Mail said:
I'm not sure exactly what you are disagreeing with but with Desert Tiger staff, the first minion does 100% of the listed damage, and each slot expended after that gives +40% damage. When I say less damage for each additional slot, I mean that every minion slot after the first is only worth 40% of the listed damage.
For local/no immunity minions without this type of scaling, every minion slot adds 100% of the listed damage. Sure the +40% damage a tiger slot gives is not reduced by defense and the tiger gets faster, but that needs to outweigh the loss of 60% damage for every minion slot that buffs the Tiger instead of getting a fully powered minion.
That's the point, l see it.
Damage Reduction takes place only from the very first minion slot to the second
However, from the second and up they scale by +40% per slot
You initially said that "less damage for
minion slot", which is not exactly the case
There is no damage bonus difference between transitioning either from 3 to 4th or from 10 to 11th
And, speaking of Desert Tiger, it is not that hard to obtain it. Just temporarily bring 300(?) crimsand/ebonsand blocks (or both) to your main arena in late pre-HM. From the beginning of HM to the post-Plantera stage there is a plenty of opprtunities for dropping best 3 biome weapons
Add jungle+ torches, almost forgot, to add 4th key chance and, more importantly, increased spawn rates + luck
Edit:
I simply think that we are overimpessed with the Stardust cell staff.
Let's visualize HM summoner progression and divide it into 2 "types", of high performing minions and those of secondary signicance
1.
Blade/Sanguine - > Desert Tiger/Raven (if no key) - > Xeno - > (cell?) Stardust Dragon
2.
Spiders (not too much longevity) - > Pirate (too situational) - > Optic - > Pygmy - > Sphere - > Tempest - > (cell?)
Terraprisma is the special case.
Cells fit just in between these categories.
It simply cannot be included into the first section (S tier) , as even in the best case scenario for cells/worst for dragon the total performance is equal. For ML, (which is more important at this stage), dragon is better just because whips are awful here, but even if you succeed in using them, final times are favouring Dragon slightly.
– Cells are equal vs EoL, lose vs ML.During universal single-target/muli-target/AI test, which is the Frost Moon (it includes everything abovementioned), cells score early wave 20, xeno mid-late 19. Again, not enough to perfer them over crafting Dragon.
Dragon scores W20, 3000 points, which is better.
In other words, how micromanagement-dependant summon (which not much better than one from pregression stage below) and regular one with the same damage potential can be in the same tier? Even taking Dragons AI into cosideration?
Yes, UFO have some movement issues, but, lets be honest, in practice it is not so significant and does not allow to say that cells are way superior. Just about 20%. And the existing Dragon, which competes directly for spending 18 fragments on it. Since cells do not outperform Dragon vs ML in any case, for the very first fight it is better to craft healing potions from fragments rather than craft one more equal (at very best) minion.
In conclusion, Cells are contested way too much from every side (resources, Xeno, Dragon, Whip dependance in some cases)
If cells + whips would be at least 10% better than Dragon, then yeah, skills/danger translate into faster kill time. Acceptable.
But now, they look like "hey, I've beaten ML/EoL as fast as Dragon, but with more dangerous playstyle and wasted fragments, look at me, I'm so good"
Inacceptable.
Yes, *wasted* fragments, because cells do not improve your dps compared to Dragon, so zero advantage.
And super healing potions/ combined class tactics (daybreak vs core, by converting other fragments ) are way, way more useful than zero.
Cells are A+ at their best, Xeno should be buffed to A+. Summoner with whips is the best class vs Martian saucer. Raven, Tiger, Kaleidoscope destroy it.
Or not enough skills? (if daytime whipstacked EoL/ML is not a problem, LOL)
Even "skill-ceiling ranking" cannot provide advantages for cells, dragon + harvest + FC are superior
Edit 2:
Sanguine + Harvest
View attachment Sanguine.gif
