PVE Bow/Bow Build ''Arrow of Despair''

Greennik · April 2018

Hey all,
It's time to show you my PVE Bow/Bow Build. It sounds weird and you may think it's never viable, but i can show you the opposite. I tried it in many dungeons and i try to improve this build every day. Last year i started the character and nowadays it's my main char, because this build is different from the meta and it makes a lot of fun to play.

The Mundus Stone:
Considering the Mundus Stone you have only 2 real options:

The Warrior (trials, dungeons,.....)
The Lover (Solo stuff)

All the other Mundus Stones weren't good enough to compete with lover or warrior.

The Race:
I tested all races on this build and some of them had very good DPS numbers but the BIS-race for this build is:

Bosmer (21% stamreg - believe me you need this)

Other good choices would be:

Khajiit (crit chance)
Redguard (only if you use Killer's Blade)

The Class:
Most of you would think it is a warden, but i tested all 5 classes with a variety of different sets and Nightblade had the most DPS output on a Bow/Bow build.

The Sets:
It was a very hard task to figure out the best sets for this build. But after a lot of DPS-tests it was clear, Arms of Relequen and Twice-Fanged-Serpent are the best choices.
In some boss fights, you cannot use the full potential of relequen. Therefore us the set Hundings Rage. But apart from this you need both the Maelstrom Bow and the Master Bow to get good DPS numbers. These are not easy to get. For the beginners: You can finish both of these arenas without Maelstrom Bow and Master Bow with these Item constellations:

Twice-Fanged-Serpent ( Sanctum Ophidia---jewellery and 2 set pieces)
Hunding's Rage ( Crafted Set / needs 6 traits---4 set pieces and the bows)
Velidreth/Molag Kena (Undaunted Dailies---Shoulder)

The traits are all divine on armor and nirnhoned on both bows. On jewellery use 1 infused and 2 robust. For the glyphs the best option is:

armor pieces / stamina glyph
Maelstrom Bow (front bar) / glyph doesn't matter, you use poisons on front bar
Master Bow (back bar) / increased weapon damage
necklace / increased weapon damage
rings / increased weapon damage

Instead of the poisons, you could use a infused Maelstrom Bow with a poison glyph, but the damage will be less.

The Skills:
In this build you need a main spammable skill: SNIPE. Maybe it sounds weird, because of the channel time but on my DPS-tests it did like 22%-24% of my overall DPS.
Front Bar:

Focused Aim (Snipe+minor fracture)
Relentless Focus
Channeled Acceleration
Endless Hail
Evil Hunter (extra crit)
Ult: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar:

Poisen Injection
Leeching Strikes
if you stand at the boss use Killer's Blade (insane damage boost in execute phase) and Reaper's Mark for the ranged version ( gives 25% damage boost when marked enemy is killed/ always mark trash mobs in boss fights). Reaper's Mark can be replaced with Resolving Vigor if needed.
Razing Caltrops
Evil Hunter
Ult: Ballista

For the rota: try to keep all AoE's and DoT's running and weave light attacks between the skills. (for the bow passive Hawk Eye). In the time between your AoE's and DoT's try to spam Focused Aim.

CP780 version:

56 Mooncalf (Lover)
76 Tenacity (Lover)
51 Tumbling (Shadow)
37 Shadow Ward (Shadow)
40 Warlord (Tower)
72 Master-at-Arms (Atronach)
48 Thaumaturge (Ritual)
51 Precise Strikes (Ritual)
56 Mighty (Ritual)
33 piercing (Ritual)
81 Iron Clad (Steed)
23 Spell Shield (Steed)
51 Thick Skinned (Lady)
56 Hardy (Lady)
49 Elemental Defender (Lady)

The advantage of this build is to have a mixed DPS between MagDD and StamDD. The Raidleaders can put you in a melee (Killer's Blade) or a ranged (Reaper's Mark or Resolving Vigor) spot.
Also with a ranged stamina build it is quite easy keeping up the relequen stacks

DPS-Test:
Buffood used: Increased Health and Stamina.
Potions used: Weapon Damage, Stamina and Movement Speed (Major Savagery is already up/Evil Hunter)
Poisons used: Double Damage Poison
Yeah you listen right, no dubious Camoran Throne! Because this buffood would not give you enough life to be viable in trials.

This is my viable Bow/Bow build for trials.
If there are any further questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

Thanks for your attention.

Gorilla · April 2018

I just started a Bosmer NB this morning with something like this in mind. Will give it a go.

Any suggestions for those who don't have Maelstrom or Master bows?

FrancisCrawford · April 2018

Sounds interesting!

I love my Bosmer stamblade thief, but since he insists on using Concealed Weapon he can't use Surprise Attack, which rules out many stamblade builds. Anyhow:

I assume you've checked that Nirnhorned is better than Infused on the bar with the Weapon Damage enchant?
I assume the poison DPS is on the two lines with "Lebensverwustung"? So about a 6% contribution to DPS and what else -- some stamina return or something?

Greennik · April 2018

Gorilla wrote: »

I just started a Bosmer NB this morning with something like this in mind. Will give it a go.

Any suggestions for those who don't have Maelstrom or Master bows?

Just use a standard Hunding's Rage Bow and the Velidreth/Molag Kena shoulders.

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Sounds interesting!

I love my Bosmer stamblade thief, but since he insists on using Concealed Weapon he can't use Surprise Attack, which rules out many stamblade builds. Anyhow:
I assume you've checked that Nirnhorned is better than Infused on the bar with the Weapon Damage enchant?

I assume the poison DPS is on the two lines with "Lebensverwustung"? So about a 6% contribution to DPS and what else -- some stamina return or something?

Yeah the DPS with nirnhoned is better than infused.
Yes that is the poison, but it doesn't return stamina. It's only damage.

exiars10 · April 2018

There is already bow/bow thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381498/everything-needed-to-know-about-bow-bow-in-pve

So you could post there. This is just variation what we all already know except you made one big mistake:
Strength of the Automaton - is a big no no on Nightblade. It's Sorcerer set and on every other stamina class it's pure DPS loss.

As Nightblade, Automaton's 5th bonus is pure waste because of:
1) Relentless Focus - Assassin's Scourge does disease damage.
2) Killer's Blade does disease damage, too.
3) Poison Injection does poison damage.
4) And Focused Aim is really only worth on Sorcerer cause Automaton set and his other skills.

Just because NMG and Sunderflame are going to "history" it doesn't mean suddenly Automaton is good for anybody except Sorcerer.

But, seeing your parse result, was that on PTS or live server? Also, proven bow/bow players push almost as you, but on 6M dummy

(to be clear, I am not one of them).

Greennik · April 2018

exiars10 wrote: »

There is already bow/bow thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381498/everything-needed-to-know-about-bow-bow-in-pve

So you could post there. This is just variation what we all already know except you made one big mistake:
Strength of the Automaton - is a big no no on Nightblade. It's Sorcerer set and on every other stamina class it's pure DPS loss.

As Nightblade, Automaton's 5th bonus is pure waste because of:
1) Relentless Focus - Assassin's Scourge does disease damage.
2) Killer's Blade does disease damage, too.
3) Poison Injection does poison damage.
4) And Focused Aim is really only worth on Sorcerer cause Automaton set and his other skills.

Just because NMG and Sunderflame are going to "history" it doesn't mean suddenly Automaton is good for anybody except Sorcerer.

But, seeing your parse result, was that on PTS or live server? Also, proven bow/bow players push almost as you, but on 6M dummy (to be clear, I am not one of them).

I know this post but i wanted to show you my build with an own forum post, so everyone can discuss about my constellations.

Strength of the Automaton is not a big mistake, because there is no other set that can compensate the 400 Weapon Damage on physical attacks. I tested all viable stamina sets for this build and they all did less damage than Strength of the Automaton. Only TFS was better, but in trials it's bad.

I use Focused Aim because it drops minor fracture on the boss (the only way to proc that without any stamplar).
And i said after the next patch TFS will may be better than Strength of the Automaton.

The DPS-tests were on the Live Server.
Did they use the dubious camoran throne on the 6M Dummy? This would explain a lot

.

N1t0 · April 2018

Nice build

Jowrik · May 2018

Hey, nice build

Similar to what i've been using a while.

Can you explain some points?

- Why Evil Hunter? You lose 2 ability slots & you could just put it on your potion & lose the movement speed.
- Vicious Ophidian seems a better set than Automaton (not a fan of Automaton because reasons stated above)?
- Can you parse on a 6mil dummy instead? A 3m dummy really does not show you much of how viable this build is for trials.
- There's no defensive ability slotted. Reaper's mark is very useful in vMA but outside that i'd not consider it over say Mirage or Vigor
- Your backbar is Poison Injection : I assume that's your Master's Bow? You lose the Master's Bow buff once you barswap so I would recommend Master's bow as a front bar with Caltrops, Snipe, Poison Injection, Trap and use Maelstrom bow on the back bar for Endless Hail (make sure you proc it & don't bar swap off it).
- Do you consider Acid Spray on there too?

Cheers

Greennik · May 2018

Jowrik wrote: »

Hey, nice build

Similar to what i've been using a while.

Can you explain some points?

- Why Evil Hunter? You lose 2 ability slots & you could just put it on your potion & lose the movement speed.
- Vicious Ophidian seems a better set than Automaton (not a fan of Automaton because reasons stated above)?
- Can you parse on a 6mil dummy instead? A 3m dummy really does not show you much of how viable this build is for trials.
- There's no defensive ability slotted. Reaper's mark is very useful in vMA but outside that i'd not consider it over say Mirage or Vigor
- Your backbar is Poison Injection : I assume that's your Master's Bow? You lose the Master's Bow buff once you barswap so I would recommend Master's bow as a front bar with Caltrops, Snipe, Poison Injection, Trap and use Maelstrom bow on the back bar for Endless Hail (make sure you proc it & don't bar swap off it).
- Do you consider Acid Spray on there too?

Cheers

Thank you,

-Evil Hunter: The Rota is complicated enough with 4 skills on each bar. Also the stamina consumption would be too high.
-Vicious Ophidian: I tested this set and it was not better than Automaton. (with TFS around 41k-42k DPS)
-See below
-Yeah mirage is a good choice
-I had never a problem pulling out the full potential of both bows with my playstyle and my equipment constellation.
-Acid Spray: Too much stamina consumption.

On the 6mil dummy i did always about 37k-38k DPS.

Greennik · August 2018

Build Update: 25.08.2018

Chaouleon · September 2018

It's too bad you removed the CP360 for those of us who have not yet reached max. It's hard to figure out how you should spread your CP's, if it's best to evenly divide them or concentrate on something specific first

Delsanab14_ESO · January 2019

I'm not gonna farm arenas *yawn*.

Emrys88 · January 2019

Greennik wrote: »

The advantage of this build is to have a mixed DPS between MagDD and StamDD. The Raidleaders can put you in a melee (Killer's Blade) or a ranged (Reaper's Mark or Resolving Vigor) spot.
Also with a ranged stamina build it is quite easy keeping up the relequen stacks

This is my viable Bow/Bow build for trials.

Hi,
Looks like a very nice build, and ty for sharing this! Me and my GF were both looking for a nice full archer/hunter character build in ESO, and we are giving yours a shot for sure!
In your post you are talking about a mixed DPS between MagDD and StamDD.. Because of that I was wondering if the Attribute points need to be split 50/50 between stam and magika, or go full stamina? We have no intentions of using melee skills, and wanna stay full ranged. Can you please advise in what attributes to take?

Thanks in advance, cheers!

FrancisCrawford · January 2019

Emrys88 wrote: »

Greennik wrote: »

The advantage of this build is to have a mixed DPS between MagDD and StamDD. The Raidleaders can put you in a melee (Killer's Blade) or a ranged (Reaper's Mark or Resolving Vigor) spot.
Also with a ranged stamina build it is quite easy keeping up the relequen stacks

This is my viable Bow/Bow build for trials.

Hi,
Looks like a very nice build, and ty for sharing this! Me and my GF were both looking for a nice full archer/hunter character build in ESO, and we are giving yours a shot for sure!
In your post you are talking about a mixed DPS between MagDD and StamDD.. Because of that I was wondering if the Attribute points need to be split 50/50 between stam and magika, or go full stamina? We have no intentions of using melee skills, and wanna stay full ranged. Can you please advise in what attributes to take?

Thanks in advance, cheers!

It is surely meant to be all stamina.

The reference to magicka is just that ranged damage builds are almost always magicka-based.