Maybe make the aiming effect a little more visible (3D and blocky maybe).
I simply stack her with pure DMG-items and Wax-Quails for defense. Pure hit and run is very effective with her.

[flash.exe42]

The wall would be so much better defensively if it was both 25-50% taller and if the pillars were wide enough to prevent ranged damage from getting between them. This would make it so much more like and actual wall as opposed to just a picket fence.

However, they may not want to change this because from what I've been able to tell, her dps is insane making her a ridiculous glass cannon character. I feel like she currently has the most potential if paired up with an engineer in co-op. The engineer can focus a bit more on the trash mobs while sustaining with bustling fungus while she focuses down the boss with the help of his bubble shield and can return to him for heals.

And yeah, wax quails are great for her as they essentially grant a dash ability.

[Mr.Joel]

Very balanced character. Lack of mobility evens out the absurd kill potential the character has.

I also like how unique the character is. Didn't think magic was a thing in the RoR lore....despite all the items we pick up of course.

[Gamefreak]

Really good but better with others. Artificer has no movement abilities, a cooldown on m1, and a pretty short range on the R ability which makes soloing at the higher difficulties take way longer since you can only reliably use 2 abilities from far and the other one you have to constantly wait to get more charges for. I would gladly take a nerf to the m1 if it meant no more charges and it was just a constant attack like the other characters.

[T3hYoshi2]

Personally I feel like artificer is too reliant on items but also doesn't work with enough white items, like the soldier's syringe due to the restricted basic attack, I don't think the lack of defense would be a problem if their damage was more consistent or if they weren't as reliant on items. Overall I think the character will probably get buffed or overhauled in some way.

[Sepherix]

Only bad of the character is the squish on top of lack of mobility, and the wall being utterly useless, it looks cool, but does none.

[Hestefyr]

If the wall was an actual wall and you could use it to block LoS attacks like vagrant explosions and titan lasers it would be so much more useful

[Peero]

You guys know the ice wall instagibs all low health monsters, right? I use it for that purpose only. Get some Hopoo Feathers and wings going and you'll have all the mobility you need.