Rate the Weapon: Day Six - Pre-Hardmode Flails

[Ami]

Inspired by another topic, it occurs to me that many of us think weapons are bad or unusable, simply because we know what we like. But, do we know what we DON'T like? What's a worthy investment of your time and resources? In the case of polls which have multiple items bunched together, such as the ore swords, pick only the best one. If you love silver sword, but think iron sword is a waste of the bars, vote as if this were a poll for silver sword. I'll be logging these in a spreadsheet and making a compilation of which items users think are good, bad, OP, or a waste of space.
If they're bad, what would make them better? Lower cost? Autoswing? Projectiles? Different attack animation?
If they're OP, what would make them balanced?

Day Six: Ball O' Hurt, The Meatball, Blue Moon, Sunfury

Chain Knife intentionally excluded. These guys are unique in their attack animations, effectively making them uncontrollable yoyos with lower DPS. Maybe if flails acted more like the chain knife, with the quick attack and rescind, I may be more inclined to give one the time of day? Maybe higher damage per shot to make up for its awkward combat?

Day 1 - Ore Swords - 2.41 - Everyone agrees these are not very good, but have no idea how to improve them.
Day 2 - Ore Bows - 3.43
Day 3 - Grenades - 3.33
Day 4 - Normal Yoyos - 3.33
Day 5 - Normal Boomerangs - 3.22 - 1 and 6 votes. Love 'em or hate 'em.

 

[SteveisNoob]

Why use these flails when you have awesome blades? Yeah, the Ball O Hurt might be extremely useful in very early game but still, most of them are useless, at least for me...

 

[Khaelis]

4. Often.

If I'm doing melee, I definitely use flails. They really help with progression if you can get one early on.

 

[Xylia]

To be honest, I find them unwieldly to actually use. If I need a flail-like weapon, I have a yo-yo which controls far better and gives me the range that I need.

It is true that with some clever throws you can rack up some serious damage against some enemies, but a lot of times you'll just end up missing that perfect throw and getting very little damage.

The weapons are slow, misses are costly, and they just don't have the effectiveness a yo-yo does.

And it doesn't really get any better in Hardmode, either! There's only what, two flails in the entirety of Hardmode, the Dao Of Pow (which used to be one of the only melee Hardmode Weapons available before Mechs in 1.1) and the Flower Pow (rare drop, in fact, Plantera seems to never drop anything but the Grenade Launcher on the first kill and I've never needed any of Plantera's drops so I just kill it once and move on unless I happen to see a bulb while doing other stuff later on and by then, the Flower Pow is useless).

Unless of course you count the Solar Eruption as a flail.... well, that's a whole different class/level of weapons, and IMO is the single best weapon in the game, overall. (I've not gotten a Terrarian yet, so eh. I can't compare something I've never used before).

 

[Aurora3500]

When I 1st played Terraria back in 1.1 I used Flails very frequently. They were my Melee weapon of choice and I loved getting flails from where they dropped.

Overtime throughout 1.2 and then 1.3 however, I gradually stopped using flails. The reason probably being that the updates just included many more weapons that I preferred using over flails. They are hard to use overall as well, and while I sort of learned how to use them a long time ago, I've somehow lost my touch with using them more recently for some reason.

So I put my vote at 3- Sometimes

 

[Xylia]

When I 1st played Terraria back in 1.1 I used Flails very frequently. They were my Melee weapon of choice and I loved getting flails from where they dropped.

Overtime throughout 1.2 and then 1.3 however, I gradually stopped using flails. The reason probably being that the updates just included many more weapons that I preferred using over flails. They are hard to use overall as well, and while I sort of learned how to use them a long time ago, I've somehow lost my touch with using them more recently for some reason.

So I put my vote at 3- Sometimes

I'd attribute it mostly to yo-yos and similar controllable weapons (magic wands, for example), but mostly Yo-Yos. lol.

Why use a big clunky slow weapon that only vaguely goes where you want it when you can have a much faster weapon that stays out, stays where you put it (until you run out of time) and can even have other "projectiles" (Yo-Yo Bag = 4!) flying around you fending off the small fry that manage to get by?

There's just no comparison. That, and Yo-Yos.. there's more of them and they tend to be easier to get.

Flails are a very niche weapon IMO, and half of that niche can be filled with the yo-yo. That's why nobody uses them anymore.

 

[Warpshard]

I voted Rarely, since I'll use it if I get it, but I won't stick with it. Yo-Yos feel like they made Flails obsolete, since they are controllable, with a generally higher damage output than those that Flails can provide. Sure, only the two end-game yo-yos can stick around forever if you're holding the mouse button, but with how much damage they produce, that isn't really needed.

 

[Xakk]

I agree with other posters that flails are hard to use. The momentum mechanic is really nifty and was probably novel back in the beginning with so few 'weird' weapons to choose from. The problem, go to in depth, is that the gimmick of flails is quite watered down. A flail held out loses it's momentum quickly, eventually hanging limp at the player's feet where only Skeleton AI enemies could possibly fear it. Even if you partake in the awkward lurching about required to maintain flail momentum, it still loses much of it, and additionally will likely go out of control, making wild unpredictable loops through the character. That's in addition to the loss of control any flail encounters when encountering a hard surface. What you end up with is something like a grenade that's tethered to the character, and pierces. You have the same scattering action here. That's discounting that flail attacks amount to a slightly slower spear attack with a longer range.

Compare, as others have done, newer mechanics. The Yoyo's guided missile attacks. The Harpoon's rapid fire boomerang action. The Sickle and Mushroom spear's floating projectiles, and the various swords' shot-and-blade combo. These are simple, easy to use, and effective. And that's to say nothing of the ridiculous game breaking stuff later weapons do.

What flails need is a tweak to their mechanics to give them more zing. Perhaps conservation of angular momentum so you can set the orbit instead of having the thing make clumsy circles, or a much higher velocity so the thing at leasts swings around you harder.

I don't think I've ever used the Meatball, Ball of Hurt, or Blue Moon in my entire Terrarian career, except a few trial runs to see if I could pick the skill up. I only use the Dao of Pow for a weapon that inflicts confusion between Bee Keeper and Nanites, which there should really be another of. The Flower Pow gets some mileage out of me simply for the honing petal attacks. So I'm giving it a 2.

 

[BloodyFingers23]

While I dont use flails mainly, they can save you early on if you get caught off guard by an invasion. Dig a pit in front of your door, then chuck a flail out and shut the door behind it and watch the loot pile up.
Not as controllable as boomerangs but are much faster on the send and return trips.

 

[EmeraldGirl]

I don't usually use fails since I usually play as a mage but when I do use them they can be lifesavers early on. They're very powerful and easy to get. It takes some time to get use to the weird throwing mechanic, especially on mobile, but when you do fails can really help.

 

[The World Over Heaven]

I sometimes use flails, but it is always at the beginning of a new world.

 

[Ezel]

I tend to not use flails, because we have yoyos now. The only flail I use is the Flairon (and Solar Eruption if it counts). I used them more pre-1.3.

 

[Varsia]

Flails are a great gimmick. I find them useful for holding off the odd horde of zombies or whatever on a blood moon (plant the ball in the doorway and watch them die upon it) but it's use is highly situational. I mean, swinging it backwards and forwards is brilliant for holding enemies at bay but not so much for killing them. It seems, too, that not many people know about trailing the flail out behind you and swinging it round madly hitting all the land enemies, making it basically a ridiculous shortsword. Gets a 4 from me.

 

[Technologyzero]

I often get the Sunfury 'cause it's pretty easy to get and it does like 80-90 dmg.