Can we talk about crossbows?

[Glythe]

Using a crossbow means you will not have 6 mods (eventually 7) that contribute to your primary class. When I tell people that is how crossbows work most will immediately decide right then to never use one. I would like to see some xbow reform in the game (eventually).

Proposal:

1. Crossbows have the potential to roll mods like every other piece of gear (that is to say you get a crossbow and it has stats for priest/mentalism and no % dmg crossbow mods).

2. Gear that is not a crossbow offhand will never be generated with crossbow skills. (no more gear in the offhand slot with Xbow skills unless it is an Xbow).

3. Would it be possible to have some of the crossbow special effects be applied like the new shield wax coating to prevent the need for mod slots? Maybe some of the effects for xbow damage could be applied with special coating on the arrows as well.



My opinion is that crossbows are a backwards design element. Their implementation made the game much worse for a number of people; this is directly a result of many offhand items even being a crossbow as well as items not being a crossbow randomly rolling xbow skills.

Maybe my opinion is wrong and crossbows are amazing. If you love crossbows and find they are worth the loss of class mod slots could you tell me why?

[INXS]

The notion that you must use all 7 modds for skills is not accurate, for example in my build i only use 6 abilities in pants, shirt and boots for i opted for armor instead, also some other slots I got a few weak abilities that if they were missing would not be bad. Crossbow could use some tweaking but I don't think it's in a bad state, it is mainly used for the % buff to epic attack and I've seen some very nice build utilizing it and making it work.

[alleryn]

1. Crossbows have the potential to roll mods like every other piece of gear (that is to say you get a crossbow and it has stats for priest/mentalism and no % dmg crossbow mods).

Isn't this already the case?

[Glythe]

it is mainly used for the % buff to epic attack and I've seen some very nice build utilizing it and making it work.

If you are referring to spike damage builds that do like 20k dmg with a single attack... I think we will find those will eventually be removed from the game (see citans comments in the necrohammer 40k thread).

Isn't this already the case?

To clarify: I am really suggesting crossbows to only roll class mods.


I would consider using a crossbow if it did not gimp my primary combat classes. Many classes have build defining mods on the off hand slot.

[poulter]

Non-crafted weapons are all limited to 5 +1 mods e.g. lutes, bows, shields, unarmed weapons, swords, etc.

Max crafted weapons like staff, club, conch get 1 more.

Crossbows are not much different to most other weapons.
I would consider a modded gold crossbow to be better than most given the available crossbow-specific mods for them.

PS: From memory, crossbows were added to provide range damage /crowd control capability for some skill combos that lacked them.

[hakanvid]

I have a near perfect 4os Superior Colossus Crossbow. Is it worth it to make faith for my merc? vidmate app download insta save

[Mikhaila]

One quick thought.

I know some people get upset when gear drops that is messed up: Not using your skills, xbow mods on a shield, and so many other ways that gear can be unusable. This is just a crap drop meant to be sold or destroyed for phlog or prisms. The vast majority of items that drop are just loot, and it really doesn't matter what mods it has.

Just sell or destroy the item and move on.