Crossbow Dominating Build (without Aimed shot and snipe)

[Sat]

I like your build and I am taking a lot from it. I was wondering if the 160 points in evasion are useful on Dominating? Also, is there a reason you do not consider Evasive Maneuvers?

[Kiruha]

I like your build and I am taking a lot from it. I was wondering if the 160 points in evasion are useful on Dominating? Also, is there a reason you do not consider Evasive Maneuvers?

Evasion is useful, because it will reduce damage taken from grenades and AOE attacks. With cool shield you will take nearly no damage from these sources (very useful vs Nagas in expedition for example). Also it will help to evade throwing nets.
About dodge and evasion feats - Escape Artist is super useful for any build, you can level up dodge a bit if you want this. This build is not about evasion or dodge anyway, they are more like dump skills when you are already maxed out anything else.

[Bruno]

I play a character now that is very similar to this, using Xbow w/o Aimed shot etc, mainly special bolts, traps, stealth. It is good fun.

Main difference is that I dont use Psi, and go down to 5 AGI (for strafe) and have notably lower PER, in order to set CON to 10. Also, no evasion unfortunately.

The lower hit chance hurts less as you got bear traps, and ambush, to reduce targets evasion. Also, I believe special bolts do not get higher non-mechanical damage from Xbow skill.

Progression is a bit slow on account of lower perception, but it is good to be a stealthy hunter with riot gear and a solid hit point pool.

[Waterpls]

The Beast is really hard for that build on Dominating. I managed to kill it only with lvl 20, q141 anatomic pneumatic cyclone, 50+ different traps on the battlefield, gas grenades and shock / acid bolts.

Evasion is somewhat useful, but not too much. If you max it you maybe have 30-40% chance to evade a shot from great distance with darkness.

I am not raising Throwing, 25 is enough to land your molotov / magnesium / lightstick.

[Kiruha]

The Beast is really hard for that build on Dominating. I managed to kill it only with lvl 20, q141 anatomic pneumatic cyclone, 50+ different traps on the battlefield, gas grenades and shock / acid bolts.

Evasion is somewhat useful, but not too much. If you max it you maybe have 30-40% chance to evade a shot from great distance with darkness.

I am not raising Throwing, 25 is enough to land your molotov / magnesium / lightstick.

I just used about 100 beat traps and about 10 gas greandes and molotovs to kill all bladelings. And about 100 shock bolts MK3. It was long but not hard. Fortunately, no more critical immune enemies in game.

[Apostrophe]

Hello, really like the build but a couple of things confuse me

1) Marsman specialization, with 18 perception and maxed skill is it really needed? In some of my melee builds I used Special Tactics as support to stun an enemy at the start of the combat and with just 200 effective crossbow skill with Versatility and had no trouble hitting things (but from close range). Didn't play this on dominating but I did play Versatility SMG and had no major trouble with aiming (but again, melee range)

3) No specialization in Quick Tinkering, are you not using it in combat or you just take the AP cost when you have to?

2) Why no tailoring? There are some really good infused leather armor options. Didn't want to save-scum Super steel?

3) Why so much stealth, nimble, cloaking generator, gear, etc. it just seems way too much.

4) Are Recklessness and Scroutinus really needed, with Ambush and Deadly Traps? Even without them you still have ~40% base crit, more if you went tailoring?

5) If you wanted Premeditation in first 10 levels what feat would you remove?

[Rubberbandman]

For anyone having trouble with bladelings (and any enemies with high mech. resistance) - just take versatility. You will get access to energy pistols (and save your precious shock bolt arrows)

[Kiruha]

Hello, really like the build but a couple of things confuse me

1) Marsman specialization, with 18 perception and maxed skill is it really needed? In some of my melee builds I used Special Tactics as support to stun an enemy at the start of the combat and with just 200 effective crossbow skill with Versatility and had no trouble hitting things (but from close range). Didn't play this on dominating but I did play Versatility SMG and had no major trouble with aiming (but again, melee range)

3) No specialization in Quick Tinkering, are you not using it in combat or you just take the AP cost when you have to?

2) Why no tailoring? There are some really good infused leather armor options. Didn't want to save-scum Super steel?

3) Why so much stealth, nimble, cloaking generator, gear, etc. it just seems way too much.

4) Are Recklessness and Scroutinus really needed, with Ambush and Deadly Traps? Even without them you still have ~40% base crit, more if you went tailoring?

5) If you wanted Premeditation in first 10 levels what feat would you remove?

Sorry for a late reply

1) Specialization in Marsman  to reduce move and shoot penalty, you can take strafe and put this points into something else
2) I mostly used quick tinkering before combat, nothing wrong to spec it if you want to
3) About tailoring - I decided to not use it, because you can get ninja tabi boots and rathound regalia really easy.
4) Stealth was a leftover, it can be lowered much more
5) Recklessness and Scroutinus are not important - you can have something else

As I mentioned, you will have some free picks, so you can pick Premedetation and something else.

[Apostrophe]

Thanks for the reply but it did come late already finished a dominating run inspired by your build but I went SI route for 100% crit all the time with Sharpshooter and Blindsiding for maximum damage alpha strike. Thank you for opening my eyes to the majestic power of elemental bolts, this was something is wanted to do since dominating came out just wasn't sure how will it perform.

[cypherusuh]

Sorry for long necro.
I've been trying to get into crossbow, and it seems that I don't know the optimal gameplay early on. I got my ass handed to me even at the very first rathound encounter and ended up not using any crossbow and cheese them all with bear traps and grenade, same with the psi beetle (skipped the 2 outside of building). How do you restock Elemental bolts, since it seems to be the main ammo on this build? I've seen so few ingredients like gasoline n stuff and I usually deplete it very fast.
Also, how to get 95% hit chance early on? Do I have to craft scoped ASAP? Max crossbow and 10 Per usually land me on 80% ish. Spamming flare to negate darkness maybe?

[Sat]

I am on a crossbow run on dominating with a different build and have been through the same: You need to always max per and skills to raise hit chance. if your target is in the dark, you will reach something around 50%/60%, then with light it will be 70%/80%, and on trap, you will finally reach 95%. Mid game will be better but you will feel the same in DC or with Natives. You will reduce your AP cost and increase your AP per turn through the game so a missed shot will be less painful than early game.
It is a different gameplay, you have to select your fights. On those selected, you will have to abuse incendiary, gas grenade and traps until  level 14. Then, ambush and deadly snare are here mid game to almost guarantee 1 shot, 1 body. And you will still conitnue to use traps and grenades.
Funny fact, on a jet ski with versatility and without its feats, you will have better accuracy with chemical/energy pistol than with your crossbow...

Scope will help early game (then you need to switch to Anatomically). There is room for a QOL feat on level 1 in a dominating crossbow build > It can be strafe that will help on accuracy even though aimed shot or even pack rathound would be better choice in my opinion.

To answer on early game, you can get a scoped crossbow from Ratula, you need 3 bear traps. it is not worth killing the 2 first psi beetles as they will repop. With 6 Agi and max stealth level 2-3 you should avoid them and collect the oddity.


EDIT > Ratula drop is random, it may be with a scope or not.

[cypherusuh]

Didn't noticed that Ratula always has scoped crossbow.
Man, it seems that xbow build are rough if they always depends on bear trap. It feels like a throwing knife build all over again, except throwing seems to have better hit chance all around :x
It really hurts when you max your skill and attributes, and you still waste your turn  and special bolts with horrible hit chance

[Sat]

Crossbow accuracy is bad against enemies with evasion. You can see that even at 0 evasion investment, crossbow enemies have difficulties to shoot you at distance. Somehow, the early game (until after depot A) is not that difficult with little use of traps, grenades and hacking/lockpicking.
For me, what was hurting at early game was not dealing enough damage per round, this is why aimed shot was very useful as Ambush will not happen enough until you reach 150-200 stealth.
The difficult part is after depot A before reaching level 14. You have to grind oddities in all cities and then pick up fights/quests. After that, with psi support and good feat selection, the game will show a lot of fun and a lot of easy fights.
On a side note, versatility is worth to be taken at level 1, it helps to cover crossbow weaknesses.

[cypherusuh]

Tried it today, replaced Pack Rathound with Strafe and it feels much better. Although I played it mostly by abusing gas grenade and bear trap, but at least my crossbow accuracy is 90-95% rn
As for after drill parts, it should be doable as long as I skipped most combat with persuasion. though idk if it's possible to skip Camp Hathor' Burrower problem, especially on the last area. Maybe if I use cloaking device to safely cover the area with bear traps 
Or maybe skip it altogether until I have enough stock of fire bolts mk2

[Sat]

For the burrowers infestation, no need to fight any of the burrowers inside, you can collect the oddity and plant the TNT silently. Foundry quests and Black Crawlers (except the last) are very doable before level 14 even the Beast fight if you have versatility and you should have as it simplify many difficult fights.