Hardmode Armor Tier List

Yeah B seems fair for spider armor
Another small correction it's 30% summon damage total not 28%.

I agree with you on the other summon armors and there is defiantly a big gap in usefulness between xeno/stardust dragon and the other minions. It's kind of dumb how tiki is barely an upgrade from spider with just +1 minion slot for extra offense.
 
I've never realised how insane the life regen is on squire's helm and valhala's knight's breastplate. The game is so vague about how much life regen something provides.

Equipment | stated effect | actual effect
Crimson armor | Greatly increased life regen | 50% bonus to natural life regen and recover natural life regen time twice as fast. (After 25 seconds this maxes out to +4hp/s or 1.5hp/s depending on if you are moving and is halved if you don't have well fed on expert, getting hit resets the timer)
Palladium | Greatly increased life regen | +3life/s regen
Squire | increased life regen |+4life/s regen (stronger than palladium/crimson even though the description makes you think otherwise)
V. knight | massively increased life regen | +8life/s
band of regeneration | slowly regenerates life | +0.5life/s
celestial stone variants | minor improvments to all stats | 1.0life/s (That tooltip is so dumb there are many stats it doesn't increase)
Shiny stone | Greatly increases life regen when not moving | 10% bonus to natural life regen, when not moving grants: Reach what is normally the life max natural life regen time significantly faster (normal: 50sec | crimson: 25sec | stone: 4.3sec) extend the life regen cap to grant up to an extra 14.5hp/s regen, +2.0hp/s life regen, halves damage from DoT debuffs
 
Just a heads up, I noticed you marked down the shinobi infiltrator armour set because the immunity frames of minions would interfere with melee piercing attacks, so I just wanted to say that in 1.4 minions now have a separate immunity timer system, so they will no longer interfere with melee piercing attacks. As such, this is no longer an issue.

P.S. this also applies to your moon lord expert guide
 
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Guide is now updated to 1.4.1, although some parts are admittedly theory-crafting rather than extensive testing Some observations based on the buffs:
  • Cobalt Armor buffs had no impact on its rank. Still the worst armor in Hardmode and just marginally better than Palladium in stats (which doesn't matter due to the Rapid Healing).
  • Mythril armor for Melee is now an interesting sidegrade to Adamantite, more specialized to just DPS, and Mythril Greaves are now a solid piece for hybridizing. The buffs were not particularly impactful for ranged or magic, though.
  • Forbidden Armor is pretty insane, I already thought this armor was A tier before its buffs.
  • Crystal Assassin is now an incredible armor set, but you need to know what you are doing with it to reach its maximum potential.
  • Generally, I think overrated T2 OOA armors and the Queen Spider, they don't seem to be as strong as I thought before.
  • The problem with Oiled not being that noticeable of a DPS increase was solved. The other issue with it, being that there is no reliable way to inflict fire debuffs at this point in the game, was not. So this set bonus is still pretty bad. I wonder if there is a possibility to move this set Bonus to Monk Armor, Fire Gauntlet and Cursed Inferno Flask will love Oiled, and Monk needs something to be comparable to Squire.
  • It seems that the VK Helmet did not get a +10% damage buff like the changelog said, but rather the VK Chestplate did. I don't know if this is intentional or not but now the combination of VK Chest + VK Greaves + Hallowed Mask/Shinobi Helmet is the strongest pre-ML armor in the game.
 
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  • Crystal Assassin is now an incredible armor set, but you need to know what you are doing with it to reach its maximum potential.
I hate how almost all of @qwerty3.14 's suggestions are making it into the game. 🙄🧂

  • The problem with Oiled not being that noticeable of a DPS increase was solved. The other issue with it, being that there is no reliable way to inflict fire debuffs at this point in the game, was not. Still very bad. I wonder if there is a possibility to move this set Bonus to Monk Armor, Fire Gauntlet and Cursed Inferno Flask will love Oiled, and Monk needs something to be comparable to Squire.
I was certain that the Oiled Debuff proc'd with Shadowflame & Cursed Inferno debuff. 🤔🥤
 
I was certain that the Oiled Debuff proc'd with Shadowflame & Cursed Inferno debuff. 🤔🥤

That's because they do. On Fire, Frostburn, Cursed Inferno, Shadowflame, and I believe Hellfire and Frostbite (the stronger versions of the first two) all get stronger against an Oiled target. The problem is that a Ranger can't inflict these debuffs reliably in Pre/Post Plantera without going way out of their way to do so.

If this set bonus was on Monk Armor, then It'd be way better as you'd just need a Fire Gauntlet and a Cursed Inferno flask (two items that you'd generally always have on you as melee) to benefit greatly from this set bonus.
 
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For the very niche case of OOA tier 2 and 3, the Dart Rifle/Pistol with cursed darts works wonders. You can carpet bomb the whole area with cursed flames. It's a very effective strategy in most modes (probably not Master, though), since the Dart weapons are already OP.
 
That's because they do. On Fire, Frostburn, Cursed Inferno, Shadowflame, and I believe Hellfire and Frostbite (the stronger versions of the first two) all get stronger against an Oiled target. The problem is that a Ranger can't inflict these debuffs reliably in Pre/Post Plantera without going way out of their way to do so.
I don't play Ranger Class too often, but I've never found any of the Dart Pistol/ Rifle Weapons to stop being useful. They always seemed like a nice sidearm, especially if you wanted to inflict debuffs like Ichor (+ the ammo is cheap). It's possible this might be somewhat powerful if you build around it? 🤔🥤

If this set bonus was on Monk Armor, then It'd be way better as you'd just need a Fire Gauntlet and a Cursed Inferno flask (two items that you'd generally always have on you) to benefit greatly from this set bonus.
I could see that... but it's honestly making me think of ways to get a shotgun to cause the onFire! debuff instead.

For the very niche case of OOA tier 2 and 3, the Dart Rifle/Pistol with cursed darts works wonders. You can carpet bomb the whole area with cursed flames. It's a very effective strategy in most modes (probably not Master, though), since the Dart weapons are already OP.
Stole the words... 😆🥤
 
Didn't think of the Dart Rifle with Cursed Darts, I don't know how efficient it will be but it's worth a shot at least. Definitely don't think it'll be very useful for Red Riding, though. You are not gonna be using a Dart Rifle in late Post Golem.
 
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