Is endgame mage or endgame ranger better?

Ranged or Magic

  • Magic is better

    Votes: 20 52.6%
  • Ranged is better

    Votes: 18 47.4%

  • Total voters
    38

theblackkoopa

Terrarian
So I found a few threads like this online but all of them are archived and all that. But now new updates have struck, new people have played Terraria and all that. Right now I'm starting with a ranger playthrough but I've already done a strict, expert mode mage playthrough (And I loved it). But here's the question. Which class is the best. I know the other two classes don't come NEARLY as close to dealing damage as Magic or Ranged, so tell me what you think; I'm completely neutral. Just please present me with more than single taget, or multi-target, dps only. Tell me what you think below:happy:

EDIT: Right whatever, I'm supporting mage (I always did kinda tbh) and I'll reply to whatever, lol.
 
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Ranged is better, doesn't suffer from mana sickness, ammo can be versatile.
Bows like the Pulse Bow excel in cramped space better than any spell, and becoming an effective mage is costly.
 
Both are horrifyingly powerful.
At Moon Lord tier (which is what is currently considered endgame), Ranger is easier to use at its full potential, but Mage at its full potential is a fair bit stronger.

First of all, you don't need mana potions at all if you keep picking up the blue buffs and dropped mana stars. A bit of trigger discipline goes a long way in preserving your mana. Ration your mana appropriately, and you won't have to ever experience mana sickness.
With the Last Prism, you can tear through large groups of enemies by simply pointing in their general direction, and the Lunar Flare has extremely high single-target DPS and can completely ignore walls. Nebula Blaze is also pretty damn strong.
The buffs from the Nebula set bonus are extremely potent at level 3, and maintaining level 3 buffs is easy as long as you keep damaging enemies.
Oh yeah, and you don't need to give yourself movement penalties to fully power yourself up.
The only real disadvantage is the lower defense, which is offset by the health regeneration buff.

In short, at Moon Lord tier, Ranger is strong, but Mage can be stronger if you know what you're doing.
 
mage has more defensive abilities and agility, but ranger has a TON of damage. as in, moon lord goes down before he has a chance to use the deathray.
 
mage has more defensive abilities and agility...
I have to disagree here. Rangers get the Vortex Booster as their wings, making them the fastest flyers of all the classes.

I do vote for Rangers, for various reasons already stated. Damage, mana-less, etc. There's also the stealth mode for the set bonus, which makes your shots do even more damage. And since some guns don't even take ammo (Piranha gun), they're a lot more versatile than mages with a set maximum of mana (all set bonus pick-ups barred).
 
I have to disagree here. Rangers get the Vortex Booster as their wings, making them the fastest flyers of all the classes.
Ignoring the fact that all wings are not bound to any particular class. So there's nothing preventing anyone from putting a Vortex Booster on a Mage and setting the Nebula Mantle as the vanity accessory. So I really wouldn't count wings as valid for this kind of argument.
 
Ignoring the fact that all wings are not bound to any particular class. So there's nothing preventing anyone from putting a Vortex Booster on a Mage and setting the Nebula Mantle as the vanity accessory. So I really wouldn't count wings as valid for this kind of argument.
Noted. Unfortunately, I still disagree. By your logic I may as well have a full set of Stardust armor with a Vortex Booster, Solar Eruption, and maybe some Nebula dye for laughs. Sure it'd work. It'd look silly probably, but it'd work.
 
Noted. Unfortunately, I still disagree. By your logic I may as well have a full set of Stardust armor with a Vortex Booster, Solar Eruption, and maybe some Nebula dye for laughs. Sure it'd work. It'd look silly probably, but it'd work.
Using a Solar Eruption with Stardust armor is actually a pretty good idea though, considering that summons only go so far in terms of damage and crowd control. In fact, the Solar Eruption perfectly complements the Stardust Dragon's habit of targeting anything except the thing closest to you.
 
I have to disagree here. Rangers get the Vortex Booster as their wings, making them the fastest flyers of all the classes.

I do vote for Rangers, for various reasons already stated. Damage, mana-less, etc. There's also the stealth mode for the set bonus, which makes your shots do even more damage. And since some guns don't even take ammo (Piranha gun), they're a lot more versatile than mages with a set maximum of mana (all set bonus pick-ups barred).
also, the stealth effect of the vortex armor cripples your mobility.
 
Ranged is better, doesn't suffer from mana sickness, ammo can be versatile.
Bows like the Pulse Bow excel in cramped space better than any spell, and becoming an effective mage is costly.

I don't want to just call you things you're not, but seriously, you've probably not played as an endgame mage for long, if ever. As a mage, mana is hardly your enemy. On paper mana sounds like a huge setback, but learning to handle mana evolves into second nature soon.

Sorry but I just had to respond to your post, I don't want to respond to everyone but,to me, the mana argument isn't a very good one. I'm not saying you are wrong with the 'ranger beats mage' point, but what about comparing the set bonuses and all that? Please, try to get a better argument than that <:S

BTW, Razorblade Typhoon > your pathetic Pulse Bow :p
 
Before the Moonlord, Ranged wins pretty much always, assuming you can keep a steady supply of your chosen ammunition. Stuff like the Phantasm (pillars are still pre-Moonlord) and the Snowman Cannon can pretty easily outperform the Nebula Blaze or Laser Machinegun from what I've seen

After the Moonlord, Last Prism and Nebula Armor are literally capable of killing everything in the game with very little setup. Even with mana sickness, the single target damage of the full beam is absolutely insane. And the chargeup is extremely powerful in its own right, takes out crowds with no trouble at all
 
At Moon Lord tier (which is what is currently considered endgame), Ranger is easier to use at its full potential, but Mage at its full potential is a fair bit stronger.

What do you mean?
Ranged weapons have A LOT more dps hands down even if you just use infinite musket pouch. Nothing beats the SDMG with crystal bullets when it comes to DPS. And nothing beats the SDMG with chlorophyte bullets when it can reliably hit the moonlord 4 or 5 wide-screens away without putting yourself in danger (just aim via map, that's close enough).

You can just tape down your m1 and that's it. No need for excessive mana mangement and cease-fires which utterly ruin your dps.
 
I prefer mage since you have awesome looking armor, good power-ups, and you are able to cast multiple spells at the same time. In ranger, I think the only con is the ammo; ammo is hard to get especially if you have Chlorophyte which is relatively hard to get.
 
What do you mean?
Ranged weapons have A LOT more dps hands down even if you just use infinite musket pouch. Nothing beats the SDMG with crystal bullets when it comes to DPS. And nothing beats the SDMG with chlorophyte bullets when it can reliably hit the moonlord 4 or 5 wide-screens away without putting yourself in danger (just aim via map, that's close enough).

You can just tape down your m1 and that's it. No need for excessive mana mangement and cease-fires which utterly ruin your dps.

Actually, that honor goes to the Phantasm (even after the nerfs, though the SDMG does have the advantage in reliability.). Still, the SDMG is a great contender.

A good mage can beat a ranger in DPS. But for ease of use and as little multitasking as possible, ranger is best.
 
Actually, that honor goes to the Phantasm (even after the nerfs, though the SDMG does have the advantage in reliability.). Still, the SDMG is a great contender.

A good mage can beat a ranger in DPS. But for ease of use and as little multitasking as possible, ranger is best.
When it comes to crowd-clearing though, Last Prism is unmatched.
 
Actually, that honor goes to the Phantasm (even after the nerfs, though the SDMG does have the advantage in reliability.). Still, the SDMG is a great contender.

A good mage can beat a ranger in DPS. But for ease of use and as little multitasking as possible, ranger is best.

Oh yes I almost forgot. Still, the SDMG with crystal bullets does some solid 10,000dps. Chlorophyte bullets are still somewhere at 7,500dps IIRC (no extra buff pots) but that is a rocksolid 24/7 dps which never drops for any reason whatsoever. I wasn't able to get that high with mage weapons. How did you manage that?
In order to sustain such a high magic dps it basically would need to be 50% higher (so ~15,000dps) in order to be the same even with full mana sickness as it immediatly cuts 1/3 away. However, not shooting at all in order to conserve mana is even worse (though it's hard to calculate how much worse).

And then again, as you said, phantasm produces even bigger numbers.

Edit: double checked the numbers.
 
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I can't tell you which one is stronger, but I prefer ranged. I don't enjoy the aspect of having to balance mana for a mage playthrough.
 
Noted. Unfortunately, I still disagree. By your logic I may as well have a full set of Stardust armor with a Vortex Booster, Solar Eruption, and maybe some Nebula dye for laughs. Sure it'd work. It'd look silly probably, but it'd work.

You say "noted" but you still continue to treat wings as a class item.
 
Both are horrifyingly powerful.
At Moon Lord tier (which is what is currently considered endgame), Ranger is easier to use at its full potential, but Mage at its full potential is a fair bit stronger.

First of all, you don't need mana potions at all if you keep picking up the blue buffs and dropped mana stars. A bit of trigger discipline goes a long way in preserving your mana. Ration your mana appropriately, and you won't have to ever experience mana sickness.
With the Last Prism, you can tear through large groups of enemies by simply pointing in their general direction, and the Lunar Flare has extremely high single-target DPS and can completely ignore walls. Nebula Blaze is also pretty damn strong.
The buffs from the Nebula set bonus are extremely potent at level 3, and maintaining level 3 buffs is easy as long as you keep damaging enemies.
Oh yeah, and you don't need to give yourself movement penalties to fully power yourself up.
The only real disadvantage is the lower defense, which is offset by the health regeneration buff.

In short, at Moon Lord tier, Ranger is strong, but Mage can be stronger if you know what you're doing.

TL;DR I enjoyed reading your post, and I agree.

I totally agree. It's pretty clear you played both classes , so I'm more likely to agree with you than most people who say "Mana is such a limitation, I prefer having not to stop my fire for mana to regen", which I disagree with.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head, a mage who knows his :red: is pretty much going to destroy everything before even needing to take two mana potions. To me, the better DPS of the ranger isn't going to do much for you in most cases because most enemies die before you hit the 10 grand. Additionally, in a battle such as the Moon Lord, you wanna be running or using your ufo (Or fishron) otherwise you'd get killed if you use stealth mode (Sorry if I'm wrong about this :p)
But that set bonus of the mage xD so darn great, if you know how to use it you could potentially never die xD. Thanks for your post anyways.
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I can't tell you which one is stronger, but I prefer ranged. I don't enjoy the aspect of having to balance mana for a mage playthrough.
I haven't heard THAT on before...




Pls man, bring something new to the table. :p
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mage has more defensive abilities and agility, but ranger has a TON of damage. as in, moon lord goes down before he has a chance to use the deathray.
Re? Pls give me video mang... :S
 
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