Great ideas here - think I might use the ol' shack myself with one of these builds.

I find that it's actually hard for me to resist using Sneak with Archery... Even if I walk around without sneaking, the temptation to drop into a crouch before I make that first shot (or 2...) is just too great.

Plus, what do you do when the enemy closes? The draw speeds on all bows seem too slow to get more than a couple shots off before you need to sprint, and in my experience the enemies can keep pace with you *very* well, so there's not quite enough time to turn around, draw, & shoot before they're in your face again.

I know you can always fall back to a melee option, but running & gunning is sort of a goal for my current character.

The Quick Draw perk would seem to help a lot here, but I have read that it is bugged, so only the animation is faster, not the actual power of the draw itself. Guess I should check that out...

I don't have the Quick Shot perk yet. From what I read on the UESP, the problem occurs when you draw the bow while zooming in with the Steady Hand perk. You have to wait until the bow is drawn before zooming to avoid the bug. Please let us know if this is incorrect or if you learn anything further.

I use sneak with archery, I am just not perking the sneak. If an enemy closes to melee, I do a bash with the bow between shots. This will temporarily stagger many opponents, giving me the time to back up a step and hit them with another arrow. I use a hunting bow, which has a pretty quick draw time. Some opponents are not staggered much by the bow bash. For them, I sprint away and try to use terrain to get some distance, by jumping on a ledge or once I even dropped a gate by activating a handle and then was able to pepper the opponent from the other side.

I also look for places where I am inaccessible before combat ensues, so coming down on forts from a steep mountainside works well, since they cannot climb up to you.

If all else fails, I whip out my Khajiit claws. At low level (I am about 10) with the pugulest gauntlets, my Khajiit can rip most opponents to shreds with his claws. This will change as I level, but it should be less of an issue once you hit 50 archery and get the stagger perk, since the stagger should keep opponents at bay.

So far, the only things that have given my Khajiit archer much trouble are the bears and sabrecats because they are so tough and fast. I thought I was a tough cat until I met my first snowy sabrecat!

Aye those Snowy Sabre's are far from your typical mog