Inquisitive Light Crossbow Rate of Fire testing

[Carpone]

I tested rate of fire for light crossbows using Inquisitive during the Lamannia preview on July 25+26. My goal was to gather data to understand the benefit of stacking feats and enhancements to increase the rate of fire.

The below times capture how long it took to shoot 200 bolts on a Male Halfling 17 Rogue/2 Artificer/1 Fighter/Epic 10 (BAB 19) in Legendary Dreadnought.

Control Variables:

Buffs: None, not even ship buffs.

Equipment: Only Artificer Conjure Bolts and Legendary Screamshatter (no sentient jewel) were equipped.

Enhancements: Only the enhancements necessary to test the specific features were selected.

Target: None. The crossbow was fired without a target selected.

Epic Defensive Fighting was enabled to ensure 0% double shot.

The times were measured by manually starting and stoping my iPhone stopwatch. I recognize the inherent fuzziness of this approach, but it was
much less tedious than video capturing footage and measuring animation start/stop frames.

Baseline (No Dual Shooter):

Rapid Reload: 175.28 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 158.64 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 159.04 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 140.07 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 159.37 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 142.57 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 141.77 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 134.93 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter:

Rapid Reload: 99.99 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 89.77 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 90.02 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.99 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 89.56 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.09 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 80.75 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 78.26 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter and No Holds Barred active:

NHB was used on cooldown.

Rapid Reload: 61.56 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 59.89 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 60.28 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 57.69 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 58.50 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 58.80 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 59.52 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 57.47 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter and Haste Boost active:

Haste Boost was used on cooldown.

Rapid Reload: 90.97 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.79 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 81.87 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 71.22 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 83.77 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 79.35 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 76.60 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 69.73 seconds

Conclusions:

1. Dual Shooter increases the rate of fire by 56-58%.

2. If you’re not using Haste Boost: With Dual Shooter and Inquisitive Path, either Blinding Speed or Rapid Shot will net the same rate of fire while auto attacking or using No Holds Barred. Stacking both of them has no benefit when auto attacking or using NHB.

3. While Haste Boost does provide some benefit to attack speed and is worth using if you’re in LD and out of NHB boosts, it’s not worth twisting compared to other options.

Future Testing:

1. Use a larger number of bolts (1000 compared to 200) to better quantify any delta that exists in conclusion #2.

2. Measure rate of fire increase from higher BAB via Tenser's Transformation, Divine Power or Warchanter core 5.

3. Measure rate of fire differences between light and heavy crossbows. Hypothesis: Rate of fire should be the same.

[ChadB123]

Thanks for doing the work and providing the data.

[jskinner937]

I tested rate of fire for light crossbows using Inquisitive during the Lamannia preview on July 25+26. My goal was to gather data to understand the benefit of stacking feats and enhancements to increase the rate of fire.

The below times capture how long it took to shoot 200 bolts on a Male Halfling 17 Rogue/2 Artificer/1 Fighter/Epic 10 (BAB 19) in Legendary Dreadnought.

Control Variables:

Buffs: None, not even ship buffs.

Equipment: Only Artificer Conjure Bolts and Legendary Screamshatter (no sentient jewel) were equipped.

Enhancements: Only the enhancements necessary to test the specific features were selected.

Target: None. The crossbow was fired without a target selected.

Epic Defensive Fighting was enabled to ensure 0% double shot.

The times were measured by manually starting and stoping my iPhone stopwatch. I recognize the inherent fuzziness of this approach, but it was
much less tedious than video capturing footage and measuring animation start/stop frames.

Baseline (No Dual Shooter):

Rapid Reload: 175.28 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 158.64 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 159.04 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 140.07 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 159.37 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 142.57 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 141.77 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 134.93 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter:

Rapid Reload: 99.99 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 89.77 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 90.02 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.99 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 89.56 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.09 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 80.75 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 78.26 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter and No Holds Barred active:

NHB was used on cooldown.

Rapid Reload: 61.56 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 59.89 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 60.28 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 57.69 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 58.50 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 58.80 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 59.52 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 57.47 seconds

Inquisitive Dual Shooter and Haste Boost active:

Haste Boost was used on cooldown.

Rapid Reload: 90.97 seconds
Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 80.79 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload: 81.87 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 71.22 seconds

Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 83.77 seconds
Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 79.35 seconds

Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload: 76.60 seconds
Inquisitor’s Path: Jaded + Blinding Speed + Rapid Reload + Rapid Shot: 69.73 seconds

Conclusions:

1. Dual Shooter increases the rate of fire by 56-58%.

2. If you’re not using Haste Boost: With Dual Shooter and Inquisitive Path, either Blinding Speed or Rapid Shot will net the same rate of fire while auto attacking or using No Holds Barred. Stacking both of them has no benefit when auto attacking or using NHB.

3. While Haste Boost does provide some benefit to attack speed and is worth using if you’re in LD and out of NHB boosts, it’s not worth twisting compared to other options.

Future Testing:

1. Use a larger number of bolts (1000 compared to 200) to better quantify any delta that exists in conclusion #2.

2. Measure rate of fire increase from higher BAB via Tenser's Transformation, Divine Power or Warchanter core 5.

3. Measure rate of fire differences between light and heavy crossbows. Hypothesis: Rate of fire should be the same.

Carpone,

Very nice work. Based on this test, what would you consider the best to worst priority for rate of fire speed?

[jskinner937]

Carpone,

Very nice work. Based on this test, what would you consider the best to worst priority for rate of fire speed?

From what I can tell, Rapid Shot actually gives the highest rate of fire improvement on a non-repeater while not in NHB, which is not the case on a repeater (almost double the gain on repeaters), however what I suspected. Although NHB must overwrite rapid shot while active, which is not what I assumed. Additionally from your data, I suspect that attack and reload speed is either static and overwrites all rate of fire improvements that may exist, or is so high that the gains are so marginal they can hardly be noticed.

The only still inconclusive would be what benefit rapid reload has?

[Xgya]

I'm curious: was this done for heavy crossbows as well? I'd love to see the differences.

[Carpone]

I'm curious: was this done for heavy crossbows as well? I'd love to see the differences.

No. It's listed under "Future Testing". Maybe during the next Lam.

[SerPounce]

2. If you’re not using Haste Boost: With Dual Shooter and Inquisitive Path, either Blinding Speed or Rapid Shot will net the same rate of fire while auto attacking or using No Holds Barred. Stacking both of them has no benefit when auto attacking or using NHB.

The fact that this is true when not using haste boost, but both appear to matter during haste boost is really bizarre.

[C-Dog]

Good stuff!

3. Measure rate of fire differences between light and heavy crossbows. Hypothesis: Rate of fire should be the same.

I'd expect that, since the RoF for Lt/Hvy repeaters is reported slightly diff, the same would be true for non-repeaters. Interested to see this one.