Crossbow as a primary

[gibonez 3633]

It should be situational.

 

In a real apocalypse i'm going to be more comfortable firing a crossbow when i'm surrounded by zeds that haven't aggroed than any non-suppressed firearm. Then again that isn't going to be a comfortable situation.

 

Of course its a very situational weapon.

 

Great for silently dispatching zombies and hunting.

 

Absolute crap for pvp and against players that know your location.

[trev186 389]

I find the crossbow useful for 1 thing only :

Night raids at NWAF. With melee currently nerfed such that the ax takes several hits to down a zombie and the fact that once you start firing your M4 off up there your going to constantly be dealing with zombies aggoring your from out of sight.

I find the crossbow all over the place and once I find some bolts I hid up to NWaf at night and clear it. I usually need maybe 1-2 bolts per run to clear the few zombies in my path and just make sure to crawl walk.

I keep my M4 and magnum ready for when shit hits the fan.

However during the day crossbow is a very poor choice.

[tinroofer 23]

As soon as retrievable bolts are implemented, they fix the slightly funky aim, and make ammunition more plentiful in whichever way, it'll be a great choice.

At the moment though, the only reason whatsoever to use it is personal preference it seems or quietly clearing a couple of straggler zombies that are in your way - though on a cost to benefit ratio given how few bolts are around, this seems wasteful.

Oh and if you run into another player sporting a rifle and you see each other at the same time, you might as well just put up your hands and pray for mercy, because getting into a fight is most likely goin to end poorly for the bow wielder :D

[Dagwood 680]

Reviving a dead thread: has the crossbow been modified at all in recent patches? Just lost my month old M4 character and want to start using the crossbow.

Based on this thread I would guess the crossbow is utter shit, but I'm hoping someone can correct me.

[EvilTigerAce 131]

Crossbow vs Blaze , you should win this fight regardless of your aim as long as your not completely terrible.

 

Hm, you  are someone who underestimates the Blaze eh?

 

Well, we will surprise you if we meet you in-game.

 

;)

[Jesterarts 85]

I used a cross bow the other day. Pretty useless at the moment since you can't retrieve the bolts.

The great thing was the silent kills.

Used it on 6 zeds and the kills didn't attract the attention of other sees or players.

The only bolt I was able to retrieve was I one I shot into a wall/doorframe.

It will be a great weapon for survival style players once you can retrieve the bolt.

I would imagine that with every use the bolt would deteriorate, but great for hunting and zed protection.

Pretty useless PvP unless you have the jump in them and it's just a lone player.

I like the concept, but for not it's irrelevant as we go through this DayZ deathmatch stage of development.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

Reviving a dead thread: has the crossbow been modified at all in recent patches? Just lost my month old M4 character and want to start using the crossbow.

Based on this thread I would guess the crossbow is utter shit, but I'm hoping someone can correct me.

 

Yes it is even worse now. When this thread was started its only advantage was its relatively high damage, which meant, as stated, 1-2 hits to kill. That is not the case anymore, since they nerfed its damage. You can keep pumping bolts into your enemy and they will still be up and running with nothing but fleshwounds.

 

Stay far away from it. The only shooter currently worse than the crossbow is the 1-pellet shotgun (unless theyve fixed it in this recent exp patch), and that says a lot.

Edited July 1, 2014 by BadAsh

[C0bbler 17]

Yeah, you can retrieve from walls but not bodies in my experience. Still very tough to aim but a nice challenge.

[frosti 2165]

Cross bow can become usefull when you will need weapon with silencer to not get swarmed by Zeds that you can't outrun or annihilate with an axe.

[TiggyPooh 134]

Cross bow can become usefull when you will need weapon with silencer to not get swarmed by Zeds that you can't outrun or annihilate with an axe.

 

On the other hand if you want more bang with your crossbow maybe we will get an explosive arrow head in update 0.47

 

[frosti 2165]

On the other hand if you want more bang with your crossbow maybe we will get an explosive arrow head in update 0.47

 

 

That would actually balance the cross bow.

 

They can add placeholder explosion effect of a gas station to it and add it in .47

[Pokerguy12 218]

If I were to sum up using a crossbow as your primary weapon in one word. It would be 'ineffective'.

 

For the last few days I've been using nothing but, dropping my other primaries as soon as I have 5 bolts and find a crossbow.

RDS / Comp optics are broken on the crossbow, you will shoot about 2-3 meters higher than where you place the reticle.

ACOG seems to be the only viable optics that actually shoot where you aim.

 

Due to not being able to retrieve bolts from kills or misses , ammo is very sparce and you must choose your shots very well. Also because of this, it eliminates using the crossbow as an option for zombie removal. Ammo is far and few between to waste it on a zombie. If you were able to retrieve bolts this would be a completely different scenario.

 

For PVP, your almost guaranteed to lose a confrontation should you not get the flank / drop on your opponent or miss your first shot.

With a reload time of about 5-6 seconds, anyone with half a brain should have you dead within that time period.

Crossbow vs M4 (lol) , don't even try it unless you have the back drop on them

Crossbow vs Mosin , It's doable so long as you don't miss your first two shots.

Crossbow vs Blaze , you should win this fight regardless of your aim as long as your not completely terrible.

Crossbow vs Sks , you better make that first shot count or your dead.

Crossbow vs Shotgun , this is the only scenario where you have the true upper hand and that is due to range. 

 

What I am really getting at, even though the crossbow is mostly a one shot kill on players (two at max) , it is probably the worst choice you can make as a primary. The slow reload time gives your opponent such a large window to push and kill you. Plus the sparcity of ammo and inability to retrieve bolts makes each bolt worth there weight in gold 10x over.

 

If the reload was reduced by half (not very realistic) and bolts made retrievable it would definitely be an effective PVE & PVP primary but at this point in time, the only real use I would recommend it for is hunting. 

 

In my opinion is should be able to replace your melee slot or be stackable in a backpack like a sawn-off.  But take up more space then the sawn-off (2x4 instead of 1x4)

 

Anyone actually have a relatively positive PVP experience with the crossbow?

Dead on, balancing needed.

Imo what it really needs to be balanced, and also make this weapon function more realistically is faster projectile speed first of all.

 

Then we can talk about damage and bleeding factors.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Pokerguy10

[Etherious 907]

Well, the Crossbow and the Improvised Bow were fantastic when they were first introduced but after like 2 days the forum community went into full bitch mode about it being stronger than the M4/Mosin/SKS and thus the Devs nerfed the shit out of them both just like they did with the Mosin....yup sometimes I just wish the Devs wouldn't listen to all the noobs in this community.

[Dagwood 680]

So you're telling me that the crossbow and 13 bolts I found last night are worthless? Any word on the crossbow damage being buffed tomorrow?

I have an antistab vest, riders jacket, black helmet and black cargo pants with no backpack. If I can't complete this overheating, badass motherfuker with an effective crossbow I'm going to be pretty bummed.