Trick to Marksman?

[claudius]

I'm wondering if it's just bad dice rolls or if there is a trick. Do I have to aim a little to the side of the crosshairs? Or right on the crosshair?

[Taiwan Number One]

I think it is just bad dice rolls(what's your Marksman & Agility BTW?) as I have crosshairs turned off and aiming center mass has always worked for me. There is little to no arrow drop, far as I can tell, so maybe you are aiming too high?

[claudius]

Level 1 character fresh from the very beginning.

Agility = 30; Luck = 50; Marksman = 30

I might try practicing on mudcrabs. The first slaver cave it is too chaotic and scary to practice the marksman.

[piccolo255]

Yah, practice on Mudcrabs. FWIW, I get decent hits by aiming slightly up-and-to-the-right, but only by a few pixels.

According to UESP,[en.uesp.net] those stats should give you ~40% accuracy, ~50% at max fatigue. However, with Agility that low, it's likely that the opponents AGI modifier is higher than yours, and Luck should be about the same. That would give you something like ~30-35% hit rate... which will seem like 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 due to your own perception bias :)

At 56 Marksman, 70 Agility, and 65 Luck, my current char hits mudcrabs, rats, scribs, etc. almost always, but misses ~half the time against humans and basic daedra, or even more against stronger opponents. It's a pain.

Until you raise both your Marksman and your Agility, be prepared to switch to melee as soon as the opponent reaches you.

[Paragon]

TRAINING

[psychotron666]

Also make sure your fatigue bar is full. Keep it full all the time during combat, especially early on. As you'll miss everything if you don't.

[////]

whenever yellow bar indicating enemy health appers it mean you are aiming right.

if you decide to play archer you should pick every possible bonus available from the start. otherwise training manually could take very long. marksman is really not op skill in morrowind... but still fun if you max it.

Originally posted by American Wizard:

TRAINING

^ or this. don't hoard on gold too much.

[claudius]

Thanks! All very good information. I could get higher starting Marksman with another race than Breton but in the long run I might be more happy with Breton? I could also choose Stealth as my specialty instead of Magic but again in long run I might be happy with Magic.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by claudius:

Thanks! All very good information. I could get higher starting Marksman with another race than Breton but in the long run I might be more happy with Breton? I could also choose Stealth as my specialty instead of Magic but again in long run I might be happy with Magic.

Bretons are more geared towards magic than the other two specialties, as all of their bonuses are focused on that. If you're not playing as a Marksman-focus class, your choice of a Breton is going to give you trouble. Not insurmountable, but doing so requires a lot of time/gold, and the best NPC trainer in Marksman lives in an isolated, middle-of-nowhere location that's hard to find if you don't already know where it is. So I would advise you to do one of two things. Either give up on a totally archery-based playstyle and mix in some magic, which would allow you to take advantage of playing as a Breton, or give up on this current character and start a new character as either a Bosmer or a Dunmer. The Bosmer is geared towards more towards ranged combat, and the Dunmer gives you a good mix of options.

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Bretons are more geared towards magic than the other two specialties, as all of their bonuses are focused on that. If you're not playing as a Marksman-focus class, your choice of a Breton is going to give you trouble. Not insurmountable, but doing so requires a lot of time/gold, and the best NPC trainer in Marksman lives in an isolated, middle-of-nowhere location that's hard to find if you don't already know where it is.

You don't need a master trainer to get a skill to a usable level. Getting it to ~50 or so is enough to be combat effective, and that can be done in many places[en.uesp.net] (Balmora, Caldera, Vivec...). Just do it over a few levels, and use the level-ups to boost Agility as well.

Originally posted by Valden21:

So I would advise you to do one of two things. Either give up on a totally archery-based playstyle and mix in some magic, which would allow you to take advantage of playing as a Breton, or give up on this current character and start a new character as either a Bosmer or a Dunmer.

Indeed. As a Breton, use magic to augment your combat skills. Every school of magic has something useful.

- Restoration: Fortify Agility for better accuracy, Fortify Strength for more damage. Or just a straight up Fortify Marksman (there are merchants that sells spells with Fortify Skill effects in Mournhold).

- Alteration: Levitate out of reach, Shield for defense.

- Conjuration: Bound Longbow to get an excellent (2-50 damage) bow with a 10 points constant effect Fortify Marksman enchantment on it, various Summon spells to get a meatshield.

- Destruction: Drain/Damage Agility to reduce opponent's dodge, Drain/Damage Speed to slow them down.

- Illusion: Blind to make them miss (warning: without Morrowind Code Patch, Blind is bugged and has the opposite effect;[en.uesp.net] if you're playing without MCP, you can instead cast a low-level blind on yourself -- not too much, as it blackens your screen -- to increase your accuracy).

- Mysticism: Absorb Agility to combine Fortify and Drain in a single effect.

[psychotron666]

You can be whatever race you want with whatever play style you want. It's just some are easier than others (for example a wood elf, specializing in stealth and agility will start with a 50 marksman skill).

[Ryu Oki]

Wanna win with marksman, get bound bow. practice conjuring and later on you can enchant something to perma give you a bound bow upon equip (like a light weight dagger or stick).

[Magnetaur]

This bow really helps if you have a low marksman:
Shortbow of Sanguine Sureflight[en.uesp.net]

Aim for 50 agility and 50 marksman as early as possible. That's enough to use marksman reliably.

Edit: And if you don't have them already, get the Official Plug-ins[en.uesp.net]. One is area effect arrows, which allow you to use burst magic arrows. They essentially turn your bow into a rocket launcher.

[claudius]

massive legend here: what is fully charged attack? It means giving the animation full time to attack? Is that for both ranged and melee?

It might explain some of my bad RNG sometimes (at the worst moments with dangerous enemy) in that maybe I'm doing something mechanically wrong to get hits and not just dice rolls. Maybe I need to practice getting fully charged?

Otherwise my gal is coming along. Level 3 40 Agility and 33 Marksman. Ok for now. I tried to get the Mentors Ring but actually found the wrong tomb near Skyda Neen. But the Blessed Touch is pretty magicka efficient for tomb raiding.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by claudius:

massive legend here: what is fully charged attack? It means giving the animation full time to attack? Is that for both ranged and melee?

It might explain some of my bad RNG sometimes (at the worst moments with dangerous enemy) in that maybe I'm doing something mechanically wrong to get hits and not just dice rolls. Maybe I need to practice getting fully charged?

Otherwise my gal is coming along. Level 3 40 Agility and 33 Marksman. Ok for now. I tried to get the Mentors Ring but actually found the wrong tomb near Skyda Neen. But the Blessed Touch is pretty magicka efficient for tomb raiding.

AFAIK, it means exactly that. If you have a bow, giving the bow time to reach full draw (you'll know when it happens because the sound of pulling the string back will stop) will make the shot more accurate and do more damage. Similar deal with a melee weapon.

Btw, if you want a really good bow, there's a really easy way to get a Daedric Bow, and all it requires is a short walk through the area south of Balmora and a trip to Vivec. I always make a point to get this weapon, as the Daedric Bow is great for archer-type characters.

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by claudius:

massive legend here: what is fully charged attack? It means giving the animation full time to attack? Is that for both ranged and melee?

It might explain some of my bad RNG sometimes (at the worst moments with dangerous enemy) in that maybe I'm doing something mechanically wrong to get hits and not just dice rolls. Maybe I need to practice getting fully charged?

You know how weapons have damage ranges, like "1-30" or "10-20" or whatever? If you just mash the left mouse button, you'll do the low number. If you press and hold a bit, so the weapon is fully pulled back until animation stops, you'll do the high number. If you pull back only partially, you'll do something in between.

It doesn't influence accuracy, only damage (and for ranged weapons, flight path of the projectile --- a stronger pull will make it fly straighter). I don't think it influences exp gain, AFAIK a hit is a hit, so mashing the button against weak opponents is actually a good way to level up weapon skills, as you'll need to hit them more times = more exp gain.