In my current build I do not have the Archery tree, but I wondered since no PENALTY is inflicted for using a crossbow without said tree is it worth keeping one around? Which one? And what bolts?
Yes!! I would only keep high end bolts like squid/mass destruction or even eldrich. But the crossbow dosnt matter, You can krong it and, if it turns out bad, swap it with a new one because it isn't your primary attack. Not to mention, you have the slot on your character for it...that dosnt take up inventory, so why not have it just in case.
Bolts can take up inventory. I recommend keeping it, and holding onto Squid, Massdestruction and Bolt of Doubt. Bolt of Doubt is no doubt boss for melee builds, shoot one, paralyze an enemy and keep hacking away.
There are a few bolts worth keeping around. Squid, MassDestruction and Doubt are really good. But Stone Bolt is my fave if you can get your hands on some. It summons a wall at the location where you shot, so you can use it to quickly seal off large areas, zoos, and create artificial chokepoints. Eldritch are also very decent for AoE necromantic damage.
Pretty much every bolt that does damage and/or has a fancy effect can be useful if you have a strong enough crossbow, and even a melee build can benefit from keeping a few of those on hand to pick off problematic targets. And the answer to "what bolts should I keep" is "what bolts are useful for you, other than simple damaging ones" with an added "how many inventory spaces are you ready to sacrifice for bolts?" question that you should answer for yourself. Once, I played with a melee tinkering build with clockwork knight skill used. Most of the time I only had about 10 slots for any loot, but I still managed to get 7 different bolt types with me. And it was the first build with which I finished the game, actually. Because tankiness is one thing, but trying to run to a dozen spellcasting monsters before they eat you with their magic instead of simply picking them off one at a time is pretty suicidal.
I do the same as Kazeto. As long as you have still some free inventory slots, why not having all the bolts you can get? It always helps to weaken a monster before it reaches you in melee. And you can always throw them away or make lutefisk out of them later if you need more inventory slots for other things. If you're not a crafter, you should be able to keep a fairly big amount of bolts, just in case.
If I recall some of the spical crossbows work well. The assassins one if I recall right buffs a couple stats. The golden crossbow is amazing if you find it But definatly keep around mass destruction and the like. Great for taking out dreadmoor, can blow up walls... And the squid bolts really mess up zoos.
Oh yes, quite right, in RotDG, some of the new crossbows are a real blast, and using them can be hilarious fun.
I generally keep Bolts of Mass Destruction, Bolts of Squid, Bolts of Doubt, Eldritch Bolts, and Plague Bolts, as well as any Ingeniously Scythed bolts I happen to come across. Plague and Scythed are pretty excellent for taking care of chicken-AI monsters.
I find bolts great to clear out the last few monster in a zoo that tend to be the ones with long distance attacks. Otherwise it would be suicide to run in and try to melee them all down.
Stone bolts are extremely precious commodities if you don't have golemancy. They will save your life 10 times over if you use them right. Bolts of doubt are pretty sick for killing champion monsters out of chests and the what not as well if you don't have psionics.
