Do you guys think the X-Bow needs a buff?
Honestly I think that the X-Bow does need a buff, or at least it would be nice if they had a buff. The reason is, they are such a high tier defensive structure, only available for the top two Town Hall levels, and they do not pose that much of a threat to any incoming attacks.
Sure they are good, they are well rounded and shoot quickly over long distances, can be attacking both air and ground troops, but now with the Archer Tower changes, they aren't that amazing anymore.
Before the Archer Tower changes that made them shoot twice as quickly, and that the arrows shot faster, X-Bows were quite a bit more effective than them. They shot much faster than Archer Towers and therefore are able to mow down hordes of light units faster than Archer Towers, which shot 8 times slower and the arrows also took a while to hit its target. Now the Archer Tower has level 13, and they shoot twice as fast with more accuracy, it kind of negates the whole idea of having an X-Bow.
Here I will compare the stats of the two structures (max level, ground and air mode). I will compare with ground and air mode because firstly it makes it easier to compare and secondly, air and ground is more frequently used:
X-Bow does 80 damage per second, Archer Tower does 98 dps.
X-Bow has 11 tile range, Archer Tower has 10 range.
X-Bow shoots once every 0.125 seconds, Archer Tower shoots once every 0.5 seconds.
X-Bow has 2,700 hitpoints, the Archer Tower has 1050.
Both attack air and ground.
Now looking from these comparisons, you can see that the two towers are fairly similar, except that the Archer Tower actually does more damage except with slightly less range, and significantly less hitpoints. From here you can see that the X-Bow is perhaps equal in power, or slightly stronger than an Archer Tower in general.
When you are looking for a raid, the X-bows are hardly a thing that you notice first, and neither are Archer Towers. What you look at first is often the splash damage, if you are farming, air defences in the case of an air raid, and Inferno Towers.
The difference between Archer Towers and X-Bows in terms of significance, is that the Archer Tower is available at Town Hall 2, and the X-Bow is available at Town Hall 9. The X-bow should have a greater impact, much like the inferno tower except perhaps to a lesser extent. Inferno Towers are the key difference between Town Hall 9s and 10s. Two multi target infernoes do 300 combined DPS at level 1 and 420 combined DPS at level 2. The two new X-Bows at Th9 do a mere 100 extra DPS at level 1, which increases to only 150 DPS at level 3, which is the same as 1 level 1 inferno tower.
My suggestion here is that the X-Bows should have more power, and become more of a signature defence for a TH9, like the Inferno is for TH10. Of course, we do not need this buff to be absolutely huge, it only needs to be enough for X-Bows to be considered more of a threat than they are now. Here are the changes that I propose:
General: X-Bow Ground Only range increased to 15 tiles. This is so that Ground only options would be more considered, as right now air and ground seems like the way to go without doubt. Another option would be to remove the two options and have it target air and ground at maybe 12 tiles.
X-Bow Level 1: DPS increased from 50 to 70
X-Bow Level 2: DPS increased from 60 to 80
X-Bow Level 3: DPS increased from 75 to 95
X-Bow Level 4: DPS increased from 80 to 120
There is a much more significant increase for the X-Bow level 4, which makes upgrading them at TH10 more viable than they previously were, and making them stronger in general against all attacks. It makes them stand out more, like all other Town Hall 10 upgrades do.
X-Bow projectile speed increased - even with the tremendous fire rate of X-Bows, several shots always miss its targets, if you watch an X-Bow attack a group of Archers. Increased projectile speed will make the DPS against light units really count.
These changes will make the X-Bow very well rounded, with virtually no weaknesses as they now do increased DPS to take down Heavy Troops and also more accuracy with the high fire rate to take out the weaker swarms of troops.
Please reply what you think, and tell me if my points are valid. I know this can be changing to the balance of the game but other changes can also be implemented to attacking troops to make this change viable. Give out your thoughts too, I am curious to see what you guys think of X-Bows in their current state, and what they potentially could be :)
