Hi all!

My character is a level 35 dual wielding terror who rips though opponents like a hot knife through warm butter! But after spending countless hours of washing off his blades and armor, he has decided to expand his knowledge and skill with a bow. My first experiment was a bandit camp who's leader was wanted dead by Morthal (sp?). I built myself a set of armor with stealth enhancement and extra damage to bows. (mix of the armor I pulled off A*****'s corpse and enchanted dragonscale) I found a high perch and slowly picked my targets but each kill alerted the camp and I constantly had to retreat and hide to avoid detection. Eventually, I got sick of it and rushed in and cut some bellies.

What tactics do you employ to quietly and efficiently take out your targets w/o getting the entire camp on you?

Well if someone drops dead or you hit someone with an arrow and they don't die, they're going to notice.

From your description I will assume this is outside. So what I like to do is wait until nightfall, then sneak up on the camp and get a good vantage point. Somewhere you can easily duck behind a rock or hill for example, and being higher up helps. Then start taking the bandits out.

Did this last night and I cleared an entire camp without anyone ever seeing me.

Well, at level 35 your character is fighting very tough enemies and has practically no archery experience, so it really should be tough for you.

On the other hand, i easily sniped a draugr scourge to death the other day on my character that is primarily close range combat focused.


Something that just came to mind is that an archer/necromancer could be super fun. Snipe one enemy to death, re-animate it, and then snipe all the other dudes as they attack the first dude; it could be pretty hilarious.

Kill the ones on the fringe first.

sneak
shooot
roll, roll, roll, roll, roll
wait for eye to close
shoot
roll, roll, roll, roll, roll
etc...

Always shoot from hidden/crouch, make sure you have the 3x perk and upgrade your bow. Use best arrows and enchant the bow too. I use Frost and Fire.

Playing Master difficulty, level 55 Wood Elf atm... Full dragon scale set with dual enchantments on each piece, I have fortify archery and one-handed for dual daggers. I use a glass bow (Legendary) and most of the time I use elven or ebony arrows and I pretty much 1 shot everything downrange.

Let the bodies hit the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For dragons, poison bow with "slow" and then start raining pain on them, couple arrows and they drop like a sack of rocks.

If you have 100 sneak it gets a lot easier, as the 100 point perk makes you pretty much immune to detection. Just re-enter stealth mode.

If you just want to run up and fill them full of arrows, smith yourself a daedric bow, improve it, and level archery till you get power shot. The 50% chance to stagger lets you get quite a few shots in before they can even get to you. Much faster than sneak.

Four good enchantments should make up for your low marksman skill level pretty well, but once you have both most things will die in one shot, stealth or not. Bring along a companion or a tough horse to soak up damage until then. Make sure you have the x3 stealth damage perk, it seems like you can get in a few kills before being noticed if they're done in one shot and you have a high sneak skill (also avoid line of sight from anything but your current target, I have much better luck stealthing in a dungeon than out in the open.) You'll eventually be one-shotting just about everything, and since you're doing it from a distance, you should be safer than a dual wielder that can do the same. And once things get too easy, start trying to kill as many things as possible via arrows to the knee.

Oh, also, make sure you fully draw your bow, it makes a big difference, but takes longer than you think. The +30% draw speed perk makes a big difference, but takes a while to get.

Once you start oneshotting everything, replace the damage enchantments with other different and interesting enchantments, just because you can.

Train yourself with Mammoths first. Find a vantage point that they cannot reach, grab 500 or so good ol' iron arrows, and rain hell and fire.

(That is, assuming that Archery levels up on a per-hit basis like One-Handed, and not a per-damage-dealt ratio. If that's the case, get the best bow/arrows you can.)

I would say the main thing is to be in darkness, about 100 yards away, and outside of line-of-sight for everyone except the first guy. When you hit him, the others will come running out to investigate. You can get about six of them before the "stealth eye" fully opens, if you don't miss. But you have to be well hidden. Being high up is useless if you are not in full darkness. Also, you can distract people by hitting a rock or something with an arrow, if they don't yet know where you are. Be aware of the arc of the arrow -- the reticule doesn't compensate for distance. At short range you aim down, at very long range you aim up, at normal range you aim straight.

I use poisons and the strongest equipment I can find at any given time to be able to take down most enemies in one shot. Also, If you cannot kill your target in one shot, i suggest making paralysis poisons; I use imp stool and swamp fungus; swamp fungus is a little rarer, but you can find some in the swamp between solitude and morthal. happy hunting

You can always drink a true shot potion until you get stronger with the bow. LOL I am a sheild and mace kinda guy but I found out early on that numbers equalizes power. I trained up on enough archery so that I could thin out the herd before charging in there. Sometimes all I needed was the bow! Good topic.

Sneak, sneak, and more sneak.

Invest in the sneak skills.

Sneak shot = 2X damage.

First archery skill increases damage in 5 stages - that really helps, too.

I wear light armor, but a pair of heavy armor gloves because the enchantment on them increases bow damage 25%; and the headqear from the Dark Brotherhood adds 20% increased bow damage.

Also, you're probably using a bow the first time against enemies that are your level. That won't work, regardless of sneaking - probably not doing enough damage.

At your level, you'll probably should do enchantments - mine has a plus 21 point health damage enchantment. Also, get soul trap to put souls in gems to recharge your bow enchantment.

Look at the damage bows do when you find them, so you can change them when the damage is higher then the bow you currently using; same for arrows. Don't forget to enchant your bow when you swap them out.

PS: Your sneak skill only increases/levels up if you're sneaking where someone (NPC, animal) can see you. So, if you clean up a dungeon halfway, then turn back to go sell the stuff at the trader, and you sneak out of the dungeon, that won't do anything for your skill.

Good luck.

take cover!

I'm leveling an archer/assassin myself. He is 17 atm, and has pretty high archery and sneaking. Still somewhat low one-handed, but I don't fight melee very often.

I like the 'stealthy sniper' style. Get to a very far distance and pick them off with poisoned arrows(bow that is). If they don't die instantly from the headshot, the poison will do the rest. For tougher targets I use better arrows and stronger poisons. Furthermore I jsut use the ancient shrouded armor.

Really liking this build

I played an archer once.......until I got bored and made a battle mage. You thought I was going to say something about knees and arrows right? Wrong.

But yeah, kite>exploit bad path finding repeat.

im lvl 43 1h wth shd archery is what i use in the open world it seems to me where u shoot them is how much damage they take cuz if may sound strange considering only vidgame but go to an archery range and practice itlll do nothing 4 character but will give u an idea 4 what kind of spread your bow has at long range u can retrieve arrows from it

I enjoy poison my arrows with paralysis and put down those stronger opponents such as bandit chief, then use slow poison to safely kill everything from distance

If I can identify weaker enemies, I might try to use frenzy poison to make them kill themselves.

I am a big fan of alchemy

This part isnt entirely true. I have no problems killing someone while hidden, right in front of another enemy, and not having the eye open at all. Also, if your sneak is high enough you can hit them multiple times before they even know where you are, getting the sneak x3 bonus every hit.... thats what I do for most big mobs. I'll hit them a few times with the bow, when the get close, since my sneak is a 100, I use the last sneak perk to break fightin a brief moment... turning myself invisible for 1 second or whatever it is. During that second of invisibility I strike with my dagger and get a x15/30 dmg dagger hit. Its not easy, but its also not that hard. Sometimes I have to reload and try again, but thats okay too

You could also shoot an arrow off away from you are as well, such as hitting the wall behind or to the left of the enemy. Itll distract them and you can either run off or get a better aimed shot in as they move away searching the area where your arrow hit.

If they are in unfavorable positions, I fire an arrow to where I want them to go. The noise alerts them and they go to check it out. Then, while their back is turned, I kill them. If they are far away enough from the others, they will not notice their fallen comrad. If however, they are-- they will go see if they are ok. Then you can take them out as well. I always poison my arrows with frostbite venom, none of that magic or daedric nonsense. Just a nice imperial bow with some steel or iron arrows. If you are aiming for absolute damage though, get an enchanted boy with enchanted AND poisoned arrows. Always keep some arrows that do more damage for the tougher foes.

Find a good hiding place with some cover. Rocks work well, and if you can find one with a bush next to it, you will be invisible to the naked eye. If they see you however, they will investigate the general spot wich may lead to them seeing you in the bushes. A high perch always works well, especially if it is somewhere that will be impossible for them to get to.

Leveling up your sneak should help too

At lv 38 with 100 archery, I just crouch in the shadows and lay dozens of arrows on anyone before they even realize they are getting shot at. I think the key thing is just to get your damage up with a bow so you can effectively lay the people of the camp to waste.

I completely forgot to mention the best tactic of archery.....

Ditch your follower, seriously. They will screw up just about everything when going the sneak/archer route.

This.