Sniper

Version 0.18: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A huge crossbow made of some black material. It is highly damaging, but extremely cumbersome to load. It is enchanted to never miss its target.

the +9 heavy crossbow "Sniper"

+9 triple crossbow

Velocity brand
See invisible
Nevermiss
Increased attack delay (Base 2.7, minimum attack delay of 1.3 at 28 Crossbows skill)

Desirability

"Sniper" is magically enchanted crossbow that never misses its target. This coupled with the fact that it's maximally enchanted triple crossbow (in terms of base damage) make using it tempting despite of its horrible delay. Not only cannot the minimum attack delay of 1.3 be reached even at maxed out Crossbows skill, but it is also roughly twice as slow as comparable two-handed melee weapons at their minimum attack delay. That being said, despite having its enchantment reduced it can still rack up great deal of damage due to always hitting its target and having a velocity brand. If there is an enemy at the edge of line of sight, a skilled-user can still get several shots in before the enemy manages to engage in melee. All in all, this crossbow offers high amount of damage that is guaranteed to hit so while being very solid in most circumstances because of this, it is especially valuable against monsters with high EV and low HP (spriggans) or very dangerous opponents with extreme EV like Ereshkigal.

History

Prior to 0.18, "Sniper" was a +15 heavy crossbow with a vorpal brand that lacked its always-hit enchantment.

Prior to 0.15, "Sniper" was a standard crossbow with a +15 enchantment and the vorpal brand, but it was given a slower-than-normal rate of fire.

Prior to 0.14, "Sniper" had a +10,+0 enchantment level and the venom brand.