Never did the Stealth Archer

[Husky]

Basically the Meme ,,I swear I'll be playing [something something] but I still end up playing Stealth archer''

I played Mage,Shield and sword warrior,2H Warrior but never tried THE THING.
I play with mods to make those playthroughs more entertaining, so If I'm gonna try the Stealth Archer.

So tell me what I've been missing on and if you use any mods to make this what is the most enjoyable class in skyrim (what I've seen on the internet)

[John]

If you have played as anything else but the stealth archer, you kinda don't wanna become a stealth archer as it's the most boring playstyle there is. Shoot everything from a distance before it can even see or hit you, it gets boring after 10 minutes.

You could go for challenge runs, no trifecta weapons (smithing + alchemy + enchanting). Just choose one of them and that is it, allthough arcane blacksmith is always allowed but as a compromise you can not use steel equipment, or just use a console command to remove the double steel smithing perk.

[Rez Elwin]

There really is no feeling like taking down an entire dungeon without ever being seen, it's like medieval spec ops. And taking down a target with a headshot from 100 yards just feels good. I always like inspecting my targets to see where my arrows hit. I don't use any mods that make that play style any more interesting and it still really fun.

It is slower than a warrior or mage since it is all about sneaking. And you really can only take out one person at a time unlike a mage which can pretty much clear a room in 3 seconds. I recommend playing as a vampire, they get a bonus to sneak.

You will want to find some muffle boots, or use the spell with quite casting, but the boots would be easier since you don't need to cast and then recast said spell. Now you can get muffle boots from the Dark Brotherhood but they are not as good as self enchanted muffle boots or the spell. Boots you find in the game are always at 0.5 magnitude which is only 50% noise reduction, but if you enchant your own, even with a petty soul and 15 enchanting they become 1.0 or 100% noise reduction, making you completely silent. The spell also gives you 100%

That being said the Brotherhood is a natural choice to join as you can naturally level sneaking and archery while doing it. Thieves guild is another good choice because you get access to Master trainers for both Sneak and Archery. You will also have to go to the Ragged Flagon anyway if doing the whole DB questline.

[Big Zei]

It really isn't fun, It's simply the easiest way to play, hence why it's the most popular class. Insane damage bow + insane damage arrow + the x2 (x3 if you have the perk) sneak multiplier and you mostly 1 hit kill everything on anything lower than master difficulty from as far away as your 100% accuracy will allow you to see.

Combine crazy sneak damage with idiot AI that think being shot in the eyeball with an arrow was just a part of their imagination, and have the detection range of a dead Riverwood chicken, it trivialises 90% of the game.

I had way more fun doing the stealth dagger build that actually requires you to think about how to approach a situation rather than from a quarter mile back with the accuracy of Hawkeye, and it punishes if you get it wrong by throwing you into combat amongst your foes, instead of hiding behind a tree until they forget about you.

[Husky]

some people say it is the best way to avoid the simplistic combat in the game, and to be honest it get's kinda repetetive so this could be another way to play the game, but I do agree with you guys

[Drinjanin]

Originally posted by John:

If you have played as anything else but the stealth archer, you kinda don't wanna become a stealth archer as it's the most boring playstyle there is. Shoot everything from a distance before it can even see or hit you, it gets boring after 10 minutes.

Pff, whenever I play The Elder Scrolls games, I am always sneaking and killing with bow, until the enemies locate me. It never gets boring. I have been doing it for years now, and I am playing Skyrim these days, nope, it never gets boring.

[258789553873]

Everyone just ends up resorting to it because its overpowered. You don't have to worry about surviving because you'll rarely take damage. Sneak attacks also boost your damage quite a bit, allowing you one-shot a lot of things. There's a reason its the top playstyle for legendary difficulty. As for the meme, its more infamous than famous, because if you play to a high level your character is always going to be either a stealth archer or a battlemage, more often the former. A lot of people dislike how they always end up playing stealth archers.

As for the playstyle, a straight-up stealth archer is kind of simplistic, though if you've played two-handers you probably won't mind that. You can have far more fun with stealth though. The one time I played a stealth archer to a high level I also had illusion and conjuration. I could also turn into a vampire lord when I got caught (that's the only real weakness you have, if you're caught then you're defenseless, and getting back into stealth can be all but impossible). It was an amazingly fun build, because I essentially had four different play styles I could alternate between. If I got bored with one, I could switch to another. I really liked the versatility of that character. It was seriously the most fun I had. It was the 'puppetmaster' build by fudgemuppet if you care, though honestly I ended up playing it more like their 'vampire temptress' build.

[Piderman]

As everyone above said: dont do it.
Reinstalled the game just a couple days ago and planned to go for full on mage. Endet up as sneaky bow boi and didnt even realise until after two or so hours. I was so mad, i started a new game and assigned the sneak key to somewhere else, where muscle memory wouldnt touch it. Just became Arch Mage an hour ago and this feels so much more satisfying.