In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

Ok, true. Sorcerer emblem) insignicant, again, but 3% damage.
P. S. Laser machinegun with mana regen potions is a bad idea.
I never said mana regen, you don;t need a mana flower accessory to use mana potions, and as long as you can pres quick mana between the time mana sickness runs out and before you run out of mana you barely lose any extra damage from perfect timing.

Nebula blazes mana consumption is high enough that you usually have less than a second between running out of sickness and running out of mana so I can understand wanting a mana flower type acceory here.

My suggestion was swapping out the mana cloak for something that does magic damage when using a more mana efficent weapon.

Check out my mana guide for more information.

Also you likely missed this question
Edit: 1 more question, are you using warding on all your builds? Warding makes some sense on the beetle build but when your defense is already low you're better off sacrificing a dps accesory to throw on a BoC then use menacing modifers.
 
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I never said mana regen, you don;t need a mana flower accessory to use mana potions, and as long as you can pres quick mana between the time mana sickness runs out and before you run out of mana you barely lose any extra damage from perfect timing.

Nebula blazes mana consumption is high enough that you usually have less than a second between running out of sickness and running out of mana so I can understand wanting a mana flower type acceory here.

My suggestion was swapping out the mana cloak for something that does magic damage when using a more mana efficent weapon.


Also you likely missed this question
Ranged, mage – always menacing
Melee – Warding (the Phantasm tested using this loadout)
Summoner – it depends, but here 4 accessories menacing, 3 warding (if my memory serves me well)
In event testing, I switch to full menacing, even for melee.

Got the idea. The razorblade typhoon should be pretty close to nebula blaze thanks to 12% extra dmg and less mana sickness in general
 
No, absolutely not. Moon Lord has a lot of cheap, random (on practice, I know that they aren't).
The ONLY attack that is truly random BS is the mini-deathray, and that's not even from Moon Lord himself. The other attacks can be avoided by simply moving up/down or left/right depending if ML is at the edge of your screen or you're attacking his core.

ML destroys even set bonuses with 3 charges (Beetle shell
No it doesn't. On my first completed playthrough back in 1.3, I semi-facetanked Moon Lord with Beetle Shell and Warding modifiers to beat him the first time. You must be playing on FTW running full Menacing, because you're using Beetle Shell (Tank Melee in general) wrong if Moon Lord is "destroying" you.


As for me, I can dodge Empress and Duke,
If I can beat Master Mode Empress of Light without the WASD keys with half of my damage coming from whips, I'm pretty sure It's more than doable to attack ML's core when playing normally.

useless holy dodge (remember, please, about extremely short distance to the core), almost no def.
Seem like you don't know how to use defensive Summoner effectively. First of all, the holy dodge is far from useless, even if you get hit frequently (at that point it's a skill issue). You want to go with full Warding, and have one or two of your accessory slots being Brain of Confusion (Triple dodge with hallowed and MNG is busted), Celestial Shell (boosts to both offense & survivability) or Frozen Shield (more survivability). You can take many more hits before dying, and you still deal 3000+ DPS with Kaleidoscope + Stardust Cell Staff, which has more reliable AI and reacts way faster when you use whips compared to dragon.

Other classes have Hallowed Armor on their own but they don't have Summon Tag. Unless using Obsidian Armor, Summoner is the class that needs & cares about percentage boosts by far the least. Speaking of Obsidian armor, why was it not tested at all? It very hardly deals less damage than Spooky Armor if at all, and has a lot higher range for whips, which means safety. Kaleidoscope with it covers almost your whole screen. Also, isn't dragon known for dealing high damage even without whips, which means safety when using Spooky or Hallowed if you don't want to use whips?

Terraprisma has less range
How so? It's on par with the like of Blade Staff, Sanguine Staff, Stardust Dragon and Stardust Cell. It detects and goes after everything that enters a 1920x1080 screen. The detection range is more than sufficient here.

ygtcFAP.png


Cells are better used by summoning 3 of them + ranged& Vortex beater.
Can Vortex Beater with offensive gears & 3 cells deal 5000+ DPS? What's the DPS looking like with Hallowed Armor, full Warding and one or two defensive accessories? All I'm seeing here is Summoner being underestimated.
 
@Shyguymask Could you list your recommended summon build for moonlord, I'll try it out. Terraprisma disqualified.
I want 1 build, not a list of alternatives.
 
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@Shyguymask Could you list your recommended summon build for moonlord, I'll try it out. Terraprisma disqualified.

For Damage-based Summoner, armors and weapons have different viable combinations that go well with each other.

Spooky armor OR Obsidian armor, both are viable. Spooky Armor can deal slightly higher damage, and deals especially more damage when playing passively and not whipping. Having 15 more defense is also a thing. Obsidian Armor however is a lot safer and easier for whipping while keeping your distance, especially if you use Kaleidoscope.

Both Stardust Cell and Dragon deal similar damage. Dragon is better when not using whips actively, but Cell is faster and more reliable when attacking with whips. Cell should be used with Kaleidoscope, but Dragon can be used with either Kaleidoscope (Longer range) or Firecracker (More damage but not by a huge amount). Using a combination of the two with Kaleidoscope may work too.

For accessories (all on Menacing):

Berserker's Glove
Wings
Master Ninja Gear
Soaring Insignia
Necromantic Scroll OR Celestial Shell (pick both if on Master)
Papyrus Scarab

For Defense-based Summoner, there's the obvious Valhalla armor set, but I'll only consider Hallowed Armor.

Surprisingly both Dragon and Cell perform similarly with defensive Summoner as well. But I'd only use Kaleidoscope for either, and preferably Cell as well.

Accessories are the same as with Damage-based Summoner, except with Warding instead. Total is around 70 defense with buffs, which I think is on par with Ranger with Shroomite Armor and Menacing on accessories. But if you use Witch Broom or Gelatinous Pillion, you have three more accessory slots:

Berserker's Glove
Frozen Shield
Brain of Cthulhu, Charm of Myth OR Worm Scarf (pick two if on Master)
Celestial Shell
Necromantic Scroll
Papyrus Scarab

For ALL builds, use Dark Harvest, but if good with whips you can also add Durendal for even more melee speed & some Summon tag damage (mainly for cells)
 
For Damage-based Summoner, armors and weapons have different viable combinations that go well with each other.

Spooky armor OR Obsidian armor, both are viable. Spooky Armor can deal slightly higher damage, and deals especially more damage when playing passively and not whipping. Having 15 more defense is also a thing. Obsidian Armor however is a lot safer and easier for whipping while keeping your distance, especially if you use Kaleidoscope.

Both Stardust Cell and Dragon deal similar damage. Dragon is better when not using whips actively, but Cell is faster and more reliable when attacking with whips. Cell should be used with Kaleidoscope, but Dragon can be used with either Kaleidoscope (Longer range) or Firecracker (More damage but not by a huge amount). Using a combination of the two with Kaleidoscope may work too.

For accessories (all on Menacing):

Berserker's Glove
Wings
Master Ninja Gear
Soaring Insignia
Necromantic Scroll OR Celestial Shell (pick both if on Master)
Papyrus Scarab

For Defense-based Summoner, there's the obvious Valhalla armor set, but I'll only consider Hallowed Armor.

Surprisingly both Dragon and Cell perform similarly with defensive Summoner as well. But I'd only use Kaleidoscope for either, and preferably Cell as well.

Accessories are the same as with Damage-based Summoner, except with Warding instead. Total is around 70 defense with buffs, which I think is on par with Ranger with Shroomite Armor and Menacing on accessories. But if you use Witch Broom or Gelatinous Pillion, you have three more accessory slots:

Berserker's Glove
Frozen Shield
Brain of Cthulhu, Charm of Myth OR Worm Scarf (pick two if on Master)
Celestial Shell
Necromantic Scroll
Papyrus Scarab

For ALL builds, use Dark Harvest, but if good with whips you can also add Durendal for even more melee speed & some Summon tag damage (mainly for cells)
um...
I want 1 build, not a list of alternatives.

Ok so I'll tell you more about the testing I plan to do so you can pick a specific build that you think will overall do the best. Also should porably use kaleidiscope because you arguing to move the kaleidiscope up a tier is what started this whole summoner vs moonlord talk.

Again ONE build, and be as specific as possible. I don't want to do all my testing and the you say, oh you were supposed to do X.

I plan on using every relevant potion and buff table for the tests. I will test in master mode.
1623905473412.png

Part 1:
For part 1 I will simply keep attempting moonlord with your specified build, and report how many attempts it took. Somewhat of a beginner's test.

Part 2:
In part 2 I will be comparing your build to a phantasm + stardust dragon build. I will do a bunch of practice rounds on both builds then when I'm relatively comfortable I will start the official tests. I will do 5 kill time tests for each build, if I die in a test I will add 1 to that build's 'fail' counter and try the test again.

1623905522603.png

1623905861259.png

All Menacing accessories.
 
Oh lol I didn't even notice that.

But do you want a build that kills the fastest, or one that is the most "viable"? Well, I will go for fastest kill time disregarding safety.

Spooky Armor

Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest, Durendal, Betsy's Wrath & Stardust Cell Staff. All of these weapons.

Berserker's Glove

Necromantic Scroll

Papyrus Scarab

Celestial Shell, at nighttime

Betsy's Wings

Soaring Insignia

Summoner Emblem

All on Menacing
 
Ranged vs. Summon.
Master-journey , 3 tries average

Summon.
spooky-summon.gif

summon-buffs.gif
Spooky, cells, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All warding
1 min 30 sec

Spooky, cells, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All Menacing
1 min 16 sec

Obsidian, Cells, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All warding
1 min 38 sec

Obsidian, Cells, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All Menacing
1 min 28 sec

Hallowed, Dragon, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All warding
1 min 20 sec

Hallowed, Dragon, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All Menacing
1 min 16 sec

To compare Dragon vs Cells:

Spooky, Dragon, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All Menacing
1 min 1 sec (dragon) --- against 1 min 16 sec (Cells)
20 to 25% faster = Dragon is superior. And safer for full summoner.


Ranged.
Ranged-loadout.gif

Full shroomite is used for Phantasm + stealth. Chlorophyte arrows are the best here.

Phantasm.gif

Buffs are adjusted, archery potions are added.

Shroomite, Vortex Beater for the main fight, Phantasm for the top eye All menacing
1 min 25 sec (=optimal balance)

Shroomite, fully phantasm, chlorophyte arrow All menacing
1 min 6 sec

Shroomite, Vortex beater for the main fight, Phantasm for the top eye. All warding
1 min 44 sec

Shroomite, fully phantasm, chlorophyte arrow All warding
1 min 27 sec


So, optimal combo of phantasm + vortex beater does the job in about 5 seconds slower. And I can safely focus on dodging for an entire fight, have worm scarf,and no annoying switches near ML's face (especially with obsidian). The damage crown goes to summoner, but are you sure that it is worth it?

Seem like you don't know how to use defensive Summoner effectively. First of all, the holy dodge is far from useless, even if you get hit frequently (at that point it's a skill issue). You want to go with full Warding, and have one or two of your accessory slots being Brain of Confusion (Triple dodge with hallowed and MNG is busted), Celestial Shell (boosts to both offense & survivability) or Frozen Shield (more survivability). You can take many more hits before dying, and you still deal 3000+ DPS with Kaleidoscope + Stardust Cell Staff, which has more reliable AI and reacts way faster when you use whips compared to dragon.

I can use phantasm to deal obscene damage to the eye and then 2000 stable DPS with vortex beater. Why should I take this risk if with phantasm the times are almost equal?
Against semi-random and cheap attacks holy dodge is next to useless, actually. And what if, you are unlucky with dodge RNG? Against ML, stability of damage and attack avoidance (vortex beater) and stability of defence (worm scarf) are the best. Defensive summoner, in this fight (blade staff is outdated), still feels like a glass cannon, so it is as useless as full menacing melee with scale mail and no def accessories in general.

A glass cannon with no significant damage bonuses and tedious switching, I may add.

As for me, I can dodge Empress and Duke,
If I can beat Master Mode Empress of Light without the WASD keys with half of my damage coming from whips, I'm pretty sure It's more than doable to attack ML's core when playing normally.
My initial point was that Empress and Duke have superior design, predictable patterns, and, importantly, no "holes" in design – the Duke enrages, EoL is hard to outrun (only the mechanical cart capable of that, and not for all attacks).Holy dodge + brain are brilliant here (as well as xenopopper + chlorophyte >> xeno staff + kaleidoscope during daytime EoL).

ML has a huge distance window of no attacks (1,5 – 2 screens away), detectable intuitively, for 90% of players, not for dedicated class/weapons testers for research purposes. Allows to avoid almost all attacks, only the deathray can hit, but it can still be avoided this way or simply change direction. And let’s build our loadout starting from that.

OK, I am physically incabable of unleashing summoner’s full potential, bad dodging, switching, etc. But what about mobile users with touchscreens or console users? Three-shot character, 2-3 constant switches between weapons and touchscreen are a great combo, sure.
I think it is a fair assumption since this tier list and the game is designed to as many people as possible.


The highest damage, semi-hidden mechanics of whips, danger... Wait? No, it turns out that summoner is not the best. Melee is the best, using The Horseman's Blade + statues, kills it in about 30 sec, and you dont need skills of dodging or switching.
 
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Oh lol I didn't even notice that.

But do you want a build that kills the fastest, or one that is the most "viable"? Well, I will go for fastest kill time disregarding safety.

Spooky Armor

Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest, Durendal, Betsy's Wrath & Stardust Cell Staff. All of these weapons.

Berserker's Glove

Necromantic Scroll

Papyrus Scarab

Celestial Shell, at nighttime

Betsy's Wings

Soaring Insignia

Summoner Emblem

All on Menacing
Alright if you think that kaleidiscope's lower attack range won't require more defensive items to get the same survival rate as my phantasm build.
 
OK, I am physically incabable of unleashing summoner’s full potential, bad dodging, switching, etc. But what about mobile users with touchscreens or console users? Three-shot character, 2-3 constant switches between weapons and touchscreen are a great combo, sure.
I think it is a fair assumption since this tier list and the game is designed to as many people as possible.
This is where I throw in my own two cents and say that a weapon's usefulness is heavily dependant on the player that makes use of it. I play a modded version of 1.4.2 with Frog Stacking re-enabled (essentially 1.4.1 but with Steam Workshop features) and I choose to use Balloons and Jump boosts in place of wings. My movement is very jerky and fast-paced. There are a lot of sudden direction changes which make it easy to avoid the enemy but difficult to stay near it, making weapons like whips and yoyos almost entirely unusable. These weapons are almost automatically bottom-tier for me without something like Obsidian Armor to allow them to hit at a comfortable range.

My movement does have its upsides though. It allows me to react to incoming threats rather than needing to move preemptively to avoid them, which is an incredibly strong ability to have.

That being said, could YOU make proper use of my movement? Could YOU keep your mouse on the target when your character's movement is so erratic and quick? I can, but that's because I have literal years of practice under my belt, and to say that my method of movement is viable would be to assume that everyone can keep track of the battle and aim and move like I can, which many players absolutely cannot. Where do we draw the line between "This is Good." and "is this practical."

Truthfully, I do not know where to draw that line, and it seems many others don't either. Whip-stacking is something that has been described as tedious and tricky to get the hang of before, so if you can't actually make use of it, it's really not that good for your purposes. I myself can't pull it off very well thanks to my preferred movement style, so immediately Whip Stacking is something I can disregard since it really cannot apply to me in a meaningful way.

That may have been hard to follow, so I'll sum it up with this:

"What should we do if the true potential of an item or technique is only accessible to some but not all? Should we rank it at its highest potential even though many players cannot use it at that level? Or should we rank it where most players can reasonably make use of it even though in the hands of someone else it COULD be higher?"
 
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This is where I throw in my own two cents and say that a weapon's usefulness is heavily dependant on the player that makes use of it. I play a modded version of 1.4.2 with Frog Stacking re-enabled (essentially 1.4.1 but with Steam Workshop features) and I choose to use Balloons and Jump boosts in place of wings. My movement is very jerky and fast-paced. There are a lot of sudden direction changes which make it easy to avoid the enemy but difficult to stay near it, making weapons like whips and yoyos almost entirely unusable. These weapons are almost automatically bottom-tier for me without something like Obsidian Armor to allow them to hit at a comfortable range.

My movement does have its upsides though. It allows me to react to incoming threats rather than needing to move preemptively to avoid them, which is an incredibly strong ability to have.

That being said, could YOU make proper use of my movement? Could YOU keep your mouse on the target when your character's movement is so erratic and quick? I can, but that's because I have literal years of practice under my belt, and to say that my method of movement is viable would be to assume that everyone can keep track of the battle and aim and move like I can, which many players absolutely cannot. Where do we draw the line between "This is Good." and "is this practical."

Truthfully, I do not know where to draw that line, and it seems many others don't either. Whip-stacking is something that has been described as tedious and tricky to get the hang of before, so if you can't actually make use of it, it's really not that good for your purposes. I myself can't pull it off very well thanks to my preferred movement style, so immediately Whip Stacking is something I can disregard since it really cannot apply to me in a meaningful way.

That may have been hard to follow, so I'll sum it up with this:

"What should we do if the true potential of an item or technique is only accessible to some but not all? Should we rank it at its highest potential even though many players cannot use it at that level? Or should we rank it where most players can reasonably make use of it even though in the hands of someone else it COULD be higher?"
True. Generally stable and reliable strategies should take a priority, at least here. Not - 15% from kill time in a defenceless build with tedious way of dealing damage.

I can add that for mages, the Nebula Arcanum can act in a similar fasion for the head eye. A bit less effective, but acceptable. Then use Nebula blaze of Razorblade Typhoon for mana efficiency.

If you want absolutely best gimmicky strategy, the Horseman's Blade is here. Post-ML tier DPS, but ~30% chance to die. (7 tries successful, 3 not so. 3 mimic statues, 2 unicorn, 1 bat, 1 slime)
But for most people, this weapon is just meh
 
Truthfully, I do not know where to draw that line, and it seems many others don't either. Whip-stacking is something that has been described as tedious and tricky to get the hang of before, so if you can't actually make use of it, it's really not that good for your purposes. I myself can't pull it off very well thanks to my preferred movement style, so immediately Whip Stacking is something I can disregard since it really cannot apply to me in a meaningful way.

That may have been hard to follow, so I'll sum it up with this:

"What should we do if the true potential of an item or technique is only accessible to some but not all? Should we rank it at its highest potential even though many players cannot use it at that level? Or should we rank it where most players can reasonably make use of it even though in the hands of someone else it COULD be higher?"
Personally, I don't think that whip stacking is that hard to pull off. On PC and Console, it's pretty easy to switch weapons quickly, and the only problem with having to switch between whips is that they have varying ranges, but unless you're trying to stack whips many tiers apart, I don't think that that is a big issue. If you're already used to attacking with whips consistently, whip stacking shouldn't be much harder. The reason why most people don't stack whips is because they don't know about it.
 
Personally, I don't think that whip stacking is that hard to pull off. On PC and Console, it's pretty easy to switch weapons quickly, and the only problem with having to switch between whips is that they have varying ranges, but unless you're trying to stack whips many tiers apart, I don't think that that is a big issue. If you're already used to attacking with whips consistently, whip stacking shouldn't be much harder. The reason why most people don't stack whips is because they don't know about it.
I mean I can't pull it off because my preferred movement method makes whips extremely difficult to hit with anyway. In execution it's not hard for me, but in practice I simply can't stay near the boss long enough to make good use of whips to begin with.

Although already in this thread we've seen people have difficulties swapping whips efficiently while in the middle of a heated battle.
 
Personally, I don't think that whip stacking is that hard to pull off. On PC and Console, it's pretty easy to switch weapons quickly, and the only problem with having to switch between whips is that they have varying ranges, but unless you're trying to stack whips many tiers apart, I don't think that that is a big issue. If you're already used to attacking with whips consistently, whip stacking shouldn't be much harder. The reason why most people don't stack whips is because they don't know about it.
It’s not mechanical skill, sliding the mouse wheel isn’t really much to worry about. The problem is that I’m tracking which whip to use and the short cooldown in the middle of the intense fight. It’s difficult for me to pay attention to the boss enough to mot make stupid mistakes like flying into Duke Fishron while also paying attention to how fast my whip is or how long it has been since I last applied a tag, and then switching *to* the other whips and back off quickly enough while actually getting their hits in. Doesn’t help that Summoner also needs more attention paid to bosses than other classes with its short range. Against low effort enemies like Cultist, I can abuse whip stacking fine, but in most cases it’s a bit too much for my pea brain to handle.
 
Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest, Durendal, Betsy's Wrath & Stardust Cell Staff. All of these weapons.
Btw not sure if you are aware of this but NPCs (moonlord included) have 5 buff slots. This means that if they already have 5 debuffs they will resist the next debuff attempt.

This selection of weapons has 6 debuffs, the 3 whip tags, betsy's wrath, ichor, and celled. I will try to attack with dark harvest last since its tag is useless for this fight.
 
Btw not sure if you are aware of this but NPCs (moonlord included) have 5 buff slots. This means that if they already have 5 debuffs they will resist the next debuff attempt.

This selection of weapons has 6 debuffs, the 3 whip tags, betsy's wrath, ichor, and celled. I will try to attack with dark harvest last since its tag is useless for this fight.
I didn't know that, wow
And switching beetween 4 weapons (different in behaviour and range) in intense fight with summoner defence? Good luck, even on PC.


Edit: more tests. Magic, 3 tries average as well. Master-in-journey mode.
defensive.gif

Nebula arcanum spam vs top eye, Nebula blaze for the rest All Warding
1 min 31 sec

Nebula arcanum spam vs top eye, Nebula blaze for the rest All Menacing
1 min 25 sec

Nebula blaze only, all Warding
1 min 45 sec

Nebula blaze only, all Menacing
1 min 29 sec

Now, Melee.

Damage accessories are Warrior emblem, Destroyer emblem, Fire gauntlet. (remaining: Cel. Shell, Ninja, Wings, Worm)

Daybreak, Beetle shell, All menacing
1 min 32 sec

Daybreak, Beetle shell, All Warding
1 min 35 sec
Since the Daybreak is less damage bonuses dependant, I'll stop at beetle shell defence.

Average results not much worse than summoner, and there is a room for damage improvements in this set (for magic).

Almost forgot, one more extra argument for safety in the fight is that ML is preceeded by boring and long pillar fights, and imagine if you were using a summoner set, and lost your rhythm of switching weapons resulting in death with 10% of core health remaining.

I wanted to win extra 15 seconds and used a summon set! Oh, now I need to spend extra 15 minutes.
 
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@Shyguymask I need a new build.
1623971380633.png

27 fights and only 2 victories with the build you gave me.
My phantasm + dragon build breezed through all the testing, 10 attmepts 10 wins.
Default Kaleidoscope range with no survival investment simply doesn't work.
 
Spooky, Dragon, Kaleidoscope, Dark Harvest All Menacing
1 min 1 sec (dragon) --- against 1 min 16 sec (Cells)
20 to 25% faster = Dragon is superior. And safer for full summoner.
Considering you probably weren't attacking with whips very often and weren't using Durendal I can see that. I do think Dragon is overall superior for ML because of its passive DPS, but against EoL & Pillars I'd pick cells with Hallowed or Spooky. What puzzles me though is the fact Dragon performs really well even with full warding & hallowed. How?!
So, optimal combo of phantasm + vortex beater does the job in about 5 seconds slower. And I can safely focus on dodging for an entire fight, have worm scarf,and no annoying switches near ML's face (especially with obsidian). The damage crown goes to summoner, but are you sure that it is worth it?
That "5 seconds slower" seem even worse in context. It involves instant-killing the middle eye, and yet it's still slower overall. This indicates that Phantasm probably struggles with Core phase compared to Summoner.

If we're going to bring up safety and difficulty, then the only answer is Tank Melee or Hallowed Summoner. Hallowed Summoner has the best balance of Damage & Survivability, Tank Melee is indisputable if you want to prioritize survivability.

Defensive summoner, in this fight (blade staff is outdated), still feels like a glass cannon
How so? Hallowed Armor alone enables you to take a few more hits, and the combination of Warding + 1-2 defensive accessories also lets you take a few more hits as well. Objectively speaking you can make many more mistakes, that's not "glass cannon" in my eyes. Also you aren't supposed to be still using Blade Staff at that point.

Wait? No, it turns out that summoner is not the best.
Sounds like a skill issue to me. In most of my playthroughs I've beaten Moon Lord on first attempt, no matter the class.

Alright if you think that kaleidiscope's lower attack range won't require more defensive items to get the same survival rate as my phantasm build.
I thought kill time was the goal, so I provided a glass cannon build disregarding safety.

Where do we draw the line between "This is Good." and "is this practical."
Considering this tier list doesn't take availability into account, and most casual players would heavily struggle if not be unable to get stuff like Empress drops (let alone Terraprisma), Martian Saucer drops (in Expert/Master) and other weapons, I think weapons should be ranked based on skill ceiling & when on good hands rather than skill floor. And besides, tier lists in general (especially in fighting games) are assuming advanced or competitive gameplay.

Personally, I don't think that whip stacking is that hard to pull off. On PC and Console, it's pretty easy to switch weapons quickly, and the only problem with having to switch between whips is that they have varying ranges, but unless you're trying to stack whips many tiers apart, I don't think that that is a big issue. If you're already used to attacking with whips consistently, whip stacking shouldn't be much harder. The reason why most people don't stack whips is because they don't know about it.
Personally I order my whips based on their range, descending. So I can attack with my long range whips to avoid an attack from the boss after I've already took the risk to attack with my shortest whip. In reality this comes naturally because your main DPS whip (unless Firecracker) will be the longest anyway.

It’s not mechanical skill, sliding the mouse wheel isn’t really much to worry about. The problem is that I’m tracking which whip to use and the short cooldown in the middle of the intense fight. It’s difficult for me to pay attention to the boss enough to mot make stupid mistakes like flying into Duke Fishron while also paying attention to how fast my whip is or how long it has been since I last applied a tag, and then switching *to* the other whips and back off quickly enough while actually getting their hits in. Doesn’t help that Summoner also needs more attention paid to bosses than other classes with its short range. Against low effort enemies like Cultist, I can abuse whip stacking fine, but in most cases it’s a bit too much for my pea brain to handle.
I actually press 1, 2 and 3 on my keyboard with my middle finger when stacking whips lmao.

I actually find Duke one of the easier bosses to hit with whips. Why? Because he just comes toward the range of my whips and I don't have to chase after him. I find Twins the hardest to whip stack against because they tend to run away from me, the obvious exception being Spaz phase 2.

As for the whips themselves, Kaleidoscope/Dark Harvest/Durendal is the hardest to combo consistently. Not just because of the range difference between Durendal and the former two, but the wildly changing melee speeds make it difficult to get into the "rhythm". Simply using Kalei/Harvest is the easiest because they both have similarly high range, but I don't find it satisfying if I don't include Durendal

Almost forgot, one more extra argument for safety in the fight is that ML is preceeded by boring and long pillar fights, and imagine if you were using a summoner set, and lost your rhythm of switching weapons resulting in death with 10% of core health remaining.

Personally I whip stack for the first phase (mainly the deathray eye), but start running away at core phase. Dragon, even without whips, won't take long to clear Core phase on its own.

@Shyguymask I need a new build.
In that case, go with Defensive Summoner with a more "practical" playstyle as well:

Hallowed Armor, accessories on Warding

Berserker's Glove
Betsy's Wings
Soaring Insignia
Celestial Shell
Papyrus Scarab
Necromantic Scroll
(Master mode slot) Frozen Shield OR Charm of Myth (based on preference, alternatively go with Frozen Shield and quickswitch Charm of Myth for the healing potions)

For the actual fight, whip stack the eyes with Stardust Cell Staff. Then for the Core phase, kick out cells and go full Dragon, playing passively until ML's dead.

For a glass cannon whip stacking Summoner Vs. Moon Lord kill time, it seems like I'm the only one that could do it. But I'll only bother with it if there is a way to remove the one-minute waiting time when using the summon.
 
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