Ranged or Magic?

[sometimes i do drugs]

Melee is not so great for bosses/invasions, I think we can agree on that. Me and my friends did the frost moon and we got owned. Is ranged or magic better?

[Pixel Peeper]

I wouldn't be able to tell you which is "better", but I'm fairly certain magic is easier. Spectral Armor, Good magic weapons, Star Veil, all damage accessories, a basic arena and you're almost invincible, with very little need for dodging.

Ranged would require you to dodge more, and you'd need to rely almost purely on health pick-ups for healing. I'm sure it's quite viable, but... my guess is it's significantly harder.

If you get a North Pole, you might want to change your mind about melee. Nowadays I get much better results with melee than I ever did with magic. Things die so freakishly quickly, health pick-ups drop constantly and it's enough to keep me up.

[sometimes i do drugs]

Waaat? With melee!!! I didn't stand a chance against the pumpkin moon with my 140 damage possessed hatchet man. Also, what's better: stake gun or chain gun.

[Toxic Fuel]

I can definitely tell you that magic is a lot better for events like the Pumpkin or Frost Moon. I was able to get the Razorpine, and that thing does a ton of healing with the amount of damage it outputs. If you can get that weapon, the events will be so much easier.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by UncleSam:

Waaat? With melee!!! I didn't stand a chance against the pumpkin moon with my 140 damage possessed hatchet man. Also, what's better: stake gun or chain gun.

It's really the North Pole that changes everything. You fire it upwards and it drops dozens of snowflakes on anything under you. After a few seconds of firing there's so many snowflakes falling down in a single line, it's like a frozen laser beam that disintegrates anything really really quickly.

I don't have enough experience with ranged setups to give proper advice on individual weapons, so I'd rather let an expert tell you. Besides, there might not be a straight answer to that question. The Chain Gun is higher-tier, but perhaps the Stake Launcher is better in specific situations; the Launcher can pierce (very probably better for multiple targets in a line) and, due to the way Defense works in Terraria, it loses a far smaller percentage of its damage when used against high-armor targets. It's possible expert Rangers keep both on their bar and switch depending on the situation.

[seeaaannnn]

But in invasions, melees are good, except for bosses.

[Lexthatguy]

You should use a shotgun with meteor shot, reforge it till its godly and then you are set, you can also use the terrablade, it shoots a ghost sword.

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by UncleSam:

Melee is not so great for bosses/invasions

you seem to never had much experience with melees.
let me tell you the loadout I use to utterly destroy invasions AND bosses:
clorophyte mask
turtle chestplate
hallowed greaves

any wings
ankh shield
celestial stone
warrior emblem
fire gauntlet/frostspark boots
(all accessories menacing)

legendary terra blade
godly vampire knives

and if I need some more damage I just use some buffs:
pumpkin pie
ale
flask of ichor

for invasions I mainly use terra blade, shooting the blades in both directions until something reaches me or the invasion ends. if there is some stronger enemy, or I just need to heal for some strange reason, I just use vampire knives in the face of something.

anyways, back on topic, I like to use magic weapons next to my melee loadout and currently ranged weapons cant heal you, so I would say that magic is better in my eyes.

[silversteel6]

magic because guess what unlimited ammo to a certain degree depending on how good youre mana is if its over powered youre gonna have tons of fun but with ranged weapons like mega shark and star cannon those brutes use ammo which costs money so unless you have a money grinder spare youre not gonnan get far with a gun so go magic

[sometimes i do drugs]

Our melee just kept on dying during the frost moon. I tried meleeing at first aswell with vknives and possessed hatchet 140 dmg and got slaughtered. Didn't try ragned though which is why I'm asking. Want to get either the stake launcher or possessed hatchet.

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by UncleSam:

Our melee just kept on dying during the frost moon. I tried meleeing at first aswell with vknives and possessed hatchet 140 dmg and got slaughtered.

with my named loadout the only thing you have to do is avoid enemies (just use the wings to fly, add frostspark for more mobility) and hit stuff as much as possible for the heal. drink a potion now and then and you should be fine.
if you do insist on going ranged, you need to realise that you cannot heal like with vampire knives or spectre armor.

[sometimes i do drugs]

Just went through frost moon with ranged, melee, and mage. Mage is a LOT better. Melee couldn't even kill an everscream.

Ragned is pretty good but you can't heal.

[Pixel Peeper]

Melee and ranged rely on enemy health pick-ups for healing, though ranged can also dodge to avoid damage. If you're playing with other people it might be harder to "distribute" health pick-ups among your team, I wouldn't know since I've never been in a group.

In my melee setup I don't even bother avoiding damage, I just kill things so quickly I get hearts faster than I get damaged.

That starts changing around Wave 16 or 17; at that point I have to start being careful because the Ice Queens are harder to damage (they often move a lot) and I don't get hearts as quickly as before.

Melee *has* to overpower things. If your melee can't kill an Everscream, they clearly don't have the gear appropirate for the level of content. Get something good!

[sometimes i do drugs]

How can I kill ordinary mobs with ranged weapons? I don't want to use my gun/bow because I have to buy ammo.

[sometimes i do drugs]

How can I kill ordinary mobs with ranged weapons? I don't want to use my gun/bow because I have to buy ammo.

[sometimes i do drugs]

How can I kill ordinary mobs with ranged weapons? I don't want to use my gun/bow because I have to buy ammo.