J Bame
Terrarian
While Pre Hardmode's armor progression is nothing special, Hardmode opens up a lot of variety in armor sets, with some being more viable than others due to their special set bonuses, or the raw stats they provide. This guide will cover every armor available and rank them based on their viability.
The Different ranks are:
S Rank: Overshadows everything else available, this armor is overpowered or extremely strong.
A Rank: Solid, but not broken. This armor will always perform very well in any situation you use it in.
B Rank: Not exactly bad, but there is something better available.
C Rank: Mediocre, there is definitely another armor you should be wearing instead.
F Rank: Completely useless. There is never a reason to consider getting this.
Note that Hybrid Sets made from the combination of different armor segments exist and are usually better than the full armor sets. This guide won't cover these hybrid builds, but if an armor has a particularly good piece for mixing it will have a "#" next to its rank and a brief description of why the specific piece is used.
It should be obvious that each armor will be ranked relative to other sets in its current stage of progression. There is also no way you will agree with my full list, so you are perfectly free to criticize the hell out of it if you disagree with me.
Pearlwood Armor
Stats:
+8 Defense
Rank: F
What did you expect.
Cobalt Armor
Stats:
+28 Defense, +15% Melee damage, +5% Crit chance, +15% Melee speed, +17% Movement Speed (Melee)
+20 Defense, +15% Ranged damage, +13% Ranged Crit Chance, +10% Movement Speed, +20% chance not to consume ammo (Ranged)
+18 Defense, +13% Magic Damage +14% Magic Crit chance, +40 Max Mana, -14% Mana usage, +10% Movement Speed (Magic)
Rank: F
Only slightly better than late Pre-Hardmode armors, and noticeably worse than every other armor available in Hardmode, even Palladium.
Its availability is the only thing going for it, although the time spent mining enough Cobalt for this is almost always better spent getting something else. This is essentially the Hardmode equivalent of Copper Armor.
Palladium Armor
Stats:
+21 Defense, +14% Magic Damage, +12% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana (Magic)
+23 Defense, +14% Ranged damage, +12% Ranged Crit Chance (Ranged)
+32 Defense, +17% Melee damage, +3% Melee Crit chance, +12% Melee speed (Melee)
Set bonus: Gain Rapid Healing (+2 HP/sec) for five seconds after hitting an enemy.
Rank: B
Lacking in terms of stats, but a very efficient set bonus for survivability, even after its nerf. Being as easy to obtain as Cobalt armor, this can be the only armor you'd need to bother with to beat the Mechs, if you are that lazy.
Mythril Armor
Stats:
+24 Defense, +22% Magic Damage, +10% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana -17% Mana usage (Magic)
+37 Defense, +17% Melee damage, +28% Melee Crit chance (Melee)
+27 Defense, +19% Ranged damage, +17% Ranged Crit Chance, 20% chance not to consume ammo (Ranged)
Rank: A*/C#
For a melee armor, this is a rather interesting sidegrade for Adamantite that sacrifices defense and secondary stats for all-out DPS. For the two other classes, though, this is nothing more than the armor for those that can't be bothered to look for the Tier 3 ores and who were unlucky to also get Cobalt in their world.
Those Mythril Greaves have quite a lot of extra crit chance for hybrid builds; more so than any other armor in this tier.
Orichalcum Armor
Stats:
+27 Defense, +24% Magic Crit Chance, +8% damage, +80 Max Mana +11% Movement Speed (Magic)
+30 Defense, +21% Ranged Crit Chance, +8% damage, +19% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+42 Defense, +19% Melee damage, +9% Crit chance, +11% Melee Speed, +18% Movement Speed (Melee)
Set Bonus: After hitting an enemy, a piercing petal with 30 base damage appears attacks from the edge of the screen.
Rank: B
Somehow underrated and overrated at the same time. While it grants up to 108 passive DPS in the form of a piercing, wall penetrating projectile, it is inaccurate and the rest of the stats are poor.
Far from unusable but truth be told, its availability is the best thing going for it.
Adamantite Armor
Stats:
+32 Defense, +20% Magic Damage, +19% Magic Crit Chance, +80 Max Mana, -19% Mana usage, +5% Movement speed (Magic)
+36 Defense, +22% Ranged damage, +17% Ranged Crit Chance, 25% chance not to consume ammo, +5% Movement speed (Ranged)
+50 Defense, +22% Melee damage, +14% Melee Crit chance, +20% Melee Speed, +25% Movement speed (Melee)
Rank: A#
Very good stats all around, no more, no less. Special mention to the Adamantite Mask; for rocket launchers specifically it's better than the Shroomite Helmets, since half their damage comes from Rocket Launchers, which the Specialist bonus doesn't affect.
All three of its set bonuses are nothing more than secondary stats, so I'd highly recommend you to hybridize with this armor if you don't care about those.
Titanium Armor
Stats:
+34 Defense, +21% Ranged Damage, +13% Ranged Crit Chance, +6% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+49 Defense, +16% Melee Damage, +15% Crit Chance, +9% Melee Speed, +6% Movement Speed (Melee)
+30 Defense, +23% Magic Damage, +13% Magic Crit Chance, +100 Max Mana, +6% Movement Speed (Magic)
Set Bonus: Hitting enemies creates Crystal Shards that damage enemies (base damage 50, up to 7 at the time)
Rank: A
High stats (only slightly below Adamantite) with a powerful set bonus. The Titanium Barrier requires clever use of Shield of Cthulhu's invincibility and it can't be used effectively against many ranged enemies, but when it shines it adds a very noticeable amount of extra DPS in a fight.
Since all weapons summon shards on hit, regardless of base damage, you should always use this with weapons that can hit rapidly. Fetid Baghnakhs or true melee with high melee speed come to mind.
Frost Armor
Stats:
+43 Defense, +26% Melee and Ranged Damage, +11% Melee and Ranged Crit Chance, +10% Melee Speed, +8% Movement Speed
Set bonus: Melee and Ranged attacks inflict Frostbite (25 Damage over time)
Rank: A#
As a Ranged armor, this is quite an improvement over Adamantite, boasting higher stats and a much more impactful set bonus.
As a Melee armor it is more of a sidegrade to Adamantite: one has better stats, the other has a set bonus that makes it a better for mobbing.
The Frost Chestplate (20 defense, +11% Melee and Ranged Crit) makes for some very strong hybrid armors at this stage in the game.
Forbidden Armor
Stats:
+26 Defense, +25% Magic and Minion damage, +80 Max Mana, +2 Minion slots.
Set bonus: Double tapping down Summons an Ancient at the Cursor's location, with 20 base Minion and Magic damage (Meaning it benefits from buffs to both)
Rank: A#
Out of all the "double class" armors, this one does a perfect job of incentivizing the player to use both of the supported classes. Its stats are very disappointing for either class, naturally since this lets you be a Mage with a horde of minions, combining the best of both classes.
Its set bonus is a much better version of the Nimbus Rod, boasting a wider hitbox, higher DPS and being much easier to reposition. Worth mentioning that the tornado benefits from both magic and summoner damage.
The Forbidden Treads give +1 minion slot and solid magic stats, making it a very strong choice for hybrid sets, and Forbidden Robes are not half-bad when combined with the Adamantite Headgear.
Spider Armor
Stats:
+20 Defense, +3 Minion slots, +30% Minion damage
Rank: A
Best and only pure Summoner armor of the tier. The equivalent of Adamantite Armor for a Summoner. Simple and effective.
Crystal Assassin Armor
Stats:
+36 Defense, +15% crit chance, +15% damage, +10% melee speed and chance not to consume ammo, -10% reduced mana costs, +25% movement speed.
Set Bonus: Ability to Dash.
Rank: S
Its set bonus is a powerful dash, which frees up an accessory slot that would normally be taken by a Shield of Cthulhu. However it doesn't quite compensate for the poor base stats, especially because Early hardmode doesnt boast a wide selection of accessories to make use of it.
This armor requires you to know how to use every option available to you to make the best out of it. It means you can use your all around good ranged weapons, supported by magic weapons such as Nimbus Rod, Clinger Staff, and Life Drain, and with access to Melee's high damage/short range weapon. The more you know the game and its weapons, the more you will appreciate Crystal Assassin as an armor set.
Hallowed Armor
Stats:
+50 Defense, +17% Melee Damage, +17% Melee Crit chance, +10% Melee Speed, +8% Movement Speed (Melee)
+35 Defense, +22% Ranged Damage, +15% Ranged Crit Chance, +8% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+31 Defense, +19% Magic Damage, +19% Magic Crit Chance, +100 Max Mana, +8% Movement Speed (Magic)
+27 Defense, +17% Minion Damage, +3 minion slots, +8% Movement Speed (Summoner)
Set Bonus: Grants Holy Protection (dodge the next attack) for 30 seconds after striking an enemy.
Rank: S
Ever since it was added Shadow Dodge has been an extremely powerful set bonus. Its ability to completely absorb damage was only comparable to few other defensive set bonuses, and those were almost always held back by below-average stats on their respective armors.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that when 1.4 moved it to Hallowed Armor, a set with better stats than Titanium, it was settled as the best armor in the game.
Squire Armor
Stats:
+54 Defense, +2 HP/sec, +15% Melee Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +15% Melee Crit chance, +2 Sentry Slots.
Set Bonus: Improves Ballista sentry's stats. You get the Ballista Panic! buff when hit, tripling Ballistas' attack speed for 5 seconds.
Rank: S#
Even its nerfs, Squire remains a very strong combination of both defense and offense for Melee. It provides great offense through its solid melee stats, and its buffs to Minion damage and Sentry slots for Minions and the Queen Spider sentry, and it is unmatched defensively thanks to its combination of high defense and very high regeneration.
While is an insanely powerful boost to ballistas, you will Queen Spiders to be a better sentry overally. It will be very nice to have when fighting the third tier of Old One's Army, however.
It also comes with not one but two great pieces for hybrid armors: Squire's Great Helm with its regen and Squire's Greaves with 15% Melee crit chance and 15% Minion damage.
Monk Armor
Stats:
+46 Defense, +20% Melee Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +15% Melee Crit chance, +2 Sentry Slots, +20% Melee Speed and Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Lightning Auras attack faster and gain a set 12.5% Crit Chance.
Rank: B#
A solid choice, but compared to Squire armor, it's slightly better offensively but significantly worse defensively, leaving it vastly outclassed. Lightning Auras are weaker and more situational than the Queen Spider, meaning its set bonus doesnt see much use.
You can use it as some pseudo Summoner Whip Set thanks to its melee speed bonuses and high defense, but i advise you to keep a proper melee weapon in hand.
Monk's Shirt is the strongest Melee Chest piece in the game, with a massive 20% damage increase for all your hybridizing needs.
Apprentice armor
Stats:
+32 defense, +20% Magic Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +2 Sentry slots, +20% Magic Crit chance, -10% Mana usage.
Set Bonus: Flameburst Sentries gain greatly increased range.
Rank: B#
The 3 sentry slots and 30% Minion damage are pretty great, but the lack of mana brings this armor set down. Forbidden armor does the minion hybrid better, even after plantera.
The range buff to flameburst is unfortunately useless, this is a stage in the game where almost everything is fought in very cramped spaced and thus DPS plays a much bigger role. DPS happens to be the one thing Flameburst doesn't have.
The Apprentice Leggings give 20% Magic Crit Chance, the second-highest of any leg slot in the game.
Huntress armor
Stats:
+36 defense, +20% Ranged Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +10% Ranged Crit chance and chance not to consume ammo, +2 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Explosive Traps inflict the Oiled debuff, making enemies take 25 extra DoT from fire debuffs.
Rank: B#
A clone of Monk Armor for Ranged. Explosive Traps have extremely high DPS, but their lack of range makes them very hard to use efficiently. Abusing Queen Spider's deceptively high DPS is really the best use the sentry bonuses from these armors have.
Huntress Jerkin has solid stats for Ranged.
Chlorophyte Armor
Stats:
+51 Defense, +21% Melee Damage, +21% Melee Crit chance, +5% damage reduction, +5% Movement Speed (Melee)
+44 Defense, +21% Ranged Damage, +15% Ranged Crit Chance, +5% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+38 Defense, +21% Magic Damage, +15% Magic Crit Chance, +80 Max Mana, -17% Mana usage, +5% Movement Speed (Magic)
Set Bonus: Summons a Leaf Crystal, which shoots a single projectile with 100 base damage every 0,67 seconds.
Rank: A
Solid stats and a powerful set bonus makes this a good offensive alternative to Hallowed armor, and you can simply decraft it with Shimmer once it's outlived its usefulness.
The Leaf Crystal ends up adding more DPS than you would expect, make sure not to underestimate it.
Turtle Armor
Stats:
+65 Defense, +14% Melee Damage, +12% Melee Crit chance, +15% damage reduction. Increases enemy aggro towards you.
Set bonus: Reflects contact hits with twice as much damage.
Rank: B#
Very nice defensive stats, but offensive stats that are comparable to Palladium Armor's and an insignificant Thorns effect bring it down significantly. Hallowed is better defensively, Chlorophyte is much better offensively, and Squire is best at both.
At the end of the day you are better off with just the Turtle Scale Mail for melee hybrid sets, but even then Monk's Shirt is a better choice.
Tiki Armor
Stats:
+30 Defense, +30% Minion Damage, +30% Whip range, +4 Minion Slots
Rank: A
Direct upgrade to Spider Armor, the best summoner armor in the tier. Its range bonus can be more useful than Spooky's higher damage in the right situations.
Spooky Armor
Stats:
+30 Defense, +56% Minion Damage, +4 Minion Slots, +20% movement speed.
Rank: A
Direct upgrade to Tiki, and this time there actually are good summoner weapons at the stage of the game where this is obtained.
Special mention to the Spooky Chestplate which can be used to give all classes 2 extra minion slots, and Spooky Leggings which are still a nice armor piece if there is nothing better for your class.
Beetle Armor
Stats:
+61 Defense, +44% Melee Damage, +8% Melee Crit Chance, +42% Melee Speed, +12% Movement Speed. (Scale Mail)
+73 Defense, 15%-45% Damage reduction, +11% Melee Damage, +5% Melee Crit Chance, +6% Melee Speed, +6 Movement Speed. (Shell)
Rank: A
Because a big mass of raw stats just can't be beaten. Whether you want to be offensive or defensive, this armor comes with the best choices for each playstyle.
Spectre Armor
+42 Defense, +25% Magic Damage, +17% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana, -13% Mana usage, +8% Movement Speed (Mask)
+30 Defense, -25% Magic Damage, +8% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana, +8% Movement Speed (Hood)
Set Bonus: Enemy hits spawn homing magic orbs that deal 100% of the hit's damage, not counting crits (Mask)/Enemy hits spawn healing orbs that heal by 20% of the hit's damage.
Rank: S/SS
The strongest choices for any magic user, armor hybrids included.
Spectre Mask boasts high defense for a magic armor and solid stats overall, but the set bonus is the true protagonist. The Spectre Orbs add 400 at DPS to every single weapon they are used with, but these orbs can critical hit on their own, meaning this flat increase goes up to 800. A Nightglow has 813 base DPS, meaning that the Spectre Mask's set bonus with 100% critical strike chance adds the base DPS of a solid post golem weapon to any you are using, this is insanely strong.
Don't let the 40% reduced magic damage deceive you, Spectre Hood's lifesteal is the equivalent of 30 hp/s, or a Greater Healing Potion every 5 seconds. This is obscenely overpowered.
Shroomite Armor
+51 Defense, +15% Damage for Arrows, Bullets or Rockets, +13% Ranged damage, +25% Ranged Crit Chance, +20% chance not to consume ammo, +12% movement speed.
Set Bonus: Standing completely still without attacking makes you go into stealth mode, giving up to +60% Damage, +10% Crit chance, and +50% Knockback.
Rank: A#
Once again, Raw stats are the way to go. The damage increase from the helmets is multiplicative, making them significantly better than they may look at first. However its Set bonus is nearly unusable; there is simply no way to reliably use the stealth without getting brutally killed, or abusing speedkills.
This has the best Ranged Helmet and second-best Ranged Chest slot for hybrid armors, that you should probably switch over to since the Shroomite Leggings and the aforementioned set bonus are amongst the worst in the game.
Dark Artist Armor
Stats:
+42 defense, +25% Magic Damage and Crit Chance, -15% Mana costs, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots.
Set Bonus: Greatly increases Flameburst Sentry range.
Rank: A#
There may be better sets for a pure mage, but its +60% minion damage increase makes this extremely strong when combined with certain minions.
Flameburst sentries are not strong, but their incredible range and crowd control makes them helpful to have around. Not particularly amazing, but helpful.
It also comes with the best Magic leg slot in the game, with a massive +25% crit chance bonus. Dark Artist's Robe also provides some good stats for both mages and minions as well as some mana economy.
Shinobi Infiltrator Armor
Stats:
+54 defense, +20% Melee damage, +20% melee crit chance, +20% Melee and Movement Speed, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots.
Set bonus: Lightning Auras hit 20% faster and gain a set 25% crit chance.
Rank: B#
Needs more 20% increases
The combination of solid stats for Melee, a 60% damage increase for your Dragon or Terraprisma, and a very efficient set bonus for Lightning Auras makes this a rather powerful armor for the Pillars and Moon Lord. Much like Monk, it can also function as an effective Summoner Whip armor set, 60% minion damage and 20% melee speed, combined with 54 defense, ends up being surprisingly powerful. Though the lack of minion slots severely hurt it for this role.
Shinobi Infiltrator's Helmet may be a bit weaker for melee bonuses than the Chlorophyte or Hallowed Masks, but its 20% increase to minion damage gives it a niche over those two.
Red Riding Armor
Stats:
+48 defense, +25% Ranged Damage, +20% Ranged Crit Chance, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed
Set Bonus: Explosive Traps receive tripel attack speed and inflict Oiled!, making enemies take more DoT from fire debuffs.
Rank: A#
Same story: Decent stats and +60% Minion damage with some sentries to boot. Oiled is less reliable than ever at this point, but Explosive Traps become so stupidly powerful that they are actually useful.
When hybridizing, the Red Riding Dress may be a tiny bit weaker than the Shroomite Chest, but that doesn't matter since it comes with a massive 25% Minion damage increase as well.
Valhalla Knight Armor
Stats:
+68 defense, +4 HP/sec, +10% Melee damage,+20% Melee Crit Chance, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Significantly increases the powers of ballistas, and on hit triples all their attack speed for 5 seconds.
Rank: S
4 hp/s and 68 defense is stupidly strong defensively. While its stat bonuses pale in comparison to Beetle Mail's, they are better than Beetle Shell's while having effectively the same defensive prowess. Ballistas are the strongest sentry in the game, and this set bonus greatly empowers them, even without abusing Ballista Panic.
But truth be told, Sentries arent very good due to their static nature. The Breastplate and Greaves are 90% of what makes this armor great, and the Helmet and set bonus only add sentries. If you replace this relatively poor helmet with either Hallowed Mask or Shinobi Helmet, the result is an armor set insanely good defensively and very strong offensively.
And well, any class can simply slap on the Breastplate and abuse its 4 hp/s to great end. It's hard to believe it used to be twice as much.
Post Moon LordI mean, these sets were literally designed to be broken. Is there any reason to actually rank them considering the only thing you do with them is flex on previous challenges?
The Different ranks are:
S Rank: Overshadows everything else available, this armor is overpowered or extremely strong.
A Rank: Solid, but not broken. This armor will always perform very well in any situation you use it in.
B Rank: Not exactly bad, but there is something better available.
C Rank: Mediocre, there is definitely another armor you should be wearing instead.
F Rank: Completely useless. There is never a reason to consider getting this.
Note that Hybrid Sets made from the combination of different armor segments exist and are usually better than the full armor sets. This guide won't cover these hybrid builds, but if an armor has a particularly good piece for mixing it will have a "#" next to its rank and a brief description of why the specific piece is used.
It should be obvious that each armor will be ranked relative to other sets in its current stage of progression. There is also no way you will agree with my full list, so you are perfectly free to criticize the hell out of it if you disagree with me.
Pre-Mechanical Boss
Pearlwood Armor
Stats:
+8 Defense
Rank: F
What did you expect.
Cobalt Armor
Stats:
+28 Defense, +15% Melee damage, +5% Crit chance, +15% Melee speed, +17% Movement Speed (Melee)
+20 Defense, +15% Ranged damage, +13% Ranged Crit Chance, +10% Movement Speed, +20% chance not to consume ammo (Ranged)
+18 Defense, +13% Magic Damage +14% Magic Crit chance, +40 Max Mana, -14% Mana usage, +10% Movement Speed (Magic)
Rank: F
Only slightly better than late Pre-Hardmode armors, and noticeably worse than every other armor available in Hardmode, even Palladium.
Its availability is the only thing going for it, although the time spent mining enough Cobalt for this is almost always better spent getting something else. This is essentially the Hardmode equivalent of Copper Armor.
Palladium Armor
Stats:
+21 Defense, +14% Magic Damage, +12% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana (Magic)
+23 Defense, +14% Ranged damage, +12% Ranged Crit Chance (Ranged)
+32 Defense, +17% Melee damage, +3% Melee Crit chance, +12% Melee speed (Melee)
Set bonus: Gain Rapid Healing (+2 HP/sec) for five seconds after hitting an enemy.
Rank: B
Lacking in terms of stats, but a very efficient set bonus for survivability, even after its nerf. Being as easy to obtain as Cobalt armor, this can be the only armor you'd need to bother with to beat the Mechs, if you are that lazy.
Mythril Armor
Stats:
+24 Defense, +22% Magic Damage, +10% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana -17% Mana usage (Magic)
+37 Defense, +17% Melee damage, +28% Melee Crit chance (Melee)
+27 Defense, +19% Ranged damage, +17% Ranged Crit Chance, 20% chance not to consume ammo (Ranged)
Rank: A*/C#
For a melee armor, this is a rather interesting sidegrade for Adamantite that sacrifices defense and secondary stats for all-out DPS. For the two other classes, though, this is nothing more than the armor for those that can't be bothered to look for the Tier 3 ores and who were unlucky to also get Cobalt in their world.
Those Mythril Greaves have quite a lot of extra crit chance for hybrid builds; more so than any other armor in this tier.
Orichalcum Armor
Stats:
+27 Defense, +24% Magic Crit Chance, +8% damage, +80 Max Mana +11% Movement Speed (Magic)
+30 Defense, +21% Ranged Crit Chance, +8% damage, +19% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+42 Defense, +19% Melee damage, +9% Crit chance, +11% Melee Speed, +18% Movement Speed (Melee)
Set Bonus: After hitting an enemy, a piercing petal with 30 base damage appears attacks from the edge of the screen.
Rank: B
Somehow underrated and overrated at the same time. While it grants up to 108 passive DPS in the form of a piercing, wall penetrating projectile, it is inaccurate and the rest of the stats are poor.
Far from unusable but truth be told, its availability is the best thing going for it.
Adamantite Armor
Stats:
+32 Defense, +20% Magic Damage, +19% Magic Crit Chance, +80 Max Mana, -19% Mana usage, +5% Movement speed (Magic)
+36 Defense, +22% Ranged damage, +17% Ranged Crit Chance, 25% chance not to consume ammo, +5% Movement speed (Ranged)
+50 Defense, +22% Melee damage, +14% Melee Crit chance, +20% Melee Speed, +25% Movement speed (Melee)
Rank: A#
Very good stats all around, no more, no less. Special mention to the Adamantite Mask; for rocket launchers specifically it's better than the Shroomite Helmets, since half their damage comes from Rocket Launchers, which the Specialist bonus doesn't affect.
All three of its set bonuses are nothing more than secondary stats, so I'd highly recommend you to hybridize with this armor if you don't care about those.
Titanium Armor
Stats:
+34 Defense, +21% Ranged Damage, +13% Ranged Crit Chance, +6% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+49 Defense, +16% Melee Damage, +15% Crit Chance, +9% Melee Speed, +6% Movement Speed (Melee)
+30 Defense, +23% Magic Damage, +13% Magic Crit Chance, +100 Max Mana, +6% Movement Speed (Magic)
Set Bonus: Hitting enemies creates Crystal Shards that damage enemies (base damage 50, up to 7 at the time)
Rank: A
High stats (only slightly below Adamantite) with a powerful set bonus. The Titanium Barrier requires clever use of Shield of Cthulhu's invincibility and it can't be used effectively against many ranged enemies, but when it shines it adds a very noticeable amount of extra DPS in a fight.
Since all weapons summon shards on hit, regardless of base damage, you should always use this with weapons that can hit rapidly. Fetid Baghnakhs or true melee with high melee speed come to mind.
Frost Armor
Stats:
+43 Defense, +26% Melee and Ranged Damage, +11% Melee and Ranged Crit Chance, +10% Melee Speed, +8% Movement Speed
Set bonus: Melee and Ranged attacks inflict Frostbite (25 Damage over time)
Rank: A#
As a Ranged armor, this is quite an improvement over Adamantite, boasting higher stats and a much more impactful set bonus.
As a Melee armor it is more of a sidegrade to Adamantite: one has better stats, the other has a set bonus that makes it a better for mobbing.
The Frost Chestplate (20 defense, +11% Melee and Ranged Crit) makes for some very strong hybrid armors at this stage in the game.
Forbidden Armor
Stats:
+26 Defense, +25% Magic and Minion damage, +80 Max Mana, +2 Minion slots.
Set bonus: Double tapping down Summons an Ancient at the Cursor's location, with 20 base Minion and Magic damage (Meaning it benefits from buffs to both)
Rank: A#
Out of all the "double class" armors, this one does a perfect job of incentivizing the player to use both of the supported classes. Its stats are very disappointing for either class, naturally since this lets you be a Mage with a horde of minions, combining the best of both classes.
Its set bonus is a much better version of the Nimbus Rod, boasting a wider hitbox, higher DPS and being much easier to reposition. Worth mentioning that the tornado benefits from both magic and summoner damage.
The Forbidden Treads give +1 minion slot and solid magic stats, making it a very strong choice for hybrid sets, and Forbidden Robes are not half-bad when combined with the Adamantite Headgear.
Spider Armor
Stats:
+20 Defense, +3 Minion slots, +30% Minion damage
Rank: A
Best and only pure Summoner armor of the tier. The equivalent of Adamantite Armor for a Summoner. Simple and effective.
Crystal Assassin Armor
Stats:
+36 Defense, +15% crit chance, +15% damage, +10% melee speed and chance not to consume ammo, -10% reduced mana costs, +25% movement speed.
Set Bonus: Ability to Dash.
Rank: S
Its set bonus is a powerful dash, which frees up an accessory slot that would normally be taken by a Shield of Cthulhu. However it doesn't quite compensate for the poor base stats, especially because Early hardmode doesnt boast a wide selection of accessories to make use of it.
This armor requires you to know how to use every option available to you to make the best out of it. It means you can use your all around good ranged weapons, supported by magic weapons such as Nimbus Rod, Clinger Staff, and Life Drain, and with access to Melee's high damage/short range weapon. The more you know the game and its weapons, the more you will appreciate Crystal Assassin as an armor set.
Pre-Plantera
Hallowed Armor
Stats:
+50 Defense, +17% Melee Damage, +17% Melee Crit chance, +10% Melee Speed, +8% Movement Speed (Melee)
+35 Defense, +22% Ranged Damage, +15% Ranged Crit Chance, +8% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+31 Defense, +19% Magic Damage, +19% Magic Crit Chance, +100 Max Mana, +8% Movement Speed (Magic)
+27 Defense, +17% Minion Damage, +3 minion slots, +8% Movement Speed (Summoner)
Set Bonus: Grants Holy Protection (dodge the next attack) for 30 seconds after striking an enemy.
Rank: S
Ever since it was added Shadow Dodge has been an extremely powerful set bonus. Its ability to completely absorb damage was only comparable to few other defensive set bonuses, and those were almost always held back by below-average stats on their respective armors.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that when 1.4 moved it to Hallowed Armor, a set with better stats than Titanium, it was settled as the best armor in the game.
Squire Armor
Stats:
+54 Defense, +2 HP/sec, +15% Melee Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +15% Melee Crit chance, +2 Sentry Slots.
Set Bonus: Improves Ballista sentry's stats. You get the Ballista Panic! buff when hit, tripling Ballistas' attack speed for 5 seconds.
Rank: S#
Even its nerfs, Squire remains a very strong combination of both defense and offense for Melee. It provides great offense through its solid melee stats, and its buffs to Minion damage and Sentry slots for Minions and the Queen Spider sentry, and it is unmatched defensively thanks to its combination of high defense and very high regeneration.
While is an insanely powerful boost to ballistas, you will Queen Spiders to be a better sentry overally. It will be very nice to have when fighting the third tier of Old One's Army, however.
It also comes with not one but two great pieces for hybrid armors: Squire's Great Helm with its regen and Squire's Greaves with 15% Melee crit chance and 15% Minion damage.
Monk Armor
Stats:
+46 Defense, +20% Melee Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +15% Melee Crit chance, +2 Sentry Slots, +20% Melee Speed and Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Lightning Auras attack faster and gain a set 12.5% Crit Chance.
Rank: B#
A solid choice, but compared to Squire armor, it's slightly better offensively but significantly worse defensively, leaving it vastly outclassed. Lightning Auras are weaker and more situational than the Queen Spider, meaning its set bonus doesnt see much use.
You can use it as some pseudo Summoner Whip Set thanks to its melee speed bonuses and high defense, but i advise you to keep a proper melee weapon in hand.
Monk's Shirt is the strongest Melee Chest piece in the game, with a massive 20% damage increase for all your hybridizing needs.
Apprentice armor
Stats:
+32 defense, +20% Magic Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +2 Sentry slots, +20% Magic Crit chance, -10% Mana usage.
Set Bonus: Flameburst Sentries gain greatly increased range.
Rank: B#
The 3 sentry slots and 30% Minion damage are pretty great, but the lack of mana brings this armor set down. Forbidden armor does the minion hybrid better, even after plantera.
The range buff to flameburst is unfortunately useless, this is a stage in the game where almost everything is fought in very cramped spaced and thus DPS plays a much bigger role. DPS happens to be the one thing Flameburst doesn't have.
The Apprentice Leggings give 20% Magic Crit Chance, the second-highest of any leg slot in the game.
Huntress armor
Stats:
+36 defense, +20% Ranged Damage, +30% Minion Damage, +10% Ranged Crit chance and chance not to consume ammo, +2 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Explosive Traps inflict the Oiled debuff, making enemies take 25 extra DoT from fire debuffs.
Rank: B#
A clone of Monk Armor for Ranged. Explosive Traps have extremely high DPS, but their lack of range makes them very hard to use efficiently. Abusing Queen Spider's deceptively high DPS is really the best use the sentry bonuses from these armors have.
Huntress Jerkin has solid stats for Ranged.
Chlorophyte Armor
Stats:
+51 Defense, +21% Melee Damage, +21% Melee Crit chance, +5% damage reduction, +5% Movement Speed (Melee)
+44 Defense, +21% Ranged Damage, +15% Ranged Crit Chance, +5% Movement Speed (Ranged)
+38 Defense, +21% Magic Damage, +15% Magic Crit Chance, +80 Max Mana, -17% Mana usage, +5% Movement Speed (Magic)
Set Bonus: Summons a Leaf Crystal, which shoots a single projectile with 100 base damage every 0,67 seconds.
Rank: A
Solid stats and a powerful set bonus makes this a good offensive alternative to Hallowed armor, and you can simply decraft it with Shimmer once it's outlived its usefulness.
The Leaf Crystal ends up adding more DPS than you would expect, make sure not to underestimate it.
Turtle Armor
Stats:
+65 Defense, +14% Melee Damage, +12% Melee Crit chance, +15% damage reduction. Increases enemy aggro towards you.
Set bonus: Reflects contact hits with twice as much damage.
Rank: B#
Very nice defensive stats, but offensive stats that are comparable to Palladium Armor's and an insignificant Thorns effect bring it down significantly. Hallowed is better defensively, Chlorophyte is much better offensively, and Squire is best at both.
At the end of the day you are better off with just the Turtle Scale Mail for melee hybrid sets, but even then Monk's Shirt is a better choice.
Post Plantera
Tiki Armor
Stats:
+30 Defense, +30% Minion Damage, +30% Whip range, +4 Minion Slots
Rank: A
Direct upgrade to Spider Armor, the best summoner armor in the tier. Its range bonus can be more useful than Spooky's higher damage in the right situations.
Spooky Armor
Stats:
+30 Defense, +56% Minion Damage, +4 Minion Slots, +20% movement speed.
Rank: A
Direct upgrade to Tiki, and this time there actually are good summoner weapons at the stage of the game where this is obtained.
Special mention to the Spooky Chestplate which can be used to give all classes 2 extra minion slots, and Spooky Leggings which are still a nice armor piece if there is nothing better for your class.
Beetle Armor
Stats:
+61 Defense, +44% Melee Damage, +8% Melee Crit Chance, +42% Melee Speed, +12% Movement Speed. (Scale Mail)
+73 Defense, 15%-45% Damage reduction, +11% Melee Damage, +5% Melee Crit Chance, +6% Melee Speed, +6 Movement Speed. (Shell)
Rank: A
Because a big mass of raw stats just can't be beaten. Whether you want to be offensive or defensive, this armor comes with the best choices for each playstyle.
Spectre Armor
+42 Defense, +25% Magic Damage, +17% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana, -13% Mana usage, +8% Movement Speed (Mask)
+30 Defense, -25% Magic Damage, +8% Magic Crit Chance, +60 Max Mana, +8% Movement Speed (Hood)
Set Bonus: Enemy hits spawn homing magic orbs that deal 100% of the hit's damage, not counting crits (Mask)/Enemy hits spawn healing orbs that heal by 20% of the hit's damage.
Rank: S/SS
The strongest choices for any magic user, armor hybrids included.
Spectre Mask boasts high defense for a magic armor and solid stats overall, but the set bonus is the true protagonist. The Spectre Orbs add 400 at DPS to every single weapon they are used with, but these orbs can critical hit on their own, meaning this flat increase goes up to 800. A Nightglow has 813 base DPS, meaning that the Spectre Mask's set bonus with 100% critical strike chance adds the base DPS of a solid post golem weapon to any you are using, this is insanely strong.
Don't let the 40% reduced magic damage deceive you, Spectre Hood's lifesteal is the equivalent of 30 hp/s, or a Greater Healing Potion every 5 seconds. This is obscenely overpowered.
Shroomite Armor
+51 Defense, +15% Damage for Arrows, Bullets or Rockets, +13% Ranged damage, +25% Ranged Crit Chance, +20% chance not to consume ammo, +12% movement speed.
Set Bonus: Standing completely still without attacking makes you go into stealth mode, giving up to +60% Damage, +10% Crit chance, and +50% Knockback.
Rank: A#
Once again, Raw stats are the way to go. The damage increase from the helmets is multiplicative, making them significantly better than they may look at first. However its Set bonus is nearly unusable; there is simply no way to reliably use the stealth without getting brutally killed, or abusing speedkills.
This has the best Ranged Helmet and second-best Ranged Chest slot for hybrid armors, that you should probably switch over to since the Shroomite Leggings and the aforementioned set bonus are amongst the worst in the game.
Dark Artist Armor
Stats:
+42 defense, +25% Magic Damage and Crit Chance, -15% Mana costs, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots.
Set Bonus: Greatly increases Flameburst Sentry range.
Rank: A#
There may be better sets for a pure mage, but its +60% minion damage increase makes this extremely strong when combined with certain minions.
Flameburst sentries are not strong, but their incredible range and crowd control makes them helpful to have around. Not particularly amazing, but helpful.
It also comes with the best Magic leg slot in the game, with a massive +25% crit chance bonus. Dark Artist's Robe also provides some good stats for both mages and minions as well as some mana economy.
Shinobi Infiltrator Armor
Stats:
+54 defense, +20% Melee damage, +20% melee crit chance, +20% Melee and Movement Speed, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots.
Set bonus: Lightning Auras hit 20% faster and gain a set 25% crit chance.
Rank: B#
The combination of solid stats for Melee, a 60% damage increase for your Dragon or Terraprisma, and a very efficient set bonus for Lightning Auras makes this a rather powerful armor for the Pillars and Moon Lord. Much like Monk, it can also function as an effective Summoner Whip armor set, 60% minion damage and 20% melee speed, combined with 54 defense, ends up being surprisingly powerful. Though the lack of minion slots severely hurt it for this role.
Shinobi Infiltrator's Helmet may be a bit weaker for melee bonuses than the Chlorophyte or Hallowed Masks, but its 20% increase to minion damage gives it a niche over those two.
Red Riding Armor
Stats:
+48 defense, +25% Ranged Damage, +20% Ranged Crit Chance, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed
Set Bonus: Explosive Traps receive tripel attack speed and inflict Oiled!, making enemies take more DoT from fire debuffs.
Rank: A#
Same story: Decent stats and +60% Minion damage with some sentries to boot. Oiled is less reliable than ever at this point, but Explosive Traps become so stupidly powerful that they are actually useful.
When hybridizing, the Red Riding Dress may be a tiny bit weaker than the Shroomite Chest, but that doesn't matter since it comes with a massive 25% Minion damage increase as well.
Valhalla Knight Armor
Stats:
+68 defense, +4 HP/sec, +10% Melee damage,+20% Melee Crit Chance, +60% Minion Damage, +3 extra sentry slots, +20% Movement Speed.
Set Bonus: Significantly increases the powers of ballistas, and on hit triples all their attack speed for 5 seconds.
Rank: S
4 hp/s and 68 defense is stupidly strong defensively. While its stat bonuses pale in comparison to Beetle Mail's, they are better than Beetle Shell's while having effectively the same defensive prowess. Ballistas are the strongest sentry in the game, and this set bonus greatly empowers them, even without abusing Ballista Panic.
But truth be told, Sentries arent very good due to their static nature. The Breastplate and Greaves are 90% of what makes this armor great, and the Helmet and set bonus only add sentries. If you replace this relatively poor helmet with either Hallowed Mask or Shinobi Helmet, the result is an armor set insanely good defensively and very strong offensively.
And well, any class can simply slap on the Breastplate and abuse its 4 hp/s to great end. It's hard to believe it used to be twice as much.
Post Moon Lord
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