Best race for bow/bow

Izarra

Hi, after many years of not playing I'm back and wanted to know what would be the best race to play with bow / bow.

My objetive is playing pve and leveling solo or occasionally with a friend.

The class i have chosen is Warden, but I'm indecisive about the race.

I have read some threads and the most recomended are: Orc, Khajiit, Dark Elf, Redguard and Wood Elf.

What are the differences in late game pve between one and another? Because, for example, the bow skill line passive of Wood Elfs is quite useless but for leveling and i suppose that all races will have this kind of passives.

And for pvp which one would be best?

Thank you all.

Stx

The best races for a pve dps build would be dark elf, orc, or khajiit. If playing solo where you may want a little more sustain, wood elf is a nice option. Redguard is just meh, they have great sustain for a bow build but that's about it.

Unfortunately in the current game, sustain isn't as important because you can get a lot from just food. So sustain races fall behind unless you are pvping in which case bow builds usually just want to build for burst so the dps racials are better anyway. But wood elf is still a solid pvp race imo.

Syrpynt

Actually, I'm gonna have to disagree with the sustain subject. It's been pretty bad lately, with the latest update. But that's neither here nor there since it's likely a bug.

I have to confirm it, but sustain is supposedly 0.25 of what it is outside of combat, when it should be 0.50

Ippokrates

Syrpynt wrote: »

Actually, I'm gonna have to disagree with the sustain subject. It's been pretty bad lately, with the latest update. But that's neither here nor there since it's likely a bug.

I have to confirm it, but sustain is supposedly 0.25 of what it is outside of combat, when it should be 0.50

I have the same impression. Since last patch it is a drama. I even had to take Serpent to run through vMA, which i didn't need before. Not exactly sure why. I mean there is a little drop in CP and a little increase in brawler, but still... stamina goes like crazy -_-

But when it comes to bow race - take Orc. You have really nice bonus to dmg AND bonus to cost & speed of sprinting - i found it quite useful while taking range fights. It is not much, but in a world of minmaxers every percent count

Izarra

Well, so now my top choices are Orc > Dunmer > Bosmer.

I was very sure about being a warden but now i am not. Is warden a good class for bows or sorcerer and nightblare are ahead?

Sluggy

Depends on a variety of things but for PvP I find there is a good reason to play just about any race. In PvP on a warden, even a Breton can be very good since you'll need to rely on a lot of mag-based skills.

In PvE, generally crit is king so Khajit would be the obvious first choice, after that Dark Elf, Orc, and Maybe High Elf. But really who cares about race choice in PvE anyway? It makes such a small difference.

AcadianPaladin

My archers are Bosmer. But of course, so are my mages. . . . So clearly I chose race only for roleplaying purposes and, fortunately, race is not that big a deal when it comes to efficiency.

As far as class, yes, warden is good pure archer. I have a bowsorc who is my fave archer in terms of what I do (PvE solo). She is tops for fun, survival, sustain and damage. My bow warden is a close second and also quite effective. I also have a fully developed bowplar and bowblade which are both resting since they can't compete with my sorc or warden.

Ratzkifal

If you are planning on using the Bow ultimate and spam snipe in PvP then Redguard is a decent option as they get their ult a little bit cheaper and have great sustain.
Bosmer are also neat with the extra penetration and increased movementspeed and sustain equal to Redguard's.
Orcs are a decent pick too with their extra damage but they also sprint faster at lower cost.
Dunmer also have the extra damage but the main difference is that they have fire resistance instead of extra max health.
Khajiit have synergy between their bonus to critical damage and the bow's bonus to critical strike chance. Whether this is stronger or weaker than the damage bonus Orcs and Dunmer have depends on your total weapon damage value.

In PvE Orc, Dunmer and Khajiit are your best options with Dunmer and Khajiit having the added benefit of being able to support magicka builds should you decide that bows aren't the right weapon for you. Redguards and Bosmer are weaker in PvE, but it should be noted the differences are so small it doesn't exactly matter which race you pick. They can all provide the damage necessary for the toughest content in the game and only the top 1% really need to care about these differences because then it is a competition for the top scores.

Honorable mentions:
Altmer have (for some strange reason) a bonus to weapon damage just like Orcs and Dunmer, but they lack the stamina.
Imperials have lower costs on everything, which includes breakfree, dodgeroll, sneak and ultimate cost, making them good for PvP and slightly worse than Redguard in PvE.

Generally the choice of race, while not completely irrelevant, is mainly a matter of personal preference.

MudcrabAttack

I can try to answer about the late game: In a world where you can find a stamina trial group who caters to their lack of penetration, Dunmer or Khajiit are the obvious BIS, and you would pick something like a sorcerer, necromancer or warden.

However I’m in a trials guild that doesn’t offer all-stamina compositions. Same thing goes for many other people playing late-game. I play Bosmer all the time anyway, and I think there may be a case for them in the current state of the trial scene where lots of people are always running mages in vet trials.

Mage groups don’t offer any extra penetration for stam builds, and Bosmer offer 950 penetration along with extra regen, which is nice since bow heavy attacking to replenish stamina takes an awfully long time.

Nightblade has plenty of extra penetration when attacking from behind. Max penetration can be reached in mage groups with Bosmer (950), nightblade (2970), Tzogvin (1487), 1 piece of light armor (938), 700 from CP, 11000 provided by the tank. This means all the other parts of the build are exactly what they should be, like precise instead of sharpened bow, thief mundus instead of lover, etc.

Since I don’t need regen food, I use max health/ max stamina food for the extra survival, 25k max health is nice for trying out new difficulties, or using thrassian stranglers in 4 player dungeons . No part of the build has any extra stamina regen besides the Bosmer racial. I don’t even need to use leeching strikes, so I substitute another damage skill, and slot soul harvest for the ultimate gains on every kill rather than incapacitating strike - which some people use to provide resources for each light attack landed.

Ippokrates

Izarra wrote: »

Well, so now my top choices are Orc > Dunmer > Bosmer.

I was very sure about being a warden but now i am not. Is warden a good class for bows or sorcerer and nightblare are ahead?

Well, i can only advise to make at least one toon for each class and check what works for you. Otherwise playing game could turn into slightly annoying. And you can always use those toons for crafting writs ;p

But sure, every class have some advantages. NB would give you a powerful oneshoter with cloak that guarantee a crit hit and teleport to escape - so it is nice option for pvp.

Warden can offer a pet, a decent healing, boost to speed and quite nice shields to protect you during range fights - i found it quite useful during veteran arenas.

Sorcerer also can offer you a pet, a bonus to speed, a little bit of healing but you can also use come CC and of course famous streak to move in any direction

Even DK could be taken into consideration with their bonus to poison dmg and some nice defence - useful during harder solo content - although you wouldn't have much use for their most powerful skills which is shame...


So everything depends on your idea for character you wanna play.

RandomKodiak

Hi welcome back. Going to start with bow/bow dps is in the best place it's been in the three years I have been playing. Still behind more traditional power builds but not nearly as far. For classes Warden is an excellent choice. Warden, NB and Sorc can all excel in PvE with bow/bow. As said above the top dps races are Khajiit, Dunmer and Orc, with that though as you said you were already set on Warden do not count out Bosmer and Redguard as Wardens are resource sponges. Dps wise the difference between races from top to bottom is about 6% at top end in all the best gear so go with what you like and think you can stand to look at and listen to for the life of the toon. Once again welcome back hope you enjoy.

RandomKodiak

Also PvE only not getting into PvP, Wardens do the most damage overall, NBs are just behind but have to close for execute or fall far behind and Sorcs have the best survivability but are slightly lower dps. For reference I have done every class as a bow/bow and my main is a Bosmer stamsorc bow/bow that has vet clears in all but 4 dungeons and evrey trial except Rockgrove (the newest).



21 million trial dummy in running gear and skills

Izarra

If Wardens consume resorces very fast, there is only a 6% difference between all the races and i already have a Khajit, I think that Bosmer will be the chosen one.
Elfs are my favourite race and exploring the world with a Bosmer that uses animals and a bow may be the most suitable case for me.

Thank you all for your help

SwoopIM

I have a Wood Elf/Bosmer bow/bow build on one of my alts. Good stam, sustain, speed, and pen. Briarheart, Ven. Smite, and Slimecraw. Inspired by Lord of the Rings.

AcadianPaladin

Wood Elf. They are small targets and BiS for cute.