Archery Tips?

[Smokermegadrive]

This is the first time in 4 years that i play as an archer, since i managed to kill most weak ass bandits and other shitty animals, im like a politician/evil guy and i want more POWER
Anyway i have those questions:

Good or best bow? (for starting or late game any of the two)

Fortify Archery or Stamina? Where to obtain those enchantments?

Any other useful items?

Any magic school worth to level?

Poisons are useless piece of shits like other builds?

If is useful any good recipe for poisons in alchemy?

Other standing stone aside as the thief? (except for the lover one since i use SPERG)

How to stop to suck at aiming? (even with the ini tweaks)

Here my build for now:
Race: Custom, Judel elf from Elves of Azure
Archery +10
Light Armor +5 
Illusion +5
Alchemy +5
Sneak +5
Restoration +5

Powers and passives:
ShadowMeld - for 2 mins the caster is invisible while sneaking, activating objects cancels the effect
Nature Resistance - resist poison and disease for 25%
Quickness - avoid damage for 25%

(Specific for Disparity):
Class: Archer
Specialization: Stealth
Primary Attribute: Stamina (Stamina +20)
Secondary Attribute: Agility (+10% Resist Stagger, +5% Critical hit chance, +5% Ranged Attack Damage)
Skill Bonuses:
Archery +20
Smithing +20
Restoration +10
Enchanting +10
Light Armor +20
Sneak +10
Alchemy +10

Equipment: (for now)
Bow: Ancient Nord Bow
Crossbow: Steel Crossbow
Armor: Hide Armor Set
all of these without enchantment

Overhauls that affect archery in use:
SPERG, Disparity, Nock to tip, Modified ini for arrows

Note: As the race and some of this build include sneak i try to avoid it, it doesn't give excitment like present miself and get their asses full of arrows XD

[Kendo 2]

I play archers/dual wield fighters.

 

For poison, my favorite is Canis Root and Swamp Fungal Pod.  It makes a good paralysis poison.

 

For weapons (I do not use weapon mods) I stick to the light armor side of the perk tree until I can craft Elven gear, since they do more damage and weigh less than dwarven, orcish, etc.  After that I will spend perk points on the heavy side of the tree to keep pace with my level advancement so I can get access to obsidian and daedric weapons.  The ancient nord bow you are using now does less damage and weighs more than the Imperial Bow you can craft once you get the Steel perk.

 

I use the Lady Stone for archers, since your stamina will regenerate faster once you start zooming in with your bow.  I also run from combat a lot so having stamina regen faster is good for that too.

 

Playing an archer, I stick close to Riverwood, Whiterun and Falkreath.  Faendal can train archery up to skill level 50.  After 50 there is Angi in the mountains to the east of Falkreath.  She can train archery with her practice sessions regardless of your level.  There is also hunting.  Stealth and archery will increase with each sneak attack you do (derp) and the deer, wolves, bears, etc. are a good free resource of leather so you can improve your armorer skill.  West of Whiterun and north of Fort Greymoor there is a bridge close to Rendoran's (sp) Retreat.  If you stand on the bridge you can see giants and mammoths to the east and west.  What I do is I get plenty of iron arrows and a junky wooden Long Bow and I shoot the mammoths and then get under the lower sections of the brigde where it connects to the road.  The giants and mammoths cannot get to you and they will not run away.  You can stand there under the bridge and shoot arrow after arrow and your archery rise.   Giants usually have good treasure and mammoths have tusks worth 150 gp each.  That bridge is also a good place to fill Greater and Grand sould gems (see below).

 

One build I tried (and it worked really well) was playing a conjurer/archer.  I ignored Destruction magic entirely and used archery for all ranged attacks.  A bow with soul trap enchanment is an easy way to fill soul gems and conjuration allows you to fill soul gems with bound weapons.  Also, the Bound Bow spell means you'll always have access to you prefered weapon.  Plus, you can summon creatures to cover you back or keep an enemy busy while you shoot them.  This is also a good build if you like to enchant weapons and armor.  Illusion magic also came in handy once in a while.  With this build I didn't wear armor of any kind and my character was FAST.  I rarely had to fight melee unless I wanted to or unless I was trapped and forced to by a quest.  Even then, with dual wield, paralysis poison and summoned creatures I was still able to survive.

[Bert Goldsteen]

what i often play as is some kind of a ranged assassin. usually i go all out on the light armor smithing tree and ignore the heavy completely (plenty of chances to get daedric stuff anyways). i heavily rely on stealthily moving into a good sniping spot with a way to get into close combat if desired.

once the enemy is weakened/reduced in numbers/etc i just switch to dual wielding the sword of my choice( windshear works just great in conjunction with anything else).

as you will need a lot of stamina it would be best to have some stamina enchantments on your armor, jewelry etc to support the regen already given by the light armor tree.

for starting out i suggest you get yourself the dark brotherhood armor asap to level your sneaking, as ranged sneak attacks will be you bread and butter. support this with the thief standing stone, but later on switch to the shadow stone (maybe have the nocturnal invisibility as an addition) in case a fight doesnt go your way.

as i manage to easily mow down enemies in the late game with 1-2 hits on adept you might only need some paralisys potions for stronger opponents.

 

bear in mind though this was my build when i still played vanilla skyrim on my ps3 and i habe no idea how it plays out with mods active.

howeve i do think that thiefs guild, bortherhood and later on college quests are the way to go.

(never liked those wolfguys in whiterun anyways )

[Smokermegadrive]

Thank you both of you, those tip will come handy, i never imagined that i can beat a damn giant hiding in the bridge XD i know where it is so i will do it
also another silly question

the training follower exploit is still working in the latest patch for using with faendal?

[vram1974]

I always max my stealth and archery and then use my follower as a shield if I get attacked. Using Eagle Eye you can snipe distant objects long before they reach you.

 

Since you find so many poisons in the game I just hotkey all the poisons and dip each arrow before firing.

 

I also recommend SPERG as above since you can use elemental arrows if you run out

[gvman3670]

I agree with Kendo. Conjuration and archery are a great mix. Your summoned minions can keep your foes busy long enough to stick a few arrows in them. A lot of stealth helps as well (you can get up to 3X damage on sneak attacks). Some poisons are better than others, depending on who you're fighting with. For example, damage magicka works nice on conjurers or mages, while damage health and/or paralysis works great on most others.

 

As for the shooting itself, it's a lot like real life. Practice makes perfect. You need to learn to hold over or under a target depending on range.

[afa]

Bound Bow with mystic binding is a strong choice for quick leveling, but it takes a little time to get the spell which smithing could compensate and more useful in the long run.

Since you have a crossbow I am guessing you have Dawnguard so you have relatively easy access to Zephyr and Auriel's Bow at the end.

Go with fortify archery and fortify sneak enchantments.

 

Do the standard smithing/alchemy/enchanting, level up your archery/sneak as you go. You will likely pick light armor for sneak benefit early on, but with enough sneak it doesn't really matter.

[Shadowhawk827]

Great advice thus far.  In terms of mods, i have to strongly recommend the obvious; Arrows and Bolts Tweaks.  The vanilla flight speeds for arrows and bolts are ridiculously slow, and even though it's a cheat, the extended range edit that the author gives you for your Skyrim.ini file makes distance sniping alot more doable and fun.

 

I think most people already use it, but Realistic Ragdolls and Force is kind of vital also.  Insanr knockbacks that send victims flying off cliffs or into their friends (alerting them) make looting and stealth hard.

[Kendo 2]

Here we are talking about archery and I forgot all about this mod I made; Kendo 2's Enchanted Arrows.  It comes in very handy if you're playing the Dawnguard questline.

[Smokermegadrive]

Well the cojuration worked better than i expected, i don't get my ass handed very often since i started to summon atronachs XD
I recommend to spend points in that tree for any archer character
 

Great advice thus far.  In terms of mods, i have to strongly recommend the obvious; Arrows and Bolts Tweaks.  The vanilla flight speeds for arrows and bolts are ridiculously slow, and even though it's a cheat, the extended range edit that the author gives you for your Skyrim.ini file makes distance sniping alot more doable and fun.

 

I think most people already use it, but Realistic Ragdolls and Force is kind of vital also.  Insanr knockbacks that send victims flying off cliffs or into their friends (alerting them) make looting and stealth hard.

I will try the realistic ragdolls but the arrow and bolts tweak have a lot of options, what are fairly balanced to use and to not travel like a fucking bullet?

Edit: i forgot, but since all of you recommend to use the bound bow spell i like to do that but i have a little problem, none of the stupids npc seems to sell that spell, any guaranted place to obtain that spell?

[TacomancerX]

conjure bow. for my archers... as conjure and archer at 100 will give u a better summon bow then a dreada legendary bow. (and unlimited arrows.)

 

[Shadowhawk827]

Well the cojuration worked better than i expected, i don't get my ass handed very often since i started to summon atronachs XD

I recommend to spend points in that tree for any archer character

 

Great advice thus far.  In terms of mods, i have to strongly recommend the obvious; Arrows and Bolts Tweaks.  The vanilla flight speeds for arrows and bolts are ridiculously slow, and even though it's a cheat, the extended range edit that the author gives you for your Skyrim.ini file makes distance sniping alot more doable and fun.

 

I think most people already use it, but Realistic Ragdolls and Force is kind of vital also.  Insanr knockbacks that send victims flying off cliffs or into their friends (alerting them) make looting and stealth hard.

I will try the realistic ragdolls but the arrow and bolts tweak have a lot of options, what are fairly balanced to use and to not travel like a fucking bullet?

 

Edit: i forgot, but since all of you recommend to use the bound bow spell i like to do that but i have a little problem, none of the stupids npc seems to sell that spell, any guaranted place to obtain that spell?

 

I use the 100% speed boost on ABT.  If you watch videos (YouTube or whatever) of a real arrow being shot, that SEEMS about right.  The arrows on vanilla speed settings travel like a modest hand toss speed IMO.

 

Alot of the other options (primarily more damage), I don't mess with.  Bows hit hard enough as it is, especially from ambush.  Cranking up the damage for the arrow (which adds to the bow's damage) to 24 or so for the higher end arrows is overkill IMO.  The added range edit for the bows is a bit OP also, BUT alot of fun.   Typically a bow has a range of a hundred yards or so at best.  I pick off bandits with shots that would make a SEAL sniper proud with that line added to my skyrim.ini file.

 

I forgot earlier...  If your arrows are a bit off target after installing ABT and making the suggested ini tweaks, DL and install Proper Aiming, it'll correct the arrow drift.  For me that always seems to be low and left without Proper Aiming.  Keep the ini tweaks recommended by ABT though instead of the ones recommended by Proper Aiming.  When both mods are used, ABT's settings seem to be best in my experience.   Find an archery target like the one in the yard in Helgen or behind Jorvaskir in Whiterun to test your accuracy.   Proper Aiming helps correct spell accuracy also btw.

 

As for bound bow, that make take a carriage ride to Winterhold to get from the College's conjuration specialist.

 

[gvman3670]

Traditional style bows (recurves and longbows) shooting heavy wooden arrows with heavy points and large fletchings are painfully slow. Between 100 and 200 feet per second is all you can expect. Longbows are especially slow with recurve style being a bit faster.

 

Keep in mind that 300fps and higher speeds are only attainable with modern compound bows that are designed for speed and using rather lightweight carbon arrow shafts with small fletchings.

 

 

Take this is as you will. I am an archer in the real world (have placed in the top five in nearly every competition and venue I've entered) and a moderator on the world's largest archery forum. And I am a successful bowhunter as well. I find Skyrim's vanilla arrow speeds a bit fast to be totally honest. Traditional arrows drop like rocks.

 

Here are a couple of bows I've built (and still own, plus I have a LOT more) just to, perhaps, lend a little credence to my opinions.

 

 

[Kendo 2]

We need your bows for FO4.

 

I agree that Skyrim archery is skewed.  The limited experience I have with RL bows (fiberglass w/ 15 pound pull for targets and varmints) taught me that more than 100 ft means overshooting by maybe six inches if you want to score a hit.  I'm hell on wheels with haybales and styrofoam plates, not so much on rabbits.  Bows aren't my thing.  I prefer rifles.

I saw a documentary on Japanese Yumi bows (how they are made and how they shoot).  Those things are works of art even if they don't look it.  I'd love to shoot one of those at least once.

 

Anyway, in RL arrows are clumsy projectiles.  If the fps is low you can actually see the arow yaw from right to left before it straightens out.   I don't see Skyrim bows being more than what real humans have done in history.  Near East composite recurves, English Long Bows, Japanese Yumis; I think those are the top bow technologies before modern times.  And from what I've seen in videos, the archery style and skill of the archer means just as not if not more than the bows themselves.

 

Getting it REALLY wrong is what Bethesda does though.  I took issue with New Vegas big time.  I'm a RL gun nut and do my own handloading.  The way the game presented firearms and custom ammo was way off base.

 

But none of this has anything to do with Skyrim game archery.  I'm just blabbering.

[gvman3670]

Blabber away. It's what members of a real community do. Right?

[johnny2by4]

there's a jaxonz mod that helps with archery.  anytime you pull a bowstring it auto shifts you to first person, it allows for tracer shots (essentially glowing arrows) for easier following and placement. 

 

if you want to use his mods though do yourself a favor and download the ones you want and merge them yourself (xedit merge script, look it up) since the combination he's got listed has a few glitched mods in it and hes not posting anymore.

[Guest lo13ki]

I use the bound bow, along with some mods to make bound weapons scale with magicka and conjuration level. Also use ABT to increase arrow speed and a faster draw bow mod.

You never run out of arrows, and you can kite easily with faster drawing.

[Rayblue]

Magelight is terribly useful as a distraction device as well as lighting up enemy NPCs in dark dungeons. Conjuration staffs are also a necessity, atronachs to distract enemies on close while preparing for a shot up at a distance. 

 

BTW, to improve archery and stealth skills, I first join the Thieves' Guild, then the Dark Brotherhood.