DKsUnite wrote: »

Most DK archers are one shot gankers using Alcast's build. I have thought of doing a pure archer DK/NB but like you said you would need 2h on back bar coz dragon blood is quite crap. Good luck though

Ah, okay, I wouldnt want to play a Ganker role. Was thinking more along a Witchhunter style. Less shoot & hide, more "here I am, get some fire & poison" lol

I have tried to run this kind of build on my DK since ESO released on PC. Things are a lot different now than then and a whole lot better, however there are some big problems with this setup.

DK's have no movement capabilities that are meaningful to Archers, Take Flight can help you run if you have an enemy to jump to, however offensively from range Take Flight is easily dodged.

Reflective Scales is nice for dualing other ranged targets and for running, however the duration is incredibly short 4s and the magicka cost means you can only cast it 3-4 times at best.

With the current state of PVP combat damage and healing scale way to high thus negating DoT effects, the whole Ardent Flame skill tree is pretty much useless for PVP combat as it stands right now. Especially so on a bow build as you won't have the armor to stand around long enough for them to provide any meaningful damage, and that does not even consider purges.

There is no access currently to Major Brutality through DK skill tree although they are planning on bringing it through Molten Weapons morph in the Thieves Guild DLC. However that said it will cost magicka and not heal you thus it will still be a downgrade from Rally. If you max Alchemy you could get this through pots if you really wanted it without taking 2H or DW.

Providing you do not have 2H and thus Rally, the only reliable heal for stam DK's is Vigor, Dragon Blood and Igneous Shield both scale craptastically in PVP.

Bow's already do less damage than other weapons, thus to conclude with less damage, poor healing, and poor mobility running a bow/bow DK is very weak for open combat. You can still gank fairly well with it as DK's have access to 40% weapon damage buff and by maxing weapon damage and opening from stealth with full charged bow attack and Silver Shards you can virtually one shot many players.

Cuyler wrote: »

DO eeet! Stamina DK DW/Bow build is gud. You'll need maelstrom weapons though.

This ^
That buffed flurry and other dots are insane.
And the bow looks really cool

Seems people really don't understand the OP, I know that feeling because I got the same responses when I asked.

Long story short OP, answer is no, Bow/Bow is not viable for a DPS build. That being said, I'm trying to make it work because I want to play the way I want to play, *** everyone else. If it turns out I'm not welcome in certain groups for certain content so be it.

yodased wrote: »

oh you meant just bow? oh, then no. Imo there is no single weapon build that can out perform dual weapon builds.

If you just are using bow then you are missing out on some serious buffs to your DPS that will have to be made up very expensively with potions.

My only issue with the fact that this is the case is that ranged physical DPS (bow) is the only form of DPs that is gimp this way. In order to use a bow effectively you must be hybrid melee/ranged. Magic DPS works because there are multiple magicka weapons, whereas bows are the only form of ranged physical dps weapons.

yodased wrote: »

Well there are two magic based weapon skill lines and four stamina based, so I take it to mean class skills are mostly magic.

Even in magic, resto & destro more times than not is more powerful than dual resto or dual destro.

The issue with just bow is you don't have empower or any weapon dmg buffs. Next patch should help, but still going to be better to have a buff bar

What I meant was that with melee weapons you have Dual wield, 2h, 1h and shield to pull from, for ranged physical DPS you have Bow and that's it. I think the root of the reason why a fully ranged physical DPS build (or archer) does not work is because it gets no support from another similar weapon type. If you want to stay ranged, you only have bow basically. I don't see that changing either unless they add in something crazy like thrown weapons or something lol.

Bow/bow is not good. Use bow 2h for rally.