Optic Staff

Each cast gives you a matched pair, and the pair together occupies a single minion slot. Fill every slot you have and you are commanding twice the usual number of minions. One half charges through targets at close range and the other holds back firing lasers, so a single staff covers both jobs instead of you splitting slots between two summons.

They notice targets from a long way off, further than you can see on screen, but the charging half only commits once it is fairly close. Against something that keeps its distance you get the lasers and very little else. The lasers themselves expire after a while in flight, so shooting across a huge open arena wastes shots that would have landed in a tighter space.

Distance from you is the first. Run far enough ahead and they abandon whatever they were doing to catch up, so a fight spent constantly retreating quietly costs you most of your damage. Ride a boss in a loop and you will feel it.

Terrain is the second. Unlike most flying minions, these do not phase through blocks while you are nearby, so a narrow dug-out tunnel has them grinding against walls instead of reaching anything. Fight in open space and both problems disappear.

Crowds. A Solar Eclipse or either of the moon events keeps something in range at all times, and independently targeting minions are exactly what that situation rewards. Against one fast boss circling a large arena they spend a lot of the fight in transit, and a stationary sentry or a homing summon does better. Fabled is the modifier to aim for.

The miniatures skip a couple of details from the real bosses. Nothing links the pair together the way a tendril links the originals, and the melee half never spits cursed flames the way Spazmatism does. It is also possible to end up with an uneven number of each type by summoning at the projectile cap and then lowering it.