qwerty3.14
Terrarian
Terraria has 4 official classes: Melee, Ranged, Magic, Summon. In each of these classes players like to divide weapons into 'sub classes'. For example Melee has swords, spears, Heavy flails, chains, boomerangs, and yoyos. Ranged has (bullet)Guns, bows, darts, rocket launchers, and throwables. Summon has minions, sentries, and whips. And magic has... well that's what this thread is about.
The wiki divides magic weapons into: Tomes, wands, magic guns, and misc. I've never really liked this categorization, it's only sorting weapons by what the sprites look like instead of what they actually do. If I tell you a weapon is a wand, all you can really imply about it is that it's a magic weapon. Whereas if I said bow, well you know its a ranged weapon, but you also know it uses arrows. Here I've sorted magic weapons based on function and mechanics, should be more informative than just "It looks like a book".
Linear:
These weapons pierce, and usually move in a straight line. They don't bounce (one debatable exception) and will usually hit each enemy only once per projectile.
Examples include: Wand of Sparking, Gem Staffs, Space Gun, Aqua Scepter, Laser Rifle, Magic Dagger, Golden Shower, Frost Staff, and Unholy Trident.
Also including shadowbeam staff, because even though it bounces off walls it only hits enemies once per shot.
Barrage:
These weapons are designed for single targets and almost never pierce. They also tend to have a high rate of fire. Also they don't have homing as I put those in a different subclass. I'm also including weapons with splash damage here too as those are often used for single target.
Examples include: Thunder Zapper, Flower of Fire, Flower of Frost, Meteor Staff, Crystal Storm, Crystal Serpent, Sky Fracture, Leaf Blower, Heat Ray, Razorpine, Blizzard Staff, Laser Machine Gun, Bubble Gun, Betsy's Wrath, and Lunar Flare.
Seeker:
These weapons have homing by rule, although I wouldn't consider all homing weapons seekers. Seekers are similar to barrage weapons in that they are usually focused for single target, although some can pierce their crowd control dps is barely any higher than their single target (if at all).
Examples include: Magic Missile, Flamelash, Rainbow Rod, Spectre Staff, Bat Scepter, Nightglow, and Nebula Blaze.
Flooder:
These weapons are about filling areas with projectile, they are almost always focused on crowd control. They also always pierce, and almost always have bouncing. Flooder projectiles can often hit the same target multiple times too.
Examples include: Bee Gun, Water Bolt, Book of Skulls, Cursed Flames, Magic Harp, Wasp Gun, Staff of Earth, Razorblade Typhoon, and Nebula Arcanum.
Aura:
These weapons attack a smallish area constantly. Somewhat of a small scale more concentrated flooder. These weapons are always used for crowd control.
Examples Include: Vilethorn, Crystal Vile Shard, Blood Thorn, Life Drain, Nettle Burst, Inferno Fork, Resonance Scepter, Toxic Flask.
Support:
These weapons have lingering projectiles, they are casts once or twice then you switch to a different weapon while they help add to your damage output.
Examples include: Crimson rod, Nimbus Rod, Clinger Staff, Rainbow Gun, and Magnet Sphere.
Zappinator:
Pure Chaos
Examples: Grey Zappinator and Orange Zappinator.
Multi Sub Class Weapons:
These weapons seem to fit into multiple subclasses at different times.
Demon Scythe:
The initial projectile is almost stationary and can can hit enemies that run into it multiple times: Aura
After a while the projectile moves in a straight line usually only hitting each enemy once: Linear.
Charged Blaster Cannon:
When charging it up the cannon fires a bunch of non piercing projectiles: Barrage
When fully charged the beam constantly attacks enemies in a concentrated area: Aura
Last Prism:
When charging up the prism covers a huge area with several beams: Flooder
Although the fully charged beam pierces, no crowd will survive to this point so it's almost always used for bossing dps: Barrage
The wiki divides magic weapons into: Tomes, wands, magic guns, and misc. I've never really liked this categorization, it's only sorting weapons by what the sprites look like instead of what they actually do. If I tell you a weapon is a wand, all you can really imply about it is that it's a magic weapon. Whereas if I said bow, well you know its a ranged weapon, but you also know it uses arrows. Here I've sorted magic weapons based on function and mechanics, should be more informative than just "It looks like a book".
Linear:
These weapons pierce, and usually move in a straight line. They don't bounce (one debatable exception) and will usually hit each enemy only once per projectile.
Examples include: Wand of Sparking, Gem Staffs, Space Gun, Aqua Scepter, Laser Rifle, Magic Dagger, Golden Shower, Frost Staff, and Unholy Trident.
Also including shadowbeam staff, because even though it bounces off walls it only hits enemies once per shot.
Barrage:
These weapons are designed for single targets and almost never pierce. They also tend to have a high rate of fire. Also they don't have homing as I put those in a different subclass. I'm also including weapons with splash damage here too as those are often used for single target.
Examples include: Thunder Zapper, Flower of Fire, Flower of Frost, Meteor Staff, Crystal Storm, Crystal Serpent, Sky Fracture, Leaf Blower, Heat Ray, Razorpine, Blizzard Staff, Laser Machine Gun, Bubble Gun, Betsy's Wrath, and Lunar Flare.
Seeker:
These weapons have homing by rule, although I wouldn't consider all homing weapons seekers. Seekers are similar to barrage weapons in that they are usually focused for single target, although some can pierce their crowd control dps is barely any higher than their single target (if at all).
Examples include: Magic Missile, Flamelash, Rainbow Rod, Spectre Staff, Bat Scepter, Nightglow, and Nebula Blaze.
Flooder:
These weapons are about filling areas with projectile, they are almost always focused on crowd control. They also always pierce, and almost always have bouncing. Flooder projectiles can often hit the same target multiple times too.
Examples include: Bee Gun, Water Bolt, Book of Skulls, Cursed Flames, Magic Harp, Wasp Gun, Staff of Earth, Razorblade Typhoon, and Nebula Arcanum.
Aura:
These weapons attack a smallish area constantly. Somewhat of a small scale more concentrated flooder. These weapons are always used for crowd control.
Examples Include: Vilethorn, Crystal Vile Shard, Blood Thorn, Life Drain, Nettle Burst, Inferno Fork, Resonance Scepter, Toxic Flask.
Support:
These weapons have lingering projectiles, they are casts once or twice then you switch to a different weapon while they help add to your damage output.
Examples include: Crimson rod, Nimbus Rod, Clinger Staff, Rainbow Gun, and Magnet Sphere.
Zappinator:
Pure Chaos
Examples: Grey Zappinator and Orange Zappinator.
Multi Sub Class Weapons:
These weapons seem to fit into multiple subclasses at different times.
Demon Scythe:
The initial projectile is almost stationary and can can hit enemies that run into it multiple times: Aura
After a while the projectile moves in a straight line usually only hitting each enemy once: Linear.
Charged Blaster Cannon:
When charging it up the cannon fires a bunch of non piercing projectiles: Barrage
When fully charged the beam constantly attacks enemies in a concentrated area: Aura
Last Prism:
When charging up the prism covers a huge area with several beams: Flooder
Although the fully charged beam pierces, no crowd will survive to this point so it's almost always used for bossing dps: Barrage