Crossbow heals from 75 to 150 every 1.6 seconds, with the weapon switch speed moved to 0.5 seconds since Tough Break, this means an optimized healing sequence (shoot bolt, switch to beam, heal for .6 seconds, switch to bow, repeat) heals 75+(24*0.6) to 150+(72*0.6) every 1.6 seconds, or 89.4 to 193.2 every 1.6 seconds, or 55.875 to 120.75 per second. 55.875 is 2.328125 times bigger than 24, 120.75 is 1.677084 times bigger than 72.
I'm not making any points with these numbers, I was just wondering what they would be, and this is what I came up with.
I might be wrong, and optimized healing sequence doesn't translate to real world all the time.
My opinion is that the crossbow is fun to use, but too strong of an healing item. Any powerful healing item will favor the defending side over the attacking side, even though the direct effects can be equally shared, and here is why I think so:
- The defending team should be settled in optimal and superior position, whereas the attacking team will be forced through a predictable path and sub-optimal position, giving the defending team an obvious advantage
- From now on, as the attacking team are entering the fight with a disadvantage, any time spent during the fight *should* on average make said disadvantage bigger
- The crossbow (or any powerful healing tool) increases the average time spent fighting
This is how we end up, I think, with teams holding chokes safely and repeatedly attempting big plays to allow for either team to start off with a substantial advantage that would negate the disadvantage of not holding.
The crossbow is probably one of the most fun and rewarding traits of the Medic class, especially since I have no fucking clue what I'm doing, and I do think it's possible to simply tweak the numbers and keep it fun.