Terrablade vs. Flairon?

[Natsufire]

I usually prefer the Flairon because I just feel so powerful when I’m using it, and it does immense damage.

Thats exactly the reason I use it.

 

[WheatCraftT]

Oh, come on. With a good melee build, the Flairon does about 100 damage, and each throw releases about 12 bubbles. That’s 1300 damage a throw if you hit the enemy with the flail and all bubbles.

The Terra Blade, on the other hand, will do about 125 damage per hit, plus the beam could make it 250. With high enough melee speed, it could be useful for large groups, but either way the beam doesn’t shoot out on every swing.

So,
Flairon: Better for single targets
Terra Blade: Better for groups

 

[The fiercest of deities]

The flairon and the terrarian are the two best melee weapons for kiting bosses. And on asphalt at Max speed the flairon has and endless stream of bubbles and is great for events, back in console 1.2.4 I got to round 13 frost and pumpkin moon with the flairon with no deaths.

 

[Shrek On My Deck]

the Terrablade is much better. it fires projectiles a large distance to obliterate enemies and, it's possible to get it pre- golem [if you are lucky with the solar eclipses]

 

[Lord Garak]

The following melee weapons have projectiles that are disconnected from the main weapon and are not sword beams;

Spoiler: List...

• Bee keeper (Summons bees only on impact of main weapon with enemy)
  
• Starfury
• Ice blade, Frostbrand (Shoot ice bolts that are definitely not a sword beam of any type)
  
• Bladedtounge (Spits ichor stream only on impact of main weapon with enemy)
  
• Mushroom spear
  
• Hammush
• Ghastly Glaive
  
• Chlorophyte Saber
• Chlorophyte Partisan
  
• Chlorophyte Claymore
• Flower pow (Petals can be seen on the weapon but are not the main weapon)
  
• Seedler
  
• Scourge of the corruptor (Bursts into a horde of mini-eaters on impact)
  
• Flairon (topic)
• Horseman's Blade (Calls homing pumpkin from offscreen only on impact of main weapon with enemy)
• Christmas tree sword (Ornaments can be seen on the weapon but are not the main weapon)
  
• North pole (The snowflakes, not the flying ice lance)
• Star Wrath
• Mewomere

That's a lot of weapons to write off as merely magic weapons in disguise, more than a tenth of all melee weapons in the game. Could you address these?

For completion, the following melee weapons shoot projectiles that are definitely sword beams;

Spoiler: List...

• Enchanted sword
• Ice sickle
• Beam sword
• Death sickle
  
• True Excalibur
• True Knight's Edge
• Terra Blade
• Flying Dragon
• Influx Waiver
  
• North Pole (flying lance)
  
• Terrarian (these projectiles are also homing bubbles, but they're visibly yoyo-shaped)

Late, but my justification for most of those is that the projectiles serve as auxiliary damage that can hit enemies to buff up the DPS, but are not necessarily integral to the weapon. The Flairon depends entirely upon its bubbles to be a viable weapon, and they are even homing, which makes them far more disconnected from their source than any other weapon.

Those that do not fall under this jurisdiction I would either count as a sword-based power (Seedler, or Ice Blade) or evaluate on a case-by-case basis. The North Pole is definitely not used as a spear, but its nature as shotgun-style AOE leads me to appreciate the niche it fills (plus the spear part deals massive damage against large bosses and crowds regardless). The weapon closest to breaking my argument is the Scourge; this thing is both a purely projectile weapon and homing. However, the Scourge is generally only very useful either when thrown directly at a boss or enemy in javelin form, or used in very closed-off environments. As such I'd probably say it leans towards actual physical contact enough to justify it being a melee weapon.