Crossbows useless?

[Steve]

I got a Crossbow and quite frankly it's dreadful! I can put up with the slow reload time but the damage done is pitiful! I can shoot a guy in the face from 2 foot away or shoot a wolf in the head and ...it doesn't even slow them!

Are bows any better than this? (not found one yet to test)

[Grubbs008]

Even with 30 in Marksman, and 30 in Agility/Strength, you still don't do very much. They def need to increase the damage done by bows somehow. There's mods for it on Nexus, but they are very cheaty at the moment.

[Charon]

Bows at least fire faster and are less boring. I still can't oneshot anything besides hares though.

[jfoytek]

Bow's fire faster and are easier to aim and hit things at range....

The X-Bow is indeed horrible beyond all measure....

[Ernasty]

It can be lethal as a combat opener, but I agree that it's pretty useless. Bows are much better.

[Fleetwood]

I finally killed someone with a crossbow today. It only worked because he was running away from me. Still took two up close shots the back to down him.

Took me 50 hours to finally get one.

(Also finally killed an animal with a bow today, but I had to download a mod to make that happen)

[iamanart1st]

It's ridiculous

[Humpenstilzchen]

At the moment the only way to make them useful is by applying bane poison to the arrows/bolts.

[Strifeboy]

They should nerf crossbow damage in line with less then a longbow. If you don't know crossbows are actually pretty bad, but unlike longbows don't require massive amount of strength and strain, longbows are actually better at piercing targets and are less deflective compared to bolts.

[Foxrun]

Crossbows are amazingly good. Two shots of wounding bolts to chest and I can down heavy plate users easily.

[Hellsteeth30]

Bane potion.

If they don't drop they will soon.

Gotta get those perks going too. In fact with decent armour you can get away with reloading and doming enemies while facetanking.

Not so much in Kuttenberg mind you.

[Decay]

Originally posted by Steve:

I got a Crossbow and quite frankly it's dreadful! I can put up with the slow reload time but the damage done is pitiful! I can shoot a guy in the face from 2 foot away or shoot a wolf in the head and ...it doesn't even slow them!

Are bows any better than this? (not found one yet to test)

I find the bows to better than any crossbow options, they do much less damage, but with the perk that makes your bow reload even faster, you can shoot 4-5 times before a crossbow reloads once, so if you have the 200 power long bow you'll have to shoot more to keep up with a Windlass, but you're also far more flexible and able to engage multiple enemies before they close the distance. Especially with all the perks to slow enemies when they get damaged as well as debuffing them.

[Nightslaver]

On my eyes Crossbows are not useless.
They are pretty good as stealth-build weapons, were reload is not so much important, but oneshot kills even more so.

[corthew]

I think bows might be faster to load but crossbows are easier to aim.
But since neither is any good if the enemy can reach you its generally moot. If I was on a wall though or able to stay out of reach, I'd definitely choose crossbow over regular bow. There is no loss of stamina when aiming a crossbow but holding that string back drains you fast.
I have used a crossbow from horseback and been very effective against three bandits by backing away as I loaded, aimed and shot, then galloping past them when they got close and doing the same from the other side.

[Hassohappa]

18 Marksmanship I just tested things out vs Andrew Ramhead's gang. I have a T3 dogwood hunting bow (160 power) w/enhanced long-range arrows (125 power), a T2 ornate hunting crossbow (200 power) ,T3 decorated field crossbow (380 power), and T3 reinforced heavy crossbow (550 power) with fine bolts (130 power), and a T3 pistole (620 power) with lead balls (250 power).

All of the crossbows were able to kill one of the guards in one shot with a chest shot. If you're going to kite enemies and shoot them the ornate hunting crossbow killed Andrew in ~2 headshots (I shot him twice and then he bled out before I could shoot him again) vs the hunting bow in 4. The field crossbow was awkward to use in combat because of the reload time but it killed Andrew in 2 headshots. I don't think the heavy crossbow is reasonable to use in combat at all.

I'm completely inexperienced using the pistole, I have no idea where I'm aiming or what I'm hitting. I was able to point blank kill one of the guards with it. I tried with the scattershot just for giggles and about 3 feet away directly into the back of a guard it didn't kill him.

So for me I usually prefer just using the bow as it's the most mobile and I find aiming it and the crossbow to be similar experiences. The crossbows still are fine and might provide some added opportunities for oneshotting guards to avoid alerting the whole camp as quickly. The crossbow also can still be used with the time slow when aiming which makes headshots in combat really simple. The heavy crossbow is mostly just for an opening shot but it much more reliable than the pistole and nearly as powerful. The pistole has that nice debuff against other enemies when you kill with it though.

[Random Zero Gravity]

Crossbow just slow AF. Bow is to go to. Not sure why they put crossbow in the game if gonna be slower than bow.