Weapons & Equip Some much needed love for Sentries

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.
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Issue 1: they kinda just suck, for the most part
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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:
  • Range and Velocity increased by 25%.
At least make it more accurate so it can use its DPS. Truth is, the real issue with this sentry is shared with all the Deerclops drops: he should not have been a Post Evil Boss to begin with, since all his drops lack relevance compared to Old One's Army, Queen Bee and Skeletron. More on that later.

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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.

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Frost Hydra

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.
Nerfing damage because Local Immunity is never a free change. this will make sure that it can always get the most out of sentry slots.

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.​

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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.
  • 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)
It is agreed that if Whip Stacking gets removed in 1.4.5, then Blade Staff's 75% tag penalty should be removed as well. This has a 50% tag penalty, and you can make an argument that it doesnt need it even WITH whip stacking in the game. But i fear that this will push the wrong meta, where you just stack all these auras as close as you can and facetank the hell out of a boss while stacking Whips.

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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.
  • 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.
Its lack of range (yes, even after this increase) is fixed by a long lasting debuff (you only need to manage 1 hit). Due to Rockets and Elf Melter lacking in single target damage, Cursed Flame arrows being underused compared to ichor, and the fact that other players could use this debuff in multiplayer, i expect this sentry to open up a lot of possibilities.

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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.
  • Ballista Panic duration lowered to 4 seconds
  • Ballista Panic attack speed increase lowered from triple to double.
Valhalla Knight is still an extremely powerful armor set, but at that point that's not this sentry's fault.

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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?
  • Damage increased from 17/42/88 to 25/58/123
It will now have the most DPS of anything besides a Ballista Panic. It will still be the worst for Old One's army, but is there really a workaround for that?


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:

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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:
  • Shadow Hand damage reduced from 18 to 9, pierce penalty increased from 15% to 25%
  • Now grants 1 sentry slot
  • Gives 4 defense
Faithful enough to Don't Starve, I hope. Cutting the passive damage in half in exchange for some defense and a much needed Sentry Slot for the Houndious Shootius that all classes will appreciate. I believe this will make Deerclops more worth fighting, and will let you use sentries without having to do the Old One's army necessarily.

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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.
  • 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.
Now every class gets these.
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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I like this a lot. I think you're spot-on with identifying the actual problems with sentries and the ways you want to fix them. I support this completely.
 
You have done well to make a really well done and made an in depth explanation of the subject. Well done! I totally agree with you.
 
1) The Frost Hydra is a pain to get unless you get stupidly good RNG. I don’t use these weapons often (like I said, biome keys suck to get,) but they should be worth getting. They should, in my opinion, be pretty darn good to compensate.

I’m not saying you should buff the damage, I just see no good reason to nerf the infamously bad Frost Hydra, local immunity frames or not.

2) Monk items are still melee. They are supposed to be a less tanky version of the main set, so I suggest either:
A) Make the shield defence boosting and
the belt damage boosting
B) Make the belt speed boosting and keep
the shield unchanged

Besides those nitpicks, yeah, sentries 100% need more love. You just gotta be careful with the OOA armors to not make them overpowered.
 
1) The Frost Hydra is a pain to get unless you get stupidly good RNG. I don’t use these weapons often (like I said, biome keys suck to get,) but they should be worth getting. They should, in my opinion, be pretty darn good to compensate. I’m not saying you should buff the damage, I just see no good reason to nerf the infamously bad Frost Hydra, local immunity frames or not.
The inherent issue of having extremely rare weapons in the short-lived Post Plantera stage is not Frost Hydra's fault. In fact, Frost Hydra is actually one of the better biome chest items: Rainbow Gun is alright, Scourge of the Corruptor and Desert Tiger are good weapons, but never the best at any stage, and Piranha Gun is just bad. Frost Hydra, being the only sentry of its tier, and the only Pre Moon Lord Sentry that isn't attached to a OOA set, has a unique use.

You should never underestimate Local Immunity, every single weapon that has been changed to Local needed a significant damage nerf to balance it out, even infamously awful weapons like Deadly Sphere.


2) Monk items are still melee. They are supposed to be a less tanky version of the main set, so I suggest either:
A) Make the shield defence boosting and
the belt damage boosting
B) Make the belt speed boosting and keep
the shield unchanged
Monk items are still melee but, i dont really see the point in having 2 melee accessories. That leaves us with no Accessory that buffs summoner damage. People dont realize that using Whips with Monk and Shinobi is actually valid, these sets have great Summon Damage, Melee Speed and Defense; and even with the 50% penalty the Lightning Auras still get a lot out of Whip Tags.

You just gotta be careful with the OOA armors to not make them overpowered.
no one really uses the full sets, these are always used in hybrid armor sets due to the nature of sentries. Again, would rather have Sentries be a bit too strong than to play it safe for the sake of balance, and having them be ignored in the end
 
Monk items are still melee but, i dont really see the point in having 2 melee accessories. That leaves us with no Accessory that buffs summoner damage. People dont realize that using Whips with Monk and Shinobi is actually valid, these sets have great Summon Damage, Melee Speed and Defense; and even with the 50% penalty the Lightning Auras still get a lot out of Whip Tags.
I don’t see the point in two melee armors, but they’re here anyways and we need consistency.

Your other points are fair, though. I think all the biome chest items should all be buffed, but to what extent I am not sure.
 
I like the idea behind the whole post, but I'm not sold on changing existing accessories.

As for the Bone Helm, it's putting the sentry slot behind the requirement to play on Expert, meaning it's not for beginners or casual players.
Boss Accessories are meant to be unique, not fill a specific niche, and for now Bone Helm is the only passive attack accessory before Hardmode, so it's as good as it gets (though I wouldn't mind a point or two in defense, since it's a "helmet").

As for OOA accessories, I like the idea of hybrid accessories, but I'm not sold on a "melee damage + sentry slot" accessory.
Instead, it should be dual-class damage and a sentry slot, like "melee damege + summon damege + sentry slot". The Monk's Belt would be a melee accessory, and the Squire's Shield would be unique, having "defense + summon damege + sentry slot" instead.
 
Boss Accessories are meant to be unique, not fill a specific niche, and for now Bone Helm is the only passive attack accessory before Hardmode, so it's as good as it gets (though I wouldn't mind a point or two in defense, since it's a "helmet").
Bone helm is also conceptually very boring, its yet another passive attack resembling the boss it drops, it may be "unique" but its not interesting in any way
As for the Bone Helm, it's putting the sentry slot behind the requirement to play on Expert
Your free sentry slot and the OOA accessories are still there on classic.
Instead, it should be dual-class damage and a sentry slot, like "melee damege + summon damege + sentry slot". The Monk's Belt would be a melee accessory, and the Squire's Shield would be unique, having "defense + summon damege + sentry slot" instead
Its already dual class, sentry slots are summoner. Dont complicate it.
 
Piranha Gun is just bad.
Why? I don't think its a terrible weapon at all. I mean, if you did manage to get a jungle key without farming for it in mind, I don't see why Piranha Gun wouldn't be a good weapon to use once you get it.
 
Why? I don't think its a terrible weapon at all. I mean, if you did manage to get a jungle key without farming for it in mind, I don't see why Piranha Gun wouldn't be a good weapon to use once you get it.
Piranha Gun is the Harpoon of Hard mode, with the difference that the Harpoon is useful when you obtain it

Does damage? Yes. Is better than other weapons? Lol, no
 
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