After defeating the Lunatic Cultist in Hardmode, the player gains access to one of the most powerful item sets in Terraria. Elemental towers that appear in the world after this boss open access to 4 similar sets of items. Each of them can be created using the corresponding elements – Solar, Vortex, Nebula and Stardust. Today we will talk about two unique types of magic weapons made with the Nebula Fragment: the Nebula Arcanum and the Nebula Blaze.
In this article, you can familiarize yourself with their main characteristics and parameters, as well as the advantages and disadvantages concerning each other.
Nebula arcanum in Terraria
The Nebula Arcanum is a Hardmode, post-Lunatic Cultist magic weapon, which is a kind of levitating magic sphere.
The Nebula Arcanum is a nod to the Arcane Orb, a weapon from the hack-and-slash RPG Diablo III.
The projectile produced by Nebula Arcanum has unique mechanics. When hitting a surface, the swirling orb can bounce up to 3 times. Besides, projectiles also have a piercing type of attack: one sphere can deal damage to three at once, passing through two enemies and exploding on collision with a third.
If the swirling orb does not collide with the target, the explosion occurs automatically after 11 seconds. It is also worth noting that each projectile has the ability to auto-target the nearest enemy. The Nebula Arcanum can deal more DPS than any other pre-Moon Lord magic weapon, but its shots are challenging to hit fast enemies and bosses. For the most part, it is designed to take out crowded groups of enemies quickly.
The Nebula Arcanum is crafted on Ancient Manipulator, requires 18 Nebula Fragments as materials. This weapon is classified as magical, so modifiers of the corresponding category apply to it. Its best modifier is Mythical.
A single projectile hit deals up to 70 damage. Also, swirling orbs have an average knockback rate as well as a 4% critical hit chance. However, it should be borne in mind that one shot requires 30 units of mana, so with the constant use of Nebula Arcanum, you need to monitor your mana reserves constantly. The best solution to this problem would be items such as the Mana Flower, the Band of Starpower, Mana Regeneration Potions.
Nebula blaze in Terraria
The Nebula Blaze is a Hardmode, post-Lunatic Cultist magic weapon.
Also, with a 20% probability, an enhanced projectile will be launched that deals triple damage, as well as having a higher speed.
This weapon has a high spread when fired, which pays off for its high attack speed. Besides, the shells have no knockback at all.
Notably, Nebula Blaze has the tremendous base damage of any magical weapon in Terraria. It deals 130 damage on hit and also has a 4% chance to hit critically. With sufficient boosts, it is possible to reach or even exceed 3000 critical damage. A single use requires 12 mana. For this reason, as well as the high attack and use speed, the player needs large reserves of mana to unleash the full potential of this weapon.
Nebula Blaze requires an Ancient Manipulator and requires 18 Nebula Fragments as materials. Since it is a magical weapon, modifiers of the same category apply to it. Its best modifier is Demonic or Deadly for damage output or Mystic for mana conservation because it cannot get modifiers that affect knockback.
Nebula arcanum vs Nebula blaze in Terraria
Having dealt with the main parameters and the advantages and disadvantages of Nebula arcanum and Nebula blaze, we will try to compare them with each other.
First of all, it should be noted that these are two weapons that are alternatives to each other. When the Nebula Pillar is destroyed, and the Nebula Fragments are obtained, the player will choose which of these weapons to craft. Crafting both of these weapons is highly discouraged, as it will take a lot of elemental fragments that can be spent on crafting armour, tools, and other more lucrative alternatives.
The player should immediately situationally decide between these two weapons, starting from their capabilities and preferences. First of all, you should pay attention to the consumption of mana. The Nebula Arcanum costs 30 mana per use when Nebula blaze only 12 mana. However, given the high attack speed and the inaccuracy of the Nebula blaze, the player’s mana reserves will be consumed much faster than when using the Nebula Arcanum.
It would be best if you did not consider the cost of creating each of these weapons since the conditions for crafting them are identical.
The base damage of each of these two items is strikingly different. At first glance, Nebula blaze wins since its damage rate is almost two times higher than Nebula Arcanum. Still, here you should also consider the post-effect of the Nebula Arcanum projectile – AoE explosion. Coupled with this feature and the critical hit probability for each of the tiny projectiles created by the blast, the damage is many times greater than that of the Nebula blaze. Nebula blaze can exceed in damage many times, but this requires the appropriate equipment and specific enhancements.
Regarding the variability of the application, everything also favours Nebula Arcanum – high accuracy and auto-aiming at nearby enemies, AoE damage, piercing attack type, etc. All this allows you to effectively deal with both crowds of opponents and strong single targets, both in open space and in a more enclosed one. Nebula blaze cannot boast of this. The glove’s attack type is intended for single targets only, and its high imprecision makes it ineffective in confined spaces.
Summing up all of the above, we can confidently say that Nebula Arcanum is more versatile and better than Nebula blaze. Despite this, the player is free to decide for himself which of these two weapons will be more beneficial to him, starting from his build and play style.