Alright, so I have 65 hours and a level 42 character with 100 archery on master difficult. He's a pure archer and the one thing I'v noticed is the lack of a challenge. Half the game revolves around getting better gear, enchanting your stuff, and leveling your perks so I don't want to equip crappy gear just for a challenge. I wish the challenge could scale around what the game provides. If they're going to let me get 300 damage bows, they should have monsters/npcs that can actually tank that kind of damage or something.

Sneak shots will 1 shot any normal npc/mob and for miniboss npcs, I can take out 3/4 of their health before they even reach me.. Giants you say? I two shot them. On top of that, archers only need to take HP as you level up so you end up with a ridiculous amount of HP to the point that you can easily tank any guys that reach you. And I almost never use pots.. I have an entire stock pile of them that I have found from exploring. For rangers/mages, just strafe back and forth and you never get hit. For melee, just snipe them first. If you have high enough sneak, you can take out a room of 6-7 before they can even find you. The only monsters that have ever given me a run for my money are higher tier dragons.

Just my 2-cents.

You're enchanting?

That's the problem right there.

Enchanting or Smithing are OP.

If you stuck to vanilla bows, your experience would be more balanced.

I'm avoiding certain perks just for this reason. I'm an archer/stealth character as well, but I'm definitely not filling either of those trees.

Well they did tey to balance it by having less arrows available and have you shoot slower, but both of them failed. And yeah, smithing and enchanting is OP on any weapons and armors in comparison to non.enchanted and non-upgraded.

I'm in pretty much the same situation using an enchanted glass bow. I think I'm Lvl 99 or so archer. And yeah most of the enemies are downed in one shot. Giants in 2 exact shots. No real challenge but hopefully we get a mod with more challenging enemies like OOO or MMM.

This.

Actually, the Wind Shout requires you to have unenchanted weapons, and it turns you into a speed-hacking&slashing-hamster on coffee.



I killed a frost dragon in 7 seconds after it landed with 90% HP, me wielding only steel weapons

That's the thing though, I don't want to miss out on a large part of the game, especially such a fun part of it just because it's too good, especially when it synergizes with archers so well. I just wanted a late game that would scale with the late game stuff they let you get.

I found the game easy even before I started crafting/enchanting as well. Archers just have it easy, especially with the damage they can do from sneak attacks at an extremely safe distance.

You are an archer, sneak, enchanter, and you are wondering why you are OP? Think about it, you have mastered your trade, would you want to be underpowered by the time you got all those skills up so high?

You aren't missing out on that much.

I am a dual-wielding warrior, but the game is still relatively balanced for me because I'm using Vanilla Ebony war-axes, and only specing for 1-handed, sneak, and speech craft right now.

While you do miss out some fun perks in Smithing and Enchanting, would you necessarily say that your experience would be any worse than the god-mode experience you're having now? If feels nice to have a decently back and forth battle with enemies.

But anyways, I'm just calling out that Pure Archer is not the problem, it's the Enchanting.

They really need to fix the crafting skills, that's all there is to it. A cap on max potion strength, max enchant strength, max smithing improvement strength. Whether they just put a cap on it, or achieve this through other means by dealing with fortify skill or effect stacking.

Archery with sneak(no enchantments) is certainly OP, and I'm loving it, got fed up with bears kicking my characters ass, now they're getting payback.

I love archery being so powerful. It was one of the deadliest forms of combat for its time. An army with no archers vs an army of archers... deadly loss. I think there's some drawbacks missing, such as enemies smart enough to take better cover, or find a way to get a ranged attack back at you. However, on the whole, I love that archery has the potential to be one of the deadliest forms of combat.

Archery isn't OP; sneak is. Horribly so.

Crafting is what makes or breaks the game atm. Ignore the crafting skills and the game will become more challenging. Abuse them and you end up with weapons that can one shot anything.

THIS

Enchanting/Smithing will make any build (non-Mage) seem OP. My archer was challenging until I added +archery damage enchantments to 4 pieces of gear and +fire damage to my already upgraded bow.

Saying, "I'm using OP mechanics but don't want to stop using them - why is the game so easy?" is the equivalent of saying, "I'm on novice but I don't want to raise the difficulty - why is the game so easy?" You've maxed out smithing, enchanting, and alchemy. OK, you've had your fun and synergy in leveling those, but you don't have to use them if they are cheapening your expererience. Just craft a vanilla bow and don't enchant/improve it.

Smithing and Enchanting are fine and balanced. What's unbalanced is power leveling them.

I started a new character a while ago and only enchanting or smithing when I actually would want to proves to be an effective control. At level 21 I only have 35 in smithing and 40 in enchanting. I can make dwemer crafts and I cannot yet improve magical items.

Enchant and smith only when you would conceivably do it, not just to increase the ranks.

Something you have to understand:

In most games, when you "beat the game," the game just ends and the credits roll.

With Elder Scrolls games, you can pretty much just keep playing and exploring indefinitely. Maxing all your skills and owning everything you come across is Bethesda's version of "beating the game." It's your reward or sense of accomplishment when you put all those hours leveling your character.

Solution? Start a new character and play a different role. You can revisit this character when they release DLC or other mods come out.

Play oblivion if you want a challenge using archery?

Well, remove the crafting perks completely (even just non upgraded smithed gear) and Archery can still be broken from the stealth tree. Shadow Warrior > Smithing/Enchanting as far as brokenness go for an Archer. Yes, I realize they all work together, but that perk is more of a boost than even the biggest bow.

Archery in Oblivion was also OP if you stayed at low levels and were sneaking.

Archery + stealth has too much synergy, and enchanting just amps it to ridiculous levels.

I like it just the way it is. Those Daugh Death Lords are finally getting some pay back.

Personally I enjoy the realism of shooting someone in the eye with a 150lb recurve and watching them drop from 1 shot. I understand wanting a challenge, and i appreciate the RPG mentality, however I play as a sneaky archer and i get handled in mele. If I don't kill fast, I dont survive. Such is the way the Archer should be IMO.