Why is the Artist's pick rate so low?

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Tyler3
Tyler3 Member Posts: 40
edited April 21 in General Discussions

She's at the top of A tier on most people's rankings, yet her pick rate is something like 1.5%. If people generally consider her to be a really good killer, then why do you hardly ever see her?

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  • Chocolate_Cosmos
    Chocolate_Cosmos Member Posts: 5,281
    edited April 21
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    (not official DbD data! Atm she is the 5th least player Killer according to community collected stats).

    Well I always used to tell myself that I rly like Artist and I still like her, but…

    She isn't that interesting to play offten times. She is bit tricky and can be difficult if you are trying to play her well (use power to do damage, not just trap loops that's boring and low skill). Her power comes down to, put a crow where you think the survivor is/will be or at loop and press again to shot when you think its ready. All you do whole match is to try to hit people and predict their movement. That can be cool and when I play her finaly I usualy have a decent time with her but there are so many killers and there are quite a few ones that are more fun and more simple to use to have same or better results with.

    When you have this many killers in the game and someone is kinda avarage to play (fun and feel tier), unless you play this game many hours a day in the same role it will take a while before you will finaly pick her once.

    I think Artist is a great example that killer sole power level isn't good enough to justify their playrate. Just because killer is strong it doesn't mean they will be played a lot. She is cool but also kinda one-dimensional.

    Also while not a big deal, I find her add-ons to bit not interesting for the most part. Best add-ons are the cooldowns ones (brown and yellow) with extra repeal time, then the shoes that reduce the cooldown of slowdown that is also nice and then I quess that one that speards birds to near Survivors but that's kinda it.

    TLDR: Artist gameplay is too one-dimensional, while there is a skill ceiling to her and she can be fun, her power is mostly just place crows and predict survivors movement and shot when prob ready. Strong, but not so interesting as other killers.

  • Blueberry
    Blueberry Member Posts: 12,919
    edited April 21
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    Because the primary way she’s good is boring for both sides. I find her anti loop just forces a hold w play or you get put in a lose/lose scenario. Super binary gameplay with little skill expression for anyone.

    What makes her actually fun for both sides is skilled long range sniping. However against good survivors who can just insta jump in lockers this is rendered not that effective. Lockers removing crows shouldn’t be a thing, it should be who’s the better at predicting movement or dodging.

    If they nerfed her anti loop but buffed her sniping capability she would be significantly more popular. The strong way to play her at the moment just isn’t fun or skillful for anyone, including herself.

  • CrowVortex
    CrowVortex Member Posts: 937
    edited April 21
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    Most people have an issue with her audio sounds while playing her but it's that uniqueness that draws me to her, well that and her crow theme. A console friendly ranged killer too, so that's a plus. For myself though, i grew tired of playing killer's like Clown and Sadako and be in a constant scenario where survivor's loop once or so and predrop and move to the next pallet, by the time you've downed someone you've already lost momomentum and the match most likely. WIth Artist however and to a lesser extent, Dredge. I feel 100% that i can be in control and always do something with my power, be in it cross map or up close and in loops. The added bonus of Severed Hands addon allowing you to do some pretty neat stuff and spread pressure easily.

    Not to mention all the slingshots fun.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 7,990
    edited April 21
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    For the same reason I don't play PH as much as I'd like. She's slowed down a ton when she charges her power, has no gap closer. and the power is easy to dodge at range. That, and you can't go for snipes if the survivors are any good. They'll just locker dive to get the crows off.

  • SoGo
    SoGo Member Posts: 301
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    I love her. But that's a me thing so...

  • goodfriday
    goodfriday Member Posts: 239
    edited April 21
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    She was not so bad until they remove the survivors ability to burn her crows with a flashlight. This did not make her antiloop too tedious at that point but with that gone its just another knight/skull merchant killer that requires lil to no skill. I am even shock at the fact she is 115 as she is the only killer with a power that works across an entire map small or big.

    Antiloop/instant down killers and pig/pinhead(killers who forces you to have to do other things) is just annoying. Neme/Wesker/Plague/doc requires in a small way of doing secondary stuff but those 4 are far acceptable and not too bad or annoying like pig and pinhead.

  • 100PercentBPMain
    100PercentBPMain Member Posts: 285
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    I can't stand the way she sounds. I

  • I_CAME
    I_CAME Member Posts: 1,102
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    She is boring to play as.

  • CarlAlc7
    CarlAlc7 Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 77
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    Annoying sounds.

    Boring anti loop power that forces survivors into holding W simulator, which is the worst type of gameplay for both killers and survivors.

    The only fun part of her power, the sniping hits across the map, was already done much better by Huntress, thus the much, MUCH higher pick rate of the latter compared to Artist.

  • CrowVortex
    CrowVortex Member Posts: 937
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    I'd rather they give back the ability to flashlight her crows but take away locker's removing swarm. Disagree with no skill though, sure she can anti-loop, it's not always a guaranteed direct hit though, you can bait the crow or swarm yourself before she can fire the dire crow as there's some delay after a summon. The skill ceiling is her snipes and dire crow follow-ups', slingshots and 1v2 harassment. 115 is justified as she requires 2 hits to injure with power, power working across the entire map is her whole theme as a reconnaissance killer. I'm surprised you don't have a problem with Trickster being 115 and being near impossible to loop on some map layouts.

  • CarlAlc7
    CarlAlc7 Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 77
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    Cause we already saw what a 110% Trickster would like and he was a complete disaster.

  • CarlAlc7
    CarlAlc7 Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 77
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    Cause we already know how a 110% Trickster would look like and he was a complete disaster.

  • KaTo1337
    KaTo1337 Member Posts: 459
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    Strenght isnt always the same like fun.

  • KazRen
    KazRen Member Posts: 152
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    The power is pretty boring, her sound design is annoying, and she isn't the easiest to learn.

  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 8,817
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    Artist is one of the hardest to killers to master and doesn't perform any better than Nurse or Blight who are quite easier to master. Then on top of that, Artist's power isn't very smooth. Having to hold a button to place crows and then needing to let go of that button and waiting half a second just to fire them makes her feel clunky. Plus the window for follow up shots to deal damage is very short so you have to be very precise on top of the firing crows not being the smoothest interaction.

    Plus I firmly don't believe her built-in anti-camp system has a reason to exist. Any killer whose powers can just be disabled under certain situations can create bad feelings and considering her power is great for scouting, not being able to send crows after a hook hurts quite a bit for non-camping gameplay.

    If you're looking to master a strong killer with a power that feels smooth to play, Artist will not be one of your top picks.

  • woundcowboy
    woundcowboy Member Posts: 1,966
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    She has the same problem most killers have: way too much work for too little reward. If you’re going to dedicate time to learning a character, it’s better to learn Nurse.

  • E5150
    E5150 Member Posts: 63
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    She's way too clunky. I like her a lot, but rarely play her because of this. Should they work some QoL and smooth out her kit, i'd happily play her much more.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 6,501
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    Greyletter uses Artist to great degree. he snipes with artist. I find artist very clunky so I don't play her. I rather play a proper range killer like huntress or trickster then deal with second-chance crow mechanic. i wouldn't label as strong, more of noob-stomper for survivor that ineffective at hold-w at correct time and pre-running.

  • goodfriday
    goodfriday Member Posts: 239
    edited April 22
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    I do not because I play him. I also am the 1% survivor that loves going against him. If you take him to high walls or killer shack he is hardly a threat. Also if he slips and misses the last knife just before injuring and downing a survivor well ggs. Am glad they made him 115 for that very same reason.

    Problem is with most survivors they try to be in the open vs him and that is a big no no, I get sometimes it cant be help but yeah he is far less annoying imo than she is. I also hate that sure she takes 2 hits to hit you but if she m1 you while you got crows on it does not go away and it should because your still trying to get them off and hope she got good aim else your going down by m2 after m1.

  • Pulsar
    Pulsar Member Posts: 20,275
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    She's good but man she's annoying to play. Her sounds are horrific and her chase music is super grating.

  • KayTwoAyy
    KayTwoAyy Member Posts: 1,677
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    By no means an answer to your question @Tyler3, but…

    I don't play the Artist because I've always felt like she was added to fill the gothic-horror/vampire subgenre, and I'm extremely salty that a vampire and/or werewolf killer has yet to be added to the lineup.

    I don't even like gothic horror—I just feel like a vampire killer would be epic, and there are so many directions you could go with it. I've also always seen it as an excellent opportunity to collab with Wizards of the Coast and bring in Strahd von Zarovich + Barovia to the game as a licensed killer.

  • glitchboi
    glitchboi Member Posts: 5,945
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    I love Artist but I wish her sniper playstyle was more encouraged rather than set crow at window or pallet = profit. Too bad the time it takes to repel crows is too low.

  • DelusionalHubris
    DelusionalHubris Member Posts: 17
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    Just thinking out loud, but maybe they could sort of invert how her birds work? Like, right now at past a certain range they just swarm you, but up close they just do damage. I was thinking maybe they should make shots from further away do damage and the closer range ones only swarm you. That was snipes are encouraged more than just anti-looping, plus just hopping in a locker from a long distance wouldn't be a problem anymore.

  • Dinoraptus
    Dinoraptus Member Posts: 247
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    I just think she isn't that interesting, at least compared to killers that have a same general kit. It isn't that fun to use her anti-loop so most people will start to try and do snipes and get diminishing returns.

    Why pick her over Huntress who is much more rewarding to learn and more suited to that fun ranged playstyle, who is also free.

  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,405
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    Nails-on-a-chalkboard voice lines and samey cosmetics

  • ChuckingWong
    ChuckingWong Member Posts: 188
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    Because everything she can do, Unknown can do better and easier.

  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,050
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    To play her you need to actually focus (either on chase - via zoning and predicting - or on camping while keeping gen progress slow via harassing survs with birds) and you need quite a bit of game knowledge; need to know how gen spawns work, where survivors gonna go, which loops are on the map and at which tile you need to do what. — Once you focus on that bit it's kinda really just wait for things to happen and get the timing right, not a lot of unpredictability or surprises. It's kinda fun figuring this out but beyond that it's just going through the motions and at that point: why not just play cookie clicker?

    Add to that that some people don't like some of the design choices and you get a pretty strong killer that really isn't very exciting past the figuring out stage.