Crossbows should have relatively low (up to 9 maybe) or no STR requirements, because it doesn't take much strength to hold and shoot it. Reloading, however, does require stronk mooscles, so their rate of fire should be strongly dependant on STR, rather than WPF. I suggest making WPF dictate accuracy, and STR dictate reload time or even allow drawing by hand if game's engine allows for that.
I think the devs are in way too deep and are lost in balance hell.
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True to both, although the default animation already is drawing the crossbow's string back by hand rather than using a hook mechanism or a windlass (or some other mechanical device) which is unrealistic but easier to animate (as it was in the original M&B). And yeah, getting the animation changed will probably not happen. Food for thought for
Melee: Battlegrounds whatever the fuck they're calling that game now.
In terms of STR requirement, historically and nowadays drawing the string of a crossbow is not altogether difficult since they're mostly mechanical instead of requiring specific hand motions and strength from the user like a bow. However, I believe having it at a high enough STR level is necessary to avoid people abusing ATH to run like hell and be super-mobile crossbowmen, but I think your suggestion is pretty interesting in terms of the game's context nevertheless.