What about bow as main weapon?

Shabree · January 2017

Hi, is it worth it to play with bow as main weapon? I've read few sentences about playing bow, but most of them are outdated (mostly 2014-2015). Everyone says that bow is weak as main DPS weapon, so I feel kinda disappointed because I really like playing bows. Can you tell me how are bows doing now? I know I can check it myself but im at 13 lvl, and I want to know sometihng about bows at end-game. So you can share your opinion about it with me/other users, cause I dont know if I'll be valuable party member when my main weapon will be bow.

soll · January 2017

Shabree wrote: »

Hi, is it worth it to play with bow as main weapon?

No. Unless you like 7k dps and be kicked from vet groups.
It works only on a back bar. Coming patch not going to change much, even with buff.

Pallio · January 2017

If they made the base dmg of bow the same at 2hd i.e. 1553 gold upgrade.. then you would still need rediculously hard to get BiS gear.. i.e. vdsa and vma bows etc. That would get you in the 25k dps range.. still less than the kings of dps with 50k etc.

Shabree · January 2017

Then what should I get as primary weapon on my Khajiit Nightblade to be valuable dps?

Fudly_budly · January 2017

Bow..? I did that before I knew better. Bow main weapon is only marginally better than throwing rocks... Well, if players could actually throw rocks.

Danksta · January 2017

Shabree wrote: »

Then what should I get as primary weapon on my Khajiit Nightblade to be valuable dps?

For PvE- Dual Wield
For PvP- Dual Wield or 2H

starlizard70ub17_ESO · January 2017

Bow is a good weapon on your backbar. For certain bosses it's necessary to stay out of their melee while still doing damage to them. For some mobs it's great to pick off 1 or 2 of them before going in to take out the rest in melee. Bows are great complementary weapons, but I'd never rely on it as a main attack weapon.

Shabree · January 2017

Danksta wrote: »

Shabree wrote: »

Then what should I get as primary weapon on my Khajiit Nightblade to be valuable dps?

For PvE- Dual Wield
For PvP- Dual Wield or 2H

Dual Swords or Dual Daggers?

Danksta · January 2017

Shabree wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

Shabree wrote: »

Then what should I get as primary weapon on my Khajiit Nightblade to be valuable dps?

For PvE- Dual Wield
For PvP- Dual Wield or 2H

Dual Swords or Dual Daggers?

Personally, I'd go with daggers for extra crit in PvE. It goes well with the extra crit damage that Nightblades get.

For PvP I'd go with swords or maces. Crit isn't as important in PvP because lots of people use impen on their armor.

Lashiing · January 2017

Shabree wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

Shabree wrote: »

Then what should I get as primary weapon on my Khajiit Nightblade to be valuable dps?

For PvE- Dual Wield
For PvP- Dual Wield or 2H

Dual Swords or Dual Daggers?

dagger dagger
or
dagger axe

both must be sharpened, personally i use dagger mace

SodanTok · January 2017

You can main bow, but it will be very paintful. People will hate you just because you use it, no matter how you perform on it and they will hate you extra more if you perform worse than you should (as in more than they would hate worse performing melee). You will probably never reach DPS to play that endgame content that is designed for 0.1% of people, but you should be able with enough grind and if you find tolerant people, to play the "classic" endgame of pledges and vma.

soll wrote: »

Shabree wrote: »

Hi, is it worth it to play with bow as main weapon?

No. Unless you like 7k dps and be kicked from vet groups.
It works only on a back bar. Coming patch not going to change much, even with buff.

You get 10k just by spammig snipe, and 20k just by spamming snipe and refreshing every dot on time. There is far bigger problem for bow main than having low damage. Its called having no clue, like you exhibit right now

AcadianPaladin · January 2017

I ran a bow/bow stamsorc. It worked fine for soloing quests and delves but could certainly not be described as impressive. For RP reasons, my char would not touch traditional melee weapons so adding DW daggers (a great path for stamsorcs) was out. As such all that stam that made the bow work required limited choices regarding sorc spells. We did get great help from surge, hurricane, encase, dark conversion (healing), clannfear, storm atronach and the dark magic ultimate - that is, sorc skills that don't depend so much on the size of your magicka pool. The more effective bow skills seem to be poison injection, volley and snipe.

BlackSparrow · January 2017

I've currently got a bow/bow character, and yeah, she is a bit underpowered.

It's a fine build for solo questing... play it correctly and you can kite just about anything with little trouble. But for group dungeons or pvp? It's not particularly competitive. You'll get kicked a lot.

That said, it's an interesting build to try. I enjoy my archer a lot... she's fun to play. I love laying down AoE, then bouncing my enemies into it. It's very satisfying.

And like I said, if you kite correctly, with proper use of slows and snares, you'll be pretty much untouchable.

Just be aware that your endgame options may be a bit limited, unless you plan to either solo PvE forever or restat. If that's not a problem... sure, give it a try.

Curtdogg47 · January 2017

Solo and PVP the bow works great. I don't run dungeons to much. Unless a my guild needs an extra person. But they all know my setup. Surprisingly I do ok in vet dungeons.

I find a combo of bow/2h works really well for me. While I do 99% of my fighting with a bow. I find that having a gap closer and a strong execute skill like killers blade can sometimes mean the difference between finishing someone and them healing and killing you.

The thing you have to remember is that as an archer you are not a front line fighter. And you are not the Melee god everyone will praise for wipeing a group.

In a PVP group I don't try to kill just one target. I try to hit as many people as I can so that when the heavy hitting melee players come in it only takes on hit for them to drop people.
Secondly as an archer you need to look for the healers and take them out as well as other ranged fighters. And when that eye of storm pops you need to drop big snipes or heavy attacks to drop them quickly.
And third always check your groups flank.

It's a very different playstyle. And some what more of a support role. Its not a glory role. Most people in your group won't realize that the reason they one hit someone is because your snipe just zapped half the health before they attacked. It's not a play style everyone will enjoy. And like everything it takes time to get good at your role.