What speeds up crossbow. and Arbalest?

[Blades of Vanatar]

Starting a Wood Elf crossbow-ish Ranger. I plan on going right for the speed enchanted cbow in Gilded Vale. Does the cross class Frenzy option increase your AT speed or reload time? Do any other options/items help increase Your AT speed?

[MaxQuest]

Crossbow has: 45 frames (attack duration) + 75 frames (recovery duration) + 100 frames (reload duration)

Arbalest has: 45 frames (attack duration) + 75 frames (recovery duration) + 180 frames (reload duration)

 

Does the cross class Frenzy option increase your AT speed or reload time?

No, Outlander's Frenzy affects only recovery duration.

 

Do any other options/items help increase Your AT speed?

No, attack duration is affected only by DEX. Edited May 12, 2017 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

So basically what you want to do is to have highest DEX (+attack speed, +reload speed), Swift Aim (+recovery speed, +reload speed), Gunner (+reload speed), a chanter with Sure Handed Ila  (+recovery speed, +reload speed) and the speed enchanted arbalest "Hold-Wall" in Gilded Vale (+recovery speed), later also durgan steel, no armor penalty, no Penetrating Shot.

 

Actually you will shoot pretty fast (for an arbalest wielder) once you have those things. I managed to shoot fast enough with Aedrin's Wrecker so that I could chain the stun/prone affliction on crit (if the afflictions crit, too). Once you get stunning shots that's no advantage of the arbalest any more, but before that it's quite nice. That, and the high base damage of course. It fits Swift Aim pretty nice. Arbalests have normal ACC, so the malus of Swift Aim doesn't hurt as much as with guns, but they have reduced crit damage, so the reduced ACC of Swift Aim doesn't lower your overall damage not as much as with bows or crossbows.

 

Some people say that speed enchantments on an arbalest makes no big difference since the reloading is the longest part and that doesn't get speed up. But with Swift Aim + Gunner and stuff you can totally feel the difference in recovery between speedy arbalest (Hold-Wall) and non-speedy (any other arbalest). You will shoot faster and you can feel it.

Edited May 12, 2017 by Boeroer

[Blades of Vanatar]

Thanks guys. When the Math guy and the Build guy chime in on a question, you know you got your answer.

[Boeroer]

Tehehe - hopefully with at least two stacking Gwyn's Bands of Union...

Edited May 12, 2017 by Boeroer

[Blades of Vanatar]

So it is safe to say that the speed enchantment on Holdwall makes it equivilant to the speed of a Crossbow? I see the speed enchantment speeds up the recovery time while the standard difference between the two weapons at a vanilla level is the reload time. 2 enchantments for a little better base damage.... I will need to research all of the various magic versions of each weapon type. I am thinking of improving the damage output of my pet so any enchantment that increases ACC for allies on the weapon will be my winning choice for my weapon. Or one that also does Cc to the enemy.

[Boeroer]

Well, if you want game's best ranged single target DPS (you'll have it early), combined with highest possible pet damage, you need Persistance. There's nothing better than that.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Well yah.... but I guess deep down I'm fishing for various build ideas for Crossbow/Arbalest only. I've done Persistence, it's awesome. As are a lot of the bows. Dev's must of had some elf blood

since there are so many good bows in this game...

[Boeroer]

When using arbalests with high accuracy (=high crit chance) the prone effect helps your pet of course. But when using such heavy hitters plus your pet on targets (for Stalker's Link bonus and so on) there will be the problem of overkilling. I don't care that much, just saying.

 

Arbalests:

Pros: prone on crit, high base damage

Cons: reduced crit damage, long reload

Unique enchantments: speed (Hold-Wall), stunning (Aedrin's Wrecker)

 

Crossbows:

Pros: normal crit damage, fastest reloading

Cons: lower base damage

Enchantments: Coordinating (Good Friend), Predatory (Wendgär)

 

And there's Twin Sting (soulbound) which is probably your best choice for the late game.

 

Coordinating is a decent enchantment when you plan to attack the same targets a lot.

 

But I honestly don't get it why they placed only two unique crossbows and arbalests into the game - and Good Friend is lvl 8 of the Endless Paths, so rather late. Good thing that Hold-Wall comes so early.

[hilfazer]

But I honestly don't get it why they placed only two unique crossbows and arbalests into the game - and Good Friend is lvl 8 of the Endless Paths, so rather late. Good thing that Hold-Wall comes so early.

And bad thing Speed enchant is way weaker on reloading weapons than on others yet still considered as valuable (takes as many enchant slots).

 

There's not many xbows because not many players care about them. There's much less talking about xbows on this forum than about bows and, especially, guns.

 

If soulbound weapons were not supposed to be ancient artifacts we would have soulbound not crossbow but gun.

[Boeroer]

As I wrote above, the speed enchantment is nice if you already reduced your reloading time a fair bit with Swift Aim + Gunner + high DEX. It then makes a bigger difference because your recovery phase will be nearly be as long as your reloading phase. Sadly, things like Swift Aim + Ila + Gunner - which reduce reloading - don't work together als well as speed enchantments do.

[Blades of Vanatar]

I remember a great module for 1st/2nd edition AD&D in the Lanhkmar setting.... it was about chasing a Crossbow wielding Dualled Fig/Thief. He wielded multiple double shot crossbows. From a long distance. Good stuff for those days.

 

You do see Xbows in lots of the fantasy settings. Eddings uses them in his books for example. It's not a stretch to assume players enjoy Xbows in their gaming.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Blades of Vanatar

[Blades of Vanatar]

As I wrote above, the speed enchantment is nice if you already reduced your reloading time a fair bit with Swift Aim + Gunner + high DEX. It then makes a bigger difference because your recovery phase will be nearly be as long as your reloading phase. Sadly, things like Swift Aim + Ila + Gunner - which reduce reloading - don't work together als well as speed enchantments do.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Well.... it was worth a try. With adding all of the bonuses I can stack my Hold-Wall Ranger just seems lackluster. My party with Sanguine Plate - Tidefall Eder, Cladhaliath Pallegina with Marking/Coordinating, Dragon Slashed Kana, Yenwood Sword Durance and Soulbound Scepter Aloth is kicking arse, but my PC is a non factor in big fights. Skirmishing against the Bannermen was .... a bad idea.