Weapons & Equip Diversifying endgame equipment and Boss drops for the cultist

Dragrath

Duke Fishron
Last Updated 9/21/2020 would leave a message stating that but I was the last person to reply :(

Terraria has a great climatic endgame however certain enjoyable weapon types are entirely lacking from the endgame scene, moreover the Lunar cultist only has one unique drop which is a crafting station for the event that it triggers making it the most obvious place to add further additions.

There is also some difficulty for players newly entering the lunar event as the sheer intensity and challenge of the events can lead to their quick deaths.


Lunatic Cultist Drops would be geared with two unique options for each class scaled for the lunar events each item would have an equal chance of dropping or a one in eight chance over all.

Melee Weapons

Arcane Spear- A spear class weapon when swung simultaneously fires three beams with the following Properties at once. The damage of the beam is modified by whether the three beams join in the enemies hit box or not thus dealing extreme damage at the weapons sweet spot(It does count as piercing however so missing the sweet spot hurts the effectiveness.

Short explanation: one beam strait 2 other mirro opisite sinisoidal waves centered around the central beam. Coded to do bonus damage if the enemy is hit by the point where all beams meet. Beams made of glowing runes(like rune wall)

Note for the following equations:
x=distance in the direction the spear was pointed
n=constant able to be adjusted for balancing the beam width
m=constant determining the base speed of the standard projectile if possible
Appearance: Strait beam of (Green+Yellow) light sustained long enough for the beam to pass off screen.
Trajectory: B1=x;
Knockback=1
Velocity=m

Appearance: Oscillating (Blue+Cyan) runes, based on the runes displayed on placed rune walls);
Trajectory: B2=n*sin(x);
Knockback=0.5*Cos(x)+1;
Velocity=m

Appearance: Oscillating (Red+Magenta) ) runes, based on the runes displayed on placed rune walls);
Trajectory B3=-n*Sin(x)
Knockback=0.5*Cos(x);
Velocity=m
The n value can be adjusted to affect the balance and effectiveness of the weapon

Sweet spot for bonus damage occurs where (B1(x)=B2(x)=B3(x)=0)

Preliminary Stats :
Melee_Damage=120(weapon), 100(beam),300 at "sweet spot” ;

Use_time=26;
Velocity=5.7;
Knockback=5


Runic Chakrams
Preliminary Stats:
Melee Damage= 70 (per disk)

A set of 3 chakrams automatically stacked. each of these, excluding their unique elements listed below can be considered an upgrade to the thorn chakram and Light Disks in general behavior.
In particular the set of chakrams is used similar light disks except the properties of the three vary featuring a glowing elemental core at the center of each, representing Fire, Ice and Lightning respectively. The order they are thrown in is random, however there is only one of each and each can only be thrown again after that chakram has returned to the player.

Effect: thrown strait, upon hitting an enemy explodes in a burst fire damaging all enemies in the explosion when thrown before bouncing off to another enemy or returning. Upon bouncing three times or hitting two enemies it returns to the thrower.
Knockback:8
Velocity:13
Basically a thrown Chakram that explodes when it hits stuff.

Effect: thrown strait, upon hitting an enemy for the first time the chakram emits a ring of icicles (similar to the cultist’s ice attack but smaller) and begins to slow down passing through any enemies and obstacles in its way until it stops. When it slows to a stop it immediately returns to the thrower at rapid speed hitting any enemies in its path. If it hits an obstacle before it hits an enemy it also immediately returns to the thrower. Unlike the other two it deals piercing damage.
Knockback:10
Velocity: launches at 14 decreases to zero and returns at 15
Acts similar to the paladins hammer rather than a normal chakram fires a ring of icicles when it hits an enemy

Effect: unlike the other two that are thrown like normal chakrams, soon after launch it starts homing in on enemies in a way similar to the possessed Hatchet, as it gets close enough arcs of lightning bolts similar to the magnets sphere though it needs to be at least three times closer than the magnet sphere does to fire beams. After a certain amount of time or if no enemies are present it automatically returns.
Knockback:2
Velocity:17
What you might get if the Thorn Chakram, Magnet Sphere and Possessed Hatchet produced a hybrid.

Ranged weapons

A.D.R. (short for Arcane Dart Revolver)
Tooltip: “Arcane Dart Revolver, if only bullets had elements”
Ranged Damage=80+ (damage of dart)

This magical dart revolver’s shots randomly activate a colored magic circle becoming one of 6 special types of darts each the respective color as the circle it was fired from.
Each shot has a 1 in 6 chance of being each respective special dart type(it will always be one of the 6)

launched darts explode on contact with an enemy for 3 times the normal damage (negates any effects native to the dart similarly to the pulse bow and arrows)
Hellfire arrow equivalent for darts

The dart splits into a group of 3 darts in parallel. Does apply the darts original effects
Dart equivalent of chloropyte shot bow

The dart rapidly speeds up leaving a lingering trail that then falls. The trail behaves similar to the snowflakes produced similar to the North Pole spear head(the damage is capped similarly). Deals piercing damage and negates any special property of the dart.
North pole like effect with full projectile over ride

the dart travels at half its normal speed while dealing twice the normal damage. It keeps going off-screen in a similar manner to Jester arrows passing through any enemies and walls in the way before disappearing. Deals piercing damage and negates any special property of the dart.
Full override darts shoot slow and go strait

The dart gains homing properties similar to chlorophyte bullets. The dart otherwise retains any original properties
Adds homing properties to the fired darts(no other changes)

Upon hitting the target triggers a falling star effect both the dart and the spawned stars pierce the target. The original dart retains its effects however the spawned stars do not. Dart deals half base damage while the stars deal double damage.
No effect override but cursed flames don't produce extra stars

Spellburn
Ranged Damage:50
Knockback:0.5
Velocity 10
Tooltip:"Can't pick one? Take everything"

An upgrade to the flamethrower it shoots 5 magical streams of flame always at the cost of 5 gel per shot(though ammo conservation effects can be used) The streams have the following properties:

-Normal flame stream: inflicts on fire, 100% chance (7 second debuff duration)

-Frost fire stream: inflicts frost burn, 33% chance (5 second debuff duration)

-Shadow flame stream: inflicts shadow flame, 20% chance (5 second debuff duration)

-Cursed flame stream: inflicts cursed flames, 33% chance (7 second debuff duration)

-Ichor flame stream: inflicts ichor, 10% chance (3 second debuff duration)

Magic weapons

Arclight
Magic Damage: 34
Mana Cost: 20
Knockback:1
Velocity:40
Use time 24
Tooltip:"Behold the light"
Effect:Fires five rays of light in a fan pattern that extends for 20 tiles even through walls and lingers for about 2 seconds. Features a small defense reduction effect akin to the sharktooth necklace to offset the high defense of lunar foes
Basically a vilethorn upgrade with multiple beams spread out wide with weak defense piercing to help compensate for the very high defense of endgame foes.

Void sphere
Magic Damage: 60
Mana Cost: 50
Knockback: -1.5
Use time: 35
Tool tip:"No escape"

Effect:The void sphere acts as another placeable spell that deals lingering damage to enemies that walk through it. It can be placed where ever the player clicks. Acts like nimbus cloud except it produces a purple sphere around the created void that hurts enemies walking through it this sphere extends in all direction for about five tiles and lasts for about the same time frame as the nimbus cloud though only one of these can be places(you can use the crimson rod and nimbus rod at the same time however). The negative knockback acts to send enemies to the center of the lingering weapon for the duration in exchange it can't get knock back affecting modifiers so Demonic or Mystic are the best possible modifiers

Summon Weapons
(Note: Both of these are test examples to try and expand the roles of various summons please comment in regards to these)

Staff of Chaos
Summon Damage: 130/140/150(head and mouth segments) 80/90/100(body) 60/75/90(projectile) Note Expert & Master Values apply to the player only.
20 mana
Tooltip: “sometimes we just take chances”

An unusual summon weapon. It summons a powerful boss like Chaos Worm hostile to everything the player included.(However Doesn't attack NPC's or other players to avoid griefing) Note works like sentry type minions prior to the OOA event(i.e. doesn't take up a standard minion slot)

The summon looks like a worm with squid like tentacles about the length of a wyvern with a segment featuring additional mouths every 3 segments after the head . Furthermore its aesthetics are similar to the four pillars.
While it uses worm AI Behavior wise it uses 3 general behaviors.

Normally it moves across the screen slowly focusing down the nearest target occasionally speeding up a bit as it turns(i.e. a slower variant of normal worm behavior).

However if it sees enemies that are out of reach(including the player), it fires out purple blasts that explode on contact with enemies or the player out from the head and “ extra mouths” along its body. These projectiles should be dodged as they will hurt the player.

Lastly if no enemies (including the player) are in range or hiding far enough away off screen, it can curl up its body and teleport across the screen.

Once summoned the worm prioritizes the nearest target so the player must avoid it for the summons 2 minute duration(should this be extended or reduced?). The worm cannot be attacked or be unsummoned, though it does despawn if no players are around. Reusing the staff while it is already active increases the duration by 2 minutes not resetting it or unsummoning it.

Staff of the visage
Summon Damage: 30
Mana cost: 10

Appearing like a smaller variant of the cultists second minion summon (Ancient Vision), it Utilizes a similar mechanic to the stardust dragon with a few tweaks.

This minion gets stronger the more times it is stacked, however unlike other minions it has a limited life and draws enemy aggro away from the player.

1.4 Change: Sentry Slots add to the amount of additional "life" it has per minion slot thus benefiting from both

Every time it is hit by an enemy, player invincibility frames are triggered the enemy is dealt 30 summon damage and its color hue changes greenish tint at “healthy” (3+ charges) yellow tint “half health” red tint “near defeat” after it is “defeated" it reverts to one minion count lower forcing the player to summon again if they wish to recover the strength that was lost. Summon slots used by other summon weapons will be skipped. Sentry slots apply in general due to their time dependent nature. Additionally summoning doesn’t affect the current stage unless slots are full. The minion thus should be thought of as a temporary distracting shield at the cost of minion slots.

Please comment on what you think of this as well as any improvements or changes to work on to make this better. I also have not included an expert mode item as I have seen enough good suggestions for that
:)
 
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I'm enjoying the Weapon variety thought of here to fill in the gap of endgame weapons that don't have an "ultimate" version like the Lunar Weapons.

My question overall is for each of the Weapons you're proposing (Arcane Spear, Runic Chakrams, A.D.R, and Spellburn) The multiple effects they list have a chance of happening at random each time they are used? So the Arcane Spear for example has a chance of shooting any one of Beam 1/2/3 at random?

For the Spellburn I would recommend increasing the duration the debuffs last (around 5-7 secs for the 1st 3, then 7-8 for Cursed Flames, and perhaps 3 seconds for Ichor) The durations as they appear now seem a little underpowered considering it's an endgame upgrade to the Flamethrower. Also because it consumes 5 Gel per shot, the results of this weapon should be very strong in exchange for consuming a lot of Gel.

Love the Arclight Weapon, being a worthy successor to the Vile Thorn/Nettle Burst.

The Staff of Chaos sounds very powerful, the way you are describing it, it sounds like it is a Wyvern sized summon and is a danger to everything including the player which is why it's damage is so high. The concept of a Summon being able to harm the player along with other enemies is pretty new so I'm not sure what to think about this one. Even so it does sound a little overpowered if both the body and it's projectiles cause 150 damage to everything. If it's body does 150 damage and projectiles do something like 60-90 damage that sounds a little more balanced. Hard to say what the duration it should be summoned should be. I'm also trying to think about how effective this summon will be against Endgame Bosses. Either way it is an interesting new concept for a Summon Weapon so it seems worth exploring.

Those are the main things that came to mind while reading this. These are clever weapon ideas and effects along with new concepts for weapons so I will give my support to this.
 
I'm enjoying the Weapon variety thought of here to fill in the gap of endgame weapons that don't have an "ultimate" version like the Lunar Weapons.

My question overall is for each of the Weapons you're proposing (Arcane Spear, Runic Chakrams, A.D.R, and Spellburn) The multiple effects they list have a chance of happening at random each time they are used? So the Arcane Spear for example has a chance of shooting any one of Beam 1/2/3 at random?

For the Spellburn I would recommend increasing the duration the debuffs last (around 5-7 secs for the 1st 3, then 7-8 for Cursed Flames, and perhaps 3 seconds for Ichor) The durations as they appear now seem a little underpowered considering it's an endgame upgrade to the Flamethrower. Also because it consumes 5 Gel per shot, the results of this weapon should be very strong in exchange for consuming a lot of Gel.

Love the Arclight Weapon, being a worthy successor to the Vile Thorn/Nettle Burst.

The Staff of Chaos sounds very powerful, the way you are describing it, it sounds like it is a Wyvern sized summon and is a danger to everything including the player which is why it's damage is so high. The concept of a Summon being able to harm the player along with other enemies is pretty new so I'm not sure what to think about this one. Even so it does sound a little overpowered if both the body and it's projectiles cause 150 damage to everything. If it's body does 150 damage and projectiles do something like 60-90 damage that sounds a little more balanced. Hard to say what the duration it should be summoned should be. I'm also trying to think about how effective this summon will be against Endgame Bosses. Either way it is an interesting new concept for a Summon Weapon so it seems worth exploring.

Those are the main things that came to mind while reading this. These are clever weapon ideas and effects along with new concepts for weapons so I will give my support to this.
Thanks for the review
For the weapons effects I guess I wasn't clear enough
The spear always launches all three beams however the beams damage is dependent on whether the three beams are crossing at once (so superimpose the three functions at the points where they are equal it does catastrophic damage)

The Runic chakrams are a set of three "distinct" chakrams tat are thrown in random order, susch that only one of each copy can be out at once.
This would work like this when no chakram is currently out each of the thrown chakram has a 33% chance of being a flame, ice or lightning chakram.
However, if one is deployed then when the next is thrown it would be removed from the possible options such that the other two chakrams would have a 50% chance respectively of being the next one thrown. This lasts until the thrown chakram successfully returns to the player in which case it is again re-added to the possible chakrams that can be thrown.
Lastly if two are currently deployed at once the last one is guaranteed to be thrown after which no chakram would be able to be thrown until one of the three returns to the player.

The A.D.R. On the other hand is entirely random and serves as a reference to a very fun atlas revolver in the original Borderlands that shot bullets that had a random element of the games four elements. As such the weapon fires multiple types of shots which each have a 1/6 chance of happening.

Spell burn is effectively a flamethrower with five different flame jets (just like the normal flame thrower depending on the velocity prefix has 1 to 3) thus all of the jets are simultaneous so the enemy may be affected with all 5 debuffs at once(at least that is the intent) I can increase the duration however as it is a high ammo cost weapon by design.

As for The staff of Chaos That is an astute observation the listed damage is indeed for the worms head and "mouth segments" the projectiles would do somewhere between 70 and 80 damage and the non mouth body segments would deal about 100 damage. The summon would be boosted by summon gear and I am debating if the damage should double (against the player) in expert mode...
 
Pretty interesting suggestions.
Though, I have to say, all I can think of while looking at this is: Wall. Of. Text.
I'd really suggest putting in some spoilers. Other than that, it seems pretty cool (well, what I read anyways).
 
Pretty interesting suggestions.
Though, I have to say, all I can think of while looking at this is: Wall. Of. Text.
I'd really suggest putting in some spoilers. Other than that, it seems pretty cool (well, what I read anyways).
Thanks for the response. I had though that by splitting the text into separate sections that I could avoid the wall of text syndromes and I will be honest I forgot how to use spoilers...
 
Here's how to use spoilers:

[.spoiler=(name)] text [./spoiler]

Obviously you just take out the periods, and you don't use the parenthesis around the name (unless you want to).
 
I disagree. The lunatic cultist isn't meant to be a proper boss. He's supposed to be an entry test, to see if you will actually be able to beat the celestial towers in less than a year - as if you are unable to beat the towers, then you'll be stuck with them on your world, which sucks.
 
Here's how to use spoilers:

[.spoiler=(name)] text [./spoiler]

Obviously you just take out the periods, and you don't use the parenthesis around the name (unless you want to).
Thanks I added spoilers to break up the text probably could reduce the number used let me know if the readability has increased sufficiently :)

I disagree. The lunatic cultist isn't meant to be a proper boss. He's supposed to be an entry test, to see if you will actually be able to beat the celestial towers in less than a year - as if you are unable to beat the towers, then you'll be stuck with them on your world, which sucks.
Hmm I get the feeling you didn't read the suggestion carefully. That in itself is only a small piece of the reasoning behind the suggestion. The real reason is to help fix the very minimalistic set of lunar tier equipment.

Mechanically the Lunatic Cultist Is a proper boss and considering how easy it is to actually summon accidentally and the ease of defeating the boss these equipment can serve as a fail safe for players who kill the cultist too early.

A single boss (except maybe the Moodlord who is designed to be fought with a specific arena) can be handled far easier than long waves of foes especially on expert mode. Thus being able to defeat The cultist is not a good indicator that a player can handle the pillars.

I have over hundreds of fights (Mainly to get my hands on a Crystal Staff so I can finally say i have every weapon in the game) only failed once against the cultist while pillar deaths are a relatively common occurrence especially on expert mode. Even if your argument held up does it do any harm to reward the player with an item, particularly one lacking representation among lunar tier equipment?
 
Thanks I added spoilers to break up the text probably could reduce the number used let me know if the readability has increased sufficiently :)


Hmm I get the feeling you didn't read the suggestion carefully. That in itself is only a small piece of the reasoning behind the suggestion. The real reason is to help fix the very minimalistic set of lunar tier equipment.

Mechanically the Lunatic Cultist Is a proper boss and considering how easy it is to actually summon accidentally and the ease of defeating the boss these equipment can serve as a fail safe for players who kill the cultist too early.

A single boss (except maybe the Moodlord who is designed to be fought with a specific arena) can be handled far easier than long waves of foes especially on expert mode. Thus being able to defeat The cultist is not a good indicator that a player can handle the pillars.

I have over hundreds of fights (Mainly to get my hands on a Crystal Staff so I can finally say i have every weapon in the game) only failed once against the cultist while pillar deaths are a relatively common occurrence especially on expert mode. Even if your argument held up does it do any harm to reward the player with an item, particularly one lacking representation among lunar tier equipment?
I agree with more drops from the lunar event, but I don't think this is the way to go. I would be fine with a single utility item or something dropping for him, but not so many drops that he'll count as an actual boss.
 
I agree with more drops from the lunar event, but I don't think this is the way to go. I would be fine with a single utility item or something dropping for him, but not so many drops that he'll count as an actual boss.
Well I can't honestly see him as anything other than a true boss enemy(he has a spawn and defeat message, a trophy and a mask so by definition he is a true boss)
The next aspect that comes up is the lack of other places to place lunar tier weapons.
I have been debating suggesting to add another fragment weapon however the issue that arises is summons as their is little room to add new options there as all of the fragment weapons need to be linked to the respective pillar (I have a weapon in mind for the other pillars but not the star dust pillar )
The last option would be to add a weapon to the Moonlord's drop pool however that is already crammed full of weapons.
Their would be an option for items that are crafted from Luminite but I don't think that would be a good general solution.
Thus the Cultist becomes the best place to add more gear to the lunar event.

My last possibility would be to add content post moon lord however this goes against the general flow of the game with the Moonlord being the final boss.
I do have an in progress suggestion for a "bored Celestial" NPC that quite literally is an avatar of the Moonlord that gives quests to the player to satisfy its amusement...
This last idea is a bit more complicated as it would be an NPC triggered boss rush type event (hence why I suggested a far easier solution).
 
Arcane Spear- A spear class weapon when swung simultaneously fires three beams with the following Properties at once. The damage of the beam is modified by whether the three beams join in the enemies hit box or not thus dealing extreme damage at the weapons sweet spot(It does count as piercing however so missing the sweet spot hurts the effectiveness.

Note for the following equations:
x=distance in the direction the spear was pointed
n=constant able to be adjusted for balancing the beam width
m=constant determining the base speed of the standard projectile if possible
Appearance: Strait beam of (Green+Yellow) light sustained long enough for the beam to pass of screen.
Trajectory: B1=x;
Knockback=1
Velocity=m
Appearance: Oscillating (Blue+Cyan) runes, based on the runes displayed on placed rune walls);
Trajectory: B2=n*sin(x);
Knockback=0.5*Cos(x)+1;
Velocity=m*Sin(x) ;
Appearance: Oscillating red runes (red+Magenta) ) runes, based on the runes displayed on placed rune walls);
Trajectory B3=-n*Sin(x) Knockback=0.5*Cos(x);
The n value can be adjusted to affect the balance and effectiveness of the weapon
Preliminary Stats :
Melee_Damage=120(weapon), 100(beam),300 at "sweet spot” at (B1(x)=B2(x)=B3(x)=0);

Use_time=26;
Velocity=5.7;
Knockback=5
This seems like a weapon that would take a while to master but be really powerful when you do. Of course it wouldn't be the first spear weapon that is powerful if you aim it well. I'm not sure how it'd be programmed with the multiple piercing projectiles striking at once to be honest.
Runic Chakrams
Preliminary Stats:
Melee Damage= 70 (per disk)

A set of 3 chakrams automatically stacked. each of these, excluding their unique elements listed below can be considered an upgrade to the thorn chakram and Light Disks in general behavior.
In particular the set of chakrams is used similar light disks except the properties of the three vary featuring a glowing elemental core at the center of each, representing Fire, Ice and Lightning respectively. The order they are thrown in is random, however there is only one of each and each can only be thrown again after that chakram has returned to the player.

Effect: thrown strait, upon hitting an enemy explodes in a burst fire damaging all enemies in the explosion when thrown before bouncing off to another enemy or returning. Upon bouncing three times or hitting two enemies it returns to the thrower.
Knockback:8
Velocity:13
Effect: thrown strait, upon hitting an enemy for the first time the chakram emits a ring of icicles (similar to the cultist’s ice attack but smaller) and begins to slow down passing through any enemies and obstacles in its way until it stops. When it slows to a stop it immediately returns to the thrower at rapid speed hitting any enemies in its path. If it hits an obstacle before it hits an enemy it also immediately returns to the thrower. Unlike the other two it deals piercing damage.
Knockback:10
Velocity: launches at 14 decreases to zero and returns at 15
Effect: unlike the other two that are thrown like normal chakrams, soon after launch it starts homing in on enemies in a way similar to the possessed Hatchet, as it gets close enough arcs of lightning bolts similar to the magnets sphere though it needs to be at least three times closer than the magnet sphere does to fire beams. After a certain amount of time or if no enemies are present it automatically returns.
Knockback:2
Velocity:17
These look fun. I've wanted an upgrade to light discs. The fire one should have a time limit, not a bounce limit.
A.D.R. (short for Arcane Dart Revolver)
Tooltip: “Arcane Dart Revolver, if only bullets had elements”
Ranged Damage=50+ (damage of dart)

This magical dart revolver’s shots randomly activate a colored magic circle becoming one of 6 special types of darts each the respective color as the circle it was fired from.
Each shot has a 1 in 6 chance of being each respective special dart type(it will always be one of the 6)

launched darts explode on contact with an enemy for 3 times the normal damage (negates any effects native to the dart similarly to the pulse bow and arrows)

The dart splits into a group of 3 darts in parallel. Does apply the darts original effects
The dart rapidly speeds up leaving a lingering trail that then falls. The trail behaves similar to the snowflakes produced similar to the North Pole spear head(the damage is capped similarly). Deals piercing damage and negates any special property of the dart.
the dart travels at half its normal speed while dealing twice the normal damage. It keeps going off-screen in a similar manner to Jester arrows passing through any enemies and walls in the way before disappearing. Deals piercing damage and negates any special property of the dart.
The dart gains homing properties similar to chlorophyte bullets. The dart otherwise retains any original properties
Upon hitting the target triggers a falling star effect both the dart and the spawned stars pierce the target. The original dart retains its effects however the spawned stars do not. Dart deals half base damage while the stars deal double damage.
The thing I like so much about dart weapons is that the ammo does something interesting. Splitting apart, targeted bouncing, and dropping cursed flames. Overriding it is something I have a bit of mixed feelings about, but for this I think it works well.

You may want to make the pink darts override the dart type. Otherwise the rain of stars would border on the ridiculous.
Spellburn
Ranged Damage:50
Knockback:0.5
Velocity 10
Tooltip:"Can't pick one? Take everything"

An upgrade to the flamethrower it shoots 5 magical streams of flame always at the cost of 5 gel per shot(though ammo conservation effects can be used) The streams have the following properties:

-Normal flame stream: inflicts on fire, 100% chance (7 second debuff duration)

-Frost fire stream: inflicts frost burn, 33% chance (5 second debuff duration)

-Shadow flame stream: inflicts shadow flame, 20% chance (5 second debuff duration)

-Cursed flame stream: inflicts cursed flames, 33% chance (7 second debuff duration)

-Ichor flame stream: inflicts ichor, 10% chance (3 second debuff duration)
Does it cycle through the possible projectiles? I mean, with the mechanics of the projectiles it would have to. Flamethrower weapons are really satisfying to pull out during invasions, the quad color fire certainly helps matters.
Arclight
Magic Damage: 34
Mana Cost: 20
Knockback:1
Velocity:40
Use time 24
Tooltip:"Behold the light"
Effect:Fires five rays of light in a fan pattern that extends for 20 tiles even through walls and lingers for about 2 seconds. Basically a vilethorn upgrade with multiple beams to help compensate for the very high defense of endgame foes.
Multiple beams won't help the DPS against a single enemy. It will however give you a satisfying kill zone. If you wanted to compensate for the higher defense then increasing the damage/adding defense piercing is the way to go.
Void sphere
( Note: This weapon could use some work, any suggestions to improve it would be welcome!)
Magic Damage: 60
Mana Cost: 50
Knockback:0
Use time: 35

Effect:The void sphere acts as another placeable spell that deals lingering damage to enemies that walk through it. It can be placed where ever the player clicks. Acts like nimbus cloud except it produces a purple sphere around the created void that hurts enemies walking through it this sphere extends in all direction for about five tiles and lasts for about the same time frame as the nimbus cloud though only one of these can be places(you can use the crimson rod and nimbus rod at the same time however).
I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe it could have negative knockback?
Staff of Chaos
Summon Damage: 150(head and mouth segments) 100(body) 80(projectile)
20 mana
Tooltip: “sometimes we just take chances”

An unusual summon weapon. It summons a powerful boss like Chaos Worm hostile to everything the player included.

The summon looks like a worm with squid like tentacles about the length of a wyvern with a segment featuring additional mouths every 3 segments after the head . Furthermore its aesthetics are similar to the four pillars.
While it uses worm AI Behavior wise it uses 3 general behaviors.

Normally it moves across the screen slowly focusing down the nearest target occasionally speeding up a bit as it turns(i.e. a slower variant of normal worm behavior).

However if it sees enemies that are out of reach(including the player), it fires out purple blasts that explode on contact with enemies or the player out from the head and “ extra mouths” along its body. These projectiles should be dodged as they will hurt the player.

Lastly if no enemies (including the player) are in range or hiding far enough away off screen, it can curl up its body and teleport across the screen.

Once summoned the worm prioritizes the nearest target so the player must avoid it for the summons 2 minute duration(should this be extended or reduced?). The worm cannot be attacked or be unsummoned, though it does despawn if no players are around. Reusing the staff while it is already active increases the duration by 2 minutes not resetting it or unsummoning it.
Now this would be fun. I halfway jokingly suggested a minion that would prioritize killing the player (In the honey badger thread by Baconfry) but this could work. The only thing I suggest is that it doesn't attack friendly players or NPC's.
Staff of the visage
Summon Damage: 30
Mana cost: 10

Appearing like a smaller variant of the cultists second minion summon, it Utilizes a similar mechanic to the stardust dragon with a few tweaks.

This minion gets stronger the more times it is stacked, however unlike other minions it has a limited life and draws enemy agro away from the player. Every time it is hit by an enemy, player invincibility frames are triggered the enemy is dealt 30 summon damage and its color hue changes greenish tint at “full health” yellow tint “half health” red tint “near defeat” after it is “defeated" it reverts to one minion count lower forcing the player to summon again if they wish to recover the strength that was lost. Summon slots used by other summon weapons will be skipped. Additionally summoning doesn’t affect the current stage unless slots are full. The minion thus should be thought of as a temporary distracting shield at the cost of minion slots.
This would really be helpful for rangers. Rather than rely of shroomite I relied on chlorophyte, solo stealth is terrible.
 
Thanks for commenting! Not sure how to comment on the split up multiquote thing so I will reply in red.

This seems like a weapon that would take a while to master but be really powerful when you do. Of course it wouldn't be the first spear weapon that is powerful if you aim it well. I'm not sure how it'd be programmed with the multiple piercing projectiles striking at once to be honest.
I was thinking it would work like the MoonLords seperate invincibility timer. Each projectile with regards to the other two would have its own invincibility timer allowing an enemy to be hit by all three potentially while for other weapons it would act like a normal piercing damage effect. I should add that to the main post thanks.

These look fun. I've wanted an upgrade to light discs. The fire one should have a time limit, not a bounce limit.
The question would then be how long should the time limit be?

The thing I like so much about dart weapons is that the ammo does something interesting. Splitting apart, targeted bouncing, and dropping cursed flames. Overriding it is something I have a bit of mixed feelings about, but for this I think it works well.

You may want to make the pink darts override the dart type. Otherwise the rain of stars would border on the ridiculous.Ok Dually noted I had kinda wanted it to have 50% of the varius possible projectiles maintain projectile effects by giving 3 of the six possibilities the ability to keep the dart effects. My rational for keeping the affects was that the Tsunami and Phantasm exist and can be combined with holy arrows. Would this really be that much of a problem?

Does it cycle through the possible projectiles? I mean, with the mechanics of the projectiles it would have to. Flamethrower weapons are really satisfying to pull out during invasions, the quad color fire certainly helps matters.

Multiple beams won't help the DPS against a single enemy. It will however give you a satisfying kill zone. If you wanted to compensate for the higher defense then increasing the damage/adding defense piercing is the way to go. I can certainly see defense piercing considering the shark tooth Necklace and sharpening station exist

I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe it could have negative knockback? I think it is how compared to the others if kinda feels uninspired the idea of negative knockback is interesting but how would it work?

Now this would be fun. I halfway jokingly suggested a minion that would prioritize killing the player (In the honey badger thread by Baconfry) but this could work. The only thing I suggest is that it doesn't attack friendly players or NPC's. Yeah I can see thet griefing risks there good for pointing that out I will add the exception

This would really be helpful for rangers. Rather than rely of shroomite I relied on chlorophyte, solo stealth is terrible.
 
I don't know how to quote text in a quote so I'll just respond here.

If anything was going to introduce a separate invincibility timer it should be summons. Perhaps it could just detect if all projectiles are in the hitbox? I don't know how these things work.

I don't know. 3-5 seconds maybe?

Ah I forgot to account for that. It's fine. Assuming of course that the cursed darts don't trigger it with the fire balls.

By negative knockback I meant more like knocking an enemy toward the center of the effect.
 
Lots of weapons, so I'll go in order...
Arcane Spear: This sounds interesting, but its explanation is a bit confusing to me. I assume it's something like the North Pole in that it fires projectiles?

Runic Chakrams: Perhaps the Fire/Ice/Lightning Chakrams can inflict On Fire/Chilled/Electrified respectively? Their throwing mechanics also looks like they may return to the player in a different order to when they were thrown. How would this affect the weapon? Do all Chakrams need to return before they can be thrown again?

Spellburn: This is a really interesting idea!

Void Sphere: In addition to the sphere, it feels like the void should spawn lightning targetted at enemies while it's active. Like how the Vortex Pillar and its enemies create small 'rips' from where lightning spawns and attempts to strike the player.

Staff of Chaos: I'm a bit iffy about the Chaos Worm being hostile to the player. If it's going to be hostile to the player, then I think it shouldn't count towards the summon limit. (So it'd be like a mobile sentry summon.) It should still be cancelled by right-clicking its buff icon.
Alternatively, perhaps it could be friendly to the player but hostile to everything else. This includes critters, NPCs and other PCs (regardless of team). Note that no other summons intentionally target critters or NPCs. (I don't play mutliplayer, but I don't think summons target PCs either.)

Staff of the Visage: What's the Cultist's second summon?
 
Ok I'll give my responses in red as before

Lots of weapons, so I'll go in order...
Arcane Spear: This sounds interesting, but its explanation is a bit confusing to me. I assume it's something like the North Pole in that it fires projectiles?
yes just like the last three spears of hardmode it would fire projectiles the difference would be the presence of a sweet spot for damage with respect to the weapon and its beams. Due to the piercing damage you either hit the sweet spot or deal less damage than the spear itself

Runic Chakrams: Perhaps the Fire/Ice/Lightning Chakrams can inflict On Fire/Chilled/Electrified respectively? Their throwing mechanics also looks like they may return to the player in a different order to when they were thrown. How would this affect the weapon? Do all Chakrams need to return before they can be thrown again?
yes they can return in a different order which is actually one of the hallmark traits that I intended to be abused for max effectiveness. If all 3 chakrams are returned the one fired is random but once a chakram is thrown you can't throw the same one. So in effect my keeping them deployed you can effectively control the order of release inn sustained combat using the fact that they are not guaranteed to return in the same order.
Spellburn: This is a really interesting idea!
Glad you like it
Void Sphere: In addition to the sphere, it feels like the void should spawn lightning targetted at enemies while it's active. Like how the Vortex Pillar and its enemies create small 'rips' from where lightning spawns and attempts to strike the player.
To be honest I was trying to make a spell of darkness lol Void is actually the theme of the Moonlord himself not vortex.

Staff of Chaos: I'm a bit iffy about the Chaos Worm being hostile to the player. If it's going to be hostile to the player, then I think it shouldn't count towards the summon limit. (So it'd be like a mobile sentry summon.) It should still be cancelled by right-clicking its buff icon.
Alternatively, perhaps it could be friendly to the player but hostile to everything else. This includes critters, NPCs and other PCs (regardless of team). Note that no other summons intentionally target critters or NPCs. (I don't play mutliplayer, but I don't think summons target PCs either.)
The Chaos Worm counts as a Turret not a standard minion I thought this was obvious the existance of a timer limit to one the timer gaining more time on use those are all turret hallmarks. So I thought it was implicit that it wouldn't actually use a minion slot. I will have to add that in so no one makes the mistake again. The whole point of the summon was to be extremely powerful but extremely risky so it wouldn't work if it didn't try to kill the player(or more exactly its summoner)
Staff of the Visage: What's the Cultist's second summon?
You know the summon that is used if a Phantasm dragon is already active? The ancient Visage? Yeah it is rarely seen I have only fought it once by intentionally leaving the dragon alive just to see it. It is quite tanky for an enemy to be honest.
 
Nope, I haven't seen the Ancient Visage before. (Do you mean Ancient Vision?) The Phantasm Dragon doesn't survive nearly long enough for the Ancient Vision to appear. :)
For anyone else who hasn't seen it, there's a description and picture on the Wiki:
Ancient Vision.png


If the Staff of Chaos has the possibility of injuring the player, I can't help but feel it will go unused as a result. Let's swait and ee what other people think!
 
Nope, I haven't seen the Ancient Visage before. (Do you mean Ancient Vision?) The Phantasm Dragon doesn't survive nearly long enough for the Ancient Vision to appear. :)
For anyone else who hasn't seen it, there's a description and picture on the Wiki:
View attachment 141462

If the Staff of Chaos has the possibility of injuring the player, I can't help but feel it will go unused as a result. Let's wait and see what other people think!
Opps should have referenced checked the wiki there... my bad. The Staff of Chaos is more of an exploratory idea at this point it the hopes of better developing the options at the hands of summoners as lets face it so far the summoner is barely a class considering how few options they have!
 
The Staff of Chaos is more of an exploratory idea at this point it the hopes of better developing the options at the hands of summoners as lets face it so far the summoner is barely a class considering how few options they have!
Summons is better than it was, but not as fleshed out as it could be. To play summons, you usually need to combine it with another class it make it feasible. E.g. I combine a few summon accessories with a few melee accessories and make use of both summons and traditional melee weapons. Same can be done with ranged/magic.

Most summons are:
1. I follow player
2. I attack anything that comes near
3. I can't fly through walls unless player leaves me behind
The only unique summons are the Twins (there's two of them) and Stardust Dragon (flies through blocks). We need more unique summons and your idea is one to add something unique and interesting. :)
 
Summons is better than it was, but not as fleshed out as it could be. To play summons, you usually need to combine it with another class it make it feasible. E.g. I combine a few summon accessories with a few melee accessories and make use of both summons and traditional melee weapons. Same can be done with ranged/magic.

Most summons are:
1. I follow player
2. I attack anything that comes near
3. I can't fly through walls unless player leaves me behind
The only unique summons are the Twins (there's two of them) and Stardust Dragon (flies through blocks). We need more unique summons and your idea is one to add something unique and interesting. :)
I agree that pure summons are kind of lackluster hybrid roles helps a lot but doesn't make the class stand alone viable. (which is something I don't see as truly viable thus my ideal stand alone summoner is a summon inclined hybrid

Yeah if you noticed both are meant to serve a unique role for the summoner the Chaos Staff while hostile to the player would in theory be controllable due to its preference to attack the nearest target. (so as long as the player makes sure something else is closer they could be relatively safe. Thematically the idea was born out of the thought of making a boss like summon that would be very powerful but have some sort of cost.

I have more ideas related to summons but they don't fit here and would need their own thread(mostly related to hybrid focused weapons/summons as well as a few utility summon items)
 
I just realized that there's something that's a huge problem. Try grinding for the item you actually need. You'll have to go through a lot of stuff and a long wait before getting a chance to get the wrong item again.

Perhaps the cultist should drop a crafting material?
 
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