User blog:Infinal/Spectre Armor in the Lunar Update.

Ever since the introduction of this set in the 1.2 update, it has become evident that this armor is overpowered to the point of breaking the game. We have thus decided to modify the three components as well as the set altogether to make Terraria more fun for its loyal players.

Crafting
In order to counter the abundance of Chlorophyte Bars and Ectoplasm found so early and plentiful in the game, we have changed the recipe for the Spectre Armor’s set items again (which also takes care of our moral compulsion to change the established at least once every two updates). The Spectre Hood is now forged from four The Axe (of which at least one needs to be Legendary), 99 Ichor in Corruption worlds/99 Cursed Flames in Crimson worlds, and still one Ectoplasm (just to annoy you some). The Spectre Robe now requires two Bone Keys which must come from the world you wish to assemble this piece in, 41 deciduous Snow Globes to be dropped when Pumpkins grow, and a randomly generated amount of 5 to 20 Terra Blades. The Spectre Pants finally are crafted with 24 Shroomite Bars (although this set has nothing to do with the armor they are usually a part of) and an assorted mix of Hallowed, Titanium, and Mythril Bars and require the player to publicly state their mom’s credit card number, expiration date, and security code on a crowded multiplayer server at least once.

Defense
24 points of defense are evidently way too much for end-game mage characters who have defeated the Eye of Cthulhu, the Eater of Worlds, Skeletron, the Wall of Flesh, The Twins, The Destroyer, Skeletron Prime, Plantera, and possibly the Golem: The Spectre Armor almost sports as much impenetrable defense as the pre-hardmode Molten Armor with 25 points and turns even supposedly fragile casters into steamrolling tanks barely matched by envious players with the Turtle Armor. Ignoring the insignificant obstacle of having to vanquish aforementioned bosses (and all the worlds and enemies that come with or before them), the Spectre Armor is obtained virtually immediately after the player has access to the Molten Armor – it does not really require any additional time spent on the game but can instead be assembled as soon as the player has access to Hellstone. For this reason, we have lowered the defense provided by the Spectre Armor by a small amount. Each component now yields -5 defense and the entire set gives another -7 points of defense for a total of -22 defense (the total defense for a player equipped with the armor and only warding accessories is -2), effectively amplifying the damage taken to adequately represent players’ wishes for being a decrepit, withered old sorcerer who has to find shelter dueling Blue Slimes and build an arena for each battle against a Zombie.

Bonuses
We cannot ethically account for players who cheat their way through the game by picking the way overpowered caster class being infinitely superior to summoner, ranger, and melee players (which is also why nobody ever considered thinking about possibly evaluating the creation of a character choosing one of these three types). Therefore, we have adjusted the bonuses the Spectre Armor yields for casters to somewhat balance out the grossly strong magic weapons. The Spectre Hood increases the maximum mana by 11.65 points. To compensate for this humongous boost, its reduced mana cost is replaced by an additional mana cost effect. All spells require 40% more mana and, by tinkering with the game’s mechanics, also take twice as long to cast. The Spectre Robe reduces magic damage dealt by the player and the magical critical hit rate by 15% each while the Spectre Pants slow the player by 6% and inflict damage to the player equal to (affected by defense) half the damage of a magic spell cast. To make up for the slightly decreased magic capabilities, this designated caster set boosts the damage inflicted by melee, ranged, and summoning weapons by 5% each.

Life steal
This unique ability is the one us developers have had the most quarrel about. A ludicrous 10% of the damage dealt was barely nerfed to 8%, and although both percentages were always floored (making hits for less than 13 damage not regenerate any health at all), we saw need for yet another subtle improvement to the balance. We have thrown out the previous calculations and replaced it with this much simpler one. Whenever the player deals between 1,011 and 1,037 points of magic damage, a coin is tossed. If heads, a 20-sided dice is rolled. Should the result be between 17 and 19, an external Java library is loaded up to check if the computer’s date happens to be between the 11th of January and the 31st of March. If that is the case, the server at www.random.org is contacted and asked to return a truly random (to meet demands for independent random number generation and prevent luck manipulation) integer between 3 and 45 (if the connection times out, the toss is considered failed). And finally, if the number returned is a prime, not bigger than 20, and Redigit’s lucky number of the day (which will, for fairness and balance, be published the next day), the player is granted 2% of the damage inflicted as health regeneration. To keep summoning, melee, and ranged type players from getting jealous, a debuff is applied after a successful regeneration that prevents the player from healing altogether until the next full moon occurs (in real life).

Unfortunately if the player somehow (and admittely unfairly) manages to get more than a total of 99 HP per character regenerated by the Spectre Armor, the game crashes and both a player’s characters and worlds are irreversibly corrupted. This is a known bug and will be fixed as soon as possible (although Red’s suggestion to use this effect as a feature rather than a bug was met with ubiquitous acclaim and enraptured staff members).

In conclusion
We have come to the conclusion that players who have spent 100 hours or more on this game enjoy nothing more than being ripped to shreds by monsters found at the beginning so they can relive their favorite moments of frustration no matter the amount of time and effort they have put into their carefully raised characters. Our fanbase, recent surveys confirm, consists of nothing but masochistic try-hards and cliché Korean pro-gamers, so we have bestowed the thrill of suffering and failure where previously proven methods and strategy, no matter how tediously conceived and accrued, dared roam freely. We hope you enjoy these minor changes to make your Terraria experience even more congenial.

Planned updates include the player character automatically turning into a hardcore char as soon as the armor is put on and a Plantera buff to make it enrage and uninstall your operating system as soon as the player engages it. Happy holidays and play on,

—Cenx