A Detailed REVIEW Of The CB-9 Explosive Crossbow | Helldiver's Handbook | Helldivers2
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
- Greetings Helldivers!
Today we're going to dive VERY deep into the CB-9 Explosive Crossbow!
With the release of the Democratic Detonation Warbond and the Eruptor, a lot of comparisons have been made between it and the Crossbow, often painting the crossbow as an inferior Eruptor in every way.
In this video, we'll explore just how true these claims are (with numbers and tables) and try to find out what the real potential of the crossbow is!
Hold on to your hellpods, because its gonna be a long ride!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:14 Stat Profile Comparison
3:57 Resource Profile Comparison
4:48 Comparison Verdict
5:30 Armour Survival Comparison
7:01 Crossbow Breakpoint Tables
7:55 Finding Crossbow Potential
8:39 Projectile Comparison Table
10:42 Rangefinder Chart
11:35 Ping Markers
12:39 Vertical Arc Distance
14:53 Mortar Misdirection
15:21 Mini Map & Compass
15:55 Minimum Spawn Trigger
16:54 Loadout Suggestions
18:58 Conclusion
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#helldivers2 #helldivers2guide #helldivers2crossbow #helldivers2review #helldivers2grenade
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They really need better first person sights for weapons that fire explosive projectiles with ballistic arcs (bullet drop) since the front end of your gun blocks your view.
I wish they'd used m203 style leaf sights
Thankfully my monitor has a crosshair setting, turning the in-game crosshair off helps if your monitor also has this feature
This is seriously needed especially as we’re getting more weapons with arc drop off in them. It’s frustrating enough to try and estimate the arc on flat surfaces on sights that practically tells you nothing but elevation also plays a lot in this game.
I like it as is. I want a weapon that doesn't assist but also doesn't obstruct your aiming. I hate having to go into third person to see the battle and where I'm needed and if the sights are to good, you run the risk of it needing a nerf because it's big explosion and high damage need something to compensate and they chose ease of use to be it's challenge.
I wish I had a magic Tupperware container that every time I put it down to it would refill with tacos
Bro, the denser the information the more I dig it. Keep it up!
Glad there are people like you who love dem numbers!
Notes!
--> The Rangefinder chart is a GUIDE - there's a lot of variables that will influence where you need to aim (i.e. elevation, whether you are crouching, prone, if the enemy is moving - and therefore may change elevation). All these subtle factors can change where you'll need to place your scope relative to your target and markers!
--> Using the Vertical Arc as a bootleg Artillery is great in maps where you don't have a lot of direct visibility (i.e. Malevelon Creek or that planet with lots of deep canyons). Here, your ability to engage in indirect misdirection can pay dividends as you harass the enemy from beyond!
--> My thoughts on Eruptor vs Crossbow: (points at Eruptor) This is good. (points at Crossbow) But I like this.
--> CROSSBOW SUPREMACY!
This is why the sights are pretty much useless. The rangefinder located between your ears in third person is gonna be more reliable than that ADS sight.
@@smexehcougah3the sights are useless because you lack the perception to not rely on sights rather than skill. i have no issue hitting moving targets 100m out.
@@arcanusluvalus1388 Yeah, using the rangefinder between your ears; that's what I just said
It might be more fun, but it's clearly still weaker than the Erupter.
I think it should get more ammo types, which you can switch between.
Ideas
Stun bolts for stealth
Stim darts for teammates
Fire bolts for dps
@@leoritchie9635 Naw, it just serves a different role from Eruptor. Have one person bring the crossbow and the other the rifle. Erupter person zeros Dominators while crossbow person keeps the smaller mobs off them.
Im really surprised you didn’t pick the punisher plasma as a comparison, rather than the grenade launcher. The punisher plasma is almost the same weapon, functionally. They're also both primaries.
You have a good point... I completely forgot about its existence... Welp. Guess I can reference back this video when I eventually get to it..
oh! I remember why I didn't include it in here - because it was suppose to be part of another video...
The punisher plasma is kinda bugged, though. I've had the projectile pass through enemies' hitboxes. You have to aim at the ground, making it significantly worse.
The grenade launcher is a better comparison because the damage on the crossbow is very similar to the normal grenade launcher. It has over four times the amount of damage that the punisher plasma has so it's not a good comparison.
I do think the Punisher Plasma could be up on the chart though.
It's not quite near any of the other weapons in damage but still has the arcing trajectory and stagger.
Oh. Video is good too. I like video.
@@thelonehunter6025 That's assuming the numbers in the UI are correct. The hits to kill between the crossbow and plasma punisher feel very similar
There's one difference that tends to get ignored. The eruptor is very loud. I've fired a shot with it to hit a target about + - 100m away only for the hills to light up red around me as I alerted every patrol around me (I didn't check my map). Crossbow firing is quite silent and can leave enemies confused to why an explosion went off. Pretty good for stealth gameplay with scout armor
Now that’s an actual plus I can get behind. The rest of this stuff is way too niche to take over the Eruptor. Some stealth enabling gear on the other hand is little more universal.
Crossbow for solo play, eruptor for groups. Keep the mobs off you when alone, draw everything into a kill zone with the squad
i wish sound level was a visible stat, the dmrs seem to have lower noise profiles from what I can tell than assault rifles or smgs and it's a real upside if you're playing carefully, they are still generally inferior but avoiding a patrol here and there due to not making a racket is a real upside that people don't realise.
very good information o/ keep it.
another usage would be stealth/distaction ( another simliar applipcation as vertical arc) .
base on another video of the crossbow, it mention that its silent when fired ( means enemy wont know where the shot came from, unless you HIT them).
so what you could do is shoot somewhere a bit futher and not hit the enemy. enemys will go check out where the shot land .
very useful for when an enemy patrol is coming towards you and you dont want to fight them. just pull them away to another location by shooting there.
if i'm not mistaken epruter is really loud. so it cant use the same tactic that i just mention. very likely the enemy will just turn and face you.
the "audio" range could be anothre thing that you could test . i didn't really test this for all weapon but i know it works for the crossbow.
Eruptor is supposedly *the* loudest primary in the game.
@@SkywalkerWroc that would make it its 1 and only 1 weakest but then again..... everyone is going in gun blazing anyway LMAO so its not even a con anymore.
crossbow needs a rangefinder scope not a rangefinder chart
Not trying to be a dick but are you planning on doing calculus before every shot? Can you not just look and see about how far and about how high you need to aim? This isn't something like battlefield, realistically, when would you ever need to see the actual unit distance of anything in this game. This game is way too fast paced to ever actually use the rangefinder
@@gangstersnow What? people with skill can accurately use leaf sights with snap judgements better than without, or to establish required elevation adjustments before ambushing enemies or remember which marker on the sight was working before we got staggered, had to reload, had to heal, had to use a calldown, or any of the other dozen interruptions that occur without having to manually guess and adjust again. Its basically what we are doing now but when you're good you can reference the rangerfinder to go back to firing accurately faster. To anyone else it makes no difference, so the change wont matter anyway, nothing is lost by providing it but higher play is rewarded.
@tenjenk "people with skill" alright buddy calm down. If you were "people with skill" you don't need to use a rangefinder in the firstplace, the ground isn't magically moving, you can tell how far away something is by looking at it and adjusting before firing on the first place, no need for a range finder if you actually have skill.
@@gangstersnow who is not calm here, what is there to not be calm about? Why are you imagining or insinuating a non-existent tone? Skill is one thing but having the right tools cuts down response time further for skilled individuals. We'll still eyeball it all the same like before to mentally judge the distance, but the rangefinder will help further during complications.
This isnt a necessary argument, the weight of the discussion is blatantly in our favor. You are stating things already countered by what you are replying to. You only look ridiculous arguing against it like this solely to be contrary, your weak self esteem making you act like this is not an effective counterpoint. Please stop embarrassing yourself.
A scope with range finder lines built into it is not unusual. Heck, you get them on golf ball range finders or monoculars to help judge distances of people or objects. Thom4s' suggestion is perfectly reasonable.
This guy is a hero. Real in depth information and effective ways to utilize the weapon based off those findings.
At 7:12, "Stalkers, Bastard". I'm rolling
Assuming no air resistance and level ground, 45° is the angle to throw a projectile to make it fly farthest distance relative to its initial position.
Throwing a projectile at a higher angle, greater than 45° will cause it to spend more time in the air, but cause the projectile to travel a shorter distance. Throwing a projectile at a flatter angle, less than 45°, will cause it to fly a shorter distance, but cause it to reach its destination faster.
When the thrown from a position is above the target area, an angle less than 45°, will make a projectile to travel farther. Conversely, when the throwing position is below the target area, throwing a projectile at an angle greater than 45° will make it travel farther.
Don't stress too much, throwing the ideal angle with regularity over varied terrain in HD2 takes some practice. It's just that projectiles will travel farthest over flat terrain if thrown at 45°.
With air resistance, which is likely not modeled in HD2, the optimum angle to throw the farthest is slightly less than 45°, around 40°. Some may have heard 30° is the best angle for the farthest distance, but this is for a baseball with backspin and air resistance.
I've heard 39° in what scientists call "normal" conditions
You should call us Varlets one time in a helldiver intro
I've been itching to do something for Darktide... Just need to plan a little more :)
>:)@@rykenxiv
I hear it everytime I swear
This is incredibly helpful, I've been using the crossbow to distract bots, but at far closer ranges (then i stun them and use Eagle Airstrikes). This might be quite fun to have a play around with. Top tier stuff as always!
Another use for explosive crossbow is for stealthy runs, because its a crossbow it doesn't produce any sound when firing so you can misdirect patrols to a different direction
But I thought that wasn't true, it's been proven it unfortunately isn't silent, I still gives away your position.
@@MyzoryMaiq skill issue, you need to make sure they dont have line of sight of you.
@@AlexLee-je5jg sometimes they just go "huh?? A sound?? CALL REINFORCEMENTS!!!" and fucks your whole plan up
@@gabusdeux yes but if you watched the video, that is something that can be throughly exploited. calling airdrops have a cooldown period, you do it on a patrol, they call airdrops, now its on cooldown so quicky raid a base knowing they cant call for airdrop
This is easily the best guide to anything Helldivers I've seen yet. Excellent work and THANK YOU
right on time for the great content. keep them coming!
o7 More to come!
I really like the strategic applications of the data you provide, great job
So many imformations love it ! That misdirection gotta be the most interesting thing I've heard for a primary.
Love your videos! Thank you for your service!
Great content and analysis from Ryken as usual.
Dam this channel deservers more attention. Keep up the good work bro.
Wow, this is an amazing video. Please keep making more!
Thank you! Will do!
GL was the first support weapon i bought, have maybe used it once per month since that first couple of trial runs.
It's probably the most dangerous support weapon to sue as it will ricochet of ALL armour even if it's a direct perpendicular hit and 1/3 of the time that bounce will end up right back in your own face.
plus is can skim/skip/bounce off terrain when fired too flatly so even if you do aim for the ground it'll often bounce past the enemy into some random terrain 50-100M away.
I've used the crossbow to some mild success, just as you said by playing to the weapons range. Me and a friend were running to extraction while 2 others were already there dealing with the horde of bugs and with the terrain layout being an uphill slope we had no direct LoS, so from about 250M~ I started arcing shots while we kept running. I picked up about 22 kills entirely blind firing it. My friend with me was like "why are you shooting the air: and he was flabbergasted that my arrows were even landing that far
Amazing content man. Keep up the detail and duty to serve and help helldivers all over the universe. 🙏
Much appreciated!
One thing that you might have missed or I misunderstood, in your table about the bots, you wrote Weakspot, referring to the number of shots needed to kill the berserkers and devastators. Did you test their mid torso weakspot, as it is very easy to kill them that way?
My thoughts on the crossbow was similar to my initial thoughts on the SPEAR but after bringing out the potential of both I don't think i'm going to judge weapons as soon as they drop since there are "better" options. Love the video, Subscribed!
Fantastic analysis! Thanks so much
"1 second feels like you're aiming your weapon while underwater in a pool of Jell-O"
This may be the most apt description of how it feels wielding the Eruptor I've ever heard. It's not so slow that it's like schoolbus turning through molasses perse, but it's just slow enough to feel like an eternity when in the middle of combat. The side to side sway mixed with that ultra slow re-target time has been my biggest personal issue to overcome in using it.
so use eruptor instead gotcha.
The fact that they nerfed it into the ground really hurts me, I had so much fun with the weapon when it I tried it a little after it first came out, and then the nerf came the next day XD
8:04 legendary quote. Brought a tear to my eye.
thank you for your hard work!
My pleasure!
I really appreciate the deep dive! immediately sub'd. Is there any chance you have done research into the HP values and multipliers for damage?
I like this video. Especially the 2nd half that most Helldivers probably won't stick around for.
I did see a marked improvement in effectiveness after practicing for more than just one operation.
I still have that one guy in my group who won't switch from the meta and judges my loadout.😂
I don't even pay attention to what people bring as their primaries and secondaries. They are all functionally the same to me. The only thing I check anymore are stratagems, as those can help me figure out what the squad needs
I have used nothing but the crossbow in my last 25 -30 missions. I can't even remember what its like to bring something else that isn't it..
I love this thing. I don't even use it in first person, and after a while the aim is became very intuitive for me. Got a 700 kill game with this as my primary last night.
I have prefered the crossbow over the Eruptor since I got it.
I said the same thing to my friend yesterday about the clip size. Nice to know we came to the same conclusion.
The projectile speed comparison helps me understand why I (a GL lover) found ease-of-use within shorter ranges, but difficulty hitting what I want out at range (100-110m).
Captain Phillips reference (love it - made me laugh)
8:03 the sort of inspirational quotes i need in my life
In any game I play, I'm good with compensating for ballistic arcs, and I almost instantly understood the Helldivers 2 crossbow upon firing it for the first time. I can reliably hit moving scout striders from 80 meters. At extreme range, I aim using the iron sight visible in the bottom of the scope. I can take out entire squads of troopers within seconds. I'm basically a walking mortar emplacement with this thing. Usually enemies don't get inside my minimum range, but when they do, I use my machine pistol to clear them out. I am deeply enjoying this weapon, if you're good with it, it can be downright overpowered. I can even use it for indirect fire, hitting enemies behind cover using the ballistic arc of the bolt.
I hope they never change the sight. Once the crossbow is understood, you quickly learn to love having a open sight.
It would still be an open sight. Just needs lines on it as elevation reference. Literally nothing is lost.
What about the option to have both? Default scope and a liberator style scope. It wouldn't block your playstyle and would give other players more options.
Thanks for the information ama go test my skills out, great video
Have fun!
The crossbow needs a better blast radius and the ability to destroy bug holes and factories. I want the Eruptor to be the "armor piercer" while the crossbow is the "blaster"
It alredy is stop regurgitating the meta and try the damm thing...
@@fredericoeusebio9770 I have, but the lack of utility makes it a worse Erruptor
Amazing video, hell I'm going to try the artillery attack right now, I always wondered if the bolts arced back down. This is mind blowing, and O love you for finding out all this detailed information.
Like another person commented, I like to use the bolts to distract when I can, but it is a bummer that enemies know where you are when attacked.
I really wish they would just split the ammo in half for explosive/non explosive bolts, but I can't say that I wouldn't be happy if they increased the ammo pool altogether, and gave a better reticle so I don't have to guess the dropoff.
I've been saying it since day 2 on this release, there's a higher skill ceiling with this one and I pray people give it another shot.
Informative as always. I think the Crossbow and Eruptor are functionally too similar and could stand to have their roles more clearly delineated.
If i was on the balance team I'd make the crossbow have a small radius and higher pen and damage, making it the precision explosive weapon rewarding good aim and target priority. The Eruptor stays as the AoE focused weapon and is allowed to shine in that regard.
Personally I think a lot of the problems with weapon balancing is that they have too much overlap and lend themselves to comparison in roles. If each weapon was more dedicated to its niche they have justification to exist as options rather than being so similar that there always exists a fairly clear best option for each role
Am missing incendiary breaker, Jar 5 dominator, ARC Blitzer, Scythe, Dagger, and this Crossbow. Which should i go for next?
This is the type of analysis I very much appreciate! Thanks m8! Your hard work will aid the effort of spreading managed democracy throughout the galaxy! Hccll
I spent some time playing with crossbow and even learned how to properly land shots, but let's be honest
Eruptor:
Oneshots spewers, brood commanders, some devastators
Closes bug holes and fabricators
Opens containers
Crossbow:
You can bait bot drop
Cool
With all love to crossbow, it's outperformed by features and comfort of eruptor.
I like to compare crossbow with another weapon with ballistic arc - punisher plasma. It's also hard to learn how to shoot it basically for any range, and punisher also has "more efficient version" - the Scorcher. But unlike the situation with crossbow, punisher outperforms scorcher on close range, being able to easily kill a crowd of berserkers with its damage and staggering power.
I want crossbow to have more features. I want it to be a stealth weapon, so enemies won't know your last location upon being attacked. I want a reason to learn how to shoot it, like with punisher plasma. These are my thoughts.
So how does it compare to a weapon like the plasma punisher? Both have a similar playstyle and skill gap to use, or would this be a situation where its the same thing just with a different paint job?
Having played the Plasma Punisher recently - the Crossbow easily > Plasma Punisher in terms of ease of use, the AoE of the blast and the sheer damage as well (250 vs 420). The only upside is its mag size of 8 but because your projectile is so much slower and a smaller blast radius, you'll actually have to hit your targets dead-on most of the time (which is also very.... anemic)
Stalkers, bastard is so good.
Great vid once again, everything I wanted.
I picked up the Crossbow last night and instantly replaced the Eruptor as my primary for most missions.
Turns out the way I’ve been using the Eruptor better suited the Crossbow this whole time 😅
A really handy quirk I find is that the Crossbow’s bolts do not bounce off the ground if you fire it at a steep angle like the Eruptor’s rockets do
Every time Ryken makes a video I know I can edge to it.... hhnnnnnggg crossbow so goooood!!
14:17 Hey question about this, why arc your shots to an enemy base from 180m away? instead, why not shoot directly to an enemy base from a regular far distance(say 75m) and just run away then? is arcing shots from 180m really necessary?
Using the full range of your arc means you don't have to split too far from your team to misdirect a bot drop! This allows you to entirely remove pressure without having to compromise your position or cause more patrols to trigger
I think I’ve heard somewhere that the actual shot of the crossbow is silent to enemies, but the explosion is very loud. If this is true, it’s also very useful for stealth gameplay.
Honestly my second favourite primary after the dominator, it's just sooo satisfying to use, and hits very hard, especially on bugs, but very good on bots too with wild range of splash and almost guaranteed oneshot on scout striders
Do you post breakpoint tables anywhere?
"may the force be with you" I love it!
Little bit of info about Eruptor:
In my testings Crossbow has reload time of ~3 seconds, Eruptor with bullet in chamber - 2,5 seconds, without bullet in chamber - ~4,5. The point is that Eruptor actually faster to reload and it makes it's fire rate always pretty much same, since reload takes nearly as much time as just waiting for the next shot.
Reload of Crossbow on the other hand it looks like isn't affected by how much bolts is left and reload always takes ~3 seconds
What about the vertical arc distance (and time) of the punisher plasma? I know that it’s a slow projectile so it probably isn’t very far, but it would be easier to pull off the misdirection strategy if you don’t need to run towards the compound and wait just to make it effective. It might also be more practical anyway to fire at an outpost and then run away since (at least for Automatons) there’s a rather generous delay between a flare getting shot and the drop ship arriving.
Using the crossbow, I’ve found the best way to use it generally, is to just shoot the ground. The splash damage can reach the pilot on the little striders whether you hit the front armour or the ground and when being chased by beserkers, if you shoot the ground passed them you can damage them while staying out of the radius to not hurt yourself.
Additional stealth tip! The crossbow itself has absolutely no noise profile, but the explosion does. This can be used to lure patrols or even outpost guards away from you currant position as they investigate the explosion, and never the attacker’s position.
That last point about stagger is the most important imo. The shots feel like wet noodles, there's no visual feedback beside bodies dropping (and the kill count showing up). Also I'd still bring the eruptor over it for blitz: search and destroy, as the crossbow cannot destroy nests/fabs (and even point of interest caches for some reason???)
The crossbow is probably the best weapon to clear light bots in the game. Just the sheer volume of high explosive ammo you can send downrange is unmatched by any other primary weapon. I like to run it either with the AMR for the ability to shred through all of the bot's primary units, or the Spear since it wants similar positioning to the crossbow. The Senator also has a great home as the crossbow's secondary since most of the light units should be dead, leaving devastators as the units most likely to get close and cause you trouble.
Don't be afraid to use the crossbow in 3rd person. Once you are beyond the limits of your scope, it becomes extremely difficult to land accurate shots, but the large explosions allows the weapon to still be effective with "close enough" shots
Is the crossbow really “Medium I” penetration? I feel like it does significantly less medium armor penetration than the eruptor, especially against hive guards and bile spewers, so just curious.
What do you guys think about Eruptor vs Dominator?
Did they recently change it so the crossbow doesn't close bug holes?
I used it twice. But I can say that the crossbow is really awesome at the defense mission with blast doors.
i use the crossbow as a budget grenade thrower, less effective but no strategem slot required. spam it for add clear. kinda fun to see the killstreak number spike after a shot
Does this work with the punisher plasma or not really?
I LOVE TABLES, THANK YOU
That 180m bot drop trigger tactic is CRAZY and I look forward to trying it out!
Oddly I've found myself preferring the xbow over eruptor for its speed. 5 quick explosisions that cover such a wide area is INSANE chaff clear and damage output on bots. I like that it's hard not to do damage woth it. Walkers, all devastators, infantry, berserkers just shoot anywhere near them and they'll be dead in under a full clip. It's like a pocket grenade launcher.
I've also been using the crossbow a ton lately and it's been very fun. I think of it as an upgrade to the plasma shotgun more than an grenade launcher.
The ping marker size might vary depending on your HUD scale and monitor size. I wouldn't know though, I have most of the HUD turned off. And it annoys me to no end that sights don't just have mildots, but something like the Spear is hardly usable without the HUD since the first person lockon seems even more inconsistent and the sights give extreme tunnel vision.
This is kinda off-topic from the crossbow, but I really do hate that the Spear doesn't have like a locking-on sound effect to complement the visual effect of the HUD. That way it'd be easy to know whether I'm locking on or not. And they made sure that the Quasar canon's charge is readable from both 3rd person and 1st person. So why not everything else?
Furthermore, when it comes to checking overheat on other weapons, for some bizzare reason, pressing tab to have HUD elements pop up doesn't work when aiming down sights. This game still needs a lot of polish but I'm afraid the devs won't focus on any of this
From my understanding, isn't the crossbow a silent firing weapon? So long as the enemy doesn't see you I'd imagine they won't know where it came from. You can use it in close range to similar effect. I think so long as you don't get seen or actively destroy an enemy, you can use the crossbow as a stealth games traditional throw a rock to distract enemy mechanic.
Additionally, is the eruptor actually better with its aoe? The crossbow CHUNKS non-or lithtly armored mobs. Especially the bugs. And because its way faster to reload, aim, and shoot, i find it to be a very useful general fodder tool.
I found it's pretty decent for clearing small groups of clumped up low-armored enemies, one shot can sometimes take out 5+
i'm thoroughly in the camp that believe crossbow is just a worse eruptor.
eruptor oneshots massive groups, the aoe is huge.
factor in that you can also murder factories and bug holes and its a very easy choice.
its my favourite weapon in the game, jetpack up high and become an explosive sniper!
I find the Crossbow particularly good for those defence missions where you get attacked by waves of enemies all coming from the same direction.
Thanks for your hard work and thorough analysis- Democracy thanks you✊
Also I just started the video so maybe it's mentioned but you can pop bile titan sacks by hitting the base of legs from the side or the back or from up
the music tricked me into thinking it was an easter egg video ! :D
I like the crossbow more than the eruptor just because it shoots almost twice as quickly.
It's funny, how on paper crossbow has double the Eruptor's damage, but with Crossbow it takes multiple hits to kill a group of Scout Striders or Beserkers, while with Eruptor it's a single hit, lmao.
Paper stats are absolutely, 100% useless.
Interesting video! I would be interested in a crossbow vs plasma punisher comparison. Both are primaries with explosive damage that fire in an arc.
You should totally do a comparison between the AC, AMR, Railgun, and maybe the Las Cannon.
One niche, as an allaround primary replacement for dealing with everything apart from the toughest of foes.
What would really set it apart would be a selector for munition types (like how some weapons can change fire modes) - adaptable ammo would fit the aesthetic, and being able to choose between, say, explosive, incendiary, and either concussive or EM would absolutely make its limitations worth it.
This is actually so good
The greatest piece of info i got from this video is that the Eruptor can be shot cancelled, tested it a bit and you can use the stratagem menu to do it veryyyy consistently, the eruptor was a fantastic weapon but with this its now a primary weapon on par with the autocannon, even stronger and larger AOE to boot
I love using the crossbow, it is what the punisher plasma should have been.
I tend to run it with a Rover myself, since I play very aggressively with it and I generally hate the Guarddogs. Also helps to focus on clumps of enemies or something threatening than one or two small things trying to eat my face and and aid for berserkers is always nice. I do admit I tend to do most engagements just outside the Rover's aggro range.
Also the stealth armor has been so much fun with it since the crossbow is silent and the explosion doesn't necessarily cause aggro, only examinations unless a target survived or another guy was staring at the one that just blew up.
But all in all, having 75 impact frag grenades is something people are overlooking and undervaluing.
On the paper it's hiding behind the shadow of the eruptor but in an stealth gameplay it's amazing ; you can distract enemies very easily with it to move them out of the objectives.
The main use I've seen so far for the crossbow is for stealth gameplay. I've heard the crossbow is almost completely silent when it fires, only the bolt itself makes noise when it explodes. As such, can use the bolts as distractions when sneaking into places, much like using a grenade for the same thing only you get a lot more bolts than nades.
The crossbow is to the grenade launcher as the eruptor is to the autocannon. Difference being the crossbow gets more range than its cousin, which allows for a skill curve that doesn't exist on the other weapons.
Also, the operation barbarossa tactic (or the "Barbarossa Gambit" if you prefer) for baiting drops is really neat.
I just geeked it the night before and I like it. Didn’t seem any content in it like I usually see. I didn’t know it had that far of an effective range but it made sense why I kept seeing explosions in the back ground. It fits my okay style. I will use a strat gun or a dog to cover hordes up close and run with emplacements. Results in constant cover fire and the ability to chip away at most hoards. Both guns I ran the same way. Felt safer with the crossbow.
The irony of the crossbow being able to shoot further than the Eruptor despite having a red dot to the Eruptor's sniper scope is just painful. Not even approaching the fact that you can't actually shoot to the max zero of 200m. It would of made more sense for them to give the Eruptor the 100m max zoom if they wanted it to be relatively short range and allowed the crossbow to utilise the 200m scope for some sick trajectory snipes
My main reason for bringing the crossbow over the Eruptor is fire rate, allowing me to dispatch bug breaches and hoards rapidly. Though the lack of utility in other regions makes it a hard pick. I'm surprised you didn't make a comparison to the Plasma Punisher, I generally think that the Plasma Punisher works better with bots and the crossbow with bugs and that they provide similar roles in ad clearing on both sides.
The eruptors shrapnel has gotten me 16 kills in one shot and then in the same round shooting into the same size group got me 4 that shrapnel and the way it hits can give a drastically different damage range per shot. That being said its my favorite weapon
Petition to give crossbow multiple arrow types.
Stun bolts for stealth
The situations You've explained as the crossbows' strengths would be better achieved by the Erupter.
It needs a buff
Crossbow has been my main since I unlocked it on both factions it feels like a side grade to the scorcher and I've been digging it.😊
Using the long range explosion to call a drop is clever! Add the scout armor for extra range maybe?
The xbow feels great to use. It just needs more versatility. It’s decent at chaff clearing, but I think it should do 3-5x weak point damage. If you shoot a hive guard or charger between the plates, it should one shot the guard and blow off armor from the charger.
I was already preferring the crossbow over Eruptor due to the quicker handling and over Plasma Punisher due to the bigger blast radius, now my interest in it is re-doubled.
Will incorporate artillery distraction into my future tactics.
I tried this but I'm not longer sure on this
that vertical arc distance of stratagem orbs is 20 meters