Weapons & Equip About the Crystal Assassin Set

[Kats]

So, been playing around with movement speed and the new Crystal Assassin Set, because of how much it adds, and I've found something...
...that is already common knowledge lul.

For those that might not know:

Movement Speed have what we call a Hard Cap at different stages depending on Accessories used, among other things, so I guess one could call it more of a semi-hardcap.
The cap is increased significantly on Asphalt Blocks, Max I have reached is 99, Mounts don't have increased speed on Asphalt (Goat still hovers between 60 and 61).
Lightning Boots and its upgrades have a hard cap of 34 MPH
All other Boots have a hardcap of 30 MPH
Movement Speed without Boots is most likely also capped at 30 (Could only reach 28)

With that out of the way, here in lies the problem, this cap is reached as soon as you put on boots. And so Movement Speed buffs "only help" if you do not use boots.
Except for one thing, acceleration to top speed does improve when stacking movement speed, but its barely noticeable with boots, you'll hit top speed really quick anyway because of the boost they all have, and a swiftness potion is easy to get and gives more than enough of a boost.

So, where am I going with all this? Well... Movement Speed Buffs are incredibly boring for the reasons explained above. Especially so when its a set bonus, even more so when the Movement Speed ends up at a whooping 25% in the end which is overkill.
The Frost Armor is easier to get, and much better, Defense is higher, Frostburn is awesome, gives enough movement speed at 8% and it even has 1% more damage and crit chance.
I don't know if one is supposed to get the Crystal Assassin Set earlier and I'm just bad but I could not kill the boss despite multiple attempts until after I got Frost Armor haha.

Some cool little slime assassin examples hehe.
Pressing down while in the air transforms you into a slime (similar color as the boss? unique dyes for this armor that changes color to mimic specific slimes?), slamming down dealing a lot of damage to any mob unfortunate enough to stand below, or maybe cause a slimeplosion, splattering slime goo all around the player, damaging and slowing any mob nearby.
Pressing down while on the ground will transform you into a slime, moving left and right will cause you to crawl in that direction, if you move/press down above a 1 tile gap, you can slip through the gap, with an animation of the slime getting squished.
If you allowed for moving around like this in a 1 tile tunnel, it could be worked into tons of cool little puzzle and adventure maps too haha.
Maybe even pvp maps, though I dunno how that works hehe.
Of course, can not morph back to normal without exiting the gap/tunnel.
And if the unique dyes for this armor could be a thing too, then even more possibilities!

Could also just theme it around crystals, keep the slam, remove the slow, shoot out crystal shards all around the player (could just be crystal dart projectiles that don't bounce, or only bounces once). Pressing down while on ground will transform you into a crystal for 1-2 seconds, character unable to do any action except grapple/mount key but is invulnerable, crystal has a health bar that mobs can break, if broken, stuns the player for 1 second.
Grapple/Mount Key will cancel the invul and shoot crystal shards all around the player damaging enemies they hit.

That and maybe a slight buff to defense or damage, unless you're indeed supposed to get this before the Frost Armor (and similar stage armor) and I'm just bad.

Just my 2 cents though.

 

[Tyrian3k]

The movement speed cap is a weird one. When using Hermes Boots and its variations/upgrades, your maximum speed is set to 30/34 mph unless your movement speed bonuses bring your total movement speed higher than that number. By stacking enough movement speed bonuses, you can actually exceed 34 mph without asphalt and boots. Just have to reforge all accessories to movement speed, use aglet and anklet, use Orichalcum Helmet with a Gi and Valhalla Greaves and boost the speed further with a major well-fed buff, a swiftness potion and sunflowers.
Basically, you have two separate movement speed caps and the game takes whichever one is higher, which will be the one from the boots in 99.9% of the cases.
That said, it would really be nice if the movement speed bonuses actually increased the maximum speed and stacked with the boots' speed boosts.
I mean, we can massively increase our wings' vertical speed with frog legs/balloons, but why aren't we allowed to run faster? It really makes movement speed bonuses utterly pointless.

 

[Kats]

Oooh interesting! I only really tried using accessories people normally use, all with Quick modifier, and the Crystal Assassin Set, and then same accessories without Quick modifier, and then yet another test on both but with Swiftness potion hehe. Oh and, same tests as before but with Amphibian Boots instead. And then, yet again! All prior tests redone at night for the 5% speed bonus in werewolf form from Celestial Shell haha.
(Its really funny when you think about it, all these movement speed buffs add up to 53%/58% without Swiftness Potion (No Wolf/Wolf) and 78%/83% with Swiftness Potion (No Wolf/Wolf) yet the speed of the two boots still end up at 30MPH/34MPH (Amphibian/Lightning) haha.)

EDIT: Did test increasing speed without boots and yeah, you can reach quite fast speeds that way, but your equipment is then a mixture of different armor pieces and bad accessories haha.

And as for movement speed actually increasing your speed (with boots), that'd be great haha.
Though in the case of this armor set, I'd still love some changes for it, as I'm greedy and like my own ideas too much.

I do see problems with them fully "unlocking" movement speed bonuses, as it would likely result in extreme speeds that would be impossible to control haha.
Like the 34 MPH Lightning Boots Speed buffed with +25% from swiftness potion and 25% from full crystal assassin set and we're already up at 51 MPH, ~10 MPH (9.5? It bounces between 60 and 61 lol) short of beating the Goat mount (the fastest I have at the moment lol).
And that's not counting any other bonuses lul.
So while I can see a reason for the cap, I don't quite understand why they make an armor set with an absurd amount of movement speed bonus despite knowing full well that they do have this strange cap in place haha. (still love you though)
(Ah, again like I stated in first post though, I do know it gives other bonuses as well)

Especially when its only obtainable in hardmode, even if I'm not quite sure which stage you should be at when getting the armor, I just happened to be unable to beat the boss before I got Frost Armor, wether that's me being bad or if its something else, I don't know lol.
Playing on Master, so because its a boss, maybe its just more difficult to get because of Master Mode buffing bosses, making Frost Armor easier to get even though (if) its supposed to be obtained later?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rambling

*Because I'm a master at constantly editing posts when I think of something else to add, which often times makes my posts into a complete mess that are impossible to comprehend eventually.... (are mods able to see how many times a post has been edited? lmao, such curiosity.)
I wrote about seeing a problem with them fully unlocking movement speed, which I do indeed, but I wanted to add that if the speed bonuses added on to the base movement speed instead of current movement speed then it would be fine... I think? As in, you wouldn't reach crazy speeds that are impossible to control unless you actually really go out of your way to do so.
But, I'm no good at math haha.

One nice little thing could be to at least make Quick modifier on boots actually make a difference in top speed hehe.
4% isn't a lot but if lightning boots reaches 34 MPH with just an extra 8% then I would assume 32 MPH would be max speed for other boots if Quick Modifier on them worked like this, and Lightning Boots could then go up to 36 lul.
(And legit just remove the possibility for other accessories to get the movement speed modifiers lol)
Which made me thing of something entirely unrelated, would be cool if every single type of accessory in the game had a unique modifier that was extremely rare but improves something specific to that accessory lol.
Like, because I love the dart rifle, all Quiver's could get a modifier that add a neat 5% damage to darts and makes all other bonuses they have work for dart weapons too haha.

 

[TheMobhunter]

I was thinking about this armor too! I think it'd be better if they changed the set bonus to have the effects of the Volatile Gel, and increased the damage boost the armor has overall as well. The Volatile Gel could instead give you the ability to jump on enemies heads, like the slime mount, and increase jump speed/height too. I'm not entirely sure how balanced/unbalanced this would be, but it would definitely be cool.

 

[Banmei]

To each their own I suppose. I prefer armor with movement bonuses over other ones and am even willing to sacrifice a bit of defense to get it. Sure the boots get you there but I find the time it takes to reach top speed is waaaayy too slow.

You are also forgetting Wings. Movement Speed in general gives you so much more out of your wings. I feel like a leaf in the air when using wings with no speed bonus. Doesn't seem right.

What irks me about the Crystal Assassin set is what it takes to get it and the fact that it's not much better than cobalt. I do like your ideas though. They certainly would make the armor worthwhile. I got it just to get it only to feel like I wasted my time and just spent a while getting decorative armor. The ability the transform into a slime would make it a must have.

 

[smeagolheart]

I was thinking about this armor too! I think it'd be better if they changed the set bonus to have the effects of the Volatile Gel, and increased the damage boost the armor has overall as well. The Volatile Gel could instead give you the ability to jump on enemies heads, like the slime mount, and increase jump speed/height too. I'm not entirely sure how balanced/unbalanced this would be, but it would definitely be cool.

If it allowed jumping on heads we could do a full conversion in to a Mario game lol. Cool. Plumbers Outfit and fire flowers and all.

 

[Dapling]

The Frost Armor is easier to get, and much better,

Untrue. Defense starts to fall off in usefulness once hardmode starts, because 21 flat damage does barely anything against the 100+ damage most expert hardmode enemies inflict, especially post-mech. Frostburn is awful because it literally is 8 DPS. Compare this to orichalcum armor, which is 2 tiers below it, which effectively adds 30 dps with it's petals. You also can't hybridize as well with frost armor because it doesn't affect summon damage... or the nimbus rod... or the clinger staff (this particular one may be unimpressive but my point still stands).

The fact that this set was moved later in progression doesn't make sense at all, especially considering how ridiculously powerful its new rival Hallowed armor is (seriously, it's possibly the best armor in the game for when you can get it now that they've buffed it to high hell.)

Sure the boots get you there but I find the time it takes to reach top speed is waaaayy too slow.

...which is exactly why people use the shield of cthulhu.

You are also forgetting Wings. Movement Speed in general gives you so much more out of your wings. I feel like a leaf in the air when using wings with no speed bonus. Doesn't seem right.

That's interesting, considering movement speed bonuses actually don't affect wings at all. You're probably imagining it. You can easily test by comparing your aerial speeds with and without Lightning Boots. Use a stopwatch.

 

[Kats]

Untrue. Defense starts to fall off in usefulness once hardmode starts, because 21 flat damage does barely anything against the 100+ damage most expert hardmode enemies inflict, especially post-mech. Frostburn is awful because it literally is 8 DPS. Compare this to orichalcum armor, which is 2 tiers below it, which effectively adds 30 dps with it's petals. You also can't hybridize as well with frost armor because it doesn't affect summon damage... or the nimbus rod... or the clinger staff (this particular one may be unimpressive but my point still stands)

Ah, I was only really comparing Frostburn Armor (which is always the first armor set I get once I enter hardmode) and Crystal Armor really, and commenting on that Frostburn takes little to no effort to aqquire, just need a storm for the golem dude, and some metal. Crystal Assassin armor makes you kill a boss, for worse stats (imo).
Frostburn itself might not be great but... everything is higher on FB armor than Crystal Assassin with the exception of movement speed.

And, I exclusively play ranged hehe.

 

[Dapling]

Ah, I was only really comparing Frostburn Armor (which is always the first armor set I get once I enter hardmode) and Crystal Armor really, and commenting on that Frostburn takes little to no effort to aqquire, just need a storm for the golem dude, and some metal. Crystal Assassin armor makes you kill a boss, for worse stats (imo).
Frostburn itself might not be great but... everything is higher on FB armor than Crystal Assassin with the exception of movement speed.

And, I exclusively play ranged hehe.

You need Hallowed Bars to get Frost Armor now. Orichalcum is still a much better ranged set.

Edit: I... Really just misread the wiki that badly... wow.
Orichalcum is still far easier to get in bulk though, especially due to the crate rework.

 

[Kats]

You need Hallowed Bars to get Frost Armor now. Orichalcum is still a much better ranged set.

Edit: I... Really just misread the wiki that badly... wow.
Orichalcum is still far easier to get in bulk now, especially due to the crate rework.

Hmm, if you're already fishing then getting enough for frost armor doesn't take much longer.
Orichalcum may be better, I dunno, I just never look at those types of setbonuses, I prefer raw stats haha.
I rather take the 16% Damage, and, while 10% less, still 11% crit haha, raw stats ftw Frostburn is a nice lightsource too.

But yes, talking Crystal Assassin, that set has 1% less damage and 1% less crit, and a bit of extra movement speed that... really doesn't make a noticeable enough difference because of how movement speed works lul.
Yet its quite a bit harder to get lul.
Hence this thread.

 

[Dapling]

Hmm, if you're already fishing then getting enough for frost armor doesn't take much longer.
Orichalcum may be better, I dunno, I just never look at those types of setbonuses, I prefer raw stats haha.
I rather take the 16% Damage, and, while 10% less, still 11% crit haha, raw stats ftw Frostburn is a nice lightsource too.

But yes, talking Crystal Assassin, that set has 1% less damage and 1% less crit, and a bit of extra movement speed that... really doesn't make a noticeable enough difference because of how movement speed works lul.
Yet its quite a bit harder to get lul.
Hence this thread.

You can only get titanium/adamantite from the rarest crate varieties in the entire game. I'd say it really takes a lot longer than pre 1.4.

The Crystal Assassin Set benefits you three times as much if you get creative. The ideal setup for attacking at early hardmode is using one of the two Dart Guns with the Spider Staff (or Blade Staff) while throwing out Nimbus Rod projectiles. Frost Armor only benefits one of those things, while the Crystal Assassin set benefits all three.

Hallowed Armor wouldn't be the best set in the entire game if it only had good raw stats (I mean, it does, but it's "flashy set bonus" is ridiculous and is powerful enough to carry you through the entire game in master mode... it even let me kill Enraged Empress and Moon Lord without much trouble. I repeat, in master mode)

Frostburn is outclassed as a lighting source by the Molten Quiver for rangers, because you aren't wasting your armor slots. You even get the item that uses it most (the endless arrow quiver) right before it too.

 

[Kats]

You can only get titanium/adamantite from the rarest crate varieties in the entire game. I'd say it really takes a lot longer than pre 1.4.

The Crystal Assassin Set benefits you three times as much if you get creative. The ideal setup for attacking at early hardmode is using one of the two Dart Guns with the Spider Staff (or Blade Staff) while throwing out Nimbus Rod projectiles. Frost Armor only benefits one of those things, while the Crystal Assassin set benefits all three.

Hallowed Armor wouldn't be the best set in the entire game if it only had good raw stats (I mean, it does, but it's "flashy set bonus" is ridiculous and is powerful enough to carry you through the entire game in master mode... it even let me kill Enraged Empress and Moon Lord without much trouble. I repeat, in master mode)

Frostburn is outclassed as a lighting source by the Molten Quiver for rangers, because you aren't wasting your armor slots. You even get the item that uses it most (the endless arrow quiver) right before it too.

Hmm, never played like that. I send out one minion whenever I remember, rest is all ranged weapons lul.
And I tend to fish a lot, and so my fishing power is quite high already, with master bait stocked up (because useless to use pre-hardmode hah), along with utilizing all the possible ways to get luck (does have some effect on fishing power) like gnomes and luck potions. Getting enough titanium/adamantite is real fast. xD
Nimbus Rod I only use for one single purpose and then its thrown into a chest, kill Ice Golem for the frost core lol.
Dart Rifle is one of my favourite weapons to use though

The lighting source thing was more of a joke buddy.
You turning a little too elitist for me to bother lul.

 

[Banmei]

That's interesting, considering movement speed bonuses actually don't affect wings at all. You're probably imagining it. You can easily test by comparing your aerial speeds with and without Lightning Boots. Use a stopwatch.

I'd rather not get into a numbers debate. If you think travel is the same with just plain wings and no speed bonus you must be playing a different game. My point was not about top speed. It's about acceleration. If you don't believe me though, feel free to read this article:

https://terraria.wiki.gg/Wings

There is also a trick to flying. You don't hold down your "flight" constantly until it runs out. Think of birds in real life that glide instead of true flight. This is where movement speed comes in.

 

[sharkman0101]

I'd rather not get into a numbers debate. If you think travel is the same with just plain wings and no speed bonus you must be playing a different game. My point was not about top speed. It's about acceleration. If you don't believe me though, feel free to read this article:

I don't see anything in that wiki page that says movement speed bonuses affect the ascent speed of wings. And, quite frankly, I haven't really noticed a difference with movement speed either. It might be observer bias on both parts, but I'm not entirely sure. From what I can tell, wing speed is only affected by items that explicitly say they affect the ascent speed of the wings, not just any item that boosts movement speed. In that case, the Aglet would be listed as affecting wing speed. In the event of no items boosting ascent speed, the base speed bonus will be used from the wings alone.

 

[Dapling]

I'd rather not get into a numbers debate. If you think travel is the same with just plain wings and no speed bonus you must be playing a different game. My point was not about top speed. It's about acceleration. If you don't believe me though, feel free to read this article:

https://terraria.wiki.gg/Wings

There is also a trick to flying. You don't hold down your "flight" constantly until it runs out. Think of birds in real life that glide instead of true flight. This is where movement speed comes in.

After reading it, I can't find what you're talking about, I also used ctrl+f to find "acceleration", "horizontal", "speed", "bonus", and "stats", after skimming it over, and I still couldn't find it, so would you be kind enough to help this half blind person?

Also, acceleration is inconsequential when you can literally just instantly hit max speed with a little helpful thing it's basically impossible to have missed at the point you have wings:

(unless you're in Classic Mode, of course)

 

[Banmei]

Ok.

Movement speed sucks. That's your opinion. Movement speed does not help out air time at all. You don't have to use it or even believe it. It was all just a figment of your imagination. I'm going to go back to being a god of the sky.

 

[Dapling]

Ok.

Movement speed sucks. That's your opinion. Movement speed does not help out air time at all. You don't have to use it or even believe it. It was all just a figment of your imagination. I'm going to go back to being a god of the sky.

I... I didn't say I didn't believe you. In fact, I really wanted you to show me that because it sounds useful for future normal mode playthroughs.

I don't really understand why I should invest in movement speed even if you're right though, because again:

Unless you have a reason I shouldn't use that, in which case, please do tell. This sounds really helpful. It also sounds fun, with the help of that shield and the Amphibian Boots, I already get a whole lot out of my wings, and it would be amazing to get even more.

 

[Bry]

Ok.

Movement speed sucks. That's your opinion. Movement speed does not help out air time at all. You don't have to use it or even believe it. It was all just a figment of your imagination. I'm going to go back to being a god of the sky.

No, hold on, you're just being dismissive without even explaining anything, Mr. Gnumblin. You linked us to the Wings page, but nothing is said about the effect of Movement Speed on wings at all. I also checked the Movement Speed page, in case you just bungled up which page it was, and n o t h i n g.
The closest thing I found was this image, which is still extremely off from what you said:

I ASSUME you mean that your horizontal speed when flying is slower than with falling, and alternating makes it so you can move faster horizontally while flying by constantly accelerating? If it's not that or faster turning then I honest-to- have no idea what you're trying to get across and you need to actually explain, please.

 

[Banmei]

It works great for my style of "flight". Flight meaning air time, meaning time not touching the ground. I tried to explain earlier referencing some of the larger birds in real life that don't truly fly.

Look at it this way. Do you know that using a Speed Potion can increase how fast you drop? So let's say I lay off the wings but drop diagonally. My movement speed will help with this. Then, I give the thrusters a short burst to go back up. If it were a line it would look like a bunch of connected v's, not an xy plotted graph. It's really something I'd have to post a video on but I won't. Way too much work.

I also tried to emphasize acceleration. Top speed isn't that important for me. Quick acceleration is the key to dodging and staying alive. Permanent flight, with good speed, can be obtained through the use of mounts but I prefer not to use them unless i'm building or it's neccessary. This is because wings, along with movement speed, provide me with the greatest mobility in the game. Aside from the Rod of Discord of course.

To sum it up, I don't hold down the flight key until my flight hp is gone. I tap it periodically. Also, it's a skill that I acquired over a long time so not only is it tough to put into words but I doubt words could duplicate it exactly for you.

 

[smeagolheart]

So take a short video so we can see this technique instead of trying to describe something we can't imagine.

As a suggestion, I believe obs studio should work well with recording game footage. It's free.