Best class with bow

Razmion · March 2015

Hello! I am a bit confused. I wanted to play with a bow as my weapon, and I thought that Nightblade was the right class to play the bow, so I made one. (I saw one guy play as a bow NB and he was really cool.) But now i'm confused, none of the nightblade's skill line seem to match up with using a bow. So my question is, is a NB the right class for this? Am I just missing what the skill lines really do? Maybe I should make a sorcerer instead or something

Thanks for help!!

f047ys3v3n · March 2015

lol, no class is best with a bow right now because it's damage is so low post 1.6. Talk about a nerf hammer. It's like 6.5k dps max dps down from 1.1k in 1.5. It's almost a 50% relative nerf, the biggest one in the change except maybe light armor. All the serious tanky pvp players got their way. They can now safely seige again with no healers or guards without worry of pesky snipers.

jelliedsoup · March 2015

i get up to 15k but am a glass cannon weapon and stam build.

Zsymon · March 2015

f047ys3v3n wrote: »

lol, no class is best with a bow right now because it's damage is so low post 1.6. Talk about a nerf hammer. It's like 6.5k dps max dps down from 1.1k in 1.5. It's almost a 50% relative nerf, the biggest one in the change except maybe light armor. All the serious tanky pvp players got their way. They can now safely seige again with no healers or guards without worry of pesky snipers.

I don't think bow damage got nerfed, Snipe still has the same basic damage numbers as Wrecking Blow, I think it might be a problem with your gear, since things changed quite a lot there. Set bonuses add a lot for example, while ring enchantments add practically nothing.

Then again weapon damage rings didn't add much before 1.6 either, so maybe I am wrong.

rosarose · March 2015

I play a wood elf nighblade with bow as a main weapon, and so far I take on quests with 5 levels above my character without any problem. I love this build and will say that nighblade and bow works just fine together

Dekkameron · March 2015

Whilst many NB skills don't really appear to have much synergy with using a bow, they really do. Apart from all the lovely passives like having a base +30% stam regen, skills like Mark Target and Dark cloak, siphoning attacks, cripple all allow awesome pvp potential for hit and run style tactics.

Lava_Croft · March 2015

There's no better option than Nightblade. Nothing even comes close.

And good snipers still hurt like a truck. The nerf to snipe just made the bad snipers stand out more.

xANTIxMATTERx · March 2015

With the right gear, spec and rotation a NB bow dps can be the highest single target damage dealer in PVE on stationary fights at 20 meters or further away.

Robbmrp · March 2015

Razmion wrote: »

Hello! I am a bit confused. I wanted to play with a bow as my weapon, and I thought that Nightblade was the right class to play the bow, so I made one. (I saw one guy play as a bow NB and he was really cool.) But now i'm confused, none of the nightblade's skill line seem to match up with using a bow. So my question is, is a NB the right class for this? Am I just missing what the skill lines really do? Maybe I should make a sorcerer instead or something

Thanks for help!!

It's Race that benefits you for the bow, not the Class with ESO. Bosmer or Khajiit would be the best race for bow. The link below is a great resource for the Races available and their bonuses.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/02/racial-comparison/

Razmion · March 2015

Okay thanks for good advice! I got some new things to think about

DHale · March 2015

Bow and NB work well together with Reapers mark and focus aim or Lethal arrow. Weave in light attack and vemon arrow and you are a wrecking ball. magnum shot people back twelve meters then ambush them or shadow to reposiiton from stealth. So many options.

Med Armor Hundings Rage, Ashen or Torug or Eale eye or some version of the drop set thats increases weapon damage Hawk Eye Morag Tong (?).

Play Khaljit

be a vamp or at the least a ww for stamina regen

Camo hunter

Two shot everyone. Just dont hit flappy flapps. NB is the new DK (just don't tell DK's)

Dekkameron · March 2015

DHale wrote: »

Two shot everyone. Just dont hit flappy flapps. NB is the new DK (just don't tell DK's)

DK make pretty good Bow users as well. The ability to play ping-pong with other ranged enemies using Reflective scales is great as well as having Green dragon blood and other defenive skills for when it gets hairy.

Cody · March 2015

The Nightblade is hands down the best class with a bow. The NBs abilities and passives, while not appearing to at first glance, go well with a bow build(especially MA bow builds)

kijima · March 2015

Lava_Croft wrote: »

There's no better option than Nightblade. Nothing even comes close.

And good snipers still hurt like a truck. The nerf to snipe just made the bad snipers stand out more.

This! ^

Gear used, your build and skill synergy go a long way to making a good bow build.

On my bow bar as an NB bosmer, with things like flawless dawnbreaker up, and camo hunter (you just never know who a vamp is, plus it still helps with the extra 4% non vamps, and when wearing hundigs and have the shadow walker gear fitted, I can hit like a truck, plus I have the right weapons and enchants. Problem is, I can run out of resources easily spamming abilities like snipe.

Swap my gear to something that keeps me alive and pop siphoning attacks on my bar, with bombard, snip and venom, I never run out of resources period and I have more tricks up my sleeve, one is a big hit, the other an interrupt and the other a CC of sorts.

Glass cannons generally get wrecked pretty quickly in cyro, great in PvE though.

pacmanatbest · June 2015

So i have gone wrong making a sorcerer/ bow user?

Addihul · June 2015

We have a couple templar bow builds in our guild pulling 20k. Huge CP though. Still.. Sorc should be able to pull decent numbers if you have the gear, rotation, and CP. However nothing compares to NB.

ThatNeonZebraAgain · June 2015

Dekkameron wrote: »

DHale wrote: »

Two shot everyone. Just dont hit flappy flapps. NB is the new DK (just don't tell DK's)

DK make pretty good Bow users as well. The ability to play ping-pong with other ranged enemies using Reflective scales is great as well as having Green dragon blood and other defenive skills for when it gets hairy.

I fought a 2h/bow DK as a 2h/bow NB and was very impressed. He just wore me down. The flappy wings shut down my bow attacks (and ranged HoTs), forcing me to get in melee range where talons and other close-range attacks made it a tough fight that I ultimately lost, not to mention there's no way to complete with GDB (unless you have Vigor).

kylerjalen · June 2015

Are you kidding? With my Nightblade Reaper's Mark, Relentless Focus, Focused Aim and the Flawless Dawnbreaker Ultimate I can oneshot so many npcs like nothing.
I can't even do arrow damage with my Templar this way.
Not sure about DK or Sorc but damn... I be loooovin my NB

Johngo0036 · June 2015

NB is definitely the best class,
You can go invisible and shoot from the shadows getting bonus damage,

you also have the ability to mark your target doing more damage,

Grim focus is also a good skill to increase your damage.

The best RACE is bosmer.

F7sus4 · June 2015

Nightblade. And then, surprisingly, a Dragonknight.

Animal_Mother · June 2015

I really like Templar with Bow. Pew pew and then when the mob is close Jabs.

Johngo0036 · June 2015

Yeah i have just rolled a DK bow and 2H and i am really happy with it.

You have your flappy flaps to reflect other bow users, you have other shields aswell,
Green dragon blood for stam and health regen.

Molten weapons to increase damage.
as well as rally from 2H skills..

the 2 ultimates, corrosive armour and dragon leap.
AWESOME

Tchey · June 2015

I'm a noob orc templar with a bow, and i'm fine. The most important part is that i "feel' it.

zachary4828 · June 2015

Damage wise bow is pretty self sufficient so it isn't your active damage abilities as much as your passive and utility spells that set classes apart. NB has a nice stamina regen passive while sorc gets stam/magika cost reduction.

Bottom line is that class isn't that big a deal for a bow user and you can get pretty similar numbers using any class. What it really comes down to is your individual play style and which class has the utility spells that best suit you.

likewow777 · June 2015

I love my NB DW/Bow build. She does insane burst damage, usually 1-2 shotting everything, and probably pissing off other people who are in the area and can't get an attack in (no, I don't do this on purpose, it just sometimes happens). But, that said, I made a Sorcerer Bow user on PTS a while back, and that was interesting and fun to play. Plus, I have a Templar now that's probably going to get bow on the back bar, since they have a healthy amount of ranged class abilities, and Repentance is godlike for stamina builds.

Each setup is/was fun to play. The Sorc took getting used to and was weird, but in a good way. I think NB is the most natural companion class to Bow, but I think any class can be great with it.

gurneyhalleck00 · July 2015

Animal_Mother wrote: »

I really like Templar with Bow. Pew pew and then when the mob is close Jabs.

Yep I've been using this. Imperial Templar using kiting method and they mobs get close spear the hell out of them and self heal......has been working well. Stamina heavy, then magika and use food for health buff