In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

[qwerty3.14]

I thought kill time was the goal, so I provided a glass cannon build disregarding safety.

The goal is to get a good kill time while having comparible or better survivability to my other build. Phantasm's range over kaleidoscope is a pretty huge survival advantage, in all 10 tests I did with my phantasm + dragon build I won. I had way more time to react to phantasmal bolts and most other attacks simply couldn't reach me.

For a glass cannon whip stacking Summoner Vs. Moon Lord kill time, it seems like I'm the only one that could do it. But I'll only bother with it if there is a way to remove the one-minute waiting time when using the summon.

Get t-Shock, it's a server tool that gives you admin commands. Including being able to summon moonlord instantly. Good luck!

 

[Shyguymask]

The goal is to get a good kill time while having comparible or better survivability to my other build. Phantasm's range over kaleidoscope is a pretty huge survival advantage, in all 10 tests I did with my phantasm + dragon build I won. I had way more time to react to phantasmal bolts and most other attacks simply couldn't reach me.

In that case, Obsidian Armor over Spooky is a simple compromise, and tbh I should have suggested it over Spooky. You lose a bit of DPS (mostly if not only dragon DPS) but closes the gap between spooky-kalei and Phantasm very considerably.

As a whole this is just difficult, and I will be the first to admit that taking difficulty/skill into account, Ranger with hybrid tier 3 OOA armor pieces & minion slot accessories is more practical than a "balanced" Summoner. My mindset is that whenever I talk about Summoner viability and options, I assume it's me or someone as skilled as me or more playing it.

That said, Ranger/Summon hybrid post-cultist is very promising unlike the rest of the game. Dragon doesn't need whips to deal high damage, so you don't have to deal with whips & bows conflicting with each other in term of playstyles. It involves OOA tier 3 armors, but it's there... although now imagine the "defensive summoner" set I keep talking about, but replace Hallowed armor with Valhalla armor (27 defense vs. 68 defense)

 

[qwerty3.14]

In that case, Obsidian Armor over Spooky is a simple compromise, and tbh I should have suggested it over Spooky. You lose a bit of DPS (mostly if not only dragon DPS) but closes the gap between spooky-kalei and Phantasm very considerably.

Alright I'll try that too, so I'm assuming that's the same as the spooky build just different armor?

As a whole this is just difficult, and I will be the first to admit that taking difficulty/skill into account, Ranger with hybrid tier 3 OOA armor pieces & minion slot accessories is more practical than a "balanced" Summoner. My mindset is that whenever I talk about Summoner viability and options, I assume it's me or someone as skilled as me or more playing it.

I'll go into more deatil on some of the issues I noticed.
When moonlord's top eye opened I'd have to fly up to reach it, since moonlord follows you this resulted in a large gain in altitude before the deathray even came out, there were quite a few death where I either hit the top of the world or I got so high that the low gravity made it hard to get down.
With phantasm I can stay level with the hand and fire at the head, I don't have to fly up until the deathray starts so there was a much smaller risk of pulling an Icarus.

The phantasmal bolts are WAY harder to dodge, they have high velocity and adjust their aim based on your velocity, with the phantasm build I had plenty of time to react to them and make a quick maneuver.
Phantasmal spheres, and phantasmal eyes were almost a non issue at phantasm's range, and worrying about an eye of cthulu doing CONTACT DAMAGE was not something I ever worried about on the phantasm build.
I was far less likely to get hit by the eye of cthulu's mini death rays on the phantasm build. Most of the time I would just fly away instead of having to circle around.
So basicly on the phantasm build the only relevent attacks were the phantasmal bolts and ocassonal deathray. I had a lot more to deal with at whip range.

Switching between 4 weapons was very awkward, especially Betsy's wraith since I have to take my hand off the click to switch to it.

This was the first time I seriously tried using whips on moonlord. However this build definitely seems like takes a lot more skill to pull off. In my first master mode and 1.4 play through I used a build somewhat similar to my hybrid. Heavy dps focus with phantasm and summons (terraprisma instead of dragon), betsy + insgnia to dodge everything . First time I used betsy + insgnia on moonlord too and... beat him second try.

It involves OOA tier 3 armors, but it's there... although now imagine the "defensive summoner" set I keep talking about, but replace Hallowed armor with Valhalla armor (27 defense vs. 68 defense)

You could also take my build and replace the red riding dress with a Valhalla plate, you do a bit less damage obviously but the regen should scuff off the few attacks that manage to hit you while you stay far away from the majority of moonlord's attacks.

 

[Shyguymask]

Alright I'll try that too, so I'm assuming that's the same as the spooky build just different armor?

Yeah

 

[AngryNimbus]

Considering you probably weren't attacking with whips very often and weren't using Durendal I can see that. I do think Dragon is overall superior for ML because of its passive DPS, but against EoL & Pillars I'd pick cells with Hallowed or Spooky. What puzzles me though is the fact Dragon performs really well even with full warding & hallowed. How?!

Since cells are way more whipstacking depandant. I used stacking for about 60-70% of fight only, not 100%, and the Dragon recieved its advantage. Sorry, I cant beat ML with the copper shortsword and no movement keys, no armor, buffs, accessories, sitting on the chair upside down, being blinded and under drugs, I should commit suicide I guess I mean continiously whipstacking ML in master with the lowest possible defence.

How so? Hallowed Armor alone enables you to take a few more hits, and the combination of Warding + 1-2 defensive accessories also lets you take a few more hits as well. Objectively speaking you can make many more mistakes, that's not "glass cannon" in my eyes. Also you aren't supposed to be still using Blade Staff at that point.

Phantasmal eyes (and sometimes contact true eye damage) deplete holy dodge and any consecutive hits taken deal a lot of damage. Full warding hallowed summoner = full menacing shroomite ranger in terms of defence on practice (see objective survivability below) . With almost the same DMG and far more range and stabitity.

It is true for ML, not daytime EoL or fishron with manageable and easily readable, predictable attacks.

That "5 seconds slower" seem even worse in context. It involves instant-killing the middle eye, and yet it's still slower overall. This indicates that Phantasm probably struggles with Core phase compared to Summoner.

If we're going to bring up safety and difficulty, then the only answer is Tank Melee or Hallowed Summoner. Hallowed Summoner has the best balance of Damage & Survivability, Tank Melee is indisputable if you want to prioritize survivability.

There is no dedate that summoner is the (second, after Melee) fastest class.

Vortex Beater was used during Core phase. If there is enough skills to dodge ML being very close to him with summon def, try Phantasm + Chloropyte arrows vs core. Move straight upwards and downwards (slime mount can help) and observe the results.
Objective survivabitity means being far from most of dangerous attacks, by means of range, decent DPS, and reasonble movement abilities. Difficulty? Summoner with no range, def, 4 switches (or 5, with dragon resummon vs core phase) vs Ranger? Are you laughing?

Sounds like a skill issue to me. In most of my playthroughs I've beaten Moon Lord on first attempt, no matter the class.

Let's get rid of this "problem" in my case and turn on godmode. The fight will be done with normal movement.
Spooky ,Cells, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest, Durendal, Betsy Wrath. All menacing. Average of 10 best tries (20 total).
1 min 5 sec. Sure, that's an 11 seconds improvement.

Shroomite, Phantasm, Chlor. arrow , all Menacing. 3 tries average
1 min 8 sec. 3 seconds slower. But, haven't you ever thought that it also could be an error? Especially considering so many error factors involved in summoner? 4 switching weapons, lower defence?

I thought kill time was the goal, so I provided a glass cannon build disregarding safety.

Absolutely correct. Summoner has ***the fastest*** kill time. (After the Horsemans Blade, which requires no skills and 2x faster)
Whipstacking = Statue trick in my understanding, in the sense that it is not widely known and was not designed to be primarily used
And I guess 30 seconds with 1 button used wipe the floor with extremely skill-dependant 1 min 5 seconds

Considering this tier list doesn't take availability into account, and most casual players would heavily struggle if not be unable to get stuff like Empress drops (let alone Terraprisma), Martian Saucer drops (in Expert/Master) and other weapons, I think weapons should be ranked based on skill ceiling & when on good hands rather than skill floor. And besides, tier lists in general (especially in fighting games) are assuming advanced or competitive gameplay.

Fair point here, but we should differentiate ***the best or trickiest*** and the most practical weapons. I think the ''safety'' mark in this list is very well suited for that. Whether it affects the final ranking or not is for the author's decision. (for me, it surely does, cells and 4 whips are C tier, vortex beater is S)

Avaliability just shows if it is worth to farm for this weapon and should not affect mark. It helps to make the decision. Example: the Piranha Gun is B+, and extremely rare. Should I farm for it? Most likely not. The Uzi is also rare, but, it is S+, so it is feasible to spend some time grinding. (S = suitable for farming extremely rare or difficult items, A = moderately rare, B = more commonly found etc.)

Personally I whip stack for the first phase (mainly the deathray eye), but start running away at core phase. Dragon, even without whips, won't take long to clear Core phase on its own.

The total result is 50/50. Makes core phase a lot safer, but, due to lesser distance, still not as other classes. And, personally, finding 1 out of 15 cell buff icons in 3-shot spammy fight and wasting ***so precious 3 seconds vs Phantasm*** via resummoning dragon is hardly justifiable.

For a glass cannon whip stacking Summoner Vs. Moon Lord kill time, it seems like I'm the only one that could do it. But I'll only bother with it if there is a way to remove the one-minute waiting time when using the summon.

Unfortunately. But I think my godmode fights are close to be true. (If I do so in the future again, I will not test magic this way due to endless mana)

 

[Shyguymask]

Phantasmal eyes (and sometimes contact true eye damage) depletes holy dodge and any consecutive hits taken deal a lot of damage.

This can be said for any single attack for any single loadout using any variation of Hallowed armor... I mean of course Holy Protection will be depleted once you dodge an attack. That's a hit you've taken without receiving damage, no matter how strong the attack is. It's the armor set working as intended.

But, haven't you ever thought that it also could be an error? Especially considering so many error factors involved in summoner? 4 switching weapons, lower defence?

You can resort to something simpler that is slightly less damaging but a ton more "practical": Obsidian Armor, Stardust Dragon, Kaleidoscope/Dark Harvest. That's it. You'll probably deal slightly lower DPS than Ranger, but it's way easier to use.

But if we're allowing weapons from other classes, then Summoner can also do the Chlorophyte arrow strat at the start of the fight. Want to be a purist for Summoner? Okay, let's get REAL technical here. If you temporarily equip OOA Ranger/Summoner hybrid armors pieces, you are still a "Summoner", but also crossed with Ranger, so using Ranger weapons fits and makes sense in that case. So do the chlorophyte arrow strat, and after that switch back to your usual Summoner armor and continue as normal.

Makes core phase a lot safer, but, due to lesser distance, still not as other classes.

I'm pretty sure Dragon has higher detection range than Terraprisma, and Terraprisma already has sufficient range to play safely.

---

BTW, another reason to rank Kaleidoscope S or (just do it) S+: Since once again availability isn't taken into account, this means Kaleidoscope is a Pre-Golem weapon. It provides thousands of single target DPS combined with Blade Staff and beyond, being on par or outperforming other S+ weapons like Tsunami & especially Razorblade Typhoon. It obliterates Golem, it obliterates Pumpkin Moon and delete crowds nearly instantly, it can attack Cursed Skulls through walls in the Hardmode Dungeon, it speeds up Martian invasions a lot and can burn through Martian Saucer's first phase faster than almost if not all other weapons. Just rise it.

 

[AngryNimbus]

This can be said for any single attack for any single loadout using any variation of Hallowed armor... I mean of course Holy Protection will be depleted once you dodge an attack. That's a hit you've taken without receiving damage, no matter how strong the attack is. It's the armor set working as intended.

Such a cheap set bonus in random fights with lots of projectiles (ML close range). Work as intended, but unsuitable for the fight, unlike EoL.

BTW, another reason to rank Kaleidoscope S or (just do it) S+: Since once again availability isn't taken into account, this means Terraprisma is a Pre-Golem weapon. It provides thousands of single target DPS combined with Blade Staff and beyond, being on par or outperforming other S+ weapons like Tsunami & especially Razorblade Typhoon. It obliterates Golem, it obliterates Pumpkin Moon and delete crowds nearly instantly, it can attack Cursed Skulls through walls in the Hardmode Dungeon, it speeds up Martian invasions a lot and can burn through Martian Saucer's first phase faster than almost if not all other weapons. Just rise it.

Inside summoner, Kaleidoscope is an absolute S, doubtlessly. The strongest, longest and universal.
Outperforming Razorblade typhoon? With spectre mask (flat +500 DPS, 1500 burst DPS) total single-target on EoL reaches safe and stable 3000. Xeno+ Kaleidoscope? 3500-4000 when she does sun dance, less stable otherwise. Whipstacking? Aerial bane + venom arrow shot from above at 45 degree! one more unusual strategy. OOA T3 is also favours Typhoon, you can stand near crystal and spam it. Martian saucer is yes, clearly for kalei + speedy summon, but the Typhoon is not far behind.


Speaking of mixed class, we can also add 3 segment dragon or 3 cells to shroomite ranger without sacrifices. Safety stability, and even more DPS. (cells here look promising). I tried without these

Range looks like: Vortex beater = Vortex beater + cells >> Dragon = Phantasm + chlorophyte (can damage offscreen, unreliably) >> Cells >> Terraprisma (cannot damage offscreen) >> Whipped Cells

Edit: the fastest kill is shroomte + phantasm top eye, then phantasm only, and full summoner with dragon for the core, Kaleidoscope + Dark Harvest.
57 seconds
If you can use more whips, use cells, however I can’t reach better results

 

[Shyguymask]

Such a cheap set bonus in random fights with lots of projectiles (ML close range). Work as intended, but unsuitable for the fight, unlike EoL.

Both EoL and Moon Lord spam high-damage projectiles through their whole fight though?

Outperforming Razorblade typhoon? With spectre mask (flat +500 DPS, 1500 burst DPS) total single-target on EoL reaches safe and stable 3000.

Kaleidoscope setups against EoL have stable and easy 2500+ DPS with Blade Staff with Hallowed Armor. With Spooky Armor and Xeno Staff, I'm pretty sure it's stable 3500+ if not 4000+.

Speaking of mixed class, we can also add 3 segment dragon or 3 cells to shroomite ranger without sacrifices.

Then in that case Summoner is allowed to take advantage of the chlorophyte arrow strat as well.

 

[Dreadnautilus5000🌳]

Both EoL and Moon Lord spam high-damage projectiles through their whole fight though?

Empress doesn't spam attacks like Moon Lord does. Her attacks come one after the other, whereas Moon Lord is constantly attacking from 3 different parts of his body, be it the eyes in the first phase or the True Eyes in the second.

Kaleidoscope setups against EoL have stable and easy 2500+ DPS with Blade Staff with Hallowed Armor. With Spooky Armor and Xeno Staff, I'm pretty sure it's stable 3500+ if not 4000+.

Isn't that what he said?

Then in that case Summoner is allowed to take advantage of the chlorophyte arrow strat as well.

With the Chlorophyte Arrow strat you suggested switching your armour to tier 3 OOA armour, which would make you lose minions. Adding 3 minions to a completely ranger build costs nothing. Also it wouldn't be as effective as doing it with Shroomite.

 

[qwerty3.14]

BTW, another reason to rank Kaleidoscope S or (just do it) S+: Since once again availability isn't taken into account, this means Terraprisma is a Pre-Golem weapon. It provides thousands of single target DPS combined with Blade Staff and beyond, being on par or outperforming other S+ weapons like Tsunami & especially Razorblade Typhoon. It obliterates Golem, it obliterates Pumpkin Moon and delete crowds nearly instantly, it can attack Cursed Skulls through walls in the Hardmode Dungeon, it speeds up Martian invasions a lot and can burn through Martian Saucer's first phase faster than almost if not all other weapons. Just rise it.

What Baconfry means by avialibilty is rng, not how much skill it takes to obtain the weapon. You can fight duke fishron at the start of hardmode but I don't think Baconfry is rating duke weapons based on their pre mech performance.

Also hot take Tsunami is probably closer to S- than S+ imo. It does a lot of dps and is easy to use, but its not as braindead spammy as Razorblade or snowman cannon. I don't think killing a boss a few seconds faster than LMG, Razorpine, or blizzard staff is enough to go all the way to S+.

Both EoL and Moon Lord spam high-damage projectiles through their whole fight though?

There is a huge difference between moonlord and Empress attack patterns, Empress's telegraphs are much longer, and most of her projectile start far away from her (prismatic bolts should be far away by the time they start chasing you). Meanwhile moonlords attacks come directly from the the hitbox you're in whip range of.

Moonlord's fight is way less predictable too, the true eyes of cthulu and moonlord can become out of sync of each other meaning you have to deal with multiple attacks at once from multiple directions.

I would rather fight master FTW daytime Empress without hallowed armor.

 

[AngryNimbus]

Both EoL and Moon Lord spam high-damage projectiles through their whole fight though?

Kaleidoscope setups against EoL have stable and easy 2500+ DPS with Blade Staff with Hallowed Armor. With Spooky Armor and Xeno Staff, I'm pretty sure it's stable 3500+ if not 4000+.


Then in that case Summoner is allowed to take advantage of the chlorophyte arrow strat as well.

EoL has clear patterns, in no way her attacks feel as random, easier dodging - > more effective use of hallowed bonus.
Hallowed is OP during EoL and *long-ranged* ML. In short ranged ML it is depleted too fast, and, therefore, can be ignored.
I genuinely happy that EoL, not Moon Lord has her nohit challenge...

Imagine oneshotting ML in a fashion of daytime Empress, how it feels? Is the Hallowed armor OP?

How well xenos are keeping up with stage 2 Martian saucer (answer: not really good). How far can you fly away with the Kaleidoscope? Razorblade Typhoon solves every problem.

Influx Waver and Xeno staff have some unpleasant properties (far more obvious with the former). In short, if hitbox is small or/and the enemy is fast, the performance decreases. Can be seen vs ML core, use no whips, move constantly, and you will notice.

Typhoon is more spammy at that fight than kaleidoscope, desert tiger has better tracking. Whips can confuse you, try both Tiger and Xeno vs saucer stage 2 / ML core without them and see the difference.

For stage 1 saucer, xeno + harvest + kaleidoscope are better.

Sure. Every summon (especially a good one) is excellent in every combined set, regardless of specialization.

 

[qwerty3.14]

How well xenos are keeping up with stage 2 Martian saucer (answer: not really good).

I while ago I did minion tests against the martian saucer. Expert mode
Xeno + kal: 13.7 seconds
Desert tiger +kal phase 1 with FK phase 2 : 14 seconds
Raven + kal: 15.3 seconds
Sanguine + kal: 19 seconds
Tempest + kal: 19.3 seconds

 

[AngryNimbus]

I while ago I did minion tests against the martian saucer. Expert mode
Xeno + kal: 13.7 seconds
Desert tiger +kal phase 1 with FK phase 2 : 14 seconds
Raven + kal: 15.3 seconds
Sanguine + kal: 19 seconds
Tempest + kal: 19.3 seconds

So, overall, xenos are better. Interesting , might retest that later.
Seems that xeno performance at stage 1 is really good
I used kaleidoscope with tiger, but the Firecracker is better in terms of dps, so all right
Tempest and 2nd phase... My results were so bad and I had the impression that it was whip which dealt almost all the damage
Lost the summon document with precise results, damn

 

[qwerty3.14]

Influx Waver and Xeno staff have some unpleasant properties (far more obvious with the former). In short, if hitbox is small or/and the enemy is fast, the performance decreases. Can be seen vs ML core, use no whips, move constantly, and you will notice.

I don't think this is a good comparison, Influx waiver is dependent on getting all those hits to have good damage output, and even when everything hits its not going to be LMG dps.

Xeno on the other hand, seems to outperform literally every other pre lunar minion on whip builds in spite of this 'weakness'.

 

[AngryNimbus]

I don't think this is a good comparison, Influx waiver is dependent on getting all those hits to have good damage output, and even when everything hits its not going to be LMG dps.

Xeno on the other hand, seems to outperform literally every other pre lunar minion on whip builds in spite of this 'weakness'.

Just thought about it. May I take my words back in this case?
Xeno > Tiger in EoL, Saucer and Duke
1 try only with a laptop touchpad, so the results may be unreliable

Duke: xeno – 33 sec, tiger 38 sec, Empress xeno 1 min 13 sec, tiger 1.20
Not huge, but noticeable (15%?)
But I swear the results were identical in my lost document...

 

[Shyguymask]

EoL has clear patterns, in no way her attacks feel as random, easier dodging - > more effective use of hallowed bonus.

The only ML attack that is "unpredictable" is the mini deathray lasers, but to entertain the idea that everything about Moon Lord is unpredictable, this literally favors Hallowed armor.

If you are unconfident about avoiding "unpredictable" attacks, then wouldn't you want to have a safety net (Holy Protection) for higher chance of survival when you get screwed over? When against a boss like nighttime Empress, if you can predict the attack patterns and you know how to dodge them... then dodge them. If you can dodge EoL just fine but can't dodge ML's attacks consistently, then you 100% want a safety net for ML. "Easier dodging" literally means you can dodge consistently and never get hit, thus making Holy Protection useless.

Empress doesn't spam attacks like Moon Lord does. Her attacks come one after the other, whereas Moon Lord is constantly attacking from 3 different parts of his body, be it the eyes in the first phase or the True Eyes in the second.

Just keep moving up/down and you will dodge almost all of his attacks, except mini-deathrays. He simply targets where you are rather than where you're moving toward, and if I'm wrong and he indeed tries to predict, he's really incompetent at it and it makes no real difference.

In short ranged ML it is depleted too fast, and, therefore, can be ignored.

Please stop blaming your inability to dodge ML at close-range on the Hallowed armor.

Imagine oneshotting ML in a fashion of daytime Empress, how it feels? Is the Hallowed armor OP?

Yes. I'd literally prefer Hallowed armor even more for oneshotting ML than Daytime Empress.

With the Chlorophyte Arrow strat you suggested switching your armour to tier 3 OOA armour, which would make you lose minions. Adding 3 minions to a completely ranger build costs nothing. Also it wouldn't be as effective as doing it with Shroomite.

Set up Chlorophyte arrow rain with OOA armor and 1-2 Ranger damage accessories. Once that's done switch to your main Summoner armor and ditch the Ranger accessories for your regular Summoner accessories. The time you spend re-summoning your max amount of minions is more than made up by the headstart provided by chlorophyte rain. If playing "Pure" Summoner this is quite literally legal because of Red Riding armor being a hybrid armor set, thus allowing the usage of Ranger weapons & accessories as long as the armor is equipped.

How far can you fly away with the Kaleidoscope?

Saucer phase 2 will quite literally not allow you to fly away. You're almost forced into dashing left and right constantly to avoid his laser.

 

[Coleyohley]

Just keep moving up/down and you will dodge almost all of his attacks, except mini-deathrays. He simply targets where you are rather than where you're moving toward, and if I'm wrong and he indeed tries to predict, he's really incompetent at it and it makes no real difference.
s laser.

This I have a problems with. I was watching Qwerty stream his attempts and doing this exact strategy. What kept happening was either 1, he would hit space and need to fall into a storm of projectiles, or 2, he would get blasted directly in the face by a phantasmal bolt, which in whip range actually do have decent tracking and are unreactable.

Please stop blaming your inability to dodge ML at close-range on the Hallowed armor.

Didn't at one point you say that the build that gets the job done the easier is the better build?
Well, after everything I have seen in this thread, it's extremely apparent to me that surviving in whip range against Moon Lord is far. far from easy, whereas something like Phantasm allows you to stay at a safe distance while still getting fantastic kill times.

-Qwerty killed Moon Lord in all 10 of his attempts with the Phantasm
-It took him 4 tries to get even one kill with the Hallowed Whip build.

It's clear to me which of these builds kills ML easier.

 

[Shyguymask]

he would hit space and need to fall into a storm of projectiles

If I was in his place I would either fly back up or dash/hover toward ML to at least avoid that.

he would get blasted directly in the face by a phantasmal bolt, which in whip range actually do have decent tracking and are unreactable.

I wouldn't get close to ML's hands without continually moving and dashing/hovering in a direction

Didn't at one point you say that the build that gets the job done the easier is the better build?

Difference with tank melee is that you lean toward facetanking bosses rather than actively putting the effort into dodging them. If we talk about a playstyle involving offense and actively dodging, then either Obsidian Armor or Summoner Hallowed Armor does it best.

It's clear to me which of these builds kills ML easier.

When I have free time I will get the Server thingy to grind Moon Lord and settle it myself.

 

[Coleyohley]

If I was in his place I would either fly back up or dash/hover toward ML to at least avoid that.

Pray tell, how does one fly upwards again if they're already in space?

I wouldn't get close to ML's hands without continually moving and dashing/hovering in a direction

The True Eyes shoot them too, and also like to do it right in front of your face, which happens a ton within whip range

If we talk about a playstyle involving offense and actively dodging, then either Obsidian Armor or Summoner Hallowed Armor does it best.

I still have yet to see someone actively dodge moon lord within standard whip range. I suppose I will just have to wait

When I have free time I will get the Server thingy to grind Moon Lord and settle it myself.

 

[Dreadnautilus5000🌳]

Please stop blaming your inability to dodge ML at close-range on the Hallowed armor.

You might be someone who's capable of doing that, but I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of players can't do it. I have never seen or heard about anyone aggressively whipping Moon Lord at close range other than you.

Set up Chlorophyte arrow rain with OOA armor and 1-2 Ranger damage accessories. Once that's done switch to your main Summoner armor and ditch the Ranger accessories for your regular Summoner accessories. The time you spend re-summoning your max amount of minions is more than made up by the headstart provided by chlorophyte rain. If playing "Pure" Summoner this is quite literally legal because of Red Riding armor being a hybrid armor set, thus allowing the usage of Ranger weapons & accessories as long as the armor is equipped.

If you wear Red Riding armour, you lose a significant amount of minion slots, and if you replace summoner accessories with ranger ones you'll also lose minion slots and summon damage. Rangers can add three minions to their builds without replacing any armour or accessories and sacrificing their own damage. And as I said before, this strategy specifically uses Shroomite armour's stealth, which makes a huge damage difference, but which summoners can't use without becoming entirely ranger.

Saucer phase 2 will quite literally not allow you to fly away. You're almost forced into dashing left and right constantly to avoid his laser.

Actually this is incorrect. If you're using hover wings or an infinite flight mount you can outpace the Saucer and its laser.

And one other thing...

BTW, another reason to rank Kaleidoscope S or (just do it) S+: Since once again availability isn't taken into account, this means Terraprisma is a Pre-Golem weapon. It provides thousands of single target DPS combined with Blade Staff and beyond, being on par or outperforming other S+ weapons like Tsunami & especially Razorblade Typhoon. It obliterates Golem, it obliterates Pumpkin Moon and delete crowds nearly instantly, it can attack Cursed Skulls through walls in the Hardmode Dungeon, it speeds up Martian invasions a lot and can burn through Martian Saucer's first phase faster than almost if not all other weapons. Just rise it.

How does Terraprisma provide thousands of single target DPS to Blade Staff? And what's the connection between Terraprisma outperforming almost every single pre-Moon Lord weapon in every regard, and Kaleidoscope?