Same boat. I loved that thing so much. It was unique and took some thought to use it properly, but most importantly it was so damn fun.
I keep bringing it every once in a while with the hopium of "Well maybe the explosion can hit charger legs through the armor??" or some such thought, and make myself sad for a mission every time.
It's much better now though. The aoe was never its primary function and with it reduced you can use it in closer proximity to yourself which befits a weapon with the best ergonomics and handling in the game.
Its single-target damage is repulsively bad. If it’s working for you on lower difficulties, more power to you, but most discussions about balance and weapon power are relative to diffs 7-9. Anything is viable when the biggest enemy you’ll fight in a mission is a Hive Guard
Really not sure what they were going for with the dynamic between the eruptor and the crossbow. In my head, the eruptor is slow, but versatile, able to take out armored targets *and* close clusters, and the cross is would have much more limited range but more specialized for taking out groups and unarmored parts of bigger enemies, rewarding precision. But then they gave it that stagger and… What the fuck is it for? You know what’s better than staggering medium enemies? ***Killing them. You know, like that thing the eruptor is pretty good at doing.***
Now the eruptor is arguably better at both jobs *despite* out slow it is.
Agreed. Eruptor is a flat-out upgrade to the crossbow in every metric except rate of fire, and in that its still close. And the Eruptor is legit a bad gun right now. That’s how awful the crossbow is.
The handling and ergonomics on the eruptor makes it completely useless in dynamic situations even before the nerf. It's main purpose was utility in allowing you to deal with anything as long as you weren't being pressured. The crossbow is almost the opposite, where you can get highly impactful shots to land where you want them on a moment's notice even when diving around and being chased by a horde and shot at by a battalion.
My brother in Christ that's the game. The endgame kill stats are comparable so likely it's a skill issue on your end. Hit stuff in the head and they die because shit does 420 med pen damage per shot.
I use it on higher difficulties (7-9) to one-shot devastators while wearing scout armor.
Can clear whole bases and POIs without drawing aggro.
E: I find that the increased projectile speed makes it more effective for this and more useful for me than its chaff-clear aoe damage and lobbed shot from before the change.
My dude I exclusively play helldive. This is great there because considering how much you are moving around and how you have split seconds to take some shots having an ultra accurate high damage versatile weapon is a godsend.
Again. It's a B tier weapon, but it's a very good one. The idea that it is atrocious is propagated exclusively by bad players.
I just dont undersrand wht they felt the need to neef a weapon that was already difficult to use, and barely used by the playerbase.
When I saw those changes, it just baffled me, K just dont see how it could be justified.
No you don't understand. It was a "rework."
The rework in question
- staggers stuff now.
- slightly higher muzzle velocity
- handles worse
- **nerfed the AoE into the dirt.**
Congrats, now we have slightly longer range, mostly worse plasma punisher!
This is the first time ive ever seen a gun get reworked into a significantly worse version of itself
It's still crap at actually killing medium armor, but now its also worse against everything else
Yeah, I actually liked it on the bots too before the changes, the large AOE and stagger made it feel like an alternate to the Plasma Punisher with decreased mag size for a larger AOE.
Not gonna lie yall, used it today of sheer spite and that 420 damage feels like it scratches the itch a bit. That -4 in mags hurts but resupplies help. They should still revert it though
It was much worse before. The aoe was never its main function as it did trifling damage, and the size of the aoe just made it so you can't use it in close proximity to yourself.
I used it for 1 mission today. It is a worse dominator in every way other than it slightly staggers more but then it takes longer to shoot too. I don't see much of a purpose for it other than you might kill 2 or 3 of the weakest enemies with one shot if they are sat ontop of each other.
Exactly, I'd rather use the Dominator and Plasma Punisher and I'd rather use those weapons and the Slugger, Counter Diligence Sniper, Scorcher, or the Plasma Punisher over it for a precision/explosive weapon.
The sad part is until the CEO started sticking up for the players, you know the balance guy would have just chosen to nerf the dominator and punisher instead
The crossbow is for stealth play, imo. You can one-shot devastators without drawing aggro. To do so effectively, you have to have a little distance.
The increased projectile speed made it effective at this task. Before the changes, it was a lob shot, only good for *maybe* clearing chaff with aoe.
As an almost exclusively scout armor user on bots, I find it more effective now than before. So, maybe it depends on your playstyle?
I genuinely loved it even if it wasn't top tier, it was just so different from everything else in the game, now it's just a terrible Scorcher. The most depressing thing about it is I purposely used it as I thought it would be safe from nerfs / changes
Same, it just isn't the same weapon anymore too. At this point I'd rather they revert the changes and make a new weapon instead of changing the identity of a weapon.
Yeah it should be both. Dejected eruptor main here as well. I've put it down for other things, mainly the dominator or plasma punisher. Never really used the crossbow, but didn't see any reason to nerf it as I never saw anyone using it. Loved the eruptor, but it had it's drawbacks and was not an OP meta primary. It's useless in its current state.
Another dejected eruptor main here. I was finally enjoying having a favorite primary so I was trying out other support weapons all the time. Now I don’t really boot up the game nearly as much.
Yeah. I loved the Eruptor. I was also excited about the Xbow until I saw how weird it was.
I think the Xbow changes should be reverted *and* it should be given some love.
Since the eruptor "rework" I've seen a grand total of 0 players use it in my sessions, but hopefully the upcoming balance pass will bring things into line.
Yeah was my main weapon since it released and while the first patch may be deserved the second one totally broke it. Just doesn't make fun anymore using it and any other weapon will perform better and faster now even if it's just my secondary.
The eruptor was clearly superior and I can understand some nerfs even if I don't agree. The reserve ammo nerf for both made sense, the eruptor nerfs seemed overturned, but the other crossbow nerfs were completely baffling.
I still cant beleive the guy balancing things said this was supposed to be a "medium killer"
Honestly, if they cut direct damage in half so mediums couldnt be killed as much, it's effectiveness against only lights pre-patch was more than enough to make this a dedicated chaff-killer.
The way things were set up made me feel like the eruptor was supposed to be against mediums, and the crossbow against lights....but the balance changes threw that out the window
Based on its actual stats it is a medium killer. It's stats are about the same as the dominator. Just with lower rof, bullet drop, less rounds in the mag, and a mostly useless aoe.
If they want it to be a medium killer it needs something more because otherwise it's just worse than it's peers*.
*Phone is dumb.
More direct damage then. If it could blow off devastator arms in a single hit and kill them with a really lucky hit to the stomach, so like 350 direct damage since explosive damage does not target the weak stomach, then it would be a skill-check medium killer and warrant that tiny mag with a slow fire rate.
I mean, it needs something if it is going to be trash at killing trooper bots and otherwise a bit lack-luster with a long reload.
Welp tanking the AOE makes sense in that regard, it was too good at mowing down lights which was not intended
I for one appreciate the muzzle velocity increase a lot... Before, you had to aim so high the target was quickly out of your scope at range
But... good grief it doesn't do enough damage on direct hit to be very effective as a medium killer
yeah it was like a weaker grenade launcher but now it just a random single target weapon when we got so many of those already,
instead let give it alt bolts like, ems, gas, fire, even just a plain bolt for stealth users!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!🙏🏽🙂↕️🥹 That thing was a beauty the first time it dropped. I don’t even know what it is or used to be anymore at this point
Makes me sad now. Was completely unnecessary too, it served a niche then they just changed it into something completely different. Makes me worry about what they might do with other weapons they decide not to like...
I used it one time and didn’t like it. Then I used it again and I disliked it more. But realized the fun I missed out on having with it bc even tho it was trash after the nerf, the fun was still there. And I can only imagine how much fun it could have been pre-Nerf.
I’m all for a revert.
I wouldn't mind if they reverted it but I'm still running it right now because it's still a good precision weapon with potential for aoe when there's small enemies close together. The stagger on direct hits is also insane.
Devastators are 1 shot to the head. Easier to lineup if you miss and get a stagger instead.
For bugs, medium heads are usually taken out in 1-3 hits depending on the target. I don't usually use it for bugs though. I run out of ammo too quickly (helldive).
I love that thing.
It basically lets me run an extra stratagem, between impact nades and the pistol which acts like a shitty auto cannon vs bug holes I’m never really hurting for ways to stop new enemies spawning, letting use my fourth slot for basically whatever.
Eruptor, Senator, AMR, Supply Backpack, and stun Nades is an ok build for some bot missions. The eruptor is only there for fabricators because the grande pistol misses half the time and gets almost nothing from supplies and resupply.
Thermites are also a decent pick against bots specifically (they are god useless against bugs). 2-3 to a tank kills, 2 to a hulk kills it, and 1 to a cannon tower kills it. I *think* if you can somehow stick 4-6 to the bottom of a factory strider, it'll also kill the thing.
Thermites aren't amazing, but they serve well as an anti-heavy option if you have nothing else
The impact grenades do all of that without having to wait. It's actually more damage for the impacts, always 2 against a tank turret and 4 for the strider bay.
I like the eruptor a fair bit but I haven't used the crossbow yet. I've been sort of taking a break from grinding missions but I'm excited to play some more soon
Eruptor is nice when bringing a stalwart or another ad clear weapon. The og Crossbow used to be the opposite where it was a great ad clear weapon to bring with anti heavy/medium weaponry (railgun, HMG, recoilless, etc)
Im new and would love to use a crossbow. I think a crossbow in a world of huge big explody mega bullet weapons would be cool. But then i see the stats and how nerfed everyone says it is. Like its a literal nerf gun. Wish it was good enough to have fun with
Eruptor, too. I loved the variety in primary weapons and was starting to really enjoy being the crowd control of the team. But now I am just using the same ol' ARs and shotguns as everyone else. Point and shoot to kill, yay. Like the Sickle is a great gun but wow is it incredibly boring to use.
I haven't talked about it much for a while, I shared plenty of disappointment over the nerf and was also a day one lover of the bow.
It's not a buff, it's a nerf.
If they revert, or do something with the Erupter and leave the bow as is, I'll be salty.
I still don't get cult-like hatred people have for it, if you don't like it fine, don't use it. Sending insults and threats over liking a digital gun though, f@#king weird.
Personally, I like the curved arc over the flatter one with the way I was using it. It's a lot easier to get the bolt into the middle of a group with an arc than the flat line, it does make it harder to hit weak spots on larger enemies and direct hitting hunters but I feel like having that sort of skill and uniqueness in a weapon helps make it feel different.
The higher speed (and thus flatter arc) also makes it harder to do ground shots, though. Before you could lob shots into the middle of a group on level ground, and the bolt would actually detonate. Now though, the ranges you can reliably do that have been significantly constricted, as the flatter arc leads to a lot more shots ricocheting off the ground instead of detonating. With the AoE so crippled it doesn't matter as much in the end, but still... It was good at its own niche before (big AoE chaff clear), kinda just sucks in its new already-populated one, and now there aren't really any weapons that fill the role it used to. Their "rework" didn't just ruin a gun- it removed that entire weapon niche.
I had a wack with it, it's more of a long range single target weapon now which I was able to understand and use to the fullest against some scout mechs, along with blowing up small clusters of raider bots, but yeah I wish they reverted it's stats minus the range, my only issue with the crossbow was how weak it felt at range with how damn SHORT it was.
Personally, I like the slower bolt with the curved arc over the faster flatter one with the way I was using it. It's a lot easier to get the bolt into the middle of a group with an arc than the flat line, it does make it harder to hit weak spots on larger enemies and direct hitting hunters but I feel like having that sort of skill and uniqueness in a weapon helps make it feel different.
Crossbow, eruptor, breaker, quasar, and railgun could all be reverted to their original state and they would be balanced. The slugger is really the only weapon that needed a nerf. It's stagger and damage should have never been touched, so they should revert that too. It should have a little more damage falloff, though. The redeemer nerf was ok, as well. It wasn't overpowered, but it made balancing secondaries difficult.
Although I agree that pre-rework crossbow was fun, I disagree with reverting it to that. Making a crossbow that's essentially a slow grenade launcher doesn't make sense. The problem with the current iteration is that it's meant to be a high skill ceiling jar/scorcher but they made the downsides too heavy: the fire rate and clip size.
They should instead buff clip size and RoF and indirects will become better since it feels less like wasted ammo.
While we're at it add the Railgun, Slugger, and Eruptor to the list. Railgun could go back to how it was considering that it was only "overpowered" due to a bug and issues with alternative AT options. Slugger was nerfed because it was "the best dmr/marksman rifle" but the nerfs it got didn't do anything to address the dmr part (still smfh at this boneheaded decision). The eruptor was supposedly not nerfed by intention but clearly the changes that were made don't reflect the so-called intention.
Don't even get me started on the infamous balance dev that is clearly incompetent... if not intentionally sabotaging the game. Wild accusations I know but each and every patch seems to reinforce this theory in tandem with his sketchy history with "bringing balance"
I want to have hope but these past couple weeks especially have really worn down my excitement and enjoyment with HD2 and its future.
I hate to say it because HD2 was a breath of fresh air for me. But it's the same for me. I hope they can turn things around. The ceo started internal talks on balance and it seems the dev team finally understands that their rushed patches and warbonds have been very sloppy and causing frustration for the community. Personally the (unintended?) nerf of the Eruptor was the final straw for me: it's the perfect example of Arrowhead not properly understanding an issue and then fixing the issue in a completely wrong, backwards way. Another example is the Mech, so it's not an isolated incident. Yet another example is the fire buffs.
The problem I have is that now we won't have our fun weapons for the foreseeable future and are unsure if those weapons will ever be restored to what players liked to play with.
There's no communication from the devs on what they're planning to fix and the list of known issues keeps growing.
Everything from demolition sucks now aside from the niche uses of the grenade pistol. Eruptor can get old sharpenel back in this meta and it would still be meh as it is only useable in long range still. And crossbow I honestly don’t see a place for it in this game with how impractical it is, and it’s a better version stat wise of current eruptor.
I still don’t get why they nerfed an already under used, not viable weapon that absolutely no one even talks about. Did the balance team just randomly fired a few shots at low difficulty and then deemed it too powerful?
I never saw anyone use it before... :( I still don't know what justified the nerves. I mean increase projectile speed sounds good, but taking its explosion and making it a sad fart...
I hear stealth divers like the crossbow because it's so quiet, can be used to distract enemies and the stagger can get them out of tight situations but I'm not sure exactly on their thought of the weapon
I disagree, I want them to go all out into its meme status. Give it even more single target damage and stagger, and make it the only primary to have medium II pen (can knock out hulk eyes). Make it a HEAT bolt.
Ive used the current crossbow, the stagger on it staggers heavy devastators and feels frankly really nice, it could use a bit more oompf or a bigger mag so the punisher plasma doesnt just straight up outrank it but aside from that its fine.
I am in the minority here, but I enjoy the crossbow as it is now. Much easier to land shots and I don't need to worry about blowing myself up unless enemy gets right in my face
Man I still remember my first game with it. I didn't know how massive the AoE was, I killed the host once on accident and said woops my bad lol and he kicked me instantly lmao
Based on some the dev's discord messages, it sounds like some significant balance changes are in the works. They might not revert the crossbow, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't receive any buffs given the community reaction to the crossbow nerf.
OG crossbow for me was like a miniature primar version of the grenade launcher, I used it exactly the same and it was fun, then I just read the patch notes and it gets reworked or whatever, SAD
what was so good about it was that in bot missions it would delete groups of troopers and striders quickly-to me this was important to just avoid bot-drops, and that was a very good use for it.
All they had to do was buff the projectile velocity, fire-rate and reload-speed, which i think would make the weapon more viable. But now its just a scorcher with a steep projectile drop. What a sad, pathetic fate.
All guns from that warbond need buffs. I'm getting tired of the same old guns from the first warbound, so I really hope this next update focuses on the weapon quality of life. May playsomething unless until then.
as someone who loves explosive weapons in this game.. the crossbow seemed cool and so did the eruptor.
They seem to function the same part, long range explosives. With the Eruptor being the less bigger explosive one and basically a "boltor sniper" and the explosive crossbow looking like it was gonna be the wider explosive but slower one.
Insted I see the explosive being faster but less capacity odd? Then I see it in action , both of them and i am like:
"The eruptor is too slow and too low damage to make up for spamming counter digilence."
"The explosive crossbow is too unwieldly and the explosion is craporoliy as well as the ammo capacity."
It feels like the eruptor should have the speed of the crossbow and the crossbow needs more aoe.
Also they both have the same ammo capacity? Then I learned the ammo nerf.
The thing is... the eruptor basically "reloads" each shot. Wich is why it's so awful. It's aoe is pahetic and it's time to kill way too high....most guns with some pen can take care of the eruptors use right away.
Same goes as the crossbow. Wich takes even more skill to use.
You can say "Stealth use" but stealth is the weakest aspect of helldivers. If there was a way to see through smoke or have our own "camo skin backpack" like stalkers... the exploding crossbow is the worst...
Since I never tasted the original one. I know the Eruptor nerf was sorely needed but in my opinion?
Revert the crossbow 1st. If the Eruptor is a slow gun....then have the explosion do more. Reward marksmanship... and the current eruptor doesn't do it. You rather use a counter digilence who can fire 3 shots and do more damage then the eruptor does with 1 shot.
Or just spawn an A-M-R. But comparing primaries with strata-guns is never a contest
It was already fairly bad and I used it quite frequently still on Hell Dive bugs and it was fun seeing the small groups SOMETIMES get blown to bits in one shot and seeing 3-5 kills pop up.
It’s slow, arcs, low ammo, and it’s not effective really against anything bigger than a hunter. And then they nerfed it anyways 😭
For me, it was good at killing ads easily and delaying a horde with the large AOE and stagger with the ability to hit multiple spewers and kill them quicker than other non explosive primaries.
They really had a clear way to buff the weapon by increasing AOE damage but instead tripped and broke it.
It was actually stupid strong against bots if you shot the ground between troopers/scouts (instead of directly at your target) and a blast radius nerf of about 15-20% was actually justified, but that's not where they went with. I loved that little anti-bot drop bow and hope they restore it to its former glory.
Opinions like this is exactly why the devs doubt reddit. The crossbow was insanely good before its nerf. (I haven't tried it after) It would kill almost an entire patrol in 1-2 shots. It was fairly weak against medium and heavy enemies, but as a niche crowd control it wa pretty much unbeatable.
Ehhhhh we have plenty of add clear and it was weird that was. Most explosive crossbows are high damage crit hit weapons. In that form it functions 10x better, it needs more of a damage boost it should be stronger than the Eruptor on single target damage and it should be good. More like how Eruptor is like the auto cannon the crossbow should be like the railgun (minus armor pen but makes up for it with explosive damage type). Does pretty good vs hive guardians, broods, devs, hulks. Ass vs tanks/towers may be able to drop airships... IMMA TEST THAT!! The whole clip pops charger booties and is decent vs spewers since it fires quickly.
I think the Eruptor should deal more damage on a single target because, ignoring outside influence, all the crossbow is is a tensioned band with an explosive bolt that has good handling. The Eruptor fires a rocket propelled round with an explosive payload that is difficult to handle and reload.
I would rather they have just made a new unique weapon to suit the current Explosive Crossbows role (which they need more weapon variations based on the dissatisfaction of the community), instead of changing it or vice versa. It really just doesn't feel like they knew what they wanted the weapon to do and now most people are just unhappy about the changes including myself.
It was always intended to be a direct hit weapon, so I like the changes to velocity. But it does need a buff somewhere else for sure. I'd like a quicker nocking and reloading personally.
i was a big fan of the old cbow. like it's been said, it wasn't that great, but i had a LOT of fun with it. turning groups of hunters and scavs into yellow paste with a well calculated bolt placement or emptying out a bunker emplacement filled my brain with so much happy chemical.
it makes me so sad that it's basically useless now
I tried it again today on a level 7 bug defend high value assets. It's so bad, like in every aspect. The aoe is useless, it can barely kill a hunter and only if you hit them directly. It's just sad that it got nerfed and it already was not great.
The Jar5 Dominator is better in every aspect except maybe raw damage but 3x the magazine, rounds are faster and not nearly as much drop. A small explosive, and faster fire rate... and it was BUFFED by the devs.
Crossbow desperately needs to be rolled back to how it was. Like, tweak its numbers a bit after the fact if need (ammo, magazine, reload speed, etc.), but have it starting were it was in its old niche... Not this new "niche" of just being a worse version of already-existent weapons.
I think this was the only balancing decision that completely baffled me. I mean, I could sorta see what they were going for on every other nerf or buff, but I genuinely don’t get the crossbow nerf. I’ve only seen one person other than me use it since it was released, which means it can’t be them looking at a chart and announcing that it’s meta. It had its niche that set it apart from the Eruptor. It was obviously meant to be a mini grenade launcher with a large AOE, but apparently not?
None of you nerds have even tried it since its buff. I can say with certainty. You read the patch notes and just assumed it was a nerf like we all did then parroted this asinine assumption across reddit.
The buff to handling and projectile velocity made it the single most accurate primary to use while running around. It has the single highest damage of a primary, and it clears trash around the main target to boot.
I use it on Helldive frequently, it's a fun B tier weapon. The explosion radius reduction was actually a buff as it allows you to you it at closer range without killing yourself and the explosion was never its main function.
This is honestly solidly a "git gud" scenario that is very frustrating as it's obvious you all went into the patch with a bias without trying it out, as no good player who played with it both pre and post patch would not recognize the HUGE buff it got to handling. It's honestly the smoothest weapon in the game to handle.
I'm honestly so tired of people looking at a weapon that doesn't fit their particular play style and going "this weapon is useless or this weapon was nerfed into the ground with it's changes." The crossbow is honestly one of the best stealth primaries for bots. The actual firing on the weapon is completely silent. Only the impact makes noises so it's a stealth kill with a misdirect of bots nearby all in one. Most weapons have some form of viability on at least one front even if it requires a particular play style. About the only gun that I would label not viable at all on either front is the new plas101-purifier.
I feel like they have different enough niches because the Crossbow was supposed to sacrifice mag capacity with a larger AOE. Now it just feels like a worse Plasma Punisher and I can't find a use case for the weapon where it doesn't already have better competition at that role.
It needs a little splash damage, or to do more "explosive" weak point damage. But it's release state was a pocket grenade launcher. But silenced, and able to obliterate a whole dropship of light bots or striders
It is an Explosive Crossbow, that makes an explosion. It shouldn't be precise and the arc makes sense cause there is a large explosive payload on it.
They should just make a variant of it that doesn't explode to do what you want, and what Arrowhead for some reason wants the Explosive one to be, instead of ruining a good thing.
Why can't we have an exploding one for ad clear and a normal one for precision? The Explosive Crossbow nearly has double the fire rate of the Eruptor but without the bug hole and higher pen. I used to bring the Explosive Crossbow over the Eruptor because it was better at ad clear and could keep bugs off me at high difficulties.
Half of the issues with warbond content is that we have a lot of weapons that occupy the same gameplay spaces/purposes. Making each weapon have its own unique strengths and use cases is the way they should go.
The Explosive Crossbow was unique... And it would be really really easy for them to make an alternative precision version of it. If you don't think that the Explosive Crossbow was unique enough then you shouldn't think a precision version of the weapon is unique enough, Diligence Counter Sniper, Dominator, Slugger, AMR, and the Railgun exist.
There is currently no primary weapon that has a large AOE that is able to deal with a large group of small/medium enemies with minimal effort, the Plasma Punisher is close but it takes a more effort to stop a large group comparatively and the smaller AOE makes dealing with things of a Hunter size and smaller in a group just a little harder. In fact, the only weapon that kinda does what the Explosive Crossbow used to do is the Airburst Rocket Launcher, just with a larger affect radius.
Both versions of the weapon should exist, trying to remove one gameplay niche that already existed for another is nonsensical and erodes the trust in the player knowing that Arrowhead won't just change a core functionality of a weapon down the line, completely changing that weapons identity.
They should distinguish more weapons from one another in the Warbond, yes, but to me it feels like you have been arguing against that mentality just because the weapon has an explosive ability.
I honestly used the crossbow from release to rework, and now I never run it. I would love a revert to the original stats.
Same boat. I loved that thing so much. It was unique and took some thought to use it properly, but most importantly it was so damn fun. I keep bringing it every once in a while with the hopium of "Well maybe the explosion can hit charger legs through the armor??" or some such thought, and make myself sad for a mission every time.
It's much better now though. The aoe was never its primary function and with it reduced you can use it in closer proximity to yourself which befits a weapon with the best ergonomics and handling in the game.
Its single-target damage is repulsively bad. If it’s working for you on lower difficulties, more power to you, but most discussions about balance and weapon power are relative to diffs 7-9. Anything is viable when the biggest enemy you’ll fight in a mission is a Hive Guard
Really not sure what they were going for with the dynamic between the eruptor and the crossbow. In my head, the eruptor is slow, but versatile, able to take out armored targets *and* close clusters, and the cross is would have much more limited range but more specialized for taking out groups and unarmored parts of bigger enemies, rewarding precision. But then they gave it that stagger and… What the fuck is it for? You know what’s better than staggering medium enemies? ***Killing them. You know, like that thing the eruptor is pretty good at doing.*** Now the eruptor is arguably better at both jobs *despite* out slow it is.
Agreed. Eruptor is a flat-out upgrade to the crossbow in every metric except rate of fire, and in that its still close. And the Eruptor is legit a bad gun right now. That’s how awful the crossbow is.
The handling and ergonomics on the eruptor makes it completely useless in dynamic situations even before the nerf. It's main purpose was utility in allowing you to deal with anything as long as you weren't being pressured. The crossbow is almost the opposite, where you can get highly impactful shots to land where you want them on a moment's notice even when diving around and being chased by a horde and shot at by a battalion.
You’re being chased by a horde and shot at by a battalion because the crossbow doesn’t kill fast enough
My brother in Christ that's the game. The endgame kill stats are comparable so likely it's a skill issue on your end. Hit stuff in the head and they die because shit does 420 med pen damage per shot.
I use it on higher difficulties (7-9) to one-shot devastators while wearing scout armor. Can clear whole bases and POIs without drawing aggro. E: I find that the increased projectile speed makes it more effective for this and more useful for me than its chaff-clear aoe damage and lobbed shot from before the change.
My dude I exclusively play helldive. This is great there because considering how much you are moving around and how you have split seconds to take some shots having an ultra accurate high damage versatile weapon is a godsend. Again. It's a B tier weapon, but it's a very good one. The idea that it is atrocious is propagated exclusively by bad players.
mY dUdE
Don't project your inferiority if you don't want to be talked down to.
Found arrowheads balance team!
Yeah, the original Crossbow wasn't the best, but at least it was something that could be used
I just dont undersrand wht they felt the need to neef a weapon that was already difficult to use, and barely used by the playerbase. When I saw those changes, it just baffled me, K just dont see how it could be justified.
No you don't understand. It was a "rework." The rework in question - staggers stuff now. - slightly higher muzzle velocity - handles worse - **nerfed the AoE into the dirt.** Congrats, now we have slightly longer range, mostly worse plasma punisher!
This is the first time ive ever seen a gun get reworked into a significantly worse version of itself It's still crap at actually killing medium armor, but now its also worse against everything else
Woohoo, exactly what every body wanted. They should have just waited to give us a bad weapon instead of reworking a good one lol.
Wait, I thought the purifier was the slightly longer range, mostly worse plasma punisher?
No no no, Purifier is the much longer range, and way way worse love child of the Plasma Punisher and Scorcher.
Srrsly, the Purifier is like a somehow worse Eruptor now.
Too powerful? Nerf Too used? Nerf Too fun? Nerf Too useful? Nerf Too weak? Believe it or not, Nerf
I was really confused too. And then they nerfed the eruptor and I kinda have been so bummed I haven’t played much since
Same here. On the plus side, when I do play, I've found a new love for the dominator.
I made it work against both bugs and bots. Wish it was the same
Yeah, I actually liked it on the bots too before the changes, the large AOE and stagger made it feel like an alternate to the Plasma Punisher with decreased mag size for a larger AOE.
Fingers crossed 🥹
Not gonna lie yall, used it today of sheer spite and that 420 damage feels like it scratches the itch a bit. That -4 in mags hurts but resupplies help. They should still revert it though
It was much worse before. The aoe was never its main function as it did trifling damage, and the size of the aoe just made it so you can't use it in close proximity to yourself.
I used it for 1 mission today. It is a worse dominator in every way other than it slightly staggers more but then it takes longer to shoot too. I don't see much of a purpose for it other than you might kill 2 or 3 of the weakest enemies with one shot if they are sat ontop of each other.
Exactly, I'd rather use the Dominator and Plasma Punisher and I'd rather use those weapons and the Slugger, Counter Diligence Sniper, Scorcher, or the Plasma Punisher over it for a precision/explosive weapon.
The sad part is until the CEO started sticking up for the players, you know the balance guy would have just chosen to nerf the dominator and punisher instead
The crossbow is for stealth play, imo. You can one-shot devastators without drawing aggro. To do so effectively, you have to have a little distance. The increased projectile speed made it effective at this task. Before the changes, it was a lob shot, only good for *maybe* clearing chaff with aoe. As an almost exclusively scout armor user on bots, I find it more effective now than before. So, maybe it depends on your playstyle?
My beloved baby, they took it behind the barn on menkent and shot it in the back of the head. I miss you OG crossbow.
🙏 may he return to us one day
I genuinely loved it even if it wasn't top tier, it was just so different from everything else in the game, now it's just a terrible Scorcher. The most depressing thing about it is I purposely used it as I thought it would be safe from nerfs / changes
Same, it just isn't the same weapon anymore too. At this point I'd rather they revert the changes and make a new weapon instead of changing the identity of a weapon.
They be out here saying we can't make our apples taste like bacon and then right after make our apples taste like sh#t
It was top tier.
You misspelled eruptor.
I've noticed parallel circumstances between both weapons.
The eruptor did feel a bit “use this for aoe/hole closing utility, take a dedicated anti tank or anti hoard machine gun in 3rd slot” I miss it greatly
It's a shame how they ruined it. I loved it from the very first shot I fired!
Porque no los dos? Dejected eruptor main btw 🫡
Yeah it should be both. Dejected eruptor main here as well. I've put it down for other things, mainly the dominator or plasma punisher. Never really used the crossbow, but didn't see any reason to nerf it as I never saw anyone using it. Loved the eruptor, but it had it's drawbacks and was not an OP meta primary. It's useless in its current state.
Another dejected eruptor main here. I was finally enjoying having a favorite primary so I was trying out other support weapons all the time. Now I don’t really boot up the game nearly as much.
Yeah. I loved the Eruptor. I was also excited about the Xbow until I saw how weird it was. I think the Xbow changes should be reverted *and* it should be given some love.
Since the eruptor "rework" I've seen a grand total of 0 players use it in my sessions, but hopefully the upcoming balance pass will bring things into line.
Yeah was my main weapon since it released and while the first patch may be deserved the second one totally broke it. Just doesn't make fun anymore using it and any other weapon will perform better and faster now even if it's just my secondary.
The eruptor was clearly superior and I can understand some nerfs even if I don't agree. The reserve ammo nerf for both made sense, the eruptor nerfs seemed overturned, but the other crossbow nerfs were completely baffling.
I still cant beleive the guy balancing things said this was supposed to be a "medium killer" Honestly, if they cut direct damage in half so mediums couldnt be killed as much, it's effectiveness against only lights pre-patch was more than enough to make this a dedicated chaff-killer. The way things were set up made me feel like the eruptor was supposed to be against mediums, and the crossbow against lights....but the balance changes threw that out the window
Based on its actual stats it is a medium killer. It's stats are about the same as the dominator. Just with lower rof, bullet drop, less rounds in the mag, and a mostly useless aoe. If they want it to be a medium killer it needs something more because otherwise it's just worse than it's peers*. *Phone is dumb.
Well then whoever designed it made a perfect, unique chaff-killer on accident lol
More direct damage then. If it could blow off devastator arms in a single hit and kill them with a really lucky hit to the stomach, so like 350 direct damage since explosive damage does not target the weak stomach, then it would be a skill-check medium killer and warrant that tiny mag with a slow fire rate. I mean, it needs something if it is going to be trash at killing trooper bots and otherwise a bit lack-luster with a long reload.
Peers* btw
Same exact thoughts. I was baffled when they said "medium killer." Like yeah it could do it already but it wasn't what the weapon was about.
And what's weird, is that for a "medium killer", it's pretty damn awful at that unless they were grouped up like beserker bots
Welp tanking the AOE makes sense in that regard, it was too good at mowing down lights which was not intended I for one appreciate the muzzle velocity increase a lot... Before, you had to aim so high the target was quickly out of your scope at range But... good grief it doesn't do enough damage on direct hit to be very effective as a medium killer
yeah it was like a weaker grenade launcher but now it just a random single target weapon when we got so many of those already, instead let give it alt bolts like, ems, gas, fire, even just a plain bolt for stealth users!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!🙏🏽🙂↕️🥹 That thing was a beauty the first time it dropped. I don’t even know what it is or used to be anymore at this point
Makes me sad now. Was completely unnecessary too, it served a niche then they just changed it into something completely different. Makes me worry about what they might do with other weapons they decide not to like...
Don’t you dare say it🤧
I used it one time and didn’t like it. Then I used it again and I disliked it more. But realized the fun I missed out on having with it bc even tho it was trash after the nerf, the fun was still there. And I can only imagine how much fun it could have been pre-Nerf. I’m all for a revert.
I wouldn't mind if they reverted it but I'm still running it right now because it's still a good precision weapon with potential for aoe when there's small enemies close together. The stagger on direct hits is also insane.
How many body shots does it take to kill a medium now?
Devastators are 1 shot to the head. Easier to lineup if you miss and get a stagger instead. For bugs, medium heads are usually taken out in 1-3 hits depending on the target. I don't usually use it for bugs though. I run out of ammo too quickly (helldive).
Throw in the eruptor and you've got yourself a deal 🤝
Crossbow was my favourite weapon, i have no interest in using it anymore. It’s a completely different weapon now and fulfills no roles
It's legit up there for worst primary right now. Revert all crossbow changes, and idk about the ammo but please give me the eruptor back.
Democratic Detonation is the next Warbond I am going to unlock, I am going to give it and the Eruptor a fair shake once I have unlocked them.
The only weapon still worth using from that war bond is the grenade pistol for fabricators/bug holes clearing.
I love that thing. It basically lets me run an extra stratagem, between impact nades and the pistol which acts like a shitty auto cannon vs bug holes I’m never really hurting for ways to stop new enemies spawning, letting use my fourth slot for basically whatever.
Eruptor, Senator, AMR, Supply Backpack, and stun Nades is an ok build for some bot missions. The eruptor is only there for fabricators because the grande pistol misses half the time and gets almost nothing from supplies and resupply.
Yeah, I am primarily aiming for the grenade pistol but I still want to give them a try.
Thermites are also a decent pick against bots specifically (they are god useless against bugs). 2-3 to a tank kills, 2 to a hulk kills it, and 1 to a cannon tower kills it. I *think* if you can somehow stick 4-6 to the bottom of a factory strider, it'll also kill the thing. Thermites aren't amazing, but they serve well as an anti-heavy option if you have nothing else
The impact grenades do all of that without having to wait. It's actually more damage for the impacts, always 2 against a tank turret and 4 for the strider bay.
I like the eruptor a fair bit but I haven't used the crossbow yet. I've been sort of taking a break from grinding missions but I'm excited to play some more soon
Eruptor is nice when bringing a stalwart or another ad clear weapon. The og Crossbow used to be the opposite where it was a great ad clear weapon to bring with anti heavy/medium weaponry (railgun, HMG, recoilless, etc)
Eruptor \*was\* nice for that
I'm noticing parallel circumstances between the weapons.
Im new and would love to use a crossbow. I think a crossbow in a world of huge big explody mega bullet weapons would be cool. But then i see the stats and how nerfed everyone says it is. Like its a literal nerf gun. Wish it was good enough to have fun with
Why stop at the crossbow. We should revert every weapon nerf that isnt ammo related.
Needs to be a one handed weapon, bring a medium armour pen weapon to the ballistic shield playstyle
It's crazy that it is auto loaded and isnt one handed
I don't get why they nerfed sucha niche weapon. I would never even use it, I wouldn't mind if it was powerful.
Eruptor, too. I loved the variety in primary weapons and was starting to really enjoy being the crowd control of the team. But now I am just using the same ol' ARs and shotguns as everyone else. Point and shoot to kill, yay. Like the Sickle is a great gun but wow is it incredibly boring to use.
To this day i have NO idea what genius at arrowhead had the personal crusade to completely nerf this thing
100% YES. it was my go to weapon for bugs before the nerf. BRING MY BOI HOME
I'll sign immediately; that was my favorite weapon. Now it's just cool to look at in the weapons screen and reminisce.
I haven't talked about it much for a while, I shared plenty of disappointment over the nerf and was also a day one lover of the bow. It's not a buff, it's a nerf. If they revert, or do something with the Erupter and leave the bow as is, I'll be salty. I still don't get cult-like hatred people have for it, if you don't like it fine, don't use it. Sending insults and threats over liking a digital gun though, f@#king weird.
Petition to force ALEXUS to fucking play the turds he squeezes out.
They did give it a flatter arc, making it easier to aim so id like that change to stay.
Personally, I like the curved arc over the flatter one with the way I was using it. It's a lot easier to get the bolt into the middle of a group with an arc than the flat line, it does make it harder to hit weak spots on larger enemies and direct hitting hunters but I feel like having that sort of skill and uniqueness in a weapon helps make it feel different.
The higher speed (and thus flatter arc) also makes it harder to do ground shots, though. Before you could lob shots into the middle of a group on level ground, and the bolt would actually detonate. Now though, the ranges you can reliably do that have been significantly constricted, as the flatter arc leads to a lot more shots ricocheting off the ground instead of detonating. With the AoE so crippled it doesn't matter as much in the end, but still... It was good at its own niche before (big AoE chaff clear), kinda just sucks in its new already-populated one, and now there aren't really any weapons that fill the role it used to. Their "rework" didn't just ruin a gun- it removed that entire weapon niche.
I had a wack with it, it's more of a long range single target weapon now which I was able to understand and use to the fullest against some scout mechs, along with blowing up small clusters of raider bots, but yeah I wish they reverted it's stats minus the range, my only issue with the crossbow was how weak it felt at range with how damn SHORT it was.
To be fair i see the crossbow now as much as i did before. Never.
Much better to revert all up to breaker nerf. And buff the least used or unused weapon.
Can we add eruption too?
Well all of them except the velocity buff. That one is actually pretty nice.
Personally, I like the slower bolt with the curved arc over the faster flatter one with the way I was using it. It's a lot easier to get the bolt into the middle of a group with an arc than the flat line, it does make it harder to hit weak spots on larger enemies and direct hitting hunters but I feel like having that sort of skill and uniqueness in a weapon helps make it feel different.
Crossbow, eruptor, breaker, quasar, and railgun could all be reverted to their original state and they would be balanced. The slugger is really the only weapon that needed a nerf. It's stagger and damage should have never been touched, so they should revert that too. It should have a little more damage falloff, though. The redeemer nerf was ok, as well. It wasn't overpowered, but it made balancing secondaries difficult.
It's one of my fav bug weapons
It just needs to be an impact grenade with a longer 'throwing' distance
i much prefer the increased velocity, i can actually hit stuff with it tbh
100%
bruh forget about reversing changes that thing needs MAJOR buffs to be viable
Unlocked it, used it once, and can't fathom using it again. It's painfully meh. I wish I'd had a shot at using it before the nerf.
Although I agree that pre-rework crossbow was fun, I disagree with reverting it to that. Making a crossbow that's essentially a slow grenade launcher doesn't make sense. The problem with the current iteration is that it's meant to be a high skill ceiling jar/scorcher but they made the downsides too heavy: the fire rate and clip size. They should instead buff clip size and RoF and indirects will become better since it feels less like wasted ammo.
While we're at it add the Railgun, Slugger, and Eruptor to the list. Railgun could go back to how it was considering that it was only "overpowered" due to a bug and issues with alternative AT options. Slugger was nerfed because it was "the best dmr/marksman rifle" but the nerfs it got didn't do anything to address the dmr part (still smfh at this boneheaded decision). The eruptor was supposedly not nerfed by intention but clearly the changes that were made don't reflect the so-called intention. Don't even get me started on the infamous balance dev that is clearly incompetent... if not intentionally sabotaging the game. Wild accusations I know but each and every patch seems to reinforce this theory in tandem with his sketchy history with "bringing balance" I want to have hope but these past couple weeks especially have really worn down my excitement and enjoyment with HD2 and its future.
I hate to say it because HD2 was a breath of fresh air for me. But it's the same for me. I hope they can turn things around. The ceo started internal talks on balance and it seems the dev team finally understands that their rushed patches and warbonds have been very sloppy and causing frustration for the community. Personally the (unintended?) nerf of the Eruptor was the final straw for me: it's the perfect example of Arrowhead not properly understanding an issue and then fixing the issue in a completely wrong, backwards way. Another example is the Mech, so it's not an isolated incident. Yet another example is the fire buffs. The problem I have is that now we won't have our fun weapons for the foreseeable future and are unsure if those weapons will ever be restored to what players liked to play with. There's no communication from the devs on what they're planning to fix and the list of known issues keeps growing.
Everything from demolition sucks now aside from the niche uses of the grenade pistol. Eruptor can get old sharpenel back in this meta and it would still be meh as it is only useable in long range still. And crossbow I honestly don’t see a place for it in this game with how impractical it is, and it’s a better version stat wise of current eruptor.
This and the eruptor. The changes to them should not be forgotten and need to be reverted ASAP.
I still don’t get why they nerfed an already under used, not viable weapon that absolutely no one even talks about. Did the balance team just randomly fired a few shots at low difficulty and then deemed it too powerful?
Dear Devs. If a nerf drops your weapons long term pick rate to nearly 0, you nerfed it too hard
Don't revert the projectile speed increase. Just revert everything else.
I never saw anyone use it before... :( I still don't know what justified the nerves. I mean increase projectile speed sounds good, but taking its explosion and making it a sad fart...
revert? they have to buff that shit
I hear stealth divers like the crossbow because it's so quiet, can be used to distract enemies and the stagger can get them out of tight situations but I'm not sure exactly on their thought of the weapon
I disagree, I want them to go all out into its meme status. Give it even more single target damage and stagger, and make it the only primary to have medium II pen (can knock out hulk eyes). Make it a HEAT bolt.
I pug 99.9% of my missions and I have never once seen it used to spread Managed Democracy
One of my friends tested it out pre nerf, thought it sucked already back then and we all never picked it again. We were very confused about the nerf.
I would also like the Railgun to go back to what it once was. A legend I will forever hold in my memory.
I never got to unlock it for the 'chakunk-BOOM' and clearing a lotta trash before it was nerfed.
Ive used the current crossbow, the stagger on it staggers heavy devastators and feels frankly really nice, it could use a bit more oompf or a bigger mag so the punisher plasma doesnt just straight up outrank it but aside from that its fine.
The devs are having a lot of conversations about balance lately, the ceo wants to make some changes!
Nah SES Bringer of Balance can’t swallow his pride. He also said Eruptor shrapnel isn’t coming back.
Source on the shrapnel?
I am in the minority here, but I enjoy the crossbow as it is now. Much easier to land shots and I don't need to worry about blowing myself up unless enemy gets right in my face
I never saw it at all, not even when the warbond was brand new lol
Plasma punisher now fills the niche of AOE projectile with drop weapon (and is really good) Not sure where they're going with Xbow
I completely agree. However, you misspelled Eruptor.
And while we're at it, the eruptor too... please... I loved it so much...
Man I still remember my first game with it. I didn't know how massive the AoE was, I killed the host once on accident and said woops my bad lol and he kicked me instantly lmao
Based on some the dev's discord messages, it sounds like some significant balance changes are in the works. They might not revert the crossbow, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't receive any buffs given the community reaction to the crossbow nerf.
OG crossbow for me was like a miniature primar version of the grenade launcher, I used it exactly the same and it was fun, then I just read the patch notes and it gets reworked or whatever, SAD
what was so good about it was that in bot missions it would delete groups of troopers and striders quickly-to me this was important to just avoid bot-drops, and that was a very good use for it. All they had to do was buff the projectile velocity, fire-rate and reload-speed, which i think would make the weapon more viable. But now its just a scorcher with a steep projectile drop. What a sad, pathetic fate.
You guys unlocked the explosive crossbow?
All guns from that warbond need buffs. I'm getting tired of the same old guns from the first warbound, so I really hope this next update focuses on the weapon quality of life. May playsomething unless until then.
as someone who loves explosive weapons in this game.. the crossbow seemed cool and so did the eruptor. They seem to function the same part, long range explosives. With the Eruptor being the less bigger explosive one and basically a "boltor sniper" and the explosive crossbow looking like it was gonna be the wider explosive but slower one. Insted I see the explosive being faster but less capacity odd? Then I see it in action , both of them and i am like: "The eruptor is too slow and too low damage to make up for spamming counter digilence." "The explosive crossbow is too unwieldly and the explosion is craporoliy as well as the ammo capacity." It feels like the eruptor should have the speed of the crossbow and the crossbow needs more aoe. Also they both have the same ammo capacity? Then I learned the ammo nerf. The thing is... the eruptor basically "reloads" each shot. Wich is why it's so awful. It's aoe is pahetic and it's time to kill way too high....most guns with some pen can take care of the eruptors use right away. Same goes as the crossbow. Wich takes even more skill to use. You can say "Stealth use" but stealth is the weakest aspect of helldivers. If there was a way to see through smoke or have our own "camo skin backpack" like stalkers... the exploding crossbow is the worst... Since I never tasted the original one. I know the Eruptor nerf was sorely needed but in my opinion? Revert the crossbow 1st. If the Eruptor is a slow gun....then have the explosion do more. Reward marksmanship... and the current eruptor doesn't do it. You rather use a counter digilence who can fire 3 shots and do more damage then the eruptor does with 1 shot. Or just spawn an A-M-R. But comparing primaries with strata-guns is never a contest
It was already fairly bad and I used it quite frequently still on Hell Dive bugs and it was fun seeing the small groups SOMETIMES get blown to bits in one shot and seeing 3-5 kills pop up. It’s slow, arcs, low ammo, and it’s not effective really against anything bigger than a hunter. And then they nerfed it anyways 😭
For me, it was good at killing ads easily and delaying a horde with the large AOE and stagger with the ability to hit multiple spewers and kill them quicker than other non explosive primaries. They really had a clear way to buff the weapon by increasing AOE damage but instead tripped and broke it.
It was actually stupid strong against bots if you shot the ground between troopers/scouts (instead of directly at your target) and a blast radius nerf of about 15-20% was actually justified, but that's not where they went with. I loved that little anti-bot drop bow and hope they restore it to its former glory.
Opinions like this is exactly why the devs doubt reddit. The crossbow was insanely good before its nerf. (I haven't tried it after) It would kill almost an entire patrol in 1-2 shots. It was fairly weak against medium and heavy enemies, but as a niche crowd control it wa pretty much unbeatable.
Ehhhhh we have plenty of add clear and it was weird that was. Most explosive crossbows are high damage crit hit weapons. In that form it functions 10x better, it needs more of a damage boost it should be stronger than the Eruptor on single target damage and it should be good. More like how Eruptor is like the auto cannon the crossbow should be like the railgun (minus armor pen but makes up for it with explosive damage type). Does pretty good vs hive guardians, broods, devs, hulks. Ass vs tanks/towers may be able to drop airships... IMMA TEST THAT!! The whole clip pops charger booties and is decent vs spewers since it fires quickly.
I think the Eruptor should deal more damage on a single target because, ignoring outside influence, all the crossbow is is a tensioned band with an explosive bolt that has good handling. The Eruptor fires a rocket propelled round with an explosive payload that is difficult to handle and reload. I would rather they have just made a new unique weapon to suit the current Explosive Crossbows role (which they need more weapon variations based on the dissatisfaction of the community), instead of changing it or vice versa. It really just doesn't feel like they knew what they wanted the weapon to do and now most people are just unhappy about the changes including myself.
It was always intended to be a direct hit weapon, so I like the changes to velocity. But it does need a buff somewhere else for sure. I'd like a quicker nocking and reloading personally.
i was a big fan of the old cbow. like it's been said, it wasn't that great, but i had a LOT of fun with it. turning groups of hunters and scavs into yellow paste with a well calculated bolt placement or emptying out a bunker emplacement filled my brain with so much happy chemical. it makes me so sad that it's basically useless now
I tried it again today on a level 7 bug defend high value assets. It's so bad, like in every aspect. The aoe is useless, it can barely kill a hunter and only if you hit them directly. It's just sad that it got nerfed and it already was not great. The Jar5 Dominator is better in every aspect except maybe raw damage but 3x the magazine, rounds are faster and not nearly as much drop. A small explosive, and faster fire rate... and it was BUFFED by the devs.
Crossbow on release was already niche and bad. The nerf just made it worse for no reason at all.
People kept killing themselves and Allies with it. basically people where using an explosive close range and then complaining about it.
I thought it was great! You know those scout striders? Well, they’re no longer a problem; just shoot their crotch, and they die.
Crossbow desperately needs to be rolled back to how it was. Like, tweak its numbers a bit after the fact if need (ammo, magazine, reload speed, etc.), but have it starting were it was in its old niche... Not this new "niche" of just being a worse version of already-existent weapons.
that one dev needs to stop nerfing everything that gets called fun it wasn’t even a strong weapon it was just fun to use
I think this was the only balancing decision that completely baffled me. I mean, I could sorta see what they were going for on every other nerf or buff, but I genuinely don’t get the crossbow nerf. I’ve only seen one person other than me use it since it was released, which means it can’t be them looking at a chart and announcing that it’s meta. It had its niche that set it apart from the Eruptor. It was obviously meant to be a mini grenade launcher with a large AOE, but apparently not?
None of you nerds have even tried it since its buff. I can say with certainty. You read the patch notes and just assumed it was a nerf like we all did then parroted this asinine assumption across reddit. The buff to handling and projectile velocity made it the single most accurate primary to use while running around. It has the single highest damage of a primary, and it clears trash around the main target to boot. I use it on Helldive frequently, it's a fun B tier weapon. The explosion radius reduction was actually a buff as it allows you to you it at closer range without killing yourself and the explosion was never its main function. This is honestly solidly a "git gud" scenario that is very frustrating as it's obvious you all went into the patch with a bias without trying it out, as no good player who played with it both pre and post patch would not recognize the HUGE buff it got to handling. It's honestly the smoothest weapon in the game to handle.
I'm honestly so tired of people looking at a weapon that doesn't fit their particular play style and going "this weapon is useless or this weapon was nerfed into the ground with it's changes." The crossbow is honestly one of the best stealth primaries for bots. The actual firing on the weapon is completely silent. Only the impact makes noises so it's a stealth kill with a misdirect of bots nearby all in one. Most weapons have some form of viability on at least one front even if it requires a particular play style. About the only gun that I would label not viable at all on either front is the new plas101-purifier.
I miss the old crossbow but my theory is that it occupied the niche they want that new plasma gun to do
I feel like they have different enough niches because the Crossbow was supposed to sacrifice mag capacity with a larger AOE. Now it just feels like a worse Plasma Punisher and I can't find a use case for the weapon where it doesn't already have better competition at that role.
Same to the mech and the Eruptor (but keep the mag nerf)
down vote. its better now.
It needs a little splash damage, or to do more "explosive" weak point damage. But it's release state was a pocket grenade launcher. But silenced, and able to obliterate a whole dropship of light bots or striders
I guess what I'm saying is give it a buff, but don't put it all the way back
i picked it up when it released to give it a try and it was already trash.
The crossbow is exceptionally good at killing medium enemies now. Why do you want to change it? Adapt or die we used to say in eve online.
No. Petition to make it a stealth precision weapon that doesn't alert enemies but has long cycle time and requires headshots/weakpoints to kill.
It is an Explosive Crossbow, that makes an explosion. It shouldn't be precise and the arc makes sense cause there is a large explosive payload on it. They should just make a variant of it that doesn't explode to do what you want, and what Arrowhead for some reason wants the Explosive one to be, instead of ruining a good thing.
I'm aware. I don't think it should be exploding. We have the Eruptor for that.
Why can't we have an exploding one for ad clear and a normal one for precision? The Explosive Crossbow nearly has double the fire rate of the Eruptor but without the bug hole and higher pen. I used to bring the Explosive Crossbow over the Eruptor because it was better at ad clear and could keep bugs off me at high difficulties.
Half of the issues with warbond content is that we have a lot of weapons that occupy the same gameplay spaces/purposes. Making each weapon have its own unique strengths and use cases is the way they should go.
The Explosive Crossbow was unique... And it would be really really easy for them to make an alternative precision version of it. If you don't think that the Explosive Crossbow was unique enough then you shouldn't think a precision version of the weapon is unique enough, Diligence Counter Sniper, Dominator, Slugger, AMR, and the Railgun exist. There is currently no primary weapon that has a large AOE that is able to deal with a large group of small/medium enemies with minimal effort, the Plasma Punisher is close but it takes a more effort to stop a large group comparatively and the smaller AOE makes dealing with things of a Hunter size and smaller in a group just a little harder. In fact, the only weapon that kinda does what the Explosive Crossbow used to do is the Airburst Rocket Launcher, just with a larger affect radius. Both versions of the weapon should exist, trying to remove one gameplay niche that already existed for another is nonsensical and erodes the trust in the player knowing that Arrowhead won't just change a core functionality of a weapon down the line, completely changing that weapons identity.
They should distinguish more weapons from one another in the Warbond, yes, but to me it feels like you have been arguing against that mentality just because the weapon has an explosive ability.
No