Revision as of 23:00, 7 February 2007

Introduction

Crossbows are the best ranged attacking weapon in the game. They fire very quickly in the hands of an Amazon, and derive their bonus damage from your points in Dexterity. Amazons have a crossbow skill tree, but other characters can be effective with them as well, especially Druids and Necromancers, who can take cover behind their minions and shoot from a distance. Necros and Druids tend become less useful with bows and Xbows as they advance in levels, since their Dexterity isn't high enough, and they don't have any skills to boost their bow attacks.

When we add simple machinery to the already potent weapons of archery, what occurs is the deadly crossbow. While somewhat slower to load and fire than a bow, the greater power with which it can launch bolts (also known as quarrels) enables them to strike with much greater force, inflicting higher damage than arrows. So powerful are some crossbows that they have to reloaded by the means of various mechanical devices. Unfortunately, the added power comes at the cost of a very slow reload time, and in addition, these crossbows are expensive to make. The weapon fires a shorter, thicker arrow called a quarrel, or bolt. These are not found from monsters as often as arrows are and will generally need to be purchased from NPC merchants. The Amazon is the most proficient character class at the crossbow and can perform a number of special skills with it. They take up anywhere from a 2x3 to a 2x4 slot in the inventory.

Crossbows were improved in the Expansion, especially the Exceptional and Elite versions. They now do more damage than bows in most cases, but have a slower firing speed. They are reasonable options for higher level Amazons in D2X though.

• Damage Bonus: This determines how you multiply the item damage by your stats to reach the actual damage. Each 100 points in that stat doubles your weapon's total physical damage. All Bows are 100 Dex, which means every point in Dex adds 1% of your weapon's total physical damage, thus 100 points in Dex will double your bow damage.
• Item Level: Used in many in-game calculations. Monsters must be of this level to drop the item, and your Clvl must be equal to or higher to have that item offered to gamble on. Full Mlvls listed on Darkness.
• Weapon Speed: A relative comparison of one bow to another. 0 is the base, negative ( -10, -20, etc) is faster, 10, 20, etc is slower. The "fast", "normal" etc displayed in the game is a very imprecise measurement. The numbers are the exact speeds used. Each 10 is equivalent to a normal SIAS item. Characters are abbreviated to their first letter: Am = Amazon and As = Assassin.

Normal Crossbows

Item	Item Name	Properties	Misc Stats	Attack Rate
	Light Crossbow	6-9 Damage Str Req: 21 Dex Req: 27 Item Level: 6 Clvl Req: None	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-3 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -10 Firing Rate: Normal: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S
	Crossbow	9-14 Damage Str Req: 40 Dex Req: 33 Item Level: 15 Clvl Req: None	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-4 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: 0 Firing Rate: Normal: B/D/N/P/S Slow: Am/As
	Heavy Crossbow	14-26 Dmg (Beta)* 12-20 Dmg (Final)* Str Req: 60 Dex Req: 40 Item Level: 24 Clvl Req: None	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-6 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x4	Weapon Speed: 10 Firing Rate: Slow: B/D/N/P/S Very Slow: Am/As
	Repeating Crossbow	6-12 Damage Str Req: 40 Dex Req: 50 Item Level: 33 Clvl Req: None	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-5 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -40 Firing Rate: Very Fast: D/N/S Fast: Am/As/B/P

* This is about the only normal item in the game to have different damages for Beta vs. Final, and also one of the very few to have higher Beta damage than what Bliz lists for the final damage.

Quivers

Arrows and Bolts/Quarrels are necessary to use a bow or crossbow, and they must be equipped in one hand, with the bow/crossbow in the other. They have no purpose otherwise, and are one of the simpler weapon-type items in the game.

Item	Item Name	Capacity	Price
	Quiver of Bolts	D2: Up to 150 D2X: Up to 250	62 gold for 250

Exceptional Crossbows

Exceptional Crossbows are found only on Nightmare and Hell difficulty levels in Diablo II. In the Expansion they may be found in late Normal, and then all through Nightmare and Hell.

Item	Item Name	Properties	Misc Stats	Attack Rate
	Arbalest	14-27 Dmg Str Req: 52 Dex Req: 61 Item Level: 34 Clvl Req: 25 (22)	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-3 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -10 Firing Rate: Normal: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S
	Siege Crossbow	20-42 Dmg Str Req: 80 Dex Req: 70 Item Level: 40 Clvl Req: 25	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-4 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: 0 Firing Rate: Normal: B/D/N/P/S Slow: Am/As
	Ballista	33-55 Dmg Str Req: 110 Dex Req: 80 Item Level: 47 Clvl Req: 25	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-6 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x4	Weapon Speed: 10 Firing Rate: Slow: B/D/N/P/S Very Slow: Am/As
	Chu-Ko-Nu	14-32 Dmg Str Req: 80 Dex Req: 95 Item Level: 54 Clvl Req: 25	D2 Sockets: 3 D2X Sockets: 1-5 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -60 Firing Rate: Very Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S

Values in () are Expansion stats that differ from the Diablo II stats.

Elite Crossbows

Elite Crossbows are Expansion only since Elite items do not exist at all in Diablo II. You can find Elite Crossbows in Acts 4-5/Nightmare and then all through Hell, though like all Elite items, they drop very rarely.

Item	Item Name	Properties	Misc Stats	Attack Rate
	Pellet Crossbow	28-73 Dmg Str Req: 83 Dex Req: 155 Item Level: 61 Clvl Req: 53	Sockets: 1-3 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -10 Firing Rate: Normal: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S
	Gorgon Crossbow	25-87 Dmg Str Req: 117 Dex Req: 105 Item Level: 65 Clvl Req: 57	Sockets: 1-4 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: 0 Firing Rate: Normal: B/D/N/P/S Slow: Am/As
	Colossus Crossbow	32-91 Dmg Str Req: 163 Dex Req: 77 Item Level: 70 Clvl Req: 62	Sockets: 1-6 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x4	Weapon Speed: 10 Firing Rate: Slow: B/D/N/P/S Very Slow: Am/As
	Demon Crossbow	26-40 Dmg * Str Req: 141 Dex Req: 98 Item Level: 76 Clvl Req: 68	Sockets: 1-5 Dmg Bonus: 100 Dex Inv Size: 2x3	Weapon Speed: -60 Firing Rate: Very Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S

* The Demon Crossbow has nearly the same damage (14-32 Chu), the same firing speed as the Chu No Ku , but requires 61 more Str, 3 more Dex, and is Clvl 68 vs Clvl 25. This would seem to be the only Elite item that's actually worse than the Exceptional version.