Hypothetical Melee/Mage Build (plus some other ideas)

[Torres The Devourer]

So I've been enjoying the eldritch knight subclass in DnD, so what if I try and combine melee and mage in Terraria?

Melee is my favorite class, but mage has some really cool weapons that I like. I find that mage feels a little slow to get up and running. Once you get the rainbow rod and beat Planterra things pick up in pace though (this is all my opinion and personal experiences, of course). I have chosen 5 accessories (technically 6 or 7) and left two open for any other accessories to be chosen.

Accessories:

1. Celestial Magnet.
2. Fire Gauntlet.
3. Frozen Sheild
4. Berserks glove or Heroes shield.
5. Celestial cuffs (and you can have a mana flower in the vanity slot so you can switch it out on a whim when needed)
6. Anything
7. Anything

Armor:

• Hallowed Mask or the Chlorophyte mask. I'm leaning heavily towards the hallowed mask as there is only a 2% damage difference between the two masks and you get an extra four defense with the Hallowed mask.
• Monks Shirt or Shinobi infiltrators armor or maybe even the Dark artists armor. (I'm leaning much more towards the Monks shirt because it grants 20% increased melee damage as opposed to the Shiobi's because I think it only gives you 20% extra melee speed but not damage. If it does give you damage too then let me know. Also I might choose the dark artists armor, but I will be using melee as my primary means of dealing damage.)
• Dark Artists leggings. (No alternative leg slot contender. Dark artists leggings is apparently the best mage leg slot in the game so that's an easy choice.

So what do you guys think? Does it look good? This is all hypothetical so let me know what you think. Also, the old ones army sets also give summon damage and that's always a nice bonus. If you have any other hybrid loadouts (like with ranged) be sure to let me know.

Edit: It could also be possible that I might just not like mage all that much and thus I am trying to combine it with a class I do like, but maybe I just need more practice with classes like mage (and even summoner) and get used to them more. Although A melee build with some added summons does sound strong

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

Celestial cuffs and celestial magnet don't stack, so there isn't much merit to having both of them (maybe you meant celestial shell, which should absolutely be on this build). Some sort of tank mage/melee hybrid (that uses celestial cuffs for insane amounts of mana) could probably be a pretty interesting setup.

I was thinking something along the lines of hallowed mask, valhalla knight's breastplate, dark artist's leggings for armour.
For accessories, you could do full tank with celestial shell, frozen shield, berserker's glove, hero shield, celestial cuffs, flesh knuckles (maybe swap for insignia if running wings), and a 7th accessory of your choice - star veil for facetanking (probably use witch's broom or cute fishron for mobility), bundle of horseshoe balloons for ground based mounts, or some decent wings.

Stuff like bubble gun or starlight could be really strong on a tank build like this (applying ichor flask with melee weapons would also be quite nice here). If you want to adapt this to a melee build, swap the dark artist's leggings for valhalla knight's greaves and the celestial cuffs for another mobility item or a defence increase (or star veil if not already using it)

 

[Torres The Devourer]

Celestial cuffs and celestial magnet don't stack, so there isn't much merit to having both of them (maybe you meant celestial shell, which should absolutely be on this build). Some sort of tank mage/melee hybrid (that uses celestial cuffs for insane amounts of mana) could probably be a pretty interesting setup.

I was thinking something along the lines of hallowed mask, valhalla knight's breastplate, dark artist's leggings for armour.
For accessories, you could do full tank with celestial shell, frozen shield, berserker's glove, hero shield, celestial cuffs, flesh knuckles (maybe swap for insignia if running wings), and a 7th accessory of your choice - star veil for facetanking (probably use witch's broom or cute fishron for mobility), bundle of horseshoe balloons for ground based mounts, or some decent wings.

Stuff like bubble gun or starlight could be really strong on a tank build like this (applying ichor flask with melee weapons would also be quite nice here). If you want to adapt this to a melee build, swap the dark artist's leggings for valhalla knight's greaves and the celestial cuffs for another mobility item or a defence increase (or star veil if not already using it)

Hey that's a cool idea! forgot about the celestial shell in my OP, but yes this build looks interesting. Though After playing around in terraria last night I think it would just be better to stick to one class. Like focusing on melee but also using magic weapons (like the bubble gun and starlight) in conjunction with my swords.

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

Hey that's a cool idea! forgot about the celestial shell in my OP, but yes this build looks interesting. Though After playing around in terraria last night I think it would just be better to stick to one class. Like focusing on melee but also using magic weapons (like the bubble gun and starlight) in conjunction with my swords.

Think of the build I suggested as less of a melee/mage hybrid, and more of an ultra-tanky magic build that happens to be also decent at melee (there's also the option of swapping the hallowed mask for the spectre mask for additional offensive stats). To give a D&D analogy, it's probably something more along the lines of war cleric or bladesinger. Also, starlight is a melee weapon, it's the "sword" empress of light drops. The "use magic weapons on your melee build" approach could work decently too, especially if you prioritized accessories that gave damage to both classes (e.g. celestial shell, destroyer emblem, avenger emblem).

 

[Meowlegend]

it's the "sword" empress of light drops.

Starlight IS a sword as it functions like a sword and gets the Legendary modifier.

 

[Torres The Devourer]

Think of the build I suggested as less of a melee/mage hybrid, and more of an ultra-tanky magic build that happens to be also decent at melee (there's also the option of swapping the hallowed mask for the spectre mask for additional offensive stats). To give a D&D analogy, it's probably something more along the lines of war cleric or bladesinger. Also, starlight is a melee weapon, it's the "sword" empress of light drops. The "use magic weapons on your melee build" approach could work decently too, especially if you prioritized accessories that gave damage to both classes (e.g. celestial shell, destroyer emblem, avenger emblem).

oh right... I love the weapon, and I can't even remember that it's a melee weapon. Silly me.
Regardless, yes, that's a great way to look at it. I think part of me just wants the swords and armor of the melee class with some of the cooler late game weapons of the mage class.
However, I think I'd rather go down the path of "magic on a melee build" approach. You are still primarily a fighter with high defense but can also cast spells even if they are more limited than something like a war cleric, bladesinger, or even hexblade. Plus the OOA army sets also grant summon bonuses so i can slap on a summon for some extra damage. You know, perhaps the build could work after all.

After some re-thinking, I think I'll keep the dark artists leggings (best magic pants slot) and the hallowed mask (Lods a' defense). However, I might swap out the monks shirt for the valhala knights breastplate. It's a tough choice. The breastplate gives me much more survivability while the monks shirt gives me more damage (62 defense with breastplate +life regen, 60 with shirt). There is also the option of the beetle shell, but the beetle shell doesn't have the HP regen and HP regen is really good from what I understand.
Or I could go with a full melee set like the:
hallowed mask+ Valhalla breastplate and greaves (tank)
Hallowed mask, monks shirt, Valhalla Knights greaves (damage)
Or beetle armor with scale mail. (Although I hear for non-terra blade weapons the former is better)

Again, this keeps the idea that we are still first and foremost a fighter.

As for accessories, possible good options (still theorizing a build) might include:
Celestial shell (definitely grab)
Glove accessory(s) (mechanical glove and/or fire gauntlet. Or just beserkers gloves. Plus the gloves and beetle armor makes the terra blade funny)
Destroyer emblem (avenger emblem pre-golem)
celestial cuffs (we'll likley be taking plenty of damage due to or melee focus, so this would be a good idea)
star veil (increases survivability but it might also reduce the amount of manna from celestial cuffs due to the increased i-frames)
Shields (any combination, at least one frozen shield)

And for accessories that we might have room for
avenger magnet (extra magic damage. Can probably swap out the mechnical glove with this if we take more than one glove)
Wings and soaring insignia.

What do you think? Any changes? Any way I can tinker this build to be more similar to an "eldritch knight?"

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

I think if you want more of a melee focus, I wouldn't recommend using the celestial cuffs (instead just use a mana regen potion and switch to your melee weapon when low on mana).
Regarding accessories, here's what I'd probably go for:

Tank - celestial shell, frozen shield, star veil, wings, insignia, hero shield, berserker's glove/master ninja gear
Damage - wings, insignia, master ninja gear/avenger emblem/another glove acc, celestial shell, frozen shield, destroyer emblem, fire gauntlet/avenger emblem

 

[Torres The Devourer]

I think if you want more of a melee focus, I wouldn't recommend using the celestial cuffs (instead just use a mana regen potion and switch to your melee weapon when low on mana).
Regarding accessories, here's what I'd probably go for:

Tank - celestial shell, frozen shield, star veil, wings, insignia, hero shield, berserker's glove/master ninja gear
Damage - wings, insignia, master ninja gear/avenger emblem/another glove acc, celestial shell, frozen shield, destroyer emblem, fire gauntlet

coolio, thanks! I'll hop into an all items world and play around with some combinations I like. Although I doubt attacking a couple of dummies will be that effective, it'll be cool to see what accessories I can mix and match.

 

[Meowlegend]

I really love multiclass builds.


My favorite one being Warrior + Ranger or Warrior + Mage
Its really fun when you make them work.

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

My favourite multiclass setup I've ever used was the one I used on my hardcore master mode run. It took advantage of beetle shell (which is god tier for hardcore runs) providing next to zero offensive bonuses, which lets you use non-melee weapons just as well as your melee weapons.

Accessory wise, I was using wings (had spectre, then fishron but later upgraded to betsy's), insignia (amphibian boots before I got it), worm scarf, celestial shell, and then 3 of:

• master ninja gear (when not using betsy's wings)
• destroyer emblem (almost always)
• star veil (mainly for safety, used it during invasions and/or times where big damage hits were possible)
• avenger emblem (if I had nothing else to equip, tbh a papyrus scarab might have been nice here)
• magic quiver (when using bows)

When using this build, I used a variety of weapons from all 4 classes: scourge of the corruptor, possessed hatchet, bubble gun, tsunami, razorblade typhoon, eventide, snowman cannon, flying dragon, betsy's wrath, vortex beater, and daybreak (with desert tiger as my summon of choice before switching to stardust dragon, would have liked to use xeno staff but didn't get it to drop).
I also used nimbus rod, clinger staff, queen spider staff, and lightning aura staff when doing OOA t3 with this setup.

 

[Meowlegend]

In the past I used to be a dead classlocker, now I use multiclass


Its just better because you get to use many different weapons at the same time.