ELB/Archery vs. HXBow/150% Str. Strategy question (in General)

I'm running a quite typical Archer right now.
Due to lots of items than increase my strength i now already have to put about 50% exp. into the Archery Skill compared to what i put into strength.

.. I wonder if I could switch to 'something else', maybe like the hxbow or the SoD, and thus put all that Archery-Skill exp. also into strength.

What would my damage be like? Are there any informations/comparisons on the elb vs. hxbow vs. sod out there?

What do you think?

Your damage would suck. Sod would be alright against ~3 or more minions but GA will kill you so fast.

I have used the ELB, MSB and the SoD. The SoD wins hands down.

It allows you to free up all that xp you need just to be able to use your weapon as it was initially designed.

That extra xp into dex or hp can make a lot of difference.

The damage of the SoD vs the ELB evens out if there are 2-3 minions.

Use DM if you are really worried about GA. Or just learn a lot of hp.

I like using the TSA with a lot of HP for its strength and regeneration. You would need another minion however, to use that.

I would agree that SoD would probably end up being better later on, but for a lower level character I would argue that ELB is way better for a variety of reasons that I don't feel like going into at the moment.

Yes, the SoD really has lots of bad things:
- much more GA retaliation
- not 'killing' one minion after the other -> more opposing minions are able to fire for longer
- more expensive to upgrade
- less CTH

.. but most of these backdraws don't apply for the hxbow, actually the only reason not to use hxbow are:
- less CTH
- more expensive to upgrade / less damage

.. so the question is, _how_ much less damage an hxbow would do?

I wouldn't even consider a Hxbow, since exbow and axbow are available. If you're looking to deal damage, then the SoD and Archery bows are your only viable options really.

isn't it that the hxbow does more damage than the exbow and axbow ?

base damage is the same on all of those as well as the upgrade costs?

Yes o.O