Sooo as an archer is it worth investing perks in the heavy armor line of smithing aswell as light armor just for the daedric bow?

If the answer is no what bow would be a good replacment to daedric to acompany the dragonscale armor?

lastly what arrow is the most attainable and has the highest damage?

thanks x

You can find Daedric Bows as random loot

I believe that Daedric Arrows do, but I am not sure.

If you're going to do smithing at all you should just go to the heavy line. You can get the best light armor in the game (Dragonscale) and get the daedric weapon upgrades.

would it be an idea to just completley ignore smithing? Id rather not spend all my time stressing over having the best items but instead spending more perks on enjoying the game..

Apparently http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Archery, so your damage per second may well be higher with a glass bow. Sneak attacks though, which rely more on damage per shot, will be better with a Daedric bow. If you're using fortify archery enchantments, late in the game the marginal difference in damage between Daedric and glass isn't going to matter much because you'll be one shotting things regardless.

Top four bows in continuous DPS are Karliah's(by far), Daedric, Ebony and Nord Hero. Except the difference between the three is less than 1 DPS.

[Edit]Or whatever, here's the actual table: http://i39.tinypic.com/2zgvqlx.png

ooorr....

you could just conjure a bound bow... it's equal to daedric and comes with free daedric arrows lol

Glass bow is fine though... Daedric IS better... but glass should be plenty good enough if you're in smithing and can make it legendary.

However, if you haven't taken the light armor perks yet... you may consider going the right path to Dragon armor smithing.... It's only 1 more perk point then the left side and as someone said earlier... you can then work daedric + dragonscale.... also... you'll prolly want a tank for a follower, so being able to smith them quality ebony (or dragon plate) armor is certainly worthwhile as well.

i was considering just investing in the "improve magical items" in the smithing line and then just getting the nightingale set untill a bit later in game. I found on my last character bumming smithing to 100 and getting full daedric ruined the game for me as i was level 32 with 64 one handed and just unable to kill anything scaled to my "level" due to smithing powerleveling me

NOT Nord Hero..... it's glitched and can't be improved. At base it's comparable... but Legendary Glass > Nord Hero.

However... if you find a Honed Ancient Nord Bow then those have same base as Nord Hero... and can be improved to legendary.

i used conjuration on my last character and i found i wasted points on magicka i didnt need to use just to be able to cast bound bow, But i like the ideal on the second half of your comment, Thanks

really???

I had the opposite problem... I'm not 100 smithing yet, but getting pretty close (75 now) and my smithed gear has made me a powerhouse and almost unstoppable.

Ah, true about not being able to upgrade Nord Hero, but it's a bug that Lost Art of the Blacksmith mod fixes.

There are no Honed Ancient Nord Bows, just Supple Ancient Nord Bows, and that's in the table.

Being level 50, and having played for 200 hours on my Warrior, I have never once found a Daedric weapon ever in random loot. The ONLY place I've ever seen a Daedric weapon is after I myself crafted it.

Just sayin'. Don't expect to be finding Daedric weapons all the time, and do not rely on that 0.1% chance that it might happen. Go ahead and spend the 4 perks. You'll save hundreds of hours of searching.

DPS does not matter in this game. Most things die in a few hits anyways or one hit. You are or should be having to move and reposition shots. Fast weapons in most games and scenarios are inferior to heavy burst damage weapons. Why would I use a bow that takes 2 shots to kill something when I can use one that does it in 1?

_{I think you can smith all the way light until you get to dragon, and then it only takes 1 more perk to get daedric if that is what you want the tree looks like it circles back at the top so you do not have to go all the way up the heavy side as well.}

I applied those UESP equations to the glass, ebony, and Daedric bows. Assuming you have the quick shot perk, without any smithing improvements, and +10 damage arrows (like steel or ancient nord) the damage for a glass bow is about 16.9 dps, 17.8 for ebony, and 18.6 for Daedric. Smithed up to legendary (+10 damage per shot) with the same arrows, you get 23.6 dps, 24.3 dps, and 25 dps. Pretty marginal improvements, but Daedric is the best. It does say though that the Nord Hero bows can't be improved through smithing, so they may not be a great option.

*edit - Just saw your table. I guess Karliah's bow pretty much rocks?

although the tree looks like it loops you can not go up one way and down the other. You have to go up both sides independently, both meeting at Dragon.

As far as the OP questions I dn't think you can go wrong with either side of the smithing tree. A glass bow works great but so does a daedric. It just depends on your play style. Personally I prefer heavy and am using full daedric armor and daedric bow.

For arrows I think the daedric have the best damage but so far for me (level 39) they are hard to find and I haven't seen them for sale anywhere. I personally like the dwarven or elven arrows as they have high damage and can be readly found or bought. Glass arrows are nice to but I just don't have as many and tend to save them for boss fights.

Finally, as others have said by the time you advance through the archery perk tree it really doesn't matter what high level bow or arrow you use. You will be one shotting everything in you path.

Ahhh, well that stinks I knew it was too good to be true.

i made that mistake on my last character and then went all the way to filling every single slot, Ended up leaving that character in frustration of wasting so many perks..

so how does the nightingale bow compare to ebony/glass? im pretty sure i will smith up to daedric but only at the same speed as my archery and light armor levels to try and scale my level up a bit

I like how people point out DPS makes a good bow... IT DON'T!

It completely depends on play style. If your going to be a stealth archer then go with a bow that has the most single hit damage. If you plan on using a bow in the Frey of battle, then go for a bow that offers good DPS.

The only time a bow with DPS is really good is on the war story line, bosses, or high high health things.

I've used a dedric bow and have had no problems.

And some one tell me if Karlahs bow is the Nightingale Bow, because you all are confusing me. If it is, the you all need to get it right!

Yes it is.

nord arrows are the most abundant there only level 10 but if you are high in archery and have all perks then this doesnt matter much...iv played 80hrs and havnt seen 1 daedric arrow,one of the other op,s are right try get glass or ebony there between 16/18 level and can be bought/found easily.
i must admit i always have stock of the nord arrows as find them decent with a good tip of poisen and an enchanted fire bow

If you have extra perks go for it. Even if you don't use it, you can gear up your companions

A good tip if you're looking for higher level arrows is to give a few of them to your companion / necro summons (such as a bandit archer). Followers never run out of arrows and they always use their best arrow in inventory. Giving them a single arrow means they never run out of that specific type. Where you benefit from this is when looting their kills or scouring the ground and environment for their misses. I've built up an inventory of over 200 Daedric arrows just from doing this tactic. It's a bit 'gamey' and I'm not sure I'll be doing it on my next character as it feels like I'm exploiting a game mechanic but if you're desperate for higher level arrows it's something to consider.


Not in my experience at least on the higher difficulties, but ymmv on that one.

Ancient Nord and Steel arrows are my workhorses - I use them on all but the strongest enemies. Those guys get Elven and Glass arrows. I've got a very few Daedric arrows that I looted from some dungeon or other - those I'm saving for the really bad enemies (though Lydia is going to get one of them when I decide to use her as a follower again ). I don't even bother to pick up Iron, Falmer or Forsworn arrows any more.