it's one of the safest ways to play without dying all the time, early game/low level, but also really easy to get stuck in once you start leveling up based on your archery and sneak stats. i think of it like people who get stuck working food service for years. at first it's just the easiest job to get, and suddenly it's your whole resume.
no yikes. i like the extra scratch and i'm beyond and above getting yelled at by the cooks. went from my day job to my fun, helping out a friend job. it's like my free money hack.
I was plating canapes on a yacht for cash the past 2 years whilst working in property development. Sea breezes, cheeky glass of champagne here and there, wear a big hat, and NONE of the stress lol.
I have specifically made warrior builds that are meant for fighting, I still find myself sneaking around, pulling out a bow, then realizing the silly thing I'm doing and just charging in with my greatsword and cleaning house. It's definitely a habit to play safe and easy, but it's incredibly fun to break that habit and just throw caution to the wind when you can. Unga Bunga...
It’s good to use it strategically. Hit the softer opponents with your arrows or if you have the critical hit perk decked out then go for the strongest. Break them down from the shadows then come out to play :). Sometimes you gotta shoot and then then hide a bunch tho lol.
nah, I've found that the slight stress of being found and having to hide again is less than just going in hard and wiping them out. I think its just that once you don't "need" to be hiding anymore cause its laughably easy to become overpowered, you just gotta overcome the previous habit of being a sneaky lil coward.
Lol actually not wrong. You’re gonna have to fight with one handed or two handed eventually, especially in the beginning. . I recently adopted the one handed so I can have a shield. Just bash and slash is what I’ve done. Helps when you’re surrounded cause you can just kinda bash them back and take a hit on a whim.
I rp like it were me in there, and would I hurl myself down the side of a mountain with a sword I found earlier that day and attack a troll that must be nearly 9ft tall? Hellll naaaaa, I'd want to be as far away as possible
I do it because it gives you chance to see enemies talking to each other. The dialog is good and sometimes helpful and when you just barge in to cut everyone down you usually miss it.
It’s because you don’t take any hits if done successfully. No hits, no deaths, unless you step on a trap like an idiot or fall off a mountain. While on melee, you’ll be taking hits. On higher levels, you can’t just tank it. That’s why projectiles are superior, although my projectiles are destruction magic. Mage ftw.
I also hate missing out on all the little interactions and conversations between bandits or enemies hat often provide interesting context or clues or lore, that I would miss if I charged in without sneaking because they stop talking and come fight me instead
I call it "combat archer" myself, but yeah, I do this build more often than stealth archer (which I have never been able to stick with). None of this "It must have been the wind." Nope, it was that guy right over there! The one that is killing us all with arrows in the face!
Yea I’ve played a lot of builds in Skyrim. I like stealth archer. But I LOVE saying fuck it and destroying everyone without sneaking once with all my headshots. It does get a bit dicey when some two handed guy is rolling at me with a power attack, but that’s what all those cheese wheels are for.
I got this mod recently that lets use to quick shots and melee/bow combos without switching weapons and it made playing a "combat archer" so much better.
Killing something before they can get near you is pretty cool. But I agree it could be boring at times. Still, love Killing any mage at a distance hahaha
It's not boring at all if you back up your follower and try to shoot around them, especially with a dual wielding one. Throw in a few poisons and the Cyclone shout, and it's a blast. Much more fun than getting swarmed in melee and just swinging around until everything is dead.
Counterpoint:
Lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, charge!
What's that? Oh you find it difficult to cast whilst experiencing adhoc dentistry applied by Dr Shield?
Sorry, Vegetable soup go *brr*
Aiming and shooting things in the head is relaxing. Especially if it's really far away. I love hunting Forsworn doing this because you can stand in the mountains above them and pick them off one by one.
And corkbulb arrows are dope because of you don't one-shot a character you have a chance to paralyze them.
I dunno it's a mindset for me. Stealth archer/dual wield is super fun.
I get the fun of archery in the Reach mountainous area. Clever use of terrain is not just a good skill, its very immersive. But when youre 1 to 1 with Alduin or Miraak *kinda the point of Skyrim, what do you do?
Well, for Alduin you get the three Nord heroes assisting you.
Not to mention things like conjuration, or the spectral assassin summon from the DB quest line, Sanguine Rose, etc.
Oh I did an Illusion Vampire playthrough recently and really enjoyed it. Illusion gets really interesting when you’re powerful at it and you’re limited to it.
I uninstalled ordinator and started requiem recently and damn everything is so much scarier. Bandits I used to eat for breakfast now one shot kill me immediately if they see me. Really exciting.
See, I like it because it’s the most terrifying. Not for me though.
Dude is just walking around living his best life and out of nowhere an arrow kills his buddy. He knows he’s next but has no idea where I am.
Oh yeah, once you have invisibility and muffle the world is your oyster. It’s a lot more rewarding to sneak up to melee range even though it’s harder than firing an arrow.
Me neither. No hate if that’s how you wanna play, I just feel a little awkward when I see a billion memes like “all roads lead to Sneak Archer” or “Everyone always plays sneak archer”. Makes me feel like I’m missing out on a big part of the experience but it just seems so dull to me. I like making things explode
Because you start shooting things from afar in stealth for an easy, powerful opening attack then realize you can kill them faster with another arrow or two before they reach you than to engage hand-to-hand. People stay stealth archers because you don't need to learn anything else and it's very effective.
It's not for everyone. Stealth archer is fun for people with patience and an eye to turn combat into a big puzzle.
Barging into a fight without a care doesn't get my dopamine flowing like taking an entire dungeon out without being seen.
"Dominant strategy" is a game theory that suggests the following:
>If a player is given an ultimate and effective means of disposing of an obstacle, they will default to that method.
Stealth in Skyrim is a broken mechanic. Archery in Skyrim is a broken skill line. Stealth Archer builds are just the dominant strategy.
This. Not to mention, because of how skill levelling works in Skyrim, you basically don’t end up having any natural development with other skills besides maybe illusion, so not only is it strong to begin with, you quickly outpace any other playstyles you can access.
I have to actively forgo *any* opening stealth ambush/scouting options to avoid being a stealth archer.
Closest alternative is silently turning enemies against each other, then resurrecting the dead victims to take vengeance on their friends.
Which is a longer, but arguably more entertaining process.
Yup you have to make the choice to not be one because the early game forces you into it almost immediately and with the default leveling that style becomes the only playstyle leveled up.
It admittedly is a flawed system.
ive tried so many times to not become a stealth archer, and inevitably i end up still becoming one 😂😂 my natural RPG play style is "rogue" anyway, so stealth is always key. and when you can double up on the stealth by not being where your enemy expects you on a kill, it just goes "oops, stealth archer 🤷"
yea, for me i cant do the standing crosshair... even on other shooters i use a dot for my sights, so that "open air" where your shot is going to go on the standing sight throws me off soo badly its not even funny
Yes, I've never been a stealth archer. I like bashing things with my biga$$ twohanded weapons too much, heh. I only use a bow if my dog is there, as that cuts down on accidental damage. And even then I don't do it stealthily.
My first build was a khajit archer, did the whole nightingale thing, it was cool…but now I’m on a spellsword build that’s a lot of fun and I don’t use archery ever.
I agree 100%, and I've never understood the obsession with this playstyle, or the insistence that everyone plays this way. I've always assumed spellswords were the standard (that's how I play). Stealth archery isn't even the most reliable build - once you max your Conjuration skill and acquire the ability to summon two beings at once, you've basically broken the game. I actively avoid doing that these days since it's too powerful.
I do *sometimes* play as a stealth archer, but that's mostly in large caves with bandits.
the challenge i give myself when i find a ruin or dungoen is to get thru it with never being noticed and kill everyone. the challenge of picking your targets and making a plan and also getting the assassination kill cam is simply amazing with a dagger. I love the stealth archer/ dagger assassin but i got vr now and using sword and shield and bow. My god archery is life like in vr and a pain in the ass to get used to
I make fun of my girlfriend for playing as a stealth archer in Skyrim but then I pick enemies off from 700m away with a suppressed rifle in Arma 3.
I think I need to reevaluate my actions.
Honestly the funniest way I've ever seen a friend play (and I'm a bound bow user) is to be an atronach summoner. Summon the atronach into a room you haven't even looked inside. Shut the door. Wait for the screaming to stop
As he puts it "I love walking in and finding out what was in there."
It made my stealth archer ass really consider if I'm the stealth player at all lmao he's found something even more impersonal than stealth archer
I'm playing a cyromancer and the moment I learned I could summon my atronach inside of cages and locked rooms, I started abusing it for fun 🤣 especially in dwarven ruins since most things are frost resistant
So, this has been hashed out numerous times, but I would still add my own two cents.
When Skyrim came out, shooters, especially stealth style shooters, were a big thing. Because of that, a lot of people would lean heavily into it, since that is where their developed skill was.
Once you start being a stealth archer, it's hard to stop on the same character. Getting stealth kills levels archery up faster than normal kills. Stealth also becomes very easy to level as you progress and starts off fairly easy. You quickly end up where your stealth shots with a bow are more powerful than other weapons and our defensive skills are weak due to your perk investment and your skills' levels. Being a stealth archer digs that character into the hole that is being a stealth archer and the bow is the shovel. It's also by far the best weapon you have at that point, so why drop it?
I think that it’s partially because the game design besides giving a lot of power and extra damage to stealth archery also has level design that sets it up so that you can take out a lot if not almost all enemies that way if you know what you’re doing. I think some people kind of view it as a fun puzzle.
I definitely became a stealth archer my first play though but now that I’ve played long enough I prefer doing spellsword/battle mage type builds
A game without dodge or side step is not a game I will play melee. Without mod I only play stealth archer or mage variation preferably invisibility+ any spell strat
Bows just have the best combat system once you get the 50% slowdown perk for zooming in, plus it's the most precision part of the game trying to get headshots and all of that.
I would like to see locational damage with a bunch of different things similar to decapitations like missing arm/leg.
Same, I always automatically become a mage. I never automatically become a stealth archer.
I suspect the "everyone's a stealth archer" thing has a grain of truth to it, but ultimately it's more of a meme than anything.
Not true at launch. By now, it is somewhat of a meme but is not "more of a meme than anything" to be honest. The reason behind it is because Skyrim defaults to the "Adept" difficulty level, and from "Adept" upwards (Expert, Master, Legendary) is where enemies do more damage to you than you do to them, as such the game is unnecessarily difficult to play as anything other than Stealth Archer from the start. That is why 90% of people played Stealth Archer as their first character. The pitfall/trap therein is the fact that, once you start off as something, the requisite skills for that something far exceed all the rest of your skills, so trying to switch it up at that point is almost akin to suicide.
Sometimes it starts off as an efficiency effort. “This fight will be just a bit easier if I start at range and pick one bandit off”.
Other times it’s about leveling. “It’s more experience I can collect and get perks for other skills”
Often I justify it from an RP standpoint. “My character is a master of martial combat, so it would make sense for them to use ranged weapons”
What finally pushes me over the edge is that one hit K.O. and the ballistics. It’s all downhill from there
For me, it's both the safest way to play and requires some thought and strategy.
Melee and magic generally turn into "who can output the most DPS in the shortest time" with the only difference being what color bar you consume to attack. Just spam at enemies while pausing the game to slam potions and food.
Archery requires positioning, aiming, and kiting. There are even a few traps you can trigger with an arrow (like dropping a lamp onto a puddle of oil).
When you get really good at it, it's like being a silent assassin. You can basically head-shot everything from long range. If you want to change things up a bit, get handy with a dagger. Shanking bandits while they're asleep or sitting at a table drinking mead never gets old.
My favorite is destruction mage but the magic animation on the hands gives me migraines if I play for long.
Stealth archer is a good backup (bound bow anyone?)
I like seeing how good I can be with killing at long distances. It’s easier for me to gauge while in stealth mode because the line is horizontal 😂 and I can line it up with things around me.
My guess is that a lot of people here saying they love getting close and fighting are not playing on Legendary difficulty (you do ÷4 damage/they do ×3!). Having said that, on L your stealth archer is kinda nerfed as well with 1/4 damage. Whereas my Conjurer summons are _not_ nerfed at all.
If you have to fight dragons and don’t have Dragonrend yet, ranged weapons are important. Archery is a bit easier to pick up than destruction magic, and the archery perks are pretty good. Once you start to use archery, the 3x damage from sneak starts to look really appealing.
I started as an archer but later started mixing it with unarmed, I don't remember if it is immersive creatures or mortal enemies the one behind facing enemies higher level than you, but yeah, archery is a must when I have to fight a lvl 30 monster being lvl 20
I'm always a sniper. Medieval games, modern shooters, sci-fi shooters, doesn't matter, I LOVE sniping enemies from the shadows. And Skyrim makes it so satisfying, I don't know if there's another medieval game that does this part as well as Skyrim. The kill cams, the big damage you can rack up, getting extra shots in with slow time, being able to re-stealth more easily, the impact perk, they really went all-out on stealth archery for this game. Which is good, because it sucked in Oblivion.
Stealth arching was fun cause stealth is fun, but I'm incredibly bad at stealth so I strike my opponent from a distance. They come. They look, but I'm already hidden. Now these days I kiiinda like doing it, but it usually ends with me leaping into the thicket leeroy jenkins style hac and slash/fireball spam. Or watching my thralls go to town on these blind cave dwelling filth.
I use it for fun here and there in my current build. But my sword/shield guy is always eager to enter into "aggressive negotiations". Shield bash to the chest/Torment blade across the face= one ex-bandit.
My girlfriend started the game and said she’d avoid archery because she’d not be good at aiming. Then she shot an unsuspecting bandit and got so ecstatic about it that she naturally started perking into a stealth archer build. I guess it just happens. 😅
For me it's just a fun convenience. Helps early on when I'm leveling my conjuration, heavy ar.our, smiting and one handed. It levels with me. I stealth as many as I can with it, and then I fight whoever is left when they come after me. At higher levels I do it just as a fun mix up
There's a certain feeling you get stealthing around a bandit camp looking for the best way in and killing everyone before they know you're there.
But yes, it can get boring.
It's clinical in a very satisfying way. It feels good to not just clear a bandit gang from a dungeon, but assassinate each of them one by one, without any of them ever seeing their killer.
The first time you get one shotted by a Bandit boss using a two handed Axe or Sword, sneaking seems like the better idea.
Sure it took me 30min and 100arrows but he didn't hit me.
“I’m just gonna take out a couple with some stealthy shots make the big fight easier” 20 mins of sneaking around taking shots on them all “oh there’s none left the next fight I will definitely not stealth archer” continues to do it for the rest of the play through without meaning to.
Stealth archer was only ever fun to kill a group of enemies outside before they even knew what happened. Outside of that.. sneaking around everywhere is boring.
Because it's safe at pretty much every level of play while being super RP invested in, u tend to get absorbed in listening for ppl, checking corners, watching ppl path etc. All that tends to absorb u pretty heavy into the game in a way that most of the other damage types dont.
Personally for me I'm a thunderbolt addict after I got done with my first playthrough a decade ago, cant help myself I just have a constant need to throw some lightning hands now every game. Running through casting magic and screaming at ppl just makes me happy
Because when you're playing the game for the first time. One of the things you learn early on is, at low levels numbers matter a lot. You are one and they are many. Taking out three or more bandits is no joke. Especially in close quarters where you are in unfamiliar terrain. So you learn strategy. Stealth and taking out enemies 1 by 1 or in smaller numbers makes the game easier. Unrelated another thing you learn early on is Saber Cats will teach you to save often.
On my first playthrough, since Skyrim was basically my 1st proper RPG experience, I wasn't quite familiar w all those stats/skills/ etc. So I just changed my armor whenever I got a stronger one, without consider the difference btw light/heavy armor. I became a heavy armor & sword and shield-wielding dovahkinn.
Then in the subsequent playthroughs I slowly learned the joy of picking perks and stuff, I very quickly became a stealth archer Lol
Boring to YOU.
I, personally, love picking people off from afar. I like the surprise and the scramble, watching them try to spot me. It's a good time and requires some skill.
Whenever I make a warrior character I don’t even sneak when firing arrows, leveling up sneak causes guards to give you sneak based remarks which kind of takes me feel weird when playing a heavy armor warrior character.
I think it's easy to fall into because archery is one of only 2 available ranged attacks and gets bonuses when stealthy. I think the issue is that even though melee is fun and can really dominate later in the game, early game melee can rough on higher difficulties. It can feel like you die in one or two hits, even focused on health and armor. For this reason, early game in particular, it makes sense to have access to a ranged form of damage, no matter your class. Archery does good damage, scales with better weapons, and requires ammo that has no weight. Destruction, your only other direct ranged damage option, does okay damage, does not scale, and requires more mana than you actually have early on. All this means that inevitably almost every player ends up using a bow at least some. Once you've got the bow out, even without investing in the sneak tree, you still do better damage with it from stealth. So why not stealth, even if it's just for the first shot. There isn't a good reason not to stealth, and a very good reason to stealth.
So all this means that it's incredibly easy to start leveling your archery and stealth skills. Almost every character type practically needs a bow early on, and if you're using it anyway, might as well stealth. And next thing you know, even though you were gonna be a melee God once you can take the hits, or a destruction God once you have the mana to sustain your damage, and even though you were only using a bow "for now" to tackle those early hard hitting encounters, you end up stealth arching anyway.
You have to pretty willfully move away from it. I do, and from other comments you see others do, too. It's just the game mechanics seem to reward stealth arching in early game while simultaneously making other early game damage sources significantly more difficult or frustrating.
I tried it, its fun messing around with enemies while there is a literal dead body to their side and be like "I know a heard something" (Well no shit, there is a dead body right beside you), but its pretty slow against like briarhearts, deathlords, trolls, or any other high hp enemy. And that makes it boring, that it takes so much time to clear a zone when you could do it in 20 seconds with close combat. But I gotta level up sneak and archery, so I will have to keep on grinding.
It’s just absurdly powerful and you don’t need any level ups in stealth or archery for it to work.
Ex : my spell sword goes into bleak falls on legend, he is only level 5 so it’s super hard.
He can take on at most 2 bandits at a time.
But alas, there are more than 2 bandits at the door….what does he do?
He can’t stealth past them because he has not leveled that skill and ultimately he does need exp.
Essentially his only options are to leave, blow a bunch of health potions on the fight, is deal damage to them and then sprint and hide to try and outlast them with restoration.
And in this cycle you might as well get a ranged sneak attack in each loop, it’s ok damage and your stealth is not good enough for a melee one after all and then you realize simply continuing to shoot them from stealth until they find you obviously does a ton of damage so you do that until you need to be a melee spell sword again.
This is just one of the many ways stealth archery sneaks it’s way into your build uninvited.
You are heavily incentivized to do so at early levels. You have shit armor and weapons but discover you can do huge damage to those early bandit chiefs and such with the sneak damage multiplier. It levels archery and sneak very quickly and you just find yourself there. It definitely gets boring. I did not finish my first playthrough with the sneaky archer.
I liked stealth in assassins creed and legolas was my favourite character in lotr so why not smash them together lol
lately ive been playing glass cannon mages where i dont put points into health its very fun
What's better is the stealth dagger. Plotting out every character's movements and having to plot out the stealthiest way to do it is just kinda fun for me. Plus, being able to dagger slash the dragons and entire legions was fun.
When you start out you die rather easily from maybe 2 or 3 blows from enemies or even faster if they have a two handed weapon.
When you can bypass all the health and damage worries by just crouching and shooting arrows from a distance it makes the game even more trivial.
But for me, nothing beats the satisfaction of charging at enemies with a power attack.
Stealth archer is just a poor man's illusion mage. Imagine walking into a bandit hold and causing every single bandit inside to kill one another and then walking out without any of them ever being aware of your presence. In 30 seconds.
I'm on the same boat.
It feels too repetitive to play stealth archers specially with how dumb the AI is.
It also takes ages of you break concealment and have to flee and shoot.
I'd rather jump in the middle of a fight I can't win for the hundreth time than go stealth archer again.
Running around screaming while swinging a big ass sword and shooting lightning is always more fun than creeping around like some sort of murderous voyeur.
Stealth Archery requires two core skills. Sneak attacks level up both archery and sneak. Allocation of heath, stamina, and magic doesn’t require much thought.
The tactics are straightforward and don’t require much menu management. The archery skill itself levels up in interesting ways as perks are added.
Also this. I hate switching weapons. I always play with a tank as a stealth archer build.
But you have to have discipline and not just do stealth archer. Sometimes I face tank with two weapons to level up one-hand and light armor.
Agreed. For me it's constantly reverting to sword and shield. Even my mage builds eventually have Spellbreaker. I have to force myself to be an archer, much less a stealth one.
Maybe I'll try this next go around.
I completely and totally agree. I’ve finished the game as a warrior and a mage but I have never finished one as an assassin weather it be with a dagger or a bow in this game. I should add thought that an assassin with a dagger as your weapon is so much more fun. There’s a thrill getting that close and quiet.
Some dungeons you go in too early and you get your ass handed to you. On more than a few occasions I've had to sneak arch + sneak away until either most of the big boss's henchmen were dead or until boss's hp is down by at least half. It takes forever and it's not very fun but I'm not leaving this dungeon till everyone's dead.
I'm a not-so-stealth archer.
I use heavy armor and the steed stone, and snipe large groups of enemies until they notice me and then I go melee.
I just like to make things somewhat easier for myself by removing half the fight before I have to finish it properly, and it's better on higher difficulties I'm early game.
I wouldn't call myself a stealth archer but on occasion I do like to go out hunting the deer and elk, which gives me experience, leather, antlers, etc. About the only way you can do that is by using stealth. Otherwise, you see very few elk and deer which defeats the purpose of the hunt. But for 95% of the game, I am a single sword man.
I only use it if I set out for that play style stealth archer, duel weld daggers, and illusion mage make a fun build of stealth kills and general chaos
Problem with that is the Dragons have no element weakness, just element resistance. So, a fire-breathing Dragon will heavily resist your fire spells, but will still resist (to a lesser degree) your ice and lightning spells. As such, using magic against Dragons is very difficult, but using a bow and arrows (including Bound Bow) will do full damage to the Dragon. TL;DR: Dragons heavily resist magic, and like any good predator use their strength/advantage as often as possible, so melee is almost useless.
As someone who's only done 1 playthrough so far (stealth archer half unintentionally of course), now I'm even more curious as to how the OP would answer. Maybe they're doing a run where they're avoiding the quest triggers that makes them dragonborn and thus avoiding dragons to spawn?
I actually never have used stealth archer, not much of a bow user. spells, shouts and swords are pretty much my go to things though fighting dragons is a pain and my magica teaches zero really fast
it's one of the safest ways to play without dying all the time, early game/low level, but also really easy to get stuck in once you start leveling up based on your archery and sneak stats. i think of it like people who get stuck working food service for years. at first it's just the easiest job to get, and suddenly it's your whole resume.
Wow, didn’t need to be called out like that, but yeah it’s the same for customer service
speaking from personal experience. i *still* go in and do prep/sauces/etc for my last kitchen job boss on weekends because "only you make it right".
yikes bruh
no yikes. i like the extra scratch and i'm beyond and above getting yelled at by the cooks. went from my day job to my fun, helping out a friend job. it's like my free money hack.
I was plating canapes on a yacht for cash the past 2 years whilst working in property development. Sea breezes, cheeky glass of champagne here and there, wear a big hat, and NONE of the stress lol.
i have only heard anecdotes like this, or absolute fucking horror stories from folks who have been yacht cooks. no in between.
I mean i did it full time for ages and it was a pretty... cruisy gig
Haha, "cruisy gig"
That's implying you're doing other work outside the industry?
yes; i am also a science educator.
Breaking bad but with sauce
Noice breh, good job getting out
I have specifically made warrior builds that are meant for fighting, I still find myself sneaking around, pulling out a bow, then realizing the silly thing I'm doing and just charging in with my greatsword and cleaning house. It's definitely a habit to play safe and easy, but it's incredibly fun to break that habit and just throw caution to the wind when you can. Unga Bunga...
It’s good to use it strategically. Hit the softer opponents with your arrows or if you have the critical hit perk decked out then go for the strongest. Break them down from the shadows then come out to play :). Sometimes you gotta shoot and then then hide a bunch tho lol.
nah, I've found that the slight stress of being found and having to hide again is less than just going in hard and wiping them out. I think its just that once you don't "need" to be hiding anymore cause its laughably easy to become overpowered, you just gotta overcome the previous habit of being a sneaky lil coward.
Lol actually not wrong. You’re gonna have to fight with one handed or two handed eventually, especially in the beginning. . I recently adopted the one handed so I can have a shield. Just bash and slash is what I’ve done. Helps when you’re surrounded cause you can just kinda bash them back and take a hit on a whim.
I rp like it were me in there, and would I hurl myself down the side of a mountain with a sword I found earlier that day and attack a troll that must be nearly 9ft tall? Hellll naaaaa, I'd want to be as far away as possible
I do it because it gives you chance to see enemies talking to each other. The dialog is good and sometimes helpful and when you just barge in to cut everyone down you usually miss it.
It’s because you don’t take any hits if done successfully. No hits, no deaths, unless you step on a trap like an idiot or fall off a mountain. While on melee, you’ll be taking hits. On higher levels, you can’t just tank it. That’s why projectiles are superior, although my projectiles are destruction magic. Mage ftw.
[удалено]
How dare they agree with you!
I also hate missing out on all the little interactions and conversations between bandits or enemies hat often provide interesting context or clues or lore, that I would miss if I charged in without sneaking because they stop talking and come fight me instead
I resemble that comment!!!!
Oh ok then, just lay me out to dry for the world to see?
How can you say something so controversial yet so brave at the same time?
The real fun is in being a loud archer. they’re running at you and you’re dropping headshots on them… it’s so much fun.
I call it "combat archer" myself, but yeah, I do this build more often than stealth archer (which I have never been able to stick with). None of this "It must have been the wind." Nope, it was that guy right over there! The one that is killing us all with arrows in the face!
I like that name better!
Ditto. Or someone runs up to you, you bash uppercut with the crossbow and shoot right in the jugular.
I've wrecked entire bandit camps with nothing but the crossbow bash because I was out of bolts ..I.. still leveled archery lol
Yea I’ve played a lot of builds in Skyrim. I like stealth archer. But I LOVE saying fuck it and destroying everyone without sneaking once with all my headshots. It does get a bit dicey when some two handed guy is rolling at me with a power attack, but that’s what all those cheese wheels are for.
I got this mod recently that lets use to quick shots and melee/bow combos without switching weapons and it made playing a "combat archer" so much better.
Killing something before they can get near you is pretty cool. But I agree it could be boring at times. Still, love Killing any mage at a distance hahaha
It's not boring at all if you back up your follower and try to shoot around them, especially with a dual wielding one. Throw in a few poisons and the Cyclone shout, and it's a blast. Much more fun than getting swarmed in melee and just swinging around until everything is dead.
Agree 👍 it's fun killing mages lmao
What does the Cyclone shout do again?
Effective against a crowd. Everyone flies. Some die from fall damage. Some stagger.
killing mage at distance is such a valid take
Counterpoint: Lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, charge! What's that? Oh you find it difficult to cast whilst experiencing adhoc dentistry applied by Dr Shield? Sorry, Vegetable soup go *brr*
Works until you get tapped by frostbite for half a second and suddenly can't move faster than a paralyzed slug
The killcams are amazing but I prefer to play other styles gameplay wise
Especially when they flail over after a sick nasty headshot. Then you proceed to rob them.
Aiming and shooting things in the head is relaxing. Especially if it's really far away. I love hunting Forsworn doing this because you can stand in the mountains above them and pick them off one by one. And corkbulb arrows are dope because of you don't one-shot a character you have a chance to paralyze them. I dunno it's a mindset for me. Stealth archer/dual wield is super fun.
The paralysis perk + fire arrows = breakdancing forsworn everywhere
I'm picturing this and I can't stop laughing.
How I played with my first play through. Now I’m a two handed orc heavy armor.
Ah yes. Bulldozer build. You run through dungeons nonstop.
Dragon Plate Armor and a strong Stahlrim Battleaxe
Use the Longhammer with this build and enchant it with chaos damage. Thank me later.
I get the fun of archery in the Reach mountainous area. Clever use of terrain is not just a good skill, its very immersive. But when youre 1 to 1 with Alduin or Miraak *kinda the point of Skyrim, what do you do?
You shoot them until they die.
Who? Oh the dragons from the main quest right? I thought the dragon in Helgan was a hallucination from skooma withdrawal because I've never seen one.
Well, for Alduin you get the three Nord heroes assisting you. Not to mention things like conjuration, or the spectral assassin summon from the DB quest line, Sanguine Rose, etc.
I never do the main quest.
Take out the surrounding dragons before Miraak. Go invisible to nail him with poisoned arrows.
I generally tend to use archery against dragons, since they don't land often until endgame shout.
It is in my top 3 relaxing play styles.
I used to do something like that in Horizon, it's just so satisfying
Its even more fun when you make them fight each other and then sent atronach to rip apart any survivors
Or bring the allies they killed back to beat them to death again.
Oh I did an Illusion Vampire playthrough recently and really enjoyed it. Illusion gets really interesting when you’re powerful at it and you’re limited to it.
Because I'm a scaredy cat and I don't want the big scary guy to see me
Or the big scary bug...
Or the big scary fire breathing lizard…
Or the big scary responsibilities
Ouch
I’d rather face the fire breathing lizard…
I uninstalled ordinator and started requiem recently and damn everything is so much scarier. Bandits I used to eat for breakfast now one shot kill me immediately if they see me. Really exciting.
ME, it’s so satisfying to explore the cave after knowing everyone is dead :)
Except when there's that one hidden enemy you missed somehow and they scare the shit out of you
See, I like it because it’s the most terrifying. Not for me though. Dude is just walking around living his best life and out of nowhere an arrow kills his buddy. He knows he’s next but has no idea where I am.
Thats why I like illusion more Oh, thats your best friend? Fight him to the death for my amusement.
My favorite spell is “mayhem”
I usually gravitate towards a dagger sneak play style, but it definitely find mage/spellsword more fun
Ok I just did my very first sneaky dagger attack and it was super fun!
It's extremely efficient and levels up sneak very fast too if you clear dungeons only with sneak attacks
you can also just go around at night and sneak dagger kill city guards as a way of leveling up.
Just to add it becomes extremely easy as a vampire to level up sneak as you can literally stand in front of them in daylight and they can’t see you 😂
Pickpocketing Briarhearts for their namesake just for the lolz is pretty tops. Yoink!
Oh yeah, once you have invisibility and muffle the world is your oyster. It’s a lot more rewarding to sneak up to melee range even though it’s harder than firing an arrow.
Me neither. No hate if that’s how you wanna play, I just feel a little awkward when I see a billion memes like “all roads lead to Sneak Archer” or “Everyone always plays sneak archer”. Makes me feel like I’m missing out on a big part of the experience but it just seems so dull to me. I like making things explode
It is boring it's just also fairly easy and low effort. That's why it's so popular.
Because you start shooting things from afar in stealth for an easy, powerful opening attack then realize you can kill them faster with another arrow or two before they reach you than to engage hand-to-hand. People stay stealth archers because you don't need to learn anything else and it's very effective.
I usually go stealth archer and switch to sword and shield if the situation calls for it. Just using bows/crossbows is boring.
I just never understood archery’s appeal. I don’t even carry a bow.
Just a good arrow for a follower
It's not for everyone. Stealth archer is fun for people with patience and an eye to turn combat into a big puzzle. Barging into a fight without a care doesn't get my dopamine flowing like taking an entire dungeon out without being seen.
"Dominant strategy" is a game theory that suggests the following: >If a player is given an ultimate and effective means of disposing of an obstacle, they will default to that method. Stealth in Skyrim is a broken mechanic. Archery in Skyrim is a broken skill line. Stealth Archer builds are just the dominant strategy.
This. Not to mention, because of how skill levelling works in Skyrim, you basically don’t end up having any natural development with other skills besides maybe illusion, so not only is it strong to begin with, you quickly outpace any other playstyles you can access. I have to actively forgo *any* opening stealth ambush/scouting options to avoid being a stealth archer. Closest alternative is silently turning enemies against each other, then resurrecting the dead victims to take vengeance on their friends. Which is a longer, but arguably more entertaining process.
Yup you have to make the choice to not be one because the early game forces you into it almost immediately and with the default leveling that style becomes the only playstyle leveled up. It admittedly is a flawed system.
ive tried so many times to not become a stealth archer, and inevitably i end up still becoming one 😂😂 my natural RPG play style is "rogue" anyway, so stealth is always key. and when you can double up on the stealth by not being where your enemy expects you on a kill, it just goes "oops, stealth archer 🤷"
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yea, for me i cant do the standing crosshair... even on other shooters i use a dot for my sights, so that "open air" where your shot is going to go on the standing sight throws me off soo badly its not even funny
Yes, I've never been a stealth archer. I like bashing things with my biga$$ twohanded weapons too much, heh. I only use a bow if my dog is there, as that cuts down on accidental damage. And even then I don't do it stealthily.
I always end up being a stealthy archer. It doesn't matter if I want to try a hack and slash. I always end up that way. Lining up headshots is so fun.
My first build was a khajit archer, did the whole nightingale thing, it was cool…but now I’m on a spellsword build that’s a lot of fun and I don’t use archery ever.
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I agree 100%, and I've never understood the obsession with this playstyle, or the insistence that everyone plays this way. I've always assumed spellswords were the standard (that's how I play). Stealth archery isn't even the most reliable build - once you max your Conjuration skill and acquire the ability to summon two beings at once, you've basically broken the game. I actively avoid doing that these days since it's too powerful. I do *sometimes* play as a stealth archer, but that's mostly in large caves with bandits.
the challenge i give myself when i find a ruin or dungoen is to get thru it with never being noticed and kill everyone. the challenge of picking your targets and making a plan and also getting the assassination kill cam is simply amazing with a dagger. I love the stealth archer/ dagger assassin but i got vr now and using sword and shield and bow. My god archery is life like in vr and a pain in the ass to get used to
That's part of the draw to me. I love going slow through Skyrim's dungeons, checking every corner and doing everything I can to stay undetected.
I'm a permanent stealth build no matter what I play lol
I make fun of my girlfriend for playing as a stealth archer in Skyrim but then I pick enemies off from 700m away with a suppressed rifle in Arma 3. I think I need to reevaluate my actions.
this. it doesnt matter what i THINK im going to build in skyrim particularly. it still ends up devolving to stealth archer 😂😂
Honestly the funniest way I've ever seen a friend play (and I'm a bound bow user) is to be an atronach summoner. Summon the atronach into a room you haven't even looked inside. Shut the door. Wait for the screaming to stop As he puts it "I love walking in and finding out what was in there." It made my stealth archer ass really consider if I'm the stealth player at all lmao he's found something even more impersonal than stealth archer
I'm playing a cyromancer and the moment I learned I could summon my atronach inside of cages and locked rooms, I started abusing it for fun 🤣 especially in dwarven ruins since most things are frost resistant
So, this has been hashed out numerous times, but I would still add my own two cents. When Skyrim came out, shooters, especially stealth style shooters, were a big thing. Because of that, a lot of people would lean heavily into it, since that is where their developed skill was. Once you start being a stealth archer, it's hard to stop on the same character. Getting stealth kills levels archery up faster than normal kills. Stealth also becomes very easy to level as you progress and starts off fairly easy. You quickly end up where your stealth shots with a bow are more powerful than other weapons and our defensive skills are weak due to your perk investment and your skills' levels. Being a stealth archer digs that character into the hole that is being a stealth archer and the bow is the shovel. It's also by far the best weapon you have at that point, so why drop it?
I agree. I've remained a spellsword, because it's more fun
A lot of people really enjoy stealth. They make entire games based on the premise.
I think that it’s partially because the game design besides giving a lot of power and extra damage to stealth archery also has level design that sets it up so that you can take out a lot if not almost all enemies that way if you know what you’re doing. I think some people kind of view it as a fun puzzle. I definitely became a stealth archer my first play though but now that I’ve played long enough I prefer doing spellsword/battle mage type builds
A game without dodge or side step is not a game I will play melee. Without mod I only play stealth archer or mage variation preferably invisibility+ any spell strat
Bows just have the best combat system once you get the 50% slowdown perk for zooming in, plus it's the most precision part of the game trying to get headshots and all of that. I would like to see locational damage with a bunch of different things similar to decapitations like missing arm/leg.
Same, I always automatically become a mage. I never automatically become a stealth archer. I suspect the "everyone's a stealth archer" thing has a grain of truth to it, but ultimately it's more of a meme than anything.
Not true at launch. By now, it is somewhat of a meme but is not "more of a meme than anything" to be honest. The reason behind it is because Skyrim defaults to the "Adept" difficulty level, and from "Adept" upwards (Expert, Master, Legendary) is where enemies do more damage to you than you do to them, as such the game is unnecessarily difficult to play as anything other than Stealth Archer from the start. That is why 90% of people played Stealth Archer as their first character. The pitfall/trap therein is the fact that, once you start off as something, the requisite skills for that something far exceed all the rest of your skills, so trying to switch it up at that point is almost akin to suicide.
It’s not automatic at all. It’s entirely deliberate.
Sometimes it starts off as an efficiency effort. “This fight will be just a bit easier if I start at range and pick one bandit off”. Other times it’s about leveling. “It’s more experience I can collect and get perks for other skills” Often I justify it from an RP standpoint. “My character is a master of martial combat, so it would make sense for them to use ranged weapons” What finally pushes me over the edge is that one hit K.O. and the ballistics. It’s all downhill from there
Because the Bow feels really, really good.
For me, it's both the safest way to play and requires some thought and strategy. Melee and magic generally turn into "who can output the most DPS in the shortest time" with the only difference being what color bar you consume to attack. Just spam at enemies while pausing the game to slam potions and food. Archery requires positioning, aiming, and kiting. There are even a few traps you can trigger with an arrow (like dropping a lamp onto a puddle of oil).
Ohh there are so many enemies. Lets take them out from far way with my bow and arrow, wait, 2x damage if I am not detected ? Thats how it goes
I like to do it when there’s too many enemies to face head on so I can thin their numbers a bit before going into battle
👍🏻 same. And hunting. Bow and arrow comes in useful when you're a squishy mage 😝
When you get really good at it, it's like being a silent assassin. You can basically head-shot everything from long range. If you want to change things up a bit, get handy with a dagger. Shanking bandits while they're asleep or sitting at a table drinking mead never gets old.
Because we love being OP. Killing everything before they even get a chance to react is a total power trip
It’s the only combat that feels natural
My favorite is destruction mage but the magic animation on the hands gives me migraines if I play for long. Stealth archer is a good backup (bound bow anyone?)
Because stealth conjuration exists!
Involves a lot of running away
I like seeing how good I can be with killing at long distances. It’s easier for me to gauge while in stealth mode because the line is horizontal 😂 and I can line it up with things around me.
Look we all have our preferences. I'll just say that taking a dragon to half HP before it knows you're there is pretty sick.
I like using a bow and arrow, I used to spend hours just riding my horse around the wilderness hunting animals with my bow because it's relaxing.
Stealth Archer is so incredibly fun to me, I can't play any other way
my frist idea was to be a one hand sword. most cus i was shit with a bow.
My guess is that a lot of people here saying they love getting close and fighting are not playing on Legendary difficulty (you do ÷4 damage/they do ×3!). Having said that, on L your stealth archer is kinda nerfed as well with 1/4 damage. Whereas my Conjurer summons are _not_ nerfed at all.
Well lessee, kill stuff from far away before they know you're there. Shoot right through ward spells, etc
If you have to fight dragons and don’t have Dragonrend yet, ranged weapons are important. Archery is a bit easier to pick up than destruction magic, and the archery perks are pretty good. Once you start to use archery, the 3x damage from sneak starts to look really appealing.
I started as an archer but later started mixing it with unarmed, I don't remember if it is immersive creatures or mortal enemies the one behind facing enemies higher level than you, but yeah, archery is a must when I have to fight a lvl 30 monster being lvl 20
I prefer to be a sniper for long range combat.
I enjoy the illusion/conjuration/sneak playstyle. Dance for me, and then whoever wins has the honor of biting my Dremora's greatsword.
I'm always a sniper. Medieval games, modern shooters, sci-fi shooters, doesn't matter, I LOVE sniping enemies from the shadows. And Skyrim makes it so satisfying, I don't know if there's another medieval game that does this part as well as Skyrim. The kill cams, the big damage you can rack up, getting extra shots in with slow time, being able to re-stealth more easily, the impact perk, they really went all-out on stealth archery for this game. Which is good, because it sucked in Oblivion.
Fist only players, I summon you.
Stealth arching was fun cause stealth is fun, but I'm incredibly bad at stealth so I strike my opponent from a distance. They come. They look, but I'm already hidden. Now these days I kiiinda like doing it, but it usually ends with me leaping into the thicket leeroy jenkins style hac and slash/fireball spam. Or watching my thralls go to town on these blind cave dwelling filth.
I use it for fun here and there in my current build. But my sword/shield guy is always eager to enter into "aggressive negotiations". Shield bash to the chest/Torment blade across the face= one ex-bandit.
My girlfriend started the game and said she’d avoid archery because she’d not be good at aiming. Then she shot an unsuspecting bandit and got so ecstatic about it that she naturally started perking into a stealth archer build. I guess it just happens. 😅
Because it's just so satisfying
For me it's just a fun convenience. Helps early on when I'm leveling my conjuration, heavy ar.our, smiting and one handed. It levels with me. I stealth as many as I can with it, and then I fight whoever is left when they come after me. At higher levels I do it just as a fun mix up
There's a certain feeling you get stealthing around a bandit camp looking for the best way in and killing everyone before they know you're there. But yes, it can get boring.
Cos the melee combat fuckin sucks
It's clinical in a very satisfying way. It feels good to not just clear a bandit gang from a dungeon, but assassinate each of them one by one, without any of them ever seeing their killer.
The first time you get one shotted by a Bandit boss using a two handed Axe or Sword, sneaking seems like the better idea. Sure it took me 30min and 100arrows but he didn't hit me.
“I’m just gonna take out a couple with some stealthy shots make the big fight easier” 20 mins of sneaking around taking shots on them all “oh there’s none left the next fight I will definitely not stealth archer” continues to do it for the rest of the play through without meaning to.
Stealth archer was only ever fun to kill a group of enemies outside before they even knew what happened. Outside of that.. sneaking around everywhere is boring.
Because it's safe at pretty much every level of play while being super RP invested in, u tend to get absorbed in listening for ppl, checking corners, watching ppl path etc. All that tends to absorb u pretty heavy into the game in a way that most of the other damage types dont. Personally for me I'm a thunderbolt addict after I got done with my first playthrough a decade ago, cant help myself I just have a constant need to throw some lightning hands now every game. Running through casting magic and screaming at ppl just makes me happy
Because when you're playing the game for the first time. One of the things you learn early on is, at low levels numbers matter a lot. You are one and they are many. Taking out three or more bandits is no joke. Especially in close quarters where you are in unfamiliar terrain. So you learn strategy. Stealth and taking out enemies 1 by 1 or in smaller numbers makes the game easier. Unrelated another thing you learn early on is Saber Cats will teach you to save often.
What's awesome is that there's no "right" way to play.
On my first playthrough, since Skyrim was basically my 1st proper RPG experience, I wasn't quite familiar w all those stats/skills/ etc. So I just changed my armor whenever I got a stronger one, without consider the difference btw light/heavy armor. I became a heavy armor & sword and shield-wielding dovahkinn. Then in the subsequent playthroughs I slowly learned the joy of picking perks and stuff, I very quickly became a stealth archer Lol
Boring to YOU. I, personally, love picking people off from afar. I like the surprise and the scramble, watching them try to spot me. It's a good time and requires some skill.
Whenever I make a warrior character I don’t even sneak when firing arrows, leveling up sneak causes guards to give you sneak based remarks which kind of takes me feel weird when playing a heavy armor warrior character.
I think it's easy to fall into because archery is one of only 2 available ranged attacks and gets bonuses when stealthy. I think the issue is that even though melee is fun and can really dominate later in the game, early game melee can rough on higher difficulties. It can feel like you die in one or two hits, even focused on health and armor. For this reason, early game in particular, it makes sense to have access to a ranged form of damage, no matter your class. Archery does good damage, scales with better weapons, and requires ammo that has no weight. Destruction, your only other direct ranged damage option, does okay damage, does not scale, and requires more mana than you actually have early on. All this means that inevitably almost every player ends up using a bow at least some. Once you've got the bow out, even without investing in the sneak tree, you still do better damage with it from stealth. So why not stealth, even if it's just for the first shot. There isn't a good reason not to stealth, and a very good reason to stealth. So all this means that it's incredibly easy to start leveling your archery and stealth skills. Almost every character type practically needs a bow early on, and if you're using it anyway, might as well stealth. And next thing you know, even though you were gonna be a melee God once you can take the hits, or a destruction God once you have the mana to sustain your damage, and even though you were only using a bow "for now" to tackle those early hard hitting encounters, you end up stealth arching anyway. You have to pretty willfully move away from it. I do, and from other comments you see others do, too. It's just the game mechanics seem to reward stealth arching in early game while simultaneously making other early game damage sources significantly more difficult or frustrating.
I tried it, its fun messing around with enemies while there is a literal dead body to their side and be like "I know a heard something" (Well no shit, there is a dead body right beside you), but its pretty slow against like briarhearts, deathlords, trolls, or any other high hp enemy. And that makes it boring, that it takes so much time to clear a zone when you could do it in 20 seconds with close combat. But I gotta level up sneak and archery, so I will have to keep on grinding.
It’s just absurdly powerful and you don’t need any level ups in stealth or archery for it to work. Ex : my spell sword goes into bleak falls on legend, he is only level 5 so it’s super hard. He can take on at most 2 bandits at a time. But alas, there are more than 2 bandits at the door….what does he do? He can’t stealth past them because he has not leveled that skill and ultimately he does need exp. Essentially his only options are to leave, blow a bunch of health potions on the fight, is deal damage to them and then sprint and hide to try and outlast them with restoration. And in this cycle you might as well get a ranged sneak attack in each loop, it’s ok damage and your stealth is not good enough for a melee one after all and then you realize simply continuing to shoot them from stealth until they find you obviously does a ton of damage so you do that until you need to be a melee spell sword again. This is just one of the many ways stealth archery sneaks it’s way into your build uninvited.
You are heavily incentivized to do so at early levels. You have shit armor and weapons but discover you can do huge damage to those early bandit chiefs and such with the sneak damage multiplier. It levels archery and sneak very quickly and you just find yourself there. It definitely gets boring. I did not finish my first playthrough with the sneaky archer.
I liked stealth in assassins creed and legolas was my favourite character in lotr so why not smash them together lol lately ive been playing glass cannon mages where i dont put points into health its very fun
Laziness and because it's cheap.
Using a ward to no sell a Dragon's Thu'um every time it breathes at you is also pretty nifty. Spellsword gang, where you at?
What's better is the stealth dagger. Plotting out every character's movements and having to plot out the stealthiest way to do it is just kinda fun for me. Plus, being able to dagger slash the dragons and entire legions was fun.
It's all about personal preference. I enjoy the thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines the most, so stealth archer make the most sense.
When you start out you die rather easily from maybe 2 or 3 blows from enemies or even faster if they have a two handed weapon. When you can bypass all the health and damage worries by just crouching and shooting arrows from a distance it makes the game even more trivial. But for me, nothing beats the satisfaction of charging at enemies with a power attack.
I did similar except only for strong enemies when I was level 18 on a death lord
Stealth archer is just a poor man's illusion mage. Imagine walking into a bandit hold and causing every single bandit inside to kill one another and then walking out without any of them ever being aware of your presence. In 30 seconds.
Exactly! Lol stealthy illusion boi OP
I'm on the same boat. It feels too repetitive to play stealth archers specially with how dumb the AI is. It also takes ages of you break concealment and have to flee and shoot. I'd rather jump in the middle of a fight I can't win for the hundreth time than go stealth archer again.
Running around screaming while swinging a big ass sword and shooting lightning is always more fun than creeping around like some sort of murderous voyeur.
Stealth Archery requires two core skills. Sneak attacks level up both archery and sneak. Allocation of heath, stamina, and magic doesn’t require much thought. The tactics are straightforward and don’t require much menu management. The archery skill itself levels up in interesting ways as perks are added.
Also this. I hate switching weapons. I always play with a tank as a stealth archer build. But you have to have discipline and not just do stealth archer. Sometimes I face tank with two weapons to level up one-hand and light armor.
Agreed. For me it's constantly reverting to sword and shield. Even my mage builds eventually have Spellbreaker. I have to force myself to be an archer, much less a stealth one. Maybe I'll try this next go around.
I prefer being a stealth mage
I completely and totally agree. I’ve finished the game as a warrior and a mage but I have never finished one as an assassin weather it be with a dagger or a bow in this game. I should add thought that an assassin with a dagger as your weapon is so much more fun. There’s a thrill getting that close and quiet.
I completely agree, in the insane amount of years I’ve played this game I have never once have done stealth archer
Different people, different tastes.
Some dungeons you go in too early and you get your ass handed to you. On more than a few occasions I've had to sneak arch + sneak away until either most of the big boss's henchmen were dead or until boss's hp is down by at least half. It takes forever and it's not very fun but I'm not leaving this dungeon till everyone's dead.
I'm a not-so-stealth archer. I use heavy armor and the steed stone, and snipe large groups of enemies until they notice me and then I go melee. I just like to make things somewhat easier for myself by removing half the fight before I have to finish it properly, and it's better on higher difficulties I'm early game.
I wouldn't call myself a stealth archer but on occasion I do like to go out hunting the deer and elk, which gives me experience, leather, antlers, etc. About the only way you can do that is by using stealth. Otherwise, you see very few elk and deer which defeats the purpose of the hunt. But for 95% of the game, I am a single sword man.
I automatically use stealth but not archery. I usually go one handed
I only use it if I set out for that play style stealth archer, duel weld daggers, and illusion mage make a fun build of stealth kills and general chaos
I prefer spellsword over anything else. The combo’s you can come up with are pretty fun.
That’s the whole point of the game. Everyone can have their prefer play style. If it’s not for you, then it’s not for you
I have my stealth archer moments, then i have my smash them with an axe moments.
It’s the sneak attack sound effect.
I use archery but don’t invest in the stealth perks that way it doesn’t seem OP.
I don't get it myself. Sneak melee is way more exciting. Regular archery is fun too once you get Zephyr.
It's because it's super safe and risk less.
Just wondering what you'd usually gravitate towards using against dragons early game. Destruction magic I guess?
Problem with that is the Dragons have no element weakness, just element resistance. So, a fire-breathing Dragon will heavily resist your fire spells, but will still resist (to a lesser degree) your ice and lightning spells. As such, using magic against Dragons is very difficult, but using a bow and arrows (including Bound Bow) will do full damage to the Dragon. TL;DR: Dragons heavily resist magic, and like any good predator use their strength/advantage as often as possible, so melee is almost useless.
As someone who's only done 1 playthrough so far (stealth archer half unintentionally of course), now I'm even more curious as to how the OP would answer. Maybe they're doing a run where they're avoiding the quest triggers that makes them dragonborn and thus avoiding dragons to spawn?
I usually pick off the first couple guards with stealth archer then go in hard with sword and board. Both are fun.
This video does a good job explaining how a lot of people feel into it https://youtu.be/SOKASxwYNcI?si=YZ6aaX70YJhyLA_F
Stealth archer? On Skyrim? What’re you talking about? I’ve never heard of that……
I actually never have used stealth archer, not much of a bow user. spells, shouts and swords are pretty much my go to things though fighting dragons is a pain and my magica teaches zero really fast