The Comprehensive Guide to Defense (Terraria)

[@regularsama412]

"It doesn't matter how fast you can kill the boss if they kill you first" is the sentence that defines the offense v defense discourse

[@nivdy]

on the other side of the coin, kill them before they can kill you symbolises the perspective of a damage build.

[@yellowwolfpajamas2870]

wouldnt you be more likely to kill them before they kill you with a defense buile?​

[@KwikBR]

objection: "it doesn't matter how fast the boss can kill you if you kill it first"

[@tobytowns1]

a good offense is a good defense

[@metal_pipe9764]

​@@tobytowns1 no a good defense is a good defense

[@selmiespot]

20:40 "her contact damage is pretty much never relevant unless you are actively trying to be inside of her" the plantera fanbase is suffering a huge hit for this one

[@Stormyyyy...]

i like your pfp :3

[@Pyrax99]

I for one know a certain waffle would love to bring her to his OSOGOF tunnel

[@PoltieBoo]

@@Pyrax99 fellow waffle viewer spotted

[@syan2240]

@@Stormyyyy... yeah it's cute

[@bojnebojnebojne]

If you're planting seeds ya do wanna be inside of her though.... XD

[@kevintan3705]

At the end of the day, Monster Hunter World’s smithy says it best. If you’re dying too fast, upgrade your armor. If you’re taking too long, upgrade your weapon.

[@Rukir]

It’s funny people say defense is bad, usually Calamity players, when that mod nerfs tank strats literally every patch because it’s too good. I know it’s not vanilla but it’s still funny.

[@baderhh9928]

Well calamity has buffed reforges, warding for some reason gives 10 def (idk if they changed it tho)

[@sansgaming607]

@@baderhh9928 they did dw

[@paracame8162]

​@@baderhh9928 the reforges scale with your stage of the game. warding gives more defense and damage reduction the further along in the game you are

[@TheLusion]

there's a calamity build with 920 defense and a lot of accessories which allows you to tank, also you can use a tournir spear features for literally oneshoting any boss

[@Israel-jr5ks]

Defense damage BS also

[@KITSUMELO]

"if dodging boss is fun then why not dodge it for even longer"

[@AFlyingBird702]

it's no longer fun if there's no consequences to failure

[@KITSUMELO]

The consequence is you have to focus on dodge longer And you're in mastermode

[@elfishmoss1457]

The other thing is, I (like a lot of players I assume) rarely get hit, so having 0 defence doesn't mean that much in most fights so menacing is better

[@FlyinglistRL]

​@elfishmoss1457 if you disagree then just stop watching

[@elfishmoss1457]

@@FlyinglistRL interesting to see nonetheless so I continued watching

[@SlyRocko]

TLDR: Sure, reducing the 300 damage nukes by 28 is not much, but reducing the 70 damage chipping projectiles by 28 has a very substantial impact.

[@cowclucklater8448]

​​@@SlyRocko TLDR+: warding gives an even more substantial impact when your armor already brought it down to 40 making the 28 bring it down to 12 which would be a 334% decrease in damage. And if the armor brought it down to only 28 defense and you add warding it only does 1 damage and you can regerate faster than that with a regen setup

[@aussiemadlad]

TLDR for the reply above: warding reduces a lot

[@S_whoelse]

TL;DR Warding

[@X19Virus]

tldr: ward

[@OhCrapI_He]

TL;DR Defense good

[@jasonthe4th]

just as a side note since you didn't mention it, Plantera's contact damage isn't boosted in FTW/GFB, so using defense there is just as effective as it is on regular worlds.

[@sorbetcafe]

That makes sense, I had noticed that she was doing surprisingly low damage when I checked her in FTW.

[@Superp2gamer]

WHAT? dang. That speed boost in insane. Master mode plantera is easy for me, but hell on legendary.

[@supersonicfan6404]

The tendrils DO deal massive damage, but I did not realize plantera itself didn’t… that would have made the fight much easier…

[@HelpherBlue]

Omg it’s the guy who talks in the terraria discord

[@mihael64]

​@@Superp2gamer Teleporters help a lot btw, use them

[@Kinen098]

Important note regarding Life Force potion, your health regeneration scales with your max HP, meaning that if you increase your hp by 20% you'll be increasing your hp regen as well

[@ashoka7273]

​@connortodd4538 I checked the official wiki and HP regeneration scales with max HP. While for mana regeneration it's the higher the percentage of mana you are missing from your max the slower the regeneration is. I'm not sure if that's what you meant

[@NcsAsp]

there's one situation where I would recommend a menacing build: Daytime empress

[@RdTrler]

I'd also recommend rolling back to versions of Terraria that allowed the instant kills from her (and the Dungeon Guardian) to be dodgeable again. Not that I've done it myself, but I lament not beating her before they buffed her Daytime attacks.

[@bojaidin]

@@RdTrler they are dodgeable just get good

[@guntereisenherz9102]

When i play vanilla or modded with a friend, our strategy is: I become an unkillable Tungsten Cube. (With 0 Skill) He becomes a glass cannon. He gets killed multiple times, but i stay alive so the enemy doesn't despawn. Profit.

[@electronictries8553]

One of the oldest strategy i always used with a lot of friends many many years

[@Txzunami]

So.. not fun gameplay?

[@Shams252playz]

And the glass Cannon becomes a Bullet SHOOTER

[@Zanophane_Gaming]

@@Txzunami depends on what you enjoy It could be unenjoyable for you but it might be more enjoyable for others lol

[@keysgaming6830]

@@Txzunami I personally love running melee tank builds. I get to shit on my friends who die every 10 seconds and I feel like the "Bro I'm respawning in 5 second meme" while only rarely actually being in serious danger. If we lose its because either we're just a little under geared for damage or defense and can spend a couple minutes finding the right combos to fill the weaknesses. It's definitely all about what you enjoy personally. My friends would never want to play the more mundane looking tank builds and I don't like the fragility of the DPS builds. If I can deal high melee damage then I'm fully down to get in close and help the DPS but the thrill of being the aggro magnet and trying to dodge every boss projectile (despite being able to tank) is just fun. I play terraria more like a bullet hell than a boss rush and it works for me.

[@k241.-]

I have 600 hours in Terraria, in almost every world i went menacing for damage. I recently tried going defensive on my Master World world, and it was game changing. It literally made the game 1 difficulty level easier.

[@SomeCowguy]

Which is exactly why many people dont do it

[@tminuswild]

Because Master Mode's defense formula is more effective than easier difficulties, that would make sense. A flat 1 damage reduction per defense point is extremely valuable.

[@sorbetcafe]

That’s not true at all, enemies deal 3x damage while defense is only 2x as effective on master. Defense is worse on master mode

[@SomeCowguy]

@@sorbetcafe while that is true, defence does have more effect on higher difficulties. Classic = 0.5/d Expert = 0.75/d Master = 1/d

[@lotion5238]

​​@@sorbetcafe As the commenter above states, Defense actually goes up in effectiveness when you increase difficulty. All the way up to a 1:1 ratio of damage taken to defense reduction. The problem lies in the fact that there's no point to stack defense in master mode where you're not getting hit by a giant fucking turtle for 752 damage and a defense decrease ain't gonna make that survivable. It does have the strange side effect of causing damage from tiles directly touched (spikes and lava) to become less effective in master mod because of the lack of a damage increase to lava whereas traps do get that increase

[@wakaitsu]

Not a Terraria story (it happened a whole year before Terraria was even a thing) but a "damage vs defense" story still. Me and my friend were playing one very grindy MMO, and we were up to AoE grind. If you don't play MMOs, the way it works is that you aggro a group of mobs and kill them with your AoE skills, heal up the damage you will inevitably take during this and then repeat. I went for full tank build for this, friend laughed me up and went full damage build, "I'll be going through 5-7 packs while you'd be sloggin thorough your first". What happened in reality: I did one 25-27 mob pack in about 2 minutes, then spent about half a minute healing and rebuffing before repeating it. My friend did strict 15 packs only, because even 1 mob above 15 would kill him (-15% EXP because death penalty and you'd have to drag your a$$ back from the nearest town). For every 7 packs he took, he'd die at least once, because mobs don't care about your plans and will often spawn nearby, get aggro and join the mob pile. He was constantly stressed, wasted a tonn of money on gear repairs (part of the death penalty), wasted some more rare resources (cs food and pet revival treats) and barely made it to next level when I raised 2 and a half. So yeah, faster doesn't always mean better. That turtle from the fairy tale definitely was up to something.

[@Al-hb6uj]

KZbin’s timing is immaculate. Here’s my story: I’m playing legendary mode for the first time, and I’m stuck on the wall. I’ve tried star cannon, but all the stars get deflected. So instead, I’m running all menacing and bee nades. After 40 Queen bees, I’ve collected enough bee nades for 4 wall attempts, and they all end with the wall at

[@Superp2gamer]

I was doing a mage run on legendary mode, and I was running menacing, couldn't win, the imps too strong. Soon as I swapped to warding? Win.

[@Tempestissiman]

I mean this is also because of how ridiculously good the night's edge is lol

[@preadatordetector]

I used a damage melee build with nights edge and a ton of furniture and minecart tracks. Took a long time to build that but I was able to beat him without knowing about this guide.

[@nickenchugger]

All warding melee build as in cheese it with nights edge? That happens regardless of how much you put into defense.

[@Tempestissiman]

@@nickenchugger remember the op is talking about legendary. It's not exactly a walk in the park even with night's edge

[@cap1986]

at the end of the day, regardless of whats better, the ultimate argument is that having fun with the playstyle you prefer > metamancing I just go for whatever build I feel like going at that moment in time sometimes my runs are completely free, sometimes they're harder than diamond regardless of what is good or not, I just have fun doing whatever I feel like doing cuz thats kinda the point in a non competitive / offline game

[@Hensley_Jb]

Truth

[@extra_ram_noodles]

Fr. Melee, Mage, Summoner, Ranger, multiclass or cheese, if you're having fun you're having fun.

[@wigglerlesbian]

funny comment bc people do what they think is fun or familiar even in competitive environment instead of trying to play optimally

[@SioxerNikita]

But the point is having fjn, and "metmancing" can also be fun for some people.

[@themonsterunderyourbed.7620]

@@SioxerNikita then do that, his point is that's not the only way to do it.

[@SiveenO]

You ever come across one of those videos on KZbin that make you and your opinion feel more validated compared to what the community thinks? This one is it. Thanks for making this, Sorbet.

[@dacrystalcreeper7300]

I am so glad you made this video, people constantly tried spewing out that defense is completely useless, ignoring the fact that you can made expert Mode EOC do only one damage and Master Mode do hardly more than 10 with a setup as easy as some platinum armor, a bast statue and an ironskin potion.

[@Consumpter]

I mostly played with full damage builds but i tried warding once and can confidently say id rather live and therefore continue attacking significantly longer than do slightly more damage

[@TheLifeLaVita]

literally everyone stacks defense all the time lmao

[@TheLifeLaVita]

@@Consumpter more damage is more fun

[@mihael64]

​@@TheLifeLaVita A surprising amount of people don't!

[@TheLifeLaVita]

@@mihael64 crazy

[@purplehaze2358]

54:50 I didn't expect going into this to see a firing squad of every gem staff in the game.

[@zeroboros934]

theres a whole playthrough of multiplayer mages that looks goofy like this

[@thejester1039]

@@purplehaze2358 it was beautiful

[@justaguywhotriestomakepeop7164]

@@zeroboros934 where

[@zeroboros934]

@@justaguywhotriestomakepeop7164 check the previous livestreams of the channel under the "live" section

[@anusaukko6792]

@@zeroboros934 I gotta second that other guy, where exactly? Tried searching around a bit and found random modded videos or solo walkthroughs lol.

[@baaxee]

I’ve noticed this since forever. So glad you made this video with numbers to prove it. Also the nuance of combat is a defining factor and I think the fact that you take that into account with the numbers is what makes this video unique. Amazing job

[@YoursTrulyAudrey]

"Why get warding when you can kill the boss before it hits you" "Why get menacing when you can survive any attack if it hits you"

[@Tortualex]

@@YoursTrulyAudrey why get warding when you can no hit every boss? Or just get hit so little in the fight that you are full heal the next time it hits you. In the end it's about preference.

[@-ClerzZ-]

I can assure you that you're not tanking a boss on expert/master mode.

[@LazyMaybe]

@-ClerzZ- Clearly you didn't watch the video.

[@-ClerzZ-]

@@LazyMaybe You watched a 1-hour video on a guide tells me you suck at the game already. Fyi, the first thing shown on this video was him "cheesing" a boss, which by my standards is cheating/doesn't feel rewarding. Also, just learn how to dodge, because clearly you have a skill issue in Terraria.

[@somewhereelse1235]

@@-ClerzZ- You can easily do that as a summoner with 0 defensive equipment. It's not difficult to survive 2-3 hits from most bosses, the main issue comes when you get hit 4+ times in rapid succession.

[@9w8suxjehsoxjznw]

I remember a friend asking me why Summoner has such pitiful defense. I said "you autoattack, focus on dodging" Then again i convinced him you got the imp staff for throwing the doll in lava.

[@FrostyTheCookie]

Telling a summoner to only rely on minions is the ultimate troll, summoner is the actual true melee with whips.

[@Kermit_E_Frog]

​@@FrostyTheCookiewhips were such a huge W addition

[@kalsyphr5039]

Summoners are the ultimate multiclass class.

[@mattsen4297]

Remind me to never play this game with you..

[@tinnitusintensifies]

summoner is pretty balling because you literally dont need to use your mouse in bossfights when focus is needed

[@moss243]

When people say "yeah but you can either take slightly less damage or make the fight go significantly faster but have to dodge a little more" but they completely overlook that fact that with a lot of high damage low range weapons, taking less per hit will allow you to land more hits by letting you stick closer which means you will do more damage thus decreasing the time in the fight on top of just taking less per hit

[@th3g4mingexp3rt5]

Yeah but many people who play something like summoner don’t really have that problem unless they have garbage summons

[@SleepyStreak]

Only if they can't aim. And for bosses that dash around a lot and are hard to hit, sitting still doesn't change that. As the video shows, damage builds were *always* faster, and he's not even a particularly good player.

[@Brass319]

"Don't get hit, hit it until it dies" mfers when they realize "make sure their hp hits 0 before yours" is a more accurate statement:

[@MirmValkyrie]

My favorite variation is "hit it til it dies, don't die"

[@prettyradhandle]

but i like dodging attacks

[@Brass319]

@@prettyradhandle not mutually exclusive

[@prettyradhandle]

@@Brass319 mutually exclusive, dodging an attack that does 10 damage is not as exciting as one that would deal 100

[@Brass319]

@@prettyradhandle what I meant by that is dodging attacks and making sure their hp hits 0 before yours does. Obviously if you want to challenge yourself extra hard then do that, just know that it's not like forsaking defense for extra damage is particularly optimal or anything.

[@Z7Games]

There is also "infinite healing loops" to consider as a positive for defense. Because there is a point where if you reduce damage enough, you'll take less damage in a minute than what a potion can heal you. At that point you are inmortal as long as you have potions in the inventory and the boss will just die at some point because the bosses don't heal. And said thresthold is VERY EASY to achieve only with Warding accesories and dodging a few hits. Not even need for crazy armor combos. I seriously can't understand how people will put "kill enemy 28% faster" over "near immortality"

[@Brent-jj6qi]

*Not even 28% faster

[@chnebel2740]

i take kill boss faster anyday because its fun and i can play with different builds. without some cheesy strats you wont reach immortality on a lot of builds. if i have to learn the fights anyways why shouldnt i have more damage.

[@mrosskne]

i don't get hit

[@ohyouknowthisonejeffrey9753]

@@mrosskne ive played with you, yes you do.

[@mrosskne]

@@ohyouknowthisonejeffrey9753 No you haven't.

[@DeevlishInc]

45:44 Might want to keep the Dryad with the Nurse for this trick, as the Dryad's blessing buff will give the player +8 Def, +3 Regen per second, and +50% Thorns effect. She'll also buff the Nurse's Def & Regen rate similarly, and give her a weaker thorns effect. Her buff also has a weak DoT damage to enemies; which isn't much to add, but is something.

[@purplehaze2358]

You shouldn't tank Brain for more reasons than just the broken armor debuff. In expert mode and above, creepers inflict 9 out of the 10 ankh shield debuffs, and 9 out of 9 if you consider the fact it predates the pocket mirror being a part of the ankh shield recipe. I don't think I need to explain why you shouldn't tank a boss that more than halves your defense, negates life regen, leaves you unable to attack, and inflicts damage over time that completely bypasses defense entirely.

[@ZaChemas]

ok, let's be honest... who the hell dies to brain creepers, even in pre-hardmode on legendary, creepers end up being a joke 9/10 times

[@turmspitzewerk]

@@ZaChemas BoC is a very fun and well designed fight IMO: its pathetically easy if you aren't dumb; but will completely rawdog you if you slip up and let it touch you. its like a little baby daytime empress way before that was a thing. BoC is totally the easiest boss and *shouldn't* pose a challenge, but getting lazy and expecting it to be a cakewalk can definitely throw you up if you're just kinda expecting to lazily out-DPS it like you would against most bosses before endgame.

[@purplehaze2358]

@@turmspitzewerk You have to be trolling.

[@turmspitzewerk]

@@purplehaze2358 "you shouldn't tank the boss because it does a lot of damage" "i think the boss is fun because it can do a lot of damage" "wtf are you saying. are you stupid"

[@purplehaze2358]

@@turmspitzewerk Brain is not a well-designed fight my dude.

[@jimmyjohnjoejr]

Thank you for making these videos. If at all possible, a comprehensive guide to movement speed would help a lot of people out.

[@outspade]

You could genuinely go in-depth about this when you bring in stuff like jump speed and which speed bonuses work on the ground/in the air. A useful resource for Terrasparkians and Amphibites alike.

[@hajoeijgenraam295]

Many people misunderstand how movement speed works. Movement speed for the most part only increases your acceleration when using running boots or wings, unless you stack it far enough that you can exceed the max speed those accesories set you to.

[@jimmyjohnjoejr]

@@hajoeijgenraam295 yeah, I didn't realize that for a very long time. Even then there's still a ton I don't understand about it.

[@hajoeijgenraam295]

@@jimmyjohnjoejr Yeah i really would appreciate a comprehensive video on movement speed. Most of what i know i have from spending hours on the wiki. Magiluminescence is one of the only accesories that actually increases max speed for running shoes and doesn't even work on wings from my testing.

[@theendofthestart8179]

place 2 pylons. boom, done.

[@jaeldi]

Brilliant Analysis! Well done. I have always felt that I am bad at "good dodging", I can dodge to an average level, but when I watch people who are really good at dodging, I feel like i don't know how to dodge at all. So for us 'average/below-average dodgers', defense has always been the way to go. I think people should experiment with both, that's the beauty of this excellent game!

[@vfrostbane225]

I really like the note that every point of defense is more valuable than the last. This is actually pretty typical in many armour formulae like in Age of Wonders 4, but most people see the smaller percentage of the initial number and dont recognize the fact that its actually granting more and more value. this was a great vid. thanks!

[@cryolitegem]

35:04 the “wouldn’t have died with 28 extra defense” has so much indignation behind it, and as someone who has almost always opted for warding over menacing reforges, I’m here for it

[@theendofthestart8179]

but why did they drop right into the enemy projectile? also health potion was off cooldown. This is was 100% a skill issue.

[@Kermit_E_Frog]

Could not disagree more. Off cool down potion and missed dodge. This is one of those "If I were born a fish, I'd be a fish" type arguments. Damage will reward you when you're playing bad AND when you're playing good

[@sorbetcafe]

“Here’s an example of a character dying to an attack that they would have survived with warding” >They should’ve just not gotten hit That’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the point I was making in the video, you’re just ignoring it and nitpicking something else to try to seem like you’re refuting the point. To paraphrase, “In a bad situation, having this helps a lot, here’s a visual example of it” >don’t ever get in a bad situation then??? Dumbass just be perfect That’s completely ridiculous lol

[@Kermit_E_Frog]

@@sorbetcafe No, your point is "If they'd had a little more defense they would have lived"(paraphrased) and everyone else's point is to not build completely around the worst happening but to grow with every attempt until you don't feel the need to watch an hour long video on defense to justify yourself.

[@cryolitegem]

@@Kermit_E_Frog did you even watch the video?

[@DSlyde]

This was excellent. I've played a lot over the years but I was only ever a casual player and never really understood the underlying systems. Being able to give hard numbers to contextualise the bonuses really helped judge the options. Thanks!

[@DeuxisWasTaken]

Thanks for making this. I think the sleeping on defense can be partially attributed to a pendulum effect since there was a time when Warding was considered to be the best by a large margin, so when the last parts of the endgame and harder modes dropped, the pendulum swung in the "we were sleeping on Menacing, Warding is for noobs" direction. With people realising that no actually, Warding is still amazing, it's likely that it may swing back soon.

[@theendofthestart8179]

well, warding is still for noobs though.

[@justanothercommentercarryo8367]

@@theendofthestart8179 Cool.

[@jnb_110]

@@theendofthestart8179”warding is still for noobs though” My boy, you sound like a clown saying that. But youre not funny, please be funny 🙏

[@theendofthestart8179]

@@jnb_110 new people get hit more, experienced players get hit less. Simple as that.

[@jnb_110]

@@theendofthestart8179 Imagine getting triggered over what other people prefer on how to play, jeez stop being such a clown dude. Youre not making me laugh 😬

[@flaireyuwu]

It's worth noting that in PHM white string and its dyed variants are extremely cheap to reforge and extremely easy to get, so in the event you want to stack warding, they're a good early option

[@richardbudge9416]

there is only one scenario where menacing and lucky are better than warding: when you are trying to get the terraprisma

[@jacksonwagner992]

I spent probably 30plat trying to reforge all my gear after everything being on menacing. Zenith was pushing almost 1200 per crit, I’ve since dropped to 106def and only do about 780 per crit

[@SleepyStreak]

Alternatively: They know how to dodge. Look at any challenge or speedrun player for calamity, they ain't going for warding.

[@Jerrycourtney]

*_Maybe the real best defense in Terraria is all the friends we made along the way._*

[@randombystander991]

Nah, NPC's are pretty lousy at beating bosses.

[@wrawler]

Got it, we just have to play multiplayer and make our friends the decoys

[@Jerrycourtney]

@@wrawler finally, someone who _gets it._

[@lordyasha5944]

Actually true since you can make them use beetle armor paladin shield and flesh knuckles 😂

[@SisuBjörk]

What friends? We playing solo!

[@solomonbyrne3909]

I think for most players who actively avoid defense, it isn't that they don't understand how good defense is. Before something like 1.4 , my go-to was to have high defense loadouts and use ranged weapons. For a while that made it much easier to play the game and beat bosses. But with over 2000 hours in this game I can't bring myself to do the "go-to". As was pointed out, doing defense builds can feel pretty boring. It isn't just an edgy mindset of "oh, I don't need defense since I'm good enough to dodge", but a desire to take risks, challenge oneself, and keep the game interesting. And it isn't just boring in the sense of fights being relatively easy, but in the sense that to do it well, you need to grind for items like the flesh knuckles and the paladin's shield, or for players who don't want to bother getting money, it can even be annoying to pay for the warding reforges or sit at the shimmer for 20 minutes (if getting warding on more than one accessory at once). At least when grinding for a more offensive build you get the reward of fun, challenging, fast-and-loose bossfights... Anyway, I get that I am biased against warding because of my specific way of enjoying Terraria. I play mostly for the boss fights, and if the bosses are trivialized, I will have less fun. Also, a fun little trick with the heart statue pre-skeletron is to use the wiring for the light in the surface dungeon room. if you demolish the dungeon you can just place a pressure plate and a heart statue or two over the leftover wire.

[@razerblaze070]

it is kind of unfun and feels like cheese to jut slap on all warding and defense accessories all the time

[@SomeCowguy]

Same reason i never cheese destroyer, whats the fun in breezing through any challenge you can use to get better?

[@TrouserSnivy]

I stopped using defense because I realized how useless it is if I get better. The idea behind trading warding for violent on melee is that if I play better, I get a tangible reward for my progress. And in theory it is better. It is not only an incredibly intuitive metric of skill progression, it is quite literally mathematically better, so anyone that wouldn't have incentive to arbitrarily challenge themselves in a PvE game have actual reward incentive to do so. Paladin's shield also isn't really a great defensive item, I have never felt tankier running it but in theory a ranged character can run it to soak some damage the melee is taking, and if that person is using shiny stone or the specter mage set, they can heal off the damage they shared with the melee. I do think it is a good point that this stuff applies mainly to bosses though, I have noticed after I made the switch how miserable horde events are without defense stats, and in those events the paladin shield actually should go on your tank since damage will be spread among everyone else.

[@SethAbercromby]

For master I usually play an offensive build with warding reforges, so fights are still tough, but the extra defense goes a long way in keeping you alive. Especially nasty fights I replace one offensive item with worm scarf for the damage reduction since it's applied before defense, making you a lot more tanky for only a slight reduction in overall DPS.

[@HebiSnake]

Some people genuinely don't know.

[@kyouma0519]

everything about this video is insane, the length, the structure, the information, the quality, all the numbers (casually correcting the wiki in between btw) and gameplay footage edited. providing a full equipment list in 3 iterations and also going into specific details about gear choices and boss abilities is absurd I think a lot of people don't realize how much work a video like this is. btw terraria is a 13 year old game, the fact we still get content like this for it is mind blowing

[@purplehaze2358]

I think you undersold the value of the flinx fur coat. Like, sure, you _can_ just nab a summoning potion to make up for it.. but like, you can also do that _with_ the flinx fur coat, bringing your minion DPS (but not _necessarily_ summon in general) boost overall from ~110% to ~215%.

[@SethAbercromby]

Seeing him use the vampire frog staff also hurt me a little. Sure it theoretically has really good DPS, but the frogs have such a hard time dealing damage to bosses consistently without setups like the narrow corridor on WoF that makes you a sitting duck for laser beams it's really hard to justify using them. For WoF I like to use one imp against the hungy since they are weak to fire damage and the fireball can hit multiple at once, with all the other minion slots being hornets which are inversely much stronger against the main body. They total to much more consistent DPS over the frogs and you can use the open space to dodge around like the mage or ranger builds.

[@derfloh4245]

@@SethAbercromby why are they weak to fire damage?

[@SethAbercromby]

@@derfloh4245 I can't tel you why, but curiously they do not resist the On Fire! debuff. Both they and the Wall of Flesh are also not immune to the hornet's poison, making them a great summon against WoF imo.

[@zkam900]

Bro I see you on every terraria video

[@mehmemeh5285]

@@SethAbercromby to be fair, if you have a lot of defense its a lot easier to keep the boss standing still and let the frogs wail on them

[@Shyguymask]

The reason I tend to avoid defense is not because I think it's ineffective, on the contrary it's because it makes the game too easy and boring for me.

[@sorbetcafe]

completely valid, yeah, it tends to trivialize a lot of stuff

[@pentasquare]

meanwhile I can't be fucked with grinding so I just go with whatever I get naturally

[@pittagiiya]

meanwhile my absolutely backwards solution is to hyper-optimize tankiness and then when i realize the game is easy and boring as a result i just use a mod to buff the enemies so they deal damage again

[@eltiolavara9]

@@pittagiiya amazing

[@Wakwaw796]

bro you got me in first half 😂

[@connorconnor1631]

31:03 _casually drops 896 platinum_

[@TheOfficialMrloggy]

I just use whichever +4% increase reforge I get first

[@coreflakes]

real

[@pressaltf4forfreevbucks179]

Based

[@destroything]

i roll out the mobility one but same

[@OhCrapI_He]

Alt title: In Defense of Defense On a more serious note, my Expert mode True Melee run has taught me the true beauty of the Tank build. An optimal Tank build from my experience has some combination of Defense, Damage reduction, and Life regeneration. Defense is great for smaller attacks DR is great for bigger attacks Life regen is great because it gives you more hit points over time, which Defense and DR let you take further P.S. I always thought Master mode was designed with Tank builds in mind, and this video confirms that through and through

[@Kasumizawa.Miyu_RABBIT04]

I remember getting so pissed at ML in my expert melee run that I used as much defense as possible and tanked everything. And I mean, EVERYTHING. I was just sitting in honey, jumping to grab some hearts every time the lazer came by. I can say with 100% certainty that full defense is op.

[@SupGh0st69]

NO WAY! miyu from peak game blue archive loves play terraria?!

[@TenositSergeich]

"Defense isn't that important" "Pedro, why aren't we alive"

[@damnthisisabadname]

It makes no sense to go for anything but defense in pre hardmode imo I'd genuinely take +1 defense over +4% damage in pre hardmode

[@sorbetcafe]

shackle supremacy

[@logansmith6342]

Warding shackle, my champion I so agree btw that 4% DMG is just not worth it when it increases DMG by 1 -5 flat dmg

[@sutarn_gamer4159]

What about Quick? I usually just go for quick since I think it makes it easier to dodge.

[@theendofthestart8179]

yeah, but id take shark teeth over any defense item any day, and frankly spending any amount of time minmaxing before hardmode just seems, wasteful?

[@theendofthestart8179]

@@sutarn_gamer4159 long story short, if you arent flying, speed buffs arent good.

[@humblepeanut]

Nice video coming from the guy who beat master mode with zero defense. I love this guy

[@cosminonisoru1145]

Dude finally a video about defense and how actually work love to see that.

[@Tempestissiman]

Finally we can put the "defense bad" myth to its grave. I do not understand why it's such a prevalant opinion among the community despite being so utterly untrue. Edit: Finished watching the video. I'm astonished by how in-depth you go and how you brought up many good points that I have never even considered, especially the bit on why menacing is bad at the end. This is definitely my favorite video you've made

[@TheLifeLaVita]

literally everyone builds defense and goes for warding all the time

[@dragonex4723]

Probably because of the prevalent “just don’t get hit” ideology

[@Tempestissiman]

@@TheLifeLaVita Yes but you also do see many opinions floating around claiming defense is worthless on high difficulty. I've certainly seen many of them

[@sorbetcafe]

Terraria has a huge community, some circles might frequently use defense, others bash it as being useless. Not everyone builds defense and goes for warding all the time - in fact, one of the most common things I had to do when I started streaming was explain why I skipped over menacing reforges for warding ones

[@TheLifeLaVita]

@@Tempestissiman generally everyone goes for warding except when they don't wanna spend so much time to reforge everything or doesn't have the need for it in higher difficulties. Just looking at how much damage reduction you get it's obvious defense is strong. Skipping over defense or not going for warding doesn't mean they don't know how effective warding is, but just that they wanna have more fun in other ways

[@Eranta]

what a video! watched all of it and loved every second of it :) thanks for your effort, keep it up!

[@VeryAnonymousTurtle]

the multiplayer footage that you show is beautiful, something about seeing so many people fighting a boss is just majestic.

[@theendofthestart8179]

no friends?

[@Memzys]

@@theendofthestart8179 😢

[@flipallthetables793]

I have a problem with the comparisons made. At 7:38 you say the following: "All that this is showing us is that this is really showing is that having access to the 24 defense from warding accessories is extremely powerful and quite unbalancing". Except in none of the comparisons you show is the difference only those 24 extra defense points. What you showed is more "here is a build with preparation for maximum damage and nothing else, vs build with preparation for maximum defense and nothing else", when a lot of aspects of both builds can be combined *with no detriment*. For example, in the early summoner comparisons where the only summoner armor is the Flinx Fur Coat, the "maximum damage build" is missing out on things that it could absolutely use to increase the armor it has without decreasing the damage. There is nothing stopping that build from having iron skin and a bast statue, not to mention that the armor set up is missing legs, and the wizard hat which is used doesn't even improve summon damage (unless explicitly in the Celebration Mk.10 seed where it gives 1 extra summon slot) so it could just be replaced by a platinum helmet.

[@supermonkeyqwerty]

> having iron skin and a bast statue lmao true everyone has iron skin, but also i never would've given bast statue a second chance

[@EATZYOWAFFLEZ]

Yeah that's a major problem with this video. Another problem I have is that the DPS comparisons are just played poorly as far as the DPS builds are concerned. Ultimately this video really didn't change my mind on anything. I already knew defense wasn't bad, but I still think damage is better.

[@flipallthetables793]

@@EATZYOWAFFLEZ Enjoying the game is what matters in the end, whether one is better or not only matters if that matters for your enjoyment. As he pointed out at some point in the video, going full defense can be extremely overpowered. But it can also be boring because there ends up being basically no skill required as you just sit and tank for some fights. I don't care if, from a meta perspective, defense is far stronger than menacing, because in the end I have way more fun dodging attacks and dealing insane damage than otherwise.

[@flipallthetables793]

@@GhGh-gq8oo Please quote the full sentence: "Enjoying the game is what matters in the end, *whether one is better or not only matters if that matters for your enjoyment.* " If speedruns are how you enjoy the game, then defense over damage matters. I never said otherwise.

[@turtier]

I was looking for a comment like this. I normally love in depth videos like this, but I can't really take any of the comparison seriously when it has a flaw like this, because it's basically not comparing real builds that a player might have. I feel like a better comparison would have been to use the basic armour setup for that class at that stage in the game, with all menacing and all relevant potions (both offensive and defensive), and relevant arena modifiers (eg bast statue, heart lantern, etc), then compare to the exact same setup with warding accessories and no other changes, and then have the 3rd be the full defensive setup that will use different defensive armour and accessories. This would directly show how much warding alone does on a setup everyone would be familiar with, while also comparing to how focused defense performs.

[@joshmurga2962]

This video has a ton of useful information. As someone who isn't as familiar with all the items and options in this game, it would be nice to have this as a written guide. It would be extra special if it could have information on which accessories and armors become available at various stages of the game and recommendations on upgrades and replacements for each phase of the game. In lieu of such a guide based around this video, does anyone know of any written resources based around defensive play styles that are up to date and similar to what I described. Anywho thanks for the video. it's obvious that you put a ton of work into it!

[@mmsbludhound873]

Daytime Empress: hold my beer

[@SethAbercromby]

Pretty much the only time you want or need a full menacing build, since HP doesn't matter anyway and it's just a race to kill her a little before you get caught by a stray projectile

[@crashertalksmore9869]

Pretty much lol

[@dodge7246]

I HAVEN'T FELT THE HEAT OF BATTLE IN QUITE A WHILE AND IT'S LIKE I JUST CAME BACK TO LIFE! I LOVE DEFENSE! *background explosion*

[@derp24lordz]

Ive been doing an expert mode run with some new Terraria players, recently we beat the wall and fought the mech bosses, but we all lost, i asked if they were alright if i beat the mech bosses in a single player world while they were offline and even then failed to beat any of them with a full defense melee build with frost armor, so i switched to menacing and suddenly all 3 bosses go down with ease, i think ill stick to all menacing because thats what im more used to as my old endgame ranger build had a mix of lucky and menacing reforges for 100% crit rate and damage

[@lemonlily05]

for the those wondering, this is also very effective if not better in the calamity mod as the warding reforge gives damage reduction AND gets buffed the more major progression bosses defeated(ex. wall of flesh, moon lord, etc.)

[@Lftarded]

Thing is, playing on the designated reveangence mode, every single hit completely cuts your defense by half and literally everything has DOT that pierces defense

[@furiousgarfer4991]

Nice hour long video Counterpoint: Just don't get hit

[@PhoenicisEstuans]

Nice to see a breakdown on the numbers, will definitely be prioritizing warding on accessories from now on

[@vulpix9210]

I think not including things like the burger, bast statue for damage or warding examples doesn't make for a valid comparison. Because there's no "tradeoff" for those. You just have to spend the time to get them. These comparisons should be between the things that have tradeoff. Not ones that don't. If I can get free defense while I'm playing a damage build, I'm still gonna get the free defense. I'd like to see a second video comparing optimized builds. With only tradeoffs between them.

[@Maniac_l23.]

Just subtract 5 from all the non-bast statue ones on the table.

[@vulpix9210]

@@Maniac_l23. That isn't really helpful for the actual testing. It'll give the stat, that's cool. But not the actual hit count per boss/enemy.

[@Maniac_l23.]

@@vulpix9210 Its more about the trendline, really. Pulling hairs over +5 defense for a build claiming to kill enemies before they die barely impacts anything. Boss attacks still hit like a truck, and unless you stack defense to negate that, which is the whole point of warding, you still have to focus on dodging.

[@vulpix9210]

@@Maniac_l23. If you read my comment. It's not *just* about the bast statue. It's about everything from the bast statue to the endurance potions to ironskin to anything else. All builds should be given either everything without tradeoffs. Or not given them

[@LazyMaybe]

"Because there's no "tradeoff" for those. You just have to spend the time to get them." Well, yeah... that's the tradeoff. Most people don't want to spend the time getting that stuff, just like most people don't put together optimized builds. It's more realistic to account for how an 'average' setup will have both worse gear and worse buffs.

[@eggroll3055]

Somebody explained why i shouldn't use Warding either and instead go for Menacing, but now that I've seen both videos, I think I will go for Arcane.

[@DanielSooSchway]

i think i will go for Quick because of this

[@eggroll3055]

@DanielSooSchway Good idea!!!

[@FinnishArsonist]

I have been playing through Infernum recently (Just beat Exo Mechs today, only SCal left!), and there have been many fights where shifting more into a defensive build has made the fight significantly more doable. It keeps you alive in times where you make multiple mistakes in a row, and makes it so that you don't have to instapop a potion as soon as you get hit once, you can allow yourself to regen and save the potion for a better time. even with Calamity's defense damage, and even against DoG, who does absolutely stupid damage in Infernum, allowing me to take 1 extra hit from the head makes things so much easier. going from even being 2 shot to 3 shot, in the most extreme case (lasers and body do much less), gives much more wiggle room when you often go long stretches without getting hit because you have to learn the fights so much, allowing you to regen back to full.

[@warpedg4mer936]

For someone who used to run warding, it never helped me that much. When I switched to menacing it was a world of difference, I play mage.

[@derianyounan1353]

Exactly menacing helps with damage while you are outmaneuvering the enemy in question.

[@Schmitzerize1992]

This is the type of videos I LOVE to see. Good job buddy

[@t33h33studio]

Absolute gigachad for the work here! Awesome stuff, man!

[@AniematedSteph]

I thought I would disagree with this video but it changed my mind good job

[@rozee8516]

PLEASE KEEP DOING THESE VIDEOS THEY ARE AMAZING

[@CrystallineFoxCF]

idk why everyone always tries to say that _____ is better than _____... like, it entirely depends on 3 things 1. Your Class 2. Your Playstyle 3. How experienced you are with the game and/or the boss attack patters Like, yeah, if you've played a while, and can dodge the boss attacks with relative consistency, more damage can be better, but often, having that extra defense may save you with a random hit you aren't expecting, or just, you get bad luck and get cornered in a place where you have to take a hit and you probably won't survive without it, but if that's the risk you want to take, you can take it. There's no right or wrong way to play this game, and that's true with a lot of games, people getting super angry about a disagreement is honestly kinda stupid... Having a civil argument about which one is better, and trying to find the most optimal way to get through the game is different, and I fully support that, but trying to tell people that the way they're playing is wrong, and then shaming them or getting mad at them for not doing it your way is super trashy though. Anyways, great video, it's super informative, and hopefully can help new and old players see that defense is, not only an option, but a very valid one despite what many of the more experienced people in the community say.

[@Ketchup9711]

Awesome video, really good guide for bosses and their attacks, too. Gonna ignore and use menacing either way tho.

[@dolby9494]

Me too lol

[@galaxystudios370]

I’m currently 24 attempts into expert hardcore and am reasonably confident I’ll be able to beat most of the bosses without much trouble. However, I’ll be running a tank build for the simple reason that I don’t want the mistakes I make to instantly cost me the run. beetle shell supremacy

[@Tempestissiman]

Bosses aren't the main difficulty of hardcore, in fact it's probably the least concerning part. Regular enemies deal more damage a lot of the times and you can't predict it. To that end defense is even more valuable because it lets you avoid being camped by an enemy. Also, make sure to get a cross necklace for that purpose. It gives you extra time to recall out of a bad situation

[@TheLusion]

@@Tempestissiman agree i use the star veil and can very fastly save and exit and weapons doesn't go bad with autopause bug of the game when you can't exit cause of attack

[@galaxystudios370]

@@Tempestissiman considering Attempt 24 died to a pigron, you're 100% right. Attempt 25 took it home, though

[@Tempestissiman]

@@galaxystudios370 congratulations!

[@CursedTortilla]

This is incredible. I applaud you and your dedication to this topic, which I hadn’t really thought was interesting until now. Cheers!

[@diamonje]

Bro made a 58 minute video about defense just to tell us that the flesh knuckles are OP.

[@MarkTheDevourer]

absolutely fantastic and comprehensive video. I've been thinking about defense for a while, and this cleared up a lot of my doubts. Thanks!

[@winterfall_0]

The comparisons would have been a lot more meaningful in a more realistic scenario in which menacing user does not ignore free and easy to obtain sources of defense (bast and ironskin) for no reason, as we would have a better idea on how much survivability we are really losing by focusing on damage. Additionally, SoC and Obsidian/Ankh are still used by most players, even if they care mostly about damage, as they still provide additional utility useful for every build. The same argument can be made about regeneration and healing. Yes, you can outright facetank almost everything with enough defense and sustainability, but if the regen and healing are also enough to compensate for the scenario in which you are only occasionally getting hit by trickier to dodge attacks, then the latter option may be more desirable for most players, as you will be able to do everything faster and also don't have to do the tedious grind for some of the defense items, with the only cost being that you actually having to move and think in a boss fight. Overall, a good argument for warding, but too much unnecessary attention are given to the extremes of completely neglecting defense and completely min-maxing for defense, both of which are impractical and unrealistic

[@kyarumomochi5146]

Did a bit of testing after making that last comment. Glad to see that you actually mentioned defense being worse on master mode on start. Whatever the thing about defense is that it matters alot less than damage reduction and dodging. DR scales with enemy attacks and dodges negates them entirely. On a build with frost shield ninja gear and BoC you already have 25% (32.5% with endurance) damage reduction below 50% hp and 25% chance to dodge enemy attacks. This makes defense on its own much less important as both of these scales to enemy attacks much more significantly so having extra damage to kill enemies because of potential damage loss from having these accessories is significantly better. And also defenses importance matters alot less in conjunction to your skill level. You will ALLWAYS need to kill and attack enemies but you ARENT bound to take damage from them. This important distinction is one of the reasons why defense isnt prefered as having high defense equals damage loss for potential failure. Mitigating failures on their own matters much more than lessening the failure value. The 3 accesory combo+endurance i mentioned earlier cuts down avarage damage you are taking to almost 40-50% on their own so the impact of higher defense will matter alot less than covering these accessories lack of damage buffs

[@dddw.]

i legit started reforging menacing because it was TOO easy

[@Jom_Ghost]

This video is fantastic, the comprehensive guide on every aspect is just top tier. You researched and gave us builds, damage values, AND kill times for each and every build. This is just simply amazing. This video alone has convinced me to subscribe

[@thesamesunrise5297]

Absolutely loving these super in depth deep dives into a particular mechanic of terraria, keep up the good work man

[@aetheriox463]

the TRUE comprehensive guide to defense: bigger number = better (usually)

[@g_vost]

luck will shift incoming and outgoing damage calculations in your favor. with a garden gnome and having the correct biome torches while underground, you'll have a +0.4 luck stat, therefore you'll get a 40% chance for any given instance of incoming damage to reroll its variance to take the lowest of the two, and the same for outgoing damage, but taking the highest. this reverses if you have negative luck. damage variance is ±15%, and i believe its placed after most damage buffs and before defense, so it has a lot of sway over damage values. so yeah, if you can buff your luck as much as you can manage, then it will help fights go smoother. garden gnomes and torches are the easiest sources, but you can also get luck by being near ladybugs (and not harming them), lantern nights, luck potions and by shimmering lots of coins. in the context of this video it does have the effect of giving you more sustainability by having a chance to reduce the damage you take from any given damage instance. so um yeah do the luck-giving things

[@RobYu]

Super interesting, thanks for this guide and all the work that went into showing the actual effectiveness of warding/defensiveness!

[@theendofthestart8179]

chat gpt comment

[@SpiderJAAM]

My rule of thumb for accesories is "Is it a shield (or something that adds + defense)?... Then +4 Defense" 🤣

[@abcrasshadow9341]

I am definitely chnaging some things next time I play, not a lot but some. I am of the opinion that "don't get hit" is the vorrect approach and as a result I have optimised my accessories for that purpose, that roughly means beelining for frog gear, wings with virtical acceleration (preferably the hold up to ascend or down to strafe) and empress when in expert hardmode and above. Virtical movement is so unbelievably powerful when dodging, so much so that it makes it feel like you are cheesing bosses. It also is the highest actane way to play since you are balancing on knifes edge. So do with that as you may. The amount of times I have just dodged attacks until my potion came back and as such didn't reslly need defence as a result is staggering. Granted I am never going for fast kills it is always about having a fun fight. This same reason is why the star board is so OP and probably would be the best wings in the game even if it had half the stats purely because of its active abilities providing unmatched evasion. Anyways that is just my 2 cents, my main take away is to go back to using warding not menacing. The arenas, statues, and potions I was already. doing :)

[@oneways2728]

this popping in my recommendation after a manga/comic about an adventurer Tanker with max Defense being kicked out and the party got whipped by enemy after that because they has no defense while the tanker join another party and keep winning....yeah this is the sign

[@Beanie-Babe]

this video is fucking incredible, thank you for making this, you earned a sub, live for this kind of content lol

[@gingawaifu1540]

It's honestly crazy to me how anyone can think Menacing is better tbh, I use Menacing religiously, BUT that's only because of how strong Warding is. EVEN MORE SO in Calamity. I prefer to min/max damage and shred bosses that TINY bit quicker as I find it way more fun than just facetanking their whole moveset (personally). Sidenote: it is in no way fair to not include Ironskin in the damage build imho, I stack up on every single potion and buff station (bast) in my Hardcore Infernum Calamity Master(mod) Damage-Focused playthroughs.

[@most10wanted67]

You have made some very valid, well thought and research point, however dead enemies can't fight back.

[@xenopsychologist4943]

you get dead enemies either way. but ya only shave a few seconds off a fight minmaxing your damage. that said, i tend to adjust my defense level to match the amount of challenge im looking for as i play. i slowly weaned myself off of high defense builds as i started to want more risk in my runs. perhaps someday i will join the hardcore club.

[@TheDragonsBastille]

neither can dead players lol

[@tewu8257]

Hello, I like facetanking a lot in this game and have always recommended defensive setups, thanks for making this video; anyway here are some notes on the script that I feel are not necessarily true. 17:30 - While it is true that the head deals insane damage for this point in the game, if you stand inside the destroyer it will virtually never hit you due to i-frames. 19:20 - I agree, but you can still facetank prime if you really wanted to, it's a bit risky but the bomb attack is very inaccurate and the skull spin, while dealing very high damage, does give you some breathing room after, allowing you to regen a bit. And while it's spining inside of you, fetid baghnakhs deal a lot of dps in return 24:30 - You don't actually need vampire knives but sure. 25:45 - Yeah, no. Melee is not actually the best facetanking class with summoner having basically equal survivability combined with simply higher dps after late game bosses dont allow you to use super close ranged weapons. 26:50 - This is completely unnecessary, with the star veil equipped, the barrage of eye projectiles right before the death ray give you enough i-frames to skillfully dodge the big scary attack. 27:20 - It totally is, even on legendary.

[@charlestroll6157]

You are changing my whole view on terraria with these videos, they are so high effort and easy to follow. I'm on my first master mode hardcore character and your videos have been a great help, thank you!

[@itzeazee1710]

Great video, but there are some problem with your methodology I noticed: 1) When comparing the armor of the various classes, I think it was a mistake to have the damage-focused builds use worse armor and accessories. You never really showed an accurate representation of most players builds, which will usually include decent but not optimal armor, some defensive accessories such as ankh shield, and an ironskin potion, with the accessories at menacing. Basically, there is no reason for not using ironskin potions and bast statues for the full damage player, since it has absolutely zero cost in dps for doing so. Additionally, by giving the normal build a bunch of defensive accessories and armor that the damage build doesn't get, it obscures the actual value of Warding specifically by comparing the defenses of Menacing + weak equipment to warding + tanky equipment, rather than comparing menacing and warding on equal footing. 2) Additionally, I think you should have included worm scarf / endurance potions in your calculations. Again, there is a distinct middle ground between full damage and full defense that you seemed to ignore 3) I don't remember you talking about how warding is better early game, as 24 flat damage reduction means a lot more against Eye than against Fishron. I think this is worth considering, as there are people who will use warding pre hardmode but switch to menacing around/after mech bosses. 4) During your combat tests, you died with the defensive build, and then brushed that off since "you weren't trying to dodge". You only died because you facetanked, but remember you said you HAD to facetank to obtain the killtimes you did with the tanky builds. This is a really unfair double standard, you say the tanky builds are much safer because of the lower damage, but you also say that they are comparable in damage because you can facetank - but if you think about it, facetanking bosses is a strategy that makes you take more damage to let you deal more damage! To mitigate the lack of dps, you are willingly sacrificing the main advantage of defense, but you aren't acknowledging that fact. If you wanted a fair comparison, you should have used the same strategy both times, that way it's a comparison between actual damage output, and there are no asterisks about your increased survivability.' 5) In addition to having a damage + warding test, you should have included a defense + menacing test. I don't think it would be better, but it's a distinct build style that is very common for players to use and not testing it is a big oversight.

[@calsalitra4689]

I'll argue against 4 and 5. 4) From the perspective of a player who is genuinely struggling, the extra defense is much safer. From the perspective of an experienced player trying to kill things as quickly as possible, it can simultaneously be comparable in damage because they strategically take damage to deal more damage. Those are not mutually exclusive, it just means that tank builds are versatile. Builds that sacrifice defense for more damage lack that versatility, despite mostly comparable killtimes. I'll also add that he was playing offense nearly as aggressively as he played defense, which later on resulted in a ton of deaths. Less defensive builds have to take similar risks to maintain any advantage, except that risk is far greater compared to defense doing the same thing. 5) IMO that would introduce unnecessary clutter. 12 tests is already messy, adding in 4 more for the sake of a minor variation doesn't make much sense.

[@corydog2264]

Tysm for this, gonna send it to my friend a good 30 times

[@avena7506]

I want to tell a little story that happened during the current calamity playthrough I'm doing with 2 great friends, (I know the balancing of defense in Calamity is a little different and that the math is completely different but let's ignore that for the sake of the story). I was using, and still am, basically the Attack/Defense setup from this video, I have the optimal Ranger Loadout for maximum Damage and Mobility, but I reforged everything to warding, and it was great, I was dying less than my friends, I carried us to an early victory against the Leviathan and Anahita (Pre Mech 3) as well as a Dude Fishron Victory at the same point of progression, and continued being an asset to the team. This was until one of my friends found out what reforge build I was using, and told me he was using a Crit build, and it was basically double damage (6/6 at the time as it was pre-moonlord) All lucky reforges, I was, and still am relatively new to Terraria (I've done a vanilla playthrough on Normal and Expert, and am in the middle of a Calamity Expert Playthrough, all on softcore) with only about 200 hours so far, thought I played it with friends as long ago as 1.2. I also didn't have a cell phone yet, so after reforging to the crit build, my friend told me he saw a significant improvement, I was instantly struggling more, and didn't even feel like I was dealing more damage half the time, and I felt like my largest contribution to the team was kneecapped, I thought that I should be dealing MORE damage and getting hit LESS and that it was just a skill issue on my part. Then I saw the menacing vs lucky video, and finally this video, after watching I instantly went back to the Offensive Warding Build, and I feel right back at home, my damage has barely changed, and I can survive a significant amount of time, which if anything, just proves the truth of this video and the practicality of defense that allows it to well surpass offensive reforges in pretty much every single situation. So thank you, for making just that little bit smarter about the game, this was a very cool video :>

[@raphaelnadeau6686]

Counterpoint : big damage number go brrrrrr

[@gamingzeraora443]

i use full damage for anything other than legendary mode

[@pizza-for-mountains]

literally the best argument against using defense

[@TenositSergeich]

...In your face!

[@josea.ruizquinones9262]

Big red number as you die in one hit for the hundredth time as you practice the no-hit kill while the others are already five bosses ahead.

[@ekremslayer3389]

Honestly it also just feels better to not get hit. I'd rather deal big damage and have to dodge everything to survive consistently because then I have to learn the fight and get better

[@purplehaze2358]

Minor note: You can also circumvent Deerclops's frozen debuff by equipping the handwarmer, assuming either that it's Christmas or you set your device's clock to make the game think it's Christmas.

[@mesquiteaviation]

One of the most informative videos I’ve seen in a long time. Well done and thank you!

[@fighter4929]

"healing potions are useless cuz experienced player would just dodge. Save the inventory slot"ahh argument

[@DenajM25]

Back in the day before 1.4, the concensus was always to get warding on everything

[@AlterEgo-en2wx]

Nah, this mindset entered the game at 1.3 already. I myself never subscribed to either viewpoints though

[@DriftingDraftsman]

This video is cool. Didn't realize you could make such builds that weren't just using the set bonuses.

[@mikaeluhl]

Right off the bat you listed all of my beliefs in the defense system, so as Sheldon would say: Here's my jaw, drop it. Yup, you destroyed my world. You pulled me out of the Matrix. I appreciate all the research you did 🙏

[@nightmareraven3045]

I will be deep in a cold, dead grave before I ever stop reforging all my accessories to menacing

[@rougenarwhal8378]

And without defense it might happen sooner than you realize

[@nightmareraven3045]

@@rougenarwhal8378 Who needs defence when I can melt moonlord before ever getting hit?

[@fastral7769]

⁠@@nightmareraven3045If you do that on master mode, fair enough.

[@sevendeadlysins6430]

Bro just gave me the confidence to do a master run. You're amazing!

[@MarvelousButter]

you got this!

[@gigachadlovessharks]

you can actually get the honey buff by using a bottel of honey with the buff keybind

[@starsscapes]

that doesn't work if you have the potion sickness debuff tho

[@gigachadlovessharks]

@@starsscapes really?

[@starsscapes]

@@gigachadlovessharks yeah since it heals you i guess there's something that prevents using healing items when you're potion sick even if using it with the buff key doesn't heal you