Any reason to use xbow over bow?

[Jason Wang Dang ✅]

Skills cannot crit which makes the bonus from crossbow mastery useless. Near mid-end game, you would rarely auto attack too. Is there any reason to use crossbow over bow in fights?

[kricket]

Auto attack against incapacitated enemies gives you 100% hit chance. Auto attack can do more damage than skills.

[Ssenkrad_II]

Originally posted by kricket:

Auto attack can do more damage than skills.

No

[Jason Wang Dang ✅]

Originally posted by kricket:

Auto attack against incapacitated enemies gives you 100% hit chance. Auto attack can do more damage than skills.

skills can't miss either though.

and auto attack is no where even close to skill damage.

like that skill that shoots like a machine gun, it's like equivalent to 20 autoattacks.

[lindavius]

As this topic comes up pretty often, I tell some of my personal observations:

First, Xbow is far superior when it comes to range of the auto attack, weapon base damage and Crit chance, while Bow takes one less AP.

Second, its long range helps in keeping out off harm, while you can snipe off (and hopefully kill, before you need to use skills/ special arrows) your enemies.

Third, it takes far less skill point dedication to be strong.


What it comes down to is:

A) your playing style, as bows get better (they are faster) for shorter range,

B) how ressource intensive you want to play, the upkeep of bows is, relying on special arrows,
over large parts of early/midgame significantly higher than for "Sniper" XBows
and
C) most importantly, how many points you plan to invest into your weapon skill.
XBows get the very most from the first invested point,
while bows direly need the full investment to become the superior option. They are about BE at level 3 ( 6 invested points) when it comes to dealt overall damage ( including speed vs range/crits), and only really shine at level 5, when their abilities and arrows become devastating.

-Actually quite similar to "Skirmisher"/DD dual wield ( needs all the skill point love) vs a "Off Tank" 2-handed (allowing for more point allocation into defensive/armor abilities, being more balanced, while taunting + Whirlwind do the trick here) for a Warrior.

So, in general, to conclude, bows are highly recommended for a "pure" focused archer (only investing the pretty obvious points in Scoundrel otherwise, when it comes to their abillities),
while XBows are designed for spellcaster hybrids, who are logically shorter in allocatable points for the damage department, and do not mind the extra safety from staying even further in the background.

[lindavius]

Alas: My arguments are further augmented by the possible attribute allocation:

While a hybrid has very little space to augment his Speed, because he has to invest heavily in both of his main stats, Dexterity and Intelligence, a typical Archer can distribute his points far more freely between Speed and Perception.
So, a XBow Hybrid is a very "stationary" character (heavier XBows even come with a hefty movement penalty, for carrying a big gun) , whereas the agile and evasive Archer is able to do alot of kiting and repositioning, using his very high mobility. (for the real fun, Evade Opportunists and Stench, both of little use for the XBow, are a must)
OTOH, the XBow man compensates it with self buffs like +40% Oath (best skill in the game :D) , and an extreme skill versatility.

[Ssenkrad_II]

Originally posted by Jason Wang Dang:

Skills cannot crit which makes the bonus from crossbow mastery useless. Near mid-end game, you would rarely auto attack too. Is there any reason to use crossbow over bow in fights?

No.

[lindavius]

To summarize:

CBow: +4 range/ Autos (26 vs 22), high Crit Chance on Autos (at skill level 1), about +30% base damage (also used for skills)
Drawbacks: +1AP/ Auto Attack, costs movement speed

Bow: Faster Auto, +50% damage at skill level 5

So:
Bow <<< CBow at skill level 0-1, - by almost every means (apart from movement speed)
about = at Bow3 vs CBow1 ( speed vs range + crits for autos)
Bow lvl 5 > CBow ( in about every department)

However, putting more than 1 point into CBow feels very obviously like quite a waste.

The question is not so much Bow vs XBow, but whether you need the14 skill points elsewhere, to better effect. ( A full magic school, e.g.)
For dedicated archers, the answer is obv no. ;)