Demon Hunter Bow Damage Comparison. Which is better?

PhobosDiablo

On another one of his recenty posted videos, Phobos compares a few different ranged weapons with each other, and discusses both of their advantages and disadvantages.

To try to keep the discussion simple, he used basic magic weapons as is, without socketing. He also chose weapons that do not have any additional stats, but it was still very difficult to find the same exact items with the same exact stats.

All of the weapons deal roughly the same amount of DPS, and he also used the same quiver if applicable to the setup.

Two One-Hand Crossbows

DPS: 37k
Atk Spd: 1.87
White Dmg: 6k – 28k
Avg Crit Dmg: 50k – 80k

Note that equipping a second one-hand crossbow in the off-hand will increase the Demon Hunter’s attack speed by 15%. This setup can also potentially give the Demon Hunter the fastest attack speed they can get in the game, making it a good choice if the player wants to release a lot of attacks within a short period of time.

Based on Phobos’ experience, this setup is very fluid, very smooth and very comfortable. This can be tried with a range of different one-hand crossbows, which the Demon Hunter can mix and match depending on their play style.

The only problem with this setup is that the DPS may be quite high, but the overall damage is low compared to two-hand crossbows and bows.

One-Hand Crossbow and Quiver

DPS: 40.8k
Atk Spd: 1.87
White Dmg: 6k – 25k
Avg Crit Dmg: 60k – 80k

Note that the additional DPS came from the bonus provided by the quiver. The advantage of this setup is that it is easier to find a quiver that gives better stats than it is to find another one-hand crossbow that can do the same. It plays almost the same way as the two one-hand crossbow setup except it looks less fancier, and again the one-hand crossbow gives a lower overall damage compared to two-hand crossbows and bows.

Two-Hand Crossbow

DPS: 39k
Atk Spd: 1.30
White Dmg: 25k – 40k
Avg Crit Dmg: 100k +

Two-hand crossbows are both loved and hated, depending on the play style of the Demon Hunter. PhobosDiablo feels that this weapon is slow and stiff, and can cause players to misclick more often especially if they are used to playing with one-hand crossbows or bows.

However, the damage it deals is very high. Crossbows also have the highest crit damage potential in the game, so this play style is suited for the Demon Hunter who wants to deal a lot of critical strikes.

Bow

DPS: 41k
Atk Spd: 1.64
White Dmg: 20k – 40k
Avg Crit Dmg: 60k – 100k

This weapon combines the best of both the one-hand and two-hand crossbows, with a decent attack speed as well as dealing a good amount of damage and critical damage. The play style also feels smooth enough, though not as much as when using one-hand crossbows. If the Demon Hunter wants a play style, the bow will make a good weapon of choice.

Check out his video here: