I've never had one until this year. And, I've been a little bit of a crossbow hater to be honest. But, injured my shoulder in May and haven't been able to pick up a bow since then, and I'm seeing an ortho about the rotator cuff tomorrow (bow arm), so if I wanted to get out at all during the archery seasons in the Northeast (even the limited areas I legally can) I needed a crossbow. If I need surgery, I'm probably out for next season too if not permanently.
I went with a new tenpoint nitro. Very fast, very accurate. But in a lot of ways, these things are a pain in the A**. Heavy. Slow to cock with the crank so you have to have it ready to go. Much louder at the shot than my bow. All fine if you're sitting in a stand, but if I was going to use it on the ground chasing Elk or something like that, I'd be looking for the lightest setup I could find and something that's a lot faster to get cocked than the crank setup I have.
With that said, it's a laser. With the setup I have and a rest you're almost dealing with a rifle from 100 and in, although with the noise string jumping could definitely be an issue at longer range, although my setup is running ~475 fps so may not be an issue.