crossbow/shotgun build advice

[cypherusuh]

I tried Destroyor's build today up to finishing depot. Is there any good reason to even use crossbow? I feel like grenades and shotgun alone is strong enough to deal with everything. And EMP could do better job than crossbow for robots, due to AoE and 2 turn stun. Shotgun to the face basically deletes everything, at least on Hard difficulty. Even for CC, I feel like Psi ability covers much more than crossbow, and it's usually cheaper on AP, plus it's basically free without ammo and reliable with 100% hit chance
I tried to use sniper instead of crossbow, I feel like it has better use for long-ranged support compared to crossbow. Idk why but I missed a lot with crossbow, even at 80% chance.
Also without crossbow, we could use Shell Strap Belt or even Doctors Pouch

[HulkOSaurus]

I also am not a big fan of the Crossbow in this scenario. Shotguns pair much better with Snipers in my opinion. You can even go stealth and swap the Versatility/Marksman for Aimed Shot/Snipe.

[cypherusuh]

Tbh I'm not even sure what's the strength of crossbow, other than elemental gimmick, which usually worse than psi, if the character is hybrid.
"stealth sniping" isn't reliable due to how stealth kill works in this game. 3 people around, killed 2, survivor yelled, everyone ganked on you anyway.
Deadly Snare is nice, but you usually has to invest on some crit chance on the side (unless you're so adamant on laying bear trap everywhere pre-combat), and on ranged case, you could stack up really high crit chance from weapon mod and goggles
Pure crossbow can't deal with tin cans without resorting to traps / grenade / poison spam (which usually negated by their DT, too).
They do have huge amount of crit damage, but compared with a sniper, their actual damage is far worse. I think even laser pistol could dish out better spike damage

[destroyor]

I tried Destroyor's build today up to finishing depot. Is there any good reason to even use crossbow? I feel like grenades and shotgun alone is strong enough to deal with everything. And EMP could do better job than crossbow for robots, due to AoE and 2 turn stun. Shotgun to the face basically deletes everything, at least on Hard difficulty. Even for CC, I feel like Psi ability covers much more than crossbow, and it's usually cheaper on AP, plus it's basically free without ammo and reliable with 100% hit chance
I tried to use sniper instead of crossbow, I feel like it has better use for long-ranged support compared to crossbow. Idk why but I missed a lot with crossbow, even at 80% chance.
Also without crossbow, we could use Shell Strap Belt or even Doctors Pouch

Crossbow is there as a low AP cost long range stun CC/backup weapon. The low AP cost mean it's more forgiving even w/ a relatively low hit chance. You will use it when your psi CC abilities are on cooldown/low on psi/enemy out of shotgun range. Don't know about hard difficulty but I did find it useful on dominating.

[cypherusuh]

On hard, it's usually enough to just use TK punch / precog electro. I think so far, the only part that I feel crossbow usefulness is Burrower nest near junkyard, for incendiary bolt when my molotov and force field on CD.
Idk which other part will be difficult with shotgun which requires crossbow though, especially since there's lots of better psi option after that

[HulkOSaurus]

"stealth sniping" isn't reliable due to how stealth kill works in this game. 3 people around, killed 2, survivor yelled, everyone ganked on you anyway.

Once they fix it, the new Vanishing Powder 'nade will make that much easier. On the flip side I don't think you'd need to stealth snipe all the time - having the option for ranged combat is quite nice, though.

[cypherusuh]

Ye, but compared to sniper, it's far less useful for stealth killing. And I assumed vanishing grenade will works regardless of "alert" noise (or just flashbang them all once they're alerted
Ofc crossbow has less AP, but sniper should be able to reliably 1-shot enemies than crossbow

[HulkOSaurus]

Ye, but compared to sniper, it's far less useful for stealth killing. And I assumed vanishing grenade will works regardless of "alert" noise (or just flashbang them all once they're alerted
Ofc crossbow has less AP, but sniper should be able to reliably 1-shot enemies than crossbow

If you're replying to my post I think you're misunderstanding me 

I said that I believe shotguns to pair better with snipers than with xbows. With or without stealth snipes.

Vanishing Power 'nade worked nicely on release - then it broke with the last update. I can see people falling in love with it... once fixed, of course. It just puts your character in stealth and every ''eye'' on top of the enemies is reset to orange. You get to keep your MP, as well.

Snipers can one shot every non-boss enemy in the game. Naga Protectors and Dreadnoughts included, although with those two I think Snipe takes precedence over Aimed Shot.

[cypherusuh]

Ah, mb
I wonder if vanishing powder can be abused (per turn: snipe >  aimed shot > vanishing > snipe > repeat)
Inb4 Styg nerfed Snipe CD to 10 turn, because no fun is allowed on offline-single player game