eso skill levelling

amatic

How exactly does the skill system work?.
Right now my main is an archer and i have venom shot and scatter shot, which i like....but am i doing myself a disservice by not picking up the later skills in the tree (i.e. arrow spray and snipe).
Tl;dr...are later skills in tree more powerfull and usefull or is it preference.

UrQuan

It's largely preference.

Personally, whenever I use a bow I always always always have Venom Arrow on my skill bar - it's just so incredibly useful because it gives you a long-range ability to apply a DoT as well as interrupting spellcasters. The interrupting spellcasters part is really the main reason I always have it on my bar. Oh hey there healer way in the back, you think you're going to channel a heal on someone? Think again!

I used to like to use Scatter Shot (and the Draining Shot morph) to keep melee enemies away from me, but I've changed my philosophy somewhat and now if melee enemies start to get close to me I just weapon swap from bow to either dual wield or two-handed (depending on which character I'm using).

Arrow Spray and its morphs are great for dealing damage to groups of mobs and giving you some crowd control (especially Bombard).

Snipe and its morphs is awesome for opening up from stealth at a distance. I think it's got the longest range of any ability in the game (someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong and there's a longer range one that I've forgotten), and it does a pretty massive amount of damage if you're doing it at max range and you have the Long Shots passive.

The only bow skill that I don't really like is Volley and its morphs. I just find that it's rare for enemies to stay inside the AoE long enough for it to be worthwhile. The only way I've found it to be worth using is on a sorcerer with a clannfear - you command the clannfear to go in first and attack a group of mobs, and while they're fighting your clannfear you drop a Volley on them. I know there are other similar tactics I could use to keep them within the AoE, but I'm still just not very fond of Volley.

amatic

Nice..thanks for great feedback..yeah i dont like volley and got it morphed to scorched earth,but never hit well with it...ill wait for snipe and i got my points in longshot already.
Again thank you.

Lynx7386

The only bow skill that I don't really like is Volley and its morphs. I just find that it's rare for enemies to stay inside the AoE long enough for it to be worthwhile. The only way I've found it to be worth using is on a sorcerer with a clannfear - you command the clannfear to go in first and attack a group of mobs, and while they're fighting your clannfear you drop a Volley on them. I know there are other similar tactics I could use to keep them within the AoE, but I'm still just not very fond of Volley.

There's a few ways to use volley to good effect. On a sorceror, cast volley and as soon as the cast goes out you can use encase to root the entire group for 4-5 seconds. On dragonknights, burning talons can pair well with it, but you have to be closer to the enemy for the talons to work.

For any other class, or in combination with the above, you can spam bombard, which will keep the enemies immobilized and inside volley's area of effect. My sorceror is an archer, and I prefer to use the volley -> encase method and then spam acid spray (the other morph for arrow spray/bombard) for extra damage and damage over time. It also works wonders to drop caltrops down in the area for extra damage and a snare.