Another weapons thread! This time, I'm going to address one thing recently brought up: bows! "But Doc, they're two handed, they'd never work!" Not necessarily...

2* Driftwood Shortbow

No, you don't get to start with some huge bow that's taller than a Deadnaught. You get this little not-threatening-looking half-knight-high wooden thing. But don't underestimate its potential. It looks weak, but those looks are a Spy.

The basic attack is just a 1-damage push to break minerals and bonk Greavers in the face. It also can absorb a single projectile! The "charging" stance shows the Knight knocking an arrow, with their shield shifting to the back of their arm, and once released, the charge fires a single arrow 12 squares over one second. On hit, the arrow keeps pushing the first enemy it pokes until it hits another enemy or travels 12 squares; shields deflect the arrow entirely. Walls, of course, also destroy the arrow. The damage is a considerable amount of Piercing damage, but the real kicker is the fact that after the first enemy, it can hit another enemy. Line up shots to hit two enemies at once!

The shortbow counts as a Handgun for damage bonus and menu purposes. Closer to that than a sword or bomb, right?

And then there's the branching alchemy lines...

3* Redwood Recurve -> 4* Ironwood Recurve -> 5* Lightning-Split Longbow

The 3* Redwood Recurve is a slightly longer reddish recurve bow (that's a bow where the ends are bent), the 4* Ironwood Recurve is an even longer (about 3/4 of a Knight high) grayish wood bow, and the Lightning-Split Longbow is a blackened, almost Knight high recurve bow with spikes near where the arrow is knocked. Obviously the Redwood Recurve is crafted from the Driftwood Shortbow, and so on.

The bows increase in power as they level up, of course. But each star level also adds one space worth of range and allows arrows to hit one extra enemy, for a total of 15 spaces range and five total enemies hit at 5*. That's almost an entire Lockdown team that can be fileted with one shot! Worth a lack of a regular shot? You be the judge!

3* Vampire Hunter -> 4* Vampire Slayer -> 5* Robin Van Helsing

The 3* Vampire Hunter is an alternative line that fires split Elemental/Piercing light arrows. It's a compound bow with silver trim that not only gets longer as it levels up, but also gains a glowing light where arrows are knocked. The light arrows materialize out of thin air during the charge. At five stars, the Robin Van Helsing's string is made of light.

They don't get as much range per level (.5 extra spaces per star level, maxing at 13.5) and stop at three enemies per arrow, but they make up for this by covering that distance in half a second compared to the Lightning-Split line's full second, making them handy for picking off Devilites. The bow itself has a medium Damage bonus to Fiends and Undead as well. Finally, it charges slightly faster than the Lightning-Split line.

3* Geo Crossbow -> 4* Earthshaker Crossbow -> 5* Terrallista

The Geo Crossbow is a fairly large crossbow, about as long as an Ascended Calibur and just as wide. The Rumbling Crossbow gets bigger, and the Terrallista is so big it reaches as far as the Sudaruska- the description will even mention it's less of a large crossbow than it is a small ballista. (That's a siege weapon!)

Now HERE'S something a little different. The Geo Crossbow's basic attack NORMALLY is the same bow block as the Driftwood Shortbow, though a little slower, and its base charge time is about a second longer than the regular bows, but its charge attack does... no damage! Instead, the Knight, after deploying the charge attack, loads a large stone quarrel (that's what you call the projectile shot by a crossbow... unless it's a bolt) which takes him about one second of standing still to complete. Any damage during this time interrupts the action.

Once the quarrel is loaded, the Knight can then hold the attack button to make a crosshair appear on his screen, directly in front of him. The crosshair moves out towards the direction the Knight was pointing as the Knight lifts the crossbow up, and when the button is released or the crosshair reaches the farthest possible distance, the knight fires the quarrel, which then flies in an arc to the crosshair's location and explodes in a shower of rocks, causing a lot of Normal damage to nearby enemies! It's also got a Good chance of Strong Stun.

The blast radius of this attack is two spaces for the Geo Crossbow, with an extra half space for every star level beyond that, and the maximum range is fifteen squares. It's much like a siege weapon; it's unwieldy and difficult to fire, but it gives out quite the return in sheer damage! Note that switching weapons will cause the quarrel to be lost; you'll have to load it again. Also note that its minimum range is five squares, meaning the Knight has a small dead zone in front of him. Work with your team so you don't get mauled by Thwackers while firing!

3* Toxic Crossbow -> 4* Assassin's Crossbow -> 5* Death Stalker

The Toxic Crossbow is a small, dark brown repeating crossbow with poison bubbles coming out the end. As it gains levels, it gets darker colored and generally more menacing, but doesn't get any larger.

The charge attack reloads the clip of the repeating crossbow. The basic attack fires one of the clip's eight pure Shadow damage bolts, each with a chance of Poison, an insanely high speed, and a range of eight squares. The crossbow's got a fast firing rate, even faster than the Sentenza. The damage per bolt and chance of poison is quite small, but both increase depending on how many bolts the same target has been hit with. The damage bonus wears off if you delay too long, and reloading the clip takes enough time to end the damage bonus, so try to land each shot!

The role of this crossbow is to take out key targets, like Menders in the Clockworks or Guardians in Lockdown. It also combines well with Recon and Maskeraith (though you may want to give the latter a Piercing-damage harness, to cover the other kind of healers out there).