Crossbow vs. Bow

[Hessah]

LOL ok its only lvl 6 anyway...

[Deathbolt]

J/w... does the bow mastery/xbow mastery take any account? Seeing as you've already got 2 lvls of bow mastery when u can start using a xbow.

[a.L]

Woah, necro attack.

Anyway, I found that I kill King Colls almost at the same speed with crossbow and bows. =/

[XbowX]

well im lvl 15 ranger so im going to have to decide soon =\

[aLvhin]

just use BOW / XBOW. then buy the mastery of this 2 weapon.

[Pedobear]

So, the xbow is better than the bow?

it depends.

if you are going a pure str build (as seems to be more and more popular these days) then the bow may out dps the xbow in normal attacks. This is almost a for sure thing at later levels.

however since skills are independant of your weapon's attack rate, the xbow will ALWAYS be the better choice for skill spamming.

[Azrial]

your maths is assuming you did the damage that the weapon says it has. You haven't taken into account armour. It depends what mob you tend to grind against and what build you've gone. If you're a dex build I recommend going xbow, if you're a str build I recommend bow. For example, a bow might hit 70 on a mob, while xbow hits 85-90. Just because the bow states it has double the damage doesn't mean you're going to hit double the damage. Also against high def / red mobs, archers with str build will definitely use a bow. If you grind against things your own lvl, I don't really think it matters too much whether you use bow or xbow, so i'd stick with bow for str build, xbow for dex build. TBH it doesn't really make all that much difference until much later, so it's down to what you want to look like and which green / stat bow you find first .

[Grudger]

Ok. I have mostly a str build but I also put quite a bit of points into end.
str= 32 points end= 21 points. would it be reccomended to still go with a bow even if I'm not full str?

[Pedobear]

whats your base str? i can crunch the numbers and let you know.

[DTOSensei]

This is something i found. Maybe can help.

Lastly, I will explain the option of using a crossbow or bow and maybe help you decide which best suit you. Answer my questions below and make your decision at level 20 when the time come for you.

Do you like to spam your skills when killing mobs or do you prefer to conserve your energy and just shoot at mobs using normal attacks?

If your answer is YES, I spammed my skills constantly be it solo or in party. I suggest you use a crossbow for the higher critical chance % and damage base of the weapon.
1.Reason being you hardly use the crossbow for normal attack.
2.You still get to enjoy the higher crit chance and base damage of the weapon when your skills hit the target.

If your answer is the latter, prefering to conserve energy/SP for long grinds with a party or just soloing. A regular bow will be a better option for you. You make up for damage by attacking faster simple as that. Not forgetting the fact that bow users get an extra bow skill compared to crossbow users. Thus making a bow user slightly on par with a crossbow user in term of DPS tho not the best.

Finally, i come to the last part of my guide. Answering why did i recommend potion and scroll making for the Archer class. Undeniably archers use hell lots of scrolls and potions when soloing no matter what build you are. So I am just trying to help you save up some money thats all folks. Welcome any feedback and hope this guide helps!