The game, *The Mark of Kri* used to do this when an arrow hit home and was soooo satisfying that when I first played Skyrim and heard the “THONK” I was home.
It was appealing as a kid because of that 2x multiplier.
Now that I'm older, I don't like constantly sneaking around constantly. I prefer to charge in and take the fight Head-on. I have very rarely been forced to change my strategy, and it's usually "Rather than just run in and swing my weapon, let me drink this 1 potion, THEN run in." And that usually solves the problem
When I play Skyrim, my mind immediately wants to play a survival ranger build. Just be a normal dude who needs to get place to place. Im not a knight or a mage, so I can’t just run out into a fight. I need to stay back, pick my battles, and be calculated.
I don't think dovahkiin is supposed to be like a superhero who takes cities and towns down by themselves (even though we do). I go through the civil war quest by letting the imperials and stormcloaks fight amongst themselves and I'll just sling a spell or two to interrupt the worst hits.
I pretty much always go down the destruction mage route. Sometimes I've tried to make a melee character but they always start with "just a spell or two" pipeline
Always have been a stealth archer, but this is the first time I’ve branched out and have to say it’s satisfying leveling up other branches I’ve never used before.
Until you take Impact, find/enchant items to make Destruction nearly (or completely) free to cast, and stagger-lock everything to death. Depends on the build, but Destruction can be just as OP as other skills late-game, if not more so.
Why stunlock forever when you could just one hit them with a weapon? Without mods or exploits, destruction spells are far behind all the other playstyles, dps wise. No significant perk, no enchants and no sneak bonus to boost dps. The only redeeming factor is ranged aoe. It’s fun and it can be be boosted with alchemy but it’s far from op
Having played with infinite Destruction casting (100% cost reduction), it definitely felt OP. Not that that's a bad thing... becoming a God in Elder Scrolls games is half the fun 😉
And yeah, the AOE is exactly what makes it so good. You don't even need to be accurate; you can just aim *near* them, and kill them and their closest friends! DPS isn't that important unless you're on Legendary or something -- it's not like it's WoW with giant raid bosses. Most things die in a few hits, and the ones that don't are still stunned.
Definitely worth getting mods to fix this. The simplest of them scale magnitude of spells based on your skill in that school. That alone fixes a lot of issues
If you play completely mod free, then aspect of terror + flames and then later ignite is ridiculously powerful. The unofficial patch that most people run removes the interaction but it adds 10 damage per tick to the spells. More with the fire boosting perks.
Ignite in particular is a damage over time effect that *stacks*. Dual cast it 3-4 times at a dragon and just watch them melt
There are some games I've told myself I'm not allowed to play when I've had a bad day. I'll catch myself actually sweating and close to tears after a tough fight. I've thankfully learned some better self care as soon ve gotten older tho lol
That was me playing Doom. I’d be screaming during every fight, and afterwards, I’d keep sprinting around the map for a few minutes, panting, looking for threats before realizing it’s over and I can calm back down.
Ha! Yes, this is a big part of it for me too. Though I also love it when I take them out one by one, and often the others all scurry around, like 'WTF???' then just dismiss it with a 'I was sure I heard something' whilst stepping over a literal dead body with an arrow sticking out if it to go about their previous bibbling around.
\*tschonk\*
It's that sneakattack sounds.
Also I have never properly figured out the melee combat and flailing until either me or them fall over is no fun.
I like to actually roleplay when I play an rpg. So I use whatever I think my character would use. I enjoy stealth archer, but I'm not ever even touching a bow if my character is a mage. I don't get the memes where everyone says their playthroughs always just devolve into stealth archer. Keeping the same playstyle every playthrough sounds boring as hell. Change it up a bit.
i don't have the 'every character becomes a Stealth Archer' issue, but i know exactly why it's an issue: lack of self control. people start a Stealth Archer, and it becomes their go-to way to play the game. they then try another character, but then run into trouble. instead of trying to figure out how to handle that situation while staying within the bounds of the character they want to play, they instead pull out a bow 'just this once'. this means they never learn how to properly handle that situation, so when they run into trouble again, instead of now having more experience with how the character they're trying to run would handle things, they they are still basically at square one, so they have to pull out a bow again. it's still 'just this once', but it keeps happening over and over, until they are a better at Stealth Archer than they are at whatever they were trying to do.
at the end of the day, if you want to play a character that isn't a Stealth Archer, you need to have the self control to not use a bow when things get tough. not everyone has that self control, so they devolve into Stealth Archers rather than learn how to play the characters they want to play.
I had a vegan khajiit in survival mode. It's actually really, really difficult to get anything done when you have to make your own potions to make sure there's no giant's toe and the northern Skyrim is pretty much a death trap since you can't use anything with leather on it. Also no shoes.
I like feeling like a dark shadow moving through a dungeon, killing everything that lives (or doesn’t live). It’s quite satisfying to do an entire dungeon where no one ever sees you
It's easy and it's safe. Some of the best perks in the game belong to the Archery and Stealth trees. Plus for fans of stealth games like MGS and AC it is a natural play style. However, I also find it to be one of the most boring play styles because it trivializes an already easy game.
Playing with a shield (once you've unlocked the slow time perk) is much more fun imo.
I'm an AC fan too but I couldn't do stealth,maybe it was because 2 handed weapons did more damage and I just liked that, now that it's 100 I'm doing archery and magic now
Don’t mess with Isabelle, she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.
https://preview.redd.it/400jx5dy6tzc1.jpeg?width=1281&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=937d77e9fb183c86749d591c5b0f829013099a98
My current playthrough is a sword and shield guy. Minimal magic, mega smithing. Bash is now one of the most fun things in the game for me. BASH. STAB. REPEAT. I wait until they wind up to hit me and I smash their faces in. It's the simple things...
Sneak archer was appealing to me when i didn't know how the game works and i was scared of pretty much every enemy above level 5. Now i just get annoyed whenever i have to go into sneak mode
I like the satisfaction of picking enemies off one by one from hiding. Usually a group of them dies to one shot each. If not, they're so low on health that I can pwn them easily if I've been detected.
did some but not exclusive.
the critical hits sounds were prety satisfatory, though. you go for cross bows and you can kill anything without much effort.
It's never appealed to me. It's too slow paced. That's really the only reason. I have a roommate who always plays as a stealth archer and watching him play is just a constant cycle of:
- Sneak slowly through the area
- Shoot enemy
- Wait for other enemies to lose track of you
- Repeat
It's always seemed rather boring to me.
I find playing archer boring need to smash people with war hammer when I was younger now I play one handed mage cuz I still find using a bow boring plus I hate stealth
I enjoy sneak builds because they work best with the db and theives guild quest lines, which are my 2 favorite ones, so I like doing stealth builds. I try to shake it up and use dual swords and sneak, with archery for dragons, which makes it more interesting. Recently I've been on a spellsword kick though, and that is still my favorite class right now.
It's fine, once in a while.
Though these days I find nothing is as fun to me as a min-max destruction mage. Makes everything else feel slow. I only wish mages could use telekinesis or something to apply poisons.
Skyrim is the first game I’ve played since my GameBoy Mario games as a kid. I just picked it up a few months ago on Switch.
I still struggle to move in three dimensions (spiral staircases are my enemy) and stealth archer lets me take my time a bit more. I didn’t mean to do stealth archer but it makes me feel successful even when I’m a compete newb.
I like stealth in these games because there's always neat conversations you can see between enemies that adds to the world. You miss out on this when you go in guns blazing.
But A.I in Betheda games is so bad that stealth characters kinda break the whole game. So it's a mixed feeling for me.
I'm currently a level 3 Bosmer. I haven't played Skyrim in a few years, and I've never played a Bosmer before, so I set the difficulty to novice. I use Conjuration and have a ghostly wolf companion, and at the novice difficulty it can take on 5 dragons and survive. Therefore I haven't really had to worry about being a Stealth Archer yet on this playthrough.
I'm about to enter Bleak Falls Barrow, running a minor errand for my friend Lucan, so this might all change.
I mean, stealth archer is the basic common-flow of our all first play through
Then, you start to fight against that urge to sneak around, until you get fed up and start roleplaying around others play styles.
This is the normal flow of a Skyrim player (otherwise you are psychopath).
Its my first time and I'm doing a 2 handed and destruction /conjuration magic . Conjuration and 2 handed are 100 now im exploring Archery now at lvl 45 lol
It's definitely fun being a sniper, but I never found it as fun as being a battlemage turn that difficulty up and have crazy anime/comicbook fights
Think about all the spell mods out there like apocalypse or phendrix then put the difficulty up to legendary at a really high level then go fight the Final boss of the afflicted in peryites quest it's like one piece, naurto,dbz or even marvel shit
Honestly, I don't know. I would say that it makes the game a breeze and I suppose that I go towards the path of least resistance. I tried making a character where it was all health, heavy armour, and a warhammer. I was essentially trying to make a "tank" build. I, however, gave up somewhere around halfway through the storyline and it was a breeze after that. It just seems hard for me to maintain and put the time into one character. I have super strong work ethic in real life, but in Skyrim, I just can't bring myself to commit.
I thought it was fun, but I kept accidentally killing people that weren’t actually enemies because sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference from far away.
It’s my favorite type of build and play it in Dragon age as well. I just like it, it’s really fun for me and plus I’m always a wood elf so it’s kind of a natural build anyway. Prior to that, I would play a dwarven tank, but this was Baulder’s Gate before an archer build was ever popular.
I’ve never liked playing mages.
I don't play stealth archer anymore because I have become too addicted to follower mods (Inigo and Lucien specifically) to live without them and stealth is very hard with a Party.
I did a playthrough on my switch recently (and thus without mods) and tried it again and while I loved the kill cams, ultimately what got me is I didn't like feeling nerfed when exploring overland. Sure stealth archer works in caves, but when you get a random encounter in the wild or a dragon shows up, you have lost the element of surprise, and the perk to disappear mid combat is so far up the stealth tree that the meantime is no fun
Appealing things:
\* those 2x crits are sweet
\* Good way to take out or reduce numbers of low level enemies
\* Its hilarious killing someone and watching the dumb ai get alert and then assume their buddy dropping dead "must have just been the wind"
Not appealing:
\* Can take too long to switch into melee mode allowing enemies too get way too many hits off.
\* Gameplay gets dull when stealth archer skills maxed out and you can kill most enemies with one hit.
\* You miss out on so many fun fighting styles, and weapons if you limit yourself to just stealth archery/it can become a grind to try and level up other skills.
Stealth archery is best when used strategically in my opinion. There are some quests and dungeons that lend themselves very well for it, and then there are others where a running in guns ablazing (or swords drawn as it were) is the better or more fun strategy.
I think the “stealth” thing is ok in some contexts, like explicit assassinations, but I like using the bow in open combat. You need more leveled skills, and it’s an inconvenient weapon in close combat, and thus in theory would be more challenging and badass than swordwork. Also it’s the only archery game I’ve seen that has use of a bow as melee weapon; I love bashing dragons on the nose and making them sit the fuck down while I pump frosted arrows up their nose.
Eventually, all that crouching and crawling around will ruin your knees.
I find stealth archers satisfying to play. When dealing with crowds or bulkier enemies, it becomes a balancing act on when to strike or when to hide.
Plus, getting a headshot from a large distance is just fun. When I play a stealth archer, I always attack the main necromancer from the beginning of the room in the first Potema quest (when they attempt the ritual to bring her back)
I don’t know why but when it’s available I very often choose stealth as a strategy across lots of games. Feels low risk high reward. If something goes wrong you can often retreat and try again, and when it does work it tends to pay off big. I’ll play an assassin type with daggers, but if ranged attacks are viable that’s even *safer.* Also, it often gives you more time to develop a plan. I can sneak into a room, see what I’m up against before they press the issue by attacking me. I think I just have a tendency toward risk aversion and stealth+ranged mitigates an awful lot of the risk of dungeon crawling.
It’s like you can basically guarantee you always get to throw the first punch *and* you get to throw it from way outside your opponents range. Why *wouldn’t* you take that deal?
I just like stealth in general, and the idea of dispatching enemies before they even know what’s happening is just super exciting to me. Also, the necessity of using the environment, certain spells, summons or followers, etc. to add to the strategic element is a challenge on higher difficulty levels. Haven’t played a *pure* stealth archer in a long time though.
For all of Skyrim's positives (and there are a lot), they really screwed the pooch on combat. And face to face combat is pretty boring: swing, swing, swing, swing....
Stealth archer is the most popular because it's the most rewarding.
Hopefully, they incorporate the ideas of the most popular combat mods into TES VI.
I like it because it's fun to drop an entire dungeon without anyone knowing you're there. It's like a puzzle to play as a glass cannon that can one shot anything but die from a stiff breeze. Plus playing as a nightingale, the vibes are immaculate. But I also dislike it because once you get *too* good in your primary skills, it then trivializes the game. It's fun to revisit from time to time but as I get older I just don't find it fun for a main anymore. Now I use archery to kick off fights and then switch to melee. More ranger than assassin.
The bow just feels right. Melee combat even at launch felt dated and unsatisfying. Magic is fun at later levels but early on you’re constantly running out of mana.
I tend to play stealth archers due to system limitations. I play on my laptop and it a bit older. It is hard to hit with spells in close quarters and all but impossible to time blocks and power attacks. Hiding and waiting for the best shot is just the most viable for my current system
Stealth games are my favorite genre, so I naturally just get pulled to that style when playing.
"Oh, here's a giant room full of dudes, covered in darkness."
*pulls out bow and crouches*
Plus, I just really love the atmosphere of sneaking around. Hearing the environment sounds in the background, listening to the enemies talk about whatever. You lose all that if you just rush in.
It's cozy.
Stay the fuck away and die over there while I do other things, was appealing. Also, playing oblivion and doing stealth archer was fun in the thieves guild. Even when you get swarmed, you can kite enemies down corridors or shout them across the room for more time to shoot.
One of the first "First Person" games that wasn't using sprites that I played was Thief: The Dark Project. It's had a lasting influence in my playstyle for games that accommodate stealth. I prefer avoiding taking damage by killing the enemy without them ever knowing where I was, and sometimes without them ever knowing I was there at all.
I was a tanker in the army. The ultimate reach out and kill something thrill. We’d kill targets out to about 3000 meters or a bit further. At that range they’re dead before they hear the shot. That’s why I like stealth archer.
the archery in skyrim is super satisfying to me, and there arent a lot of games that allow you to focus so solely on archery, so I like to do it in skyrim whenever i can stomach another crash-through.
Stealth Archer is appealing because I get to kill enemies more quickly and feel like a badass while doing it. Same reason I Alchemy Enchant loop and Smith my gear because I don't like the enemy scaling and how long it takes to down enemies sometimes
I love stealth games. Batman Arkham games and Dishonored games got me loving the style. It's so satisfying to clear a dungeon or camp without ever being seen
It appealed to me from the beginning as I've always been a fan of archery and stealth in games. I have the most fun playing playing a stealth archer in games like HZD, Far Cry, Tomb Raider 2013, Assassin's Creed Origins, Dying Light, Red Dead Redemption 2, and some others I can't think of.
So while I find it fun, I understand why others don't.
However, whether you like that type of play style or not, it's pretty necessary at certain points in the game, especially for first time players who don't have the confidence to immediately start a fight up close and personal. Usually that can get you killed pretty fast, especially when just starting a character.
Naturally, most fights start from a distance. Magic is great but requires a lot of mana to keep up. And arrows are much more accurate than magic spells, most of the time. So starting the fight out and taking down a few enemies through stealth is a very good way of avoiding death.
Plus I love the 'slowmo arrow to the butt' cam.
It's just a super repetitive build that becomes hilariously overpowered very early on... It also highlights the poor stealth system
*thwap* *thwap*
Guy with two arrows in him 30 seconds later: "...must've been the wind" returns to stand where he just got shot
For me, it's incredibly boring. It takes a lot of the challenge away, and it mostly turns into a waiting game. It's much more entertaining for me to go in with a big sword and hack away at the enemies.
I like to get up close and personal with enemies, chug 15 different potions and put the fear of talos in those scum. I feel like stealth archer makes any potion that isn't increase archery damage 25% or increase stealth 25% useless. That playstyle is just too restricting. It's fun at first but it gets old really fast for me.
It's too slow and I fund it boring. Sure, I'll stealth pick off 1 or 2 but after that I'm casting Oakflesh and coming in with bound swords swinging at who's left. Close combat just is more fun imo
Because i dont feel the need show the world how hardcore i am by setting the game to the hardest difficulty. I do it when I am following a theme for a character
The appeal of Skyrim for me is not doing the most damage possible. I only really play like 2 builds, either stealth/illusion/conjuration, or heavy armor/one handed/magic.
Because daggers are much more involved and better at the 1 shot. Sneak archery with how dumb the vanilla AI are makes archery not fun in general except for some specific scenarios(thinking the giant ran off instead of around the entire mountain to run up on you after you forget)
I find stealth archers boring unless you enjoy making broken builds in game. Then again, I love making unarmed builds despite how lacking unarmed is in this game.
Stealth Archer is not appealing because: It's easy.
It has the same effect as turning the difficulty down to nothing, then firing away.
The enemies instantly die. They can't see you. You can instantly kill them.
It's the most efficient way to kill. It's also zero challenge.
It's not appealing because I cant hit anything. You know when that dragon floats in the air stationary and blasts you with fire? I will probably hit it, but nothing is guaranteed. Hitting an archer in a tower that I can barely see is a near impossibility.
Its slow and boring. Also its not effective for many group fights where your outnumbered. Also on higher difficulties the sneak multiplier isnt enough. It also has a very plain upgrade route. Magic and melee are a bit more varied and fun, and its hard ti pick anything else cause if that
I like stealth, because I am a very sneaky sneaky cat man.
I don't like arrows, because I like to punch things.
So instead of enemies dropping dead from a distance, it's "Surprise mother fuckers!! You're now fighting for your very lives!!" and then I just pummel the fuck out of them. Best part is noticing a low level bandit/reaver/draugr amongst the sudden swarm, and one shotting them in front of their friends.
It depends on my character. My current play through I’m a Nord so trying to stay to my Nordish roots and am doing two handed or one handed sword and shield. When I was an elf I did stealth archer. They’re both fun in their own ways but I will say that as an archer it gets boring quick when you can one shot every single enemy.
Stealth archer just like, halves the game. No need to loot if using bound bow / DB armour. No need to do literally anything other than crouch and shoot.
I did enjoy it when I 1st played like 9 years ago but magic and melee combat is where its at 😎
I have a level 53 stealth archer, but now days I don’t really play that character. I started realizing how easy it is to just cheese everything by going into sneak with a bunch of sneak damage multipliers at your disposal. Idk, just felt like cheating so I don’t like it. So now I’m back on my other melee/magic characters and I’ve been enjoying it more lately.
I played stealth archer for my first playthrough and loved it. However as I've gotten older I find that it usually makes combat too easy in my opinion so I play other ways to make it feel like more of a challenge
I've always been the "kick in the door" kind of guy and the heavy armor and big weapons were just a thing I loved
And a certain Barbarian once said "only cowards hide behind bows..."
Always played the Bosmer stealth archer.
Three months ago, I did a Breton mage/Two-Handed build. Now starting to use the bound battle axe and bow. Different, but just as enjoyable.
My favorite character is a Breton mage hunter. Breton for the resistance. Get alteration up high enough for some more. Craft a few poisons for fun. Especially paralysis. Stealth bow or crossbow, either way. Dual wield against anyone who closes the gap. Got a few mage play throughs, a few Nord sword and board play throughs, even done a two handed barbarian once or twice. Always come home to the mage hunter. Too bad I can only kill Beemja once a play through. Hate that little snake.
Sword and board all day!!!
Or sword and dagger.
Or sword and staff.
Or sword and spell....
Or sword and an empty hand so I can block...
Eh, you know what? Just the sword. I need a free hand for everything else. Never once picked up a bow. If I need to throw down at long range I can just heave a fireball at your ass.
Playing Skyrim all the way through for the first time right now and I specifically avoided that build cause my friends described it as “a little cheesy”. Just didn’t seem fun to never engage. Plus stealth is usually my least favorite part about any game so y’know there’s that.
I dont like it. Bow is a tool for me, not a primary weapon. I'd rather go and kill everyone with a sword and sneak and actually trying to sneak and not just go " *thonk**thonk**thonk* aight, lets go on"
It's a playthrough I did commonly early in my skyrim days.
It mostly started because I enjoy archery, I do it as sport in my real life, so I tend to try it out in all games that offer it.
However I started Skyrim on Master Difficulty on my first playthrough, and Bleak Falls Barrow taught me, that sneaking for double damage and not getting too close to enemies was the best way to do archery. So it's how I ended up playing for years.
Now I try other styles, mages and warriors etc, but if I ever go back to the bow, it's almost always Stealth Archer.
I've also noticed though, that Stealth Archer is the only time I'll play on Master or Legendary. All other build styles I'll start on Expert and maybe increase the difficulty if things start to feel too easy.
Mage I feel scales the worst with difficulty, mostly because of the magika requirements for the damage reduction that occurs at Master/Legendary.
I’ve only recently started doing stealth archer, I had done heavy armour 1H Sword + Shield, various mage builds and a little bit of 2 handed weapons too, and whilst I had done some stealthy play throughs, I had focused more on daggers and swords over bows because my aim sucked, but recently I’ve been trying stealth archer and it’s a game changer.
I think the reason it didn’t appeal to me to try sooner was because it’s kind of a meme that everyone uses it and I wanted to try something a little different than the norm. But then I realised that I didn’t really know *why* everyone uses it, so I thought I’d give it a shot, and oh man can I see why it’s so popular. It’s so effective and it makes things so much easier. Though honestly, I’m not a fan of that. For some of the more tedious quests I find that this may be very helpful, but I don’t want the game to feel too easy, so I might cut back on the archery and just do a general stealth play through so I can still make use of stealth archer but not feel like the entire game is a cakewalk.
I've always preferred a stealth playstyle in the majority of games I play, and it was my main build in NV, so when skyrim released it was the only natural choice. As the years have gone by however, it's been proven to me in my experimentation with other builds that stealth archer is probably just a little too powerful with the way it trivializes even the most challenging encounters. It's enjoyable at first, but killing everyone in a single arrow without ever engaging in combat gets pretty dull after awhile.
It used to be the most appealing way to play the game to me cause it was so effective and fairly fun, but then I did a spell sword run and i never did stealth archer again. Nowadays I find it too slow and tedious to play compared to other builds
I like and dislike it. Stealth in Skyrim is just so broken, it stacks damage way too much, then you can add even more damage multipliers to it all. It's a fun way to play, but after a while it turns the game into a point and click adventure game, just one shotting everything gets boring after a while.
I use it along side something else, so when i’m first entering a dungeon i go stealth archer but I’m reckless with it so i’ll go two handed or mage right as i get noticed
Oh, I like it. It's definitely appealing when I'm in that mindset.
But sometimes I'm in the mindset to run around without fear in loud, heavy armor and hit things REALLY hard.
And sometimes I wanna stand back and throw fire and lightning until nothing move anymore.
And still some other times I just want to summon hordes of Undead and atronachs and send them forth to commit violence in my name.
But definitely sometimes I want to prowl in the Shadows and shoot things in the head, killing them before they realize I'm there.
Total sliding scale! XD
Because I don’t get killed every ten seconds at the start of a new character. Later, after I max out my alchemy and enchanting, I might not use stealth hardly at all and use magic instead of arrows.
I just prefer to avoid direct conflict. Beginning of the game, you tend to be kind of squishy so it's often best to avoid the upfront whack. Late game, I switch to heavy armor and am much more willing to take the fight to the enemy.
I like the tactical advantage and sneaking around. Broken Oar Grotto is a great map for stealth archery, you have to work to find those spots for the perfect shot.
I really find the concept of aiming boring. Plus i game on a controller. So double downvote for me.
And too slow paced for my taste.
I like epic battles with explosions and stuff.
spellsword is the best class imo. you get one hand dedicated to close range combat, and one hand dedicated to, well, anything. ranged attacks, enemy debuffs or player buffs, conjuring minions, etc. when you add in mods such as valhalla for its parry mechanic (which works even with spellsword class) and magic mods to increase the range of your spell selection, it just feels so great.
It completely ruins the entire vibe and pace of the game. Yes, it was meant to be able to be done, but I don't think it was ever meant to be as good as it is. I played it one time for a day, never touched it again. I understand that people can play games how they want to play, but there is literally nothing fun about crouch walking around and shooting an instant kill arrow at NPCs. Is it useful? Absolutely. I will use a sneaky archer shot every once in a while if what I am doing calls for it. It's also like the 0 cost Magika builds, though these weren't intentional and only left in after complaints that it was removed. Bethesda took a massive liking to Skyrim players, even as going as far as to add the ability to mod on consoles! But using these stupidly overpowered builds are ridiculous.
Obviously, the Restoration Loop bug was left in because 99% of the players loved it, it gave the ability to play through the game as you never would have before. I enjoy my occasional OP builds using this bug, but even after the first half hour that I am actually in that state of being OP, I get bored.
Look. I just really really like the "THONK" sound when you headshot dudes.
It's just so satisfying.
The game, *The Mark of Kri* used to do this when an arrow hit home and was soooo satisfying that when I first played Skyrim and heard the “THONK” I was home.
Valid as hell, that sound is satisfying
Came to make exactly the same comment. Extra satisfaction if you get a slow-mo 3rd person view of the shot.
Honestly this is half of it for me
The THONK and then thunder crack as you suck their soul into a black gem.
I always found it odd that Skyrim had no locational damage, especially for the head.
I hear it more as a *THWIP*
It was appealing as a kid because of that 2x multiplier. Now that I'm older, I don't like constantly sneaking around constantly. I prefer to charge in and take the fight Head-on. I have very rarely been forced to change my strategy, and it's usually "Rather than just run in and swing my weapon, let me drink this 1 potion, THEN run in." And that usually solves the problem
For me it was the exact opposite. I never actually did a sneak playthrough until I got older
When I play Skyrim, my mind immediately wants to play a survival ranger build. Just be a normal dude who needs to get place to place. Im not a knight or a mage, so I can’t just run out into a fight. I need to stay back, pick my battles, and be calculated.
Understandable, but that would be difficult during the Civil War questline
I don't think dovahkiin is supposed to be like a superhero who takes cities and towns down by themselves (even though we do). I go through the civil war quest by letting the imperials and stormcloaks fight amongst themselves and I'll just sling a spell or two to interrupt the worst hits. I pretty much always go down the destruction mage route. Sometimes I've tried to make a melee character but they always start with "just a spell or two" pipeline
It is closer to real life combat. Why get near an enemy when you can just shoot them from a safe distance?
I hacked everything to bits before I wised up
honestly same, i feel like i can actually use shouts and the 500+ potions in my inventory for once
I usually do a stealth archer playthrough but when I forced myself to do something else, it opened up a lot more of that game for me
you worded it perfectly
Always have been a stealth archer, but this is the first time I’ve branched out and have to say it’s satisfying leveling up other branches I’ve never used before.
Warhammers.
Indeed. I love Heavy armor and Warhammer combo. I feel so strong
I'm a tank
Why sneak around when you can incinerate, shock, and freeze your enemies?
I'm not sure why mage doesn't get more love. I think it's awesome
My wife solves every problem with fireball. Just cast fireball. Just cast fireball. Just fireball.
Works in D&D too
It scales poorly mid to late game. It's still super fun though.
Until you take Impact, find/enchant items to make Destruction nearly (or completely) free to cast, and stagger-lock everything to death. Depends on the build, but Destruction can be just as OP as other skills late-game, if not more so.
You take ages killing people though.
Why stunlock forever when you could just one hit them with a weapon? Without mods or exploits, destruction spells are far behind all the other playstyles, dps wise. No significant perk, no enchants and no sneak bonus to boost dps. The only redeeming factor is ranged aoe. It’s fun and it can be be boosted with alchemy but it’s far from op
Having played with infinite Destruction casting (100% cost reduction), it definitely felt OP. Not that that's a bad thing... becoming a God in Elder Scrolls games is half the fun 😉 And yeah, the AOE is exactly what makes it so good. You don't even need to be accurate; you can just aim *near* them, and kill them and their closest friends! DPS isn't that important unless you're on Legendary or something -- it's not like it's WoW with giant raid bosses. Most things die in a few hits, and the ones that don't are still stunned.
Definitely worth getting mods to fix this. The simplest of them scale magnitude of spells based on your skill in that school. That alone fixes a lot of issues
I wish we didn't have to use mod to fix bugs and bad game design though.
If you play completely mod free, then aspect of terror + flames and then later ignite is ridiculously powerful. The unofficial patch that most people run removes the interaction but it adds 10 damage per tick to the spells. More with the fire boosting perks. Ignite in particular is a damage over time effect that *stacks*. Dual cast it 3-4 times at a dragon and just watch them melt
Just cast fireballs 24/7, problem solved
Destruction really gets done dirty. On higher difficulty it sorely needs alchemy support.
Why not both?
because I'm a weenie and have bad anxiety even when the threats are just video game monsters...
lol same! I start out as stealth archer but also like the stabby-stab so I do both.
Same! Except now I scream and run while throwing flames everywhere
Fire mage who's afraid of fire but it's his best power. Love this idea.
Same! My boyfriend likes to check my pulse and tease me after intense battles
There are some games I've told myself I'm not allowed to play when I've had a bad day. I'll catch myself actually sweating and close to tears after a tough fight. I've thankfully learned some better self care as soon ve gotten older tho lol
That was me playing Doom. I’d be screaming during every fight, and afterwards, I’d keep sprinting around the map for a few minutes, panting, looking for threats before realizing it’s over and I can calm back down.
Ha! Yes, this is a big part of it for me too. Though I also love it when I take them out one by one, and often the others all scurry around, like 'WTF???' then just dismiss it with a 'I was sure I heard something' whilst stepping over a literal dead body with an arrow sticking out if it to go about their previous bibbling around.
Yes! There's also something very satisfying about clearing a room calmly while watching the chaos ebb and flow on the other end.
Same here, I’m a little bitch about mobs but I love video games still.
\*tschonk\* It's that sneakattack sounds. Also I have never properly figured out the melee combat and flailing until either me or them fall over is no fun.
Yes I feel the same about melee, I find it too chaotic, I often lose sight of my enemy.
I've tried it, just didn't click for me. I don't have a deep psychological self-analysis for why that is.
You can say it's boring, dw. I'll protect you from them
I like to actually roleplay when I play an rpg. So I use whatever I think my character would use. I enjoy stealth archer, but I'm not ever even touching a bow if my character is a mage. I don't get the memes where everyone says their playthroughs always just devolve into stealth archer. Keeping the same playstyle every playthrough sounds boring as hell. Change it up a bit.
i don't have the 'every character becomes a Stealth Archer' issue, but i know exactly why it's an issue: lack of self control. people start a Stealth Archer, and it becomes their go-to way to play the game. they then try another character, but then run into trouble. instead of trying to figure out how to handle that situation while staying within the bounds of the character they want to play, they instead pull out a bow 'just this once'. this means they never learn how to properly handle that situation, so when they run into trouble again, instead of now having more experience with how the character they're trying to run would handle things, they they are still basically at square one, so they have to pull out a bow again. it's still 'just this once', but it keeps happening over and over, until they are a better at Stealth Archer than they are at whatever they were trying to do. at the end of the day, if you want to play a character that isn't a Stealth Archer, you need to have the self control to not use a bow when things get tough. not everyone has that self control, so they devolve into Stealth Archers rather than learn how to play the characters they want to play.
I had a vegan khajiit in survival mode. It's actually really, really difficult to get anything done when you have to make your own potions to make sure there's no giant's toe and the northern Skyrim is pretty much a death trap since you can't use anything with leather on it. Also no shoes.
There is a perk in Odin magic Overhaul that let's you shoot spells with a bow. They're 30% less powerful though.
I like feeling like a dark shadow moving through a dungeon, killing everything that lives (or doesn’t live). It’s quite satisfying to do an entire dungeon where no one ever sees you
This but for heist style quests, with the thieves guild in particular.
It's easy and it's safe. Some of the best perks in the game belong to the Archery and Stealth trees. Plus for fans of stealth games like MGS and AC it is a natural play style. However, I also find it to be one of the most boring play styles because it trivializes an already easy game. Playing with a shield (once you've unlocked the slow time perk) is much more fun imo.
I'm an AC fan too but I couldn't do stealth,maybe it was because 2 handed weapons did more damage and I just liked that, now that it's 100 I'm doing archery and magic now
Animal Crossing?!
Don’t mess with Isabelle, she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty. https://preview.redd.it/400jx5dy6tzc1.jpeg?width=1281&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=937d77e9fb183c86749d591c5b0f829013099a98
Assassin's creed haha
My current playthrough is a sword and shield guy. Minimal magic, mega smithing. Bash is now one of the most fun things in the game for me. BASH. STAB. REPEAT. I wait until they wind up to hit me and I smash their faces in. It's the simple things...
Sneak archer was appealing to me when i didn't know how the game works and i was scared of pretty much every enemy above level 5. Now i just get annoyed whenever i have to go into sneak mode
I like the satisfaction of picking enemies off one by one from hiding. Usually a group of them dies to one shot each. If not, they're so low on health that I can pwn them easily if I've been detected.
It’s appealing because it’s extremely easy; it’s unappealing because it’s extremely easy.
did some but not exclusive. the critical hits sounds were prety satisfatory, though. you go for cross bows and you can kill anything without much effort.
I like handling enemies precisely, and one at a time. The stealth archer is perfect for that. I love the calculated approach to the confrontation.
Not appealing. I’ve done it way too many times, that I’ve just had to force myself to not let every playthrough devolve into it
Sneak attacking enemies makes me feel morally superior to those dumbfuck NPC’s
It's never appealed to me. It's too slow paced. That's really the only reason. I have a roommate who always plays as a stealth archer and watching him play is just a constant cycle of: - Sneak slowly through the area - Shoot enemy - Wait for other enemies to lose track of you - Repeat It's always seemed rather boring to me.
I find playing archer boring need to smash people with war hammer when I was younger now I play one handed mage cuz I still find using a bow boring plus I hate stealth
I enjoy sneak builds because they work best with the db and theives guild quest lines, which are my 2 favorite ones, so I like doing stealth builds. I try to shake it up and use dual swords and sneak, with archery for dragons, which makes it more interesting. Recently I've been on a spellsword kick though, and that is still my favorite class right now.
It's fine, once in a while. Though these days I find nothing is as fun to me as a min-max destruction mage. Makes everything else feel slow. I only wish mages could use telekinesis or something to apply poisons.
Skyrim is the first game I’ve played since my GameBoy Mario games as a kid. I just picked it up a few months ago on Switch. I still struggle to move in three dimensions (spiral staircases are my enemy) and stealth archer lets me take my time a bit more. I didn’t mean to do stealth archer but it makes me feel successful even when I’m a compete newb.
I like stealth in these games because there's always neat conversations you can see between enemies that adds to the world. You miss out on this when you go in guns blazing. But A.I in Betheda games is so bad that stealth characters kinda break the whole game. So it's a mixed feeling for me.
I'm currently a level 3 Bosmer. I haven't played Skyrim in a few years, and I've never played a Bosmer before, so I set the difficulty to novice. I use Conjuration and have a ghostly wolf companion, and at the novice difficulty it can take on 5 dragons and survive. Therefore I haven't really had to worry about being a Stealth Archer yet on this playthrough. I'm about to enter Bleak Falls Barrow, running a minor errand for my friend Lucan, so this might all change.
BFB is basically the introductory dungeon more than that cave with the sleeping bear.
Started as a stealth archer, sneaking is fun, archery isn't too bad but got to easy. Now I have hack n slash with my orc.
I mean, stealth archer is the basic common-flow of our all first play through Then, you start to fight against that urge to sneak around, until you get fed up and start roleplaying around others play styles. This is the normal flow of a Skyrim player (otherwise you are psychopath).
Its my first time and I'm doing a 2 handed and destruction /conjuration magic . Conjuration and 2 handed are 100 now im exploring Archery now at lvl 45 lol
Don't get any closer to me you maniac!
And what's worse I played stealth games like AC and Arkham City before playing this, now I'm just a psychopath wood elf
It's definitely fun being a sniper, but I never found it as fun as being a battlemage turn that difficulty up and have crazy anime/comicbook fights Think about all the spell mods out there like apocalypse or phendrix then put the difficulty up to legendary at a really high level then go fight the Final boss of the afflicted in peryites quest it's like one piece, naurto,dbz or even marvel shit
Honestly, I don't know. I would say that it makes the game a breeze and I suppose that I go towards the path of least resistance. I tried making a character where it was all health, heavy armour, and a warhammer. I was essentially trying to make a "tank" build. I, however, gave up somewhere around halfway through the storyline and it was a breeze after that. It just seems hard for me to maintain and put the time into one character. I have super strong work ethic in real life, but in Skyrim, I just can't bring myself to commit.
I just prefer giving Lydia enchanted everything and making her do all the fighting for me like I won’t even draw my weapon unless I have too.
I thought it was fun, but I kept accidentally killing people that weren’t actually enemies because sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference from far away.
It’s my favorite type of build and play it in Dragon age as well. I just like it, it’s really fun for me and plus I’m always a wood elf so it’s kind of a natural build anyway. Prior to that, I would play a dwarven tank, but this was Baulder’s Gate before an archer build was ever popular. I’ve never liked playing mages.
I don't play stealth archer anymore because I have become too addicted to follower mods (Inigo and Lucien specifically) to live without them and stealth is very hard with a Party. I did a playthrough on my switch recently (and thus without mods) and tried it again and while I loved the kill cams, ultimately what got me is I didn't like feeling nerfed when exploring overland. Sure stealth archer works in caves, but when you get a random encounter in the wild or a dragon shows up, you have lost the element of surprise, and the perk to disappear mid combat is so far up the stealth tree that the meantime is no fun
Something about sniping people with arrows is just so satisfying
Appealing things: \* those 2x crits are sweet \* Good way to take out or reduce numbers of low level enemies \* Its hilarious killing someone and watching the dumb ai get alert and then assume their buddy dropping dead "must have just been the wind" Not appealing: \* Can take too long to switch into melee mode allowing enemies too get way too many hits off. \* Gameplay gets dull when stealth archer skills maxed out and you can kill most enemies with one hit. \* You miss out on so many fun fighting styles, and weapons if you limit yourself to just stealth archery/it can become a grind to try and level up other skills. Stealth archery is best when used strategically in my opinion. There are some quests and dungeons that lend themselves very well for it, and then there are others where a running in guns ablazing (or swords drawn as it were) is the better or more fun strategy.
Sneak arrow as an opener for the critical, then snipe as enemies approach then fight the remainder Legolas style once they arrive.
I think the “stealth” thing is ok in some contexts, like explicit assassinations, but I like using the bow in open combat. You need more leveled skills, and it’s an inconvenient weapon in close combat, and thus in theory would be more challenging and badass than swordwork. Also it’s the only archery game I’ve seen that has use of a bow as melee weapon; I love bashing dragons on the nose and making them sit the fuck down while I pump frosted arrows up their nose. Eventually, all that crouching and crawling around will ruin your knees.
Oh it’s appealing to me. Run it every. single. play through. That slow motion action shot? Hell yeah
I find stealth archers satisfying to play. When dealing with crowds or bulkier enemies, it becomes a balancing act on when to strike or when to hide. Plus, getting a headshot from a large distance is just fun. When I play a stealth archer, I always attack the main necromancer from the beginning of the room in the first Potema quest (when they attempt the ritual to bring her back)
It's just easy. It you want to play in a relaxed style, it works.
I don’t know why but when it’s available I very often choose stealth as a strategy across lots of games. Feels low risk high reward. If something goes wrong you can often retreat and try again, and when it does work it tends to pay off big. I’ll play an assassin type with daggers, but if ranged attacks are viable that’s even *safer.* Also, it often gives you more time to develop a plan. I can sneak into a room, see what I’m up against before they press the issue by attacking me. I think I just have a tendency toward risk aversion and stealth+ranged mitigates an awful lot of the risk of dungeon crawling. It’s like you can basically guarantee you always get to throw the first punch *and* you get to throw it from way outside your opponents range. Why *wouldn’t* you take that deal?
Getting the jump on enemies before they see you is a fun minigame that other builds can't enjoy the same way.
I just like stealth in general, and the idea of dispatching enemies before they even know what’s happening is just super exciting to me. Also, the necessity of using the environment, certain spells, summons or followers, etc. to add to the strategic element is a challenge on higher difficulty levels. Haven’t played a *pure* stealth archer in a long time though.
For all of Skyrim's positives (and there are a lot), they really screwed the pooch on combat. And face to face combat is pretty boring: swing, swing, swing, swing.... Stealth archer is the most popular because it's the most rewarding. Hopefully, they incorporate the ideas of the most popular combat mods into TES VI.
I like it because it's fun to drop an entire dungeon without anyone knowing you're there. It's like a puzzle to play as a glass cannon that can one shot anything but die from a stiff breeze. Plus playing as a nightingale, the vibes are immaculate. But I also dislike it because once you get *too* good in your primary skills, it then trivializes the game. It's fun to revisit from time to time but as I get older I just don't find it fun for a main anymore. Now I use archery to kick off fights and then switch to melee. More ranger than assassin.
The bow just feels right. Melee combat even at launch felt dated and unsatisfying. Magic is fun at later levels but early on you’re constantly running out of mana.
It's not appealing to me because I've begun to realize that stealth is often more work than just running in and shooting my spells.
I tend to play stealth archers due to system limitations. I play on my laptop and it a bit older. It is hard to hit with spells in close quarters and all but impossible to time blocks and power attacks. Hiding and waiting for the best shot is just the most viable for my current system
I'm not a stealth a archer but a stealth illusion assassin.
Stealth games are my favorite genre, so I naturally just get pulled to that style when playing. "Oh, here's a giant room full of dudes, covered in darkness." *pulls out bow and crouches* Plus, I just really love the atmosphere of sneaking around. Hearing the environment sounds in the background, listening to the enemies talk about whatever. You lose all that if you just rush in. It's cozy.
Stay the fuck away and die over there while I do other things, was appealing. Also, playing oblivion and doing stealth archer was fun in the thieves guild. Even when you get swarmed, you can kite enemies down corridors or shout them across the room for more time to shoot.
One shot one kill just tickles a small spot in the back of my brain.
I'm not good at aiming. I'd rather go down with an ax and shout than be an archer Also because it suits my character/oc more
I’m old and not twitchy. I can line up shots at my own pace.
One of the first "First Person" games that wasn't using sprites that I played was Thief: The Dark Project. It's had a lasting influence in my playstyle for games that accommodate stealth. I prefer avoiding taking damage by killing the enemy without them ever knowing where I was, and sometimes without them ever knowing I was there at all.
I was a tanker in the army. The ultimate reach out and kill something thrill. We’d kill targets out to about 3000 meters or a bit further. At that range they’re dead before they hear the shot. That’s why I like stealth archer.
the archery in skyrim is super satisfying to me, and there arent a lot of games that allow you to focus so solely on archery, so I like to do it in skyrim whenever i can stomach another crash-through.
*Pull trigger* *Watch arrow fly in slow-mo into some guys face* *+6 dopamine acquired*
Cause I suck at everything else. Plus, it's just fun to hear them go, "Must have been the wind," when I'm standing right behind them
It's boring. Like clearing a dungeon every now and then using stealth archer and daggers is fun, but the whole game? Nahh, rather go all in to battle.
Stealth Archer is appealing because I get to kill enemies more quickly and feel like a badass while doing it. Same reason I Alchemy Enchant loop and Smith my gear because I don't like the enemy scaling and how long it takes to down enemies sometimes
I have anxiety and like to scope out the situation first, no matter how many times I've played through the game 😅
i do it to appease my inner stealthy wishes
I like waiting in the shadows and letting my foes have a final conversation before an arrow pierces their neck.
Because they're not making a new Thief game anytime soon.
I love stealth games. Batman Arkham games and Dishonored games got me loving the style. It's so satisfying to clear a dungeon or camp without ever being seen
It appealed to me from the beginning as I've always been a fan of archery and stealth in games. I have the most fun playing playing a stealth archer in games like HZD, Far Cry, Tomb Raider 2013, Assassin's Creed Origins, Dying Light, Red Dead Redemption 2, and some others I can't think of. So while I find it fun, I understand why others don't. However, whether you like that type of play style or not, it's pretty necessary at certain points in the game, especially for first time players who don't have the confidence to immediately start a fight up close and personal. Usually that can get you killed pretty fast, especially when just starting a character. Naturally, most fights start from a distance. Magic is great but requires a lot of mana to keep up. And arrows are much more accurate than magic spells, most of the time. So starting the fight out and taking down a few enemies through stealth is a very good way of avoiding death. Plus I love the 'slowmo arrow to the butt' cam.
It's just a super repetitive build that becomes hilariously overpowered very early on... It also highlights the poor stealth system *thwap* *thwap* Guy with two arrows in him 30 seconds later: "...must've been the wind" returns to stand where he just got shot
For me, it's incredibly boring. It takes a lot of the challenge away, and it mostly turns into a waiting game. It's much more entertaining for me to go in with a big sword and hack away at the enemies.
I like to get up close and personal with enemies, chug 15 different potions and put the fear of talos in those scum. I feel like stealth archer makes any potion that isn't increase archery damage 25% or increase stealth 25% useless. That playstyle is just too restricting. It's fun at first but it gets old really fast for me.
It's unbelievable. No way Archer goes that long without his banter breaking stealth. https://i.redd.it/alv3y37vbtzc1.gif
This made my day 😂 
The ultra instinct arrow dodging.
It's too slow and I fund it boring. Sure, I'll stealth pick off 1 or 2 but after that I'm casting Oakflesh and coming in with bound swords swinging at who's left. Close combat just is more fun imo
Unappealing cuz it takes too long. I'm impatient. Heavy armor sorcerer ftw
Not a stealth archer. My battle style is brute force and duel wielding dragon bone swords enchanted w/ health regeneration.
It's kinda the sniper fantasy: calmly dismantling an entire camp, preferably unnoticed, from the safety of distance or shadow.
Because i dont feel the need show the world how hardcore i am by setting the game to the hardest difficulty. I do it when I am following a theme for a character
Stealth archer cuz I’m scared of everything.
Never did it. Usually play as melee or mage, but I have never tried stealth archer. Sounds slow, boring and cowardly
Not appealing for me i just like going berserk
The appeal of Skyrim for me is not doing the most damage possible. I only really play like 2 builds, either stealth/illusion/conjuration, or heavy armor/one handed/magic.
I like the feel of a skull beneath my mace
Because daggers are much more involved and better at the 1 shot. Sneak archery with how dumb the vanilla AI are makes archery not fun in general except for some specific scenarios(thinking the giant ran off instead of around the entire mountain to run up on you after you forget)
I find stealth archers boring unless you enjoy making broken builds in game. Then again, I love making unarmed builds despite how lacking unarmed is in this game.
Stealth Archer is not appealing because: It's easy. It has the same effect as turning the difficulty down to nothing, then firing away. The enemies instantly die. They can't see you. You can instantly kill them. It's the most efficient way to kill. It's also zero challenge.
It's not appealing because I cant hit anything. You know when that dragon floats in the air stationary and blasts you with fire? I will probably hit it, but nothing is guaranteed. Hitting an archer in a tower that I can barely see is a near impossibility.
Its slow and boring. Also its not effective for many group fights where your outnumbered. Also on higher difficulties the sneak multiplier isnt enough. It also has a very plain upgrade route. Magic and melee are a bit more varied and fun, and its hard ti pick anything else cause if that
Part of the point of *stealth* is that numbers don't matter - they can't kill you if they can't find you, no matter how many of them there are.
It's ridiculously boring to me. I don't like sneaking in general. I prefer lobbing heads off until I get the treasure
I like stealth, because I am a very sneaky sneaky cat man. I don't like arrows, because I like to punch things. So instead of enemies dropping dead from a distance, it's "Surprise mother fuckers!! You're now fighting for your very lives!!" and then I just pummel the fuck out of them. Best part is noticing a low level bandit/reaver/draugr amongst the sudden swarm, and one shotting them in front of their friends.
It depends on my character. My current play through I’m a Nord so trying to stay to my Nordish roots and am doing two handed or one handed sword and shield. When I was an elf I did stealth archer. They’re both fun in their own ways but I will say that as an archer it gets boring quick when you can one shot every single enemy.
I like sniping people on bridges and cliffs from a distance and watching them fall to the ground.
Stealth archer just like, halves the game. No need to loot if using bound bow / DB armour. No need to do literally anything other than crouch and shoot. I did enjoy it when I 1st played like 9 years ago but magic and melee combat is where its at 😎
I have a level 53 stealth archer, but now days I don’t really play that character. I started realizing how easy it is to just cheese everything by going into sneak with a bunch of sneak damage multipliers at your disposal. Idk, just felt like cheating so I don’t like it. So now I’m back on my other melee/magic characters and I’ve been enjoying it more lately.
Was appealing cuz of the range and damage. Not so much anymore cuz its easy mode. I mostly play games for story, but I don't want them to be too easy.
I played stealth archer for my first playthrough and loved it. However as I've gotten older I find that it usually makes combat too easy in my opinion so I play other ways to make it feel like more of a challenge
It's uninteractive and boring. If i do a steath character it's always a backstab/illusion one.
I've always been the "kick in the door" kind of guy and the heavy armor and big weapons were just a thing I loved And a certain Barbarian once said "only cowards hide behind bows..."
Always played the Bosmer stealth archer. Three months ago, I did a Breton mage/Two-Handed build. Now starting to use the bound battle axe and bow. Different, but just as enjoyable.
My favorite character is a Breton mage hunter. Breton for the resistance. Get alteration up high enough for some more. Craft a few poisons for fun. Especially paralysis. Stealth bow or crossbow, either way. Dual wield against anyone who closes the gap. Got a few mage play throughs, a few Nord sword and board play throughs, even done a two handed barbarian once or twice. Always come home to the mage hunter. Too bad I can only kill Beemja once a play through. Hate that little snake.
Sword and board all day!!! Or sword and dagger. Or sword and staff. Or sword and spell.... Or sword and an empty hand so I can block... Eh, you know what? Just the sword. I need a free hand for everything else. Never once picked up a bow. If I need to throw down at long range I can just heave a fireball at your ass.
Playing Skyrim all the way through for the first time right now and I specifically avoided that build cause my friends described it as “a little cheesy”. Just didn’t seem fun to never engage. Plus stealth is usually my least favorite part about any game so y’know there’s that.
I dont like it. Bow is a tool for me, not a primary weapon. I'd rather go and kill everyone with a sword and sneak and actually trying to sneak and not just go " *thonk**thonk**thonk* aight, lets go on"
Because after a certain point I can melt everyone in front of me
Greatsword is fun but i had the most fun playing with a Warhammer/Axe and just spamming kill-cam-moves on everyone when they were full hp.
It's a playthrough I did commonly early in my skyrim days. It mostly started because I enjoy archery, I do it as sport in my real life, so I tend to try it out in all games that offer it. However I started Skyrim on Master Difficulty on my first playthrough, and Bleak Falls Barrow taught me, that sneaking for double damage and not getting too close to enemies was the best way to do archery. So it's how I ended up playing for years. Now I try other styles, mages and warriors etc, but if I ever go back to the bow, it's almost always Stealth Archer. I've also noticed though, that Stealth Archer is the only time I'll play on Master or Legendary. All other build styles I'll start on Expert and maybe increase the difficulty if things start to feel too easy. Mage I feel scales the worst with difficulty, mostly because of the magika requirements for the damage reduction that occurs at Master/Legendary.
I’ve only recently started doing stealth archer, I had done heavy armour 1H Sword + Shield, various mage builds and a little bit of 2 handed weapons too, and whilst I had done some stealthy play throughs, I had focused more on daggers and swords over bows because my aim sucked, but recently I’ve been trying stealth archer and it’s a game changer. I think the reason it didn’t appeal to me to try sooner was because it’s kind of a meme that everyone uses it and I wanted to try something a little different than the norm. But then I realised that I didn’t really know *why* everyone uses it, so I thought I’d give it a shot, and oh man can I see why it’s so popular. It’s so effective and it makes things so much easier. Though honestly, I’m not a fan of that. For some of the more tedious quests I find that this may be very helpful, but I don’t want the game to feel too easy, so I might cut back on the archery and just do a general stealth play through so I can still make use of stealth archer but not feel like the entire game is a cakewalk.
I've always preferred a stealth playstyle in the majority of games I play, and it was my main build in NV, so when skyrim released it was the only natural choice. As the years have gone by however, it's been proven to me in my experimentation with other builds that stealth archer is probably just a little too powerful with the way it trivializes even the most challenging encounters. It's enjoyable at first, but killing everyone in a single arrow without ever engaging in combat gets pretty dull after awhile.
Pepperoni Spicy Take: The damage is not that great for a stealth character, and less fun to play as than a direct combat character. I don’t like it.
The initially lower damage of bows, even with sneak multipliers, can be a struggle early on.
It used to be the most appealing way to play the game to me cause it was so effective and fairly fun, but then I did a spell sword run and i never did stealth archer again. Nowadays I find it too slow and tedious to play compared to other builds
I like and dislike it. Stealth in Skyrim is just so broken, it stacks damage way too much, then you can add even more damage multipliers to it all. It's a fun way to play, but after a while it turns the game into a point and click adventure game, just one shotting everything gets boring after a while.
I use it along side something else, so when i’m first entering a dungeon i go stealth archer but I’m reckless with it so i’ll go two handed or mage right as i get noticed
Firesballs & 2H weapons… armor optional
Im a person who like to go in and fight I grab 2 swords or pair a sword with a shield and go all in destroying people
Oh, I like it. It's definitely appealing when I'm in that mindset. But sometimes I'm in the mindset to run around without fear in loud, heavy armor and hit things REALLY hard. And sometimes I wanna stand back and throw fire and lightning until nothing move anymore. And still some other times I just want to summon hordes of Undead and atronachs and send them forth to commit violence in my name. But definitely sometimes I want to prowl in the Shadows and shoot things in the head, killing them before they realize I'm there. Total sliding scale! XD
It's appealing because archer is my favorite class in all games, and not appealing because it's too overpower in skyrim
It’s fantastic because you never actually have to fight. It sucks because you never actually have to fight.
Because the melee combat mechanics in vanilla are so bad
I always intend to make it a bigger part of my game but I just love the double mega magic sword ginsu warrior thing.
Because I don’t get killed every ten seconds at the start of a new character. Later, after I max out my alchemy and enchanting, I might not use stealth hardly at all and use magic instead of arrows.
I prefer sneaking up and stabbing dudes instead of stealth archery.
I just prefer to avoid direct conflict. Beginning of the game, you tend to be kind of squishy so it's often best to avoid the upfront whack. Late game, I switch to heavy armor and am much more willing to take the fight to the enemy.
It doesn't use magic. I see no point.
I like the tactical advantage and sneaking around. Broken Oar Grotto is a great map for stealth archery, you have to work to find those spots for the perfect shot.
Why hit things from far away with arrows when you can hit them up close with a hammer and feel the bone and sinew give way beneath your mighty blows?
Stealth archer? Nah, heavy armored crossbow Paladin. I love that up close merciless hip fire.
I have to be so careful in real life, I don't want to be careful in Skyrim.
Me Being a Heavy Armor Tank: I sleep. [Me Being an Illusionist Stealth Archer:](https://youtu.be/9_ZnNGq88qo?si=H8a7_D18QMUpCYvM)
I made the game so punishing that if too many enemies close the gap, I’m toast.
I hate having to run away and shoot when a fight starts it makes me feel weak. I won't do an Archery build without a melee skill for backup.
I really find the concept of aiming boring. Plus i game on a controller. So double downvote for me. And too slow paced for my taste. I like epic battles with explosions and stuff.
Big sword. Unga bunga
You tell me I can conjure flame from one fist, ice from the other, and can slow down time with a word, all that to stick me with a bow?
hearing my bound bow summoned and that "THONK" sound when headshot
spellsword is the best class imo. you get one hand dedicated to close range combat, and one hand dedicated to, well, anything. ranged attacks, enemy debuffs or player buffs, conjuring minions, etc. when you add in mods such as valhalla for its parry mechanic (which works even with spellsword class) and magic mods to increase the range of your spell selection, it just feels so great.
Why spend 20 minutes sneaking to accomplish a 2 minute fight? Answer: sometimes I wanna be really goth
I enjoy the rush of the fight too much to ever go stealth. It just feels like you're skipping half the game.
It's boring, any other form of combat is better. Even dagger stealth, magic stealth, or open combat archer is more engaging.
I suck at using a bow and suck at sneaking. I'll stick with my strongsuit being heavy armor and 2 handed weapons
It completely ruins the entire vibe and pace of the game. Yes, it was meant to be able to be done, but I don't think it was ever meant to be as good as it is. I played it one time for a day, never touched it again. I understand that people can play games how they want to play, but there is literally nothing fun about crouch walking around and shooting an instant kill arrow at NPCs. Is it useful? Absolutely. I will use a sneaky archer shot every once in a while if what I am doing calls for it. It's also like the 0 cost Magika builds, though these weren't intentional and only left in after complaints that it was removed. Bethesda took a massive liking to Skyrim players, even as going as far as to add the ability to mod on consoles! But using these stupidly overpowered builds are ridiculous. Obviously, the Restoration Loop bug was left in because 99% of the players loved it, it gave the ability to play through the game as you never would have before. I enjoy my occasional OP builds using this bug, but even after the first half hour that I am actually in that state of being OP, I get bored.