Any tips/hints? I previously played as a sword weilding warrior, and joined the storm cloaks, but I want to play as the imperial side now.....

Im playing as a Nordic archer that wants to be a legened in Skyrim, the best archer there is. He uses archery 80% of the time, but when he gets into tight areas, he pulls out his dual blades and starts swinging away. Hes also light and nimble, sort or a ranger, so Im looking at light small armour.

Im thinking leather armour right now, with some major defensive enchantments? I know Im going to need some defense, and probably sneak skills?

I've recently started a similar character and I can tell you it's difficult to use bow all the time, you will find that you have to use melee weapons more than you would like for an archer character. To combat this you need a bow that packs a real punch, so either buy the most powerfully enchanted one you can find or just do it yourself, also make sure when you engage a group, to sneak attack first and approach from somewhere hard to get to (uphill or on top of something).

This has been pretty successful for my character so far, only level 7 at the moment though.

Sneak. That's where the 'punch' comes. A good bow is nice, but even a simply enchanted one will do.

There's two bows I like to get in my playthroughs.
You can find a Elven Bow in the lower level of the Companions house. You'll have to pick an expert lock.
You can also find the Bound Bow spell tomb at Fort of Amol inside a room. The spell tomb at the bottom of a bucket with random things piled on it.

IMO, every perk in the archery tree is worth taking except for Bullseye (because it's glitched and messes up your kills with killcams on right now) and the last two points of Critical Shot (even the first point is bad, but it's a prereq for better stuff.)

Ranger helps a lot if you want to be a bow-all-the-times person like me.

what about armour? Do you guys use big bulky steel armour, leather armour, etc?

if it helps,in the ruins of labyrinthian,in the dugeon called Lost Valkygg you can always find an EBONY BOW...you just hav e to deal with the draugh deathlord who wields it.Here's the link http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Lost_Valkygg

I've had a great archer once. He also held the power of the voice and my favorite thu'um was Fus Ro dah. It goes good together with a bow.

Once I was trapped in a room filled with maybe twenty draugr ( could be a bit less and they didn't attack all at the same time. I used to kill some and new ones came out of their coffins.) I fired away with my bow and once they came to close a full powered fus ro dah shouted them back to the other side of the room so I could continue shooting them. By the time they were to close again I could shout them back to the otherside again.

Tip: Carry around different arrows for different enemies. The weaker arrrows for the weak enemies and the stronger arrows for the stronger enemies. So you're not wasting your strong arrows on enemies you can kill with an iron arrow.

I used light armor in the reaaaallllyyy early lvls. After lvl 10, I didn't need it. Just wore whatever to boost skills/stats

When playing archer, three tips 1. use stealth to your advantage for critical hits when the npcs or enemies cant see or notice you. 2. Makes sure to have a nice amount of stamina for you begin to use the zoom in ability and the slow mo one, stamina can drain real quick from them early on. 3. like some one said before, get in a position hard to get to or where youll confuse the npcs that way less time for them to reach you and you wont need to use your sword

My first char is a Ranger, when on Master I have to take a fellow with me to tank larger crowds, like Gavril said Unrelenting Force with save you ass a lot, also when spotted, keep moving/kiting, don't stand still.
I personally enchanted Imperial Light Armour, just because I like how it looks, 100 Enchanting with the required perks and an enchanting potion you can get 45% Archery bonus on each piece of head, hands, necklace and ring. You can enchant feet with Sneak+ and Stamina regen or stamina+.
I use a Daedric Bow I made with absorbs health for serious situations or Angi's Bow again just because I think it looks cool.

Here's what I do on my Ranger.

Helmet - Apprentice Hood (At least until they actually make more un-enchanted hoods)
Armor - Leather Armor
Gloves/Bracers - Leather Bracers
Boots - Leather Boots
Main Weapon - Daedric Bow - Arrows (Any)
Secondary - Daedric Dagger (Main Hand) Daedric Sword (Off-Hand)
Main Skills (Archery, Sneak, and One-Handed)
Minor Skills (Enchanting, Smithing, Alchemy, and Speech)

I'm also playing Dunmer though and most armor in the game I feel really doesn't fit my race you playing as a Nord won't have that problem so just pick what feels right for you.

yeh. This ^^ . Sneak is where archery becomes is best


Light armor or clothes / robes (use alteration magic instead of armor) as they assist sneak better. Heavy Armor makes no sense as it only becomes useful to sneak at higher levels so you'll only be at a constant disadvantage until then.

Using archery with heavy armor only works when the bow is there as a secondary weapon just for range. This is no good for a character who relies on archery as a primary weapon.

Ok thanks guys. Theres really good advice here, alot of it was what I was looking for! Thanks for all your help

Go to Angi's camp... Trust me it is worth it.... It's near Falkeath

The best Light Armor is an Heavy Armor. If you upgrade the Heavy Armor skills, at one point your armor won't weigh anymore, but it still protects as much as a Heavy Armor

Basically sneaking and getting the best bows you can and upgrading them. You will be killing everyone with an arrow or two after a while. It's damn worth it to kill someone really far away with a well placed arrow

Ive already tried arrows. Just finished the part of the main quest where you esape from the cave in the beginning. I killed the large bear in the cave with strictly arrows, all the frosbite spiders with arrows. I was pretty happy with myself (considering I havent really tried bow and arrow too much)

Word of warning though, it isnt that fun when you're running somewhere and then suddenly this sabre toothed tiger / bear starts backstabbing you so you might wanna try some illusion magic.

ive ended up with a daedric bow smithed up to the nines with a fire enchantment on it,and as i found ebony boots of sneaking (or whatever they're called) i can move silently in full ebony armour. i tend only to use hand weapons on very odd occasions. get your sneak up and smithing helps to power up your bows.
unsuspected and undetected,its the way of the archer! cheers