Items you think are overrated?

[Kit Da Percussionist]

Meowmere. It's has the most damage but it's not the best for actual fighting unless tour in a small area.

 

[MagicasquirrelTMT]

Mana Flower.

I do not recall many people actually saying the mana flower is good. If anything, it constantly gets bashed for the reasons you listed afterwards, so it isn't really "overrated" in that sense.

"It's too hard to keep track of my mana during a fight,"

The main purpose of the mana flower isn't to save you the trouble of pressing the mana hotkey. Mage beginners may have trouble with keeping an eye on their mana, but it's something they will get used to sooner or later. The main purpose of the mana flower is to make your weapons more cost-efficient. As easy as it is to press a key on your board, a human simply cannot replicate the precision of a machine: click too early - some of the mana on the potions gets wasted; click too late, and you'll have a downtime where your character isn't really doing anything - this downtime might just be a second, or half a second, but these downtimes can really add up durning a fight, and every extra second wasted on a boss is an extra second where it can potentially end you. The mana flower restores your mana with precision that none of us will likely replicate durning an actual tense fight. Not only that, but the mana reduction bonus, albeit small, is also aimed at prolonging the continuous usage of your weapons.
The problem, however, is that there aren't that many weapons that actually truly benefit from the mana flower. With all of the above, it's clear mana flower works well with weapons that will consume your mana too fast for you to just refill it manually, however, such weapons are few and far between.

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Chain Gun.

This weapon isn’t really all that impressive. Its accuracy is horrible, meaning you either need to be at close range (not worth it) or use Chlorophyte Bullets for it to work. And it uses 7.5 chlorophyte bullets per second, which equates to using 7.5 chlorophyte **bars** per minute.

Surely, its absurd damage output makes this cost worth it right? Well, no.

Chain Gun with Chlorophyte Bullets has a base DPS of 600. Stake Launcher also has 600 dps with Archery Potions, which are very cheap to produce and benefit bows with no gun equivalent, and with Stake Launcher you can buy the ammo and have a ton of pierce built in. Lastly, Stake Launcher can also use quivers. Only loss is homing, which hardly matters considering Stake Launcher is brainless to aim.

Snowman Cannon with Mini Nuke 1 has only slightly lower DPS at 568, at about a third as much chlorophyte used per minute as Chain Gun, and you can switch to Rocket III if you’re worried about resource management, to little cost - you still have homing and your base DPS is still 528. Also giant AoE explosions, which make it much superior to crowd control and much less punished by other things getting in the way like during Duke and Betsy.

As fun as “smother everything in a ton of bullets” is, as a weapon Chain Gun isn’t really as busted OP as many people think, mostly because of its obscene ammo cost.

 

[FalloutGuy645]

I haven’t tried mana flower on pc, but on console, I used it whenever I focused on mage. Button bindings were tight.

 

[Coleyohley]

I do not recall many people actually saying the mana flower is good. If anything, it constantly gets bashed for the reasons you listed afterwards, so it isn't really "overrated" in that sense.

I mean, the game straight-up tells you that "All the best wizards use a Mana Flower." That's good enough for me, even if a large part of the community thinks otherwise.

The main purpose of the mana flower isn't to save you the trouble of pressing the mana hotkey.

This is the only one I can understand here, and I can only understand it if you've never actually done it before. Having to press a button over and over again SOUNDS tiring, but in reality it's just as taxing as grappling, dashing, or jumping, which are things you do all the time

Mage beginners may have trouble with keeping an eye on their mana, but it's something they will get used to sooner or later. The main purpose of the mana flower is to make your weapons more cost-efficient. As easy as it is to press a key on your board, a human simply cannot replicate the precision of a machine: click too early - some of the mana on the potions gets wasted; click too late, and you'll have a downtime where your character isn't really doing anything

I... agree with this, actually, although I really don't think it's all that bad. Humans react to audio stimuli extremely quickly. If you're listening for it you can realize you're out of mana nearly instantly. And if you have a quiet weapon like Razorpine (which was what I used in the challenge I mentioned eariler), you can see your character fire in small taps instead of constantly, which is again pretty easy to notice if you're looking for it.

- this downtime might just be a second, or half a second, but these downtimes can really add up durning a fight, and every extra second wasted on a boss is an extra second where it can potentially end you. The mana flower restores your mana with precision that none of us will likely replicate durning an actual tense fight. Not only that, but the mana reduction bonus, albeit small, is also aimed at prolonging the continuous usage of your weapons.

I can't say I agree. Most boss attacks take much longer than a second to complete, and even the extremely quick ones like lasers usually have some sort of pattern to it, meaning an extra second or two added to the fight is MAYBE a singular attack that the boss uses. Unless it's a straight DPS race I simply can't relate to 1-2 extra seconds being impactful.

The problem, however, is that there aren't that many weapons that actually truly benefit from the mana flower. With all of the above, it's clear mana flower works well with weapons that will consume your mana too fast for you to just refill it manually, however, such weapons are few and far between.

Another that I agree with. The only weapons that truly benefit are weapons that rely on absolutely constant use, and I can only think of Laser Machine Gun and Last Prism that do that, since both have a lengthy windup before reaching their maximum output. The rest are instant, outputting maximum DPS the moment you start firing them, allowing for tons of leeway if you mistime your potion.

 

[MagicasquirrelTMT]

but in reality it's just as taxing as grappling, dashing, or jumping

Thing here is - jumping, dashing and grappling is something that every character does, and it's usually done only to get out of a nasty attack - there is no reason to grapple 24/7 durning the destroyer fight, you will only really need to do so if the head is charging right at you or you get caught out in an uncomfortable position. Jumping happens a lot more often, but it is, again, an essential part of the game that every character does, mage or not.
But here's the deal - no other class has to resort to an extra button in order to make their attacks function. With melee and summoner, you just hold down your mouse towards the enemy; ranger might benefit from ammo swapping sometimes, but it's usually not that necessary in order to succeed; mages, however, cannot really get rid of their mana, meaning they have to tax themselves by either stopping attacks for some time, or constantly using a button that no other class has to use. If you have to put more effort into something that other classes do effortlessly, you're already at some sort of disadvantage.

I can't say I agree. Most attacks take much longer than a second to complete, and even the extremely quick ones like lasers usually have some sort of pattern to it. Unless it's a straight DPS race I simply can't relate to 1-2 extra seconds being impactful

It depends from person to person. I've been playing mage for quite a while, and not only that, but I also play mobile, which means I have a nice, intuitive mana potion button right in front of my eyes at all times. That means I should never be able to forget to drink mana potions, right? Well, no, because once again, humans aren't perfect. While my reaction times are pretty good, I tend to get way too easily distracted by other things, such as avoiding skeletron's hands from slapping me or trying not to die to destroyer probes. This leads to me taking around 2-3 seconds to remember I need to drink a potion, which can actually add up to a few extra minutes of battle depending on the difficulty mode and boss battle in question.
Could I improve on this, and remember to drink my potions? Yes. Would I be willing to waste lots of runs, focusing on sharpening this one specific aspect that I wouldn't need anywhere else, draining all my fun and enjoyment from the game by trying to turn it from a simple experience into a skill grind - when it can be simply fixed by slapping on a mana flower? Heck no.

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Here’s the thing with mana flower. Even with the most mana expensive items in the game, according to qwerty’s mana guide, a mistime of an entire second will only cut your DPS by 10% unless you’re constantly drinking potions too early and trapping yourself in a mana sickness loop More mana efficient weapons give closer to 5% increased DPS if you mistime by an entire second. As with getting trapped in a mana sickness loop, if you time your refills to right when mana runs out (fire rate slows) instead right right before, this shouldn’t be an issue with anything pre moon lord.

Because you can get the rhythm of how fast a magic weapon drains pretty quickly with some practice, and like Coley said can track your mana with multiple audial and visual cues, you’re never really going to be more than (or even as much as) a second off with your mana timing or trap yourself in a mana sickness loop unless you’re *really* bad at timing. In which case, Putrid Scent, multiple Emblems, even Sun or Moon Stone if you’re already running a lot of offense will be more powerful.

On the contrary, considering swapping to and instantly drinking mana on mobile and console is very difficult due to the different setup (you have to actively take your hand off either attacking or moving to use it, where on keyboard you can just key it to mouse 3). In which case, yeah you probably absolutely want mana flower, it’ll prevent you from subtracting from other options to drink a mana potions. I can definitely see the value to a mobile or console player, much more so than on PC.

 

[Coleyohley]

Could I improve on this, and remember to drink my potions? Yes. Would I be willing to waste lots of runs, focusing on sharpening this one specific aspect that I wouldn't need anywhere else, draining all my fun and enjoyment from the game by trying to turn it from a simple experience into a skill grind - when it can be simply fixed by slapping on a mana flower? Heck no.

That's actually a really interesting topic. For me, the progression of seeing myself get absolutely stomped by a boss and then slowly working my way towards beating it is honestly where I find the most fun with the game. Slowly learning and seeing myself get more and more proficient is extremely satisfying to me.

The Empress challenge I mentioned before took me no less than 400 attempts and I loved every single one. I do insanely ridiculous challenges like that because they tap into what I enjoy most in video games: Learning.

Anyway I've gone on a big tangent here so I'll steer it back.

I will revise my original statement to:

"If the part of the game you enjoy most is its simplicity, then this item is pretty good. If your goal is to improve and get better though, like me, this item probably won't provide much of a benefit."

 

[J Bame]

Flairon.

Merely average DPS, 0 crowd control and one of the worst attack styles in the game. Yes, its bubbles are homing and whatever but their lifespan is so short that they wont be able to hit anything that either moves slightly erratically or wasnt right next the flail when it spawned.

If something doesnt fly in a straight line towards you in an open area this weapon is going to be useless. This is one of the few weapons that cant even get past the second wave of the Old Ones Army (something that the literal ing Shadowbeam staff and Tempest Staff can do).

Can it even be considered a flail, mechanically speaking?

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Flairon was crippled by the advent of Terra Blade, imo. It was definitely up there pre 1.4.1 as a single target weapon, but now I’ve noticed its DPS and range are both marginally smaller than Terra Blade, meaning Terra Blade is now better in *both* crowd control and single target output.

 

[Shyguymask]

In a way, the Zenith. Not because of the weapon itself, but because I keep seeing people bring it up as evidence that Melee is the best class. A postgame reward weapon does not affect the viability of a class through the actual game and progression.

Speaking of classes, it's not an "item", but I think Ranger as a whole is very overrated in 1.4. Not only did 1.4 directly nerf many ranged weapons, but other classes (Melee and mainly Summoner) have gotten significantly stronger. Ranger is still great in pre-Hardmode and arguably the best class there, but the moment Hardmode hits the class's viability takes a nosedive. It's frustrating to use against all the Hardmode enemies with high health and knockback resistance, and even at what it was made for (Single target DPS for Boss fights) it's rivaled by Sanguine/Firecracker when Ranger is supposed to deal the most damage.

It's only even weaker Pre-Plantera, Mage has great crowd control with Rainbow Rod and Summoner only deals even more damage thanks to Durendal, or alternatively, deal similar damage while having the benefits of Holy Protection. Post-Cultist is probably when Ranger is at its best in Hardmode since Pre-mech, and even then Stardust weapons can deal as much if not more damage, and from my experience Ranger struggles a lot against lunar events (mainly Solar pillar).

 

[Dreadnautilus5000🌳]

On the contrary, considering swapping to and instantly drinking mana on mobile and console is very difficult due to the different setup (you have to actively take your hand off either attacking or moving to use it, where on keyboard you can just key it to mouse 3). In which case, yeah you probably absolutely want mana flower, it’ll prevent you from subtracting from other options to drink a mana potions. I can definitely see the value to a mobile or console player, much more so than on PC.

I don't think that this is an issue, as if you're used to the console and mobile controls you'll only stop moving or attacking for a fraction of a second.

 

[qwerty3.14]

Flairon was crippled by the advent of Terra Blade, imo. It was definitely up there pre 1.4.1 as a single target weapon, but now I’ve noticed its DPS and range are both marginally smaller than Terra Blade, meaning Terra Blade is now better in *both* crowd control and single target output.

I don't even think flairion was good before 1.4.1. If you want a single target homing weapon xenopopper crushes it, and no one considers xenopopper to be a 'top tier' weapon.

 

[CursedSliver]

I don't even think flairion was good before 1.4.1. If you want a single target homing weapon xenopopper crushes it, and no one considers xenopopper to be a 'top tier' weapon.

Well, xenopepper without chlo bullets isn't even remotely homing. In my experience, just like a lot of shotguns, it is very underwhelming when used without chlo bullets.

 

[Dreadnautilus5000🌳]

The Mana Cloak is really overrated. It's mainly a Mana Flower, which is pretty bad and basically has no impact on anything because of Quick Mana. The Star Cloak only actually deals DPS if you're facetanking, which mages cannot do thanks to their low defense, and the mana-restoring star is really slow and only heals 50 mana. It's overall just a worse Magic Cuffs, yet it seems that everyone uses it in their 1.4 mage playthroughs.

 

[qwerty3.14]

Well, xenopepper without chlo bullets isn't even remotely homing. In my experience, just like a lot of shotguns, it is very underwhelming when used without chlo bullets.

well of course I'm using chloro bullets I wouldn't call it homing if I were using a different ammo.

 

[J Bame]

It's overall just a worse Magic Cuffs, yet it seems that everyone uses it in their 1.4 mage playthroughs.

And after reading Qwerty's guide we can tell that Magic Cuffs are also one of the worst items in the game...

 

[Tibithia Σ]

I'm just gonna be salty here with a lot of personal preference.
The category of bows is overrated.

I get it's easy to craft arrows, you only need a quick spleunking or lumberjacking trip, and you don't have to buy it.
But most pre-Hardmode bows are basically carbon copies, with almost no special effects, while Hardmode bows are a lot fewer, despite being more special, and even then, it's mostly just adding an effect to the arrow, like making it fire, or making it storm, or making it bees.

Guns on the other hand, have plenty of variety when it comes to them. Sure, there's not as many in pre-Hardmode, and a few can be called carbon copies, there's still types with vastly different qualities to them. You wouldn't confuse an Elf Melter with a Xenopopper, or a Dart Rifle with a Sandgun. Plus, not all have to use bullets. Some use seeds, some use darts, you can use gel and sand as ammunition.

And while it can be said that the usefulness of guns when compared to bows is debatable, I still would like to point out that in terms of variety, guns take the cake. Bows just have too much "filler" weapons in their category, and I'm not even counting repeaters in the equation of copies.

Edit: And one last thing of personal preference, which do you think is cooler, running around launching sticks and stones at enemies and still winning, or jumping around firing wildly like the ing Doom Slayer?

 

[CursedSliver]

I'm just gonna be salty here with a lot of personal preference.
The category of bows is overrated.

I get it's easy to craft arrows, you only need a quick spleunking or lumberjacking trip, and you don't have to buy it.
But most pre-Hardmode bows are basically carbon copies, with almost no special effects, while Hardmode bows are a lot fewer, despite being more special, and even then, it's mostly just adding an effect to the arrow, like making it fire, or making it storm, or making it bees.

Guns on the other hand, have plenty of variety when it comes to them. Sure, there's not as many in pre-Hardmode, and a few can be called carbon copies, there's still types with vastly different qualities to them. You wouldn't confuse an Elf Melter with a Xenopopper, or a Dart Rifle with a Sandgun. Plus, not all have to use bullets. Some use seeds, some use darts, you can use gel and sand as ammunition.

And while it can be said that the usefulness of guns when compared to bows is debatable, I still would like to point out that in terms of variety, guns take the cake. Bows just have too much "filler" weapons in their category, and I'm not even counting repeaters in the equation of copies.

Edit: And one last thing of personal preference, which do you think is cooler, running around launching sticks and stones at enemies and still winning, or jumping around firing wildly like the ing Doom Slayer?

Eventide. Tsunami. Phantasm. Stake Launcher. Daedalus stormbow. Would you call these overrated? Heck no. They are one of the best ranged weapons at its tier! Sure, there are a lot of useless filter bows, but these just excels above everyone else. In my opinion, bows only start to get good once plantera is down. They are really cool bows too! They have their strong points in progression, just like guns.

 

[qwerty3.14]

Eventide. Tsunami. Phantasm. Stake Launcher. Daedalus stormbow. Would you call these overrated? Heck no. They are one of the best ranged weapons at its tier! Sure, there are a lot of useless filter bows, but these just excels above everyone else. In my opinion, bows only start to get good once plantera is down. They are really cool bows too! They have their strong points in progression, just like guns.

I think they are talking about 'fun' rather than efficency.

And while it can be said that the usefulness of guns when compared to bows is debatable, I still would like to point out that in terms of variety, guns take the cake. Bows just have too much "filler" weapons in their category, and I'm not even counting repeaters in the equation of copies.