Arbalests suck.

[Sly-Scale]

The +50% pierce chance is great against slimes and other range-resistant enemies...
But that's it. Otherwise:
Their fire rate is poor and a +2 bycocket is absolutely required;
Their range is poor;
Their damage doesn't scale well;
They weigh an unnecessary 100 pounds;
They have an ungodly amount of screenshake that mirrors the screenshake of taking damage so it messes with your situational awareness;
The self-knockback is handy, but sometimes crippling. I wouldn't want to be levitating around this thing.

Actually, I tested the self-knockback some more, just now. I found that shooting the Arbalest and using the Quick Turn slows you down! As in, you can't combine the knockback with forward movement to move faster. (The Dash spell works fine, but the Dash spell works fine with everything else too.)

I'm not even comparing this misshapen thing to a certain artifact bow; I'd rather have a shortbow. At least shortbows work with swift ammo, help train your Ranged skill by volume of fire, are more abundant, can be repaired more easily and force some good habits on you.

I understand that the Arbalest's main strength is countering slimes and etc... but players in the Ruins are probably using staves, potions, spells, teammates, stealth, movement, traps, speed, avoidance or jank to deal with those enemies. Especially since most range-resistant enemies are weak to magic.

So, I dunno. I think Arbalests suck and aren't worth the space in my inventory.

[OnTheLastCastle]

Is this a new item or something? I haven’t beaten the game in like 10 months and don’t remember them. Keep dying around the Minotaur orb or in the pyramids right now.

[LadstonFelisGaming]

I’d only use an arbalest as a last resort if I didn’t have Khryselakatos and every other ranged weapon I had was broken, and even then I’d use tomahawks and throwing knives over it. This is a purely hypothetical situation, as I’ve yet to find an arbalest without a much better alternative available.

Their positive qualities don’t mean squat when they attack just so slowly and throw off your positioning.