The Phantasm and Vortex Beater are probably
the most compared pillar weapons in the game. They're very similar, after all - they fire
bullets or arrows quickly and with a special effect. At least, they're much more similar than the
next most compared set of pillar weapons, the Solar Eruption and Daybreak. Both of these weapons sit at the top of their
class, representing the ultimate or penultimate bow or gun in the game. Both are stellar weapons, but which is better? Well, let's take a look at them first. The Vortex Beater is our first weapon. It fires bullets at a rate of 12 per second
and special rockets, which home and explode on enemies, at a rate of around 1.7 per second. It also has a large spread, about as bad as
the Gatligator or Chain Gun, meaning that it is highly advisable to use homing bullets
like Chlorophyte or Nano to counteract this. Our second weapon, then, would be the Phantasm. It has a slightly less lame ability, where
arrows create three homing Phantasm arrow copies on hit, each dealing 30% damage for
a total of 90% damage. The Phantasm also has a variable firerate,
with the firerate increasing from 2.5 to 3.33 shots per second as it charges up, meaning
this weapon isn't that ideal for burst shots. It is also the only bow in the game that has
ammo conservation baked in, with a rate of 66%. From your initial assumptions, you might assume
that the Phantasm is better for single target. And you are right - combined with Holy Arrows,
the Phantasm wrecks the Vortex Beater if all its stars are allowed to land. However, real scenarios are often much different
than this test setup here. Take, for example, the one thing ahead of
you - the Moon Lord fight. Both you and the Moon Lord are moving relatively
quickly here, meaning a good amount of your Holy Stars and Arrows are going to miss. This means the Vortex Beater typically equals
or beats the Phantasm's damage in this fight - the Phantasm has more raw DPS, but the homing
on both the rockets and bullets of the Vortex Beater ensures a near 100% hit rate, leading
to more overall DPS during the boss fight - especially if you dodge cautiously. Even if you use Ichor or Venom Arrows, which
would be better than Holy if you miss a majority of stars, the overall DPS is still lower than
the Beater. The Vortex Beater also benefits from the increased
range of bullets as well as their strong homing, giving you extra distance, and therefore,
safety. If you use the Vortex Beater, you can essentially
fight at distance, since if you use Chlorophyte Bullets, the homing is so strong that you
can reliably hit him from off screen. And yes, I know, some of you can "just aim"
and think that the Chlorophyte Bullet is a crutch for noobs, and while that is probably
partly true, in this case where the boss is offscreen, you literally can't "just aim"
if you want your distance. But back to the point. This extra distance that the bullets allow
makes it much easier to dodge his attacks, especially toward the end of the fight once
you kill the top eye and remove Phantasmal Deathray as a threat. The True Eye of Cthulhu deathrays in particular
are heavily range limited, meaning you can largely ignore them from then on. Basically, if you just keep moving away from
him, it's very hard for him to hit you in this phase. In contrast, the Phantasm requires you to
get much closer, not only due to the lack of noticeable homing but also due to the low
speed and gravity loss that plagues arrows. Even with the Magic Quiver or double-speed
arrows, this fact is noticeable, and requires you to correct for arrow drop on top of aiming
and dodging simultaneously. In this case, using the Phantasm requires
a much more aggressive playstyle than the Vortex Beater. It has the potential for higher DPS, but necessitates
close-quarters and risky combat. Perhaps in lesser difficulties, like Classic
or Expert, it would be worth the risk, but since I'm playing on Master, where every Moon
Lord attack deals like, 200 damage, I certainly favor caution. Overall, the ease of use of the Beater with
Chlorophyte Bullets makes me think that it would be the superior option for the Moon
Lord. As for the Phantasm, though, it is noticeably
better for events or swarms like the Pillars, especially with Holy arrows. Here, aim doesn't matter as much and distances
are smaller. Holy Arrows also create a much greater area
of denial than bullets can, which is helpful for keeping enemies at bay. However, the Phantasm isn't a "multi-target"
weapon though, and thus it doesn't excel in the way a Solar Eruption would, for example,
but in my opinion it's still better than the Beater would be. Not to say the Beater is bad for pillars - it
has some merits, for example if you wanted to use Nano Bullets to inflict Confusion - but
the Phantasm would generally be better. Basically, the Beater is better for fast-moving,
long-range targets, which is basically just the Moon Lord, while the Phantasm is better
at close-range and slower-moving targets, so most of everything else up to this point. In my opinion, the Phantasm is more versatile. Generally though, this kind of comparison
is rather redundant. Most of the time, you can just craft both. On your first pillar cycle, you have about
a 1/2 chance to get enough fragments to craft both on your first pass, or around a 4/5 chance
if you're playing on Expert. It's very likely not necessary to pick favorites. If I had to craft one first, what would I
pick? Well, I'd craft the Vortex Beater. It may be lamer and be worse for clearing
out the pillars, but if I get to the Moon Lord I'd damn well be using that over the
Phantasm. But that's just my personal preference. On the overall grading ladder of all pillar
weapons, which is what this series nominally is for, both of these do well. The Vortex Beater earns an A+, equating the
Daybreak, while the Phantasm earns an A to equate the Solar Eruption. Both, in my opinion, are better than the Nebula
Weapons. But I believe that's not a controversial statement
or anything. And, that's the 3rd part of this series. Part 4, or Stardust, will be here as soon
as it comes out. If you're part of the 80% of my audience who
aren't subscribed, I ask you to subscribe here. Here's the Nebula and Solar videos if you
want to watch them. Either way, thank you for warching, and good
day and good bye.
