Ranged vs. Summon.
Master-journey , 3 tries average
Summon.
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.
Full shroomite is used for Phantasm + stealth. Chlorophyte arrows are the best here.
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.