I have an sneak-archer character who I am enjoying immensely, however I spent a point on assassin's blade thinking I'd spec into dual wielding and get the first five perks from the one-handed tree.

'The problem' is archery is so good, I really have yet to feel the need to want to use a dagger. I think I may have used it twice for a backstab and I'm level 21.

If, on the rare occasion I don't get a one hit kill (OHK) with a bow I just fire again, and short of standing outside, in the middle of the day, with no cover, I'm never discovered before I've fired another arrow in them to finish the job.

To max the first one-handed perk (armsman), it'd cost 5 perks, then if I wanted to dual wield daggers there's three more perks. I'm really wondering whether I should consider spending those 8 perks else where such as the archery perks I wasn't going to take e.g. 'Ranger', 'Quickshot', and 'Bullseye') which would make archery valid in open combat as well as sneak.

What are your thoughts?

(1) Have I wasted the perk point on assassin's blade by not purchasing any single handed perks?

(2) Should I consider the 5 armsman perks to use daggers but be safe to ignore dual-wielding as a compromise?





I do admit hagravens have caused me some trouble (they have insane amounts of health and need 3-4 sneak arrows), especially when encountered in-doors. Having said that, I generally remain undetected, remaining in a shadowy corridor to snipe, and often the hags tend to stand facing the door in a well-lit room so I question if a dagger would be viable in that instance.

Pure Archer is strong while in stealth. But if you can't get the one-shot, you're forced into melee combat. That's the only downside to it.

I thought I would hate using a bow, turns out if's the best weapon in the game however sometimes when I'm in a dungeon i need to use it for close quarters combat. Aswell as those stupid wolves. I swear there are more wolves then people.

I can remain undetected for 2-3 shots before detection, if I can dart around a corner, even more. I seem to have more patience than anyone I know -- I litterally will clear entire dungeons never once being detected or hit. My light armour skill has only just hit 30...

I see what you mean though, but, even in those cases you wouldn't want to use a dagger versus a sword once detected.



Wolves? For me they die to one non-stealth arrow... I don't have a problem with them especially thanks to shouts...

I'm worried there will be dungeons I'm not anticipating which are lit up like a 24 hour supermarket however I've gone through a fair amount so far and while some have been lighter than other's it hasn't been a maor problem.

I explore everything with bow out and sneak on and my sneak is almost maxed and my archery is 61 and I am unstoppable, no one can see where I am 5 feet in front of me. So, I have yet to really need the daggers but I keep some just in case I; 1) Somehow manage to forget to get arrows and run out. 2) I am up against people who are constantly moving around I can't manage to hit that often. or 3) I am getting blasted in the face by spells and can't see so i pull out the dags and start swinging.
So, it isn't completely useless but archery and stealth will be able to do the job mostly.


Edit: Had the numbers as A,B, and C and B made a glasses face so I had to fix it.

This is how I'm playing, Pure Sniper. Only thing is I wanted to avoid crafting for balance issues as I was going to max enchanting, but in order to keep my bow on the same level as the people I'm playing, going to have to start perking the crafting chain.

Wolves are a one hit kill for me, non-sneak. Dragons are a [censored] to kill and normally I have to run to other creatures or NPC's to get help. I do not play with companions either. If I do not kill magic users in the first two arrows, its going to be a long fight. Its rewarding when I can clear a section with about five villains with my bow.

Not true... Use illusion to calm fear etc

Not true... Use illusion to calm fear etc

I'm playing an archer and so far I've only put 2 points into Armsman. I've not used my daggers anywhere near as much as I'd thought I would. My archery is 45 and my one-handed is 30. I'm not sure Assassin's Blade is going to be worth it. I might just use a good one-handed sword instead.

I play sneak archer/destruction/conjurer.

Drop a double charged rune, shoot, summon atronach, shoot, shout the chargers off, drop a rune, shoot.

Battle over.

What difficulty you guys playing on? I find on Expert I can rarely if ever one shot people from Sneak....

What is the advantage to switching to melee when in close combat?

Never hurts to have a backup. And since you can have around 80 perks before the game is over (stats-wise), it shouldn't matter too much.