New in the mod and the crossbow

[Maroon]

First of all, welcome to the mod! It's always good to have new people which also happen to be eager to learn!
I'll list some pros and cons about the xbow here, though remember that they are my opinion, so do with it what you want:
Pros:

• Unlike archers, you can deal some damage at all tiers;
  
• Tier 3 and 4 have pinpoint accuracy, tier 3 with most weapons but the strongest, tier 4 with all of them, allowing very long range shots;
  
• Access to big shields, which make for some excellent ranger bait;
  
• Access to the best armor after infantry, allowing you to actually take some damage;
  
• Very good 1 handed melee skills, so don't be afraid to melee some of those bots, because you can easily handle most normal mode bots!
  
• Tier 4 crossbows deal amazing damage, up to 150p damage per shot!
  

And the cons:

• Generally slow weapons, resulting in a low rate of fire;
  
• Low Athletics and heavy armor make you slow, and the combination of these 2 points make you a rubbish kiter;
  
• Shield skill is too low and shield too weak to properly shield in a shieldwall;
  
• Tier 4 relies heavily on crafted weapons, making it a rather expensive class.
  

That's just about all the cons I can think of now.
Keep in mind though, that some crossbows have a rather high reload speed, allowing for quick follow-up shots. When I use one of those weapons (the Arbalest in my case) on Hard mode, I generally end up scoring the most kills of the entire team with just ranged.
So although a little bit slow to level and maybe a bit hard to learn how to use properly, the crossbow has an amazing potential, even without choosing a hero class.
Hope it helped!