Well, my Ultimate Ironman just used up the last of his bolts for 41 Ranged, so after selling a few things, I'm back down to an almost completely empty inventory. All he's carrying:
-33k coins
-Mithril Pickaxe
-2 Diamonds (noted)
Yeah, not carrying much because on an account you're not even allowed to use the bank, you won't be successful if you're a pack rat. I'm surprised at how I've managed to carry an almost empty inventory most of the time where I thought it was going to be completely filled to the brim and I was going to have to make a ton of painful decisions on what to keep and what to NPC or discard. Of course, if I was a member on my Ultimate Ironman, that would make a world of difference since I WOULD have almost half my inventory wasted carrying things like a Dramen Staff (for Fairy Rings), Ectophial (for Ectofuntus and convenient one-click teleport), runes, potions, etc. Then you have those quests you have to drop all of your weapons and armor and pray you can beat them fast enough so some random bypasser doesn't steal your items or they don't despawn.
Other than that, decided to really mess with Terraria and using cheats (giving myself several Tipsy debuffs and Well Fed buffs), I actually made the Bladed Glove so fast it doesn't even animate. It literally has a use time of 1. That's 60 hits per second. Do the math. Paired with Weapon Imbue: Ichor, it's the perfect combo. Too bad it's only possible with cheating, but it was good novelty for playing with. On another note, am I the only person that even uses bows? Like I use Yrimir's strategy to farm the Corruption early game, only where he makes an Iron Broadsword, I instead make an Iron Bow and abuse the fact Eaters can't pass through the top of a platform. Of course, Devourers laugh at that setup, but I have Flaming Arrows to take care of those guys.
On another note, I'm tempted to do a 100% ranged character challenge. That is, NO melee weapons at all. But then, what should I do if I accidentally hit a monster with a tool while mining? On another note, this would probably be the hardest of the three "use only one class" challenge.
See with melee, you have a lot more early game support, much higher defense, powerful mid-ranged weapons late game like the Paladin's Hammer and very powerful long-ranged ones as well such as Flairon and the Terra Blade's sword beams. You also have Vampire Knives for healing and all of the imbuing flasks to make you even more lethal.
As a mage, you have a lot of very good spells. Pre-Hardmode, there is Water Bolt, Demon Scythe, Crimson Rod and the various staves. Later, you get all kinds of great spells, such as Magnet Sphere, Nimbus Rod, Razorpine, Blizzard Staff, Crystal Storm and more. Let's not forget the strong healing of Spectre armor and the insanely high DPS you can get with the Mask set of Spectre.
Ranged on the other hand has a lot of problems. First of all, you're constantly in need of ammo, be it bullets, arrows, etc. Bows are generally poor weapons and you'll be begging for a gun, even if it's an Undertaker or Musket. Secondly, the later game bullets and arrows become hard to make in bulk. Have fun farming Ichor Stickers or Chlorophyte for a few in-game days just to have a decent amount of Ichor/Chlorophyte Bullets. Lastly, and this is the big one, there is no parasitic healing at all. Melee has the Vampire Knives, Mages have Spectre Armor (Hood set), but Ranged has nothing. Not to mention, to profit from Shroomite's massive bonus damage, you have to remain still, which in a Pumpkin or Frost Moon, is a VERY quick way to get killed. So as a Ranger, you're forced to do a ton of evasion and aiming at the same time.
Not to mention, getting the Megashark is going to be FUN. The only way I could think of doing it reasonably would be to craft an Adamantite/Titanium Repeater and use either Jester or Unholy Arrows on the Destroyer. I tried Exploding Bullets and they leave to be desired, not to mention you risk hurting yourself. Other than that, the best I could think of is a +speed Clockwork Assault Rifle with Crystal Bullets, but that would take a while, especially with Probes chasing me all over. Either way, I'll attempt it.
