Spectre armor

The Spectre Armor is a late-game mage-style armor crafted from 54 Chlorophyte Bars and 54 Ectoplasm. The set has two variants of headgear: the Spectre Mask provides a powerful offensive bonus, while the Spectre Hood will provide life-steal but reduces damage dealt.

The Spectre Mask is a purely offensive armor, and damaging enemies with magic weapons will launch aggressive homing projectiles from the impact site, which will fly off and hit other enemies or even return to hit them again. This effect is comparable with the Pumpkin-summoning effect of the Horseman's Blade, although it works faster but is overall less effective.

The Spectre Hood is a more support-type armor, and is very effective as part of a team. It is effective as a single unit, but since the life steal affects the player with the lowest health, it is a great support for allies who are getting up-close and personal with damaging enemies while the player stays back at a safe distance. However, it considerably lowers your damage output in exchange for the healing ability.

Tips

 * Multi-hit spells (such as the Heat Ray 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 and Frost Moon events. Against large amount of targets, the set bonus effects work to their maximum effect, due to the combined effect of the penetration.


 * Casting long-lasting spells (i.e. the Nimbus Rod, Rainbow Gun, etc.) is a great way to make effortless use of the set bonuses, as each raindrop counts as a new magic projectile and triggers the effect with every hit. During invasions, this effect is almost constant. With the Spectre Hood, this means that you can provide a constant flow of healing, and for the Spectre Mask, there is an endless barrage of missiles that seek out and attack several enemies at once.

Spectre Mask
 * Using the Wasp Gun is extremely effective, as the constant and numerous hits inflicted by wasps activate the effect nonstop to deal large amounts of extra damage. This is most effective against large groups of enemies.

Spectre Hood
 * Using mana potions causes magic weapons to be almost completely worthless for a few seconds after use. Finding alternative sources of mana is crucial for maxing out effectiveness of the Spectre Hood. Using Magic Cuffs, which provide large amounts of mana while taking damage, and the Celestial Magnet, which increases the pickup range for mana stars specifically, are two very useful items for this exact purpose. If the player is in possession of both, crafting the Celestial Cuffs is the best option.


 * Using high-damage weapons is a very effective way of maxing out the healing effect, and the Inferno Fork is especially useful for this purpose, since it does high damage and hits multiple enemies multiple times over a large area.

Trivia

 * Spectre is another word for ghost or spirit.
 * The set's appearance is most similar to the Ghost Wings.
 * The Spectre Mask may be inspired by the 16th century's plague doctors. A similar item is Crowno's Mask.
 * The projectile's appearance and tendency to home in on enemies could be a reference to Fidget's projectiles from Dust: An Elysian Tail.