Crossbowman — guide

In short

Crossbowman is a Rare Banner Lords Attack champion with exactly one useful button. His only real home is Faction Wars, where he hands out a Critical Rate buff and can Stun a single target. Everywhere else the author's verdict is blunt: food.

Strengths

• His second skill gives an ally a 30% Critical Rate buff for 2 turns and he takes an extra turn right after — a decent setup for a real nuker in Faction Wars.
• His third skill has a 50% chance to place a 1-turn Stun and a 50% chance to place a 30% Decrease SPD for 2 turns; with tomes the chance reaches 75%.
• The default attack has a 15% chance of landing an extra hit — a little extra damage and proc value.
• Magic affinity, which plays well into Spirit enemies in Banner Lords Faction Wars stages.

Weaknesses

• 1,167 ATK and 936 DEF: he neither hits nor survives, and most AoE damage deletes him in one go.
• 95 base SPD is very slow — without Speed gear he never gets to press his skills.
• No boss-relevant debuffs (no Poison, HP Burn or Decrease DEF), so he is dead weight in Clan Boss, Hydra, Chimera and dungeons.
• The control is single-target and random: 50–75% on one enemy for 1 turn will not save a run.

Where to use

By the ratings, only Faction Wars (2/5). Clan Boss, Hydra, Chimera, Arena, Dungeons, Hard mode and Doom Tower are all 1/5 — that is, nowhere. In Faction Wars use him as a support opener for a proper Banner Lords damage dealer: press the crit rate buff, pass the extra turn, go back to the bench. Do not build him as a nuker — the damage is not there even against trash waves.

Stats and gear

Priority: SPD → ACC → C.RATE / C.DMG. Faction Wars targets: SPD 170–200, ACC 150–180 so the Stun and Decrease SPD land on stages 10–13, C.RATE 60–80%, everything else into ATK. HP and DEF on leftovers, though they will not save him. Sets: Speed, Perception, or Critical Rate as a cheap fallback — do not pour expensive gear into him. From the listed relics, Molten Deathbell if you happen to own it.

Masteries and blessings

The list gives In For The Kill from the Offense tree. In practice, for Faction Wars you want the Support tree first (Accuracy plus the cooldown utility), then take offense masteries like In For The Kill on top. Do not spend blessings on this champion — the resources are better spent elsewhere.

Tomes

Book the third skill first: levels 3 and 5 add +10% and +15% to the debuff chance, taking it from 50% to 75%. Second is the crit rate buff skill (level 2 cuts the cooldown by 1). If Crossbowman is only ever going to be food, he does not deserve tomes at all.

Verdict

A filler Rare: one useful button on top of weak stats. Build him only for Faction Wars if you have an empty slot to fill — otherwise he is food.