Merc/crossbow needs some love

I’ll start this off by saying I’m not talking about the reload jamming or the armor/evasion because those have been communicated as needing some work a lot but is it not weird that every high tier gemling build doesn’t even use crossbow? I get that we can use whatever weapon we like but the main weapon for the class falls short to quarter staff without the meta stat stacking build. Even on the planners all the endgame gemling builds if you like max roll are built with monk based spells and weapons. This is a clear sign that crossbow had to be under preforming for its designated class somewhere. The tree is scarce on crossbow passives as well but at least it counts as a 2 hander. I’m not sure what need to change but it be cool if at least one crossbow build was just as useful for the class it was made for. Granted I could level a witch hunter to 70+ but this game doesn’t respect time well and it will still not preform as well as the gemling especially if a lightning damage nerf is in the works.

there are howa+rampart raptor builds on gemling

and I don't think crossbows are bad, I'm blasting T18 maps with explosive shot invoker

witch hunter is terrible, and gemling is supposed to be played as a level stacker or attribute stacker, both of which arent great for crossbows, because pillar is way better for stacking attributes

I can do mapping on on my gemling I’m not saying it’s useless but I am saying it doesn’t make sense for a class weapon designed to be used by said class to have worst synergies with it than another classes weapon and skills. Plenty merc builds are viable but none of them are close to what you can do with monk skills and weapons. that should be viewed as an issue.

I'm running a wastelander build (lightning/fire) I came up with, its REALLY good at clearing crap but stats are a problem around gem level 13 since i'm running both lightning and ash heralds.

I dont even have good gear but i'm doing ok - if i could actually FIND decent gear it'd probably be even better.

However, I do agree with your premise - crossbow is clunky and needs some love.

Hoping the yet to be released 3rd ascendancy will have skills that help with some of the crossbow’s drawbacks.
Less movement speed penalty while firing, and rolling not interrupting reloading would be nice.

I hate the damage spread. it's not a problem on fast skills.
but for slow skills like fragmentation rounds, randomly not dealing much damage feels bad.