houndstooth
Terrarian
Having just completed my expert mode playthrough, there are a lot of things I enjoy about this free update, but a couple specific things I really, really dislike. We'll start with the good:
1. Lots of new weapons, accessories, enemies, bosses, blocks, house/furniture options, etc. Variety is the spice of life, and the more there is to explore, encounter, and tinker with, the better.
2. Lunatic Cultist Boss - a fantastic new addition to the boss roster. The fight felt epic, like two superpowers clashing mono-to-mono. It was everything I look for in a boss fight; careful dodging and use of wings, knowing when to land and take off again, large variety of boss attacks. Definitely felt like I was fighting an ancient uber-mage.
Now for the things I disliked about the update:
1. Cosmic Car Key - after you get this item, the game may as well be re-named to "Saucer Shootout," because there is really no reason to ever leave your UFO after that. The fact that it doesn't even require an accessory slot and allows you to replace wings and boots - two previously essential items - with more defense/offense/utility, means that pretty much everything I enjoyed about the game gets thrown out the window. I always enjoyed fighting enemies when I had certain limitations and had to plan my moves carefully. Using your flight time wisely, positioning yourself on the ground, etc. With the UFO, you just keep pressing the direction you want to go while raining death from above with unlimited flight and two more accessory slots. The nuanced combat I loved about Terraria gets tossed out the window, and to go back to boots/wings means that you are intentionally handicapping yourself.
2. Moon Lord Boss and Extreme Class Imbalance - Even in expert mode, pretty much every boss rewarded good movement and solid play with every class being usable. A couple bosses, namely Skeletron and Plantera, were incredibly difficult, but the challenge could be overcome. However, after coming face to face with Expert Mode Moon Lord, I realize that Melee/Defense blows literally everything else out of the water.
- Endgame melee builds have excellent range and can apply similar DPS to other classes while being able to take way, way more hits.
- Celestial Shell and Celestial Stone, arguably the best accessories in the game (4 defense, 10% damage, 10% melee speed, 2 HP/sec regen, etc.) give melee weapons an extra boost that is not received by ranged or magic users.
- The game substantially rewards stacking defense, which encourages bad play. There is no motivation to use damage-increasing accessories over defensive ones when a single defensive point is worth so much more than any corresponding offensive boost. A tanky build will always be better than a damage build, ESPECIALLY against the Moon Lord, whose vulnerable areas are closed half the time while you inevitably take huge damage.
It is so much easier to win by stacking defense and standing in one spot than to try and have have a classic battle where you are expected to dodge a constant bullet hell/death laser while you can't even deal damage because its eye is closed. Using anything other than Beetle Shell + Warding defensive trinkets means you're essentially a lamb to the slaughter. The only ways I found to win (in addition to having an extreme defensive melee build) were to abuse the UFO and fly away while shooting him or to build a bunker with the nurse inside and literally stand in one spot while hitting him through the roof. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment from beating the final boss, which is monumentally inferior to its herald, the Lunatic Cultist, in terms of its fight mechanics and, well, fun.
In the end, I feel the game needs to be tweaked so that magic and ranged users can actually compete with melee builds instead of just being squishy targets. I was excited to try out a ranged build with Celebration, and when that proved inferior, SDMG, but the fact that I could destroy enemies just the same as melee while being able to move faster, having a free dash built into the armor, and also being able to take way more damage sealed the deal.
1. Lots of new weapons, accessories, enemies, bosses, blocks, house/furniture options, etc. Variety is the spice of life, and the more there is to explore, encounter, and tinker with, the better.
2. Lunatic Cultist Boss - a fantastic new addition to the boss roster. The fight felt epic, like two superpowers clashing mono-to-mono. It was everything I look for in a boss fight; careful dodging and use of wings, knowing when to land and take off again, large variety of boss attacks. Definitely felt like I was fighting an ancient uber-mage.
Now for the things I disliked about the update:
1. Cosmic Car Key - after you get this item, the game may as well be re-named to "Saucer Shootout," because there is really no reason to ever leave your UFO after that. The fact that it doesn't even require an accessory slot and allows you to replace wings and boots - two previously essential items - with more defense/offense/utility, means that pretty much everything I enjoyed about the game gets thrown out the window. I always enjoyed fighting enemies when I had certain limitations and had to plan my moves carefully. Using your flight time wisely, positioning yourself on the ground, etc. With the UFO, you just keep pressing the direction you want to go while raining death from above with unlimited flight and two more accessory slots. The nuanced combat I loved about Terraria gets tossed out the window, and to go back to boots/wings means that you are intentionally handicapping yourself.
2. Moon Lord Boss and Extreme Class Imbalance - Even in expert mode, pretty much every boss rewarded good movement and solid play with every class being usable. A couple bosses, namely Skeletron and Plantera, were incredibly difficult, but the challenge could be overcome. However, after coming face to face with Expert Mode Moon Lord, I realize that Melee/Defense blows literally everything else out of the water.
- Endgame melee builds have excellent range and can apply similar DPS to other classes while being able to take way, way more hits.
- Celestial Shell and Celestial Stone, arguably the best accessories in the game (4 defense, 10% damage, 10% melee speed, 2 HP/sec regen, etc.) give melee weapons an extra boost that is not received by ranged or magic users.
- The game substantially rewards stacking defense, which encourages bad play. There is no motivation to use damage-increasing accessories over defensive ones when a single defensive point is worth so much more than any corresponding offensive boost. A tanky build will always be better than a damage build, ESPECIALLY against the Moon Lord, whose vulnerable areas are closed half the time while you inevitably take huge damage.
It is so much easier to win by stacking defense and standing in one spot than to try and have have a classic battle where you are expected to dodge a constant bullet hell/death laser while you can't even deal damage because its eye is closed. Using anything other than Beetle Shell + Warding defensive trinkets means you're essentially a lamb to the slaughter. The only ways I found to win (in addition to having an extreme defensive melee build) were to abuse the UFO and fly away while shooting him or to build a bunker with the nurse inside and literally stand in one spot while hitting him through the roof. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment from beating the final boss, which is monumentally inferior to its herald, the Lunatic Cultist, in terms of its fight mechanics and, well, fun.
In the end, I feel the game needs to be tweaked so that magic and ranged users can actually compete with melee builds instead of just being squishy targets. I was excited to try out a ranged build with Celebration, and when that proved inferior, SDMG, but the fact that I could destroy enemies just the same as melee while being able to move faster, having a free dash built into the armor, and also being able to take way more damage sealed the deal.
)
