This is the first in a planned series covering every piece of equipment in the game. I’m doing this because I want to expand my own knowledge of the game’s equipment and its counters, and I figure others might enjoy my explorations as well.
Light Crossbow
Q’s
Auto-Fire The first Q is single target damage, and what I prefer to use in Arenas because of how much damage is applied to a single target when using it, and because you have to run really, really far away to escape the damage. It has the downside of forcing you to stand still, so if you’re up against cursed staff users, or fire staff users, or anyone that can put some kind of damage under your feet, or otherwise punish you for standing still… you should change it out to the second Q. I use it whenever I think I can get away with using it… but you can’t always get away with it. Its worth noting that there is an AOE component to this spell, which is easy to overlook.
When using Knight Boots, which I often use with Light Crossbow, I prefer to use Auto-Fire with the expectation that I can last longer than the other guy using my defensives while shooting them in the face. Its a lazy way to play, but works well in duels and duos. I’ve seen people run Mercenary jackets when using auto-fire as well with good results.
Explosive-Bolt is AoE damage, and is great for PVE. This is also what I see other people preferring for PVP, I assume because you can more effectively make use of the “Well prepared” passive. Streamers killing people in the mists and corrupted dungeon players almost always use this second Q. The second Q has a much higher skill ceiling for use, you have to watch your stacks and nail your rotation, but if you do it you are rewarded with significantly increased damage. The range isn’t that long, and you have to place every shot, very quickly as you fire, so this is fairly difficult to play, but you do stay mobile.
Explosive-Bolt pairs well with high mobility boots, Soldier’s boots or Demon boots are the preferred choices. Kite, apply your damage, and if things go sour book it out of the fight.
W’s
Knockback-shot: This is an interrupt and knockback, mostly useful in PVE for interuppting abilities on enemies like Maraca Man.
Sunder-Shot: This is an armor decreasing shot, that is useful mostly in PVE for stripping armor off of a boss while in a group if a better pierce isn’t available.
Caltrops: This is your bread and butter PVP ability which should be used about 95% of the time. It slows, but also increases your movement speed giving you much needed mobility.
Noise-Eraser: This is a god tier level ability when fighting just a few opponents. Its hard to land but the silence lasts a long time. Nail the enemy healer with this and your team can likely kill them. Its annoying to take because giving up Caltrops in a PVP environment is risky, best used when playing all in builds utilizing auto-fire.
E:
Exploding-Shot: Exploding shot is a fantastic E, that works well because it offers delayed AOE damage, and because it has an incredibly short cooldown time. Its effective in micro-scale PVP because when you place it, it doesn’t immediately take effect, so the healer will not be aware that the player hit is in danger. You can then land several shots on the target before Exploding Shot goes off, and that’s often enough to bring a player dangerously low on health. Since the healer didn’t get to react early enough, the heals placed on the player might not be sufficient to save them as they go down so quickly.
Its also AoE, and players tend to instinctively run towards their comrades when under fire, which results in Exploding Shot’s damaged being multiplied significantly. Lastly, because of how short the cooldown timer is, it can’t be effectively blocked by defenses, since if someone uses a Cleric’s Robe or similar counter to it, another Exploding Shot will be available soon anyway. You just blocked one of the 3 or 4 exploding shots the light crossbow user will have available between Cleric’s robe cooldowns.
Passives:
I’m going to skip discussion of any passives that aren’t “Well Prepared”, because I don’t think any of them are really fit for any particular purpose. “Well Prepared” Is so good that there’s little reason to pretend that anyone should ever run a light crossbow without it selected.
Conclusion:
Well Prepared allows you to, every 4 spells, instantly re-use your Q ability. This is nice when using Auto-Fire, but is incredible when using Explosive-Bolt since Explosive-Bolt has such a short cooldown timer and is so bursty that a double shot of it does significant damage. Coupling a well prepared double Explosive-Bolt with Exploding Shot is the heart of Light Crossbow PVP play, as it provides so much burst damage that you can score a kill before a healer can react if your target’s health is below say 35% health. Light Crossbow is generally not a super bursty weapon, but it can be if you time things right, and when you do you get significant range on your opponent and relatively high sustained damage coupled with the ability to burst down targets when they get low, and that makes the light crossbow dangerous in micro-scale encounters.
On the PVE side, Light Crossbow is to my understanding (admittedly, I didn’t test this myself) one of the highest sustained damage weapons in the game. While the Weeping Repeater beats it out on the crossbow tree in terms of sustained damage, the Light Crossbow is close enough that people have to test it thoroughly to verify this, and so the difference isn’t that significant. Light Crossbow is a far superior PVP weapon to the Repeater, and is a solid generalist weapon. If you’re looking for something that can do both micro scale PVP and PVE, it checks both boxes well.
The downsides of the Light Crossbow are all about its lack of utility. It just does damage. Sure, you have Sunder Shot and Noise-Eraser, but there are much better choices for pierce and silence out there. In a team environment, you want more than just high sustained damage.
The typical meta-build for Light Crossbow is:
Light CrossbowGuardian HelmetMartlock CapeCleric’s RobeDemon or Soldier’s BootsMistcallerOmeletteGigantify
As previously mentioned, there are alternatives for this that also work well, particularly if you choose to play using auto-fire.
Light CrossbowGuardian HelmetMercenary JacketKnight BootsMuisak or CryptcandleMartlock CapePork Roast or Beef Stew or Redspring Eel StewResistance Potion.
In my experience, the first build posted is by far the most commonly run, but people do sometimes deviate from it and use the following items:
FacebreakerAegis ShieldDruid’s Robe (for PVE)Druid’s Cowl (for PVE)Hunter’s boots (for PVE)Thetford Cape (for PVE)
It is my belief that using a shield can be valid when running with 2-4 players if you have a healer, as it can help keep you alive for long enough for the healer to heal you. Aegis can be good in Arenas, where you fight so much that Mana consumption can be a problem, and Facebreaker gives you more defense while still providing some offensive capability.
I’ve also experimented with a leering cane to extend the slow on Caltrops, and I don’t it was either bad or amazing. If you have a reason to extend the slow, then it might be worthwhile to give a try.
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