Bow/Bow Builds

Eradrann

So I'm a a bit of a returning player, after a hiatus from 2017-2021ish... I've always enjoyed bow gameplay/role playing in most games.

I remember back in the day it wasn't very viable here and I got a lot of hate and/or aggressive messages/criticism for doing so. I'm curious what everyone thinks now-a-days?
Any tips or suggestions on how I can be a "better" DPS player? I have looked at various builds (mostly for PvE) just to see what's available skill wise and such.

I have a decent selection of bow related gear: Hawk's Eye, Wilderqueen's Arch, (non perfected) Vateshran and Maelstrom Bows, etc. And I'm a master crafter so crafted sets like Order's Wrath are also available to me.

I can post the setup I'm running later if needed.

Soarora

I don't think there's anything wrong with playing bow/bow. The problem is people who stand way behind the healer to get the most out of long shots. I think bow/bow is used in Asylum Sanctorum, could take a look at what is run there and convert it into something usable everywhere.

MudcrabAttack

Bow/bow seems pretty good for dps, if the main spammable wasn’t both a snare and a channel, a lot more people might be using it. Lately a lot of players latched on to heavy attack lightning staff builds with oakensoul ring for ranged gameplay since it seems so easy to manage. I’m in my 5th year as an archer player, and the playstyle still holds its own quite well. The key to success with a bow build is light attack weaving, since 25% of its power comes from hawkeye stacks, and don’t stray far from the healer.

The best sets are generally the same for any playstyle, Relequen & Pillar of Nirn / master bow for back bar - they’re all great for single target DPS

Sul Xan, Coral Riptide, Tzogvin, azureblight, runecarver are all great for AOE (maelstrom bow for back bar).

CP5

As someone who runs Bow/Bow often, it can work really well and you bring a lot of utility to the table as well. I really like snipe as a spammable, and with the hawk eye passive your whole weapon line can hit hard. So you need to make sure you're able to keep hawk eye up at 5 stacks as much as you can, and don't fall in the trap of 'maximizing long shots,' the bonus damage based on distance is more of a perk for when it becomes relevant, not something you should be positioning yourself poorly to take advantage of. And if you need aoe dps, give spamming arrow spray a shot, it works remarkably well whenever you have 3~ targets you need to damage at once.

Zodiarkslayer

It can be fun. But usually isn't.

3 things:
1 ) Use Crushing Weapon from psijic order skill tree as main spammable. Easy to weave on a Bow and Major Breach.
2 ) You are going to have to use 4 to 5 abilities for buffing, because Bow skill tree has only Major Brutality. Most of which will be either melee or non damage abilities. Wich leaves you with 5 abilities for doing damage. Might as well use Oakensoul at this point.
3 ) Watch your penetration. It might be better to use a one piece Kra'gh or Valkyn Skoria than Slimecraw.

That should be your frontbar:
Class support ability or Class DPS
Class DoT
Crushing Weapon
Poison Injection
Arrow Barrage or class DoT
Ballista/ Class Ult/ Meteor

As for Sets, use stat dense sets, like Order's Wrath.
With Oakensoul sets like Pillar of Nirn make more sense than Relequen.
Briarheart works well too.

vsrs_au

I'd use bows in ESO if they actually had a realistic range. Medieval bows had ranges of hundreds of meters, but in Tamriel it's a very short range weapon.