The crossbow takes too long to load

[emitfudd]

I completed a quest that gave me a crossbow. I crafted 30 bronze bolts. I came across a wolf and by the time the crossbow was ready to fire the wolf had bitten me 3 or 4 times and I lost most of my health. To top it off I had to shoot a second bolt to kill it. Is the crossbow supposed to be better than the bows? I had a longbow and didn't have any issues killing animals. I haven't even used the recurve bow yet which is supposed to fire even faster if I'm not mistaken. Should I ditch the crossbow?

[Fel]

The crossbow is a bit of a different weapon, you can reload it ahead of time and be ready for a head shot right away instead of having to draw the bow.
There is a perk in the hunting skill tree that lowers the draw and reload times, it's a great one to get no matter what you use but it has even more impact on the crossbow since the reload time is higher.

There are people that prefer the crossbow but I personally like the recurve bow more because the time to shoot is very low while the power is pretty high.

The second shot was probably because you didn't get a headshot with your first, I'm pretty sure copper ammunition one-shots wolves with head shots.

[Mouse]

Originally posted by Fel:

The crossbow is a bit of a different weapon, you can reload it ahead of time and be ready for a head shot right away instead of having to draw the bow.
There is a perk in the hunting skill tree that lowers the draw and reload times, it's a great one to get no matter what you use but it has even more impact on the crossbow since the reload time is higher.

There are people that prefer the crossbow but I personally like the recurve bow more because the time to shoot is very low while the power is pretty high.

The second shot was probably because you didn't get a headshot with your first, I'm pretty sure copper ammunition one-shots wolves with head shots.

Its known that a crossbow is much slower than a bow, crossbows were used has armor piercers due to the strenght on impact, not like bows that depended on ur arms .
even stone arrow kills a wolf in the head, must had hit body.

[richardmgoldsmith]

You can use the crossbow to good effect if you can position yourself out of their reach on top a spikey peak. This will allow for reloading time. i can think of one such place I discovered a little way north of Hornica. Alternatively, make your first long range shot at the wolf count by a drop-shot to the head, and if it fails - switch to your axe and hit it when it reaches you. Don't take on a pack with a crossbow unless they can't reach you.

[ciero9]

When I'm dealing wolves, either individually or in packs, I'll pick them off one at a time using iron bolts because they're one-shot kills, including to the body. My back up weapon is an iron spear because it also one-shots wolves.

[richardmgoldsmith]

I like the skill required for a one-shot-drop from near maximum range with a recurve bow. that is most satisfying. I have definitely improved with practice, and you know if you've not got it perfect.