Best Armor Type For Pure Archer Build?

[Vancouver Salad :)]

Title. Thank you!

Is it light armor, medium armor or heavy armor?

[Delta 1038]

If you really want to min-max, light armour in vanilla game is the best one because armour effectiveness caps at 567? and this can be achieved through enchantments and smithing.

Buuuuuut that's no fun. What kind of character are you playing? If you're going for the traditional ranger, light armour. If you want to go hardcore, fur armour.

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

I would point out at this early stage, that to get a kill in Archery, you need the stealthiest Gear to evade detection.

You will fair better wearing light armour. You can keep some heavier, better gear in your backpack for in case you have to get up-close and personal, but that only depends on the situation.

To get a good stealth kill with the Bow, go for light armour. It's the stealthiest, (most quiet) :)

[Vancouver Salad :)]

Hello Delta. Thank you for your informal reply. I just want to go hardcore archer build only. I am a wood elf and i like to keep it in lore like roleplay myself haha. So yeah.

[Vancouver Salad :)]

Also, can Bows get powerful? I am currently playing on expert since I like the challenge. I had ammo problems on the first golden claw quest and boy did I die a lot haha. Was fun though! Do i eventually do massive damage? Like kill guys before they even get to me?

[madgamer2]

I have a Redguard lev. 38 with sneak 97, bow 85, one hand&sheild 55(or so). If you get your sneak & bow tro high level NPC will stand right next to you and not see you as long as you don't move.

[Dala]

Well armor at early stage won't matter, since your sneak is not leveled yet and don't have 3 x damage from stealth shot. Go lvl them first and then talk about light armor. Joining the Dark Brotherhood (you get good armor that fits you) and the Thieve Guild is good, later when you reach level 32+ you can start on the late stage Thieve Guild quest to become one of the Nightingale, very nice light armor.

Do smithing, alchemy and enchanting. You need that to be powerful.

[Vancouver Salad :)]

Thank you all for your informitive replies. :)

[Delta 1038]

Oh yeah, another thing.

Bows have a special mechanic that they don't really explain in-game.

Generally speaking, draw speed is inversely proportional to base damage/arrow velocity. So the early game Hunting Bow fires faster than a Daedric Bow. But a Daedric Bow deals more damage and the arrows fired flies faster.

[Dala]

And also to get a sneak shot is from behind so if your target is facing you, fire a shot that makes him turn around to where the arrow hit, you can shoot then for 3 x damage. Of course this must be done while undetected.

Aura Whisper shout is your best friend :)

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

Yeah, you become pretty much insta-kill-badass in this game eventually in any profession, so it's good to try out immersive mods that increase difficulty.

Alternatively, if playing in SSE, just wait till the Creation Kit comes out, if you wish to alter your draw speed / damage level / etc to better suit your needs.

(bear in mind, I'm not refering to making it easier / OP, I'm refering to making it harder).

[Jirki88]

If you go for Stealth too - heavy armour, because Ebony Mail. If no Stealth, then Light Armour.

[Brandybuck]

The master archer will not worry about getting hit, because the master archer will defeat his foes before they ever find him.

On the other hand, standing up in broad daylight and shooting your opponent face to face is the weakest build in the game. There's a reason God made swords...

[LAG]

For a pure archer built i would reccomend the following

archery(duh)

light armour

sneak

illusion magic is also a choice here, if you like the whole invisiblity and muffled movement, but they're more frosting than cake.

light armour is better than heavy armour for a few reasons

less weight allows you to run for longer(AFAIK) and faster. Also helps to not have 100 weight worth of armour on you at all times. Heavy armour forces you to put in stamina points for more weight. You should still put some points in stamina as an archer but it's not equally as neccesary.

Note that both skill trees have "no weight from armour" perks though. the heavy armour tree has it at req. 70 and inconveniently placed at the far left end. Light armour has it at req. 50 and more convenently placed.

Light armour makes less noise, making it easier to sneak. Using muffled or having 0 armour weight does nullify this bonus though.

Heavy armour has a higher armour rating, though since both armour types can reach the cap of 80% dmg reduction this will inevetably also be nullified.

Skill tree wise light armour gives you more stamina regen and the ability to dodge a melee attack. Heavy armour allows you to reflect melee attacks, take less stagger and fist fight better.

If you prefer running away from the enemy and keeping your distance go light armour, the extra stamina really helps.

if you prefer to fist fight the enemy, take power attacks head on and get beaten blue and yellow by melee attacks go heavy armour. Though i do reccomend you put some points into health then.

Smithing is universal, both can achieve max armour rating, both will have 0 weight, both can be enchanted equally as good.

Heavy armour benefits from some restoration magic while light armour benefits from some illusion magic.

Do take the "cast novice restoration perks for half the magicka" though, being able to heal 200hp with your base 100 manapool really helps.

[Jirki88]

Originally posted by LAG:

For a pure archer built i would reccomend the following

archery(duh)

light armour

sneak

illusion magic is also a choice here, if you like the whole invisiblity and muffled movement, but they're more frosting than cake.

light armour is better than heavy armour for a few reasons

less weight allows you to run for longer(AFAIK) and faster. Also helps to not have 100 weight worth of armour on you at all times. Heavy armour forces you to put in stamina points for more weight. You should still put some points in stamina as an archer but it's not equally as neccesary.

Note that both skill trees have "no weight from armour" perks though. the heavy armour tree has it at req. 70 and inconveniently placed at the far left end. Light armour has it at req. 50 and more convenently placed.

Light armour makes less noise, making it easier to sneak. Using muffled or having 0 armour weight does nullify this bonus though.

Heavy armour has a higher armour rating, though since both armour types can reach the cap of 80% dmg reduction this will inevetably also be nullified.

Skill tree wise light armour gives you more stamina regen and the ability to dodge a melee attack. Heavy armour allows you to reflect melee attacks, take less stagger and fist fight better.

If you prefer running away from the enemy and keeping your distance go light armour, the extra stamina really helps.

if you prefer to fist fight the enemy, take power attacks head on and get beaten blue and yellow by melee attacks go heavy armour. Though i do reccomend you put some points into health then.

Smithing is universal, both can achieve max armour rating, both will have 0 weight, both can be enchanted equally as good.

Heavy armour benefits from some restoration magic while light armour benefits from some illusion magic.

Do take the "cast novice restoration perks for half the magicka" though, being able to heal 200hp with your base 100 manapool really helps.

You are, on heavy armour, however neglecting the Ebony Mail - it's by far the best armour for a stealth based character since its' special effect means you're literally in shadow anywhere. And it's heavy armour. That benefit alone makes heavy armour preferable (especially as the Ebony Mail comes with Muffle by default).

[Axeface]

Light armour as a whole is just better than heavy (In Vanilla, another terrible design flaw), with the exception noted above about the ebony mail.