Portfolio/Multi-Topic Post Golem Summoner Armor and Moon Lord Phantasmal Deathray fix

[Wumpus]

As a summoner playing in Master Mode, I have very limited options for armor to fight the Moon Lord. I already have things like the Stardust Dragon, Terraprisma, and Kaleidoscope. But in the armor department, i am significantly lacking.

While the OOA armor is very good (I have 4 pieces and 1 sentry staff all from tier 3) I will always find myself needing those few extra minions for maximum damage, and definitely not a sentry because of how much i need to move during the fight. This would already be enough, if not for the low damage reduction that the best summoner armor for Moon Lord has. (Spooky/Tiki armor)

A solution to this would be a set that is post Golem or even post Lunatic Cultist that has defense and buff similarities to the Valhalla set, but instead boosting minions and not sentries. What about an armor crafted from Spooky armor and Ectoplasm at those lihzahrd furnace things? (please remind me the name lol)

It wouldn’t necessarily match the aesthetic of all the other items crafted from the Lihzahrd furnace thingy, but it would definitely be an absolute godsend for us summoners.

A difficult part about this would be to balance it between the different difficulties, where Normal Mode Moon Lord is vastly easier than Moon Lord in Master Mode.

Moving on, Moon Lord is extremely difficult (I don’t necessarily want to call the fight unfair, as it is very much more just difficulty) to me, as I need to keep distance from him due to his hands, phantasmal eyes, and lasers, but I also need to be able to tell when he is about to use the Phantasmal Deathray attack.

A great solution to this would be to make a small background change to tell the player that the laser is about to happen, similarly to the phase 3 Duke Fishron background change.

Maybe also a line to tell where the laser will start? Balancing this may be difficult, so I would understand being against this change.

Thanks for reading

 

[CannedPotato]

The phantasmal deathray has it's telegraphs. You can tell when it is about to be fired when the middle eye opens up, every cycle of it opening the eye will fire two predictive shots and then charge up the deathray by looking forward and making particles appear around it. When the deathray is actually fired it will always appear rotationally below the player and rotate upwards. The same telegraph can be applied to the true eyes of Cthulhu.
That aside, I do think the Moon Lord is an unfair battle, each attack on it's own is easy enough to dodge but each hand and eye behaves on it's own, the pattern of the eyes is decided by when you release them making it get even worse. It takes not only very good dodging skills but actual foresight in order to dodge all the attacks without just resorting to running as fast as you can in one direction. The fight is a complete spectacle and amazing to watch, but mechanically it is a real curve ball which IMO is not very great for a final battle, but that is just me.

No comment on the summoner suggestion. I might throw in something about that later but right now I only feel strongly about the moon lord part. Thanks for making the message it was nice to read

 

[Wumpus]

i have to agree with you there. I just hate it when im trying to run away to dodge some stuff, he goes off screen and then fires a phantasmal deathray 0.01 seconds later ;-;

also thanks for the deathray advice, hopefully i can dodge it every time one day

 

[J Bame]

Summoner has low defense, thats how the class has always been. Spooky and tiki armors are good, they dont need an upgrade or a buff

The proposed upgrade for spooky is actually easier to get than spooky itself, so realistically youll get spooky and then immediately upgrade. Just buff spooky at that point.

 

[Coleyohley]

The problem here is more of how terrible of a boss Moon Lord is than Summoner having poor armor options. Moon Lord is constantly creating a hurricane of nonsense around him, and the only way to realistically avoid it all is to just run away, which means you cannot hit the boss with Whips or anything close range without taking tons of damage.

The Deathray already has a telegraph, but I don't blame you for not noticing it because as I said above, everything else in the fight practically forces you to run away from him. The True Eyes of Cthulhu are even worse, as they lag so far behind everything else that they're almost always offscreen when they use it, and sometimes two of them can use it at once in completely different directions, scissoring you and making it impossible to avoid. The only reasonable way to stay alive is to outrange them alltogether.

Several Minions are pretty good at attacking the boss when it's far away, but whips being essentially off the table is a huge blow to summoner. The class isn't the problem here, it's great against everything else; The problem is just Moon Lord being an absolutely atrocious bossfight mechanically.

(Edit: Just remembered that a Stardust Whip is getting added in 1.4.5, I wonder if that'll make things better. Highly doubt it, but we'll see.)

 

[RandomDuckNerd]

i aint gonna lie I ended my mage playthrough because I didn't want to do the moon lord fight anymore

I LOVE HAVING TO DO THE PILLARS (not well designed at all) AND THEN DO A FIGHT THAT ENDS IN 2 SECONDS BECAUSE I WON'T EVER HAVE A CHANCE TO GET ENOUGH PRACTICE IN SO I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BEAT HIM (even with the celestial sigils)

 

[AmberTheSeal]

Terraria's difficulty rollercoaster is one of the only few things I dislike about the game. However, it's sometimes good. Hardmode feeling like starting the game all over again is interesting. But Moon Lord is the bad kinda difficulty spike. It's a storm of a bunch of stuff everywhere and all at once as others pointed out. The Deathray is only another disaster in this Touhou level nonsense. I say he needs a MASSIVE rework.

i aint gonna lie I ended my mage playthrough because I didn't want to do the moon lord fight anymore

I did that with my first full Expert playthrough ever (A Gun playthrough), which wasn't too long ago. The rest of the game didn't feel as harsh as it felt years ago but Moon Lord felt like a massive pain. I just gave up there.

 

[Wumpus]

anyways, what is the best way to beat moon lord as any class currently?

 

[CannedPotato]

anyways, what is the best way to beat moon lord as any class currently?

The most reliable strategy I know is get a pair of hover wings, ideally betsy wings and a soaring insignia. With those items you can fly in one direction so fast that you leave the deathray range by the time it reaches you. In order to deal reasonable damage you need a long range weapon, a good aim or homing but it should work for keeping you safe enough assuming you have the items for it.

You can also try teleporters, they never stopped working. As a tip you do not even need teleporters to do it you can also set your spawn at a convenient and moveable area and drink a recall potion to send you back home in you can react in time, make sure you actually use recall potions because they take effect faster than magic mirror or cell phone.
If you do this remember that when the moon lord follows you the deathray will as well and it will continue from the same rotation it left at, you will be safe a lot of the time still because you will be recalling from the far left or right sides of the boss with the ray moving from the bottom left or right to the top left or right leaving you safely at the middle bottom to continue moving in a new direction with the screen flushed of it's projectiles. Remember also that the deathray teleporting too does not apply to the mini ones the true eyes do, which can be good because you do not need to think about it but be careful so they do not sweep you from off screen. This also also works very well against GFB Moon Lord for staying as far away from the moon boulders as possible.
That description was quite technical, basically just use recall potions when you are scared you might get hit.
Those are my ideas, there will surely be other ideas that people use, make sure to give them a read if you think they suit you better

 

[Coleyohley]

anyways, what is the best way to beat moon lord as any class currently?

Currently the easiest is probably using Vortex Beater with Chlorophyte Bullets, using Stardust Dragon with several Minion slots, and equipping as many defense and damage reduction items as you can manage (Defensive Beetle Armor alone is huge, make sure you have that at bare minimum).

Stay as far as you can away from him (Shroomite Hoverboard helps immensely, Betsy's Wings are even better if you manage to get your hands on a pair), outranging him with Chlorophyte Bullets and using the right-click on Stardust Dragon (Staff) to manually target his eyes so it will continue to track him even if you go offscreen. You'll outrange most of his attacks, and what you do get hit by will deal very low damage.

During the first phase, try to keep an eye on his forehead; if the eye is open, be prepared to fly upwards, as the deathray is his strongest attack, and is top priority to dodge. Getting hit by anything else as you fly up is better than tanking the Deathray; you're defensive enough that it probably won't matter too much anyways, just make sure not to take that Deathray.

In his second phase, don't even bother keeping him onscreen, manually assign Stardust Dragon to the core and get the hell out, you won't see any of the attacks from the True Eyes of Cthulhu coming, nor do you need to, since you can outrange all of them.

This is the easiest method I've found in all of my hours, I beat the boss first try after someone else recommended it to me when I was struggling.

 

[Wumpus]

does the main phantasmal deathray have inf range? im thinking about literally just outrunning him

 

[CannedPotato]

does the main phantasmal deathray have inf range? im thinking about literally just outrunning him

It does not have infinite range, but you need to be really fast. Asphalt, mechanical minecart or the spooky tree mount can go fast enough iirc.

 

[RandomDuckNerd]

But Moon Lord is the bad kinda difficulty spike.

i've made an approximate difficulty chart as the game goes on

 

[CannedPotato]

i've made an approximate difficulty chart as the game goes on

You forgot a boss

 

[RandomDuckNerd]

View attachment 463980
You forgot a boss

final updated version

 

[Orchamut]

I agree with everyone else that Phantasmal Deathray is telegraphed pretty clearly. But yeah the issue is that all the other attacks pretty much need to be tanked unless you can put a lot of distance between yourself and Moon Lord. And unfortunately for summoners, tanking is usually out of the question and staying far away means you can't use your whips. At least the Stardust Dragon is still pretty strong..

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

Honestly, my issues with moon lord as a boss more come from the second phase than the first. In phase 1, I stay to one side of the boss via hovering or master ninja gear dash, then fly up and towards the boss to get over the deathray, before using a mount to create some distance (use something that moves quickly in 1 direction, be that horizontally or vertically), then rinse and repeat. To attempt this strategy, you'll either want a soaring insignia or a good arena (at least one really long skybridge). Alternatively, the rod of discord removes the need to get close to the boss to dodge the deathray (which makes it safer and removes the need for a mount), but I can't be bothered to grind one on my playthroughs.

Phase 2 on the other hand is almost entirely unpredictable (unless you release eyes at the perfect moments to sync them up, which is a degree of complexity I don't think fits with terraria's other bosses). Because of this unpredictability, the best course of action is to not engage with the boss at all, and just fly away while the true eyes struggle to keep up (though make sure not to have moon lord teleport, since the true eyes come with him). The true eye lasers are an incredibly unfair attack when the eyes aren't synced up and you aren't out of range, so trying to put distance between you and them is usually the most effective way to deal with the boss (though it isn't particularly fun nor engaging).

I feel like the best way to fix phase 2 would be to make the eyes faster (so you can't outrun them) but make them automatically sync their attacks with each other (though probably give a slight delay so they don't all act simultaneously to make it a bit harder) to make it more fair and learnable.

I will second that defence and DR are really useful in the fight. Beetle shell and defensive accessories is definitely the "comfiest" way of fighting the boss, though hybrid valhalla setups (the regen from the chestplate is decent survivability, and you can still get decent class bonuses from whichever helmet and legs you want to use with it) are also a solid pick. For summoner, I like using valhalla chestplate, spooky helmet, and your pick of valhalla greaves (for extra defence) or spooky leggings (for an extra minion). You don't get the same amount of damage as you would from full spooky, but the survivability is worth it.

 

[Wumpus]

wait but golem is easier than pre-hardmode at least you need braincells to beat skeletron and WoF

 

[Esther]

Not much to say about the suggestion, but aren't you guys forgetting King Slime in that chart? He's a joke too (Unless you're a summoner with roughly 10 defense trying to build and being too lazy to switch from building pack to band of regen for every distraction).

 

[Orchamut]

King Slime used to be harder for me than Eye of Cthulhu