PC 1.3.0.5 Phantasm buff

I just tested it, it's still weaker than Vortex Beater .... (1700-2300 DPS on Golem with Shroomite Armor and full dmg accesories)
 
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I find the vortex beater to be very unwieldy to be honest, unless you use chlorophyte bullets, which are annoying to use if there are multiple enemies. The phantasm still has it beat as far as I'm concerned.
 
I find the vortex beater to be very unwieldy to be honest, unless you use chlorophyte bullets, which are annoying to use if there are multiple enemies. The phantasm still has it beat as far as I'm concerned.

It still has the higher dps though :(
Basically the buff didn't change anything.
 
Well damn. I just beat the vortex pillar last night on expert mode and I crafted the Vortex Beater first because... well it's a gun! After I found out that the Phantasm arrows track things I was super excited to make one tonight, and then when I saw the patch notes I was super excited. You DEMOLISHED my bubble sir.
 
How did they buff the Phantasm when it does less damage than the Tsunami now?
The phantasm's base damage is lower, but it fires much faster (against a sufficiently tough mob/group of mobs anyway), plus there's the ghostly arrow things, though I'm not sure how much damage they do now.
 
Ghostly arrow things? Is this a new attack coming from the bow that wasn't there before?
 
Ghostly arrow things? Is this a new attack coming from the bow that wasn't there before?
Its when it starts shooting a bunch of ghostly-green/blue arrows at whatever you're shooting at, in addition to the regular arrows it fires. They've always been there, but they don't appear when you're shooting dummies. It has to be actual enemies.
 
I think the buff is subtle, but it's there. I'm pleased, actually. I screwed around with it, testing the SDMG and the Phantasm against the Moon Lord. Ultimately it resulted in my death...twice. But at least it gave me a decent observation of what I would prefer against bosses that require mobile movement. I'll probably stick with the Tsunami because the arrows don't seem to arc quite as much, but the Phantasm is still fun, and I believe it's in a pretty fitting spot.
 
I'm guessing the vortex beater change is a mistake. Why would they buff it then nerf it harder immediately?
 
I'm guessing the vortex beater change is a mistake. Why would they buff it then nerf it harder immediately?
I doubt its a mistake. Maybe they felt that chloro bullets negating its main disadvantage was too much, so they nerfed it to compensate?
 
According to the wiki phantasm damage was also nerfed to 50, but they said they buffed it?! Must be a mistake... I'm pretty sure they accidentally nerfed the possessed hatchet as well.
 
There's definitely been a mistake either in the patch notes or ingame as both phantasm and vortex beater have been nerfed down to 50.
 
For clarification, 2 things need to be pointed out.

1. You can't judge or test Phantasm based on its listed damage or against a Test Dummy or a Slime. It has an extra projectile perk which isn't visible in these scenarios that shoots out a ton of these high speed ghostly arrows; the only way to see how it actually performs is in a live combat scenario to see how it actually works when shooting out the bonus arrows. For reference, the original heavy nerf to Phantasm primarily reduced this number of projectiles . . . 1.3 release Phantasm could shoot over a dozen of them per shot (in addition to the main arrows).

2. Vortex Beater and Phantasm were NOT receiving Ranged Damage benefits, including Stealth, before 1.3.0.5. So if you are sitting there in Vortex Armor and Stealthed, your Vortex Beater/Phantasm was displaying an increased base damage, but it wasn't actually dealing it. Lets say your Vortex Armor, Stealth, and Ranger Emblem and Sniper Scope add some . . . I dunno, 100% extra damage. VB and Phantasm WERE NOT getting these in practice. This was added back in, and it ended up literally doubling (or more) both of their DPSs in combat . . . so when you see things like "Vortex Beater lost 20 damage without compensation" this isn't quite accurate. You may have lost a chunk of listed damage on the tooltip, but the actual performance of the gun has improved.

So when people ask "why would they buff it and then nerf it again", its because the fix to Ranged Damage fixed it SO MUCH that its damage was through the roof, and then it had to be tweaked down a bit; the end result is a gun that is stronger than it was before for Rangers (but not as strong as it was for non-Rangers). The same applies to Phantasm.
 
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