Crossbow on Bounty Hunter

[DirectOrder]

I keep seeing everybody say that the crossbow is the best ranged weapon for bounty hunter - why is that? Is it because it pierces the most enemies? Or does it have easier breakpoints? And is that dependent on having certain traits on the crossbow such as scrounger?

Can somebody be so kind as to spell it out for me? Why exactly is it the best option? Just trying to learn.

[Frazzledragøn the Trustworthy]

1. Good balance of reload speed and damage.
2. Has zoom and can headshot reliably
3. Pierces enemy, so even if you are low on ammo, firing at a horde with Scrounger can easily restore a chunk of your ammo in a single shot.
If no horde is available you can abuse your passive abilities to slash one enemy to death, then shoot the next one for slow ammo regain.
Of course this works with all BH weapons, but the Crossbow has better pierce, while also using up ammo slower than the Volley Crossbow.
4. Can oneshot many elites and specials (For example Stormvermin or Blightstormers) in the head, or two-shot in the body.

[Sir Duckyweather]

If you really want to know first-hand, give it a whirl. But yes, it's a combination of things you've said and others. It has good damage and penetration, it's quick to fire and also to reload, it's accurate at long range. I don't personally use Scrounger and instead rely on the free shots from his level 15 talent to make the passive's crit shot consume no ammo (forgot the talent's name). Equip your crossbow with the trait (Hunter I think) to increase power by 25% against that armor type for 10 seconds after a crit and you'll be mowing everything down with both ranged and melee.

[Fryskar]

You can oneshot anything short of a Cw (at least with your guaranteed crit), it has high dmg/shot and a very fast reloadspeed, it has pen so you can greatly reduce the amout of an incoming horde, its easy to aim, easy to have infinite ammo.

[Zerschmetterling]

It has the most damage for a single protectile, the highest armor pircing value and punches through the largest amout of enemys. With scrounger, you get an ammo refund for every enemy you hit with a critical shot, and since you hit a lot of enemys in a straight line,so it's easy to replentish your ammo of a horde with just a single bolt left.
The volley crossbow is also a great tool for horde thining at a distance, but to kill armored or high HP enemys, all 3 bolts have to hit the target. At close range, that's not hard to pull of, but only the normal crossbow can kill high value targets at long distance.

[DirectOrder]

Thank for all the info guys!

[Awakened Gamer]

I like using the repeater pistol to mostly for the garunteed ammo back from shotgunning, it can work wanders but you will be doing melee a little more with falchion.

[Tallahassee]

i hated BH till i tried the crossbow.

worth noting that the no ammo use on the lvl 15 talent means u can double tap with it which gives it a hell of alot of dmg instantly or survivability if you suck and miss with the first shot :P

[Judge Lazar]

For BH singleshot is the best ranged weapon, period, end of debate.

Twice as much damage per shot than volley. More penetration than volley. Faster reload than volley. More stun/knockbck than volley. Zoom feature is infinitely more useful than 3 shot. Better AP and when specced right you basically have infinite ammo.

My BH legend talent set up is (top to bottom left to right)
1
3
2
2
2

With the xbow properties using 5% crit chance and 20% crit power with scrounger as the trait. Firing into crowds can fill your health and ammo really fast. I don't know if it's result of blessed shots or if all crits work this way, but you can easily get 10-15 bolts back per shot firing into a crowd. When you fire a bolt that is effected by blessed shots every enemy that bolt hits after penetrating the first counts as a separate crit and you're getting 2 bolts back for every crit. As long as you aren't being silly you can literally use the SSXbow as your main weapon and never run out of ammo. One of the better quirks of the weapon is being able to stagger chaos warriors on every shot. Warrior about to split your team mate in half? Pop a bolt off at him and save their life.

The volley xbow just cant even compare. With the reload speed bonuses for BH it shoots only slightly faster than single shot. People will try and tell you that volley is better for crowds and bosses. What those people don't take into account is that not every person on the team needs to be able to solo a boss. Even then, the SSXbow does plenty of damage between crits and headshots. Volley, like the repeater is just a novelty weapon for fun in my opinion.

[Tallahassee]

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

For BH singleshot is the best ranged weapon, period, end of debate.

One of the better quirks of the weapon is being able to stagger chaos warriors on every shot. Warrior about to split your team mate in half? Pop a bolt off at him and save their life.

T

I'm yet to be thanked even once for doing exactly that, seems most ppl don't realise the reason they are still alive is the bolt in the guys head.

[Judge Lazar]

Originally posted by Tallahassee:

I'm yet to be thanked even once for doing exactly that, seems most ppl don't realise the reason they are still alive is the bolt in the guys head.

Doesn't even need to be a headshot either.

[Knight_of_Gallifrey]

Is it specifiacally the crit shots that stagger or just crossbow bolt period?

[Judge Lazar]

Originally posted by Knight_of_Gallifrey:

Is it specifiacally the crit shots that stagger or just crossbow bolt period?

Every shot as long as they aren't past the halway point in the animation for the swing.

[Awakened Gamer]

Actually I think its more of a playstyle thing, allot of the time your in close range to, just because your in a stage where its easy to pick off enemies doesnt mean a cb is the be all weapon, there are plenty of closed areas where a volley or rep pistol is much better to use.

[Judge Lazar]

Originally posted by Dragonbound:

Actually I think its more of a playstyle thing, allot of the time your in close range to, just because your in a stage where its easy to pick off enemies doesnt mean a cb is the be all weapon, there are plenty of closed areas where a volley or rep pistol is much better to use.

That's what the Zweihander is for

[Knight_of_Gallifrey]

Originally posted by Dragonbound:

Actually I think its more of a playstyle thing, allot of the time your in close range to, just because your in a stage where its easy to pick off enemies doesnt mean a cb is the be all weapon, there are plenty of closed areas where a volley or rep pistol is much better to use.

Fair enough. It's all about having your ranged and melee complimenting each other. I favour the xbow thinning vast sections of the horde with its pierce whereas my flail keeps me safe once they get in close. Couple that with a decent amount of luck in that the pugs I've played with more often than note can hold the horde so I can still get a pot shot or two in, most poignantly picking off elites intermixed with the cannon fodder