Zoom is all but useless. You don't need it, as you rarely engage in very long range combat (arrows have a limited range anyway), and it doesn't provide any damage boost or additional effect (ie. it's boring). As a result, a character with zero archery perks is not much different from a fully perked archer in terms of gameplay.

Because pure archers early on have no kiting tools other than sprint, which isn't very effective indoors or against enemies that can also sprint, I thought that they should have an ability called Power Draw that knocks back slightly, like a miniature fus ro dah, and replaces zoom. Maybe then pure archers wouldn't dump all their points into health.

Other ideas are welcome.

EDIT: my 2nd idea which I think is much better: Power Draw lets you draw an arrow much faster at the cost of stamina. Cumulative with the Quick Shot perk.

dont know about you, but i use the time slow, I find it really helps when shooting moving targets, & also, a maxed out ranger can move pretty fast with a bow drawn while firing off arrows

"Power Shot" and "Bullseye" perks already have similar effects.

Power Shot staggers human sized opponents 50% of the time, and with Bullseye you have 15% chance of paralyzing the hit target.

There are perks that allow you to shoot faster and move faster with bows.


I personally don't even use any perks other than overdraw and critical shot, and I one-shot most weak enemies in sneak mode, while severely injuring the tougher ones. Even so, I can already tell that by not having the perks mentioned above, I am severely gimped in comparison.

Bows are mostly for sniping. Legolas skill is not entirely accurate for the average archer.

Legolas feats are possible, but you need to max archery perks and invest in other skills like light armor for dodge and stamina regen.

Use whirlwind sprint. If there was a shout for archers, that one is it. I can get a total of 40% reduction in Shout recast timers using Talos shrine, and Talos amulet. My five minute recast time on Storm call becomes three minutes, it is insane.

Have you tested your theory out on say, fighting a giant and his pack of mammoths with no archery perks on master difficulty and then fighting them with perks?

Investing in archery is the only way I have figured out so far of taking them and their pets and surviving to tell about it. :shrug:

I am curious, do all the other perks mentioned here use up stamina? From what ive read in the OP and elsewhere, if archers don't need stamina, pure archers would actually be the beefiest characters in the game as they can just pump all points into health?

Don't forget that if an enemy gets close you can use the left trigger to weapon bash them with your bow. Time it just as they are about mid-swing, and they will stagger.

could you clarify why exactly you think every weapon type needs a stamina dump? so far i personally considered it a strength and interesting opportunity to get more health and maybe mana for those situations where you cant kill your enemy in a few shots.

Archery is one of the very few skills that you need almost every perk for it to work effectively.

Yup, we don't need stamina at all since zoom is just a commodity. And yes, we have several perks that aid in kiting but they're very high up in the 'skill tree'.

What about a Power Draw perk that, at the cost of stamina, allows you to draw an arrow much faster (so that with the quick shot perk it would be like a half second draw)? That would help with kiting a lot, and with DPS if you want to burst something down quickly, like a mage.

Anyone else unhappy with zoom care to chime in?