[Suggestion] Crossbows

I would suggest adding one-handed crossbows with lots of gameplay options.

Crossbow in main-hand
While in main hand it would act similar to wants and can be combined with another crossbow or shield. This would add options to play as tanky physical ranger or faster (but doing a bit less damage) normal physical ranger.

Crossbow in off-hand while wielding melee weapon
There is where it wouldn't work like a wand. While in off-hand and you are using melee weapon in main-hand, then crossbow will not performs normal attacks (you normal attacks will melee only with melee weapon), but you still be able to use ranged skill (something like assassination for escaping enemies).
Looking a bit like this

Or this


Difference between bow and crossbow
Crossbow would deal less damage, but have higher attack speed.
Crossbow should have no base critical strike chance (you could score critical strikes only with critical strike chance increasing passives or gear), but have additional chance to pierce (something between 10-35%)
It could be dex-int or/and dex-str-int weapon (because shooting it's arrows doesn't need extra strength, but it can be combined with melee weapon)

New play styles (or just improved old ones) that could appear with crossbows
Tanky ranger
Fast shooter
Melee assassin with range finisher
Ranger with melee skill for enemies who comes too close
Melee single target/ range multi target
And so on....

P.S. I know there should have been more of there suggestions for crossbows, don't rage for new thread.

GGG has to prioritize resources. Making the animations and models for an entirely new kind of weapon or other visible character equipment is very expensive and time-consuming, and the pros of doing that do not outweigh the cons in their eyes. The same reasoning applies to polearms and spears: too little reward for too much investment.

1-handed projectile weapons such as 1-handed crossbows would need to have a thorough balance evaluation too so bows and crossbows could be used for the same skills. Again, more time and money invested for what is likely not much of a gain.

Yea, i seen same response when some one was suggesting adding spears. However, crossbow animations should be easier to do than those of polearms or spears. 1 simple animation for each character class= 7 new animations. And yes, having new visible character equipments is a lot of work, however game have to progress further and one of the ways it can progress could be new weapons.

As i see POE it's game where you can play whatever you want in any way possible- game about freedom of choice. I don't think that adding more ways to play is "likely not much of a gain".

However, it's up to GGG to do that they want. Maybe they will add crossbows, maybe they won't.

You are wrong, you can't combine melee weapons with a wand.

That's why i am suggesting adding crossbows which could be combined with melee weapons.

Who can reload a crossbow with only one hand?

Automatic reload i think. Just look at the picture on the top of the thread.

Dual wield (melee weapon + ranged weapon) + use Frenzy = cannot compute

But generally speaking game needs more diverse ranged weapon options

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regonix wrote:

Automatic reload i think. Just look at the picture on the top of the thread.

Looking at that picture I come to the conclusion that this is indeed a 2h crossbow. There's this kinda handle in the front, then there's the stock. The level for reloading also looks like you couldn't use it with one hand.

While there might be 1h crossbows, I think they're also 1-shot weapons that are used as a nasty surprise and which then are reloaded (using both hands), when there is time.
Of course we could always take magic as an excuse for having rapid fire auto loading 1h crossbows. But I'd rather we didn't.

The real "missing" element is a STR based ranged weapon. Spears/javalins are a better real-life analog.

They could then make a MTX that would make your spear character look like they're shooting a crossbow.