Weapons & Equip Why the drops from Old One's Army need significant buffs.

Uniquepotatoes

Terrarian
Crossposting this from r/terraria since i think it's quite important
It's not one of the normal "Add this weapon" suggestions, it's more of a balance suggestion so I hope it still fits here.

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note: I enjoy this event myself, this is just how I think it could be improved and to give the player more good options for defeating bosses

1.3.4 mostly added the new Old One's Army event through a Dungeon Defenders 2 crossover. Generally the event is considered to be quite difficult, especially in the third tier with Betsy. Your reward for completing this event is of course Defender Medals, the currency for purchasing armors and weapons about sentries. The sentries are mostly for beating the event and are quite strong even if the ballista easily is the most powerful one against bosses outside of the event. Generally these sentries are balanced and useful for their purpose even if I'm unsure if the grind required to get a tier 2/tier 3 sentry before the tier 2/tier 3 event is good.



The problem lies the the reason everyone not playing a summoner playthrough will mostly play the tier 2 and tier 3 versions of the event. The drops from Ogre's and from Betsy. These weapons are some of the most interesting in the game as many have unique effects or two attacks. But usually their power is a reason people can't have fun fighting bosses with them. So i decided to explain why each weapon isn't worth the effort in detail to hopefully show that a buff is needed.

Tier 2 Weapons
Tier 2 can only be fought after defeating a mechanical boss. The weapons are simply not useful against the other mechanical bosses or Plantera however.



Tome of Infinite Wisdom

The Tome of Infinite Wisdom(good and short name)deals 24 base magic damage and fires four pages in bursts. This is one of the most viable tier 2 weapons but it's secondary attack is only good for killing the destroyer(kinda) and dealing with invasions/large amounts of enemies. And let's be honest, we have enough weapons that are good against the destroyer already. The problem with the primary fire is that the weapon uses 20 mana each shot, making it eat it up really quickly compared to other mechanical boss tier magic weapons and that there is simply much better options. The Sky Fracture fires three blades dealing 38 damage for a lower mana cost and you get it pre-mechanical boss. It also has more than double the attack speed. The crystal storm and cursed flames/golden shower book are also much better pre-mech options. Like most of these weapons it's simply outperformed by almost all other weapons in it's tier.



Higher damage + Lower mana cost would make it viable.



Phantom Phoenix

Come on. Two arrows. 24 damage. A total of 48. The Hallowed Repeater attacks slightly faster, deals almost the same damage as both arrows combined with a single arrow and you don't even have to do anything more than kill a mechanical boss to get it. Combined with the phoenix it deals more damage but it's not really worth it given how high the spread is. There's not much improvement here.

If you wan't to be extra mean to the poor bow. Daedalus Stormbow. Onyx Blaster. Dart Rifle. Megashark

It needs to shoot faster arrows/lower spread and deal more damage to be viable.



Brand of the inferno

It's a sword with almost no range. It deals 44 base damage.

It's special thing is that using a shield it can block a single attack and then deal 5x damage. Sounds good.

The problem is when you realize it has close to no range and that the buff only lasts five seconds. You have to put in a lot of effort to defeat Skeletron Prime or the Twins by jumping at them with a tiny sword after first blocking an attack(which is nearly impossible) to deal 200 damage. It's simply not worth it.

Honestly stat changes could make it good but the amount required to make it viable would just turn it into a high damage spam weapon which we already have. It probably needs some kind of projectile, even a short range one and a change to how it works.

Sleepy Octopod

Pretty much same as above. Too small range, weak ability and low dps.

It needs a ranged ability, maybe if you hit enough with it would charge a super powered right click that deals immense damage and also get a better explosion.

Ghastly Glaive

It's a spear that deals more damage if you manage to hit something. I'd say it also suffers from a problem of low range even if the range is still higher and it's damage is still negotiable against bosses even if it's slightly better. Ranged melee weapons are just better.



The dragon projectile should appear on every swing and not rely on if you hit an enemy with the spear. It also needs higher damage to make it viable against high HP enemies and bosses. I think it would be quite a fun spear to use and it fills a role of good mech tier spears that doesn't really exist if it's buffed



Tier 3 weapons
Tier 3 weapons are post-golem. However, due to the difficulty of the event being higher than that of expert mode Duke Fishron in my opinion I'll consider the weapons as around Martian Madness - Lunatic Cultist/Pillars tier. These weapons aren't really weak but mostly just unimpressive given that since the Lunatic Cultist is quite easy they should be able to do damage against the Celestial Pillars better than Duke Fishron and Martian Madness weapons.

They're still not as completely useless as the tier 2 weapons, simply not worth the struggle.



Flying Dragon

Sword that releases block piercing projectiles fast? Sounds great until you realize it's actual DPS is lower than that of the Influx Waver against a single target (Influx Waver doesn't work at Target Dummies, it has higher dps against enemies), You can abuse this weapons by walling in but both the Pillars and the Lunatic Cultist have attacks that pierce through walls and enemies that can teleport inside your box. It sounds good in theory but killing bosses with this sword doesn't feel good or satisfying at all. Basically, if you've managed to kill Betsy while playing melee you'll have the influx waver 8/10 times and having to get that weapon to defeat Betsy negates the purpose of defeating Betsy. It's like killing Duke Fishron for getting better weapons after already getting the Terrarian, pointless.



Higher damage, more frequent projectiles.



Sky Dragons Fury

Primary attack. Post-Golem keybrand. Completly useless against everything except for very easy mobs that don't attack on range and just fly or walk towards you. Ever killed an extremely hard boss to get a weapon for killing those? Some might claim it's useful for crowd control but there's just way better options at this stage of the game.

This one can't really be viable against bosses, ever, but increasing damage will at least make it something you could use against some of the pillar enemies.



Secondary attack

Spams three electrospheres at a spread. Quite random and suffers from the same problems as the electrosphere launcher(Bad for fast moving enemies, bad dps against fast bosses, only that it is less accurate but more spammable. I'd actually consider using this weapon if i had it against late Frost Moon and Pumpkin Moon and for speedkilling pillars but for everything not crowd control it's meh at best. Not a bad weapon but it still needs some buffs for me to want to get it.

More damage, electrospheres appear when they reach the cursor(same spread).



Aerial Bane

I love this weapon. It's special effect is great and it has huge potential. One simple thing makes it not worth your time. The gravity and speed of the special projectiles is terrible. It can't hit any flying enemies consistently and the spread is too high to hit small targets with all arrows.

It needs much, much less gravity on the projectiles and less spread. Like really, that's the only reason i don't use it. With this, it would be as good as the Tsunami and compete with the Phantasm against smaller targets(but still lose)



Betsy's Wrath

I've saved the best one for last. This is by far the best weapon you can get from this event since it's debuff decreases armor by 40, making it very useful for all lunar tier enemies(Excluding Lunatic Cultist(he's immune)). I still think needs a buff, even if it is arguable.

Either increase the duration of the debuff, make the projectiles travel faster or increase damage by quite a lot. It's would be a very viable mage weapon either way but personally I think faster projectiles would make it more fun to use as you could spam it from a distance and hit things reliably.



I'm not saying Re-Logic needs to buff them or the game is unplayable or something, just trying to show why a buff to them would make the Old One's army feel more like a part of the progression and why it's needed.



TL: DR

OOA weapons need big buffs amirite
 
I think a lot of these could indeed use some buffs. They're a bit useless by the time you get them, so I am definitely in agreement.
I've never really used any of them due to their lack of oomph, apart from the Flying Dragon.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I do get the idea that you want them all to be useful in boss fights. That's something I do disagree with. I think every weapon in the game deserves some use, whether it's fighting a boss, warding off invasions or be an effective tool while spelunking.
But, yeah, there's definitely a few here that aren't useful in any situation.
 
I think a lot of these could indeed use some buffs. They're a bit useless by the time you get them, so I am definitely in agreement.
I've never really used any of them due to their lack of oomph, apart from the Flying Dragon.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I do get the idea that you want them all to be useful in boss fights. That's something I do disagree with. I think every weapon in the game deserves some use, whether it's fighting a boss, warding off invasions or be an effective tool while spelunking.
But, yeah, there's definitely a few here that aren't useful in any situation.

I suggest buffs that make them viable against bosses for all since they are mostly unviable for everything. Not all of these need to be great but it's better to explain how to make each one great and not just say two should be good for bosses. Crowd control should be buffed as well on many though
 
Well this is desperately needed, especially for the Tome of Infinite Wisdom. Looked cool at first, now it kinda just... l-looks cool.
However, I'd argue that the Brand of the Inferno can still be rather useful, since you can switch to another (ideally stronger) Melee weapon and hit with that during your Striking Moment.
 
Well this is desperately needed, especially for the Tome of Infinite Wisdom. Looked cool at first, now it kinda just... l-looks cool.
However, I'd argue that the Brand of the Inferno can still be rather useful, since you can switch to another (ideally stronger) Melee weapon and hit with that during your Striking Moment.
Go in game, try to get striking moment and see how it goes
 
The thing is you can easily get five hits with a melee weapon in the time it takes to get striking moment. And true melee isn't viable
 
The thing is you can easily get five hits with a melee weapon in the time it takes to get striking moment. And true melee isn't viable
Well, tested the damage values myself just now.
Yeah it really doesn't pay out, and I'm pretty decent at the shield timing.
I REALLY didn't pay as much attention to the damage values as I thought.
 
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