You can stockpile them very easily, to the point where you'll always have a surplus. Lots and lots of slow poisons (hotkey them). So how do you use a bow 100% of the time without getting shredded in melee? The answer is slow poisons. Until DLC hopefully adds some fun new skills for this build (trap-making please!), I roll with just those 3 skills, sometimes with pickpocket just for the hell of it. To get any combat use out of it I'd also need to level sneak, which is a cardinal sin. That leaves pickpocket, which is the most useless skill in Skyrim, because it is optional (unlike speech and to a lesser extent lockpicking), but it makes creatures stronger while you stay virtually the same. Smithing and enchanting would destroy any semblance of challenge, so those are out. That leaves smithing, enchanting, and pickpocket. I also never use melee weapons because if I ever find the need to use them, it means I have failed at archery. I never take magic because 1) almost all schools would completely trivialize the build and 2) I hate having to sheathe my bow just to cast a single spell (bring back quick cast beth). With no Ranger perk, you will get hit more often from ranged attackers, but you should be using cover against anything that can kill you quickly from range anyway.īeyond this, sadly, I find it difficult to choose more skills to level.

I also perk light armor, just because I have to put the points somewhere, but it's not necessary (unless you play DiD I don't).

Feel free to fill out the rest of the trees with whatever perks you like. I don't take Ranger because it makes kiting too easy (ie. You could beat the game on master without much trouble with just those two skills.

The essential framework is archery (duh), and alchemy. Here is a video of my latest character in action: After a few failed experiments, I discovered the most fun kiting build possible (for me). It was tough, especially against anything that could also sprint, but it was hella fun and after I learned how to abuse sneak, I really wished I could go back to that old kiting gameplay.

Back in november when we were all skyrim newbies, I thought sneak only worked on the first shot, so I spent most of the time sprinting away from creatures so I could fire some pot shots and not get destroyed in melee (because I had light armor and died very quickly). But it's also a consensus that it trivializes the game, and leads to boredom. Seems that the consensus is that sneak and archery go together like peanut butter and jelly. I did a google search for 'no sneak archery' to get some ideas for archer builds, and was surprised to find almost nothing relevant.

Skyrim increase archery console