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What is your choice for armor your archer?


  • Total voters
    108

Nathalean

Professional Vampire Ninja
Yes the 4 attacks x30 are nice... but not useful.

At the moment, with 100 in One Handed and Armsman 5/5, with my fully upgraded ELVEN dagger, I do 213 base damage. With Assassin Blade ALONE, I would do 3195 damage. If I'm not worng, even the strongest Dragon doesn't have that kind of HP.

The part on the silence of the dagger is the one making a little difference though.

I haven't been able to use Assassin Blade on a Dragon yet, mind you :)

Well, I just started a Bosmer vampire assassin on master difficulty and the combo we are talking about is basically my bread and butter since you don't start with 100 points in one-handed weapons or the ability to upgrade your weapons to the max.

As an assassin you are heavily reliant on one-shot killing your targets. good luck with that not using the maximum dmg combo on master :D (I see your point though.)
 

M'aiqaelF

Male, 32 years old, Denver area, CO
I have an archer/mage combo character and I use a mixture of clothing and light armor; for sneaking: cicero's hat, cicero's clothing, ancient db gloves, cicero's boots, ring of sneaking, and necklace of sneaking; for archery: ancient db shroud, ciceros' clothing, orcish gauntlets of archery, ring of archery. Then I have gear for magicka regen/destro cost reduction for a real firefight!
 

Get Sm0ked

Alea Iacta Est
nice guide :p Can i suggest a few things to Pretty it up ?

Start
Make nice header titles not underlined tho.
Have an opening! makes for a nice read and easy navigation of the thread

Middle
Have your main tips and guides here pictures should be put in spoilers to for aesthetic reasons :p

End (conclusion)

Just a quick goodbye or a nice summery of anything else you wanted to say :p

This is literally only a suggestion, please don't think in anyway shape or form i am trolling you, your post was really good, just trying to help you make the absolute best of it :p

Kind regards,

Fizzy!

agreed lol
 

Get Sm0ked

Alea Iacta Est
I’ve been leveling/loving an archer in Skyrim with a stealth focus yet haven’t found more than a handful of random suggestions on this class so I decided to write my own guide. If you’re a number crunching gamer this might not be the guide for you, I’ll be talking tactics rather than specifics. The following guide is simple suggestion and you should keep in mind the fun of Skyrim is that you can play your character any way that is fun for YOU.

First off, nice choice on going archer! You will not regret it; I am seriously digging it. Let’s dive right into character creation – I went with Wood Elf to get the native archery bonus. In retrospect I would have chosen a different race; the bonus becomes almost negligible later in the game. You’re going to get so mean on bows later on… I don’t know, damage just isn’t an issue for me and I keep wishing I had a cat head. You have the choice to increase either Magic, Health, or Stamina each time you level. Health is going to be the right choice most of the time. I throw in a Stamina every fifth level to prolong Steady Hand, Magic might be fun if you use Illusion spells but really you want health. So what to do with the Perks?

Stealth goes well with archery! If you dig thinking your way through dungeons and dropping foes from the safety of the shadows than this is the way to go. The bread and butter of your skill points will be Sneak, Light Armor, and of course Archery. You NEED to grab everything in the Archery tree as soon as possible but some of the best perks are Overdraw, Eagle Eye, and Steady Hand. In the sneak tree you want to get the first level of Stealth ASAP so that you even stand a chance of sneaking. Deadly Aim is the jewel in this tree but I strongly suggest taking Backstab as well (purely from a fun stand point). In Light Armor grab Agile Defender, Custom Fit, and Unhindered early on.

So how to play this powerful and entertaining class? Let’s talk tactics. You won’t be bum rushing corridors and spastically trading blows with the enemy. Instead you will be crouched in sneak mode most of the time, creeping around the edges, staying out of the light, avoiding debris on the ground that might alert others to your presence. The developers were kind enough to include plenty of hidden areas and chests that only the circumspect sneaker will find. You’ll discover paths and hidden perches from which to fire from before stealthing away to other hidden vantage points, culling your confused foes one or two at a time. You sneak up to encampments taking in their unaware conversation, figuring out guard routes, and planning ambush points. You’ll fire at empty walls to create distractions and when the group turns to investigate you’ll drop
one from behind and disappear, keeping the enemy off guard and vulnerable.

When you get forced to fight in the open you need to drop the ninja crouch and change tactics. Two terms you should get familiar with: strafing and kiting! When fighting mages and other archers you’re going to want to strafe back and forth as you line up your shots, dodging return fire (here’s where the Steady Hand
perk comes in handy). As for those pesky melee baddies? Kite ‘em! Run back through the cave you’ve
cleared turning and firing every chance you can until they drop. If you can kite them around a large stone or column even better! The key is not to stop and trade blows with them… unless of course you’re leveling up your One-Armed skill to better Back Stab fools.

The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines are good ones to knock out early on because you get fantastic sneak/archery gear and the missions pretty much teach you how to stealth effectively. I went Dark Brotherhood first just to get the Whisper Aura shout (you pick it up during one of the quests) which in my opinion is the most useful shout in the game PERIOD. This shout let’s you see through walls, levels, anything to CLEARLY see all life forms, including undead and mechanical! I’m a bit of a scary game sissy (the music swells just kill me) and this power turns the tables. Instead of timidly peaking into each dark corridor sure of instant ambush, I get to be the stalker in full control, aware of each threat with a plan for bringing ‘em down. Whisper Aura is a must have shout for the brave but skittish.

Let’s talk money, most games make it expensive to play archer and Skyrim does a pretty good job of eliminating that. I found there to always be plenty of arrows on the ground/dead. In fact I only started buying arrows when I wanted to be firing all Glass Arrows (still somewhat rare for my level at the time) and I was already stupid rich. Another thing, don’t miser your coin – the game gives you TONS of money as a sneak archer so go ahead and fully furnish the Dark Brotherhoods new digs, treat yo self! Just make sure you have ample lock picks on you at all times.

Lastly let’s talk about items briefly. I hardly ever use poisons on my arrows but you will need to eventually. After awhile you come up against some pretty big baddies that don’t drop as easily as their minions. Unless your Sneak level is through the roof it isn’t going to help you much at times like these. Dive into your menu and prepare for battle! Throw on your resistance armor. Lace your arrows with a heavy poison. Put on every piece of +Archery gear you have. Drink that potion of True Shot. Drop into third-person mode to better navigate the field of battle. And start notching arrows into that fools heart! Aim a little low for what you want to hit, make sure your bow is drawn all the way back before firing (patience), account for movement, smile as the arrow lodges in your foes neck, put another two arrows in his chest while he recovers, now RUN! Rinse and repeat :)

This is my first time writing a guide, I hope you enjoyed it, cheers!

-Byron


Also in all honesty, archery and stealth does not matter end game if you REALLY want a god set.

Both my 1st 2 dragon born were stealth archers and when the bonus of x3 is good (early - mid levels) you can kill just about anything with the right equipment.

During the late levels i usually find light armor too lilted and weak, it simply does not offer enough defense for the heavy armor perks such as Conditioning: Heavy armor weighs nothing when worn and does not slow you down when sprinting.

That is the main reason for not taking light armor and archery. But also later game you will encounter very tough (No matter the difficulty) foes comparable to your earlier enemies. Your bow can simply not reload fast enough to sustain damage, all the while you are getting butchered.

I know one-handed (daggers preferably) is the way people attempt to counter this problem (as I tried swell) but since you did not take your early perks in one-handed, you will be struggling CONSTANTLY. this is a problem I encountered and it eventually led me to taking a step back completely from stealth classes of all kind. Just my advice as an experienced Skyrim player. I am not trolling





 

ShadowGambit

Active Member
Well, light or heavy armor doesn't really matter if you are fully enchanted and upgraded.

Granted that the Heavy Armor will get you to the cap earlier. But my elven armor gives me 656 (89 pts over the cap) armor rating and I only have Agile Defender 1, Custom fit, Unhindered and Wind Walker as perks in the Light armor tree I do have 100 light armor though.

I use 4 pieces of apparel +29% smithing and potion of fortify Smithing +147% though.

As I said, Heavy armor will get you to the cap earlier, but at higher level if you have your crafting skilled fully developped, it doesn't really matter what armor line tree you use, you can reach the cap. And in both case your armor will weight nothing.

You can even reach the cap with HIDE ARMOR, if you have Agile Defender 3/5, custom fit and matching set + full smithing - 587 armor rating, 20 over the cap.

My legendary Elven Bow firing Daedric arrows is doing 1274 damage WITHOUT the sneak perk. I have 4 pieces of armor +48% Fortify Archery and Marksman potion +147%. With the sneak attack, it is 3822 damage. Should be enough to one shot EVERYTHING, even in the end game

Note : Archery damage changed with patch 1.5. Arrows damage are now calculated IN THE FORMULA, and not at the end anymore. SO it benefits from the Overdraw/Enchantment/Marksman potion multiplier. That makes a HUGE difference in damage.

Every archer should now hunt for Daedric arrows, even more than before.

EDITED: it looks like that patch 1.6 corrected the arrow damage to reverse it to the initial formula, with the arrow damage added at the end. I cannot confirm that though, I'm still playing with 1.5.
 

Get Sm0ked

Alea Iacta Est
Well, light or heavy armor doesn't really matter if you are fully enchanted and upgraded.

Granted that the Heavy Armor will get you to the cap earlier. But my elven armor gives me 656 (89 pts over the cap) armor rating and I only have Agile Defender 1, Custom fit, Unhindered and Wind Walker as perks in the Light armor tree I do have 100 light armor though.

I use 4 pieces of apparel +29% smithing and potion of fortify Smithing +147% though.

As I said, Heavy armor will get you to the cap earlier, but at higher level if you have your crafting skilled fully developped, it doesn't really matter what armor line tree you use, you can reach the cap. And in both case your armor will weight nothing.

You can even reach the cap with HIDE ARMOR, if you have Agile Defender 3/5, custom fit and matching set + full smithing - 587 armor rating, 20 over the cap.

My legendary Elven Bow firing Daedric arrows is doing 1274 damage WITHOUT the sneak perk. I have 4 pieces of armor +48% Fortify Archery and Marksman potion +147%. With the sneak attack, it is 3822 damage. Should be enough to one shot EVERYTHING, even in the end game

Note : Archery damage changed with patch 1.5. Arrows damage are now calculated IN THE FORMULA, and not at the end anymore. SO it benefits from the Overdraw/Enchantment/Marksman potion multiplier. That makes a HUGE difference in damage.

Every archer should now hunt for Daedric arrows, even more than before.

EDITED: it looks like that patch 1.6 corrected the arrow damage to reverse it to the initial formula, with the arrow damage added at the end. I cannot confirm that though, I'm still playing with 1.5.


true but when you get over 800 AR it dosent matter what foe you encounter (melee) they will do minimal damage. in my opinion light armor is useless at end game
 

ShadowGambit

Active Member
567 or 800 or 2000 AR will have the same effect, 80% of damage reduction, 567 being the cap anyway

So there is technically NO POINT going over 567 AR.

heavy armor will get you faster as I said. Light armor wiill get you there also, just takes a little longer. But at the end game, if you build has the necessary crafting skills, there are no difference whatsoever between a light armor and a heavy armor in term of damage absorb.

Conditionning has his equivalent in light Armor: Unhindered. The difference? Well it takes 4 perks to get conditionning and you have to take 2 worthless perks (Fist of steel and Cushioned). It takes 3 perks for Unhindered, but Custom Fit is useful.

The difference will be only on crafted/upgraded weapons. Weapon damage has no cap, so weapons from the heavy line will be more efficient.
 

Get Sm0ked

Alea Iacta Est
567 or 800 or 2000 AR will have the same effect, 80% of damage reduction, 567 being the cap anyway

So there is technically NO POINT going 567 AR.

heavy armor will get you faster as I said. Light armor wiill get you there also, just takes a little longer. But at the end game, if you build has the necessary crafting skills, there are no difference whatsoever between a light armor and a heavy armor in term of damage absorb.

Conditionning has his equivalent in light Armor: Unhindered. The difference? Well it takes 4 perks to get conditionning and you have to take 2 worthless perks (Fist of steel and Cushioned). It takes 3 perks for Unhindered, but Custom Fit is useful.

The difference will be only on crafted/upgraded weapons. Weapon damage has no cap, so weapons from the heavy line will be more efficient.

light armor takes ALOT longer and to collect the dragon bones and scales and carry them around is a pain
 

ShadowGambit

Active Member
Depending on your crafting level.

With 4 pieces of apparel +29% Smithing +147% smithing potion, you can reach the cap with an elven armor, having only Agile Defender 1 and Custom fit in light Armor perks. You only need steel and elven smithing perk. You don't need to go till Dragon smithing (although you need 100 Smithing.).

If you don't want ANY smithing perk, then you can reach the cap with a HIDE ARMOR (the lowest light armor you can find) with Agile defender 4/5, custom fit and Matching set, using 1 more perk than with the elven smithing.

FYI, if you don't want to use +smithing equipment and +% Fortify smithing potion, then the ONLY armor that can reach the cap without a shield is the Daedric Armor. But you need Juggernaut 5/5 and Matching set, using 4 more perks than what I described with the Elven Smithing perk.
 
woot, score one for the Byrons... don't meet many of us out there.

great guide, make sure to link it if you do update.

maybe i can help, just my opinion due to my preferred game-play. no correct or incorrect ways just trying to help you with possible opinion/optional avenues when you write your next guide.

Disclaimer:long winded due to the fact that i am snowed in and with nothing to do i have not been sleeping... i am currently more of a mechanism thats only function seems to be turning caffeine into Skyrim. tl;dr doesn't need to be expressed, i will assume.

i am more of a role-player without actually living the character, if my toon dies i usually lose interest and have even been known to start over (re-roll). adds more pressure for me so i prefer it that way (got something to lose, i am an ex EVE player... so i am unstable like that)

i agree with everything, but, your choice of health over stamina... i do about the opposite. i am very squishy but that doesn't matter, if the NPC knows i am there it is only because i allowed it and even then it is only for as long as it takes my arrow to hit. i went with the most bang for my buck when it came to raw power and left defense to be handled by my offense.

if forced into a tight situations (multi melee against my bow or angry giant/mammoth/both), steady hand plus quick-shot with the high stamina, i can easily out maneuver 4 to 5 enemies at point blank and that is with minimal movement. i never run, though i dont die... much. usually when i die it is from hitting the ~ instead of the damned tab button. i need a new keyboard, preferably the next one will have better spelling and grammar.

i deff do use all of the stuff on the archer tree thus far... aside from eagle eye, messed up my long shots for some time. i have read alot of conflicting material on things like Ranger or Power shot. i tell you what, the idea of trying to maneuver backwards while turning to fire in front (leading the target) just to then have to turn another 4 or 5 directions to repeat this process... while steady handx2 is going... without Ranger... makes me want to stab my eyes out with a fork. power shot with quick shot equals a free shot in the rotation. every two to three shots. mix that with the paralyze ability of my bow (or soon with the tree perk) it takes a good long while, and is almost comical seeing enemies try to fill that gap between their position and mine. i just rotate my shots, taking the extra one in the rotation from the power shot perk to finish off already injured (nearly dead) enemies.

for my bow it really doesn't matter much to me. i am currently using a legendary elven bow. legenday due to and made possible by the anal repetitive crafting of my collection of iron daggers. i am only lvl 25 ( i have only been to three town/cities). so i am still noobish.

i enchant paralyze on bow, i am at lvl 70 within the archery tree so no 100* lvl paralyze perk yet. i will deff be taking that perk so i can use a bow with damage mod on it. or maybe to just dble paralyze chance... if they stack, pr say. anyone use that perk? the paralyze i use is for 2 seconds, but it triggers quite a bit. if i have to shoot more than once at a mob, i usually stay pretty consistent; one out of three is a paralyze. within that two seconds they fall prone and then have to slowly get back up which adds another two or so seconds. mainly useful when overwhelmed by multi high end mobs, kinda overkill with weaker enemies. then again, so is most of the damage mods on bow when it comes to low end mobs.

something with a 20 plus dam mod would prob be smarter. i just like it to be a challenge. as enchanting perks are added, the paralyze time will get better allowing me alot of crowd control. NOTE: i stopped using my stamina syphon bow because i use stamina regen gear and i could stay in slow motion pretty much indeff, wasn't exciting :sadface:. but is a tactic none the less.

only do to game mechanics i find it easier to pull a full room down a tunnel. the power shot stun usually bogs down the movement of the mobs behind your target and they bottle neck into a nice tight package, making the possibility of missing one of them near impossible. paralyze helps as well as summoning a familiar also nicely bogs down the tunnel further.

i have not done the thieves guild or brotherhood yet... would stand to reason that the drops for my skill path would be better geared huh.

i would go more in depth in leading the enemies with arrows. i would have to say that is one of the most useful tools in the bag. you can lead them out and away from a position entirely. allows you to either bypass them (ack, i never leave anyone alive) or get to a better position.

also the half shot - you mentioned to take your time and make sure you have a full shot. in close battles when the power shot is needed or just a little damage to finish off...taping the fire trigger for a limp arrow FTW. that quick... if not flaccid shot has saved me arse from many nasa launches while up against giant.

ok i am running out of coffee now. i have a lot of other stuff but i think i will turn your thread back to you. i am too tired to proof read this and for the readers sakes i am going back to Skyrim. My rant, ty for the help Byron, keep it up bro.

I like when people do long detailed stuff... Im prob the only one who does lol... So you roleplay I do to. I just cant figure out a concrete reason for a thieves guild thief to switch to the Dark Brotherhood. especially after becoming the guild master. Can you think of a reason to help me out here. And also I think being the leader of two criminal guilds with completely different morals would be odd how would I roleplay that.
 

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