During the ESO Live the developer promised to make the passive (do 12% more dmg towards distanced enemy) more viable, as currently, quoting the dev, you only get the bonus pretty much at the snipe range. The new change, according to him on ESO live, will get full extent of the 12% dmg bonus at ordinary distances. He referred this change as in update 5 this week.
Read through the patch notes, can not find it, where is it? Bows do half the damage as magika builds, just the snipe buff cannot bring it even remotely in line with other builds.