J Bame
Terrarian
Sentries in their current state are often ignored during playthroughs. Despite being deceptively powerful, their lack of movement and limited range makes them very unsuited for bosses. Another problem is that there are few of them; counting the four types of Old One's army sentries at once (they are all obtained the exact same way and are used for nearly the same role), there are only 6 sentries in the whole game until Moon Lord, and this is made worse by a general lack of Sentry gear.
I dont believe making sentries good for bosses is a good idea, you are effectively giving free DPS to every single class since nothing would stop you from summoning sentries if you have them. While buffing sentries would powercreep Mobbing as well, that is more of an balance-free territory that isnt always dictated by higher DPS. I'd rather have sentries be a little too strong against Mobbing, than have them be "fine" for the sake of preserving balance and leaving them ignored by the community at large.
First off, i calculated the DPS of every sentry in the game, and compared it to some relevant minions at every tier. Make sure to read this chart because i'll be referencing it often.
Issue 1: they kinda just suck, for the most part
Houndious Shootius
It shoots a basic projectile with passable accuracy. It actually has the highest DPS of all prehardmode sentries, but as we stated sentries arent very good against bosses, and it has no pierce for Mobbing. Give an explosion to the projectile and it's just a Flameburst with different stats. Make it pierce, and now it overlaps with the Ballista. It's in a limbo where it's technically fine, but the niche it serves is only really useful agaisnt Skeletron. I propose a simple buff to help it out a tad:
Queen Spider
What if the Sanguine Staff was craftable 10 minutes into hardmode? That would make Hardmode too easy, it's already the strongest minion and can last all the way up to Plantera. Well, what if it also had over twice the DPS and inflicted the strongest DoT in the tier? That's what Queen Spider is, dont touch it.
Frost Hydra
This thing is honestly alright, but there is a change that many will appreciate:
Lightning Aura
It has extremely short range until Shinobi Infiltrator armor, and with that armor you will realize that it simply doesn't deal enough damage.
Explosive Trap
This thing doubles down on all the issues with sentries to the point of being absurdly polarizing. In other words, when the enemies are dumb enough for this to do anything, it does WAY too much (300 DPS per slot is genuinely insane), but if they have any AI better than Fighter AI, it wont do anything.
It's actually alright for the old one's army, i believe Huntress/Red Riding's set bonus is the real culprit here.
Ballista
Is actually completely fine, but Ballista Panic is not. It increases the DPS by over triple, with a full set of Vallhalla Knight armor and max sentry slots you are getting the DPS of 21 Xeno Staff minions. That is not acceptable.
Flameburst
AoE explosions just aren't as good as the piercing Ballista shots. Some will criticize Dark Artists' set bonus for being much less showy than its peers, but it actually gets the job done in making this sentry land its shots. Its limited radius is annoying, but honestly, the issue is just that it has terrible damage. Did you know the Ballista Staff also has higher DPS?
Issue 2: lack of sentry slots
Dont add a Sentry Potion. Sentries get more interesting with dedicated Sentry Gear and Sentry builds that would arise from it. A free Sentry slot is just pointless powercreep, we need more accessories instead.
Adding new items isnt impossible, but i believe there are some accessories that could get reworked instead:
Bone Helm
remember what i said about deerclops earlier? Queen Bee drops the entire summoner class and a whole subset of bee items, Skeletron gives access to the dungeon and all of late prehardmode with it, and Old One's army opens the doors to sentries. This is the only thing Deerclops has to compete. I dont think it's a bad item, but being a fixed attack, its DPS contribution is flat, and some would rather use an accessory that interacts with their build instead, namely the Shark Tooth Necklace.
This accessory is the only thing you'd fight Deerclops for, so i believe it should be something that all classes could look for:
OOA accessories
Ever noticed that this is literally a prehardmode summoner emblem with 1 sentry in exchange for a mere 5% damage? Probably not, because you were more bothered by the fact that this is one accessory with four skins. Balance-wise, it's too strong for prehardmode, but not strong enough for mid hardmode. I have something in mind.
If you haven't noticed the pattern yet, it is better to have accessories that are half-good on their own, with another half going to sentry bonuses. A Sentry Summoner will run into an issue of being extremely unreliable against bosses, making the build ultimately pointless when it's time to put it to a real test.
Issue 3: Lack of Sentries
Sentries are much better, but all of this just to end up with extremely few weapons to play with. Do you really want to make a Sentry Build just to spam Queen Spiders until Post Plantera? You have almost nothing inbetween Queen Spider and the Frost Hydra in hardmode. For prehardmode, you literally only have the Houndious. You are forced into the Old One's Army Sets if you want to experiment with any other choices.
The game simply needs a few more sentries. How about a preboss Sentry from the Marble Biome? A Tesla Sentry from the Martian Madness? A massively Sharknado Sentry from Duke Fishron? Top it all off with one or two armors that have both Summon and sentry slots, and we are good to go.
I dont believe making sentries good for bosses is a good idea, you are effectively giving free DPS to every single class since nothing would stop you from summoning sentries if you have them. While buffing sentries would powercreep Mobbing as well, that is more of an balance-free territory that isnt always dictated by higher DPS. I'd rather have sentries be a little too strong against Mobbing, than have them be "fine" for the sake of preserving balance and leaving them ignored by the community at large.
First off, i calculated the DPS of every sentry in the game, and compared it to some relevant minions at every tier. Make sure to read this chart because i'll be referencing it often.
Issue 1: they kinda just suck, for the most part
It shoots a basic projectile with passable accuracy. It actually has the highest DPS of all prehardmode sentries, but as we stated sentries arent very good against bosses, and it has no pierce for Mobbing. Give an explosion to the projectile and it's just a Flameburst with different stats. Make it pierce, and now it overlaps with the Ballista. It's in a limbo where it's technically fine, but the niche it serves is only really useful agaisnt Skeletron. I propose a simple buff to help it out a tad:
- Range and Velocity increased by 25%.
What if the Sanguine Staff was craftable 10 minutes into hardmode? That would make Hardmode too easy, it's already the strongest minion and can last all the way up to Plantera. Well, what if it also had over twice the DPS and inflicted the strongest DoT in the tier? That's what Queen Spider is, dont touch it.
This thing is honestly alright, but there is a change that many will appreciate:
- Projectile now uses Local Immunity.
- Damage reduced from 100 to 82.
Now for the real stars of the show, the Old One's army sentries, the ones that almost deserve a full thread just for themselves.
It has extremely short range until Shinobi Infiltrator armor, and with that armor you will realize that it simply doesn't deal enough damage.
- Damage increased from 4/11/34 to 7/15/44
- Monk armor's set bonus now has half the range increase of Shinobi Infiltrator armor (you are not using this without the armor anyways)
This thing doubles down on all the issues with sentries to the point of being absurdly polarizing. In other words, when the enemies are dumb enough for this to do anything, it does WAY too much (300 DPS per slot is genuinely insane), but if they have any AI better than Fighter AI, it wont do anything.
It's actually alright for the old one's army, i believe Huntress/Red Riding's set bonus is the real culprit here.
- Huntress and Red Riding's Set bonus now increase the Trap's range by 25% and 50% respectively.
- Set bonus no longer increases attack speed.
- Oiled duration increased from 4-8 seconds to 10-12.
- Oiled now also increases damage from Fiery and Explosive weapons by 15%, multiplicative.
Is actually completely fine, but Ballista Panic is not. It increases the DPS by over triple, with a full set of Vallhalla Knight armor and max sentry slots you are getting the DPS of 21 Xeno Staff minions. That is not acceptable.
- Ballista Panic duration lowered to 4 seconds
- Ballista Panic attack speed increase lowered from triple to double.
AoE explosions just aren't as good as the piercing Ballista shots. Some will criticize Dark Artists' set bonus for being much less showy than its peers, but it actually gets the job done in making this sentry land its shots. Its limited radius is annoying, but honestly, the issue is just that it has terrible damage. Did you know the Ballista Staff also has higher DPS?
- Damage increased from 17/42/88 to 25/58/123
Issue 2: lack of sentry slots
Dont add a Sentry Potion. Sentries get more interesting with dedicated Sentry Gear and Sentry builds that would arise from it. A free Sentry slot is just pointless powercreep, we need more accessories instead.
Adding new items isnt impossible, but i believe there are some accessories that could get reworked instead:
remember what i said about deerclops earlier? Queen Bee drops the entire summoner class and a whole subset of bee items, Skeletron gives access to the dungeon and all of late prehardmode with it, and Old One's army opens the doors to sentries. This is the only thing Deerclops has to compete. I dont think it's a bad item, but being a fixed attack, its DPS contribution is flat, and some would rather use an accessory that interacts with their build instead, namely the Shark Tooth Necklace.
This accessory is the only thing you'd fight Deerclops for, so i believe it should be something that all classes could look for:
- Shadow Hand damage reduced from 18 to 9, pierce penalty increased from 15% to 25%
- Now grants 1 sentry slot
- Gives 4 defense
Ever noticed that this is literally a prehardmode summoner emblem with 1 sentry in exchange for a mere 5% damage? Probably not, because you were more bothered by the fact that this is one accessory with four skins. Balance-wise, it's too strong for prehardmode, but not strong enough for mid hardmode. I have something in mind.
- Each one of these now increases Melee/Ranger/Magic/Summoner damage, ordered by Shield/Buckler/Magic/Belt.
- Damage increase lowered from 10% to 7%.
- Damage increase is 14% if equipped with a full Old One's Army set.
- Dark Mage and Ogre now drop all four.
If you haven't noticed the pattern yet, it is better to have accessories that are half-good on their own, with another half going to sentry bonuses. A Sentry Summoner will run into an issue of being extremely unreliable against bosses, making the build ultimately pointless when it's time to put it to a real test.
Issue 3: Lack of Sentries
Sentries are much better, but all of this just to end up with extremely few weapons to play with. Do you really want to make a Sentry Build just to spam Queen Spiders until Post Plantera? You have almost nothing inbetween Queen Spider and the Frost Hydra in hardmode. For prehardmode, you literally only have the Houndious. You are forced into the Old One's Army Sets if you want to experiment with any other choices.
The game simply needs a few more sentries. How about a preboss Sentry from the Marble Biome? A Tesla Sentry from the Martian Madness? A massively Sharknado Sentry from Duke Fishron? Top it all off with one or two armors that have both Summon and sentry slots, and we are good to go.
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