Which is best? They both are.

Bows are really great for cutting down enemy numbers to a managable number & with sneaking, you can cut their numbers in half before they realize you're there.
Once they find you & get close, then use the sword.

Some attacking dragons won't land & fight unless you hurt them or make them mad & you're not going to do that with a sword. (They don't make any that long yet).

A presonal friend refuses to use bows because he says he svcks with bows. (I told him he svcked with swords, too, until he got experience so what's the difference) but he won't listen.

Come to think of it, he won't use the magic either. He says magic is evil & God won't like it. I told him that if God was smart enough to create the entire universe that I'm fairly certain He's also smart enough to know the difference between real life & a video game & he should work on realizing the difference, too.

agreed, Bows are sweeet for thinning numbers

Disagreed. Bows are good for everything. Why draw a sword if you can shoot an arrow straight into their face?

I don't care for bows either because the physics are too simulated. You have to lead and account for trajectory - it gets tedious. I carry one and plenty of arrows and use them when necessary, but I don't put perks into Archery and bows are far from my primary weapon. I do fine with them, but it's too tedious for a bow to be my primary weapon - I'll see how the crossbows are if I get the Dawnguard expansion.

I prefer warhammers, range is lame and melee that's for real men atleast.

I love bows & I'm at Master with them now but try doing what you said when 3 or 4 enemies are in sword range & are all hacking on you all at the same time from 3 or 4 different directions. Does the pharse "Sliced Salami" ring a bell?

Fixed.

All of those drawbacks will begin to fade away when you start adding perks to archery.

Do that with 5+ bandits in a small cave each using melee.
If you have to swap armor or any other gear you might as well have pulled a sword out. If you using a ridiculous amount of potions you should have pulled a sword out.

But if you time your dropping in and out of slow time zoom ( " steady hand " perk ) and have " quick shot " with an alright sneak skill you are more then capable of dispatching several mobs in close quarters.

...but do any of the perks remove the trajectory arc? That's my main issue. Yeah, I can get used to it, but I just don't want to, I guess. Leading isn't too bad because I have do that in 'firearm' shooters, but the trajectory added in just makes it more work than I want to do. I'd get impatient and just rush in and melee them to death.

Oops they found you... OH WELL I'LL RELOAD PREVIOUS SAVE...

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch would come in handy for some of the situations presented here.

Yep, the old 1-2-5 would be perfect.

Nope.... Oops they saw me...... room is now clear. Like I said if you got your timing right you can drop 6 mobs before any of them land a hit, if I was able to record a short vid of me doing it then you would see, but as it where you need to take my word on it. I'm not saying that I never die, cause I do, but clearing an enclosed area with a bow while sneaking isn't all that hard. I have actually been taking a break from the sneaky archer builds just because their OP and it gets repetitive and boring.

They narrow it down quite a bit and if you aim & load an arrow first them just follow them & they'll stop & hesitate a few moments & that's when you fire, especially when you get the zoom in perk because it also slows them way down. Your aim also improves automatically at higher levels.

My level with bows is so high I very rarely miss any more & I'm using the Ebony Bow of Inferno with Ebony Arrows. It's so powerful the hit alone knocks them backwards about 10 or 20 feet or over a table & they're nothing but charred ashes by the time I search them.

I love picking off the gate guards & wall archers silently from a distance then sneaking into a fort un-seen. Can't do that with a sword, ax or hammer.

This bow also brings down robots. Not that it penetraits them, but it's hit is so hard that it short-curcuits them and damages their power packs causing them to shoot sparks of electricity everywhere (but not at you) as they go down.

I love the bow but I do know when to use the sword.

I can do the same. Infact it so easy a caveman can do it.

I'm saying if they do see you because you screwed up. Have a good back up. Have you ever seen a archer without at least a dagger? No they always have a backup. Same with modern military/civilians who carry weapons. It's a just in case I need it..

Oh ok well yeah I do carry a sword with me as an archer but I don't need to use it very often.

Bows ar'nt that great. They're ok, but the ammount of time they go wrong or hit the floor, or do zero damage, they just ar'nt worth specialising in.
You're better specialising in swords.

I had a level 23 archer, and she was made right, perks in the right places. Could'nt hit to save her life. Had zero defense. Had light armour, archery, onehanded weapons.

Places my previous character, a redguard swordswoman carved them up with ease, she died if they so much as looked at her.

Not had the shooting a arrow and hits your own face thing, yet.
But bows are pretty useless.

You misunderstand me. I mainly use my bow. That's why my level is master. I have every archery perk there is. I also use the Ebony Bow of Inferno with Ebony Arrows & I don't miss. But when you sneak into a cave & you're outnumbered by 10 or 15 to 1 & your stupid follower blows your cover by rushing past you screaming like a banshee & waving their sword wildly & the enemy attack all at once, I use my bow to cut their numbers down, but when 2 to 4 of them are so close that my arrow would be touching theirs noses before I could even fire, I switch to my Ebony Sword & Spell Breaker Shield.
And that's why my Dovahkiin hasn't died since I was level 1 or 2.

Also, an arrow isn't like a bullet. To really do any good the arrow has to be able to leave the bow & get it's speed up first, a bullet doesn't.
You'd be surprised at just how little damage an arrow will actually do if it's already touching it's target while it's being fired.

I understood, that's why I decided to take a break from a pure sneaky archer, their OP. I was just saying that in close spaces the bow can be just as effective as a sword( in game ). Now I mixed the best of both worlds, my new toon is a " sword and board " master with archery thrown in, but I never sneak while using my bow now a days just to even it out. I like both play styles / builds but my personal fav. is the sneaky archer build.

Done with 10+ bandits each using melee. No gear swaping.

I always sneak. I try not to find myself in a cave with 5+ bandits - I take them out before they notice me. And if some of them remain alive and proceed to attack me, I managed to take their health down earlier and now I just need to finish them up. Which an arrow in the face usually can accomplish.
I also don't mind backpedalling. It's not as effective as it used to be, but it still works. Steady Hand is very helpful.
I recall one quest when I had trouble fighting multiple mages at once - in Wolfskull Cave, I think. I admit I died. Then I reloaded and kicked their butts. I don't think using a sword would have helped me - my skill level is 15, I have no perks in it, what good could it possibly do? Boosting my magic resistance would have been more useful.
I never, ever swap gear. I use the same armor everywhere I go.
Sometimes I use potions, sometimes I don't. Never an amount that I'd call "ridiculous".
I also play on Master.
Either I'm extremely lucky, or playing a pure archer is actually possible

It's more then possible, it's OP when combined with sneak. Even when you don't use sneak with archery, all you got to do is keep enough distance between you and them and you should be alright.

this^