Who here has played Oblivion and wanted to play an archer/assassin build only to find anytime you face multiple foes you end up having to run about 2.5 miles backwards shooting at them? A classic example would be in the arena, a lot of people knew about how you could jump on a pedestal near the entering gate and not be hit. So I tried it once and wanted to kill one of the beasts you fight once you defeat all the opponents. I wanted to count how many arrows it'd take to kill it. After about 50+ shots to the head I lost count and just went down and killed it with my sword. So, that being said, please tell me the bow is a LOT more effective this time around. I want to play a stealth character with a bow as my primary and dual wielded enchanted daggers for in close (with poison added on occasion could be cool too).

Also....

Alchemy - Is it capable of raking in huge tons of gold from selling potions like in Oblivion?

That's pretty much it, I had others but those are the two that are most important to me. What often drove me through the game was searching for ingredients to make potions and sell, basically a deadly traveling salesman and that's how I discovered most things on the map =)

The problem of 50+ hits to kill an enemy wasn't exclusive to archers. Oblivion was just really bad about that. I had that problem with 12x sneak attacks on high level bandits. I don't want to imagine how much health they must have had.

I tested it a little at gamescon and it felt really good. The biggest challenge is the AI and how they use the cover/terrain to try and hide from you.

Just as long as I don't ram an enchanted arrow from my enchanted bow with poison (and doo-doo) on it into a Bandit's eye from 10 feet away only to have him mock me I'll be quite pleased lol

Playing on default difficulty and with no bow perks I'm killing stuff with 3 arrows on average, sometimes 2.

I watched a video today on Incgamers.com with Dovahkiin fighting a dragon switching from bow to sword to bow to sword. I loved the sound of nocking the arrow and the combat seemed really good...but, as always, your aim has to be good. I plan on using poisons for that extra help too. I haven't played yet though so we'll see but I thought it looked good.

Killing bandits with 3 arrows, average. (starting from stealth).

Highest difficulty.

Also, I shot a running rabbit, and it was [censored] satisfying.

nice!Time to be a real archer now!

This is beginning to sound very good, are there hit boxes on the characters? As in a headshot does more damage than a baby toe shot?

Still would of been much better with location specific damage. No excuse for shooting someone in the eye and it doing the same damage shooting them in the arm.

not trying to change the topic completely but does anyone know if you can make your own arrows or can you only buy them from merchants?

Not sure about making them, I would guess yes but I do know they said they would be much rarer in Skyrim.

So no localized damage?? lol

Bows got so much better this game.

This sounds good because i'm usually partly based around bows

Up to now, I'm not finding arrows all that rare tbh.

I'm running about with nearly 100 Iron arrows, and 35 of another type I picked up in Bleak falls barrows.

With my current bow + its first upgrade + iron arrows on whatever 1 below max difficulty is I can usually 1 shot normal bandits from stealth, although some of the stronger ones need a couple more to take them down. Only lvl 6 and already found 3 different types of bows. The one I'm using look so awesome, I don't want to have to upgrade to a new one later

An archer would be a fool to not have a means of defending themselves close quarters. There is no way an archer could take out multiple enemies close quarters and leave the battle untouched. Use common sense and pick up a short sword for back up, thats all.