Quick Angerburst About How I Hate Crossbows

[The Fush]

Just here to make a quick rant on Crossbows in Radiant Dawn.

What's slightly annoying is that they're of no use to you at all; it's as if the things exist solely for taking down winged units, since pretty much anything else takes little to no damage from it. Basically, it's useless for you, because you're not going to see winged enemies too often from the point you get them, and even then normal bows still do the job good enough. Even Aqqar, the strongest crossbow, only has a meh-ish crit raise to seperate itself from it's further useless cousins.

But when they're on the enemy's side? Ohhhh noooooooo. More often or not, when an enemy has one, it's usually in a situation where you have required winged mount units (some examples being Part 2 Endgame with Elincia, Nealuchi, Marcia and Leanne, and Part 4 Prologue with Naesala and Sigrun (and Nealuchi aswell, if you so choose)), and it's made worse so by the fact that the winged units you might be using for endgame will also be threatened. Granted, it's nowhere near impossible to keep them away from it, but if you take even a slight amble into they're range it's a one-hit KO. And that causes problems for people like me who don't like their units dieing (perfectionism :<).

I'm willing to guess not as many other people have this slight anger for them because I'm not as competent as most of you lot, but I honestly think they just shouldn't have been invented, unless IS made them specifically to threaten your winged mounts.

Anyway, here's my part done.

Edited April 9, 2013 by The Fush

[cyron]

Crossbows were a good idea but poorly implemented

[Florete]

Drop a Reaver or Marksman in 4-5 with Beastfoe, Dragonfoe, and Aqqar and watch enemies disappear.

But yeah, not the most useful of weaponry.

[Comet]

Drop a Reaver or Marksman in 4-5 with Beastfoe, Dragonfoe, and Aqqar and watch enemies disappear.

But yeah, not the most useful of weaponry.

^And a promoted Nolan in 3-6 with beastfoe and resolve.

And at least they're not broken like anything else in the game has the potential to be.

[Shadow Mir]

^And a promoted Nolan in 3-6 with beastfoe and resolve.

And at least they're not broken like anything else in the game has the potential to be.

Leonardo could do the same thing, really, since I'd think Nolan has better things to do.

But yeah, crossbows generally couldn't hack it against non-squishies, except for the one-of-a-kind ones, one of which comes right when endgame is around the corner. And while Arbalest has crit rate, there is the fact that this is FE10 with sky high enemy luck...

Edited April 9, 2013 by Levant Fortner

[Melonhead]

Give Leonardo Bird and Beastfoe on his part 3 chapters with a crossbow and watch the fun. Aside from that, like no use at all.

[Icon of Sin]

Shinon/Rolf using Crossbows in tandem with Disarm is pretty fun, but a bit costly and can be used to a by someone like Mia with a Wind Edge at a lower cost, if only a higher chance for her to kill the enemy.

As said before they're really good with -foe skills due to their high might. Shame there's no Armorpiercing/Horseslaying/whatever else variations.

At least you can double with them. Reloading the damn things takes a lot longer than one might think.

They're IMO a concept that should definitely be kept and tooled around with. Same with Knives.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Doga Blockovich

[The Fush]

Shinon/Rolf using Crossbows in tandem with Disarm is pretty fun, but a bit costly and can be used to a by someone like Mia with a Wind Edge at a lower cost, if only a higher chance for her to kill the enemy.

As said before they're really good with -foe skills due to their high might. Shame there's no Armorpiercing/Horseslaying/whatever else variations.

At least you can double with them. Reloading the damn things takes a lot longer than one might think.

They're IMO a concept that should definitely be kept and tooled around with. Same with Knives.

...huh.

Maybe it'd be kind of cool to have a class based on those weapons. Like, a class similar to archer but has higher strength/skill and lower speed, or something. It'd be pretty cool to have one with the whole adjacent range advantage, provided crossbows were tweaked.

[CT075]

Give Leonardo Bird and Beastfoe on his part 3 chapters with a crossbow and watch the fun. Aside from that, like no use at all.

why would you give a bow-locked unit birdfoe

[Chiki]

Boyd makes good use of the Crossbow before Hand Axes can be forged.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Nolan with Beastfoe and the Taksh on 3-13 is pretty useful.

But really, thats the only time i found them to be useful.

[Florete]

why would you give a bow-locked unit birdfoe

Not to mention it doesn't exist until 4-5.

[shadykid]

Give Leonardo Bird and Beastfoe on his part 3 chapters with a crossbow and watch the fun. Aside from that, like no use at all.

ignoring the obvious Birdfoe fail.....

it's a good thing Vantage isn't like FE9

otherwise a terrible 10/1 Leonardo would still be essentially invicible in 3-6/3-13 with a crossbow

[bottlegnomes]

ignoring the obvious Birdfoe fail.....

it's a good thing Vantage isn't like FE9

otherwise a terrible 10/1 Leonardo would still be essentially invicible in 3-6/3-13 with a crossbow

He might actually be decent then.

Anyway, as said, crossbows were a cool idea but they weren't carried out particularly well. They're good for discouraging enemies from attacking characters like Shinon since, IIRC, it goes KO > no counter > damage done, so if Shinon can counter at all, someone with lower defense is probably going to be targeted, but otherwise, they aren't particularly useful. It was a better idea than simply putting common 1-2 range bows in the game though, IMO.

Edited April 10, 2013 by bottlegnomes

[shadykid]

part of it is because of third-tier stats (crossbows with fixed attack would be even worse in FE13 by extension) making it either: completely ineffective by mid/endgame (here) or extremely OP (if its might were super high)

in something like FE12, it probably works better especially cause Lunatic mode enemies don't get defense bonuses

[CT075]

the thing is, weapons with fixed might are far more valuable early than late (when enemies have low def and you have low str)

if we'd had a crossbow in the DB chapters it would have been a bit more potent

[dondon151]

^ except for the fact that archers cannot actually use crossbows iirc, nor can fighters

[CT075]

well okay and if that were fixed

that only proves my point further; why only give crossbows to a group of units against whom it would be completely ineffective?

Edited April 11, 2013 by CT075

[Quick]

well okay and if that were fixed

that only proves my point further; why only give crossbows to a group of units against whom it would be completely ineffective?

I personally think it makes sense, if anybody but Warrior's, Sniper's, and their 3rd tier counterparts could get it IS might've thought those classes would become meh and not as good as some of the other classes. As for the prepromoted thing.....I don't think you want to face those Archers in 1-2 if they had Crossbows....

[shadykid]

I personally think it makes sense, if anybody but Warrior's, Sniper's, and their 3rd tier counterparts could get it IS might've thought those classes would become meh and not as good as some of the other classes. As for the prepromoted thing.....I don't think you want to face those Archers in 1-2 if they had Crossbows....

yeah that's what i meant, 28 mt crossbows (or even weaker bowguns) would be really irritating to fight in early DB chapters

[Fenrir]

Times when crossbows are good: When you have beastfoe and are fighting laguz.

Times when crossbows are bad: All the other times.

The only characters who were super effected by the awfulness of crossbows were Boyd and Shinnon. Nolan ended up just fine, and Rolf and Leo would've sucked anyway. Boyd could've been a really good unit if crossbows actually were good for something, and Shinnon would be total overkill.

Haar should've been able to use crossbows. Don't crossbows just seem Haar-ey?

[HeroMystic]

Having them in Part 1 would be a pretty bad idea as well considering they don't give Weapon EXP.

I believe Crossbows should be an idea to work with for later installments as well, as it gave Archers a legitimate Enemy Phase. The biggest problem with them was their fixed ATK and their absolutely ridiculous bonus damage.

[Mr. Haar]

I hate the crossbows with a passion. They're only useful for the enemies it seems. Also, they only succeed at destroying winged units by exploiting the only flaw of the damage and super effectiveness formula with their super high mt and ignoring of user's strength.

[shadykid]

I hate the crossbows with a passion. They're only useful for the enemies it seems. Also, they only succeed at destroying winged units by exploiting the only flaw of the damage and super effectiveness formula with their super high mt and ignoring of user's strength.

and remember guys, winged units does not include Jill or Haar

there is nothing broken about this at all, nope, you see nothing

[Mr. Haar]

and remember guys, winged units does not include Jill or Haar

there is nothing broken about this at all, nope, you see nothing

Well, that's because they gave wyverns the characteristics of a dragon, which kind of makes sense because a wyvern would have much more durable wing skin than a pegasus or bird.