Terrasyn
Eye of Cthulhu
I've had sufficient time to play around with the end game weapons and armor of 1.3, and I'd like to break some things down when it comes to the usefulness of what we may potentially possess in the end game content. My goal is to highlight some of the things that really stand out to me any why they do, rather than what doesn't stand out to me (between crafting them from the Ancient Manipulator and drops from the Moon Lord). This does NOT include martian weapons and drops - more on that later. Personal input and experience is always welcome. I'll break things down by class.
Mage
The mage has access to a slew of beautiful weapons that really bump it up to the next level. It also possesses what could be considered the single most powerful end game armor, the Nebula armor. The armor along gives you 60 extra mana, 26% increased magic damage, 16% increased critical hit chance, 15% reduced mana usage, and 10% increased speed. And that isn't even including the set bonus. With a full set bonus, when you hit an enemy, a little flame will appear that gives you a buff that ranges anywhere from 15% more damage, increase health regen, and and increased mana regen. Each of these buffs will last 8 seconds, but can each stack up to three times. That's an additional 45% extra damage alone. For every flame you pick up for the appropriate color (damage = purple, health regen = red, mana regen = blue), this timer refreshes itself. The pickup range for them is astoundingly far, so it's unlikely that such buffs will ever dissipate from your character in any situation. It's almost like a combined Spectre armor with the Mask and Hood - it's that good.
What really stood out to me is the Nebula Arcanum, crafted at the Ancient Manipulator (this only requires defeating the Nebula Pillar). This weapon absolutely thrives in groups of monsters that are seemingly endless. Flying in a circle and summoning swirling vortexes around everything was never so much fun. However, against faster moving, single segmented enemies such as the Moon Lord, it doesn't seem to perform too well. The vortexes are too slow to catch up, and even when they do, they don't deal enough damage fast enough to make the mana cost worthwhile. As a crowd control weapon, I absolutely adore it. But what may be better suited for a single segmented boss is the Lunar Flare, which is dropped by the Moon Lord himself. I like to think of it as the successor to the Blizzard Staff. It has a distinct advantage to the Blizzard Staff - the projectiles will pass through any tile until they reach the mouse's destination, something that the Star Wrath seems to have trouble with on occasion. Not too heavy on mana cost, and creates explosions when it hits it's destination.
Warrior/Tank
Currently the class I primarily use because of my anticipation to return back to what I began with and enjoy the most - melee. Obtaining Solar Fragments and Luminite will net you access to the highest defense armor in the game, Solar Flare armor. It's very similar to the Beetle armor, in that a full set will grant you up to an additional 30% defense bonus the longer you avoid any damage. It provides you with 17% increased melee critical hit chance, 22% increased melee damage, and 15% increased movement and melee speed. However, enemies are more likely to target you, so keep that in mind. Double tapping on a directional key (left or right) will remove the defense bonus and allow your character to perform a dash attack. So far, I haven't personally found this very useful, so I try to avoid it. But I imagine it can be handy to escape from a rough spot.
Melee users have access to what I find to be a wealth of options. Pre-Moon Lord, 18 Solar Fragments will provide you with the Solar Eruption. It's like a sweeping flail that applies a nasty debuff that ticks for 25 damage every so often. It pierces through enemies, and is absolutely amazing for the Moon Lord or multiple segmented enemies like the Destroyer. Post-Moon Lord, melee players have access to my personal favorite weapon, Star Wrath. Also known as the successor to Star Fury, Star Wrath is an autoswing, high damage, high knockback sword that summons three damaging stars which are directed to the mouse's location, capable of reaching critical hits of 1,000 damage or more for EACH star. It does have two downsides, however. The stars cannot pass through tiles (at least not too many), so it's very limited in an underground environment. Secondly, because the stars have piercing capabilities, anything that is pierced by the stars gets a very short immunity timer. This means that against, say, Skeletron Prime, you won't be seeing his health drop as fast as you'd expect. You may land three stars on him, but he'll only take damage from one star since it provided him with a short lived piercing immunity. However, in the overworld, against big groups or something like the Destroyer, it's an absolute beauty of a weapon. Lastly, Meowmere is a fun one because of it's ability to autoswing, and summons cat heads that bounce around four times in an arc like manner with piercing capability. In small, enclosed areas (or on the surface), Meowmere absolutely rules. It's also known to be the highest damaging melee weapon in the game when it comes to the point of getting up close and personal. This is typically my go-to weapon for underground caverns or the dungeon.
Ranger
Before 1.3, Ranger was what I previously used thanks to the Tsunami from the Duke. It still stands out thanks to the Vortex armor which, in my personal opinion, is a massive upgrade to Shroomite armor. A full set provides you with 36% increased ranged damage, 27% increased critical hit chance, an extra 25% chance not to consume ammo, and an extra 10% movement speed. It shares the Shroomite's ability to stealth. The only difference is that this can be activated at will by double tapping the down key. Doing so heavily increases your damage and critical strike chance, but severely hampers your movement speed. Be careful when and where you activate this. I personally haven't needed to use it because the weapons that rangers are given simply don't call for it, and I'll tell you why.
One of those reasons is the Phantasm. If you're a good shot, this weapon is easily the single highest damaging weapon in the game. Even while uncloaked in Vortex armor, the Phantasm is capable of chewing through 20,000 health in 1-3 seconds depending on your appropriate buffs and accuracy. It not only shoots 4 arrows at once, but as long as you are hitting a target, it will fire extra volleys of arrows as the target (supposedly the phantom arrows as the name implies). It's also autofire, so it doesn't require a bunch of click spam to keep the momentum going. Rangers also have access to the age old S.D.M.G., which has now be appropriately buffed to keep up with modern equipment and finally accessible to everyone. There isn't much to say about this one, except that it's an insanely fast firing, high damage, bullet based weapon. If you're a good shot, it's a good pick. However, I don't feel that it can keep up with the Phantasm, although that's just my own experience.
Summoner
Right now, I'd like to say that this is my new favorite, aside from the warrior/tank class. Stardust armor allows you to not only summon up to five minions, but gives you an additional 66% increase in minion damage. A full set will summon a Stardust Guardian, which follows you around (or, rather, "hovers" behind you). You can direct it to any location you can stand on like a platform or blocks, but it cannot float in the air and is stationary. He can create an explosion that apparently forces enemies to target him instead, although I personally haven't seen them drawn to him and attack him yet.
This one came as a huge surprise to me, but the Stardust Dragon Staff summons a dragon to fight by your side, as he floats around on screen and attacks anything that approaches you at wicked speed, with the ability to pass through any and every block. The real treat is that, for whatever your minion count is, you can summon him that many times and he will grow in size. This means he'll do more damage the bigger he is. If your minion count is five, then summon him five times and he'll be pretty sizable. From what I've gathered, you can tell how big he is by counting the spines on his back. It's a helpful way to tell what your current minion count is as well (the max is 11). And finally, the Stardust Cell Staff is a neat little toy that summons what appear to be small cells that float around you. It can "copy" itself and fires the copy against an enemy, which latches onto it and deals 10 damage per second. Additionally, it has the ability to warp straight to an enemy and do damage to it, like dashing. By itself it isn't much. But naturally, as you summon more and more of these cells, their damage multiplies - literally.
Experimental (not fully tested)
There are a few that stand out to me that I haven't had the time to play with yet, but seem like they have great potential. Namely, the Last Prism. It seems to have great potential, but the only thing that turns me off about the weapon is the accumulating mana cost while trying to focus the energy beam. Maybe I'm just not using it right, or not enough. It seems to be capable of an extremely high damage output, at the cost of keeping the beam alive with mana. Terrarian seems to be a great choice, but sadly, I haven't used it enough to really warrant an opinion. The unlimited use time combined with the projectiles it shoots out tells me that it should have a high damage output, but I just haven't played with enough yoyos yet. I've heard good things about the Nebula Blaze, but it just doesn't seem that great to me. I've seen some really high numbers with that weapon, but it just feels too wonky for me to really enjoy it, like I don't have control when I'm using it. Maybe just me.
Anyway, that about wraps it up. Sort of a short summary of my experience with only a handful for the new 1.3 content, particularly the end game weapons. At the moment, I'm enjoying a new playthrough, with a fresh character and a fresh 1.3 world. The underground desert I located yesterday was a blast to explore. Minecarts have led me into my own death (lava traps), so that's always a good laugh. And Granite and Marble biomes and a nice treat, except when I find the occasional Medusa.
Mage
The mage has access to a slew of beautiful weapons that really bump it up to the next level. It also possesses what could be considered the single most powerful end game armor, the Nebula armor. The armor along gives you 60 extra mana, 26% increased magic damage, 16% increased critical hit chance, 15% reduced mana usage, and 10% increased speed. And that isn't even including the set bonus. With a full set bonus, when you hit an enemy, a little flame will appear that gives you a buff that ranges anywhere from 15% more damage, increase health regen, and and increased mana regen. Each of these buffs will last 8 seconds, but can each stack up to three times. That's an additional 45% extra damage alone. For every flame you pick up for the appropriate color (damage = purple, health regen = red, mana regen = blue), this timer refreshes itself. The pickup range for them is astoundingly far, so it's unlikely that such buffs will ever dissipate from your character in any situation. It's almost like a combined Spectre armor with the Mask and Hood - it's that good.
What really stood out to me is the Nebula Arcanum, crafted at the Ancient Manipulator (this only requires defeating the Nebula Pillar). This weapon absolutely thrives in groups of monsters that are seemingly endless. Flying in a circle and summoning swirling vortexes around everything was never so much fun. However, against faster moving, single segmented enemies such as the Moon Lord, it doesn't seem to perform too well. The vortexes are too slow to catch up, and even when they do, they don't deal enough damage fast enough to make the mana cost worthwhile. As a crowd control weapon, I absolutely adore it. But what may be better suited for a single segmented boss is the Lunar Flare, which is dropped by the Moon Lord himself. I like to think of it as the successor to the Blizzard Staff. It has a distinct advantage to the Blizzard Staff - the projectiles will pass through any tile until they reach the mouse's destination, something that the Star Wrath seems to have trouble with on occasion. Not too heavy on mana cost, and creates explosions when it hits it's destination.
Warrior/Tank
Currently the class I primarily use because of my anticipation to return back to what I began with and enjoy the most - melee. Obtaining Solar Fragments and Luminite will net you access to the highest defense armor in the game, Solar Flare armor. It's very similar to the Beetle armor, in that a full set will grant you up to an additional 30% defense bonus the longer you avoid any damage. It provides you with 17% increased melee critical hit chance, 22% increased melee damage, and 15% increased movement and melee speed. However, enemies are more likely to target you, so keep that in mind. Double tapping on a directional key (left or right) will remove the defense bonus and allow your character to perform a dash attack. So far, I haven't personally found this very useful, so I try to avoid it. But I imagine it can be handy to escape from a rough spot.
Melee users have access to what I find to be a wealth of options. Pre-Moon Lord, 18 Solar Fragments will provide you with the Solar Eruption. It's like a sweeping flail that applies a nasty debuff that ticks for 25 damage every so often. It pierces through enemies, and is absolutely amazing for the Moon Lord or multiple segmented enemies like the Destroyer. Post-Moon Lord, melee players have access to my personal favorite weapon, Star Wrath. Also known as the successor to Star Fury, Star Wrath is an autoswing, high damage, high knockback sword that summons three damaging stars which are directed to the mouse's location, capable of reaching critical hits of 1,000 damage or more for EACH star. It does have two downsides, however. The stars cannot pass through tiles (at least not too many), so it's very limited in an underground environment. Secondly, because the stars have piercing capabilities, anything that is pierced by the stars gets a very short immunity timer. This means that against, say, Skeletron Prime, you won't be seeing his health drop as fast as you'd expect. You may land three stars on him, but he'll only take damage from one star since it provided him with a short lived piercing immunity. However, in the overworld, against big groups or something like the Destroyer, it's an absolute beauty of a weapon. Lastly, Meowmere is a fun one because of it's ability to autoswing, and summons cat heads that bounce around four times in an arc like manner with piercing capability. In small, enclosed areas (or on the surface), Meowmere absolutely rules. It's also known to be the highest damaging melee weapon in the game when it comes to the point of getting up close and personal. This is typically my go-to weapon for underground caverns or the dungeon.
Ranger
Before 1.3, Ranger was what I previously used thanks to the Tsunami from the Duke. It still stands out thanks to the Vortex armor which, in my personal opinion, is a massive upgrade to Shroomite armor. A full set provides you with 36% increased ranged damage, 27% increased critical hit chance, an extra 25% chance not to consume ammo, and an extra 10% movement speed. It shares the Shroomite's ability to stealth. The only difference is that this can be activated at will by double tapping the down key. Doing so heavily increases your damage and critical strike chance, but severely hampers your movement speed. Be careful when and where you activate this. I personally haven't needed to use it because the weapons that rangers are given simply don't call for it, and I'll tell you why.
One of those reasons is the Phantasm. If you're a good shot, this weapon is easily the single highest damaging weapon in the game. Even while uncloaked in Vortex armor, the Phantasm is capable of chewing through 20,000 health in 1-3 seconds depending on your appropriate buffs and accuracy. It not only shoots 4 arrows at once, but as long as you are hitting a target, it will fire extra volleys of arrows as the target (supposedly the phantom arrows as the name implies). It's also autofire, so it doesn't require a bunch of click spam to keep the momentum going. Rangers also have access to the age old S.D.M.G., which has now be appropriately buffed to keep up with modern equipment and finally accessible to everyone. There isn't much to say about this one, except that it's an insanely fast firing, high damage, bullet based weapon. If you're a good shot, it's a good pick. However, I don't feel that it can keep up with the Phantasm, although that's just my own experience.
Summoner
Right now, I'd like to say that this is my new favorite, aside from the warrior/tank class. Stardust armor allows you to not only summon up to five minions, but gives you an additional 66% increase in minion damage. A full set will summon a Stardust Guardian, which follows you around (or, rather, "hovers" behind you). You can direct it to any location you can stand on like a platform or blocks, but it cannot float in the air and is stationary. He can create an explosion that apparently forces enemies to target him instead, although I personally haven't seen them drawn to him and attack him yet.
This one came as a huge surprise to me, but the Stardust Dragon Staff summons a dragon to fight by your side, as he floats around on screen and attacks anything that approaches you at wicked speed, with the ability to pass through any and every block. The real treat is that, for whatever your minion count is, you can summon him that many times and he will grow in size. This means he'll do more damage the bigger he is. If your minion count is five, then summon him five times and he'll be pretty sizable. From what I've gathered, you can tell how big he is by counting the spines on his back. It's a helpful way to tell what your current minion count is as well (the max is 11). And finally, the Stardust Cell Staff is a neat little toy that summons what appear to be small cells that float around you. It can "copy" itself and fires the copy against an enemy, which latches onto it and deals 10 damage per second. Additionally, it has the ability to warp straight to an enemy and do damage to it, like dashing. By itself it isn't much. But naturally, as you summon more and more of these cells, their damage multiplies - literally.
Experimental (not fully tested)
There are a few that stand out to me that I haven't had the time to play with yet, but seem like they have great potential. Namely, the Last Prism. It seems to have great potential, but the only thing that turns me off about the weapon is the accumulating mana cost while trying to focus the energy beam. Maybe I'm just not using it right, or not enough. It seems to be capable of an extremely high damage output, at the cost of keeping the beam alive with mana. Terrarian seems to be a great choice, but sadly, I haven't used it enough to really warrant an opinion. The unlimited use time combined with the projectiles it shoots out tells me that it should have a high damage output, but I just haven't played with enough yoyos yet. I've heard good things about the Nebula Blaze, but it just doesn't seem that great to me. I've seen some really high numbers with that weapon, but it just feels too wonky for me to really enjoy it, like I don't have control when I'm using it. Maybe just me.
Anyway, that about wraps it up. Sort of a short summary of my experience with only a handful for the new 1.3 content, particularly the end game weapons. At the moment, I'm enjoying a new playthrough, with a fresh character and a fresh 1.3 world. The underground desert I located yesterday was a blast to explore. Minecarts have led me into my own death (lava traps), so that's always a good laugh. And Granite and Marble biomes and a nice treat, except when I find the occasional Medusa.
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