Archery or One Handed for my Thief?

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:34 pm

I just started my Khajit thief and I am not sure which to go with. From your experience what is the best way to equip a thief? I was also considering spending quite a few points in enchanting.

Is there anything else that I should be aware of when making a thief? Also should I invest in pickpocketing or lockpicking to heavily? I was fairly good at those things with my old character who wasn't a thief in any way.
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vanuza
 
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Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:02 am

I prefer archery, but your probably going to need both.
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lauren cleaves
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:39 pm

Both.
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Nicole Coucopoulos
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:09 pm

I prefer archery, but your probably going to need both.

I was considering going with both as well. I just wanted to hear about what some people here for done. Going with both would certainly set me up for many different situations. The reason I would love archery is so I could hit those damn dragons out of the air instead of having to wait for them to land.
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Eve(G)
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:49 am

Two-handed

Just because life is better when interesting.
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Trish
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:51 pm

Two-handed

Just because life is better when interesting.

Yes, very true.
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m Gardner
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:35 am

I think both one-handed and archery work well together (close range, long range). If you're going to be sneaking a lot you might want to go with archery. If you want to remain undetected I recommend you use the illusion spell Muffle. This helps if you don't want to use any perks on the sneak skill. I've hardly used the pickpocket and lock picking skills. If you focus on the thiefs guild you can get the skeleton key.
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Jessica Thomson
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:23 pm

I'd major in one-handed, and keep the bow for when dragons are around.

Because, honestly, you'll never stab anyone or get in many close fights at all if you focus solely on archery.

Unless that's what you're looking for of course.
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Claire Lynham
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:18 pm

Don't spend perks on lockpicking unless you are a real thief RP guy.
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lisa nuttall
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:36 am

Fortunately, the sneak tree makes it so you can use both without having to sacrifice alot of perks. I have a Bosmer that focuses on archery, but can still do more damage with a good backstabbing than with a bow. In general the bow has much more utility (range, saftey, time slow, vs dragons, etc) but daggers will always do more burst even without the x15 damage perk. It also nice to change weapons once in a while to keep combat fresh.
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Ezekiel Macallister
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:48 pm

Two-handed

Just because life is better when interesting.

...Now I really wanna try this.
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Lynne Hinton
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:58 pm

...Now I really wanna try this.

My current character does it, I steal all their equipment and then make them fight me bare-handed and naked.
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Rachael
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:48 am

I mostly use archery in the open and one-handed in CQC on my thief.
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jenny goodwin
 
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Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:43 am

My current character does it, I steal all their equipment and then make them fight me bare-handed and naked.

You, sir, might just be a supergenius.
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Rachael Williams
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:33 pm

I just started my Khajit thief and I am not sure which to go with. From your experience what is the best way to equip a thief? I was also considering spending quite a few points in enchanting.

Is there anything else that I should be aware of when making a thief? Also should I invest in pickpocketing or lockpicking to heavily? I was fairly good at those things with my old character who wasn't a thief in anyway.

I am at level 55, playing primarily stealth and archery, assassin/thief. Though I avoid melee entirely, I do have a pair of ebony daggers, one with drain stam, other with drain health. They're pretty potent if you get stuck in hand-to-hand. I've also done one with drain health and one with paralyze.
Pickpocketing - mine's only around 35 or so, really didn't use it. I just didn't care about it, or see a need. There's loot falling off trees in this game, no need to risk fighting guards or jail time or the bad rep.

Lockpicking (assuming the mini-game doesn't bother you) will go up just fine, and there's tons of picks to be bought or found. I did not put anything in this tree. Never came across a lock I could not pick, never ran out of picks. Not really difficult to pick locks in plain sight if you have good stealth.

I put most points in light armor, sneak, archery and alchemy. Nighttime sneak attacks, with poison arrows... you can wipe out a whole Fort without anyone ever finding or scratching you.
Enchanting, I got my score to a 100, but in hindsight I wish I had put points in enchanting tree and alchemy tree earlier, when it would have been more useful.
I mistakenly thought early on that smithing would eventually unlock powerful armors or special armors you could make, but unless I'm missing something, nothing really exciting, and you will find better than you can make, so it's really a less useful skill for your personal gear, but it is great for money making. If you use blacksmithing to improve magic weapons and armor that you find, it greatly increases the sell value. Don't bother improving regular non-enchanted weapons or armor if you just want to sell, the ore to upgrade it costs more than the sale increase.
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maya papps
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:00 am

I was considering going with both as well. I just wanted to hear about what some people here for done. Going with both would certainly set me up for many different situations. The reason I would love archery is so I could hit those damn dragons out of the air instead of having to wait for them to land.

It probably depends on whether you prefer range combat or melee. I can tell you what I did for my Khajiit thief. I wanted him to be sneaky but also tough as nails in a stand-up fight. I am about level 41 and am going to start playing with the difficulty slider set at Expert or Master because Adept is now too easy with this build.

I put five points into Armsman, two in Dual Flurry and one into Bladesman and Dual Savagery.

I put two points into Archery, just to get Eagle Eye, so I can deliver poisons and make some sneak attacks with a bow, but I only use a bow less than 10% of the time, so I stopped at Eagle Eye.

I put points into all the sneak perks, except I only put one point into Steath, and I have never had a problem not being detected. I think the other four into Stealth may be a waste of perk points. I can do three times damage with a bow, six with a sword and 15 with a dagger.

I also put points into all the light armor perks except matching set, and I put four points into Smithing so I can smith magic and up to scale armor. My armor rating is something like 422, wearing a combination of elven and scale armor.

I have a couple points in a few other perk trees, but that is the core of the build. The 100 sneak perk Shadow Warrior really put this build over the top because with that perk, you can walk up straight up to almost any opponent do a counting coup or what ever you want to do to get his attention, and then once combat begins, you can tap the sneak button and execute a quick dagger attack for the 15x bonus. If you have a well smithed dagger and five points into Armsman, that will drop almost anything in the game, but I have not been able to do it on Dragons very often because it is hard to get close enough to hit them with a dagger. I did sneak up on a sleeping dragon once and killed him with a single dagger strike.

You mentioned using a bow on a Dragon. It is awefully darned hard to hit a Dragon with a bow when they are circling, but pretty easy when they are hovering. That is one of the situations when I pull out my bow, and I don't think you need a lot of points in Archery to use a bow occassionally, particularly if you poison your arrows.

I personally don't find the lockpicking minigame hard enough to want to spend perk points on that and lockpicks are plentiful. Some of the pickpocket perks are interesting particularly the one that increases carry weight.

Anyway, that's what I did. I love playing a sneaky Khajiit, especially with what they have done with nighteye in Skyrim. Just wish the dungeons were darker so I could get more use out of nighteye.

Good luck with your Khajiit!
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MISS KEEP UR
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:15 pm

Both.. Find a nice dagger and your set
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Jordan Moreno
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:28 pm

I'm not a thief necessarily, but my main focus right now is on archery and sneaking.

The sneak attack is where its at!
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Cesar Gomez
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:10 pm

I mistakenly thought early on that smithing would eventually unlock powerful armors or special armors you could make, but unless I'm missing something, nothing really exciting, and you will find better than you can make, so it's really a less useful skill for your personal gear, but it is great for money making. If you use blacksmithing to improve magic weapons and armor that you find, it greatly increases the sell value. Don't bother improving regular non-enchanted weapons or armor if you just want to sell, the ore to upgrade it costs more than the sale increase.

I have not maxed smithing by any means, but I am at about level 72, with perks up the light armor side to scale and the perk that lets you smith magic armor. Totally agree that improving to sell is not worth the cost of purchasing materials. But if you have materials you have found/mines/hunted yourself, you can usually get a few more coins by careful choices when smithing, especially if you add some type of enchantment to the item you have created. I get great satisfaction out of crafting things from the materials I have procured on my own instead of just selling the pelts and ore, and there is some extra coin that can be made here, although not as much as I would like.

As far as the usefulness of the Smithing skill in combat situations for sneaky characters, I have found the perks to be very useful in improvign the quality of the weapons. With the perk point in Elven Smithing, along with some smithing enchanting gear, I can improve an elven dagger greatly, much more than I would be able to do without the perk in Elven Smithing. The USEP site has a table showing the difference in quality you can achieve with and without the perk, but it is substantial. Elven weapons are not the most powerful in the game but they are pretty close and you can get there with only two perk points in Smithing.

When you combine the Elven Smithing with five points in Armsman with the perk in Assasin's blade, you get some insane damage numbers from a sneak dagger attack. The extra damage from the smithing gets doubled by the five points in Armsman and then you get the 15x multiple on top of that. If you do a dual attack, you can double all of that again.
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Tiffany Carter
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:10 pm

I'd major in one-handed, and keep the bow for when dragons are around.

Because, honestly, you'll never stab anyone or get in many close fights at all if you focus solely on archery.

Unless that's what you're looking for of course.

This. I'm starting a thief/assassin character with only one-handed (dual wielding). So far, so good. I had a previous archer character but wanted to do something different.

But I have to admit: sneaking and archery is awesome. Take time to aim for critical strikes and all and take satisfaction in watching where the arrow has hit the now dead target!
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Lily Evans
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:58 pm

My Thief/Assassin uses One-Handed (only for Armsman, you'll need all the power you can get for the slit-throat execution) and Archery for picking off enemies.

Her One Handed skill is quite high after all that fighting with bandits and such, but she'll only spend 5 perk points on Armsman, nothing more (on the contrary, it's a bit hard to improve Archery if you don't grind)

Also, since I'm on PC (I can reduce my level, constant faster level up, more perk points), I invest in Lockpicking. I don't actually NEED it (200 lockpicks tend to mock Lockpicking), but it sure as hell made my life a whole lot easier. Yessir. f you're on console, then I heavily suggest that you pretend Lockpicking is not even there

As for Pickpocket, why, of course! Make sure to max it, and watch in awe (and giggles) as you strip your enemies naked from their armors and weapons.

Master pickpockets in Skyrim must be potential master rapists...
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Emma Louise Adams
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:40 pm

I just started my Khajit thief and I am not sure which to go with. From your experience what is the best way to equip a thief? I was also considering spending quite a few points in enchanting.

Is there anything else that I should be aware of when making a thief? Also should I invest in pickpocketing or lockpicking to heavily? I was fairly good at those things with my old character who wasn't a thief in any way.

I user both. The reason for this is because the enemy will find you from time to time and you may not have enough time to drop him. Close combat with a bow is not a good place to be. The perks in lockpick and pickpocket make it easier to perform those tasks. If you find them easy without any perks then don't wast perks on them.
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priscillaaa
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:45 pm



It probably depends on whether you prefer range combat or melee. I can tell you what I did for my Khajiit thief. I wanted him to be sneaky but also tough as nails in a stand-up fight. I am about level 41 and am going to start playing with the difficulty slider set at Expert or Master because Adept is now too easy with this build.

I put five points into Armsman, two in Dual Flurry and one into Bladesman and Dual Savagery.

I put two points into Archery, just to get Eagle Eye, so I can deliver poisons and make some sneak attacks with a bow, but I only use a bow less than 10% of the time, so I stopped at Eagle Eye.

I put points into all the sneak perks, except I only put one point into Steath, and I have never had a problem not being detected. I think the other four into Stealth may be a waste of perk points. I can do three times damage with a bow, six with a sword and 15 with a dagger.

I also put points into all the light armor perks except matching set, and I put four points into Smithing so I can smith magic and up to scale armor. My armor rating is something like 422, wearing a combination of elven and scale armor.

I have a couple points in a few other perk trees, but that is the core of the build. The 100 sneak perk Shadow Warrior really put this build over the top because with that perk, you can walk up straight up to almost any opponent do a counting coup or what ever you want to do to get his attention, and then once combat begins, you can tap the sneak button and execute a quick dagger attack for the 15x bonus. If you have a well smithed dagger and five points into Armsman, that will drop almost anything in the game, but I have not been able to do it on Dragons very often because it is hard to get close enough to hit them with a dagger. I did sneak up on a sleeping dragon once and killed him with a single dagger strike.

You mentioned using a bow on a Dragon. It is awefully darned hard to hit a Dragon with a bow when they are circling, but pretty easy when they are hovering. That is one of the situations when I pull out my bow, and I don't think you need a lot of points in Archery to use a bow occassionally, particularly if you poison your arrows.

I personally don't find the lockpicking minigame hard enough to want to spend perk points on that and lockpicks are plentiful. Some of the pickpocket perks are interesting particularly the one that increases carry weight.

Anyway, that's what I did. I love playing a sneaky Khajiit, especially with what they have done with nighteye in Skyrim. Just wish the dungeons were darker so I could get more use out of nighteye.

Good luck with your Khajiit!

Awesome. Thanks for the info!
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Marquis deVille
 
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Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:25 pm

If you are fine dealing damage from a range, you don't need one-handed weapons at all. If you want to use daggers, using bows to supplement is definitely advised. Archery is better in every aspect than one-handed weapons from an efficiency and damage point of view. If you want to build a powerful character, you cannot take both one-handed and archery perks, you are better off picking up the tri-fecta of Enchanting, Alchemy, Smithing and one or the other coupled with Sneak. If by Thief, you really want to go to the trouble of pickpocketing, don't bother with bows. It is a waste.

Let me reiterate, you DO NOT NEED ONE-HANDED WEAPONS if you use Archery however. It is so crazy powerful, you one shot everything and mobs you do not one shot you just kite. I have never so much as been touched on my character on Master Difficulty. Magic is the only thing that ever hits me, and really that is when I am lazy. Considering Enchants and Guardian Stones make that a moot point, I do not take damage.
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Miragel Ginza
 
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Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:19 am

I'd say both. Archery for sneak shooting from afar - your sneak skill should become high as a thief, so why not take advantage of the bonuses when using a bow from afar? One handed for close contact fighting, or for when you just want to get real close and backstab, etc. If it was me, I'd probably raise both to 100.

It all depends on what your play style is though. If you just do archery, then you're kind of a thief who uses archery to attack. But if you are like, an assassin, I think it's more keeping to roleplay to use daggers and backstabbing.
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Undisclosed Desires
 
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