Shyguymask
Retinazer
Summoner in 1.3 was such a bad joke. The majority of the minions were weak and stupid & unreliable, and there were few of them. Summoner was by far the weakest class in the game, in fact it was blatantly unfinished. That all changed with 1.4, by not only introducing many new minions that are significantly stronger & smarter, but also buffing a ton of older minions into being actually useful. Whips were also introduced, they give Summoners a method of attacking directly that don't involve using weapons from other classes. But more importantly Whips strengthen minions significantly, with some minions being reliant on Whips deal most of their DPS. Lastly, there are new armor sets, such as Obsidian Armor which was changed into a Summoner-focused armor that prioritizes buffing whips over minion slots. A Summoner variant of Hallowed Armor was also introduced. With all of these changes and major buffs in mind, this skyrocketed Summoner's viability to the point it's now just as good as the other classes.
Somewhat based on Baconfry's hardmode weapon tier list (but with different colors), I will give a grade to all of Summoner's options from minions to whips to armor sets (I won't include sentries though, because I've never used sentries and know next to nothing about them, and most of them aren't really impactful or too useful from what I saw. No Stardust Armor either, that's Post-Moon Lord). But first, the mindset & rules I will rank the options in the list with:
Now for what the grades mean:
S rank: Essential options to consider, these options carry Summoner and are in general some of the best options you can find in Terraria in general.
A rank: Options that are simply viable with not much more to explain.
B rank: Options that have uses worth considering to reach maximum damage output, or options that simply face a lot of competition and are outshined in general.
C rank: Poor options that are not worth paying attention towards if you want to optimize your Summoner build. But if you want to challenge yourself, options here can make a playthrough more challenging without being TOO annoyingly weak & clunky.
Last thing to note: Whip Stacking. You can switch and attack with multiple different whips to stack their effects. For example, you can combine Leather Whip (4 Summon Tag damage) and Snapthorn (6 Summon Tag damage) to get 10 Summon Tag damage total, which is higher than Durendal's tag damage! It gets more potent through the game as whips with stronger effects are obtained. Switching between multiple weapons mid-combat can be difficult and requires practice, but it's more than worth it and this technique is taken into account to a HIGH extent in this list.
This tier list assumes mainly "Whip Summoner" gameplay, but Hybrid builds are also taken into account whether to criticize options for being outshined by hybrid/multiclass setups or to give bonus points to other options for being beneficial for hybridizing/multiclassing. I did not rank Sentries nor OOA armor sets.
Minions
Abigail's Flower: A
Abigail can be obtained at the very start of the game, however she falls off past early Pre-Hardmode as not only is it slow and has a hard time catching up to moving bosses but it also doesn't fit well in the minion-mixing meta, being vastly outclassed by summoning multiple different minions rather than dedicating more slots to Abigail. Abigail herself is not optimal to include in minion mixing because she is just that weak with only one slot. Abigail may not be able to find a place in your "team" for Pre-Hardmode boss fights, but Hardmode is where she shines the most. Not only does Hardmode directly increase Abigail's damage, but she fits perfectly well with the Firecracker's 2.75x damage explosion effect. This makes her strong not only against Hardmode mobs but also a few Hardmode bosses, especially Queen Slime as she can spawnkill most of the minions that spawns off Queen Slime. Although mainly used as a stepping stone to Sanguine Staff and Blade Staff, she also proves to be the best minion for Destroyer alongside Sanguine. Don't use her against Twins or Skeletron Prime however. Abigail is either really good or really bad depending on where and how you use her, so you need to know what you're doing.
Finch Staff: A
If you can find it early in Living Wood Chests, it provides useful disruption & damage that is also effective against flying enemies like Bats and Crimeras since the Finch is aerial. Even if it doesn't generate, you have the option of rushing to the Aether biome to shimmer a Living Wood Wand into a Finch Staff. You'd think Finch Staff would quickly fall off and get replaced by Flinx Staff, but this is not necessarily the case. Bosses being large enables Finches to consistently damage them, making it useful to include when mixing minions especially if you haven't managed to obtain Vampire Frog Staff. Against Eater of World and Brain of Cthulhu in particular, Finch will pierce through the many segments and Creepers respectively unlike Flinx, furthering its usefulness.
Flinx Staff: S
Flinx Staff has practically the perfect minion AI, its main trait is its "stickiness" as its bounces off enemies instead of passing through them like other minions. Not only does this makes it reliable even against aerial targets, but its consistent hitrate makes it scale particularly well with summon tag and armor penetration. Minions in Pre-Hardmode have their ups & downs relative to each other as well as their own best usecases, but Flinx has been shown to be consistently the most reliable AND contributory minion for almost all Pre-Hardmode bosses. In the past I've written off Flinx Staff's performance against Wall of Flesh, but when actually trying it out seriously I found out that it performs very well in a "right click" strategy to have it ignores the Hungries. As a whole Flinx Staff is one of the best Pre-Hardmode weapons in the game, it may not look like it at first glance but after countless hours of playing the game as well as "testing" (speedkilling), Flinx has almost always outshined other minions and added a lot of damage & crowd control even for hybrid builds. It doesn't have one particularly insane or unique usecase, rather its versatility, lack of flaws and longevity makes it the perfect minion that can't get better without becoming overpowered.
Slime Staff: B
Can be treated as a weaker version of Vampire Frog, but in practice it'll be compared the most to Flinx Staff. It doesn't handle flying enemies like Demon Eyes and Hornets well, but it can perform nearly as well against Fighter AIs and in fact maybe better against larger targets (like King Slime and Deerclops) since It'll go "inside" them rather than bounce off them like Flinx does. In the extremely low chance that Slime Staff drops early in a playthrough, it has arguably better mobbing than Finch and Abigail. You can also mix Flinx and Slime together to optimize for higher damage overall because of i-frames, and in general the more minions you have for minion-mixing the better. Although I found its AI to sometimes stop attacking and fly to you when you simply jump up in the air a bit, which is annoying. In general It's not worth going out of your way to grind for it, just be happy in the one or two playthroughs that you find it in your lifetime.
Vampire Frog Staff: A+
Similar to Flinx, it's useful through all of pre-Hardmode though doesn't perform as well against aerial targets It jumping through enemies piercing them combined with its high base damage also makes it shred mobs especially in events. With the way they work, you can right click WoF's top eye ball and the frogs will start jumping up and down, hitting all three weak points of WoF and dealing rapid damage. Most effective when mixed with Imps, or when purposely waiting until after WoF spawns to summon frogs and have them desynced to minimize i-frames. Even when it's not damaging WoF's weak points, it's still useful on the ground for killing Hungries & Leeches.
Hornet Staff: A-
Thanks to the Hive Pack now giving it a potent attack speed boost, Hornet Staff went from being slightly worse than other minions including Imp to now being on par or better depending on the situation, which is especially a big deal considering Hornet's stinger attacks don't interrupt each other. Even newer players can go full Hornet and have good firepower without putting much thought, and while their projectiles still miss a lot in boss fights, they are aerial & ranged so they will constantly attempt to target enemies like Skeletron and be able to land hits semi-consistently. In the Underworld in particular they are effective at taking out demons who often come at you in a straight-ish line, as well as Fire Imps who stand in place. I would rank Hornet Staff B or B+ for me, but speedkills aren't everything and it performs decently well for the average player that wants a semi-reliable minion that doesn't rely on optimization like minion mixing or flat damage.
Imp Staff: A-
Its AI is just sufficiently competent to hit most enemies consistently, and it's essentially a free pickup when you're taking a trip to the underworld for Hellforge (Obsidian Armor) and Molten Pickaxe. It has noticeable i-frame issues when you have several of them summoned, so it's heavily recommended you mix them with other minions to minimize i-frame issues and get the most out of Whip summon tag buffs. Its piercing projectiles makes it effective against Wall of Flesh, but otherwise it's not really exciting.
Spider Staff: A-
For how easy it is to obtain especially, it excels at fending off Hardmode mobs through its surprisingly high DPS. But it's simply not useful against Hardmode bosses due to being grounded and being unable to reach them most of the time. The exception to this is Plantera and Spider Staff is in fact good against Plantera, but specifically on hybrid builds.
Pirate Staff: C-
Spider Staff runs into i-frame issues when many of them are attacking the same target, so the pirates can increase overall damage output slightly I guess? Their AI is bad and hardly functions, they are especially laughably bad at attacking aerial enemies. And... maybe they can perform decently well in the 2nd tier of the Old One's Army? I'm trying hard to find minor uses for Pirate Staff here.
Sanguine Staff: A+
With nearly perfect AI that can keep up with all bosses, it's backed up by solid damage output to create one of the most potent and reliable minions in the first half of Hardmode. Whether running it as a support minion for other classes or using it with Firecracker, Sanguine can be used by any character with any class and will always provide a significant amount of free damage even against fast moving bosses. However, its availability as a Dreadnautilus drop (imagine killing Dreadnautilus on-tier) is so stupid to the point that combined with its lack of longevity in 1.4.4 (Optic Staff mostly outshines it), I can't consider it a "meta" or "must-have" minion anymore as crazy as that sounds. If I have to even wonder if the effort to get it is worth it, then it's immediately not S tier.
Blade Staff: S
The most unique minion, in general one of the most unique weapons in the whole game. Because of its very fast attack speed but extremely low base damage, it pairs extremely well with Summon Tag damage. As a whole, its damage output depends on what whips the player uses and how skilled they are at whip stacking. Even ignoring DPS, Blade Staff proves itself to be extremely effective & reliable against Hardmode mobs by stunlocking them in place even when they are airborne, and they do so very reliably as they stand just above you and instantly respond to threats. This becomes even more useful in the Post-Plantera Dungeon despite it being a Pre-Mech weapon because it will protect you from the various Fighter AI enemies running at you, instantly stunlock Dungeon Spirits when they spawn and even stunlock the teleporting mages as they teleport all over the place. Even other classes use Blade Staff as a support minion defensively.
Blade Staff in combination with Cool Whip is one of the best mobbing/crowd control setups in the game during Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera, as you get all of the advantages Blade Staff provides as well as Cool Whip's Frostbite, Snowflake AND Tag damage. Blade Staff specializes in bursting down fewer enemies at a time, while Cool Whip spreads damage to whole hordes of enemies through its own base damage, Frostbite & Snowflake. Combined, even Master Mode mobbing in Hardmode is trivialized as everything is simply destroyed through the sheer power & synergy of Blade + Cool Whip. When it comes to boss fights, Blade Staff with Cool Whip stacked with Spinal Tap & Snapthorn competes for the best minion DPS against mech bosses and against Plantera it's the best minion if stacking multiple whips. Optic Staff becomes better if only using one whip however. In all cases though, you can run a defensive full Warding build and lose less damage compared to other weapons because most of Blade Staff's damage comes from flat tag damage and armor penetration.
To summarize: Phenomenal performance for mobbing in Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera, good performance against mech bosses, good performance against Plantera, phenomenal performance for mobbing in the Post-Plantera Dungeon, good performance during the Post-Plantera Solar Eclipse. Blade Staff not only has long longevity through Hardmode but is consistently one of the better options during those times as well. This is all in spite of the two nerfs it has gotten as well (-25% tag efficiency nerf & armor penetration damage bugfix nerf) thanks to Cool Whip not only being a much stronger weapon by itself to compete with Firecracker, but itself providing tag damage to Blade Staff to negate its -25% tag efficiency nerf.
Optic Staff: A-
Now finally viable in 1.4.4, it outperforms Sanguine Staff against Plantera. It also outperforms Blade Staff if only using one Whip. in It thrives in open space against mobs, but in tight spaces like the Post-Plantera Dungeon it gets stuck all the time.
Pygmy Staff: C
Even with the buffs it has gotten in 1.4.4, it simply cannot function very well in the context of Post-Plantera. Pygmies perform badly in tight spaces, so they are not very usable in either the Jungle Temple or the Post-Plantera Dungeon. Pygmies struggle against crowds of enemies due to their lack of piercing, so they are not very usable against the Solar Eclipse or Pumpkin Moon. And even then, Deadly Sphere Staff is both more reliable & more powerful. Only use this minion if you want to hold yourself back on purpose for a challenge.
Desert Tiger Staff: A
Rare to see in a playthrough unless you got lucky or went out of your way to grind for it. However, it has the power to justify its rarity. It hits like a truck coupled with Firecracker, resulting in the best DPS of all minions at this point until Xeno Staff and beyond assuming you are at least somewhat brave with Firecracker. Thankfully, the Tiki Armor whip range buff made Firecracker much safer to use consistently, which in turn makes Desert Tiger a better option this update. It's hard to obtain and requires some bravery with Firecracker to maximize its potential, but those who are up to the task will be rewarded with pretty incredible DPS at this stage of the game.
Deadly Sphere Staff: A+
One of the most buffed weapons in 1.4.4, the Deadly Sphere Staff went from being a joke of a weapon severely outclassed by Blade & Sanguine, to outshining the two of them in most situations. Besides its very good damage output, its method of attacking makes it even more favorable against crowds of enemies and bosses with multiple parts. It doesn't even need whips to be able to cut through regular enemies like a hot knife through butter. In fact, it competes with Raven Staff despite that weapon being obtained later in progression, being superior in some aspects including speed and crowd control. However, because it attacks by moving in "dashes", it can struggle a bit to catch up to faster moving bosses like Pumpking or Empress of Light chasing you, losing DPS. Similarly to Optic Staff, it also gets stuck all the time in tight spaces like the Post-Plantera dungeon, so don't trash that Blade Staff just yet.
Raven Staff: A
Although a bit slower and less consistent than Deadly Sphere Staff, it has higher single target DPS which is mainly valuable for Empress of Light. An offensive setup using Witch Broom not only makes the Raven AI more consistent, but combined with more damage accessories this makes Raven kill Empress of Light impressively fast, even if still somewhat slower than Desert Tiger.
Xeno Staff: S-
With pretty much the best AI in the game that is even better than Sanguine Staf AND the best damage output of all minions that eclipses even Desert Tiger, Xeno Staff is simply stellar and no prior minion can compare. It's even better for cases like tracking Duke Fishron phase 3 and Nebula Floaters, where other minions struggle to keep up with them. There's not much else to it, excluding Stardust minions it's your best option for Empress of Light, Duke Fishron, OOA Tier 3 and whatever.
Tempest Staff: B+
For a Duke Fishron drop, It is not as good as you would expect compared to the like of Tsunami and Razorblade Typhoon. It did get buffed, however its strength is still only approximately that of Deadly Sphere & Raven while lacking the crowd control capabilities especially compared to Deadly Sphere. By itself it's a good minion, but it's not really worth going for because judging by availability alone it's overshadowed by its competition.
Stardust Dragon Staff: S-
Can be treated as a stronger Desert Tiger. On paper it offers some of the highest damage output in the game with Firecracker, being able to reach 10k+ DPS with enough offensive accessories and stacking with other whips. In practice this isn't super applicable outside of Empress of Light, mainly because Firecracker even with Tiki Armor is not very practical to use against Moon Lord. The main appeal and strength of Stardust Dragon is that it doesn't need whips to deal high damage on its own, and combined with its good aggro range that is higher than Terraprisma, it is the best minion for Moon Lord and is even useful to provide significant additional damage to other classes, especially if they hybridize with Summoner armor pieces & accessories. It's not very good for mobbing in the lunar events however, Xeno, Stardust Cell and especially Terraprisma are all better for that.
Stardust Cell Staff: A-
A lite Terraprisma you could say. It's more reliable and consistent than Dragon against Empress of Light (With similar DPS depending on the setup) and handles pillar mobbing better, but otherwise has little uses. Whips aren't particularly great against Moon Lord, Stardust Dragon does way more damage passively and Terraprisma outclasses Stardust Cell in every way imaginable be it with whips or no whips. Even when it at its most useful, it's short lived. To squeeze out a bit more DPS, include a single Stardust Dragon summon alongside your cell army (especially since single-slot dragons have more reliable AI).
Terraprisma: A
Another minion that solidifies itself as a powerhouse through sheer combination of reliability & damage output, the Terraprisma sweeps the lunar events nearly effortlessly. While it's viable against Moon Lord coupled with Kaleidoscope, it faces competition with Stardust Dragon who not only has higher damage output without whips (although Dragon's less consistent AI closes the gap a bit), but has higher aggro range to enable running away farther without losing DPS. Being locked behind Daytime Empress of Light makes it difficult to obtain mainly for lesser-skilled players, and in general the context of Moon Lord prevents Terraprisma from rising to the S tier because it only really gets to show off its power against one annoying boss that whips aren't great against.
Whips
Leather Whip: B+
A fairly weak weapon on its own even for whip standards, it should mostly be used for whip stacking with Snapthorn to increase Summon Tag damage. Even then it takes a little while before Zoologist moves in, but if you obtain it before Snapthorn, it's good at picking Man Eaters inside the Underground Jungle.
Snapthorn: S-
The Snapthorn is a powerhouse in early Pre-Hardmode, boasting surprisingly high power for a pre-boss whip and killing mobs with relative ease even without minions. Poisoned also helps it rack up even more damage to crowds and worm enemies, even after the significant nerf to the chance of inflicting it & the duration. This weapon is essential for Summoners to pick up, not just because there aren't many options but because it's just that useful & ensures Summoner is on par with the other classes in boss fights and events. It's vastly superior to Leather Whip and hardly weaker than Spinal Tap. In fact, while admittedly not to the same extent as in 1.4.3, Snapthorn might have the highest longevity of any weapon in the entire game. Even after Skeletron, it stays useful as a support whip whether to slightly buff the speed of other whips or provide tag damage to Blade Staff in Hardmode. In fact, coupled with Blade Staff, Snapthorn has the potential to remain in use until all the way into Post-Plantera assuming you're using three whips. It's a Pre-Boss weapon that stays useful for the majority of the game including half of Hardmode for christ's sake.
Spinal Tap: A-
Its way smaller damage penalty against multiple enemies makes it more effective against Bone Serpents and Wall of Flesh, and it gives a nice 7 tag damage which combines well with Snapthorn's 6 tag damage. However, with the 1.4.4 nerfs to Obsidian Armor, Snapthorn's whip speed effect and Spinal Tap itself getting a small base damage nerf, it is no longer a threat like it used to be against Wall of Flesh and as a result whip builds struggle compete with other options from other classes. Weapons like Night's Edge are more rewarding for the risk, while others like Demon Scythe can kill Wall of Flesh close to as fast while being extremely safer and more practical. The Obsidian SnapTap build is now lackluster with a worse balance of safety/DPS compared to stronger options, but at least Spinal Tap is still good as a support whip in Hardmode similar to Snapthorn. It has to compete with Snapthorn for the position though depending on how many whips the player uses. If only using two, the Spinal Tap is gone for good as soon as Durendal is obtained since Cool Whip is simply better.
Firecracker: A+
In a way, this weapon actually becomes stronger as Hardmode progresses. It's a solid mobbing option in early Hardmode when coupled with Abigail and It's a strong option paired with Sanguine Staff against mech bosses & Plantera, though weaker than before with the 1.4.4 nerfs to Sanguine and Obsidian Armor to the point you need to use Spider Armor for the most damage at the cost of significantly less range. It reaches the peak of its usefulness with Desert Tiger in Post-Plantera, achieving some of the highest damage output at this stage of the game including the best Summoner DPS until Xeno Staff and beyond. It only helps that Tiki Armor's new whip range increase makes Firecracker far safer and easier to use than before too. It can also be used with Stardust Dragon for sky-high damage output, but even with Tiki Armor this is more unsafe than worth against Moon Lord and is mainly useful against Empress of Light. The performance drop & competition with Cool Whip it has received in Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera is undeniable and Firecracker is worse than before as a result, but still great when used correctly. But because of Desert Tiger's rarity, it struggles to have a literal chance to shine past Pre-Plantera.
Cool Whip: A+
Right off the bat, the combination of Frostbite and the buffed Snowflake makes Cool Whip one of the better mobbing weapons through the first half of Hardmode, disrupting groups of enemies and then evenly damaging all of them for a ton of total damage. Coupled with Blade Staff, it's one of the best mobbing setups in the game that demolishes anything standing in your way. If anything it's arguably even better than Durendal for handling groups of enemies because of the value of its effects when hitting enemies. And since it now gives 6 tag damage, it's now especially potent with Blade Staff as a strong Mech boss killer as well as a the first choice for a support whip against Plantera to support Durendal & Blade. It's really good, but doesn't outright CARRY Summoner like most of the S tier weapons do.
Durendal: A+
With its solid base damage, relatively high Summon Tag and melee speed boost, the Durendal is an no brainer weapon to pick up for pretty much all Summoner characters and can be considered an indirect upgrade to the Snapthorn. Even when mainly using the Firecracker, the Durendal provides a significant speed boost to produce more explosions. For Blade Staff especially the Summon Tag is a big DPS boost, with the weapon itself also contributing a noticeable amount of damage. While it may have significantly shorter range than the whips that come after it, it's still able to hit Empress of Light safely if you know what you're doing. If you can triple-whip stack (or quadruple if you're me), it's useful through the rest of the game as a support whip including for Moon Lord. It's simple, but very effective.
Dark Harvest: A+
Despite its small rework, it remains an essentially stronger version of the Durendal that is longer, faster and stronger. Just like Durendal and Snapthorn the Whip speed boost has been toned down and it no longer works with Melee weapons (rip TerraWhip funny), but it still remains a powerful +35% whip speed boost with its dark energy effect now damaging the same target for an effective 10 tag damage. It remains a significant upgrade to Summoners up to the end of the game and even newer players should try using it as a support whip because it's low risk, high reward.
Morning Star: S-
From B- in 1.4.3 to now S- in 1.4.4, this sure is a gigantic jump! The buffs Morning Star has received in this update have fixed all of the problems it had and turned it from one of the worst whips in the game to one of the best ones. 45 to 35 usetime is a bigger difference than it may seem, to the point it's slower speed is hardly noticeable now including when whip stacking. This also means it can use its very high knockback more often to either keep enemies away from you or even shove beefier enemies away out of Firecracker's way when fighting Mourning Woods (Firecracker can only tag one enemy at a time unlike other whips). The speed combined with the buffed tag damage also means the damage output & contribution of Morning Star is actually good now, in fact it's even a good support whip. Even ignoring the flat 8 tag damage, the 12% critical hit chance tag is higher than Kaleidoscope's and gives a boost to even Firecracker builds. And now that Pumpkin Moon got buffed, this makes Morning Star's extremely potent group damage output and its high range even more in demand, and it's here to deliver it better than ever. Summoner as a whole is also stronger against Nighttime Empress of Light thanks to it.
Kaleidoscope: A
Essentially a stronger Morning Star, which should make it particularly great, however whips are more risky to use against Moon Lord than against other bosses, harming its viability. Not much to say besides the fact that it's the strongest whip stats-wise. Best used with Terraprisma while wearing Tiki Armor
Armors (Excluding Old One's Army armor sets)
Flinx Coat: S
Immediate +1 minion slot from just one armor piece in early Pre-Hardmode is not just amazing, Summoner or not this is one of if not the best armor piece in the game for the tier it's in. Most armor sets in general don't do much at this stage of the game, yet the Flinx Coat alone makes a bigger difference and contribution than other armor sets by the amount of additional damage & crowd disruption provided by just having one more minion. Basically every optimized build for the first half of Pre-Hardmode picks this armor piece no brainer, because it contributes more than anything else. And since again it's only one armor piece instead of a full armor set as usual, you can equip other armor pieces like for example Fossil headpiece & Fossil greaves for an additional 8% critical hit chance on weapons like Boomstick to use alongside minions. Strong armor sets at this stage like Gladiator Armor and Ancient Shadow Armor are difficult or unrealistic to obtain respectively, but Flinx Coat is obtained at the same place as Flinx Staff with just some Underground Ice exploration and Gold/Platinum gathering.
Obsidian Armor: A+
It has been smashed by nerfs both direct and indirect to the point It's no longer worth using in Hardmode, but it still remains viable for when it's supposed to be used. But even then its nerfs combined with Snapthorn giving less melee speed makes it no longer the dominant force it was against Queen Bee, Skeletron and Wall of Flesh compared to 1.4.3. Obsidian Armor builds now need to actually put effort optimizing their minions to compete with other classes in boss fights, and unfortunately the (in)famous "Obsidian SnapTap" build is weaker & riskier against Wall of Flesh to the point it's arguably outshined by the best option from other classes now. Night's Edge is a similar close-range strategy that kills WoF quicker while Demon Scythe also does the job fast while being extremely safer to use. It sounds like I'm just bashing the Obsidian Armor and making it seem unviable, but that just speaks how overpowered the Obsidian Armor used to be in 1.4.3 that now having it feel "balanced" is shocking. Today it still grants a higher summon damage bonus than Tiki Armor while having the same whip range bonus as it as well as increased whip speed. But with only +1 minion slot, it gets outshined by Spider Armor the moment Hardmode begins.
Bee Armor: A-
The only advantage this armor has over Obsidian Armor is the additional minion slot. Even then, it has a somewhat lower damage bonus as well as slightly lower defense, not to mention it's more difficult to obtain, requiring killing Queen Bee at least twice. Even after Obsidian's nerfs, all of this remains true. But the increased crowd control from having more minions makes Bee armor an useful sidegrade anyway, and if using a side weapon from another class instead of a Whip, having one more minion is arguably more beneficial for damage output overall.
Spider Armor: A+
With +3 minion slots, it's the perfect and most straightforward Hardmode Summoner armor you could ask for, and it's one of the first things you obtain too since it just requires killing Black Recluses. Other classes can also use this armor in combination with Sanguine Staff as an alternative to hybridize their damage output effectively, so this armor set ends up having more uses and builds than the average armor set despite its simplicity. However, it's immediately outclassed & replaced by the Summoner variant of the Hallowed Armor after mech bosses, which also provides Holy Protection and some global damage bonuses.
Forbidden Armor: B+
One of the most interesting armor sets in the game which gives boosts to both Summon AND Magic stats, it even gets a sandstorm attack as the set bonus! It's a damn shame that this armor set is so annoying to get that you might as well just stick to the alternatives. Wait for a sandstorm, fight through multiple Sand Elemental minibosses and then gather a bunch of tier 3 Hardmore ore. Forbidden Armor is almost never used especially since it faces competition with other armor sets for the purpose of multiclassing: Spider Armor gives one more minion slot and is extremely easier to obtain, while Crystal Assassin Armor gives its own global damage bonuses as well as a dash that lets you switch out Shield of Cthulhu for another accessory of your choice.
Hallowed Armor: S-
Boasting +3 minion slots for damage, Holy Protection for survivability and a bit of global damage increases in the same armor set, the Summoner variant of the Hallowed Armor is arguably the best one. Similarly to Spider Armor, both whip builds and hybrid builds benefit heavily from this armor set. Post-Plantera armor sets give bigger damage bonuses, but Hallowed Armor stays useful through the rest of the game thanks to Holy Protection. However, it now has significant competition with Tiki Armor, which provides higher Summon damage, one more minion slot and +30% whip range. The whip range bonus in particular is a big deal because it provides significant safety to back up Tiki's superior offense on the Summoner side. Especially since in Pumpkin Moon you want high DPS to progress waves faster and thus obtain Post-Plantera Summoner equipment faster. But even combined with Holy Protection getting nerfed, I don't think this is all a big deal, Hallowed Armor is still one of the best options as far as armor goes and only dropped to S- from S.
Tiki Armor: S-
What used to be simply a weaker version of the Spooky Armor is now one of the best possible options you could ask for in a Summoner build. It retains its +4 minion slots and now also gives +30% whip range which is a bigger deal than it may seem. This extra whip range makes whips as a whole significantly safer to use to the point of crossing the threshold of Morning Star outranging Greek Fire from Mourning Woods for example. Firecracker is also easier to use against Empress of Light (though the extra range is not necessary if using a Witch Broom build) and whips in general are less troublesome to use against Moon Lord. There's more examples but the point is that Tiki Armor offers a superb combination of damage & safety at the same time that arguably outshines Spooky Armor in most situations. To explain it as best as I can, the reason it's not ranked even higher is because of its relative simplicity and not being minmaxed towards anything in particular to enable either extreme damage or extreme survivability, like Beetle Shell.
Spooky Armor: S-
As I explained in the Tiki Armor section, Spooky Armor faces significant competition with it in Whip builds due to the range difference. Spooky Armor even faces competition with Hallowed Armor since it entirely abandons Holy Protection with no replacement, just a lot of raw offensive stats. Fortunately, Spooky Armor has some tricks up its sleeve to stay just as good: Not only is Spooky Armor better for Witch Broom setups on Empress of Light since you stay at Firecracker range anyway, but Spooky Breastplate's +2 minion slots makes it notably effective for armor mixing, a prime example being Spectre Mask/Spooky Breastplate/Dark Artist's Leggings. Even though I prefer Tiki armor for my playstyle, Spooky Armor's niches are just as significant.
Stardust Armor: Unranked
Not ranked as it's only obtainable after the game is over and there's nothing else to do.
Somewhat based on Baconfry's hardmode weapon tier list (but with different colors), I will give a grade to all of Summoner's options from minions to whips to armor sets (I won't include sentries though, because I've never used sentries and know next to nothing about them, and most of them aren't really impactful or too useful from what I saw. No Stardust Armor either, that's Post-Moon Lord). But first, the mindset & rules I will rank the options in the list with:
- For minions specifically, mainly their DPS and how often their AI allows them to reach said DPS, as well as how useful they are against regular mobs & protecting the player. And although Terraria weapons in general compete and outclasses each other, this is not nearly as relevant with pre-Hardmode minions thanks to Minion-mixing (summoning multiple different minions) being essential to counter i-frame problems and maximize your damage output during that stage of the game.
- For whips specifically, it depends on how much of an impact they make to Summoner builds through mainly summon tag & whip speed effects.
- For armors, their stats and set bonus first and foremost. Armors that also benefit multiclassing are given bonus points.
- Applying to ALL options in general, their general availability and if grinding for them is worth the effort if needed, as well as longevity. Weapons with a lot of longevity & contribution throughout the game are given a lot of bonus points, especially in Hardmode.
Now for what the grades mean:
S rank: Essential options to consider, these options carry Summoner and are in general some of the best options you can find in Terraria in general.
A rank: Options that are simply viable with not much more to explain.
B rank: Options that have uses worth considering to reach maximum damage output, or options that simply face a lot of competition and are outshined in general.
C rank: Poor options that are not worth paying attention towards if you want to optimize your Summoner build. But if you want to challenge yourself, options here can make a playthrough more challenging without being TOO annoyingly weak & clunky.
Last thing to note: Whip Stacking. You can switch and attack with multiple different whips to stack their effects. For example, you can combine Leather Whip (4 Summon Tag damage) and Snapthorn (6 Summon Tag damage) to get 10 Summon Tag damage total, which is higher than Durendal's tag damage! It gets more potent through the game as whips with stronger effects are obtained. Switching between multiple weapons mid-combat can be difficult and requires practice, but it's more than worth it and this technique is taken into account to a HIGH extent in this list.
This tier list assumes mainly "Whip Summoner" gameplay, but Hybrid builds are also taken into account whether to criticize options for being outshined by hybrid/multiclass setups or to give bonus points to other options for being beneficial for hybridizing/multiclassing. I did not rank Sentries nor OOA armor sets.
Minions
Abigail can be obtained at the very start of the game, however she falls off past early Pre-Hardmode as not only is it slow and has a hard time catching up to moving bosses but it also doesn't fit well in the minion-mixing meta, being vastly outclassed by summoning multiple different minions rather than dedicating more slots to Abigail. Abigail herself is not optimal to include in minion mixing because she is just that weak with only one slot. Abigail may not be able to find a place in your "team" for Pre-Hardmode boss fights, but Hardmode is where she shines the most. Not only does Hardmode directly increase Abigail's damage, but she fits perfectly well with the Firecracker's 2.75x damage explosion effect. This makes her strong not only against Hardmode mobs but also a few Hardmode bosses, especially Queen Slime as she can spawnkill most of the minions that spawns off Queen Slime. Although mainly used as a stepping stone to Sanguine Staff and Blade Staff, she also proves to be the best minion for Destroyer alongside Sanguine. Don't use her against Twins or Skeletron Prime however. Abigail is either really good or really bad depending on where and how you use her, so you need to know what you're doing.
If you can find it early in Living Wood Chests, it provides useful disruption & damage that is also effective against flying enemies like Bats and Crimeras since the Finch is aerial. Even if it doesn't generate, you have the option of rushing to the Aether biome to shimmer a Living Wood Wand into a Finch Staff. You'd think Finch Staff would quickly fall off and get replaced by Flinx Staff, but this is not necessarily the case. Bosses being large enables Finches to consistently damage them, making it useful to include when mixing minions especially if you haven't managed to obtain Vampire Frog Staff. Against Eater of World and Brain of Cthulhu in particular, Finch will pierce through the many segments and Creepers respectively unlike Flinx, furthering its usefulness.
Flinx Staff has practically the perfect minion AI, its main trait is its "stickiness" as its bounces off enemies instead of passing through them like other minions. Not only does this makes it reliable even against aerial targets, but its consistent hitrate makes it scale particularly well with summon tag and armor penetration. Minions in Pre-Hardmode have their ups & downs relative to each other as well as their own best usecases, but Flinx has been shown to be consistently the most reliable AND contributory minion for almost all Pre-Hardmode bosses. In the past I've written off Flinx Staff's performance against Wall of Flesh, but when actually trying it out seriously I found out that it performs very well in a "right click" strategy to have it ignores the Hungries. As a whole Flinx Staff is one of the best Pre-Hardmode weapons in the game, it may not look like it at first glance but after countless hours of playing the game as well as "testing" (speedkilling), Flinx has almost always outshined other minions and added a lot of damage & crowd control even for hybrid builds. It doesn't have one particularly insane or unique usecase, rather its versatility, lack of flaws and longevity makes it the perfect minion that can't get better without becoming overpowered.
Can be treated as a weaker version of Vampire Frog, but in practice it'll be compared the most to Flinx Staff. It doesn't handle flying enemies like Demon Eyes and Hornets well, but it can perform nearly as well against Fighter AIs and in fact maybe better against larger targets (like King Slime and Deerclops) since It'll go "inside" them rather than bounce off them like Flinx does. In the extremely low chance that Slime Staff drops early in a playthrough, it has arguably better mobbing than Finch and Abigail. You can also mix Flinx and Slime together to optimize for higher damage overall because of i-frames, and in general the more minions you have for minion-mixing the better. Although I found its AI to sometimes stop attacking and fly to you when you simply jump up in the air a bit, which is annoying. In general It's not worth going out of your way to grind for it, just be happy in the one or two playthroughs that you find it in your lifetime.
Similar to Flinx, it's useful through all of pre-Hardmode though doesn't perform as well against aerial targets It jumping through enemies piercing them combined with its high base damage also makes it shred mobs especially in events. With the way they work, you can right click WoF's top eye ball and the frogs will start jumping up and down, hitting all three weak points of WoF and dealing rapid damage. Most effective when mixed with Imps, or when purposely waiting until after WoF spawns to summon frogs and have them desynced to minimize i-frames. Even when it's not damaging WoF's weak points, it's still useful on the ground for killing Hungries & Leeches.
Thanks to the Hive Pack now giving it a potent attack speed boost, Hornet Staff went from being slightly worse than other minions including Imp to now being on par or better depending on the situation, which is especially a big deal considering Hornet's stinger attacks don't interrupt each other. Even newer players can go full Hornet and have good firepower without putting much thought, and while their projectiles still miss a lot in boss fights, they are aerial & ranged so they will constantly attempt to target enemies like Skeletron and be able to land hits semi-consistently. In the Underworld in particular they are effective at taking out demons who often come at you in a straight-ish line, as well as Fire Imps who stand in place. I would rank Hornet Staff B or B+ for me, but speedkills aren't everything and it performs decently well for the average player that wants a semi-reliable minion that doesn't rely on optimization like minion mixing or flat damage.
Its AI is just sufficiently competent to hit most enemies consistently, and it's essentially a free pickup when you're taking a trip to the underworld for Hellforge (Obsidian Armor) and Molten Pickaxe. It has noticeable i-frame issues when you have several of them summoned, so it's heavily recommended you mix them with other minions to minimize i-frame issues and get the most out of Whip summon tag buffs. Its piercing projectiles makes it effective against Wall of Flesh, but otherwise it's not really exciting.
For how easy it is to obtain especially, it excels at fending off Hardmode mobs through its surprisingly high DPS. But it's simply not useful against Hardmode bosses due to being grounded and being unable to reach them most of the time. The exception to this is Plantera and Spider Staff is in fact good against Plantera, but specifically on hybrid builds.
Spider Staff runs into i-frame issues when many of them are attacking the same target, so the pirates can increase overall damage output slightly I guess? Their AI is bad and hardly functions, they are especially laughably bad at attacking aerial enemies. And... maybe they can perform decently well in the 2nd tier of the Old One's Army? I'm trying hard to find minor uses for Pirate Staff here.
With nearly perfect AI that can keep up with all bosses, it's backed up by solid damage output to create one of the most potent and reliable minions in the first half of Hardmode. Whether running it as a support minion for other classes or using it with Firecracker, Sanguine can be used by any character with any class and will always provide a significant amount of free damage even against fast moving bosses. However, its availability as a Dreadnautilus drop (imagine killing Dreadnautilus on-tier) is so stupid to the point that combined with its lack of longevity in 1.4.4 (Optic Staff mostly outshines it), I can't consider it a "meta" or "must-have" minion anymore as crazy as that sounds. If I have to even wonder if the effort to get it is worth it, then it's immediately not S tier.
The most unique minion, in general one of the most unique weapons in the whole game. Because of its very fast attack speed but extremely low base damage, it pairs extremely well with Summon Tag damage. As a whole, its damage output depends on what whips the player uses and how skilled they are at whip stacking. Even ignoring DPS, Blade Staff proves itself to be extremely effective & reliable against Hardmode mobs by stunlocking them in place even when they are airborne, and they do so very reliably as they stand just above you and instantly respond to threats. This becomes even more useful in the Post-Plantera Dungeon despite it being a Pre-Mech weapon because it will protect you from the various Fighter AI enemies running at you, instantly stunlock Dungeon Spirits when they spawn and even stunlock the teleporting mages as they teleport all over the place. Even other classes use Blade Staff as a support minion defensively.
Blade Staff in combination with Cool Whip is one of the best mobbing/crowd control setups in the game during Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera, as you get all of the advantages Blade Staff provides as well as Cool Whip's Frostbite, Snowflake AND Tag damage. Blade Staff specializes in bursting down fewer enemies at a time, while Cool Whip spreads damage to whole hordes of enemies through its own base damage, Frostbite & Snowflake. Combined, even Master Mode mobbing in Hardmode is trivialized as everything is simply destroyed through the sheer power & synergy of Blade + Cool Whip. When it comes to boss fights, Blade Staff with Cool Whip stacked with Spinal Tap & Snapthorn competes for the best minion DPS against mech bosses and against Plantera it's the best minion if stacking multiple whips. Optic Staff becomes better if only using one whip however. In all cases though, you can run a defensive full Warding build and lose less damage compared to other weapons because most of Blade Staff's damage comes from flat tag damage and armor penetration.
To summarize: Phenomenal performance for mobbing in Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera, good performance against mech bosses, good performance against Plantera, phenomenal performance for mobbing in the Post-Plantera Dungeon, good performance during the Post-Plantera Solar Eclipse. Blade Staff not only has long longevity through Hardmode but is consistently one of the better options during those times as well. This is all in spite of the two nerfs it has gotten as well (-25% tag efficiency nerf & armor penetration damage bugfix nerf) thanks to Cool Whip not only being a much stronger weapon by itself to compete with Firecracker, but itself providing tag damage to Blade Staff to negate its -25% tag efficiency nerf.
Now finally viable in 1.4.4, it outperforms Sanguine Staff against Plantera. It also outperforms Blade Staff if only using one Whip. in It thrives in open space against mobs, but in tight spaces like the Post-Plantera Dungeon it gets stuck all the time.
Even with the buffs it has gotten in 1.4.4, it simply cannot function very well in the context of Post-Plantera. Pygmies perform badly in tight spaces, so they are not very usable in either the Jungle Temple or the Post-Plantera Dungeon. Pygmies struggle against crowds of enemies due to their lack of piercing, so they are not very usable against the Solar Eclipse or Pumpkin Moon. And even then, Deadly Sphere Staff is both more reliable & more powerful. Only use this minion if you want to hold yourself back on purpose for a challenge.
Rare to see in a playthrough unless you got lucky or went out of your way to grind for it. However, it has the power to justify its rarity. It hits like a truck coupled with Firecracker, resulting in the best DPS of all minions at this point until Xeno Staff and beyond assuming you are at least somewhat brave with Firecracker. Thankfully, the Tiki Armor whip range buff made Firecracker much safer to use consistently, which in turn makes Desert Tiger a better option this update. It's hard to obtain and requires some bravery with Firecracker to maximize its potential, but those who are up to the task will be rewarded with pretty incredible DPS at this stage of the game.
One of the most buffed weapons in 1.4.4, the Deadly Sphere Staff went from being a joke of a weapon severely outclassed by Blade & Sanguine, to outshining the two of them in most situations. Besides its very good damage output, its method of attacking makes it even more favorable against crowds of enemies and bosses with multiple parts. It doesn't even need whips to be able to cut through regular enemies like a hot knife through butter. In fact, it competes with Raven Staff despite that weapon being obtained later in progression, being superior in some aspects including speed and crowd control. However, because it attacks by moving in "dashes", it can struggle a bit to catch up to faster moving bosses like Pumpking or Empress of Light chasing you, losing DPS. Similarly to Optic Staff, it also gets stuck all the time in tight spaces like the Post-Plantera dungeon, so don't trash that Blade Staff just yet.
Although a bit slower and less consistent than Deadly Sphere Staff, it has higher single target DPS which is mainly valuable for Empress of Light. An offensive setup using Witch Broom not only makes the Raven AI more consistent, but combined with more damage accessories this makes Raven kill Empress of Light impressively fast, even if still somewhat slower than Desert Tiger.
With pretty much the best AI in the game that is even better than Sanguine Staf AND the best damage output of all minions that eclipses even Desert Tiger, Xeno Staff is simply stellar and no prior minion can compare. It's even better for cases like tracking Duke Fishron phase 3 and Nebula Floaters, where other minions struggle to keep up with them. There's not much else to it, excluding Stardust minions it's your best option for Empress of Light, Duke Fishron, OOA Tier 3 and whatever.
For a Duke Fishron drop, It is not as good as you would expect compared to the like of Tsunami and Razorblade Typhoon. It did get buffed, however its strength is still only approximately that of Deadly Sphere & Raven while lacking the crowd control capabilities especially compared to Deadly Sphere. By itself it's a good minion, but it's not really worth going for because judging by availability alone it's overshadowed by its competition.
Can be treated as a stronger Desert Tiger. On paper it offers some of the highest damage output in the game with Firecracker, being able to reach 10k+ DPS with enough offensive accessories and stacking with other whips. In practice this isn't super applicable outside of Empress of Light, mainly because Firecracker even with Tiki Armor is not very practical to use against Moon Lord. The main appeal and strength of Stardust Dragon is that it doesn't need whips to deal high damage on its own, and combined with its good aggro range that is higher than Terraprisma, it is the best minion for Moon Lord and is even useful to provide significant additional damage to other classes, especially if they hybridize with Summoner armor pieces & accessories. It's not very good for mobbing in the lunar events however, Xeno, Stardust Cell and especially Terraprisma are all better for that.
A lite Terraprisma you could say. It's more reliable and consistent than Dragon against Empress of Light (With similar DPS depending on the setup) and handles pillar mobbing better, but otherwise has little uses. Whips aren't particularly great against Moon Lord, Stardust Dragon does way more damage passively and Terraprisma outclasses Stardust Cell in every way imaginable be it with whips or no whips. Even when it at its most useful, it's short lived. To squeeze out a bit more DPS, include a single Stardust Dragon summon alongside your cell army (especially since single-slot dragons have more reliable AI).
Another minion that solidifies itself as a powerhouse through sheer combination of reliability & damage output, the Terraprisma sweeps the lunar events nearly effortlessly. While it's viable against Moon Lord coupled with Kaleidoscope, it faces competition with Stardust Dragon who not only has higher damage output without whips (although Dragon's less consistent AI closes the gap a bit), but has higher aggro range to enable running away farther without losing DPS. Being locked behind Daytime Empress of Light makes it difficult to obtain mainly for lesser-skilled players, and in general the context of Moon Lord prevents Terraprisma from rising to the S tier because it only really gets to show off its power against one annoying boss that whips aren't great against.
Whips
A fairly weak weapon on its own even for whip standards, it should mostly be used for whip stacking with Snapthorn to increase Summon Tag damage. Even then it takes a little while before Zoologist moves in, but if you obtain it before Snapthorn, it's good at picking Man Eaters inside the Underground Jungle.
The Snapthorn is a powerhouse in early Pre-Hardmode, boasting surprisingly high power for a pre-boss whip and killing mobs with relative ease even without minions. Poisoned also helps it rack up even more damage to crowds and worm enemies, even after the significant nerf to the chance of inflicting it & the duration. This weapon is essential for Summoners to pick up, not just because there aren't many options but because it's just that useful & ensures Summoner is on par with the other classes in boss fights and events. It's vastly superior to Leather Whip and hardly weaker than Spinal Tap. In fact, while admittedly not to the same extent as in 1.4.3, Snapthorn might have the highest longevity of any weapon in the entire game. Even after Skeletron, it stays useful as a support whip whether to slightly buff the speed of other whips or provide tag damage to Blade Staff in Hardmode. In fact, coupled with Blade Staff, Snapthorn has the potential to remain in use until all the way into Post-Plantera assuming you're using three whips. It's a Pre-Boss weapon that stays useful for the majority of the game including half of Hardmode for christ's sake.
Its way smaller damage penalty against multiple enemies makes it more effective against Bone Serpents and Wall of Flesh, and it gives a nice 7 tag damage which combines well with Snapthorn's 6 tag damage. However, with the 1.4.4 nerfs to Obsidian Armor, Snapthorn's whip speed effect and Spinal Tap itself getting a small base damage nerf, it is no longer a threat like it used to be against Wall of Flesh and as a result whip builds struggle compete with other options from other classes. Weapons like Night's Edge are more rewarding for the risk, while others like Demon Scythe can kill Wall of Flesh close to as fast while being extremely safer and more practical. The Obsidian SnapTap build is now lackluster with a worse balance of safety/DPS compared to stronger options, but at least Spinal Tap is still good as a support whip in Hardmode similar to Snapthorn. It has to compete with Snapthorn for the position though depending on how many whips the player uses. If only using two, the Spinal Tap is gone for good as soon as Durendal is obtained since Cool Whip is simply better.
In a way, this weapon actually becomes stronger as Hardmode progresses. It's a solid mobbing option in early Hardmode when coupled with Abigail and It's a strong option paired with Sanguine Staff against mech bosses & Plantera, though weaker than before with the 1.4.4 nerfs to Sanguine and Obsidian Armor to the point you need to use Spider Armor for the most damage at the cost of significantly less range. It reaches the peak of its usefulness with Desert Tiger in Post-Plantera, achieving some of the highest damage output at this stage of the game including the best Summoner DPS until Xeno Staff and beyond. It only helps that Tiki Armor's new whip range increase makes Firecracker far safer and easier to use than before too. It can also be used with Stardust Dragon for sky-high damage output, but even with Tiki Armor this is more unsafe than worth against Moon Lord and is mainly useful against Empress of Light. The performance drop & competition with Cool Whip it has received in Pre-Mech & Pre-Plantera is undeniable and Firecracker is worse than before as a result, but still great when used correctly. But because of Desert Tiger's rarity, it struggles to have a literal chance to shine past Pre-Plantera.
Right off the bat, the combination of Frostbite and the buffed Snowflake makes Cool Whip one of the better mobbing weapons through the first half of Hardmode, disrupting groups of enemies and then evenly damaging all of them for a ton of total damage. Coupled with Blade Staff, it's one of the best mobbing setups in the game that demolishes anything standing in your way. If anything it's arguably even better than Durendal for handling groups of enemies because of the value of its effects when hitting enemies. And since it now gives 6 tag damage, it's now especially potent with Blade Staff as a strong Mech boss killer as well as a the first choice for a support whip against Plantera to support Durendal & Blade. It's really good, but doesn't outright CARRY Summoner like most of the S tier weapons do.
With its solid base damage, relatively high Summon Tag and melee speed boost, the Durendal is an no brainer weapon to pick up for pretty much all Summoner characters and can be considered an indirect upgrade to the Snapthorn. Even when mainly using the Firecracker, the Durendal provides a significant speed boost to produce more explosions. For Blade Staff especially the Summon Tag is a big DPS boost, with the weapon itself also contributing a noticeable amount of damage. While it may have significantly shorter range than the whips that come after it, it's still able to hit Empress of Light safely if you know what you're doing. If you can triple-whip stack (or quadruple if you're me), it's useful through the rest of the game as a support whip including for Moon Lord. It's simple, but very effective.
Despite its small rework, it remains an essentially stronger version of the Durendal that is longer, faster and stronger. Just like Durendal and Snapthorn the Whip speed boost has been toned down and it no longer works with Melee weapons (rip TerraWhip funny), but it still remains a powerful +35% whip speed boost with its dark energy effect now damaging the same target for an effective 10 tag damage. It remains a significant upgrade to Summoners up to the end of the game and even newer players should try using it as a support whip because it's low risk, high reward.
From B- in 1.4.3 to now S- in 1.4.4, this sure is a gigantic jump! The buffs Morning Star has received in this update have fixed all of the problems it had and turned it from one of the worst whips in the game to one of the best ones. 45 to 35 usetime is a bigger difference than it may seem, to the point it's slower speed is hardly noticeable now including when whip stacking. This also means it can use its very high knockback more often to either keep enemies away from you or even shove beefier enemies away out of Firecracker's way when fighting Mourning Woods (Firecracker can only tag one enemy at a time unlike other whips). The speed combined with the buffed tag damage also means the damage output & contribution of Morning Star is actually good now, in fact it's even a good support whip. Even ignoring the flat 8 tag damage, the 12% critical hit chance tag is higher than Kaleidoscope's and gives a boost to even Firecracker builds. And now that Pumpkin Moon got buffed, this makes Morning Star's extremely potent group damage output and its high range even more in demand, and it's here to deliver it better than ever. Summoner as a whole is also stronger against Nighttime Empress of Light thanks to it.
Essentially a stronger Morning Star, which should make it particularly great, however whips are more risky to use against Moon Lord than against other bosses, harming its viability. Not much to say besides the fact that it's the strongest whip stats-wise. Best used with Terraprisma while wearing Tiki Armor
Armors (Excluding Old One's Army armor sets)
Immediate +1 minion slot from just one armor piece in early Pre-Hardmode is not just amazing, Summoner or not this is one of if not the best armor piece in the game for the tier it's in. Most armor sets in general don't do much at this stage of the game, yet the Flinx Coat alone makes a bigger difference and contribution than other armor sets by the amount of additional damage & crowd disruption provided by just having one more minion. Basically every optimized build for the first half of Pre-Hardmode picks this armor piece no brainer, because it contributes more than anything else. And since again it's only one armor piece instead of a full armor set as usual, you can equip other armor pieces like for example Fossil headpiece & Fossil greaves for an additional 8% critical hit chance on weapons like Boomstick to use alongside minions. Strong armor sets at this stage like Gladiator Armor and Ancient Shadow Armor are difficult or unrealistic to obtain respectively, but Flinx Coat is obtained at the same place as Flinx Staff with just some Underground Ice exploration and Gold/Platinum gathering.
It has been smashed by nerfs both direct and indirect to the point It's no longer worth using in Hardmode, but it still remains viable for when it's supposed to be used. But even then its nerfs combined with Snapthorn giving less melee speed makes it no longer the dominant force it was against Queen Bee, Skeletron and Wall of Flesh compared to 1.4.3. Obsidian Armor builds now need to actually put effort optimizing their minions to compete with other classes in boss fights, and unfortunately the (in)famous "Obsidian SnapTap" build is weaker & riskier against Wall of Flesh to the point it's arguably outshined by the best option from other classes now. Night's Edge is a similar close-range strategy that kills WoF quicker while Demon Scythe also does the job fast while being extremely safer to use. It sounds like I'm just bashing the Obsidian Armor and making it seem unviable, but that just speaks how overpowered the Obsidian Armor used to be in 1.4.3 that now having it feel "balanced" is shocking. Today it still grants a higher summon damage bonus than Tiki Armor while having the same whip range bonus as it as well as increased whip speed. But with only +1 minion slot, it gets outshined by Spider Armor the moment Hardmode begins.
The only advantage this armor has over Obsidian Armor is the additional minion slot. Even then, it has a somewhat lower damage bonus as well as slightly lower defense, not to mention it's more difficult to obtain, requiring killing Queen Bee at least twice. Even after Obsidian's nerfs, all of this remains true. But the increased crowd control from having more minions makes Bee armor an useful sidegrade anyway, and if using a side weapon from another class instead of a Whip, having one more minion is arguably more beneficial for damage output overall.
With +3 minion slots, it's the perfect and most straightforward Hardmode Summoner armor you could ask for, and it's one of the first things you obtain too since it just requires killing Black Recluses. Other classes can also use this armor in combination with Sanguine Staff as an alternative to hybridize their damage output effectively, so this armor set ends up having more uses and builds than the average armor set despite its simplicity. However, it's immediately outclassed & replaced by the Summoner variant of the Hallowed Armor after mech bosses, which also provides Holy Protection and some global damage bonuses.
One of the most interesting armor sets in the game which gives boosts to both Summon AND Magic stats, it even gets a sandstorm attack as the set bonus! It's a damn shame that this armor set is so annoying to get that you might as well just stick to the alternatives. Wait for a sandstorm, fight through multiple Sand Elemental minibosses and then gather a bunch of tier 3 Hardmore ore. Forbidden Armor is almost never used especially since it faces competition with other armor sets for the purpose of multiclassing: Spider Armor gives one more minion slot and is extremely easier to obtain, while Crystal Assassin Armor gives its own global damage bonuses as well as a dash that lets you switch out Shield of Cthulhu for another accessory of your choice.
Boasting +3 minion slots for damage, Holy Protection for survivability and a bit of global damage increases in the same armor set, the Summoner variant of the Hallowed Armor is arguably the best one. Similarly to Spider Armor, both whip builds and hybrid builds benefit heavily from this armor set. Post-Plantera armor sets give bigger damage bonuses, but Hallowed Armor stays useful through the rest of the game thanks to Holy Protection. However, it now has significant competition with Tiki Armor, which provides higher Summon damage, one more minion slot and +30% whip range. The whip range bonus in particular is a big deal because it provides significant safety to back up Tiki's superior offense on the Summoner side. Especially since in Pumpkin Moon you want high DPS to progress waves faster and thus obtain Post-Plantera Summoner equipment faster. But even combined with Holy Protection getting nerfed, I don't think this is all a big deal, Hallowed Armor is still one of the best options as far as armor goes and only dropped to S- from S.
What used to be simply a weaker version of the Spooky Armor is now one of the best possible options you could ask for in a Summoner build. It retains its +4 minion slots and now also gives +30% whip range which is a bigger deal than it may seem. This extra whip range makes whips as a whole significantly safer to use to the point of crossing the threshold of Morning Star outranging Greek Fire from Mourning Woods for example. Firecracker is also easier to use against Empress of Light (though the extra range is not necessary if using a Witch Broom build) and whips in general are less troublesome to use against Moon Lord. There's more examples but the point is that Tiki Armor offers a superb combination of damage & safety at the same time that arguably outshines Spooky Armor in most situations. To explain it as best as I can, the reason it's not ranked even higher is because of its relative simplicity and not being minmaxed towards anything in particular to enable either extreme damage or extreme survivability, like Beetle Shell.
As I explained in the Tiki Armor section, Spooky Armor faces significant competition with it in Whip builds due to the range difference. Spooky Armor even faces competition with Hallowed Armor since it entirely abandons Holy Protection with no replacement, just a lot of raw offensive stats. Fortunately, Spooky Armor has some tricks up its sleeve to stay just as good: Not only is Spooky Armor better for Witch Broom setups on Empress of Light since you stay at Firecracker range anyway, but Spooky Breastplate's +2 minion slots makes it notably effective for armor mixing, a prime example being Spectre Mask/Spooky Breastplate/Dark Artist's Leggings. Even though I prefer Tiki armor for my playstyle, Spooky Armor's niches are just as significant.
Not ranked as it's only obtainable after the game is over and there's nothing else to do.
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