In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

you're actually going to have to use the pearlwood bow as your only ranged method of inflicting ichor lmaooooooo

wait, you’re counting ammo too? guess you don’t get to use ichor at all, then. in which case i hope you’re good with a shotgun, it’s probably your best bet
 
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I probably should make a tier list for armor and prehm weapons if I'm gonna attempt that. I'll probably be stuck with forbidden or chlorophyte armor for a while...
Edit: just realized chlorophyte might not be that bad, just overshadowed by the alternatives...
 
I want you guys to have a look at this:
View attachment 225381

Am I going crazy, or is the Queen Spider Staff out-damaging the Ballista Staff? Could we all have been underestimating it this entire time?

You're not just underestimating the Queen Spider, you're overestimating the Ballista. I did some similar testing to yours myself, comparing all post Golem sentries + Queen Spider against Plantera.

With 3 sentry slots against Expert Plantera (42k hp), wearing Squire armor and some other damage accessories:

The Ballistas left her at 37,8k
The Lightning Aura left her at 35,5k*
The Explosive Traps left her at 35,2K*
The Flameburst left her at 37k
The Queen Spider left her at 37k
The Frost Hydra left her at 33,3k
The Ballistas, with the Panic activated, left her at 33k**
The Lightning Aura, with Monk armor's set bonus, left her at 33,7k*

* All three sentries were attacking her at once, this is realistically never going to happen.
** I used Hero's Mod to make it permanent, it won't be this powerful in a real case.

So as you can see, the Ballista is the weakest sentry without the Panic and the Hydra is by far the Strongest against single targets, although you still gave it the pathetically low rank of D+...
 
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I do think the Shadowflame Knife should be higher tier though. With a good reforge + flasks of ichor it could carry you all the way to golem, or at least past Plantera so you could get scourge or vampire knives.
 
I do think the Shadowflame Knife should be higher tier though. With a good reforge + flasks of ichor it could carry you all the way to golem, or at least past Plantera so you could get scourge or vampire knives.
Nah, it's true but A tier is probably fine for it. It's not like the daedalus stormbow which can even kill the duke...
 
The Shadowflame Knife is actually the strongest melee weapon for the Mechs. Sure the yoyos get higher dps but with the range limit they have Spaz phase 2 and Prime are harder than they would be with regular ranged weapons. The Knife doesn't suffer from this, in fact it's specially good for Prime and the Twins just because of the bounce hitting both eyes and Prime's arms.

And also, it does kill the Duke. If you ever want to try pre Mech Fishron, the Shadowflame Knife is one of the strongest weapons to use against him, it's that strong.
 
You're not just underestimating the Queen Spider, you're overestimating the Ballista. I did some similar testing to yours myself, comparing all post Golem sentries + Queen Spider against Plantera.

With 3 sentry slots against Expert Plantera (42k hp), wearing Squire armor and some other damage accessories:

The Ballistas left her at 37,8k
The Lightning Aura left her at 35,5k*
The Explosive Traps left her at 35,2K*
The Flameburst left her at 37k
The Queen Spider left her at 37k
The Frost Hydra left her at 33,3k
The Ballistas, with the Panic activated, left her at 33k**
The Lightning Aura, with Monk armor's set bonus, left her at 33,7k*

* All three sentries were attacking her at once, this is realistically never going to happen.
** I used Hero's Mod to make it permanent, it won't be this powerful in a real case.

So as you can see, the Ballista is the weakest sentry without the Panic and the Hydra is by far the Strongest against single targets, although you still gave it the pathetically low rank of D+...
I did notice that Frost Hydra had the highest single-target DPS, but when you consider what single targets you'll actually need it for (Mothron, Martian Saucer, Lunatic Cultist, Duke Fishron), it's probably going to contribute almost nothing to those fights. To be fair, neither will the other sentries, but at least they can take care of stuff on the ground more effectively. Maybe C at best for its performance against Golem.

I think the true deciding factor in whether Queen Spider is S rank material or not is how it compares to the Tier 2 sentries (cane). If it's significantly stronger than post-mech sentries, it definitely deserves to be called exceptional.

As for the Shadowflame Knife, I recently changed my mind about the Megashark being A+ and bumped it to S, so putting Shadowflame Knife at S wouldn't be too big a stretch. However, objectively, the Shadowflame Knife isn't the *greatest* weapon, it just happens to be the best/safest option available to melee. If anything, I'm thinking of bumping the yoyos down. It was mostly outside opinions that influenced me to put the Amarok at S.
 
The Hydras are more reliable than you think against bosses. Out of those that you mentioned the only one it truly can't hit is the Saucer, and well there is no non-homing weapon that can consistently hit that thing in its phase 2 anyways. I once tried Fishron as melee with Squire armor and 4 hydras and it really felt like they were half of my dps. It was a no craft run so my accessories sucked, but then again my main weapon was a Legendary Influx Waver so it's still fair to call them strong.

And it is pretty reliable against regular enemies, a couple Hydras deal with the Dungeon and the Lihzahrd pretty easily, and they can even back you up during the Pillars. Granted that the Ballistas and the Lightning Auras do that better, but I do feel like the Hydras are at least comparable or better than the Flameburst. The Hydras fire fast enough and with enough knockback that the lack of pierce/explosions doesn't hurt them too much.

It's not exactly a high tier weapon (B+ would already feel overranked) but having it in the same tier as the Rocket Launcher is a travesty.

I also doubt you can still call the Ballista Tier 2 an S tier given how even the Queen Spiders are stronger, and I doubt people get hit so often that the Ballista Panic stays active most of the time.

As for the Knife in S tier, it depends on whether you are ranking weapons in general or according to what's good for each class, in the former case then A or A+ is fine.
 
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One thing to note about the ballista staff is that none of it's counterparts can hit above themselves for any large distance
 
Up until now, I haven’t been considering how sentries fare with DD2 armors. I just reevaluated the Queen Spider, so I suppose it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Frost Hydra jump up a bit with sentry-boosting gear.

Ballista is S ranked because it’s the best for the Old One’s Army; no matter what you’re ultimately planning to buy with Defender Medals, Ballista will be the most efficient choice for getting there.
 
You should make a calamity mod/thorium mod tier list, so I can actually know what to keep instead of having to switch between 5 guns in my hotbar or 8 swords in my hotbar and 10 stacks of potions and 3 armor sets in my inventory.
 
You should make a calamity mod/thorium mod tier list, so I can actually know what to keep instead of having to switch between 5 guns in my hotbar or 8 swords in my hotbar and 10 stacks of potions and 3 armor sets in my inventory.
To be fair, you can also decide by yourself what you will find useful to keep using and what not.

Been able to review and rate modded weapons also requires full knowledge to the mod's content. Which will require a huge effort if one's not even into these mods.
 
To be fair, you can also decide by yourself what you will find useful to keep using and what not.

Been able to review and rate modded weapons also requires full knowledge to the mod's content. Which will require a huge effort if one's not even into these mods.

Maybe when I play calmity mod for a couple of weeks on end, I'll make an entire tier list of worst to best weapons with abilities and special uses if applicable.
 
you're actually going to have to use the pearlwood bow as your only ranged method of inflicting ichor lmaooooooo

wait, you’re counting ammo too? guess you don’t get to use ichor at all, then. in which case i hope you’re good with a shotgun, it’s probably your best bet
I know this is super late, but flasks of ichor exist.
 
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