Archery deals crap damage.

[Drakhaoul]

How are you supposed to build a ranged character? Pretty much everything takes 6-10 shots to kill and why bother with archery if it takes so long to draw the damn bow back? I could kill 3 mobs with swords before I killed 1 with a bow.

 

I'm level 19 I have my skills/perks as:

L50 archery with all available perks.

L60 Sneak with the perks on the right side up until the bonus sneak damage with a bow.

L40 Alchemy with poison perks

L40 enchanting with only the first perk (2 points in it).

 

 

I'm using the Nightingale bow and Orcish arrows (the best type of arrow I can find in semi-large quantities) although I have a few glass arrows for harder mobs.

 

I apply a 30dmg poison and get a sneak attack critical and it takes out less than 20% of a mobs hp, and after that I don't even get the sneak attack bonus so it goes downhill real fast.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[flyingblind]

Improve your weapon on the grinder. I can deliver over a 1000 points of damage at level 53 and I effectively have broken the game. That is with no poisons, I just improved a Daedric bow and then sneak with triple damage. Worst case scenario is I have to shoot them 2 times. :biggrin:

[runicNomad]

The bonus perk 3x damage helps a lot.

At level 50 you actually have all 5 damage perks 100% damage (the base one)??

 

I know that early on as a ranged sneak thief I ran away a lot and waited to be hidden again. Now I can take out a draugr deathlord in 2 shots. I have all the archery perks. My archery is 90. The speed increase to drawing the bow is a very helpful perk. I also have a sneak of 90 now as well.

I enchanted a bow with paralysis but I use ice form shout quite often.

Being a ranged character is very difficult upfront much like a pure caster but in time I have become incredibly powerful.

I still run away and hide from time to time too so I get the full sneak damage and crits and I always carry a good number of paralysis poisons.

[BrknSoul]

If you're a sniper, you need to fire and maneuver, that is; fire a shot, then move away from where you fired and wait until the target calms down, then fire again.

 

Drugar Deathlords tend to be pretty tough. Also, remember to upgrade your bow at grindstones.

 

Light bows (Glass, Wood, Elven, etc) will draw faster, but do less damage than Heavy bows (Dwarven, Orcish, Ebony, etc).

What you can do is use Heavy bows for sniping, and switch to a Light bow when you've been spotted.

Edited December 17, 2011 by BrknSoul

[Senaira]

On top of what's already been mentioned, there's an enchant specifically for bow damage.

 

Get this, 5 points in enchanting, and you're laughing.

[ZenMonkey47]

In Skyrim if you use ANY kind of weapon the smithing skill is a MUST. Improving bows (or any weapon) at a grindstone makes them MUCH more powerful (if not viable). Other than that enchant your necklace, ring, helmet and gloves to do bonus archery damage. Also, I've heard headshots do double damage.

 

Does anyone know if Kadjiit claws/Fists of Steel/Fortify Unarmed modify the punch attack for bows?

[Drakhaoul]

I have modified it at the grindstone, my Nightingale bow is upgraded to do 37 damage (originally 27). Also I have the Bow damage enchant on both my ring, neck and Dark Brotherhood hood. I still do absolutely s*** damage. Meanwhile enemy archers can kill me in about 4 shots.

[PR4Y]

my sniper is almost identical in stats, and I 1-2 shot everything in sight... you are doing something wrong, but god knows what.

 

 

what difficulty? snipers are underpowered at low levels until your smithing / enchants kick in... so I'd recommend playing on adept / expert rather then master difficulty.

[leyasu]

You need to max your enchanting, buy an enchanter's potion and make a smithing set. (armor, gloves, ring, neck) then buy a blacksmith potion at the alchemist. If you are a mean-maxer max alchemy and make your own enchanting potions and smithing potions. Bewarned though the game gets abit too easy even at master if you max all 3 skills smithing, alchemy and enchanting with the relevent perks and improve your armor and weapons to insane levels. Edited December 17, 2011 by leyasu

[vertex23]

I'm an archer with no smithing and enchanting skill at all.

 

My bow does around 90 base damage (Just a +30 fire enchant on an Ebony Bow). Multiply by 3 and I pretty much 1 shot everything that isn't a boss. Those get two shotted.

 

If they do live to the point of seeing me, I just break out Fireball and finish them off.