Sell me on the Volley Crossbow

[Hap]

I normally play as the Witch Hunter, and my favorite ranged weapon is the Brace of Pistols.

I'd seen folks talk about how great the volley crossbow is, so I decided to give it a shot.

It does less damage than the BoP, is slower than the BoP, and requires a reload. What is the purpose of it? It can't even kill a clan rat with a single hit like the BoP can. I can do more damage to the rat ogre much faster when my BoP haste procs, and it doesn't use ammo. Roger is typically dead before my 2nd haste wears off. Stormvermin are 5-7 hits with BoP depending on how many headshots I get, and I can crank those out really fast with the right click.

So why in Sigmar's name would anyone use the Volley Crossbow?

[Randy Marsh]

But, this one goes to 11

[Pungent]

No.

Besides ogre killing and patrol solo-ing with a str pot, it's inferior in every other way to the regular crossbow. That's not to say that it's bad or unusable, it's just inferior. Just like how going with the flaming sword for wizard doesn't make you automatically useless or hopelessly handicapped, it's just an objectively inferior option compared to the regular sword.

[Ardariel]

volley have only one strong side - ogre killing. Right-fitted volley can kill ogre with 1 magazine w/o str pot involved.

Aside of that only thing to mention is safety in numbers trait that can be placed on it. Funny to use, but little to none practical usage.

People mostly think that it is grreat cause they think that ogre is a big threat and one who kill it is a big guy in party. Sooner or later they learn how to deal with ogre and realise that it is just big fat slaverat.

[EnStorEn]

Its fun. Shockingly I play games to have fun. Thus, I use the volley xbow. Also it makes mincemeat out of patrols.

[Felix Milz]

Originally posted by Randy Marsh:

But, this one goes to 11

yeah, we need that extra power!!!

[Niv3s]

I think the main issue OP is having is that he’s playing on nm (presumably) so in that respect the BoP is quite strong. On cata you require headshots to 1h clans (it’s the same for the volley bow though), comparing the BoP with the stagger power of the normal shot on the volley bow is one sided, the volley bow staggers armored (knocks back ratling) where as the BoP does not. With regards to the ogre: I’m not sure how good you are at aiming the volley bow but the headshot dmg of landing all 3 bolts is rediculously strong, i personally have never witnessed BoP ranking high in dmg done to boss on the dmg charts, where as a good volley bow user “should” comes first easily.
The other issue is relying on haste, 7% chance does no equal a reliable haste proc on the ogre.

[Hap]

Originally posted by Niv3s:

I think the main issue OP is having is that he’s playing on nm (presumably) so in that respect the BoP is quite strong. On cata you require headshots to 1h clans (it’s the same for the volley bow though), comparing the BoP with the stagger power of the normal shot on the volley bow is one sided, the volley bow staggers armored (knocks back ratling) where as the BoP does not. With regards to the ogre: I’m not sure how good you are at aiming the volley bow but the headshot dmg of landing all 3 bolts is rediculously strong, i personally have never witnessed BoP ranking high in dmg done to boss on the dmg charts, where as a good volley bow user “should” comes first easily.
The other issue is relying on haste, 7% chance does no equal a reliable haste proc on the ogre.

Yes, I play only on Nightmare. I've had really bad luck on Cataclysm. I haven't noticed stagger on the volley crossbow, but I've mostly been trying to use it on Stormvermin, who I didn't notice get staggered.

[Niv3s]

I think the best part of the volleybow is that you don’t have to be aiming directly at the special enemy to kill it with the 3 shot, whereas if you miss that intial shot on speicals with the BoP can be the difference between survival and death

[Maschinengewehr]

With hail of doom and skullcracker it melts anything.

[Niv3s]

Originally posted by Maschinengewehr:

With hail of doom and skullcracker it melts anything.

Hail for sure, but if you can aim you can sub headcracker for extra ammo

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by Niv3s:

Originally posted by Maschinengewehr:

With hail of doom and skullcracker it melts anything.

Hail for sure, but if you can aim you can sub headcracker for extra ammo

with reload time of volley its not very useful, while SC makes all arrows (up to 6 with HoD) do 2.5x more damage to ogre regardless how he stands. Unless you would try to use it widely during mission. I pref to carry SC/EC/HoD to maximize its ogre-killing power so i melts this bastard regardless of situation. If i need more versatile weapon then i better switch to BoP or rep pistol then trying to make fish (volley) jump like a rabbit (rep pistol) :) Also if you master regular xbow of WH it becomes arguably the strongest weapon in his arsenal.

[Enfild]

It is utility thing. Dedicated ogrekiller, but not that good at anything else. Unlike brace of pistols, i dont see a point of this weapon.

[Byron]

gotta roll the right traits on it

[Maschinengewehr]

Originally posted by Ardariel:

Originally posted by Niv3s:

Hail for sure, but if you can aim you can sub headcracker for extra ammo

with reload time of volley its not very useful, while SC makes all arrows (up to 6 with HoD) do 2.5x more damage to ogre regardless how he stands. Unless you would try to use it widely during mission. I pref to carry SC/EC/HoD to maximize its ogre-killing power so i melts this bastard regardless of situation. If i need more versatile weapon then i better switch to BoP or rep pistol then trying to make fish (volley) jump like a rabbit (rep pistol) :) Also if you master regular xbow of WH it becomes arguably the strongest weapon in his arsenal.

Yeah agreed. Getting the most out of each mag is more important imo. Since the reload is quite long you want that raw damage output.

Can you take that bigger mag (forget its name) trait on the volley xbow? That with HoD and SC would be killer.

[Pungent]

Originally posted by Maschinengewehr:

Can you take that bigger mag (forget its name) trait on the volley xbow? That with HoD and SC would be killer.

I don't know if it's unique, but that combo is on the veteran tier.