I was thinking of being a stealthy dual wielding dagger/bow user because I found stealth to be the most satisfying (and OP once you got the skill to 100) way of taking enemies out in the game. I would come up from behind and slit the throat of a boss and felt like what I did was so easy, it was OP. I also loved using the bow. So what I'm asking is how does stealth work in ESO? Can you come up from behind someone with a dagger in stealth and get a 12x damage modifier? Also, how does the hit registration work in ESO for the bow? Is it just like in Skyrim or do you just target them and then shoot your bow and the arrow will hit no matter what direction you are facing (as I have seen in gameplay of other MMOs and it sickens me [Rift])? I am a console player, by the way, who is new to MMOs.

If ESO had a spine, there'd be no stealth at all.

As a console gamer, you're accustomed to spending most of your time fighting the computer. In an MMO, stealth players tend to be the whiniest, most demanding players of all. The games that don't have stealth (like Rift, at launch) fare MUCH better.

You basically get one crouched sneak/stealth hit then you automatically come out of it and the enemy comes after you, but it acts as a critical hit. I can't recall if it is always a critical hit, or if it just improves your chances, sorry. As for the bow it auto targets to the enemy you're hovered over. One thing that was kind of lame was you could have your arrow pulled back to shoot at someone, then turn your character so your not even facing them and release it and it'll still hit. At least that's how it was in beta, which I kinda hope they fix.

There is no skill line for the bow so it won't be relevant in this game.

Apparently they don't want anyone being archers.

Any hopes of playing a ranger class are gone.

I kinda has to have it. Sneak has been present in ES games for a long time and is intrical to many peoples characters... Not to mention downright required by many of the guilds quests in the games. (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild).

It also acts as a way for small groups to counter attack zergs or to slip by them.

Well, of course there is indeed a skill line for bow.

There is not a skill line for stealth, though.

It's a non sequitur to say that ESO "kinda has to have it". One of the accommodations you have to make when you go from a Single Player RPG to an MMO is that you have to balance classes and play styles. Stealth Gankers invariably want to be able to one-shot people, and invariably demand special consideration. Games are better off without it.

agreed.

Bow works well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-97mrfaqdw

Not that this vid is the end all be all of the bow, just shows some of it's capabilities.

Uh .. LMAO .. ESO would be less w/out stealth .. it's based of trio of class / abilities. HAHA

Bow - Weapon Skill good abilities w/ Snipe the longest ranged attack.

Stealth - Dependant on class abilities but anyone can toggle basic stealth.

Plus its not perma stealth which I do appreciate that so you just can't camp bottleneck points on map or login from "DF" dungeon and ninja all the noobs etc.

I hope to get a nice bow/dw spec going ... good opening with ranged.. and finishing it up in DW scrapping to finish it off unless bow can do it at range...

Just curious if switching weapons out takes a while to do or instant?

Almost instant, use your resources wisely

Clearly someone knows nothing about the game.

Rift had its issues with warriors being the king of everything in pvp more so, in WoW the rogue is the least played class.

I've heard this a lot and it doesn't make any sense. Your argument is there's no class specific to the bow, but you're failing to realize that the classes aren't specific to any weapon in this game, if you want to use skills for that weapon then you spec into that weapon tree.

For the record.. I totally get that Stealth in ESO is a done deal and I'll never talk them out of it. Just sayin'...

Speaking of Archery, though... I can't seem to find a consensus as to whether a DragonKnight or a Nightblade would be a better archer. (I don't understand all the nuance of how armor impacts things, and other variables...) So what are the pros and cons of each?

This , I think this is the great thing about the game. But i hope they balance skill lines well so that you dont see 99% of every class running the same build post launch.

I haven't used a bow in the beta or in a TES game, can it be used when someone is in melee with the user or does an archer have to switch to a melee weapon when an enemy gets close?

yes it can in ESO

No you can stay with a bow in melee range

Last i saw there was a skill line called exactly that... Bows

Class skills are irreverent of weapons.

3/4 classes have decent ranged abilities that can complement the use of bow skills.

Pretty sure you don't get the stealth stun attacking with a bow from stealth. Unsure about damage.

Front cone detection of stealth is significantly better than rear, so you actually have to sneak up behind people instead of sneaking up to their face.

What i find pretty cool is large groups of people can sneak around keeps and such not matter what their class. all it costs is more travel time.

I was originally going to make a Nightblade archer; Siphon for complementary ranged attack, stealth+bow attack to open and then Nightblade invis-in-combat to get in another hit... you can morph some Nightblade abilities to have a modest range on them... if a foe DOES get close, by that time they were severely wounded and the Nightblade attack that does a lot of damage to low-health foes would finish them off nicely.

But then I heard how well Templar and Sorcerer archers worked, since they have ranged abilities; the Templar has a slow effect on one sunlight-blast power, for example, and snaring a foe would be great for an archer.... The dragonknight, I am less sure how to play as an archer since so many of its abilities seem melee range or involve increasing durability, etc.

Certainly makes it tricky to plan a build with SUCH a broad range of possibilities.

That was my point.

There is no class defining ability of using a bow, basically 3/4 of the people are going to be plucking away with bows at distance until they switch to either magic or something else or keep the bow. There is nothing given especially for mastery of the bow itself.

What we are going to see is practically everyone using a bow for every encounter to start. Even mages will be using them.

Its sad to see such a great possible skill line, simply diminished this way.

My main gripe with bow shooting (other than the starting pathetic range) is that when my character fires an arrow in the crouch position, he's automatically then pulled out of crouch. Will enemies hit by my arrow detect my character and know from where the arrow originated? Possibly, but then there's still no reason to pull my character out of crouch. I put the character in crouch, and I should have the freedom to pull the character out of crouch.