Okay, so the beta versions are out that have the new longbows and crossbows that are really amazing. So, just how amazing are they? What are the stats materials? What comes out to the best 'bang for your buck'? Well, I'm here to help you find your answer to that question.
As always, Where you lie on the sliding scale of speed to power is up to you, however I will provide you the numbers you need to make that determination. These numbers generated from the latest TiCTooltips build.
These days, it seems like projectile damage is a factor of projectile speed, so we're going to be looking at reload time versus projectile speed. Obviously, some materials are better than others. Which is the best? Well, here are some contenders:
The primary determination for the performance of the crossbow is going to be the Crossbow Limb. The Crossbow Stock acts primarily as the 'handle' for the mod, so any handle modifiers would apply, as well as any material modifiers. For this reason, I feel that Thaumium is one of the best materials to make the stock out of, but YMMV. Just remember, Stock = Handle. Binding is just like any other binding, it has no effect other than material modifier, so just use paper for the extra modifier.
Here's an abbreviated list of draw speed, arrow speed, and ratio of Arrow Speed / Draw Speed for some materials:
Blue Slime: Draw Speed 1.05, Arrow Speed 4, Ratio: 3.80
Green Slime: Draw Speed 1.4, Arrow Speed 4.2, Ratio: 3.0
Thaumium: Draw Speed: 1.75, Arrow Speed 4.75, Ratio: 2.71
Manyullen: Draw Speed: 2.5, Arrow Speed 5 Ratio: 2.00
Cobalt: Draw Speed 2.25, Arrow Speed 5.3, Ratio: 2.35
Ardite: Draw Speed: 2.75, Arrow Speed 4.9, Ratio: 1.78
Steel: Draw Speed: 3, Arrow Speed 5.5, Ratio: 1.83
Iron: Draw Speed 2.7, Arrow Speed 5.2, Ratio: 1.92
Paper: Draw Speed 0.5, Arrow Speed 1.1 Ratio: 2.2
So, as you can see, there's a pretty steep tradeoff when you start wanting to max out your arrow speed. If you want the absolute number one best arrow speed, it's going to be Steel. Using Slime, however, can make a 'rapid fire' crossbow, and while it doesn't do quite as much damage, still packs a punch against unarmored or lightly armored targets. Cobalt seems like a decent tradeoff of draw speed for arrow speed. Then there's the spread between the two extremes. I didn't bother listing materials that are just plain bad (like flint or stone).
Now there's the question of which bowstring to use. There's three options: string, enchanted fabric, and fiery.
Basic string is basic. It's got 1's across the board, and easy to get.
Enchanted Fabric has a Draw Speed of only 0.8, but it also only has an arrow speed of 0.9. It also carries the Stonebound quality. It also provides an extra modifier, so there's that.
Fiery comes from Flamestring from the Natura Heatscar Spiders in the Nether. It increases draw speed by 1.1, increases the arrow speed by 1.2, and increases durability by 1.2
Basically, Enchanted Fabric has an extra modifier which is pretty huge, but if you want something that is just going to punch through anything, use Fiery. Unlike virtually anywhere else, this is actually a serious tradeoff. How serious? Let's experiment!
Let's try out a Steel crossbow arm for the maximum numbers. So, thaumic stock + Paper binding will be the defaults on all experiments:
Steel arm + Enchanted Fabric : Draw Speed 4.5, Arrow Speed 7.42 and 6 modifiers
Steel arm + Fiery bowstring : Draw Speed 6.15, Arrow Speed 9.9 and 5 modifiers
And the actual differences in damage output?
Steel Arm + Enchanted Fabric + Steel shaft bolt: 14.71 unarmored, 7.11 against full diamond armor
Steel Arm + Enchanted Fabric + Alumite shaft bolt: 14.71 unarmored, 4.83 against full diamond armor
Steel arm + Fiery Fabric + Steel shaft bolt: 19.61 unarmored, 8.09 against full diamond armor
Steel Arm + Fiery Fabric + Alumite shaft bolt: 19.61 unarmored, 6.23 against full diamond armor
That's... actually a pretty significant damage boost there. Is it enough to be worth it for you? Well, that's for you to decide for yourself.
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring = Draw Speed 3.35, Arrow Speed 7.15 and 6 modifiers
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring = Draw Speed 4.55, Arrow Speed 9.94 and 5 modifiers
Does that actually change the damage output? Not really.
Green Slime + Enchanted = Draw Speed 2.05, Arrow Speed 5.67
Green Slime + Fiery = Draw Speed 2.8, Arrow Speed 7.56
Green Slime arm + Fiery bowstring does about as much damage as cobalt/steel with enchanted, but significantly faster.
Projectile damage is based on head material, so Many is going to be your absolute top-tier best material to use. Even better, because of how ammunition is calculated based on durability, you can spend a Modifier on Mossy for regen. I don't think Flux works with ammo, at least I've never been able to get it to work. Which means you can also repair your ammo, even if it reaches zero. Which means you can afford to dump tons of nether quartz for sharpness on it.
Projectile weight gives you armor penetration, so it only really shows up against heavily armored opponents. Really, there's not much reason to not weigh down your bolts. So Steel seems to take the cake for the tool rod of choice. Too bad it won't accept Thaumium tool rods, starting off with only two modifiers really sucks. Since this is actually where your damage comes from, Stonebound is actively BAD, so you want to avoid Ardite.
As comparison, I set up two test dummies, one unarmored and one with full unenchanted diamond armor and started plunking away with the same bow. The bow I used was a slime crossbow limb, with fiery bowstring, and thaumium stock. I used two different rods, one with Alumite that had a weight of 3.9 and one that was Steel with a weight of 7.65.
The damage they both did to the unarmored dummy was the same, around 15. However, against the full diamond armor dummy, the alumite did around 4-5 whereas the steel was consistently doing around 7.
Slime leaf fletching is, bar none, the best all around. Jagged means as your quiver runs dry, you will be doing more damage. But it's the 1.4x durability that really shines here. Leaf fletching is actively bad, having the worst durability modifier and having Stonebound. Slime fletching has a .8X durability, whereas feather is 1.0x. If you can get slime leaf fletching, do it. Fortunately, you only need the one for your ammo.
So, best all-around bolt is slime leaf fletching + steel rod + Many head.
Of course, no one in their right mind is going to just run around with an un-augmented crossbow. That's just silly! One modifier should probably be Flux/Electric/Mossy, depending on the other mods involved. But what about the rest of them? Well, as with any other projectile weapon, speed is king. Which means Redstone is your best bang for your buck. Furthermore, with a Paper Binding and a Thaumium Stock, you can start off with a total of 5 modifiers before tacking on gold, diamonds, notch apples, and nether stars. With the enchanted bowstring, you can have six. But what does all that redstone net you? Let's find out.
All crossbows made with thaumium stock and paper binding.
Steel Arm + Enchanted Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 4.5
Steel Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + max redstone (6) = Draw Speed 2.4, Arrow Speed 7.42
Steel Arm + Fiery Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 6.15
Steel Arm + Fiery Bowstring + Max Redstone (5) = Draw Speed 4.4, Arrow Speed 9.9
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + no mods = Draw Speed 3.35
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + max redstone = Draw Speed 1.25, Arrow Speed 7.15
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 4.55
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring + Max Redstone = Draw Speed 2.8, Arrow Speed 9.54
So basically, 6 mods of redstone reduces Draw Speed by 2.1, and 5 mods reduces draw speed by 1.75
Now, let's look at that a second. Green Slime arm + fiery bowstring has a Draw Speed of only 2.8 but an Arrow Speed of 7.56. Steel + Enchanted has a base speed of 4.5 and arrow speed of 7.42. Looks like Slime + Fiery is decidedly superior to Steel + Enchanted, even with one less modifier. In fact, 2.8-1.75 = 1.05 draw speed. Now we're getting somewhere!
If you use Thaumium for the Stock and a Paper binding, then a Thaumium arm adds no additional modifiers, so there's not much point.
So, let's look at enchanting the bolts, shall we?
Bolts only start off with 2 enchantment slots, cannot have Thaumium or paper as a tool part, so that's pretty much what you are stuck with. So, how does this affect damage? I'm glad you asked. I will be comparing two different crossbows here, the green slime arm/fiery bowstring and the cobalt arm/fiery bowstring. The former goes faster and does the same damage of the enchanted bowstring on cobalt/steel, the latter does more damage. I will also be testing with bolts that are slime leaf fletching/steel rod/many head.
With 2 modifiers of quartz, 96 in total, here's what I get:
Green Slime crossbow: Unarmored: 34 damage, Full diamond armor: 10.92
Cobalt crossbow: Unarmored: 42.93, Full diamond armor: 12.76
Now, we can get still more modifiers on there if we really want to. Let's say you go whole hog and get the gold block + diamond, nether star, and the diamond block + notch apple for an additional three modifiers, what does that get us?
If you want to save a modifier for Mossy, you've got 4 modifiers worth or a total of 192 quartz. What does that get us?
Slime crossbow: 48.74 damage unarmored, 13.91 against armored
Cobalt crossbow: 62 damage unarmored, 16.46 against armored
And finally if we just want to spend the Many to repair manually, what does all five get us?
Slime Crossbow: 56.19 unarmored, 15.41 armored
Cobalt Crossbow: 70.88 unarmored, 18.35 armored
Slime + Fiery bowstring seems to be the best 'bang for your buck, dishing out decisive damage at a rapid rate. You can get the reload speed down to .5 if you want to spend the extra modifiers, so even if it doesn't kill something in one hit, you have time to reload. Anything unarmored is going to be dead in one shot unless it's a boss type monster, anything with armor may need two shots, depending on what it is decked out in. In my experience, the only time I need two shots is if something is in full diamond. But, if you just want those maximum damage numbers, Cobalt or Steel is your friend.
Enchanted Bowstring turned out to be not as useful as originally thought, due to Slime + Fiery having the same damage output as Enchanted + Steel/Cobalt and a much faster rate of fire. The extra modifier on a projectile weapon really doesn't do much since the only thing you really want is more speed, and the tradeoff damage potential is actually significant.
Again, these are the numbers that I have discerned with testing and looking at the numbers in NEI using TiCTooltips, and the conclusions I've come up with as a result. I rather like my rapid-fire slime crossbow, personally. It's really good at taking down crowds at range. It's also really good at bringing the pain to ranged opponents really fast, took down the ender dragon like nothing and the wither halfway quite easily. You can press and hold right-click to fire as soon as you reload, which makes it easier to handle than a longbow.
As always, Where you lie on the sliding scale of speed to power is up to you, however I will provide you the numbers you need to make that determination. These numbers generated from the latest TiCTooltips build.
These days, it seems like projectile damage is a factor of projectile speed, so we're going to be looking at reload time versus projectile speed. Obviously, some materials are better than others. Which is the best? Well, here are some contenders:
The primary determination for the performance of the crossbow is going to be the Crossbow Limb. The Crossbow Stock acts primarily as the 'handle' for the mod, so any handle modifiers would apply, as well as any material modifiers. For this reason, I feel that Thaumium is one of the best materials to make the stock out of, but YMMV. Just remember, Stock = Handle. Binding is just like any other binding, it has no effect other than material modifier, so just use paper for the extra modifier.
Here's an abbreviated list of draw speed, arrow speed, and ratio of Arrow Speed / Draw Speed for some materials:
Blue Slime: Draw Speed 1.05, Arrow Speed 4, Ratio: 3.80
Green Slime: Draw Speed 1.4, Arrow Speed 4.2, Ratio: 3.0
Thaumium: Draw Speed: 1.75, Arrow Speed 4.75, Ratio: 2.71
Manyullen: Draw Speed: 2.5, Arrow Speed 5 Ratio: 2.00
Cobalt: Draw Speed 2.25, Arrow Speed 5.3, Ratio: 2.35
Ardite: Draw Speed: 2.75, Arrow Speed 4.9, Ratio: 1.78
Steel: Draw Speed: 3, Arrow Speed 5.5, Ratio: 1.83
Iron: Draw Speed 2.7, Arrow Speed 5.2, Ratio: 1.92
Paper: Draw Speed 0.5, Arrow Speed 1.1 Ratio: 2.2
So, as you can see, there's a pretty steep tradeoff when you start wanting to max out your arrow speed. If you want the absolute number one best arrow speed, it's going to be Steel. Using Slime, however, can make a 'rapid fire' crossbow, and while it doesn't do quite as much damage, still packs a punch against unarmored or lightly armored targets. Cobalt seems like a decent tradeoff of draw speed for arrow speed. Then there's the spread between the two extremes. I didn't bother listing materials that are just plain bad (like flint or stone).
Now there's the question of which bowstring to use. There's three options: string, enchanted fabric, and fiery.
Basic string is basic. It's got 1's across the board, and easy to get.
Enchanted Fabric has a Draw Speed of only 0.8, but it also only has an arrow speed of 0.9. It also carries the Stonebound quality. It also provides an extra modifier, so there's that.
Fiery comes from Flamestring from the Natura Heatscar Spiders in the Nether. It increases draw speed by 1.1, increases the arrow speed by 1.2, and increases durability by 1.2
Basically, Enchanted Fabric has an extra modifier which is pretty huge, but if you want something that is just going to punch through anything, use Fiery. Unlike virtually anywhere else, this is actually a serious tradeoff. How serious? Let's experiment!
Let's try out a Steel crossbow arm for the maximum numbers. So, thaumic stock + Paper binding will be the defaults on all experiments:
Steel arm + Enchanted Fabric : Draw Speed 4.5, Arrow Speed 7.42 and 6 modifiers
Steel arm + Fiery bowstring : Draw Speed 6.15, Arrow Speed 9.9 and 5 modifiers
And the actual differences in damage output?
Steel Arm + Enchanted Fabric + Steel shaft bolt: 14.71 unarmored, 7.11 against full diamond armor
Steel Arm + Enchanted Fabric + Alumite shaft bolt: 14.71 unarmored, 4.83 against full diamond armor
Steel arm + Fiery Fabric + Steel shaft bolt: 19.61 unarmored, 8.09 against full diamond armor
Steel Arm + Fiery Fabric + Alumite shaft bolt: 19.61 unarmored, 6.23 against full diamond armor
That's... actually a pretty significant damage boost there. Is it enough to be worth it for you? Well, that's for you to decide for yourself.
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring = Draw Speed 3.35, Arrow Speed 7.15 and 6 modifiers
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring = Draw Speed 4.55, Arrow Speed 9.94 and 5 modifiers
Does that actually change the damage output? Not really.
Green Slime + Enchanted = Draw Speed 2.05, Arrow Speed 5.67
Green Slime + Fiery = Draw Speed 2.8, Arrow Speed 7.56
Green Slime arm + Fiery bowstring does about as much damage as cobalt/steel with enchanted, but significantly faster.
Nuts about Bolts
Projectile damage is based on head material, so Many is going to be your absolute top-tier best material to use. Even better, because of how ammunition is calculated based on durability, you can spend a Modifier on Mossy for regen. I don't think Flux works with ammo, at least I've never been able to get it to work. Which means you can also repair your ammo, even if it reaches zero. Which means you can afford to dump tons of nether quartz for sharpness on it.
Projectile weight gives you armor penetration, so it only really shows up against heavily armored opponents. Really, there's not much reason to not weigh down your bolts. So Steel seems to take the cake for the tool rod of choice. Too bad it won't accept Thaumium tool rods, starting off with only two modifiers really sucks. Since this is actually where your damage comes from, Stonebound is actively BAD, so you want to avoid Ardite.
As comparison, I set up two test dummies, one unarmored and one with full unenchanted diamond armor and started plunking away with the same bow. The bow I used was a slime crossbow limb, with fiery bowstring, and thaumium stock. I used two different rods, one with Alumite that had a weight of 3.9 and one that was Steel with a weight of 7.65.
The damage they both did to the unarmored dummy was the same, around 15. However, against the full diamond armor dummy, the alumite did around 4-5 whereas the steel was consistently doing around 7.
Slime leaf fletching is, bar none, the best all around. Jagged means as your quiver runs dry, you will be doing more damage. But it's the 1.4x durability that really shines here. Leaf fletching is actively bad, having the worst durability modifier and having Stonebound. Slime fletching has a .8X durability, whereas feather is 1.0x. If you can get slime leaf fletching, do it. Fortunately, you only need the one for your ammo.
So, best all-around bolt is slime leaf fletching + steel rod + Many head.
Pimp This Crossbow
Of course, no one in their right mind is going to just run around with an un-augmented crossbow. That's just silly! One modifier should probably be Flux/Electric/Mossy, depending on the other mods involved. But what about the rest of them? Well, as with any other projectile weapon, speed is king. Which means Redstone is your best bang for your buck. Furthermore, with a Paper Binding and a Thaumium Stock, you can start off with a total of 5 modifiers before tacking on gold, diamonds, notch apples, and nether stars. With the enchanted bowstring, you can have six. But what does all that redstone net you? Let's find out.
All crossbows made with thaumium stock and paper binding.
Steel Arm + Enchanted Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 4.5
Steel Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + max redstone (6) = Draw Speed 2.4, Arrow Speed 7.42
Steel Arm + Fiery Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 6.15
Steel Arm + Fiery Bowstring + Max Redstone (5) = Draw Speed 4.4, Arrow Speed 9.9
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + no mods = Draw Speed 3.35
Cobalt Arm + Enchanted Bowstring + max redstone = Draw Speed 1.25, Arrow Speed 7.15
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring no mods = Draw Speed 4.55
Cobalt Arm + Fiery Bowstring + Max Redstone = Draw Speed 2.8, Arrow Speed 9.54
So basically, 6 mods of redstone reduces Draw Speed by 2.1, and 5 mods reduces draw speed by 1.75
Now, let's look at that a second. Green Slime arm + fiery bowstring has a Draw Speed of only 2.8 but an Arrow Speed of 7.56. Steel + Enchanted has a base speed of 4.5 and arrow speed of 7.42. Looks like Slime + Fiery is decidedly superior to Steel + Enchanted, even with one less modifier. In fact, 2.8-1.75 = 1.05 draw speed. Now we're getting somewhere!
If you use Thaumium for the Stock and a Paper binding, then a Thaumium arm adds no additional modifiers, so there's not much point.
So, let's look at enchanting the bolts, shall we?
Bolts only start off with 2 enchantment slots, cannot have Thaumium or paper as a tool part, so that's pretty much what you are stuck with. So, how does this affect damage? I'm glad you asked. I will be comparing two different crossbows here, the green slime arm/fiery bowstring and the cobalt arm/fiery bowstring. The former goes faster and does the same damage of the enchanted bowstring on cobalt/steel, the latter does more damage. I will also be testing with bolts that are slime leaf fletching/steel rod/many head.
With 2 modifiers of quartz, 96 in total, here's what I get:
Green Slime crossbow: Unarmored: 34 damage, Full diamond armor: 10.92
Cobalt crossbow: Unarmored: 42.93, Full diamond armor: 12.76
Now, we can get still more modifiers on there if we really want to. Let's say you go whole hog and get the gold block + diamond, nether star, and the diamond block + notch apple for an additional three modifiers, what does that get us?
If you want to save a modifier for Mossy, you've got 4 modifiers worth or a total of 192 quartz. What does that get us?
Slime crossbow: 48.74 damage unarmored, 13.91 against armored
Cobalt crossbow: 62 damage unarmored, 16.46 against armored
And finally if we just want to spend the Many to repair manually, what does all five get us?
Slime Crossbow: 56.19 unarmored, 15.41 armored
Cobalt Crossbow: 70.88 unarmored, 18.35 armored
In Conclusion
Slime + Fiery bowstring seems to be the best 'bang for your buck, dishing out decisive damage at a rapid rate. You can get the reload speed down to .5 if you want to spend the extra modifiers, so even if it doesn't kill something in one hit, you have time to reload. Anything unarmored is going to be dead in one shot unless it's a boss type monster, anything with armor may need two shots, depending on what it is decked out in. In my experience, the only time I need two shots is if something is in full diamond. But, if you just want those maximum damage numbers, Cobalt or Steel is your friend.
Enchanted Bowstring turned out to be not as useful as originally thought, due to Slime + Fiery having the same damage output as Enchanted + Steel/Cobalt and a much faster rate of fire. The extra modifier on a projectile weapon really doesn't do much since the only thing you really want is more speed, and the tradeoff damage potential is actually significant.
Again, these are the numbers that I have discerned with testing and looking at the numbers in NEI using TiCTooltips, and the conclusions I've come up with as a result. I rather like my rapid-fire slime crossbow, personally. It's really good at taking down crowds at range. It's also really good at bringing the pain to ranged opponents really fast, took down the ender dragon like nothing and the wither halfway quite easily. You can press and hold right-click to fire as soon as you reload, which makes it easier to handle than a longbow.
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