What is The...

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The Best Bow in the game?

[Perplex]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Zephyr has the highest damage per second due to it's faster fire rate, after that a dragonbone bow improved to legendary.

This.

[Vlad 254]

I agree with the uesp.

Karliah's Bow is the best in the game for maximum damage in one shot, and has the third best dps rating. However, the slow speed of Karliah's Bow will quickly see it slip behind the other best bows.

Auriel's Bow is the best bow in the game for dps, though at a huge cost of maximum damage.

Karliah's Bow is the best in the game for maximum damage in one shot, and has the third best dps rating. However, the slow speed of Karliah's Bow will quickly see it slip behind the other best bows.

The dragonbone bow is a good compromise between speed and damage, and it is more than sufficient at higher levels. It has the high base damage that is used for sneak attack calculations (the low base damage of Auriel's may not be enough to one-shot-kill many enemies).

The dragonbone bow has the added benefit over Zephyr and Auriel's Bow of being enchantable, allowing you your own custom enchantments that, with sufficient skill in enchanting, can push its dps well above the others.

Edit:
Zephyr is a unique Dwarven bow that belonged to Katria before she fell down a cliff to her death inside of Arkngthamz. The bow itself rests at the top of a ravine, precariously perched on the side of a fallen tree.

Zephyr's unique enchantment gives it a much higher draw speed than regular Dwarven bows, making it one of the quickest bows available, alongside Auriel's Bow and the long bow. Zephyr can be further improved with a Dwarven metal ingot if the Arcane Blacksmith perk is unlocked, with the benefits of these alterations being doubled if the Dwarven Smithing perk is also unlocked.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

The dragonbone bow is a good compromise between speed and damage, and it is more than sufficient at higher levels. It has the high base damage that is used for sneak attack calculations (the low base damage of Auriel's may not be enough to one-shot-kill many enemies).

The dragonbone bow has the added benefit over Zephyr and Auriel's Bow of being enchantable, allowing you your own custom enchantments that, with sufficient skill in enchanting, can push its dps well above the others.

That's what I usually do, a Dragonbone Bow, improved to Legendary, and two decent enchantments (Dual Enchantment Perk) and I never look back... Usually a Shock damage enchantment and a Chaos enchantment, since the Chaos enchantment increases how much damage the shock damage enchantment does, and adds a random element for fun.... I use Shock because few (if any) enemies have shock resistance.

[Private Diddly]

Zephyr is pretty fun

[circlewashss]

Hunting Bow(with smithing and enchanting) have the biggest dps(not one shot damage), yeah its kinda strange. Best bow without any crafting is Bound Bow, because its full copy of daedric bow(but wiht biggest rate of fire) with infinite amount of daedric arrows. If you don't want to bother with enchanting use Auriels. Sorry for my american egland.

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Bows_(Skyrim)

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

I agree with the uesp.

Karliah's Bow is the best in the game for maximum damage in one shot, and has the third best dps rating. However, the slow speed of Karliah's Bow will quickly see it slip behind the other best bows.

Karliah's bow does have the highest base damage of any bow but you cannot get it without using the console. Despiye her saying she gives you "her" bow you don't actually get it, you get the Nightingale Bow, same design, slow draw speed and enchant, but lower base damage.

[JBrown247]

Crafted dual enchantment bows are the best even without mods.