Too Little Mobility
The reality is that while they possess strong damage, crowd control, and area damage, as well as interactions with items from critical hits to attack speed, the Artillery champions, except for Tristana, have too little mobility. Therefore, it’s easy to counter them. Additionally, the damage mechanism of Artillery champions makes them almost solely position-dependent, making it even easier for opponents to find ways to counter them.
Tristana herself is not a particularly mobile champion. Her mechanic involves jumping to the furthest enemy. Thus, if opponents place tanky champions in the furthest position from Tristana, or position champions like Vel’Koz or Syndra correctly, Tristana’s Rocket Jump becomes entirely ineffective.
As mentioned above, Artillery champions lack mobility and therefore players must have a good frontline to “protect” their main damage source. However, if all 4 Artillery champions are deployed, they deal high damage but the team composition will be incredibly fragile, as players will have only 4 positions or fewer left to set up a defensive system.
In TFT Season 5 and even Season 5.5, there are too many champions with good damage, and many of them tend to dive deep into the player’s backline, such as Nocturne, Akshan, or Tristana. Therefore, building a solid defense is the key factor. The 4 Artillery composition can deal massive damage (+450% damage) but is too easily eliminated when the frontline is not strong enough for this composition to deal sufficient damage to opponents.
More Effective When Combined with Other Compositions
The shortcomings of the 4 Artillery composition are completely compensated for when these champions are combined with other compositions. For example, Lucian and Senna will ensure defensive capabilities when placed in the Sentinel composition, while Tristana doesn’t need to worry about attack speed when appearing in the Demon composition. Miss Fortune’s damage can be supplemented thanks to the Wraiths.
Therefore, rather than using all 4 Artillery champions, players often utilize 2 out of 4 – just enough to activate the trait without heavily impacting the arrangement of the defensive system. Furthermore, adding 225% damage is more than enough for champions like Lucian, Tristana, or even Senna and Miss Fortune, with the right items, to wipe out the opponent’s team in a single ability cast.