I'd love to play archer but a few questions!

Alpen

Firstly are there way too many archers already in the game?

Are all archers very squishy for pvp?

Can I do very high damage in PvE and PvP as an archer?

If I do go archer what class would you recommend??

XxBradeyxX

Honestly archers are really bad both PvP and PvE if you dont know what you are doing. I have an archer that I play sometime and he is ok. I am stam DK wearing 5 marksman 5 spriggan or 5 Viper with 2 slime craw. Skill wise it depends PvE or PvP if you do PvP go for penatration but if you go PvE then stack crit. But I really wouldnt reccomend spending time making an archer build.

phermitgb

Wow...prepare for a deluge of suggestions, most of which I suspect will read along the lines of "it's nearly impossible to play *just* an archer, as there's only one bow weapon line and a few bow-ish related class skills, meaning that you'll max out your bow line options very quickly and end up with about 100 sp's to spend in other things, plus you'll want to be more versatile than just using a bow all the time blah blah blah..."

sadly, a little of the above is basically true - your skills in ESO are divided into 3 lines of class skills, currently...*counts on fingers for a moment* 6 weapon skill lines (2h, dual wield, weapon and shield, bow, destruction magic, heal magic), and a veritable cornucopia of guild skills, racial lines, crafting lines, etc, etc...

there's only 1 bow/archer ONLY weapon skill line, it has 5 skills, 1 ultimate, and I think 4 passives in it - using up a grand total of maybe 24 skill points, which you should have by maybe level 15, possibly 20 if you skip all the skyshards somehow

the point being, you can definitely be an archer, but it's going to use up only a fraction of your total character abilities, and for utility reasons as well as just the fact that there's only so much you can spend on bow anyway, you'll probably want to expand your idea for an archer to include some other skill lines

all of that having been said, I think nightblade might be your best bet for a bow character - a couple of the class skills in the NB line are kind of archer-like, and the fighter's guild skill line has some crossbow skills, and possibly the pvp line or the undaunted line might have one or two each, I can't really remember

I don't recall for certain, but I don't think sorc or templar have anything specifically bow or x-bow like - I still haven't played my dragonknight so I'm less sure on that one

that's the best advice I can give off the top of my head - hope some of it helped

BlackSparrow

I enjoy my archer, but it can be a tough build if you don't know how to kite.

Don't think it will be like Skyrim, where you can insta-kill an enemy with one sneak attack... using bow as your primary weapon means AOEing and crowd controling while you run backwards in circles. Either that, or put a melee weapon on your back bar for once an enemy closes on you.

phermitgb wrote: »

I don't recall for certain, but I don't think sorc or templar have anything specifically bow or x-bow like - I still haven't played my dragonknight so I'm less sure on that one

Sorc and Templar could be played that way, depending on how you do it. A summoner sorc, for example, can have the pets tank while the player pewpews the enemies down, which means focusing more on damage than on crowd control.

My archer is a Templar, and that works pretty well. Templar has a couple magicka-based skills that work at a distance (Radiant Destruction aka Jesus Beam being the most notorious XD ), and built-in heals never hurt. As a stamina build, though, class magicka-based skills can be a bit weak, so that's something to keep in mind.

But the point is: if you want to try it, go ahead and try it. You can always restat or reroll if you decide you don't like it.

Minalan

Bow user PVP in Cyrodiil:

1. Grab bow.
2. Spam light attack in a HUGE group of others doing the same. Hear nothing but TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG as your group sends mountains of arrows at the enemy.

3. Wait for ZOS to buff the playstyle in 13, because left clicking is skilled play.

IcyDeadPeople

I don't know about PVE, but for PVP, bow is one of the best weapons for ganking. You can do a lot of damage from stealth.

RavenSworn

I've main a Nightblade bow build before it was cool ( it is still not cool but hey, who cares! ) and for what I know, Nightblade does have the best complementary play style for a bow build.

however, the bow requires you to either have a secondary weapon that buffs you, which in this case, either the Two hander or Dual wield. if you do plan to use your bow as your primary weapon though, the two hander has better buffs that you can handle as a bow user. it's basically a stat weapon.

an example of a bow / 2hander build would be:

Poison Injection ( opener and execute )
Venom Spray (AOE)
Relentless Focus ( sustain and additional dmg)
Camouflaged Hunter ( crit buff while slotted )
Shadowy Disguise ( initiation with guaranteed critical hit )
Toxic Barrage ( Bow ultimate )

Rally ( brutality buff and HOTs )
Double Take ( minor damage mitigation, speed buff )
Reaper's Mark ( heal and berserk buff on kill, debuffs enemy )
Rearming Trap ( critical damage buff )
Utility slot - Shadow Image / Mass Hysteria / Crippling Grasp / Siphoning Attacks
Aggressive Warhorse / Shooting Star / Soul Harvest / Flawless Dawnbreaker

depending on the situation, you can slot in Mass hysteria or shadow image for escape. a well timed teleport back to the image might save you, and it gives a minor maim debuff on the enemy too. Crippling grasp are really just for chasing down a prey but do bear in mind that both crippling and double take won't stack, unless you decide to go Mirage for more mitigation. Siphoning attacks are really for sustain and it pairs well with Relentless focus.

ultimate wise, it's really up to you. AW for more group play, shooting star for that finisher and ultimate generation so you can proc more Toxic Barrage. don't think Dawn breaker will work well here but it's an option. the other Nightblade ultimates are not as useful to you as a primary bow user but its all up to you. I've had some success with Soul Tether since it does an AOE stun that is quite useful in controlling groups as well as having good heals.

Hope this helps! - RavenSworn.