Sneak-Bow Build?

ViciousBunnii

When I play Skyrim, Bows are one of my favorite weapon to use. It's just fun for me. I created a character in ESO just for a treasure hunter, so stealth and stamina is a must for her. I was hoping I could use a bow while playing her, but from what I read, bow builds aren't a great option? I don't need this character to be "OP", just need her to be able to get through regular content in PvE without much trouble. She is a Woodelf Nightblade. I am also hoping I can get her to be invisible to enemies as well. Would I have a bad time if I attempted this? Is it even possible to be invisible? Can bow builds be powerful at all? Thanks in advance!

BloodMagicLord

you can get through "regular" pve content (i'm assuming you mean quests) by slotting a heal and spamming heavy attacks, so just do whatever feels cool xD

BloodMagicLord

That said it would be much quicker to make use of some skills in particular.
Poison arrow and volley from the bow tree are both good, and you can use shadow cloak to be invisible, and you're probably going to like the assassination skill tree too.

SodanTok

You can solo veteran dungeons with bow and those are for 4man group. So literally anything that is supposed to be played solo is perfectly playable by archer.

For being invisible, nightblade bosmer in full medium armor can stand pretty close to enemies without reveal. For other situations, there is cloak that makes you invisible even if you go through them for its duration.

Vizier

Bow is very powerful for PvE content. You'll be able to 1-2 shot just about anything but a boss.

Bow is weak for PvP. You can still have fun with it but it's difficult to make that your primary weapon in PvP.

Curtdogg47

I played from level 1-50 with only a bow. Its very hard in the beginning but gets easier as you unlock more skills and passives. Also after level 50 the more CP you get the harder your bow will hit. Having 2H or DW on your back bar helps when the fighting gets up close. But eventually you can get to where you kill most things before you need to switch bars.

PVE solo and some of the more easy non vet dungeons can be done with a bow build. I don't do trails or much of the harder vet dungeons. They just aren't my thing.

PVP, Playing a bow build in PVP is not for everyone. While a bow can be very powerful you also have to pick your targets and pick your spots where you will attack. You don't want to attack tanks and heavy armor builds and for me I try to pick target with less than 30K health.

Bow in PVP is about being sneaky and killing from range. And keeping distance between you and the enemy. If you lose your distance you lose your life.

It is very fun to play a Bow build in both PVP and PVE.

GriMTriAd

Sneaky bow build on an imperial NB is what I currently main though it's transitioning to end game bow build. Bow is fine for "normal" content. And, by normal I mean normal dungeons, normal questing, delves, dolemens, and public dungeons. For veteran and trial runs you need to be really good at your class. You can still use a bow, there are videos of the current major patch showing people using bow builds to solo the hardest content currently in the game.

I'm using 2h on the back bar (you unlock at level 15) for the easy to get heal (as the other one people recommend is Vigor which requires more PvP than I've played so far). For levels 30-45 I used Draining shot as my heal but you'll want the Whitestrakes set with that so you have a damage shield buffer for the heal to trigger. Worked really well for leveling.

Pick up Silver Shards from the fighter tree (morph of the ranged crossbow skill) as it's generally more useful in normal play than the bow version (28 meter cone that can hit up to 5 additional enemies for ~50% damage of the primary target, instead of 20 meters all enemies in cone but damage scales down on this skill due to a hidden AoE mechanic when hitting more than 5 targets)

Also, to start you'll probably want the interrupt morph of Poison Arrow instead of Poison Injection as most mobs don't really survive long enough to make the more poison damage on mobs below 50% useful until end game. The interrupt version stuns casters that can hit really hard and don't get close enough to use draining shot on.

There's a cloak ability in the NB shadow tree that gives you 2.5 seconds of full on invisibility so you can just walk past mobs you don't want to fight. Very rarely does not work (in specific sneaking situations against people with torches). Crouching/Sneaking is otherwise enough to make you "invisible" to mobs.

Hope that helps;
_WAter_

t3hdubzy

Caltrops is great as well and here are some tips

Go vampire for increase sneak speed
Use night mothers embrace for detection reduction plus weapon damage
Use sheer venom to buff up your poison injection
Use caltrops
Use retreating maneuvers for increased speed

LegendaryMage

kissesandbunnies wrote: »

When I play Skyrim, Bows are one of my favorite weapon to use. It's just fun for me. I created a character in ESO just for a treasure hunter, so stealth and stamina is a must for her. I was hoping I could use a bow while playing her, but from what I read, bow builds aren't a great option? I don't need this character to be "OP", just need her to be able to get through regular content in PvE without much trouble. She is a Woodelf Nightblade. I am also hoping I can get her to be invisible to enemies as well. Would I have a bad time if I attempted this? Is it even possible to be invisible? Can bow builds be powerful at all? Thanks in advance!

Sure, my stam nb is a wood elf too. Here's how I do a bow setup, I think you're basically asking about something like that?

Narvuntien

I greatly enjoy just one shoting enemies out of stealth with a bow. So I built basically the same character, Bosmer Nightblade...
Then I switched to one shotting enemies upclose as well, there is something very satifying about going on an Onslaught through a mob.

Now I have a build that is both.

5 Clever Alchemist. Sharpened Bow and Nirnhoned Greatsword.
5 Strenght of the automation. Bonus damage to physical damage abilities.
1 Veldireth or Krag'ahs.
I am a vampire.

I am still playing around with my ability bars atm but I was using this.

Greatsword: Ambush, Shadowy disguise, Suprise attack, Executioner, Rally, Onslaught.
Bow: Relentless focus, Magelight, Poison injection, Focused Aim, Vigor, Dawnbreaker

Sometimes I replace Snipe (focused aim) with Endless hail for dungeons but Snipe is my major damage source when questing. And Beast trap and Caltrops are good options for some content. I have also used a fighter guild based build for more weapon damage but less useful abilities. Camofluaged hunter why are you so bad :'(?

Rally, Focus, Magelight, use your Cloak pop a potion.
That is 38% (20% empower +8% focus + 10% NB passive) bonus on your next attack from stealth with a 20% extra weapon damage and it will Crit, plus a ton of weapon damage from clever alchemist buff.

There are Invisibility potions.

FrancisCrawford

Bombard is an underrated bow skill for PvE. A lot of melee enemies die before they ever reach you.

My Bosmer bow/DW thief is pretty weak in boss fights, when he uses 3 skill slots on movement skills (Retreating Maneuvers, Concealed Weapon and some morph of Cloak), plus two item set bonuses on stealth (he wears Night Terror & Night's Silence). When I swap gear & skills before a boss fight to pure combat load-out, however, he does OK. Also, I got him Vigor recently, and that makes a big difference. (I didn't have the patience to PvP all the way to Caltrops yet.)

psychotic13

Bow builds are good, the only thing they may not pull their weight in is end game veteran trials, that's it.

In PvP archers are great, I believe fear turbo done vma with a bow build, and it will suffice for normal trials and most dungeons tbh.

What people say and what's true are two totally different things, most people haven't tried the odd builds so just assume they're crap and would never work. Don't take someone's word for it when they haven't tried themselves.

poochie

Was using HR set with bow doing buffs debuffs etc on a target and was critting a lot with like 83%~ crit and like 72%~ with 2hand or daggers yet when I switched to TBS the crit% went way down and my damage didn't increase. I can never seem to break 30k+ crit with focused aim. I'm using TBS bow. Never done Maelstrom or the veteran version. One would think with 28k+ stam unbuffed I would be hitting 40k or something.

Stannum

Btw does someone know if Vicecannon is still good for bow ganking in PvP?

LegendaryMage

Stannum wrote: »

Btw does someone know if Vicecannon is still good for bow ganking in PvP?

No, it will take you out of stealth and cloak, get you killed quite a lot as a result. The damage is not that great, it's more for sustainable damage over time, but the healing aspect of the set that takes the caster out of cloak/stealth needs to be addressed in order to become more viable. Simply put, as of now it's only good for a melee/bow setup that's there to stay and fight and the more opponents that you have on you, the worse it will be.