This NEW Add-on confused me, so I fixed it

SPOILER ALERT!

This is a Green Add-on in The Artist's bloodweb/inventory:

Charcoal Stick

A stick of charcoal that conceals anything it rubs over.

• The Auras of flying Dire Crows are no longer visible.
• The Auras of Dire Crows are visible for 0.5 seconds upon being summoned.

Reading it at face value as the killer, you get the impression that this is an add-on that hides the auras of crows in flight from you, but lets you see where you placed the Dire Crows through the walls for 0.5 seconds, which is useless. It wasn't Until I played as a survivor against The Artist that I realized, when crows are flying, survivors can see their auras and potentially dodge them, and then it clicked... This is a sniper add-on.

You trade showing survivors the aura's of your placed Dire Crows for 0.5 seconds, for the ability to send crows flying at them from a distance without them seeing the crows aura's approaching, so basically, you have a better chance to surprise attack them.

So here's the Fixed version to make the wording less confusing to the killer players:

Charcoal Stick

A stick of charcoal that conceals anything it rubs over.

• The Auras of flying Dire Crows are no longer visible to Survivors.
• The Auras of Dire Crows are visible to Survivors for 0.5 seconds upon being summoned.

So how can this be of any benefit to Killer Players Trying out the Artist? As I said before... this is a Sniper Add-on:

When you initially hit a survivor at a non-damaging distance and get the swarm going on them, the swarm's aura lasts, by default, for about 3 seconds, which you can increase to 4.5 seconds with the Velvet Fabric add-on. Being that if you only launch 1 Dire Crow, you recharge in 5 seconds, and it takes a survivor about 10 seconds to repel the swarm, that means by pairing Charcoal Stick with Velvet Fabric, you can essentially track, target, and injure/down them from long distance without them seeing it coming, but with a 0.5 second margin of error to take your second shot. Obviously this is a HARD pair of skill shots to nail, especially from across the map, but I've been testing it, and pulling it off with some minor success.

The big downside is that the survivors can see where you're placing Dire Crows at loops, or if you set any down while chasing them after they've broken LoS, but I've had a few nifty and clutch snipes so far, and with some more practice, I can already tell it'll be a lot of fun when this Chapter hits live.

For Any survivors reading this who are scared of what I've just revealed, and ready to start shouting "NEeDz NUrF nAo", worry not! It takes a buttload of patience and perfect aim/timing to hit you with 2 separate crow attacks from long range, and deal 1 health state of damage. At which point the killer can no longer track you, and unless they've downed you, they won't be able to follow up any time soon. This is just a funny playstyle/build idea centered around this unique add-on is all...

A Hardcore, Challenging, Impractical, "Meme Build" for sure, but with the right info perks helping me out, and my steadily advancing aim skills, I bet it's been pretty startling for the survivors I've been practicing on. 😋