I've been doing an expert mode melee run and it's been hard to know which armors to use. I've found the following chart very useful.
Others have pointed out that melee speed is essentially useless for most good hardmode weapons (although the Death Sickle seems affected by it up to a point!).
Also, melee damage matters more than critical hit chance, but only slightly. The exact formula is:
Some highlights include:
Mythril armor gives by far the highest boost to critical hit chance, with Shinobi armor close behind (ignoring Solar Flare).
Beetle Scale Mail gives up to +44% melee damage, the biggest damage boost. Frost armor is in second place (again ignoring Solar Flare).
Frost armor is actually pretty great now, especially since the Frostburn effect gives improved damage over time in 1.4.1 and also the effect lights up your pickaxe while mining.
Orichalcum armor, Turtle Armor, and Beetle Shell armor all have very small boosts to damage. In fact, you can kill bosses faster with Molten Armor than with Beetle Shell armor.
Valhalla armor has a +60% boost to whip damage, making Valhalla+whip a great option for bossing.
All tavernkeep armors provide big boosts to your minions. If you have a good minion (like Sanguine staff, Xeno staff or Stardust Dragon staff), it might be worth using Tavernkeep armor and a Summoning table.
Others have pointed out that melee speed is essentially useless for most good hardmode weapons (although the Death Sickle seems affected by it up to a point!).
Also, melee damage matters more than critical hit chance, but only slightly. The exact formula is:
If the weapon does X damage against an unarmored enemy, and if you're fighting an enemy with damage reduction A (usually half of defense), and if the weapon has a percentage damage increase of R (like R=.17 for molten), then the total boost in damage is:
R+(RA)/(X-A)
So if A is 0, the increase is just R. If X=A, then damage is usually 0, so the increase is infinite. And if A is half of X, then the formula gives 1.5R. So for instance, if wielding a weapon doing 40 damage against an enemy with defense 40 (which reduces damage by 20), wearing adamantium armor will boost your damage per hit by 33%, not 22%).
R+(RA)/(X-A)
So if A is 0, the increase is just R. If X=A, then damage is usually 0, so the increase is infinite. And if A is half of X, then the formula gives 1.5R. So for instance, if wielding a weapon doing 40 damage against an enemy with defense 40 (which reduces damage by 20), wearing adamantium armor will boost your damage per hit by 33%, not 22%).
| Plain armors | Damage | Crit chance | Speed | Special armors | Special | ||||
| Molten | 17 | 7 | 7 | ||||||
| Cobalt | 18 | 5 | 15 | Palladium | 17 | 3 | 12 | healing | |
| Mythril | 7 | 28 | 0 | Orichalcum | 11 | 6 | 7 | flowers | |
| Adamantium | 22 | 14 | 20 | Titanium | 16 | 15 | 9 | titanium barrier | |
| Frost | 26 | 11 | 7 | frostburn | |||||
| Tavernkeep armors | Hallowed | 17 | 17 | 10 | shadow dodge | ||||
| Squire | 15 | 15 | 0 | Chlorophyte | 21 | 21 | 0 | crystal | |
| Monk | 20 | 15 | 20 | Turtle | 14 | 12 | 0 | thorns, damage reduction | |
| Valhalla | 0 | 20 | 0 | Beetle scale | 14 | 8 | 12 | beetles add +30% damage | |
| Shinobi | 20 | 25 | 20 | Beetle shell | 11 | 5 | 6 | Damage reduction | |
| Solar flare | 29 | 26 | 15 | Shield, damage reduction |
Some highlights include:
Mythril armor gives by far the highest boost to critical hit chance, with Shinobi armor close behind (ignoring Solar Flare).
Beetle Scale Mail gives up to +44% melee damage, the biggest damage boost. Frost armor is in second place (again ignoring Solar Flare).
Frost armor is actually pretty great now, especially since the Frostburn effect gives improved damage over time in 1.4.1 and also the effect lights up your pickaxe while mining.
Orichalcum armor, Turtle Armor, and Beetle Shell armor all have very small boosts to damage. In fact, you can kill bosses faster with Molten Armor than with Beetle Shell armor.
Valhalla armor has a +60% boost to whip damage, making Valhalla+whip a great option for bossing.
All tavernkeep armors provide big boosts to your minions. If you have a good minion (like Sanguine staff, Xeno staff or Stardust Dragon staff), it might be worth using Tavernkeep armor and a Summoning table.
