Melee weapons without PS and proficiency are about as useful as xbow without proficiency. You can still kill with them.
That's a bullshit and you know it.
I have already done what Tai Feng is claiming. It does work like that.
I leveled up a test character just to study the reticule size and the rate of fire for the different crossbows. Since I wanted to get as much proficiency as quickly as possible, I converted every skill point that could not be put into weapon master into attribute points. I also did not spend the WPF until I reached level 21 so that the tests would be controlled for character agility. So, I fought siege battles for 21 levels with absolutely no useful skills and was getting as many kills with 0 PS and 0 proficiency polearms as I did with 0 proficiency crossbows.
It was miserable. They are both awful, but arguing about them is pretty meaningless because it is trivial to get 50 proficiency in a weapon type.
buff dedicated xbowers, nerf random xbowers
This does not seem possible until they nerf hybrid builds in general. Maybe, at some point in the future, you will not be able to pick up a secondary weapon type by giving up a couple proficiency from your main weapon type. For example, my high agility pikeman build could get 50 crossbow proficiency by dropping from 180 polearm proficiency to 177 polearm proficiency. 0 to 50 crossbow proficiency reduces the area of a crossbow reticule by about 50%. 180 to 177 polearm proficiency increases your the time per attack by less than 3 milliseconds. Balanced builds only drop 5 to 10 proficiency from their main weapon type for 50 crossbow proficiency. High strength builds would probably be better off throwing stuff with 0 throwing proficiency.
Well, everyone else is shooting or throwing something, so you might as well join in the shooter yourself. Half the maps involve roof bundle of sticksry. What do you expect?
Exactly. The players will do what works. You can not fault them for it.
