****I added bold in hopes of making it easier to pick out important details for those that do not want to read this wall of text

Hey everyone, I recently hit vr2 using 95% bow. I've read that it will get borderline impossible to keep using as I continue to climb the vet ranks. I'm wondering, what do you think would need to change to allow the bow to be competitive? Right now, everyone seems to think if I'm using a bow in dungeons then I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not sure what the normal dps of someone in vr2 is, but I normally only end up sustaining 400ish. Although the numbers may be low for group play, the control I feel like I have solo is immense.

I wanted to take a minute to get the feedback from the community as to my bolded quested above as well as my current NB bow build. Feel free to comment on it, ask questions, or offer criticism/advice. I may add a video later to show how I use this build with the shade in a way that I haven't seen effectively done as of yet.

The following is what I have been doing to solo content on my bow using Nightblade. I rolled a nightblade to play in this way specifically as I've always played as a bow wielding wood elf who uses illusion type magic in other TES games.

My current solo build is:
Attributes
I put most of my points in stam (29), while health and magika both have 10. The idea for my build is to use stam as my main damage resource while my magika is being used as a type of utility.

Gear
I'm currently using the 5 set of Kyne's Flight (30% snare effect on bow hits)
the 3 set for of the warlock (gives me magika when I fall below 33%)
and the death's wind set (knockback at low health) just because I could make it.
This gear puts me at the Stam softcap when using food and gets me very close to the magika softcap as well. I have 70ish regen for both as well. My health is a tad low at only 1800 (I use the Lord stone to increase it and enchant the death's wind pieces with health). This gives me a nice balance between all stats giving me some leeway with my play-style. I choose to use the warlock set (despite this being a stam based build) for those moments where I need more utility magic it basically adds another 500ish magika to my resource.

Skill setup
Bow
1. Swallow Soul (ranged dot that heals me and increases all healing I take by 10%)

2. Magnum shot (I use it to cc multiple mobs due to the disorient or push myself/knock back solo mobs. This is by far the greatest bow ability imo)

3. Venom Arrow (used as the main stam damage and also interrupts and stuns spell casters, it has a relatively low stam cost so I like to weave it in between attacks)

4. Summon Shade - 2nd morph, I forget the name. The one that allows you to teleport to it. (This ability allows me to kite forever. Mobs that are immune to snares or knockbacks can still be avoided by running away from the shadow, as it stands in place, and then switching to the shadows location for maximum distance. This was a fun ability with a low magika cost that I low to use. Not to mention it causes the target to do 15% less damage)

5. Leeching strikes (replenishes magika, stam, and health on every light or heavy attack. Allows for infinite ability usage and allows me to stay alive during those times when you cannot avoid getting hit)

Ultimate: Soul shred, or whatever it's called. (This is the ultimate from the soul magic line. I use this mainly because it does massive damage from range and applies a 70% snare to it. I use this alot in conjunction with the shade. I will often run to max distance, let the mob get close to me and teleport away, using the ultimate right after.

The first bar is the only one that really matters in this build.
The second bar gives me freedom to pick the weapon (considering double bow and using the second bar as an opener bar). Currently the only major abilities I'm using on the second bar are Shadow Cloak and Concealed weapon. The stealth is a must have in any nightblade build imo and concealed weapon gives so much play potention with the stun. Because this build has both high magika and stam, my class abilities that do damage hit extremely high as well.

THE MAIN POINT
To find a way to use the bow effectively across all areas of the game. I've had no trouble from 1-vr2 and am close to being vr3. I know the game changes drastically as the vet ranks continue so I look forward to the challenge of finding a way to make it work. If I have to use agony to cc a mob and magnum shot to cc another to take on groups of 3 later on so be it. I'm determined to hit v12 using only the bow, even if it's a long painful process.

POTENTIAL
I think the Haste ability (once it properly works with bows) will def be something to try out as I believe it will add even more sustain using leeching strikes and do considerably more damage.

I've also considered using the morph for the NB fear ability that allows it to become a placed trap, as that may be a nice ability to have in a clutch moment, although the magika cost seems kind of steep.

Snipe seems pointless, but in pvp it can def be fun. Worth trying it in a potential opening bar.

Mark Target- I've heard this is bugged and is not actually applying the effect to the target, so I haven't really bothered with it yet.

Bombard - really good for the snare and immobilize if you know the targets can indeed be effected by such. Always options for creating a AoE NB bow build, but it seems faster to kill targets one at a time.

I hope to hear feedback from you all on the above question and possibly my build. As you may have noticed, while my class is a nightblade and does benefit from taking those stealth shots, I am not restricted to the first hit. My build focuses on long range physical damage that offers an immense amount of sustain and cc as well as the potential for mind games in pvp (teleporting to the shadow and stealthing). I hope this different perspective allow spawns new build paths for you that you may not have thought of and I look forward to reading the responses.

Thank you for your time,
Trueche