The Artist is bad killer design

force yourself to swarm & use one bird more until you're confident with hitting one birds, makes people that don't play a single tile free hits, and less slowdown placing more birds, and gets power back faster

i've been having the most fun i've had in ages on dbd maining artist the past 4-5 weeks

If I could remove one killer from the game, it would be artist.

She is not fun to play as or against, she has very limited interactivity and counterplay on both sides, and her power balance is lopsided. She's meant to be a killer that excels at range above all else, so why is it that at range her power can be negated by just hopping in a locker for a second? It makes her entire ranged playstyle near irrelevant, and that part actually takes skill. I never mind when I get sniped for damage because long range hits with the crows is actually hard, and can actually be dodged if you're on point. Her cooldown for crow launches/time she has to land a follow-up shot before birds are repelled is often too long/short to land another, which is fine, but still annoying considering how impressive a long-ranged double prediction down is. She is much more fun in this "blind, prediction ranged crow through wall" approach, like a souped up pyramid head, because there is significant skill expression on both sides and gives her a niche at being the only killer who is equally dangerous at range as she is up close.

However, this fun playstyle goes out the window at close range, where she is just Zoning: The Killer with the most uninteractive chase power possibly ever created. You simply place the crow facing the direction a survivor will run into and chase them into it. If the survivor crosses the crow's path, the crow's sizable hitbox combined with its lightning-fast speed makes it a guaranteed hit, unless you're far behind them, can't see them directly and guess wrong. But the hitbox is so large that you can guess wrong a lot of the time and still clip them - and the hitbox being large is a good thing, otherwise long range snipes would be flat out impossible, but still. And if they try and bait it out, you just follow up and hit them. There isn't much you can do to a patient artist besides running away, but she also loses negligible distance for setting up a crow and it takes ~1 second, meaning there is much, much less room for outplay when she sets up a crow. Running away from the loop isn't as viable as it is against someone like dredge, and unless the map's spawned a loop literally right next to that loop, you are likely dead.

Killers like hag and trapper can completely shut down loops, but it's balanced by having them invest time into doing so, allowing you to punish a mid-chase trap by running away. This is good counterplay, but you can't do that with artist, and yet she has the exact same result as hag setting a trap at a loop; a free health state with little counterplay to the trap once set. Juking a crow doesn't work because of the same reasons juking the dredge's remnant doesn't work - if the killer is patient, they will simply wait until you are close to the remnant/in the middle of the crow path, and it's a guaranteed health state. Uninteractive, not very skillful, and boring on all sides. Not even to mention the addon Matias Baby Shoes which reveals auras around crows, making the only limited in-loop counterplay to zoning she has, which is baiting out a crow, worthless.

I very much dislike artist. If I had to rework her, I would improve her long range and crow swarm hit playstyle and nerf her up close flight path zoning playstyle. Jumping into a locker should not delete birds, and repelling should take a bit longer but not deplete when interrupted. Meanwhile, she should either slow to 4.4m/s while at least one crow is active, or her crows should not be able to damage through a direct hit. She should be the Hyper Ranged Killer, not the Just Pesters You at Range but Is Unstoppable Up Close Killer.

well I already knew she would be above average from PTB. i wouldn't say she is amazing though. D-tier rating is crazy. just better then rest because most of the killers are pure awful. I'd put her at around top 10-14. i'd say she is around demo/nemesis level. I'd say she is B-tier, high B-tier. weaker than trickster, better then deathslinger.

She is not that good at high-level because he sucks at countering hold-w. her only real method of countering hold-w is landing range crows but you need land two crows consectively. Better off just playing huntress. just overall weak range killer. she does exploit dead man switch really hard, so you can class her as real strong camping killer if this your play-style, though this particular play-style will be getting some changes once reassurance comes out. good riddance to camping artists. they are as legendary as insidious bubba's.

It's not just the artist, this is precisely why most killers are bad. Shift + W is so strong that without vaulting, pallets, windows, anything it will take the killer 57 seconds to down the survivor with both hits, pick them up, walk to a hook, and hook them.

Now look at the killers everyone agrees are really strong:

• Nurse
• Spirit
• Blight

Notice the trend? Their powers counter shift + w.

The best Artists I've gone against aren't the ones that just target loops, they're the ones that think two steps ahead of the survivor and take me down from a distance

Artist is the 4th best killer in the game and I don't think it's debatable. She can get downs from pretty much anywhere on the map. I don't even buy they get countered by holding W, you just have to predict pathing correctly and they go down all the same.

She's one of the most rewarding killers to play as, from my experience. To play her well, you have to play like a literal artist: be experimental, creative and understand techniques.

When she's good, she is absolutely deadly. She also has counterplay and personally she's one of the best when played enough.

I agree that Artist can be played in a very unfun way, and that her most optimal strategies require boring tactics at times.

Although, (as an Artist main), I also know she can be played in a very fun way. It just takes a lot of practice. Generally, I will fake putting a bird down at a loop to see if the survivor will run, then I'll use the bird to snipe them mid chase using a follow up bird. I play her more like how you would play huntress/pyramid head where I use my m2 for most of the chase (unless I zone and have to take the M1).

I honestly hope they don't touch her because I really enjoy her and thinks she's fun. That's just my opinion though because I knew I wanted to main her once I tried her power. I always found it very satisfying to play her and she's also a strong killer that isn't busted (because her add ons are meh), but you can also play her without add ons and do well (I'm cheap with BP).

I respect your opinion though because I have definitely faced not so good artists and boring artists. It really just depends on the killer skill level whether you have to put up a fight or not against her.

Artist is one of the few killers I just dislike in every way. Visually she looks off and her sounds are super annoying

Gameplay wise she is just boring anti loop and forces survivors to play in a boring way to win. Her power synergises with DMS + PR too well as well

I think i've only played artist like 3 times or something, she's one of the most boring killers to play as. She is fun when you're going for cross map hits, but when you're chasing a survivor, it feels like a chore.