Warding or Menacing?

[The Storm]

Actually, lucky is an equal dps increase to menacing with a greater standard deviation. Seeing as it improves your damage by 100% 4% of the time it ends up boosting your dps by 4%, which is identical to menacing. However, it does have greater potential than menacing as it can affect your dps by drastically increasing or simply having it remain the same depending on your luck. It's really personal preference as to which you should use and the only real factor in picking is how much trust you want to put in rngsus.

It's better against enemies with higher defence.

 

[Dapling]

It's better against enemies with higher defence.

Yes, but remember that that's only if luck doesn't screw you over.

 

[The Storm]

Yes, but remember that that's only if luck doesn't screw you over.

Usually I end up with nearly 100% crit chance end game

 

[Dapling]

Usually I end up with nearly 100% crit chance end game

Ah, I thought you were talking about the entire game, not just ideal builds. Whoops.

 

[The Storm]

Ah, I thought you were talking about the entire game, not just ideal builds. Whoops.

Well I still go for Lucky when ever I can, but if I happen to get menacing first then I stick with it as I don't want to spend another 4 platinum trying to get Lucky.

 

[Dapling]

Well I still go for Lucky when ever I can, but if I happen to get menacing first then I stick with it as I don't want to spend another 4 platinum trying to get Lucky.

Can't argue with that

 

[Mille Marteaux]

The thing about Menacing vs Lucky is that dimishing returns hit Menacing hard. Lucky is almost always the superior choice to Menacing.

Spoiler: >they do theoretical DPS calculations for Terraria

Even for something like Planetera, you'll typically get more out of Lucky than you would Menacing. Let's take a ranged damage character as an example - they attack the most often at basically all points in the game (barring Baghnakhs) so they're a great showcase.

Chlorophyte gear will be worth the following:
21% ranged damage (16% ranged + 5% all)
15% critical hit rate

Chlorophyte Shotbow has a base attack value of 34 and fires 2~4 arrows, so we'll average this to three arrows per volley.

(For comparison, Hallowed Repeater has 43 base attack.)

A Holy Arrow has 13 attack, and also drops an extra two projectiles.
Holy Arrow x Shotbow is, on average, 47 x3. (Repeater is 56 x1. We won't be talking about it anymore.)

At this point, it's fair to assume you'll have the following accessories:

Ranger Emblem (15% ranged)
Avenger Emblem (12% ranged)
Magic Quiver (10% Arrow; multiplicative with other boosts)
Utility accessory 1
Utility accessory 2
Utility accessory 3

We now rest at (21+15+12)*1.1= 52.8% modifier, bringing the Shotbow up to ~72x3 damage, with each and every attack (arrows + Hallowed Stars) having a 19% chance to deal doubled damage, leading to a theoretical ~83 average damage per arrow.

If we were to go full Menacing on all our accessories, we'd add an extra 24% modifier to the pool - this brings us to 79.2% modifier. The shotbow now has ~77 base damage per arrow with a 19% critical hit rate, bringing us to a theoretical average of ~91 per arrow.

Meanwhile, with full Lucky, we add a flat +24 to the critical hit rate, so instead of a 19% critical hit rate, you have a 43% critical hit rate. Our theoretical average damage is now at a staggering 102.

We simply get far, far more raw damage modifiers than we do critical hit modifiers - and that's why Lucky is much more valuable.

Later foes may have higher defense, but to compensate.. we have stronger weapons.

My calculations may be slightly off, but regardless of that, it still holds true in practice. I tested ages ago back in 1.2 days and full Lucky was still more average DPS than full Menacing, and that hasn't changed - in fact, it only stands truer now that our attacks hit both faster and harder.

[1] Damage is not exact; this didn't account for Plantera's base Defense nor the damage variance built-in (roughly 0.85~1.15%).

[2] In the case of Melee damage, I recommend a healthy mixture of attack speed and critical, depending on how close you want to get to the target and how quickly your weapon swings. If using something like Daybreak or Flairon, Lucky still stands tall.

Regardless, this thread is still about Menacing vs Warding, and as I said before - it's all personal preference, and nothing the game throws at you currently warrants anything specific between Lucky, Menacing, nor Warding, leaving you plenty of space to simply choose the ones you want to use. We'll see how the game changes in Master mode. Higher Defense scaling may make Menacing more valuable, but a chance of doubling your damage is always powerful.

 

[Laluzi]

Hasty post-moonlord. Who needs warding or nenacing to build?

Huh. I think you're the first person I've met who actually uses movement reforges. Granted, I do like moving quickly, but 4% just isn't enough for me; it'd have to be 10 or 20 before I considered using it over 4% damage or 4 defense, and this is speaking as someone who spends the vast majority of her Terraria time building. If I really want a movement speed boost, I'm better off using one of the OOA armor sets. Or just put teleporters all over the place.

Anyway, I don't have a preference; I like to have roughly the same amount of warding and menacing in my accessories. A lucky or two is also nice, but I tend not to specialize.

 

[BrusselSprouts693]

Huh. I think you're the first person I've met who actually uses movement reforges. Granted, I do like moving quickly, but 4% just isn't enough for me; it'd have to be 10 or 20 before I considered using it over 4% damage or 4 defense, and this is speaking as someone who spends the vast majority of her Terraria time building. If I really want a movement speed boost, I'm better off using one of the OOA armor sets. Or just put teleporters all over the place.

Anyway, I don't have a preference; I like to have roughly the same amount of warding and menacing in my accessories. A lucky or two is also nice, but I tend not to specialize.

While the OOA sets might be a bit faster, the solar dash is pretty hard to look past for mobility.

 

[The Storm]

Huh. I think you're the first person I've met who actually uses movement reforges. Granted, I do like moving quickly, but 4% just isn't enough for me; it'd have to be 10 or 20 before I considered using it over 4% damage or 4 defense, and this is speaking as someone who spends the vast majority of her Terraria time building. If I really want a movement speed boost, I'm better off using one of the OOA armor sets. Or just put teleporters all over the place.

Using a swiftness potion is better than any movement reforges, even though it only lasts 4 minutes, and as Worfer said, dashing is much better, along with the glide ability from certain wings.

 

[Laluzi]

Using a swiftness potion is better than any movement reforges, even though it only lasts 4 minutes, and as Worfer said, dashing is much better, along with the glide ability from certain wings.

Yeah - when I want mobility, I just end up flying a slight distance above the ground for the whole map. Ends up being faster than if I was running across asphalt with Valhalla greaves (+30% speed) and my usual movement accessories (celestial shell, frostspark boots.) Using solar dashes doesn't actually end up saving that much time, though it's obviously welcome whenever it's available.

Though I do have one character who's specced to have the highest base speed possible. Quick on all accessories, Aglet, Anklet of the Wind, Frostsparks, Celestial Shell, Valhalla Knight Greaves, Orichalcum Helmet, Beetle Scale Mail.

...His name is Sanic.