Crossbow or Stone Staff?
How would you guys say the Crossbow compares with the Stone Staff? They seem functionally similar. I have grown very accustomed to the Crossbow with its mana restoration ability from headshots, and its stun effect, but it seems like the Stone Staff is extremely popular. It also seems like the Crossbow is more of a skill-oriented weapon.
Are they comparable or is one better than the other, in your experience?
Crossbow:
+: Big damage to single targets, more rapid rate of fire, stun is cheap and can be used at range, mana headshots
-: Stun effect range smaller than staff's stone effect range, Headshots require pausing aim. Arguably not as good at handling hordes.
Aside: Combos well with freeze (Ice Amulet/Ice Vent) or other damage-boosting effects for headshots
Stone Staff:
+: Pierces through enemies, stone duration and effect range is good for hordes and combos alike, stoned fliers die instantly
-: Low damage per shot, secondary requires you to be up close, awkward rate of fire.
I'd say Crossbow wins most occasions, but Stone Staff is no slouch, especially with fliers or long, narrow hallways. I personally roll with the Stone Staff between the two, but I prefer Vampiric Gauntlets over either :)
I've been advocating vampire gauntlets for a long ... long time. People haven't caught on till recently oddly enough; vampire gauntlets are by far and wide the best weapon in the game, they just take a little micro management.
Xbow is a great weapon too, the stone staff I would use for it's secondary as flow control of sorts. But I think the xbow does it better. It's one of those weird opinionated things. If you've got a large choke point that you're stoning with the staff it may be more useful to have piercing.
But its always most useful to have vampire gauntlets.
Crossbow is more for handling the strong enemies and flyers rather than the small mob ground enemies but if you're good at getting headshots then this is a good weapon for you. However, if you want to use Crossbow to handle small enemies but is bad at getting head shots then the best choice will be to get the Fire Arrow Upgrade for Crossbow.
Stone Staff is what you should get if you want to handle the small mob enemies and prefer the traps to handle the heavy type enemies.
I prefer Stone Staff due to issues with headshotting (where up close it's almost impossible unlike OMD1) and the Stone Staff never loses accuracy or precision. You point it, it goes there...every time.
I believe Stone Staff petrify lasts longer than the crossbow as well, and petrify is a separate combo point from everything else (this is what Jerome has said at least).
So...combo point you can't attain anywhere else, longer "stun", never worrying about it not hitting what you're aiming at, and piercing? Yes, please.
Also...about the Crossbow being for "pros". I disagree, but it is a fantastic tool for taking down heavy monsters quickly.
I believe Stone Staff petrify lasts longer than the crossbow as well
Slightly. Petrify is ~4 seconds, Crossbow stun is ~3. I feel the big plus here is that Stone Staff secondary has a larger potential hit area, especially with the upgraded range Unique. Plus insta-killing fliers if you're ballsy :)
As Sorceress I was making those "ballsy" jumps to destroy waves of fliers on The Hive. It was FANTASTIC.
I've been advocating vampire gauntlets for a long ... long time. People haven't caught on till recently oddly enough; vampire gauntlets are by far and wide the best weapon in the game, they just take a little micro management.
Xbow is a great weapon too, the stone staff I would use for it's secondary as flow control of sorts. But I think the xbow does it better. It's one of those weird opinionated things. If you've got a large choke point that you're stoning with the staff it may be more useful to have piercing.
But its always most useful to have vampire gauntlets.
Throughout OMD1 my primary weapon was Vampire Gauntlets.
Then they nerfed em by making the HP>MP conversion worse, and making the heal from rifts immensely weak which made me sad.
But prior experience with them really made that weekly challenge with them a hell of a lot easier.
Big plus to the OMD2 Vamp Gauntlets is the Immobilize unique. Just tap something with a single shot to "stun" for 2 seconds. Against anything. And the shots have a tiny splash area, so very close-knitted groups can be held just as easily. Even with a worse conversion rate and less rift healing, it's got fantastic utility. It's the only mana-consuming weapon that I consider a primary just because it has the capability to restore mana and the primary shot is really inexpensive, all things considered.
And as the Dark Arts challenge showed, apparantly Healing Wells are the new Mana Wells with this weapon :)
One thing I find the stone staff amazing for is endless. It allows you to keep large groups of enemies in check so they can't get to the rift.
The crossbow is more of a pro weapon, in the hands of a skilled player it can be very effective; But damned if the stone staff isn't awesome in it's own right and much easier to master.
I think this is more of a matter of expereince using the crossbow and personal taste. In my opinon the stone staff is better for stopping leaks and because of the peirce attack it's not bad for getting that extra +1 in combo kill boxes. A lot of older players from the omd1 era have established strategies using the crossbow to set up combos so they prefer to keep using it since they have the technical expertise to leverage it. For newer players i'd personally recommend the stone staff due to its ease of use and general awesomeness.
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