Weapons & Equip Under-Powered Weapons that direly need buffs

SzGamer227

SzGamer227

Spazmatism
The majority of these concern certain Post-Plantera Dungeon weapons. Back when 1.2 first came out and you could get them before killing the Mechanical bosses, they were more appropriately powered. Then the Dungeon became post-Mech, and then to post-Plantera, and half of the weapons aren't powerful enough to be useful at that stage of the game. There are four main candidates that I'm going to focus on here, the Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle, Spectre Staff, and Keybrand. As far as I know, Tactical Shotgun, Shadowbeam Staff, and Inferno Fork are fine as is.

Also, just an heads up, I'm also proposing a tiny nerf to the Uzi. Don't freak out.

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First up, the Rocket Launcher. As of right now, it does less damage per second than the Grenade Launcher, when it should be doing significantly more. It should also have better speed, accuracy, and knockback versus the Grenade Launcher as a matter of actual functionality and game balance.

DPS values are provided for Rocket I and Rocket III as ammo.

Rocket_Launcher.png

Rocket Launcher
Damage: 50
Use Time: 29 (2.07 uses/second)
Knockback: 4
Velocity: 5
RI DPS: 176
RIII DPS: 217

Grenade_Launcher.png

Grenade Launcher
Damage: 55
Use Time: 29 (2.07 uses/second)
Knockback: 4
Velocity: 10
RI DPS: 186
RIII DPS: 228

My proposed changes:

Rocket_Launcher.png

Rocket Launcher (Buffed)
Damage: 60
Use Time: 28 (2.14 uses/second)
Knockback: 5
Velocity: 8
RI DPS: 204
RIII DPS: 246

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Sniper Rifle has been buffed as of 1.3. (Thank you!)

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Now for the Spectre Staff. Let's face it, it isn't as useful as we would like. For its level, it lacks the amount of firepower that you would expect it to have, and its going up against the Inferno Fork and the Shadowbeam Staff, both of which deal more DPS to many enemies at once. The Spectre Staff is so weak, in fact, that it deals less damage slower than the Rainbow Rod does, and the Rainbow Rod is a Mech-tiered item. The only current upside that the Spectre Staff has is a low mana consumption rate, but that's not what you expect from a endgame magic weapon, especially if it's only a single target weapon.

Spectre_Staff.png

Spectre Staff
Damage: 70
Use Time: 23 (2.6 uses/second)
Mana Cost: 11
DPS: 183
MPS: 28
* Shoots lost souls that automatically home after enemies and hit a single target.

Shadowbeam_Staff.png

Shadowbeam Staff
Damage: 55
Use Time: 15 (4 uses/second)
Mana Cost: 6
DPS: 220
MPS: 24
* Shoots a light-speed beam of death that bounces off walls and penetrates enemies infinitely.

Rainbow_Rod.png

Rainbow Rod
Damage: 72
Use Time: 18 (3.3 uses/second)
DPS: 240
* Shoots colorful rainbow missiles that hit a single target.

There are two distinct directions we can take this:

Spectre_Staff.png

Spectre Staff (A version which embodies the current feel of the weapon)
Damage: 95
Knockback: 6
Mana Cost: 7
Use Time: 19 (3.3 uses/second)
*Shoots a lost soul that homes after enemies and hits a single target.
DPS: 300
MPS: 22

Spectre_Staff.png

Spectre Staff (A version which parallels the Ragged Caster's abilities)
Damage: 70
Knockback: 6
Mana Cost: 5*3
Use Time: 42 (1.4 uses/second) (Fires in three-shot burst.)
*Shoots a volley of three lost souls that pass through walls, home after enemies and hit a single target.
DPS: 300
MPS: 21

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Keybrand has been buffed as of 1.3. (Thank you!)​

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So in 1.3 the Unholy Trident got an extreme buff in damage output, but is now consuming an absurd amount of mana for the amount of damage it deals. It's properly powerful, but now it's extremely impractical to use for any period of time. Can we tweak that, maybe? (And a bit more penetration couldn't hurt, either...)

Unholy_Trident.png

Unholy Trident
Damage: 73
Mana Cost: 25
Use Time: 21 (2.85 uses/second)
Piercing: Up to 2
DPS: 208
MPS: 71

Here it is with tweaked stats, lowered mana cost, and extra penetration:

Unholy_Trident.png

Unholy Trident (Buffed)
Damage: 77
Mana Cost: 15
Use Time: 22 (2.7 uses/second)
Piercing: Up to 4
DPS: 210
MPS: 41

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Staff of Earth has been buffed as of 1.3. (Thank you!)

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The Christmas Tree Sword could use a helping hand as well. However, there is a better solution to this than simply giving its stats a massive buff and making it practically identical to the Terra Blade, and that's to give it a special ability. The CTS should have a minor stat increase, but the ornaments that it launches should shatter into fragments that linger on the ground and damage enemies that tread on them just as the Everscream's own ornaments do, kind of like Spiky balls. The CTS would be worse at dealing with single targets, but exceptional at ground control. The Ornament itse;f would deal 20% more damage than the sword itself, while the fragments deal 20% less.

This is based on a thread I saw in TO.

CTS's stats have been boosted in 1.3, although it still needs this ability to make it worthwhile.

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Feedback is appreciated. If anyone thinks of anything that is severely UP and needs a buff, let me know. This is not limited to HM Dungeon weapons.
 
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The most important here is spectre staff for me as I haven't really played much ranged. With spawned in top o the range gear, I can still only get it to 95, and seeing as the rainbow rod does a lot more than that. I also think that the spell crystal shards I think need s a buff, it's worse than the laser rifle and slightly later in the game
 
A little offtopic, and I'm guessing you took them from the wiki, but a lot of the useTime values mentioned here are slightly incorrect. Apparently the wiki calculates in a -1 to the useTime for some reason [which we have no idea what honestly, but they seem to be adamant of this so-called value].

While it's not much of a difference to most other weapons, it makes a reasonable difference regarding Uzi vs Megashark.

In your values, Megashark has 5 more DPS than Uzi, which is okay I guess. But if we were to use the actual useTimes in the sourcecode:
Uzi has a useTime of 9 [very fast] and a damage of 30, which means its base DPS is 200.
Megashark has a useTime of 7 [insanely fast] and a damage of 23, which means its base DPS is 197.

It makes the need to nerf Uzi a lot more noticeable given the only thing Megashark has against Uzi is ammo conservation.

But continuing on-topic...

Regarding the calculation on the Uzi and Megashark, that's the base damage of the weapons not counting bullet damage. Given how these guns can't be fired without bullets, it's not really a reliable value to look at.

Starting out with a Musket Ball, Megashark's damage increases to 30 damage, and Uzi to 37. Calculating this gives us:
Megashark: 30 * [60/7] = 257.14
Uzi: 37 * [60/9] = 246.67
At this point Uzi's slow speed takes its toll.

With Ichor bullets, Megashark would deal 46 damage and Uzi would deal 53.
Megashark: 46 * [60/7] = 394.29
Uzi: 53 * [60/9] = 353.33


In conclusion, the Uzi is still a comparable weapon against Megashark, but not as strong as people think it is. However, I agree that it would need a bit of tweaking given how it can be accessed as soon as hardmode starts. I woudn't necessarily nerf its stats. In fact, I'd much rather have it inaccessible until after a mech boss is defeated in order to keep its strength on par with the Megashark.
 
Oh, wow, did I really forget to calculate ammo when I did this? :confused: Oops. I normally remember to do that.

EDIT: Oh, wait, nvm. I remember: I didn't add ammo because it's countered by defense. So yeah, using ~10 damage ammo (standard) vs. ~20 defense (about average for HM), the base DPS values are accurate enough to base conclusions on.

Anyways, do all of them have -1 Use Time, or do I just need to update Uzi and Megashark?
 
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I remember some of them didn't have a -1 useTime since I mentioned it in the "gems of the wiki" thread back in TO, such as the Candy Corn rifle. But I'm not sure if there were anything else.

But afaik the only stuff with off useTimes are most of the ranged weapons. I should actually ask W1K which ones in the wiki don't need addressing [he attempted to revert it before, but some dude added the -1 back]
 
I think the star fury desperately needs a buff. Even with the past buff, it still seems weak and underpowered to me.

But that's just me so...
 
I agree with most of these but prefer our resident Oni's solution to the Megashark Uzi issue (I kind of like that its stronger at the cost of ammo conservation)
however I think some weak weapons have been left out *cough* Christmas Tree Sword *cough*
 
personally, I think that rocket launcher rockets shouldn't hurt you, because it can mess you up in a battle situation. but that's just me :confused:
 
I don't really think the Sniper Rifle needs to be on-par with DPS. Ideally, everything shouldn't rely on DPS to prove its usefulness.

What the Sniper Rifle excels in is Alpha damage, or otherwise known as damage done in the very first instance. Unfortunately, Alpha damage is not a very useful thing in this game, especially when endgame enemies lean towards more of the tanky side.

What should be done instead of buffing stuff like the Sniper Rifle is expand the niche it holds in the dungeon to the whole of Terraria. My main point being, you would find that the Sniper is excellent at taking out Necromancers/Diabolists in comparison to the Megashark because they won't teleport as much, or even at all. This kind of behaviour needs to be incorporated more.

Or, enemies like the Flocko (insane speed and damage) should be considered more, because that one shot taking out the enemy instantly is much easier than trying to gun it down with 50 bullets. Problem being with that is homing/spammy weapons such as the Bat Sceptre make the Alpha damage concept useless. I hope when 1.3 hits that the very spammy/homing weapons are considered in balance, because they just aren't fun to use after a short amount of time.
 
An item to consider for this would be the Golem Fist; it has lower DPS than the picksaw, a tool. Its DPS is less than half of its better drops, and it's basically obsolete at that point.
 
bad_news said:
An item to consider for this would be the Golem Fist; it has lower DPS than the picksaw, a tool.
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Funny how you mentioned this. Whenever I mine, my swift picksaw is enough for defense and offence. Or maybe I can't be arsed to switch to a weapon that could insta-kill an ichor sticker :/
 
SzGamer227 said:
the Uzi should also be nerfed, because it deals an incredibly large amount of DPS even though it is available very early on in Hardmode.
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Suweeka said:
the Uzi is still a comparable weapon against Megashark, but not as strong as people think it is. However, I agree that it would need a bit of tweaking given how it can be accessed as soon as hardmode starts. I woudn't necessarily nerf its stats. In fact, I'd much rather have it inaccessible until after a mech boss is defeated in order to keep its strength on par with the Megashark.
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I honestly think the Uzi is fine how it is due to RNG and that fact that I think about 1/3 people on these forums have NEVER obtained one legit.
 
I think that the Nettle burst should definitely be buffed, i mean currently the only thing it's good for is selling to an NPC. Yeah the area of effect damage and the lingering effect of it's firing style is nice, but it just can't really be used against enemies at that stage in the game. The Leaf Blower is a drop from the same boss, and that has better knockback (something which is practically non-existent for the Nettle burst), better speed and much better Base damage. Even using the Nettle Burst against the Mech bosses would be a challenge, let alone the fact that the next boss after Plantera is the Golem.
 
TheInquisitiveSpoon said:
I think that the Nettle burst should definitely be buffed, i mean currently the only thing it's good for is selling to an NPC. Yeah the area of effect damage and the lingering effect of it's firing style is nice, but it just can't really be used against enemies at that stage in the game. The Leaf Blower is a drop from the same boss, and that has better knockback (something which is practically non-existent for the Nettle burst), better speed and much better Base damage. Even using the Nettle Burst against the Mech bosses would be a challenge, let alone the fact that the next boss after Plantera is the Golem.
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I would support this action if they did this
 
disagree about the sniper, it's not meant to be a DPS weapon, and it can already one shot a lot of enemies when under stealth.

Bit of a tiny argument, @FlakMaster has said it better
 
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