Since I've been playing 1.5 the past couple weeks, I've noticed that as you upgrade the quality of arrows you use with your bow, you hugely increase the amount of total damage it does. I'm pretty sure this big bonus from arrows was not as big or noticeable, before.

My lvl 61 hunter has a smithed Daedric bow, and 3 gear items that add +100 archery. She also has all of the Archery perks. Here's how the arrows affect damage output:

+10 Steel Arrows - 339
+24 Daedric Arrows - 425 Total difference between Daedric and Steel damage output- +86

When I take off all three of the +Archery gear items, these are the same totals:

Steel - 169
Daedric - 212 For a total difference of- +43

Seems like with or without +Archery gear, the different types of arrows are adding a significantly higher amount of damage to your bow's output, than before. Anyone else noticing this?

Zero views after an hour of postage? Bumping to unglitch it....

Edit: yep, that unglitched it.

I'm playing low levels mostly, but I have noted that my bow does a lot more damage than my sword now. A lot more, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't like this before 1.5 patch.

Like most Bethesda patches, this is just an unexpected bonus (i.e. bug).

Bug or Feature? That is the question.

Somebody did whole bunch of tests a week or two ago. His conclusion was that it does not do more damage, but in certain display mode, the arrow damage is counted twice so the displayed number is higher. Yeah it's a bug.

Good to know, thanks.

What about armor?? My dragon plate was doing 1800 armor rating w/shield and now after the patch it's doing 2349 armor rating w/shield, maybe the tweak to smithing did something?

Um.... 575 max usuable armor, why care? hehe

Just curious is all, I know after 575 armor rating everything else is just a waste. But wouldn't that mean that lower Lv. stuff would also have different ratings? A good example would be my helm, yesterday it was 130 in armor, today 444 in armor that's a 314 point clime in one day without me doing any exploits(cause I already did em 2weeks ago) or smithing, whats on the go

Don't know, but I just checked the smith-improved light armors on two of my chars, and they don't seem to have changed noticebly.

maybe I had a little too much to smoke this morning before trying the new kill cams but I swear my helm was 130 yesterday and now 444 like I said. But it is possible that my potheaditis was acting up this morn

The only way to properly test a software upgrade is to have a fresh install and a new game. Current game saves are not a valid test. That's true for other software products, too. If you are seeing anything that seems odd, it is more than likely due to using a current save with an old version of the software, and what happens when that is used by the new/current version. Such things are not actually bugs, at least not in the current version (might have been a "hidden" bug in an earlier version, though).

I know, I just don't feel like dumping another 100 hours down the toilet just cause a new patch has come out, I've already done that 4 time already.Which is making the game less appealing each time I throw away a part time jobs worth of work down the drain
See where I'm coming from? It takes a good 20-30 hours for me (xbox player) to get my toon to where he/she feels like the class I put em in, then it takes another 20-30 hours of playing to get the gear that I want for that toon by doing quests ( I cannot console command stuff in ) then I play for another 20-30 hours doing the quests that I actually want to do and enjoying that toon. But after 800+ hours there is only soooOOOooo much you can do before you have done it all and I don't want to lose interest in the game until I'm sure I've seen every inch of the map and have spoken to everyone and done all quests.

Absolutely. Though it is true. It would be outstanding if you could save you character build, I. E. race, skills & perks if you wished. Then starting over would not be so painful.

I did a second character - which is not as fulfilling as my first run through, but I confess. I Oghma'd him up to where I was with my first character. This ultimately is actually not as fun, but I won't have to do 300+ hours either... I don't have a fraction of the gear and cash!

Definitely feels as if bows do a lot more damage since 1.5 patch. Yesterday I kept getting one-hitted by a bandit bowman and had to reload several times.

I noticed my bow went from something like 120 damage to 400+ with the new patch. Not 100% sure, but I don't recall anything else significant happening to make the change. I've stopped using the bow now and turned to daggers instead for a bit more of a challenge. Was quite pleased I did, I got my first dragon kill using daggers only; the one where you climb up onto the dragon head for the kill. Seen others doing this but never did it myself as I always used my bow.

It's 0.12 per armor rating, 80% resist max so 80/0.12=666.66, you need 567 and the armor bonus from wearing armor (+100 for chest, head, gauntlets and boots) to hit the cap.

Bows were pretty weak on comparison to destruction (non sneak situation), so I'm glad they have buffed them slightly.