I love archery in Skyrim. In this thread, we will discuss everything about archery: builds, anolysis of perks, equipment, .ini tweaks, mods, etc.. I will add to it as time permits. If you have anything to contribute, or you discover errors or omissions, please let me know.


1. Tweaks

We begin this guide with a tweak that every Skyrim archer should apply. It disables that insulting auto-aim on your arrows so they behave much more realistically. It makes archery more fun, and aiming more intuitive and consistent. To apply the tweak, go to your Skyrim savegame folder (in Windows 7, it can be found in Libraries > Documents > My Games > Skyrim), and open Skyrim.ini with a text editor such as Notepad. Add (or edit, if any of them are already present) the following lines:

[Combat]fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0

I have seen values of 0.7 for the last two cvars, but these are the values I use and they work great. Experiment with both settings and choose the one that works best for you. Save the file, and you're good to go.

The next tweak increases the game's max archery range. You might have already noticed that past a certain range, arrows do no damage to monsters. The max range is reasonable, and I personally find it really cheesy to extend it, but the choice is yours. To apply the tweak, open the same file (Skyrim.ini) as in the previous tweak, and add (or edit, if any are already present) the following lines:

[Actor]fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=14000.0000

Save the file, and you're done.


2. Perks

Overdraw (5 ranks)
Pre-reqs: none.
Description: bows do 20% more damage (+20% per additional rank).
Score: 5/5. More damage = good.

Eagle Eye
Pre-reqs: Archery 30, Overdraw.
Description: pressing Block while aiming will zoom in your view.
Score: 1/5 without .ini tweak, 4/5 with tweak. This is pretty much a useless gimmick if you haven't extended the game's max archery range through the .ini tweak. It's trivial to aim at max range without it, so all it does is mess up your target leading and waste stamina. With the tweak and max actor fade distance, it suddenly becomes very useful, but I find it cheesy to snipe people from halfway across the world so I do not use the tweak. It is a pre-requisite for the awesome Power Shot perk so you should take it anyway.

Critical Shot (3 ranks)
Pre-reqs: Archery 30, Overdraw.
Description: 10% chance of a critical hit that does extra damage (+5% chance and +25% critical damage per additional rank).
Score: 5/5. Same as overpower: more damage = good.

Steady Hand (2 ranks)
Pre-reqs: Archery 40, Eagle Eye.
Description: zooming in with a bow slows time by 25% (50% for second rank).
Score: 1/5. This is pretty much useless whether or not you have extended the game's max archery range and make heavy use of Eagle Eye. It slows you down as well, so it does not help with leading targets. It can however help those with atrocious aim, or thumbstick users. If you're not in that demographic, steer clear.

Power Shot
Pre-reqs: Archery 50, Eagle Eye.
Description: arrows stagger all but the largest opponents 50% of the time.
Score: 5/5. One of the best perks in the tree. Considerably increases the effective distance between yourself and a closing melee opponent by keeping him staggered a great deal of time. Also provides an excellent defense against powerful ranged opponents such as mages.

Hunter's Discipline
Pre-reqs: Archery 50, Critical Shot.
Description: recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies.
Score: 0/5 with perked Bound Bow, 2/5 otherwise. Not particularly useful. Arrows are plentiful, as is gold, so you'll never be hurting for them. Pre-requisite for the great Ranger perk, so you should strongly consider taking it.

Ranger
Pre-reqs: Archery 60, Hunter's Discipline.
Description: able to move faster with a drawn bow.
Score: 4/5. This turns your archer into an extremely effective kiting machine. It's a shame it's so high up the tree. If you're playing a build that doesn't need to kite often, it is still very useful because it allows you to dodge incoming arrows / magic whilst drawing your bow. You should take this.

Quick Shot
Pre-reqs: Archery 70, Power Shot
Description: can draw a bow 30% faster.
Score: 4/5. Faster rate of fire equates higher damage per second. More damage = good.

Bullseye
Pre-reqs: Archery 100, Quick Shot, Ranger.
Description: 15% chance of paralyzing the target for a few seconds.
Score: 3/5. 15% chance is not particularly high (1 in 6.7 shots) considering bows' slow rate of fire, but when it kicks in, it's a killer. It's only one point, so take it.

Conclusion: could use with a better stamina dump than Eagle Eye (something that increases damage for bursting down a mage, for instance), and Ranger should probably be a little lower in the tree to help with kiting (destruction mages get Impact at a skill of 40), but over all, it is a solid, balanced tree, with no egregiously overpowered perks.


3. Builds

All these builds are designed to be self-sufficient (ie. they are viable with no companions), and they value fun over power. They assume a max level of 50, but you can take them beyond that, naturally.

Ye Olde Archer
Description: English longbowmen typically wore a mail shirt, and were equipped with a 6-7 ft long bow commonly made of yew, a buckler, and a short sword or dagger. They were a very powerful unit, and as a result, all english men were required to practice archery from an early age.
Suggested race: Redguard.
Perks:

• Archery(14/16): all except Steady Hand.
  
• Light Armor(10/10)
  
• One Handed(12/21): Armsman(5/5), Fighting Stance, Bladesman(3/3), Savage Strike, Critical Charge, Paralyzing Strike.
  
• Block(9/13): Shield Wall(5/5), Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash, Shield Charge. Don't bother with Deflect Arrows, Elemental Protection and Block Runner; you should be using your bow against ranged targets.
  
• 4 points to place at your discretion.

Equipment: light armor with the highest armor rating, one-handed sword and shield, bow.
Gameplay: until you get the perks that make kiting very effective, rely on your sword and shield for close range combat. Later, you can use melee for tight areas where kiting isn't very practical.
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint.

Arcane Archer
Description: an elite fighter/mage. Uses summons to distract opponents, and can conjure a powerful bow and arrows.
Suggested race: Breton.
Perks:

• Archery(14/16): all except Steady Hand.
  
• Conjuration(14/16): all except Soul Stealer and Oblivion Binding.
  
• Alteration(14/14)
  
• Enchanting(6/13): Enchanter(5/5), Insightful Enchanter.
  
• One point to place at your discretion.

Equipment: self-enchanted cloth, bound bow.
Gameplay: your summons should keep most opponents distracted while you pelt them with arrows. Use mage armor when facing archers. A Breton's racial magic resistance will stack nicely with the alteration perks for protection against mages.
Shouts: at your discretion.

Zen Archer
Description: warrior-monk, a spiritual recluse and expert marksman. Controls his opponents through sheer willpower, either by breaking their minds or turning the undead.
Suggested race: Altmer.
Perks:

• Archery(14/16): all except Steady Hand.
  
• Restoration(7/13): Novice Restoration, Apprentice Restoration, Adept Restoration, Expert Restoration, Master Restoration, Regeneration, Necromage.
  
• Illusion(13/13)
  
• Enchanting(13/13)
  
• Two points to place at your discretion.

Equipment: self-enchanted light armor with the highest armor rating.
Gameplay: use your illusion spells and turn undead to control your opponents. May need to do some kiting and may get hit in melee so wear decent light armor.
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint.

Assassin
Description: you'll never see who or what killed you.
Suggested race: Bosmer.
Perks:

• Archery(11/16): Overdraw(5/5), Eagle Eye, Critical Shot(3/3), Power Shot, Quick Shot.
  
• Sneak(12/13): All except Assassin's Blade.
  
• 26 points to place at your discretion. Frankly, just these 23 perks will make you so overpowered you could place the rest in lockpicking, pickpocket and speechcraft and still fall asleep on master difficulty.

Equipment: mix and match Nightingale and Dark Brotherhood gear. Armor rating isn't important as you won't be getting hit much, if at all. Frankly you could still own in your underwear.
Shouts: Throw Voice.


4. Mods

To be added as they become available.


5. Links

• http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Archery
  
• http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Archery
  
• http://i43.tinypic.com/mim03o.png

I made http://i43.tinypic.com/mim03o.png the other day. Which was today. Might be of interest to some.

That is great work. Mind if I add it to the links until I get an in-depth mechanics section up?

Not at all.

I like this article. It's very informative.

Could you explain a little more about the auto-aim comments and the effect of those tweaks? I had no idea there was auto-aiming going on. I thought the aiming system felt pretty natural. I'm leary of messing with the settings without knowing what the specific effect will be.

I actually just started a Dunmer assassin using bows, a dagger, light armor and conjuration. The only thing I had a question about was which smithing tree to take. I plan on using DB armor until I get nightingale, but should I take heavy path just for better bows and weapons?

Excellent thread, kudos for all the information. And the fabulous title alliteration.

My first bow assassin went the light armor smithing route, and I regretted it. If you're going to use the quest armor anyway, then there's no reason to not take the heavy path. You can still access the best light armor when you get to dragon smithing.

Yes, this.

Well, the reason is that it costs one perk more and Ebony/Daedric bows are very slow.

The perk was worth it to me to access the most powerful bows. As an archer assassin I tend to end up with more perks than I need. I also hadn't noticed a speed difference. Good to know. Even going by your chart, though, they have more dps than the glass bow. Granted, it's not by much.

For an assassin the raw damage is indeed better(for one-shotting) but for pure DPS generally faster firing is better because it means more applied effects(poison, elemental, stagger from Power Shot, etc.).

Nice writeup!

Is it possible to disable the aiming reticle only when the bow is drawn? I'd like to run an archer and shoot by eye, but I like the reticle otherwise so I don't accidentally 'steal' something while trying to talk to someone or open a chest (etc.).

I'd think arrow recovery perks would be useful when you first find a more powerful arrow type, but before they become plentiful in chests and mercheant inventory.

The game will fire arrows slightly upwards, so that at the typical engagement range, the net effect is that the arrow will hit where the crosshair is pointing (ie. it will rise, then fall due to physics). This means that, at close range, if you aim at someone's head, the arrow will completely miss (it will fly right over his head). Bethesda did this to help newbies not have to compensate so much for arrow drop.

With the tweak, the arrow will fly straight then immediately begin to drop, as you'd expect if you were to shoot an actual bow.

I already knew about those Tweaks. it is pretty good, but i think i don't need the one of auto-aim, because it seems my game does not auto-aim in the target..

That's not auto-aim, they're just trying to simulate real arrow trajectories.

http://www.huntingclub.com/magazine/articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/10111/controlling-arrow-trajectory--how-to-calculate-distance-for-angled-shots

I call it auto-aim deprecatingly, but also because the idea behind it is that in most situations, the arrow will hit where the crosshair is pointing at instead of forcing you to judge the arc and compensate accordingly.

If you spend enough time shooting the targets in forts etc. you'll see that it's based on distance. What does disappoint me is that iron arrows have the same trajectory as glass ones etc. I would have liked for them to not go very far in comparison...that'll be a good mod.

Why would anyone fly a kite in Skyrim? It also seems really unpractical with shooting a bow at the same time...?

Can you archers help me?

I want to know if the BOUND BOW benefits from the Archery tree or if it is strictly a magic based weapon benefited by the proper magic tree.

It benefits from both.

I like the article, but i would argue with you about your opinion on the slowing time perk. I find this perk to be incredibly helpful against multiple fast moving enemies as it pretty much doubles my chance at hitting them,

I didn't read it all because I'm not primarily an archer, but I like what you've put together.

Also, +1 for alliterative title

Thanks for the tweaks. Definitely followed those to make archery a little more pleasant (not that it wasn't already)