Journey's End 1.4.4: Balance Feedback and Discussion Thread

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I've had more time to collect my thoughts. Since the thread's days are limited, I'll put together this list of things that I find to be most important.

By the looks of things, it seems people are calling for nerfs for things like the Gelatinous Pillion, Frog Leg, Sanguine Staff and Blade Staff (I know this one is just a bug fix but hear me out). I wanna go over a few of these, if I may.

As much as I wanna defend the summon staves, I'm aware I'll be in the minority here. But I believe that these "big two" are so used because of the relative lack of other viable options. Should they be nerfed, it would be a good opportunity to bring some other minions into the spotlight.
Optic Staff and its i-frame issues have been discussed heavily already, but I wanted to bring up the possibility of just making the Twinions faster, especially if they're in catch-up mode. Despite being post-Twins, they're actually terribly unreliable for Queen Slime, if only because of her second phase. More on that momentarily.
Pirate Staff is a wonky thing that most people see as selling fodder or just a meme. Since I don't see an AI change being possible, you could make it stand out by giving the Pirate minions a chance to generate coins on hit, either equal to or less than (but not stacking with) the Midas buff. Or better yet, give them the ability to collect dropped money or increase your luck by a small capped amount, making them good for farms (might be outside the scope though).

Are the Amphibian Boots really that strong, by the way? I can see why people use them, the Frog Leg is awesome and the Amphibian Boots save an accessory slot. But the reason I don't use them much is because they lack the extra wing time that the Rocket Boots give, which is why I always opt for Spectre+ Boots and Frog Leg separately. Until you get a Soaring Insignia, there isn't much reason in my eyes to use the Amphi Boots; and by the time I get the Insignia, it's a replacement to my Frog Leg anyway. You could theoretically equip both and fly at the speed of sound, but that's one less accessory slot used for damage, which is just as important as mobility in my opinion.
If you honestly want to nerf the Frog Leg though, my proposal in exchange is to make it so that movement speed modifiers affect flight speed and/or flight acceleration, rather than only your bootless movement. Heck, make it affect sprinting speed too if it's possible. The reason why we focus on the Frog Leg so much is because it does what people want it to, perhaps more well than anything else. Allowing one to build into mobility modifiers would lessen the need for the Frog Leg and related items, especially in higher difficulties.

That all said, I wanna talk about something that I see as an elephant in the room; where the game's balance is all over the place. That would be early hardmode, specifically Queen Slime's tier.

I want to readdress Queen Slime and her overwhelming second phase. The aggressive chase makes her hard to avoid, especially when she bursts out all these bouncy projectiles every few seconds, at a very close range. To avoid this, I either use the Frog Leg to skyrocket above her, or a mount or minecart to move in a single direction just for the sake of being fast enough. It's a very tedious fight and simply doesn't feel right within the progression of the game, optional or not.
I really want to like Queenie's fight though! But a few things worry me:

Nerf the Gelatinous Pillion and Blade Staff, and there's even less reason to fight her.
Nerf Sanguine, Frog Leg, Obsidian armor and/or whip speed, and she becomes even more frustrating to deal with; you can't fight her at a reasonable distance, which may lead to more driving-in-a-straight-line strategies just to get it over with.
Admittedly, Queenie was one of the reasons I was afraid of Obsidian getting slapped in the first place.

Here's what I propose:
If all of the aforementioned items were nerfed, make Queen Slime a little more lenient; at the very least, lower her acceleration or flying speed, or cause her to slow down/stop midair when charging her projectile burst. This would also give minions like Spiders a chance to actually hit her, outside of her ground-pound attack, while giving the player time to sidestep the attack. As of now, my usual strategy is to put as many slots as possible into Abigail so that she can reliably keep up with Queenie; Spiders can't do much unless you summon some on top of her while she's flying. It feels odd that the most reliable summon for this fight is pre-boss. And I avoid getting the Sanguine Staff that early since it's a bit of a pubstomp (I guess that does warrant the nerf, huh...?).

If Queen Slime were to remain as she is despite the item nerfs, then I earnestly ask that the Pillion be untouched so that players get adequately rewarded for their struggles. On top of that, I propose that the Blade Staff be relocated to the Hallowed Mimic. Speaking from a Summoner's perspective, the Blades were the most reliable choice against Queenie back in 1.4's release. Ever since they were gated behind the Queen herself, I've had trouble figuring out a reliable strategy that doesn't rely on cheese. I'm aware that Re-Logic specifically didn't design the Blade Staff for the Hallowed Mimic. However, considering it shares the color scheme of all its other drops, and considering the Hallowed Mimic only has 4 unique items compared to the Corrupt Mimic's 5, it only makes sense to re-tier the Blade Staff. Its armor piercing bug is getting fixed which is an indirect nerf anyway, so, why not?

If none of this made sense and I'm just bad at her fight, then forgive me.

Additionally: I still vouch for the Bone Helm getting a slight damage boost in Master Mode. It's nifty, but it doesn't see much use other than keeping weak enemies away (and said enemies are tankier on Master anyway).
And finally, make the Flairon a "true" flail, and make the Sharknado minions chase more aggressively. That would greatly increase their potential and keep them on par with the Tsunami and Razorblade Typhoon. And in the Tempest Staff's case, there'd be more competition between it and the Xeno Staff, which is roughly on the same tier but far more consistent.

I think that's everything.
Unless I forgot anything, I believe I've said my piece.
As the game's development slowly draws to a close, I believe we've all done well in steering the future of Terraria. Here's to a timeless game.
 
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If Queen Slime were to remain as she is despite the item nerfs, then I earnestly ask that the Pillion be untouched so that players get adequately rewarded for their struggles. On top of that, I propose that the Blade Staff be relocated to the Hallowed Mimic. Speaking from a Summoner's perspective, the Blades were the most reliable choice against Queenie back in 1.4's release. Ever since they were gated behind the Queen herself, I've had trouble figuring out a reliable strategy that doesn't rely on cheese. I'm aware that Re-Logic specifically didn't design the Blade Staff for the Hallowed Mimic. However, considering it shares the color scheme of all its other drops, and considering the Hallowed Mimic only has 4 unique items compared to the Corrupt Mimic's 5, it only makes sense to re-tier the Blade Staff. Its armor piercing bug is getting fixed which is an indirect nerf anyway, so, why not?
I think this would be a pretty decent change, especially since even without Blade Staff summoners can still get Crystal Assassin armor and the Gelatinous Pillion from Queen Slime, meaning there is still a reason to fight her as a summoner.

Additionally: I still vouch for the Bone Helm getting a slight damage boost in Master Mode. It's nifty, but it doesn't see much use other than keeping weak enemies away (and said enemies are tankier on Master anyway).
And finally, make the Flairon a "true" flail, and make the Sharknado minions chase more aggressively. That would greatly increase their potential and keep them on par with the Tsunami and Razorblade Typhoon. And in the Tempest Staff's case, there'd be more competition between it and the Xeno Staff, which is roughly on the same tier but far more consistent.
I'm actually not sure about Bone Helm getting a Master Mode damage buff. All of the other Expert-exclusive damaging accessories (Bone Glove, Spore Sac, and Volatile Gelatin) don't scale by world difficulty like things like the Star Cloak do, so why should Bone Helm specifically get stronger in Master Mode? I think a better solution might be to simply buff the Bone Helm's damage as a whole, either by increasing the damage it deals from 20 to maybe 25 or 30, or maybe giving it some armor penetration like Bone Glove has? Both are around similar tiers, so it makes sense for both of them to have roughly the same damage. At the moment, Bone Glove deals 25 damage with 25 AP, so maybe Bone Helm could deal 20 damage with 20 AP? That would buff it a little bit, while keeping it slightly weaker than Bone Glove to compensate both for it being theoretically available early on and the fact that its projectiles are more accurate than those of the Bone Glove. Also, should Deerclops cheese get removed in this update (either by Deerclops despawning if the player dies, or by it regenerating health when the player dies like it does in Don't Starve), then Bone Helm definitely needs a major buff, because it would no longer be obtainable super early on by cheesing it.
As for the Flairon and Sharknado buffs, I think those make a good bit of sense! Giving the Flairon the potential to be a devastating close-combat option without removing its longer range capabilities sounds really fun, and would make the weapon stand out a lot better against other melee weapons of its tier like Flying Dragon or Influx Waiver, which are both mostly good for long range. And as scientistB already brought up, the Xeno Staff is really good because it's consistently able to attack unlike the Sharknadoes. The Sharknado's biggest problem is that its AI doesn't keep up with faster enemies very well, and if it gets too far from the player it stops attacking entirely. My suggestion would be to increase the speed at which Sharknadoes chase enemies, increase their projectile velocity, AND make them able to go further from the player without returning. This might be a bit too powerful of a buff, so maybe their damage could be reduced slightly to compensate.
 
I think this would be a pretty decent change, especially since even without Blade Staff summoners can still get Crystal Assassin armor and the Gelatinous Pillion from Queen Slime, meaning there is still a reason to fight her as a summoner.


I'm actually not sure about Bone Helm getting a Master Mode damage buff. All of the other Expert-exclusive damaging accessories (Bone Glove, Spore Sac, and Volatile Gelatin) don't scale by world difficulty like things like the Star Cloak do, so why should Bone Helm specifically get stronger in Master Mode? I think a better solution might be to simply buff the Bone Helm's damage as a whole, either by increasing the damage it deals from 20 to maybe 25 or 30, or maybe giving it some armor penetration like Bone Glove has? Both are around similar tiers, so it makes sense for both of them to have roughly the same damage. At the moment, Bone Glove deals 25 damage with 25 AP, so maybe Bone Helm could deal 20 damage with 20 AP? That would buff it a little bit, while keeping it slightly weaker than Bone Glove to compensate both for it being theoretically available early on and the fact that its projectiles are more accurate than those of the Bone Glove. Also, should Deerclops cheese get removed in this update (either by Deerclops despawning if the player dies, or by it regenerating health when the player dies like it does in Don't Starve), then Bone Helm definitely needs a major buff, because it would no longer be obtainable super early on by cheesing it.
As for the Flairon and Sharknado buffs, I think those make a good bit of sense! Giving the Flairon the potential to be a devastating close-combat option without removing its longer range capabilities sounds really fun, and would make the weapon stand out a lot better against other melee weapons of its tier like Flying Dragon or Influx Waiver, which are both mostly good for long range. And as scientistB already brought up, the Xeno Staff is really good because it's consistently able to attack unlike the Sharknadoes. The Sharknado's biggest problem is that its AI doesn't keep up with faster enemies very well, and if it gets too far from the player it stops attacking entirely. My suggestion would be to increase the speed at which Sharknadoes chase enemies, increase their projectile velocity, AND make them able to go further from the player without returning. This might be a bit too powerful of a buff, so maybe their damage could be reduced slightly to compensate.
Today I learned/remembered that the Bone Glove ignores 25 defense. The more you know.
Yeah, actually, I think I like your idea a little more. At the very least, giving the Bone Helm some armor piercing would make it a very healthy choice up to the start of hardmode.
Also, you remind me that the Pillion deals summon damage which gives Summoners more of an incentive to fight Queenie. I mean, everyone likes/dislikes the mount for its mobility anyway, but still.
 
Absolutely agree on the 'locking all viable aerial minions to bossfights' being stupid. You want something that can fly for the Mechs, but both sources want some minion that can fly ... Outside Dreadnautilus cheese (which should remain if Dread isn't reworked entirely) the best one i found was that Queen Slime flies at the exact speed required for post-nerf Black Spot to be viable as a kiting tool, so you can either farm Pirates and skip an arena or farm Unicorns and make an arena. Combine that with Cool Hwip spam and you'll take her out eventually.

Also why tf do y'all wanna nerf Frog Legs, you try fishing for it for multiple runs. Odds are really low for average fishing power and fishing speed. And even if they are nerfed it isn't going to stop boosting Wing mobility with Featherfall potion - thing's underrated like crazy for boosting subpar wings to supreme efficiency. I have beaten Destroyer and Twins with Fledgling wings because of it. Terraria has a ridiculous amount of mobility mechanics, i think we should buff existing ones like making Quick actually do something when paired with any standard mobility option, or making Frog Legs craftable so i dont have to stare into the void for a few hours. I'm lazy and would rather have mobility to not require arenas at all. Plantera is annoying as is.
 
Absolutely agree on the 'locking all viable aerial minions to bossfights' being stupid. You want something that can fly for the Mechs, but both sources want some minion that can fly ... Outside Dreadnautilus cheese (which should remain if Dread isn't reworked entirely) the best one i found was that Queen Slime flies at the exact speed required for post-nerf Black Spot to be viable as a kiting tool, so you can either farm Pirates and skip an arena or farm Unicorns and make an arena. Combine that with Cool Hwip spam and you'll take her out eventually.

Also why tf do y'all wanna nerf Frog Legs, you try fishing for it for multiple runs. Odds are really low for average fishing power and fishing speed. And even if they are nerfed it isn't going to stop boosting Wing mobility with Featherfall potion - thing's underrated like crazy for boosting subpar wings to supreme efficiency. I have beaten Destroyer and Twins with Fledgling wings because of it. Terraria has a ridiculous amount of mobility mechanics, i think we should buff existing ones like making Quick actually do something when paired with any standard mobility option, or making Frog Legs craftable so i dont have to stare into the void for a few hours. I'm lazy and would rather have mobility to not require arenas at all. Plantera is annoying as is.
Well, as far as the Twins boss goes, Spider minions can deal with them fairly well since the Twins have periods where they move slowly enough for minions to attack them. On that note, Optic Staff minions are pretty good at dealing with the other two mechs as well, due to their multiple parts. But in faster fights, they fall flat.

You might be onto something in terms of making the "Movement speed" stat more viable. At least that way, the Frog Leg isn't the end-all-be-all for flight mobility. I'll add that to my wall of text.
 
Absolutely agree on the 'locking all viable aerial minions to bossfights' being stupid. You want something that can fly for the Mechs, but both sources want some minion that can fly ... Outside Dreadnautilus cheese (which should remain if Dread isn't reworked entirely) the best one i found was that Queen Slime flies at the exact speed required for post-nerf Black Spot to be viable as a kiting tool, so you can either farm Pirates and skip an arena or farm Unicorns and make an arena. Combine that with Cool Hwip spam and you'll take her out eventually.

Well, as far as the Twins boss goes, Spider minions can deal with them fairly well since the Twins have periods where they move slowly enough for minions to attack them. On that note, Optic Staff minions are pretty good at dealing with the other two mechs as well, due to their multiple parts. But in faster fights, they fall flat.

You might be onto something in terms of making the "Movement speed" stat more viable. At least that way, the Frog Leg isn't the end-all-be-all for flight mobility. I'll add that to my wall of text.
Guys, you forget about one particular aerial minion, which proves to be good against QS and Dread (cheese, slightly worse if fought normally)
 
Also why tf do y'all wanna nerf Frog Legs, you try fishing for it for multiple runs. Odds are really low for average fishing power and fishing speed. And even if they are nerfed it isn't going to stop boosting Wing mobility with Featherfall potion - thing's underrated like crazy for boosting subpar wings to supreme efficiency. I have beaten Destroyer and Twins with Fledgling wings because of it. Terraria has a ridiculous amount of mobility mechanics, i think we should buff existing ones like making Quick actually do something when paired with any standard mobility option.
Frog Leg by itself is fine (and frankly I don't think it needs to be nerfed). The problem is that Terraspark Boots- which are intended to be a later tier than AmphiBoots- are so difficult to get that Amphibian Boots (and Frog Leg by proxy) are just better than them. You can get AmphiBoots right away by just gathering up bait and fishing for a while. Meanwhile, Terraspark Boots require a lot more materials, and all of them are much more dangerous or time consuming to obtain than anything you need for AmphiBoots:
Any variant of Hermes Boots can be acquired early, but the easiest way to get one is the Sailfish Boots from fishing crates. Additionally, you need Sailfish Boots for Amphibian Boots anyways, so that alone covers one of the two requirements for AmphiBoots, and since you're already fishing anyways you may as well get the Frog Leg and make Amphibian Boots instead of getting all the other ingredients for Terraspark Boots.
Rocket Boots require the Goblin Tinkerer, but since AmphiBoots and Spectre Boots both require the Tinkerer's Workshop anyways, you'll get both of them around the same time.
The Aglet is also pretty easy to get, since it can be found in surface chests, but the Anklet of the Wind is an absolute nightmare to obtain pre-boss. Sure, you could fish for it and box yourself in to avoid enemies, but again, you already need to fish for AmphiBoots' components anyways, so at that point you would be better off going for those instead.
Ice Skates (needed for Frostspark Boots) aren't too bad to get, though the ice biome can be annoying in Expert Mode with its chilling water.
It's the Lava Waders side of things that makes Terraspark Boots a post-evil boss item at the earliest.
Water Walking Boots are just a rare Water Chest loot item, so it's possible that you'll find a pair while searching for other components of Terraspark Boots.
The Obsidian Skull, however, requires obsidian. Obsidian requires a Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe to mine. A Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe requires loot dropped by the Eater of World or Brain of Cthulhu. The Obsidian Skull, therefore, is post-evil boss, and thus the Lava Waders and Terraspark Boots are too.
The Lava Charm is exceptionally rare, and only spawns in the caverns layer and below, in gold chests. This makes it one of the two most annoying items to obtain, though it can be obtained pretty early if the player gets lucky. And if the player doesn't get one in a chest, they can be obtained through lava fishing crates, which are post-evil boss as well due to needing Hellstone Bars to make the upgraded bug net.
And then there's the Obsidian Rose. The Obsidian Rose is, in my opinion, the single hardest ingredient to get for Terraspark Boots. It only drops from one enemy in the Underworld, an enemy which doesn't even spawn that commonly. And it has a 2% drop chance. While you can use Imp Statues to make it easier on yourself, that lowers the drop rate even further, requires the Mechanic (therefore locking it behind Skeletron), and you have to get lucky and actually find an Imp Statue. Even though you can get the Obsidian Rose as early as pre-boss since the imps don't technically have any spawning limitations, good luck actually killing enough of them to get the Obsidian Rose.
To summarize: The Obsidian Skull locks the Terraspark Boots behind the evil bosses at the earliest. You'll have options to make the ingredients easier to acquire post-Skeletron, though, and the boots seem to be tiered around post-Skeletron since that's where the Underworld is tiered. So you would think the Terraspark Boots are better than (or at least equal to) Amphibian Boots, since AmphiBoots are available as soon as you have a Goblin Tinkerer, right? Well, that's up to personal opinion. However, I personally do not think they are.
The two pairs of boots seem like they're meant to have respective niches: Amphibian Boots are great for vertical mobility, and Terraspark Boots are good for horizontal movement. However, because Terraspark Boots only give 8% more horizontal movement speed over Amphibian Boots, while Amphibian Boots give 48% ascent speed, the vertical mobility of Amphibian Boots far outclasses the horizontal speed of Terraspark.
I suggest that Terraspark Boots get a buff to movement speed in some capacity, instead of nerfing Frog Leg. Amphibian Boots are pretty good for an early-game accessory, but they themselves aren't terribly overpowered. It's just that Terraspark Boots kinda suck, and since there's a much easier to get alternative right there, which is much better at its own niche than Terraspark Boots are at theirs, AmphiBoots just end up being better than Terraspark.
I apologize if this comes off as rude or anything. I think Frog Leg/Amphibian Boots are fine as they are, but Terraspark Boots really need to get buffed to make them feel worthy of being a post-Skeletron tier item with several rare items in the recipe.
 
I don't overpraise the Amphibian Boots by that much, The spectre+ Boots are a great accessory for exploration, or basically anything that doesn't include flying on the surface. And stays on my slot untill I've hardmode wings to make up for it.

I consider Terraspark overall just a Bragging Rights accessory, as the Spectre Boots itself already cover up the necessery parts.
I still see it's uses in exploration or lava farming. But I don't think it has to be obtained easier to compete with Amphibian Boots.

Though I agree it's movement speed bonus can be increased once you got the Terraspark Boots, I think that would be a nice bonus after getting through making it.
 
I still see it's uses in exploration or lava farming. But I don't think it has to be obtained easier to compete with Amphibian Boots.

Though I agree it's movement speed bonus can be increased once you got the Terraspark Boots, I think that would be a nice bonus after getting through making it.
I personally think it should be a little easier to get because it's just way too frustrating to get right now, especially when compared to the ease of Amphibian Boots. I don't think it needs to be made too much easier, it's mostly just the Obsidian Rose that I personally have problems with. Others can feel free to chime in with their opinions of course, but I think the Obsidian Rose is far too rare and should be made at least a little more common. Maybe its drop rate could be increased from 2% to something like 4%? Alternatively, it could get a doubled drop rate in Expert Mode like most other rare accessories like it (namely the Ankh Shield components) instead of having its base drop rate increased.
I definitely agree that Terraspark Boots should have more than the 8% movement speed of Lightning Boots, though I'm not sure exactly how much it should increase it by. Maybe something like 20-25% instead of the current 8% would be fair? Especially if it's made just a little more common with the increased drop rate of the Obsidian Rose.
 
Random thoughts after playing through a Pirate Invasion:


I feel like Pirate Captains might need a nerf. They're absurdly deadly, even when I should be over-geared for the invasion itself (I had full Hallowed Armor and a True Night's Edge, and they still wrecked me).

Also, Pirate Crossbowers seem to be glitching out for me whenever I die. They spaz around for a bit. This happened to me with a fair bit of consistency.

Also, it seems like a lot of vanity items need to have sell values added to them. Like Mummy vanity, Sailor Vanity, and Eye Patch.
 
Now, I'm very late to this, because I just found out this thread exists and is open until today, but I hope my ideas might still add something for you.

First of all, The dreaded Dreadnautilus. The main thing I notice regarding this boss is that players seem to have difficulty how to fight it. And I don't mean that as in "how to summon it", but rather how to react to its attacks/not die. Considering the fact that it's not the easiest miniboss to summon, it's not so surprising that it's pretty hard to learn the nautilus' attack patterns. On top of this, it's spinning attack is a pretty odd attack for most of Terraria's monsters. I can think of few attacks that can't be dodged by simply evading an enemy. The length and speed of the attack makes it so that you can't just dodge past it, like you most players do to evade most other dashing bosses, such as Spazmatism. Running away also doesn't work because the attack is just so fast. None of the wings I have tried for the stage at which the Dreadnautilus seems to generally be fought seem to be fast enough. The only way I have found to reliably dodge it is the slime queen mount. On top of this, the fact that a lot of monsters spawn during the blood moon make it difficult to stand still to evade the attack, even with a suitable arena (A small note, I don't like making arena's for my boss fights, so perhaps this may be incorrect/slightly biased).
My suggestions: I think the attack could use a reduction in length, which would make it less difficult to dodge for its entire duration. This would make putting enough distance between you and the Dreadnautilus a viable option. The risk of this is that, when the length of the attack is still quite long, players may wish to put so much distance between them and the Dreadnautilus that they may consistently despawn it. That's why I would suggest considering implementing this change along with making the Dreadnautilus slower during its charging attack. How much slower it should be really would be up to experimentation. Maybe bumping down the damage would also work, but the damage that the Dreadnautilus deals seems to be okay if that attack were more balanced (as someone who has only died to the Dreadnautilus more than 20 times and not killed one, I do feel confident in saying that its damage does seem fair, it really is just the difficulty in dodging that attack)
A small additional change that could help specifically the Dreadnautilus and the Hemogoblin Shark; their projectiles are extremely difficult to see due to the extreme filter of the Blood Moon. I don't know if this is possible given your alloted time, but giving them even a faint glow would make these attacks feel a lot better, I think. Currently, they are pretty difficult to notice.

I'm gonna have to split these posts up...
 
Now, I'm very late to this, because I just found out this thread exists and is open until today, but I hope my ideas might still add something for you.

First of all, The dreaded Dreadnautilus. The main thing I notice regarding this boss is that players seem to have difficulty how to fight it. And I don't mean that as in "how to summon it", but rather how to react to its attacks/not die. Considering the fact that it's not the easiest miniboss to summon, it's not so surprising that it's pretty hard to learn the nautilus' attack patterns. On top of this, it's spinning attack is a pretty odd attack for most of Terraria's monsters. I can think of few attacks that can't be dodged by simply evading an enemy. The length and speed of the attack makes it so that you can't just dodge past it, like you most players do to evade most other dashing bosses, such as Spazmatism. Running away also doesn't work because the attack is just so fast. None of the wings I have tried for the stage at which the Dreadnautilus seems to generally be fought seem to be fast enough. The only way I have found to reliably dodge it is the slime queen mount. On top of this, the fact that a lot of monsters spawn during the blood moon make it difficult to stand still to evade the attack, even with a suitable arena (A small note, I don't like making arena's for my boss fights, so perhaps this may be incorrect/slightly biased).
My suggestions: I think the attack could use a reduction in length, which would make it less difficult to dodge for its entire duration. This would make putting enough distance between you and the Dreadnautilus a viable option. The risk of this is that, when the length of the attack is still quite long, players may wish to put so much distance between them and the Dreadnautilus that they may consistently despawn it. That's why I would suggest considering implementing this change along with making the Dreadnautilus slower during its charging attack. How much slower it should be really would be up to experimentation. Maybe bumping down the damage would also work, but the damage that the Dreadnautilus deals seems to be okay if that attack were more balanced (as someone who has only died to the Dreadnautilus more than 20 times and not killed one, I do feel confident in saying that its damage does seem fair, it really is just the difficulty in dodging that attack)
A small additional change that could help specifically the Dreadnautilus and the Hemogoblin Shark; their projectiles are extremely difficult to see due to the extreme filter of the Blood Moon. I don't know if this is possible given your alloted time, but giving them even a faint glow would make these attacks feel a lot better, I think. Currently, they are pretty difficult to notice.

I'm gonna have to split these posts up...
It's possible to dodge that spinny dash but it's extremely precise. I hope this video can be of help.
I can agree on the projectiles being hard to see though.
 
Now, I'm very late to this, because I just found out this thread exists and is open until today, but I hope my ideas might still add something for you.

First of all, The dreaded Dreadnautilus. The main thing I notice regarding this boss is that players seem to have difficulty how to fight it. And I don't mean that as in "how to summon it", but rather how to react to its attacks/not die. Considering the fact that it's not the easiest miniboss to summon, it's not so surprising that it's pretty hard to learn the nautilus' attack patterns. On top of this, it's spinning attack is a pretty odd attack for most of Terraria's monsters. I can think of few attacks that can't be dodged by simply evading an enemy. The length and speed of the attack makes it so that you can't just dodge past it, like you most players do to evade most other dashing bosses, such as Spazmatism. Running away also doesn't work because the attack is just so fast. None of the wings I have tried for the stage at which the Dreadnautilus seems to generally be fought seem to be fast enough. The only way I have found to reliably dodge it is the slime queen mount. On top of this, the fact that a lot of monsters spawn during the blood moon make it difficult to stand still to evade the attack, even with a suitable arena (A small note, I don't like making arena's for my boss fights, so perhaps this may be incorrect/slightly biased).
My suggestions: I think the attack could use a reduction in length, which would make it less difficult to dodge for its entire duration. This would make putting enough distance between you and the Dreadnautilus a viable option. The risk of this is that, when the length of the attack is still quite long, players may wish to put so much distance between them and the Dreadnautilus that they may consistently despawn it. That's why I would suggest considering implementing this change along with making the Dreadnautilus slower during its charging attack. How much slower it should be really would be up to experimentation. Maybe bumping down the damage would also work, but the damage that the Dreadnautilus deals seems to be okay if that attack were more balanced (as someone who has only died to the Dreadnautilus more than 20 times and not killed one, I do feel confident in saying that its damage does seem fair, it really is just the difficulty in dodging that attack)
A small additional change that could help specifically the Dreadnautilus and the Hemogoblin Shark; their projectiles are extremely difficult to see due to the extreme filter of the Blood Moon. I don't know if this is possible given your alloted time, but giving them even a faint glow would make these attacks feel a lot better, I think. Currently, they are pretty difficult to notice.

I'm gonna have to split these posts up...
You can't post if you're the last one who's posted in this thread. That means that you should try to put all of your ideas in one post while making it easy for Leinfors to read.
 
It's possible to dodge that spinny dash but it's extremely precise. I hope this video can be of help.
I can agree on the projectiles being hard to see though.
Oh, that's a pretty cool way of dodging it!

Still, as you said, it's extremely precise. Also, I think that the Dreadnautilus also does this attack on normal mode, where players will not have that option. Now, because of the lower damage, that may not be a problem (I have not fought the Dreadnautilus in normal mode with regular gear yet). It might be something to look into?
 
Now, I'm very late to this, because I just found out this thread exists and is open until today, but I hope my ideas might still add something for you.

First of all, The dreaded Dreadnautilus. The main thing I notice regarding this boss is that players seem to have difficulty how to fight it. And I don't mean that as in "how to summon it", but rather how to react to its attacks/not die. Considering the fact that it's not the easiest miniboss to summon, it's not so surprising that it's pretty hard to learn the nautilus' attack patterns. On top of this, it's spinning attack is a pretty odd attack for most of Terraria's monsters. I can think of few attacks that can't be dodged by simply evading an enemy. The length and speed of the attack makes it so that you can't just dodge past it, like you most players do to evade most other dashing bosses, such as Spazmatism. Running away also doesn't work because the attack is just so fast. None of the wings I have tried for the stage at which the Dreadnautilus seems to generally be fought seem to be fast enough. The only way I have found to reliably dodge it is the slime queen mount. On top of this, the fact that a lot of monsters spawn during the blood moon make it difficult to stand still to evade the attack, even with a suitable arena (A small note, I don't like making arena's for my boss fights, so perhaps this may be incorrect/slightly biased).
My suggestions: I think the attack could use a reduction in length, which would make it less difficult to dodge for its entire duration. This would make putting enough distance between you and the Dreadnautilus a viable option. The risk of this is that, when the length of the attack is still quite long, players may wish to put so much distance between them and the Dreadnautilus that they may consistently despawn it. That's why I would suggest considering implementing this change along with making the Dreadnautilus slower during its charging attack. How much slower it should be really would be up to experimentation. Maybe bumping down the damage would also work, but the damage that the Dreadnautilus deals seems to be okay if that attack were more balanced (as someone who has only died to the Dreadnautilus more than 20 times and not killed one, I do feel confident in saying that its damage does seem fair, it really is just the difficulty in dodging that attack)
A small additional change that could help specifically the Dreadnautilus and the Hemogoblin Shark; their projectiles are extremely difficult to see due to the extreme filter of the Blood Moon. I don't know if this is possible given your alloted time, but giving them even a faint glow would make these attacks feel a lot better, I think. Currently, they are pretty difficult to notice.

I'm gonna have to split these posts up...
Just use spoiler tags for your paragraphs to make it easier to read instead of posting multiple times.
 
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