Bow or crossbow which one is truly better?

[Zalbag88]

As headline says which one of those two is better weapon. For me bow has always been bit traditional choice. In this game it seem that bow is faster weapon given it's lower ap cost, but crossbow clearly does more damage but has higher ap cost.

So which one is better?

[Stabbey]

It's hard to say. Crossbows have a much higher base requirement - you need DEX 10 just to be able to use the earliest model available, but they do a crazy amount of damage. I suppose it depends on whether you want to be more flexible and move around more, or stay mostly stationary and do large amounts of damage.

[Nahadoth]

It's always weird to me when games require a higher DEX stat for the use of crossbows than for regular bows. Crossbows were invented to be an easy to use alternative for longbows which required years of training and physical strength to be effective.

[Noble Ten]

yeah, that is true. Crossbows were ideal for untrained soldiers to handle easier than bows. But I guess the high dex requirement is more for a balancing. I like the use of crossbows over the bows in general (more so in games), so I prefer it. My ideal setup is Rodack as my crossbowman and Scarlet as my spearman knight (maybe a sythe if its implemented?). So I go with the crossbow regardless

[DeathKnight]

There is a scythe in the game.

Yes, crossbows do a lot damage, and for that reason have a higher requirement. Same as why a 2H sword or 2H axe has a higher requirement than a sword or a club. I know the background of the crossbow, but it's a game. We once tried more "realistic" settings for equipment (I'm a sucker for all things medieval), but it kind of broke gameplay and most of all FUN. Sure, it's easy enough just to switch the bow and crossbow around (concerning damage and requirement and all that), but your character just looks more badass with a crossbow than with a bow...

[[Q]uik]

Can't agree as far as "more badass with a crossbow than a bow"
I've always found bows more charming, while crossbows just look odd and clumsy, it feels like the "dumb soldiers choice" ^^

[Nahadoth]

I disagree on the crossbows are more badass than bows too. From all the great archers in fiction and history/folklore there aren't very many that use crossbows. Even Rambo uses a bow. Don't tell me he isn't a badass. :p

For 2-handed melee weapons vs 1-handed it makes sense to increase the (str) requirements, since they're a lot heavier and more unwieldy. Personally I prefer it if bows and crossbows have similar effective performances in games (crossbows being slower but hitting harder, bows reloading faster but a bit less damage resulting in the same dps for both, or in the case of TBS crossbows using more AP or being able to be used later in the turn), so it all comes down to user's preference of aesthetics and the 'feel' of the item and the character concept they're going for.

Yes, I'm the sort of gamer who gets annoyed when the character concept he has in mind is ineffective because the weapon he wants to use just doesn't do the damage to be effective. Or when his helmet looks silly. I don't do well in MMO's.

[Rival]

Dual-wielding hand crossbows? now that is badass.

[Velimirius]

well i use xbow on my marksman sniper and bow on wayfarer :)

[thrakkemarn]

i think crossbows because of the huge damage on your abilities which are independent from AP. It's basically burst damage vs DPS and i tend to like burst.

[N O r]

Originally posted by SENATE:

Dual-wielding hand crossbows? now that is badass.

Larian get on it! next patch better be there >:)

[Turbo Torsten]

Dual wielding is one of the most useless things in RPG's imo and dualwielding crossbows is even dumber (how will you effectively reload this ♥♥♥♥). I just want a large siege crossbow for my fallen paladin character... this would be awesome.

[Pringles]

Bow is better by far, don't bother at all with crossbows.

1) bow needs 4 (later on 3) points to shoot. after using skills and moving, you'll RARELY have 6 (later on 5) points left for even one shot of a crossbow.
2) the more shots, the better the chance of actually hitting, hence bows are better
3) the more shots, the better the chance of doing critical damage, hence bows are better
4) crossbows don't really do much more damage when compared to bows. Definily not enough to warrant 2 more AP.

so there u go

[Cioby]

I highly disagree with the last comment. I just finished the game and my bow would one shot everything in aoe with the arrow volley, hence I tend to agree with the earlier comment about "burst over dps". I think early you may have issues with crossbows but if they work as I assume they work (even tho you lose that 50% damage, you gain 30% ish crit or more with 300% dmg) you should end up bursting everything with your skills rather than the useless normal attacks.
I would normally do 500-600 dmg with my 2h but when I would crit (often) it would do 1500-1900 dmg. I would like to try dual wield without daggers but I really think doing triple damage with 30-40% chance to do so is stronger even on average if you do the math. And I did the math, at lower crit dmg and more damage you would be better off with a sword than an axe but when the damage of the axe gets closer and the crit damage is 300, you beat it.
So taking the same approach I will do my honor run with crossbows since I won't research for 3 hours since there are few comments about this topic and not really well researched or explained, for dual wield I saw everyone saying it beats 2h but then my main did 1 flurry and the last boss lost 60% of his entire hp. Dual is better in the sense that you can put 2 souls on each weapon and literally have +6 speed and +4 str + 4 dex. But bows and crossbows is all about 1-2 more AP and crit over small crit. And my Beairtride was doing giga damage one shotting all the void knights in one aoe spell with barely 20% crit at 200% crit damage (the assembled bow is actually better until around lvl 19, even tho people say they are useless) I think fully buffed the tooltip was saying 4000-4500 damage, now imagine hitting with 50% crit chance at 300% damage.
I think bow is easier and easier to use special arrows, I had like an entire bar dedicated to this on my previous run and I forgot or didn't get to use ANY OF THEM. But late game unless the 50%-60% from bows is higher, crossbow should win, damn I am old and so is this game. This is a 10 year old post.