You've one shotted me before on karma in my various get ups. Although extremely rare, you will almost always 2- shot my character regardless though. The reload time on the arbalest mixed with the difficulty with hitting from distance make it fine IMO. Unless you run or just straight into the shot, i'm not going to one shot you. I eman yeah, one shots are lame, I totally agree, but then why don't we nerf the bec a bit then? Why not nerf any other weapon that one-shots people. My apologies, I just don't see why a weapon should be nerfed because it can occasionally one shot people.
Yeah, that was probably when I was still running with 10PS. Don't do that anymore.
The bec is a lot better than it used to be, but I think a lot of this has to do with pierce damage in general. Overall, pierce damage was affected the least by the recent armor changes.
Just to throw this out there, how would you feel about an arbalest that does less damage overall, can still 2-shot people in medium armor, but has a slightly faster reload?
And ::sigh:: since you have to go down this road...
By the way i have a logical counter to all your complaints.
Elite scimitars are one of the best in their class, you see tons of 1handers using them, they are almost standard.
Bec de Corbins are great in their class, you see tons of people using them, and they are incredibly common.
Arbalests are the ??? in their class, you see ??? using them, and they are ??? common?
Hint: The only person i know who consistently uses an arby is DarkKarma, any others? Half the time people complain about getting killed by an "arbalest" it's just that they have been charging full force into my regular crossbow bolts.
If arbalests were so good they would be all over the place, just like any other weapon that is best in class. As it stands i almost never see an arbalest user. Like i said, they are incredibly niche and nowhere near overpowered. If they were overpowered everyone would want and be using one, especially in the past when one could get away with 1 wpf in xbows.
Elite Scimitars aren't as common as they used to be and I think they'll be even less common once people get more used to the armor soak changes. Nowadays, the only real benefit if the elite scimitar is its model and the fact that it hits earlier than it should due to hitboxes in this game. Overall, someone's better off with a weapon that has higher cut, or comparable cut and a pierce.
I'll give you that becs are pretty common nowadays, but I think that polearm diversity is slowly improving. I think it's popularity is currently due to how pierce is handled.
Now, all of the data you mentioned can't be measured. You are just saying that some things are common and some aren't. You said the Arbelest isn't common, which I agree with. However, the Arbalest also costs as much as a horse and will break a lot without WPF investment. There just aren't a lot of dedicated xbow men. You kind of need to be to use it effectively and to be able to afford it.
You also say that people getting killed by xbows are getting killed because they are "charging" into the bolts. What should they do? Run away? Should this game turn into "Hide Until All the Ranged Guys Run Out of Ammo"? It's a game where 2 groups come to fight each other. Of COURSE they are also going to be charging at each other. So I would say that particular event happens quite frequently...
I just don't get all the rage here. What's wrong with not being able to 1-shot a level 30 player wearing medium armor? I'm not saying cut the damage in half. I just think the MW damage bonus on the heavier crossbows could be lowered a few points.