New Feature Discussion, Ranged Behavior

[iBlue]

My experience is that they shoot way too fast and expend their ammo without people peeking literally in 120 seconds (AKA, the time it takes to clear the melee wave). While i do understand where you're coming from (No peeking), that's also what a crossbowman is good at and while it's more difficult now it's also a game of chance - Forcing people to risk their neck every time when they can just wait and kill people at the barricades which is more important.

To add ontop of that, burst damage should be prefered over crossbowman's ability to deal fixed amount of damage over a fixed amount of time. While this may not hurt crossbowmen with repeaters as much as arbalests and other crossbows, the whole crossbowman class fell off considerably in ragnarok as well as other game modes when you can just have a bunch of commandoes and wait for the enemy to come to you.

The armor penetration sounds good but enemies are getting more and more HP and less and less armor. The point about crossbowmen is that they do high piercing damage therefore dealing significantly more damage on later wave enemies than an archer and being useful despite slower attack speed. I believe a  slasher will do way more in this situation. The fact that HP is being increased and armor decreased is a welcome change however crossbow base damage should change with it.

I also belive ranged classes will get better as deployable platforms will start to make their appearances but at the moment the whole thing is a bit extreme and leaves you wondering if being a ranged character is worth it.

I LOVE the fact that you dont need to wait and pick them off one by one and the whole ranged patch is awsome as is and i like it, but it either needs a nerf (more time between attacks) or some balance changes need to be made in my opinion.
I feel that people picking or having crossbowmen are going to be punished for if, it stays the same. This is my constructive-ish opinion as a crossbowman so i'd welcome anyone who can explain to me why i should keep playing as one. I know all you commandoes out there are really happy but i believe ranged classes were nerfed too hard by the ranger and thrower changes.

+ I like the fact throwing enemies like royal's on wave 4 hardmode can shoot in an arc if far enough.
Perhaps a shoot-in-an-arc archer that i suggested can now be added to spice things up and add more unique waves - make crossbowmen and archers a support class which focuses on killing particular enemies which have high damage or kill potential. And make more enemies shoot in an arc! Will lead to more heavy barricades and smarter barricading.

Edit: My thoughts are subject to changes as i play more. This is just the first impression that i got