Survivors - Artificer
Updated 15 hours agoArtificer
Artificer is a weird case where my opinions on her have drastically changed over time. I have always wanted Ion Surge to be an alternate utility rather than a special, but I now understand that Artificer is meant to be a somewhat close-range survivor. Ion Surge has had some massive changes, but everything else has remained pretty much the same, just with some slightly better numbers.
Base Character (buff)
- Base acceleration increased from 40 to 80, to match most other survivors in the game.
Comments:
Artificer feels weird to move with and is really hard to dodge with due to a completely hidden stat, which feels wrong.
Alternate Primary | Plasma Bolt (buff)
- Damage increased from 280% to 320%.
Comments:
Plasma Bolt has major issues with hitting certain health thresholds (like not one-shotting wisps). This aims to fix that, and make it feel on par with Flame Bolt (which deals a total of 420% damage when including burn).
Default Secondary | Charged Nano-Bomb (buff)
- Minimum damage increased from 400% to 600% (just for consistency compared to the alt secondary which has less max damage but the same initial damage).
- Sparks can hit the same enemy every 0.5s (decreased from 1s).
Comments:
The sparks fired while traveling are pretty underwhelming, so they now do a bit more to singular targets and are actually mentioned in the skill description.
Alternate Secondary | Cast Nano-Spear (tweak)
- Fixed bug that makes it launch enemies across the map.
- Large enemies have halved execute thresholds. Since teleporter bosses can't be frozen, this only applies to False Son and Mithrix.
Comments:
The execute thing might need some explanation. Basically, execute effects are too powerful on enemies that are meant to be tanky. Guillotine becomes downright broken in longer runs or Artifact of Honor, and Freeze is one of the most well-known Mithrix cheeses. In order to keep the tough enemies tough in these specific cases, executes are now less effective on bosses.
Default Special | Snapfreeze (buff)
- Pillars can now block enemy projectiles and hitscan attacks.
- Large enemies have halved execute thresholds. Since teleporter bosses can't be frozen, this only applies to False Son and Mithrix.
Comments:
A small buff to improve Artificer's safety with her default kit. Hopefully this should put Snapfreeze on par with the newly reworked Ion Surge as a defensive option.
Alternate Special -> Utility | Ion Surge (rework)
- No longer the alternate special, it has been moved to be Artificer's alternate utility skill.
- Cooldown is reduced from 8s to 1.5s, but only recharges while you are grounded.
- Height gained from the ability is reduced by 40%.
- Damage reduced from 800% to 600%.
- (Indirect) No longer counts as a combat skill for Red Whip and the reworked Warbanner.
Comments:
The hit and run strength of Ion Surge is really fun to use, and the way that it synergizes with Artificer's passive ability is awesome. However, just floating in the air for eternity makes a lot of enemies completely pointless, and also goes against the otherwise medium-range cooldown juggling playstyle that Artificer usually has. To balance out the two approaches, it now can only recharge on the ground, but with an extremely short cooldown. This allows it to be used to dart in and out of danger while balancing your other cooldowns, and as a utility skill it no longer locks you from using Flamethrower to deal massive damage. Some additional work has been put in so that you can activate Flamethrower partway through Ion Surge without it getting prematurely canceled.
Default Special | Flamethrower (buff)
- Attack range is increased from 21m to 32m, outranging Chef's sear by a small amount.
- Attack radius increased from 2m to 2.5m.
- Ignite chance increased from 50% to 100%.
Comments:
A range increase will make Flamethrower a lot more comfortable to use, especially if you are in the air after using Ion Surge. Additionally, the ignite chance has been raised to make it a bit stronger and to be consistent with other instances of the ignite keyword.
Pages
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- Items - Lunar
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- Survivors - Acrid
- Survivors - Artificer
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- Survivors - Captain
- Survivors - CHEF
- Survivors - Commando
- Survivors - Engineer
- Survivors - False Son
- Survivors - Huntress
- Survivors - Loader
- Survivors - Mercenary
- Survivors - MUL-T
- Survivors - Railgunner
- Survivors - REX
- Survivors - Seeker
- Survivors - Void Fiend
