What is the big issue with cross bows?

[Mrjones]

Just wondering what it is that makes it so no one ever usesone.

[Dacar92]

They are slower than bows. They do not hit the fastest breakpoint without major gear sacrifices if they even hit it at all. That's all. If you don't mind using one and being a bit slow in firing then by all means do it. Some are pretty nice. Hellrack has some nice mods (but high strength reqs) and Buriza is already pretty popular. But they are relatively slow.

[Archone]

But they do a better 1hit dmg! I always use crossbows for leveling my bowzon(s).

But they wont fare well vs bows at later levels.



Peace

[Necronium]

what about the demon crossbow it has the fastest ias available to any weapon. max of 5 sockets so all the useful missile runewords can be put on it. Only drop off that i see is the no skills, like on a mat or gmb.

[Dacar92]

xbows are still slower than bows due to the inherent weapon attack speed. But if you can stack IAS items you'll get close. Here are a couple items to help:

http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/...lc_english.php

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/normal/crossbows.shtml

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...r-than-Buriza-!

http://www.diablowiki.com/Breakpoints_%28Diablo_II%29

[Necronium]

The demon crossbow has THE fastest inherent attack speed at -60. This makes up for the natural speed difference between xbows and bows. Every other crossbow though is slower like you said, this one is the exception to the rule.

This actually matches a mat bow as far as speed goes. With no other ias this hits the 12 frame, the same that a MAT will hit with no other ias. Which as we know a MAT bow is -10, so the only real drawback here is the no +skills. The avg speed of the demon crossbow is 33, while the avg of the MAT is 33.5 so not a real big difference here.

Without skills though the MAT edges out the demon crossbow in the long run, not to mention the widespread availability compared to finding someone who has, or finding your own demon crossbow.

[Twibz]

I also hear a langer briser is good for a mf killswitch

[Rodrigo]

The speed can be made up with IAS items; I think the biggest problem with xbows is that the fastest they can get is 11 frames, while bows can get to 7 frames.

[Archone]

And can it be made into a good runeword?
The base dmg sucks too right?



Peace

[hubb]

You can make the same RWs in xbows, and the speed is roundabout the same on bases with similar damage. Like the others pointed out the real problem is the speed limit of 11 frames (and 4 frames for Strafe I think).