Spectre armor

Spectre Armor is an extremely effective late-game mage-style armor crafted from 54 Chlorophyte Bars and 54 Ectoplasm. Its set bonus grants healing upon successful magic damage above a certain threshold. Every time the player wearing the armor causes magic damage to an enemy a small white sphere is created that travels to a nearby team member who has the lowest health and heals them for about 8% of the damage dealt. The orb will also heal the wearer, if no team member has lower health or if playing a solo game. Each sphere heals only a small amount of health, but any cast that hits multiple enemies will provide health upon every hit and certain attacks can quickly add up.

Despite its low defense and moderate resource cost, it is still considered to be the best mage armor in the game due to the massive damage stats and the very handy life leech.

Tips

 * The Mana Flower is a great accessory to combine with Spectre Armor, since it allows the automatic use of mana potions so that the player would never run out. Another option is to use Magic Cuffs which provide large amounts of mana while taking damage. This makes it immensely useful in combination with the Spectre Armor during late-game invasions and boss battles, when the player takes near constant damage, since the healing effect changes it directly back into health with an additional mana bonus on top.


 * Multi-hit spells such as the Heat Ray, Inferno Fork, and Magnet Sphere work extremely well against hardmode bosses like The Destroyer as well as when combating Hardmode invasions, such as the Pirate Invasion, a Solar Eclipse, and the Pumpkin Moon. The large amount of targets means that there's a constant and numerous supply of enemies to leech health from, making the combined effect of the penetration practically unstoppable. Along with several additional good-sized damage bonuses, this effect can be stacked to allow the player to deal massive amounts of damage, including over 100 a hit with the Inferno Fork. This practically maxes the healing-per-second cap with every shot and fills it quickly with other weapons.


 * Casting long-lasting spells like the Nimbus Rod is a great way to keep your party healed, as each raindrop counts as a new projectile, healing the maximum possible health. If an enemy is trapped underneath a Nimbus Cloud, health can be restored while completing another action. During invasions, this effect is almost constant, meaning that the player can focus on using even other magic attacks while the Rod provides endless healing with no effort.


 * Combining all these techniques together, one can decimate even the toughest of Hardmode bosses. For instance, using the Golden Shower and then attacking with other, more powerful, weapons will quickly deplete bosses' health. Combined with the Magic Cuffs, one will almost never run out of mana or health and can attack the enemy risk-free, making short work of it. It is for this reason that the Spectre Armor is considered the most over-powered equipment in the game, despite being reduced in power a few times.

Trivia

 * Spectre/Specter is another word for ghost or spirit.
 * The armorset could be a reference to Tyrael from the Diablo series, as the head and shoulders show a very close resemblance to Tyrael's armor.
 * The set's appearance is most similar to the Ghost Wings.