Yes, archery is great in this game, especially with crosshair turned off. Give it some time and you will learn how to use it and then you will start kicking some serious butt. I am a pure archer and have a fun challenge as one. The perks that help you move quicker when aiming and stagger opponents when hitting them are very powerful perks for the archer as well, it pays to get them early if possible. Also the perk that helps you find more arrows, there seems to be a lack of arrows in this game, for me any way. Kind of like the lack of ammo in Fallout 3. There is always enough, but just enough.

Try using a power attack (hold the attack button), I think the backstab animation only occurs if you would be dealing enough damage to kill in one blow, not too sure though.

If you have the perk and are using daggers with sneak attack, the multiplier will be applied automatically. It works with single hand attack, dual wield attack, power attack, regular attack - basically everything, as long as you're attacking from sneak and the target hasn't spotted you.

Do you have the 15x damage perk or just the one hand? I'm not sure, but I don't think that daggers get the 1 hand crit mod for sneak since it would stack with the 15x damage mod for that perk.

Loving playing as a ranger. I recently bought myself a glass bow and superior'd it at the blacksmiths. I'm on my way to get it to legendary, but It's got 52 Damage, It's better than the nightingale bow at the moment, I'll enchant it after too. But I love killing from a distance and watching other people scramble around helplessly looking for me. :ahhh:

I hated archery in Oblivion. Never used it. Funny thing is with Skyrim what I thought was my rough-and-tumble heavy armor warrior is slowly morphing into a sneaky light armor wearing archer. Interesting twists as you play and level in this game.

Loving my sneaky archer smithy. Didn't bother with pick pocketing though. As someone else said, since I only ever use the occasional healing potion I am totally stocked with potions of all kinds! For melee I just use an improved Elven sword, but I rarely have to. Usually just let Lydia handle personal encounters with her two handed sword of ouch while I plink away from the sidelines. It's great fun getting someone into a mercy crouch with 2-3 arrows and while they are yelling "I yield!" she walks up and lops off their head.

I enchanted a bow with paralyze effect, I find that suits my purposes perfectly - it slows them by making them fall over for a couple of seconds, allowing you to get another shot in if your first didn't finish the job
I did have to spend a fair sum of money buying a dagger with that effect just so that I could break it down to learn the enchantment, but it was well worth it.

Are you guys using your stealth and archery to kill everyone you see or just enemies? In other words are you a ruthless assassin with no regard for others lives or are you one who looks after the population of skyrim?

I enjoy archery more then melee and magic.

Archery is most overpowered compare to magic and melee = because when u play archer u are impossible to kill even by giants on hardest difficulty.

Its all because of SPRINT ability and restoration - u can hit and hit and run hit and hit and run,run an hit hit hit

I have been in shocked when one guy called archery useless.

the dagger perk is further along in the skill tree. did you read the skill tree or what?

Absolutly love archery in skyrim. Being able to slow time and snipe three bandits before they even stand up is such a good feeling lol.

I am enjoying it. I also now feel like conjuration should be a support skill for any archer, in open space I can kite forever but in smaller areas as summon is great at keeping things off you while you pick them off. Since starting to level up and perk conjuration my archer experience has vastly improved.

Yes I read the skill tree and that's why I am asking. It read "Sneak attacks with one-handed weapons now do six times damage". A dagger is a one-handed weapon so therefore my questions and concerns make perfect sense. Did you read any of my posts or what?

I'm enjoying archery and as someone else wrote; my heavy 2H warrior is becoming a sneaky light archer. My complaint is with some mid range shots that miss the enemy's head. They should not miss, but do. The guy is just sitting there and the arrow misses -- maybe it is going through without damage.

I love my Hunter, recently re-started the game, and now have a lvl16 Nord, with Scaled armour, and upgraded elven bow.
Having no problems at taking out foes from long distance, and I LOVE doing just that..

Picking off the bandits one by one... Watching as their friends run around looking for me, as I line up another shot and take them down too! :3

Just enemy NPCs in dungeons and the like - I've never seen the point in running round killing innocent villagers and whathaveyou in TES games, that's not the way I roleplay, I'd rather they stayed alive to give me jobs or quests and I try to defend them as much as possible. My sneak skill is good, so if I'm still not sure after using the zoom whether someone on the road is a bandit or a farmer I can sneak up on them and check before either backstabbing them, or coming out of sneak mode to talk to them and get paid for my cabbages/potatoes/etc. that I might have harvested! Out on the roads I switch between bow and dual 1 handed weapons depending upon the circumstances (wolves, bears, dragons, obvious bandits get an arrow in the neck before they see me coming, anyone I'm not sure about I sneak up behind to check who they are and switch to swords/daggers if necessary).

In dungeons or in a location with known hostiles (ie a bandit camp or whatnot) I assume hostility and shoot first, ask questions later.

I love playing as an archer, love the long range sneak strike, took someone off a cliff tonight and also managed to shoot a hawk out of the air at the first attempt! Should have left it at that though, I haven't managed it again People say long range archery is broken, it's not broken just a bit different to Oblivion, you can still hit long range targets with practice

Pickpocket is pretty fail , but otherwise sounds like my char and I love it

archery is my favorite thing, i can kill giants before they even reach me with the damage boost, upgraded bow, 3.0x sneak damage from the sneak perk, and the 30% faster draw.

It was frustrating at first because of the monumentally stupid arrow angle correction. I was conditioned to archery on Oblivion and I couldn't hit a thing. Then I learned about


and things got much better. I can now actually hit things at a distance while sneaking. The only drag now is "do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow? do you want to poison your bow?"

Its probably because you're being detected before you make contact. I've made mistakes and knocked into enemies during my power attacks and they detect before the hit, well, hits. Try standing farther away (learn your daggers range well) and attacking that way.

I love playing as a sneaky archer, but i would advise a melee skill esp 1H and maybe block. And keep a sword. Eventually you have to lock down and make it a fight when someone gets in your face.

the one handed sneak perk doesnt apply to daggers, only the dagger perk for x15. doesnt matter whether you like it or not, that's the fact so stop asking.

I'm loving my Hunter style character. The ability to skin animals just adds so much to it, I feel rewarded for hunting down even the most simple animals.