Dedicated Crossbowmen - where have they gone?

[Michael]

Dedicated Crossbowmen - where have they gone?


DaveUkr - rage quit

Gnjus - thrower

others - are there any?

So, I have done my private testing, my dedicated level 20 crossbowman looks like this:

(click to show/hide)

Strength   15   
Agility   15   


One Handed   1   [1 WPF cost] 
Two Handed   1   [1 WPF cost] 
Polearm   1   [1 WPF cost] 
Archery   1   [1 WPF cost] 
Crossbow   135   [8 WPF cost]
Throwing   1   [1 WPF cost] 

Ironflesh   0   
Power Strike   0   
Shield   0   
Athletics   5   
Riding   0   
Horse Archery   0   
Power Draw   0   
Power Throw   0   
Weapon master *   5   

The crosshair is almost tight, not as tight as in native, what is fine I think.

The reload lasts ages. After each shot I can go to the kitchen and make a sandwich or something while my guy is reloading. What is also fine I think.

But the damage is not enough.

I let him use the best stuff money can buy (sniper + steel bolts).

I have many hits, but no kills.

Even those agi Ninjas with cheap armor survive a close distance shot.

To tell the truth, even archers survive a shot (usually).

What is this?

If you want to avoid that crossbows are used as a sidearm by black armored tincans, that is what upkeep is for, or not?

And my main is a lancer/ pikeman, so a crossbow buff would hurt me a lot.

Also, I made this char like others for testing purposes only, I will delete him soon.

I have tried all classes, and I think this one is really too hard to play, especially when I see that with my dedicated thrower I had a k > d at level 7.

Archery, cavalry, strength infantry, at level 20 I could usually bring a k > d.

With this one, only on a few maps (like this castle map some admin abusers always have to change before the first round).

 

[Tai Feng]

Gnjus is throwing because it's overpowered.
Dave is sulking, pointlessly.


The others are doing same thing they were doing before: rolling archers who are superior to xbow in every way.

You can still see plenty of xbows, but they are not pure xbow like you, because it's pointless to be pure xbow. Try having a melee weapon and some proficiency. Even Native xbowmen were designed to be hybrids.



The main problem of xbows is that they are BORING like hell. In Native they're not, but in crpg they have to be "balanced" with super slow reload. Well guess what, people want to PLAY the game, not reload entire game.

[Michael]

My first generation was a crossbowman/2h hybrid, I have played it for some months, and I dont remember all my kills, but I would say I killed about 50 % with crossbow.

The snipers damage was 100, a one shot kill for Ninjas, archers and other people without iron flesh or plate.


Same in native. In Nord Town etc. about 50 % of enemies I kill with crossbow, if not more. Less armor, way faster reload, similiar damage.


I think its true. chadz is done with playing actively. He killed his own domain in his own mod. lol =)


The long reload time wasnt a problem for me, I understood it as a challenge. I had to be aware, I had to see the archer first and I had to hit him, otherwise I would be dead in arrow spam.
I couldnt waste a single bolt to low levels, I had to focus and kill the best 2h players before they killed half of my team. I liked it. Otherwise I wouldnt have played it for so long, I dont play to collect kills, I play for fun.

[bruce]

I had a crossbowman but I retired it for some reason to make a thrower... anyway, going to level it again. But if I do, it's definitely going to have some powerstrike, melee proficiency and a melee weapon, pure ranged and then running away like a my old friend when someone approaches with a melee weapon deserves to be pathetic.

[Trael]

I do have deidecated crossbower with this name...
lvl 24
sure i do have long sword and 86 in 2h prof, but i also have 121 crossbow prof and im most likely going to be raising only crossbows prof from now on.

Problem just is that long sword + sniper crossbow + steel bolts combinet are already at 25k gear point that equals pretty close to +- 0 gold with how autobalance has been handling me for last couple of weeks.

So i end up being delicate flower without armor, dying to basicly anything even with my iron flesh 5. Problem just seems to be that these days even mid to low armor targets wont seem to much care about getting hit by bolts. Have to admit that last patch that returned some of crossbows damage did good, after it i was able to get some frags in siege defense (but pretty much not anywhere else...).

i could use my other crossbow (hunters i got first), it reloads like magic compared to snipers crossbow, but then again i think only thing i have been able to frag with it has been one archer with incredibly lucky headshot from ½ map away (quite ballistic fire pretty much hitting target to head from up), but really if my sniper crossbow does not allways kill targets without armor (!) (yes i have seen this too..) then im not expecting all that much better from hunters crossbow in damage...

back when i started playing and grinded gold to get that already expensive sniper crossbow slowly on old system, even mightiest tincans seemed to pay attention to it and try to avoid getting hit, becouse dedicated crossbower was quite serious damage dealer to them, these days every punk lowarmor ninja seems to just rush at me saying "well i can take one or two hits if they dont get me in head, and your reload is so slow that you wont be able to deliver but maybe one to me before i nodachi/katana spam you..."

i liked times when with sniper crossbow there was matter of choosing your targets "that one is peasant, not worth it becouse that heavily armored 2h spammer knight should come around that corner just soon trying to slash tru my team... and if i can put bolt in that ill end up saving quite many of my teammates from that flamepatterned blade.."

these days it seems to be "oh anything i can see if i just would end up damaging or maybe fraggins something"

it was still fun to play crossbower, but well i guess part of it is becouse i already have sniper crossbow & steel bolts and with their current prices cant dont really need any extra gold... as i cant support any other gear to spawn, recently been looking at buying cheaper 2h to be used instead of longsword for most of time...

oh dear being sick and sleeping at home causes me to have these spontaneous rushes of half-readable text, when i havent really talked to anyone for couple of days (makes throat hurt...) or really written anything... "something that even kind of could seeeemmm like sssooooooccciiiiaaalll interractiiioooonnnn..."

sry for this... ;)

edit: funny thing is my other chars are: pure polearms char (uses selection of GOOD polearms, gear cost something like < 15-22k) and quite effective, 1h+shield (havent yet seen where gear and effectivity sets..), now for lols 3agility thrower (most likely wont have interrest to heirloom stones enough to have them as proper option to keep that interresting...)

[Astinus]

Dedicated crossbowmen have no reasons to exist. Crossbow is the perfect and cheaper hybrid way. Yeah you can focus more on the xbow than the melee weapon, but that's all, going pure crossbow is not the way it should work

[Ninja_Khorin]

I don't know how, but I've been one-shotted more than once by crossbowmen and they weren't headshots. Same with archers

[Trout4711]

Dedicated Crossbowmen - where have they gone?

Well, don't you know that ranged combat is "a my old friendgy and cowardly style of fighting" and has no place in Mount & Crybabbies?

[Thomek]

my lvl 27 char was just one-shotted by a sniper xbow. Don't see a lot of xbows around though, so hard to tell.

[Paul]

This lobbyism crap isn't even funny anymore. I have a mid-level crossbowman using a simple crossbow with the ninja-buffed steel bolts and he's super effective. Fortunatly I'm playing both, archer and crossbowman, so I can compare and don't have to rely on this kind of pseudo-feedback.

[Trout4711]

This lobbyism crap isn't even funny anymore. I have a mid-level crossbowman using a simple crossbow with the ninja-buffed steel bolts and he's super effective. Fortunatly I'm playing both, archer and crossbowman, so I can compare and don't have to rely on this kind of pseudo-feedback.

It is actually good to hear that at least one of the developers has first hand knowledge about the stuff they are changing...

Please continue that trend!

[Gnjus]

Gnjus - thrower

Wrong. I have 125 in 1handed and 113 in throwing. PS 6, PT 6. What does that make me ? Certainly not a full thrower, there are quite enough of those around, the guys who you see running with nothing but axes (mostly, some use jarids or lances) and they have PT like 10 or more, and basically one-shot everything (while i mostly dont). Im just a poor hybrid shielder.

Gnjus is throwing because it's overpowered.

Wrong. I'm throwing because that's the only other thing i wanted to try beside xbows (cant do 2handers since i suck at manual blocking, cant do archery cause religion forbids me, id like to go cavalry but it actually sucks since maps are mostly not suited for it, horses go down fast and they are quite expensive), i respeced the same day patch arrived without checking things out on forums or in-game...if it sucked id still be a hybrid as i am now, since i never retired. So basically i was amongst the first throwers out there who wanted to play throwing because they like it, not because they think (or know) its OP after the patch.

Check your facts boys, before you mention my name in vain. 



Edit:

I don't know how, but I've been one-shotted more than once by crossbowmen and they weren't headshots. Same with archers

Grow stronger. 

[Braeden]

So basically i was amongst the first throwers out there who wanted to play throwing because they like it, not because they think (or know) its OP after the patch.

Umm...first post patch throwers, you mean.

Anyhow, I have a dedicated 2-h who has evolved into a largely dedicated crossbowman who has melee capacity because I found the crossbow to be just that much more effective fighting against ranged spam.  Now, I probably have a bit easier time because the average ATS map provides a lot of cover to shoot from, but I do fairly well on the native maps which come up as well.  I also have a pure crossbowman, but he is mostly for fooling around.

[Gnjus]

Umm...first post patch throwers, you mean.

Well ofc, it is post patch we are talking about here. It is very well known what i was before the patch (a stinking camper, hider and time-waster). 

[Magikarp]

Where have they gone? People started playing them, than it got a damage nerf, so they went back to throwing or archery.
However, people who actually like playing in their own way, choose the weapon they like most, those are the people who still us xbows.