With no marksmen bonuses or enchantments the best I can smith a daedric bow is 217 base damage. With my armor on with enchanted bonuses it goes up to 529. Is that as good as it gets without marksmen potions? Anyone have anything better or know how to improve that? With the best marksment potion I can make I can get it up past 1200 damage, but I have seen youtube videos with that as high as 1337.

Also, is it me or is the dragonbone bow not smithable anywhere near as much as a daedric bow, even though it has 3 more base damage before it's improved on a grindstone?

If the Dragonbone Bow isn't better than the Daedric Bow under the same potion, then you most likely don't have the Dragon Smithing perk.

And yes, people have gotten way higher damage than 529. We're talking about the milllion damage marks,

You don't want to know how to do that, trust me.

You can boost your Smithing Skill with potions and enchanted gear to continue. The weapon improvement has no cap... unfortunately. People have made Bows with damage in the hundred s of thousands with that stupid Fortify Restoration loop. Google for a whole plethora of info on doing that.

I always improve any weapon to Legendary and stop. To continue just makes the game utterly boring and voids the use of the other stuff like potions, poisons and enchanted damaging gear.

That just takes the point out of the entire game then. In my opinion, you really don't need a weapon that does over 1000 damage at all, that's just massive overkill on an unprecedented level.

I agree, anyone who plays like that might as well set the game on Novice.

Hear hear! Role-playing ftw!