So, in my first play through of Skyrim, I'm planning on being primarily an archer. What would you recommend for a character build?

I want to be a human, so Imperial, Breton, Nord and Redgaurd are my first choices. Obviously I'm going to want to have a high archery skill, but I'm wondering if there are any good supplementary skills that I should also have.

Conserve your arrows and try not to miss

I'm planning on going archery/sword/illusion considering arrows are expensive and harder to come by this time around.

Aim small, miss small

Stealth is good if you want to sneak up on your prey and shoot them for a stealth critical. If you plan to use archery more for pulling, investing some perks in a melee weapon would be a good idea. Depends how you play

if you plan on going solo you need poisons, they are also useful if you have a friend along but you have to be more careful, from what i know you will want to be fast on the draw but dont release too early, and always get to a tactical position before starting the attack

Get an enchanted bow and don't take up inventory space with magic arrows

It was stated that bows will do more damage than in the last game. YAY!!!

Nord

Sneak, Alchemy, and 2H sword for the "OH S$$T" moments. Besides that its up to you. Im going concentrate on Blacksmithing.

i would have to say the opposit of that, an arrow for every occasion could come i handy, combine that with the bow enchantment and poisons, and you are a force to be reckond with at range

I'm doing what your doing and making a Combat Archer so for skills i would say Archery, Light/Heavy (just depends), One hand, Blocking, and Smithing.

I'm sure ANY race can handle a bow and arrow! Pick your fancy!

You'll want some kind of sneaky perk...and...A HERRING! *Dramatic Music*

Always remember.... the pointy end goes toward the enemy.


Oh yeah, I'm guessing you'll want to fine a friendly lumber mill some place so you can make your own arrows!

Yeah, but races have special skills in certain areas.

Archery as a skill has been beefed up this time round, with extra little features that make it more viable. For example, you can now do a counter strike by timing a block with you bow. Also some of the perks allow you to zoom in like in oblivion, but also slow down time, allowing for greater precision. As far as additional skills: Sneak is a good choice, when sneaking and undetected, you will receive a 3x damage modifier to your archery attacks; useful for 1 hit kills!

Some other general tips:
Were you hit an opponent has no effect on the amount of damage it does, so no head shots. Just aim for the biggest area, the chest and torso.
Conserve your arrows and don't spam them at the enemy. Try to only take a shot if you know it's going to hit; remember to completely flex the bow for maximum damage and range.
Have a melee weapon or a magic skill to fall back on if things get crazy. You never known when a bandit or pack of wolf's will ambush you in Skyrim!
There are 2 types of bows, long and short bows, I'm not sure what the difference is besides range, but I'm guessing the long bow sacrifices power for range, and the opposite for the short bow.
Always try to reclaim your arrows from fallen foes, every little helps.

Happy Hunting.

With my experience in Oblivion when i did what your saying is that i had a a lot of different types of arrows instead of just one and it encumbered me because i also had my 2 hander and potions/alchemy stuff

plus you can't recover magic arrows

Bretons actually have some elf in them, so yeah, if you wanna play strctly human, take that out.

Also, wait till we have racial bonuses available, if one of the remaining three have any bonus to archery, the choice will be obvious from a skill stand point
Cosmetically, I say Redguards seem to look like they would handle a bow better, but thats sheerly up to opinion.

Plan to use a lot of magic as well or mainly swords/blunt weapons instead?

Why? Archery is a valid combat tactic and doesn't require anything to supplement it (end game) if you do it right.

But yeah, you might want to keep a spell or a dagger on hand for early game when sneaking is harder.

in oblivion i was never overencumbered, but i try to travel light, my only weapons were my bow, main arrows, enchanted arrows, some poisons, and a dagger (light, weak little thing with a nice enchantment) and i only had a single set of leather armour (enchanted of course)

but that difference in play style would decide what advice someone should take from this thread

uhh what? Long bows should have more power, range and slower firing speed while short bows should have faster firing speed, a shorter range and less damage.

If you're going to miss. At least miss in some direction where you can still pick up the arrow later.

It's been mentioned somewhere that the arrows follow a bullet trajectory too, meaning you need to account for them dropping a little in flight. Aim for high chest/throat area and you should hit even at long distances. I'm actually not sure if they calculate total armor value to mitigate damage, or if they calculate the armor worn on the area hit for that. Since there are 4 pieces of armor, it has at least previously (if I remember correctly) affected how each area mitigates damage separately. IF so, obviously aim for areas with lower quality armor or no armor if you can be sure to hit them. As has been mentioned, where you hit doesn't matter when it comes to damage, so if my armor scenario is true, hitting an unarmored foot is far more effective than hitting a helmeted head. If not, aim center mass.

Remember to keep this in mind if you start hunting NPC's

Pvt. Joker: How can you shoot innocent women and children like that?

Helicopter gunner: It's easy. You just don't lead them as much.

Longbows probably have a longer draw time. Use sneak and poisons, perhaps a dagger for those time you can get a stealth kill that way.