Is le stealth archer real or some kind of forced meme...

i kinda tried it out when i was doing a thief build, it was strong because the damage of the bow and arrows combines * your skills * extra stealth damage, but it really wasnt as fun as stealthy melee kills or sneaking past everyone without being detected.
but the

hur durr oh no i accidentally became le stealth archer again

yeah thats a forced meme

calling out a shit game’s shitty mechanics is a “forced meme”

Or maybe you’re just a coping fanboy faggot

stealth since that begins before fighting does

interesting point

Close range archer is more fun. Game feels more like resident evil

It's a cheese build that basically exploits weaknesses in the AI. It's lame.

you're supposed to role-play
it's a role-playing game

sorry you don't have an imagination, anon
keep following the "meta"

No man you don't understand, I just happened to be born a Bosmer under the sign of the thief with an additional interest in restoration, enchanting and alchemy. Pure coincidence you see. This dwarven black bow of fate? I was also born with a strange homing instinct for it which is why I fucking beelined for it after getting freed. Fate sure is crazy huh

i'm aware. you're the most boring person imaginable and you're playing an rpg in the most braindead straightforward way. i hope that makes you feel manly lmao

So what do you guys do when your stealth arrow fails and everyone comes at you?

no, you are just a retard, let me dumb it down a bit, for example: if i want to play as a warrior with a big axe, i do it, i dont accidentally start crouching and using a bow, the same goes for any kind of thief or wizard build, no one evers accidentally keeps becoming a stealth archer, maybe just the first time you play the game when you have no idea what you are doing. and why would you even keep playing a game that apparently sucks, the same way, over and over and again? because you are a retard

It's real. Because magic and melee suck ass.

I think people who do this are just not using mods at all. I always use VioLens, grab a two hander then just killmove every other enemy. For every other enemy, 2 handed weapons can stunlock them with power attacks that you killmove them at 25% hp.
I never reallt got where this stealth archer meme came from and I have played skyrim for 14 years.

Also never mind that fus roh dah is your bread and butter that never fails you for crowd controlling annoying enemies. If that fails, time stop wins the game for you.

The archery is kino in VR

Magic sucks in Skyrim because all upgrades are flat values and your enemies have level scaling as part of their racial trait
Melee sucks in Skyrim because all attacks require you to be close to your enemy that have level scaling as their racial trait and your upgrades are just flat values
Stealth is the only "skill" that has scaling damage in the form of sneak attack multipliers.
Skyrim's "skill tree" is the most boring and non-RPG progression in RPG history and retards hail it as infinitely better despite never innovating on skills since Morrowind.

de facto remove magic

that's a stretch, but the coreof what you're conveyin is correct, they've massively flanderised the TES series over the years. I've been playing Oblivion Remastered having never played other Elder Scrolls than Skyrim, I've come to start grasping the things Bethesda has been taking away from the series as titles progressed. I knew it was happening with the Fallout games from 3 to 4, New Vegas being the wildcard in their tenure because 2010 Obsidian was still fairly the team that made Fallout andFallout 2. but seeing Fallout 3, 4 and 76, there's such a downgrade in the quality and care put in those games. I say care because clearly Fallout 3, though having a flawed af narrative with the whole Fawks/Charon bullshit and the whole Broken Steel DLC, you knew that game had people who wanted to make something cool and enjoyable. where Fallout 3 was a poor Fallout entry more aligned to a fanfiction, Fallout 4 is obviously a bastardisation and 76 is eggregious slop

they've massively flanderised the TES series over the years. I've been playing Oblivion Remastered having never played other Elder Scrolls than Skyrim

Come on nigga

Stealth archers bad. Spellsword good

Skyrim's three isn't a bad idea but the actual balance is just off. It's a decent idea horribly executed.

innovating on skills since Morrowind

Since Daggerfall. It's the one the only one a step up from the previous game

In Skyrim specifically, the AI is retarded enough for you to keep exploiting Sneak's bonus damage at a distance, they don't search well at all. Dagger sneak attacks may do Iron Man numbers, but bows are super safe, and with so many encounters in the game set inside enclosed areas, a very low risk playstyle is born - with no real consequences to fighting normally for when you do get caught (unless you seriously neglect your gear). Archery scales fine with Smithing otherwise and you can even make Heavy Armor sneaky with an easy muffle enchant or spell.

I'm guessing people might fall into doing this again on a later playthrough when reasonable use of stealth gets taken too far, and that there's no superficial classes, incentives, or restrictions to make it ineffective. For the powergamer, there is also a fixed Bound Bow tome available, hidden in a bucket at a fort; it does a surprisingly high amount of damage early in the game. Meanwhile, Destruction hits like shit the more you play and it can't do any preemptive sneak attacks at all, plus a master hits as hard as he does a novice - just with stagger and a discount.

In Oblivion it's kinda shitty with bows being pretty underwhelming and your cover gets blown after the first attack. Can't speak for the remaster.

It's the game's failure for having so little ranged options.

Trying to beat an enemy you can't face head on is the choice between lowering difficulty, switching to magic or using a bow. Skyrim combat is so simple that just getting good isn't really an option. Being "good" at melee combat is just kind of glitching the enemies and exploiting dumb AI, which doesn't feel that great. Magic requires investment and isn't actually that strong if you're higher level or on a higher difficulty.

The bow is usually the only option that usually works because you can make it more powerful by sneaking and with poisons. This is why eventually, as they encounter more and more powerful foes, people end up as a sneaky archer at least some of the time. One of the most likely enemies to turn you into a sneaky archer are dragons because they fly around. It's like the game is baiting you into just using the the bow like it wants you to.

Genuinely, what are you supposed to do if you get to the end of a dungeon and there's a draugr deathlord that kills you in two swing, but you have to hit it 15 times with melee, just leave? Nobody wants to do that so they just sneak archer him down.

horrific

what is it with poms and having completely retarded baitpost hot takes when they wake up in the morning?

it starts off as

man these fights are tough and there's a lot of dudes

oh i can prob pick 2-3 of them off with my bow before I start the fight

and ends up with

man I've got lots of XP doing this

magic is dropping off now cuz it doesnt scale

its also easier to just 1shot ranged sneak attack everything instead of manually chasing down shit to smack with my sword

but what people DONT talk about is how fucking overpowered Conjuration is.

t contrarian bastard

Yeah. You stealth to gain preemptive advantage -> Shoot -> Don't break stealth so reposition -> Shoot again -> Don't break stealth so
And so on. Many people are ready and have the tools to dace enemies head on but after a certain point it stops happening.

Skyrim combat is so ass people go archer to end it fast

save-scum at the college entrance

get free Flame Atronach spell

Skyrim combat is horrible and enemies have retardedly inflated HP values, stealth archery lets you avoid dealing with 10 minute pillow fights against Draugrs by oneshotting them one by one.

or a melee build that can slap an enemy with a pool noodle for two hours.

You’re doing something wrong. Very wrong. Dual wielding swords is one of the most overpowered strategies in the game. By level 40 I had dual wield chaos enchanted Dragonbone swords and the standing multi hit power attack one shot just about everything I came across even dragons

This makes me wonder how much Souls games would change if ranged options were more available.

Invisibility and reset

You can't role-play in a game where you're everything and nothing at the same time.

it's EZ mode anon. try playing the game retard.

Melee combat is just a stat check in elder scrolls. Sneaking around is more fun.

I don't play as puny stealth archer, I use Vokriinator Black with blood mage perk, making me even tankier than two-handed heavy armor builds. Enemies fear me, followers want me. Simple as.

For me, it's battlemage build

It's just the most immersive way to play Skyrim because the melee combat is complete ass in comparison, and magic scales poorly in endgame.

no one evers accidentally keeps becoming a stealth archer

see annoying fight

I don't want to deal with this right now

sneak attack with a bow because it's the easiest way to kill enemies

and you've just started down the path of a stealth archer.

Archery deals no damage unless you invest perks into both it and sneak though

I don't want to deal with this right now

sneak attack with a bow because it's the easiest way to kill enemies

Try doing this after super early game or a difficulty that isn’t too easy your build doesn’t matter, it won’t work.

It's just the quickest way to become overpowered because of the stacking damage multipliers and the fact that the enemy AI doesn't know what to do when you sneak attack it from a distance. Every build is eventually godmode in Skyrim but stealth archer 1-shots almost everything in the game from level 10 onwards. If you have no creativity or soul whatsoever and you play games by googling "name of game + reddit + best build" then you will love stealth archer.

Combat archer is more fun and one of the most overlooked playstyles for some reason.
Is even more fun with the Anniversary stuff because of the arcane archer arrows.

Skyrim literally has FPS controls. You have to heavily mod the game for decent third person melee mechanics

plus a master hits as hard as he does a novice -

The key to skyrin's magic lies in a single spell.
elemental blast.

stealth mage has the more satisfying progression

lvl1-15, hit and hide and seek

16-onwards, unlimited power *also susceptible to getting one hit

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE

They really should have made poisons and potions throwable, would have added way more depth to everything

Tldr. Most players are sissies and are scared to get up close with a two handed weapon

It's a ranged backstab and aside from daggers, bows can do some of the highest damage in the game, yes people use it

That's an official mod made almost seven years after the game first released. At that point you might as well have a decent mod worth its salt to unfuck Destruction.

There's no meta. The game is designed in such a way that a very large number of players end up with the stealth archer play-style naturally. It's just really effective.

100 Chameleon in Morrowind makes everything stealth. Nobody can see you. In Skyrim, it felt more like what Thief 4 wanted to be, but I only took archery for the long-range damage bonus. The up-close executions were more pleasing to the eye, you faggot.

Because everything in the game pushes you into it. Arrows don't weigh anything and the perks in the skill tree make archery braindead easy compared to any other build. Now combine the bonus damage from the tree and the bonus damage from stealth kills and there's literally no reason to use anything else. Also what this anon said

I've never once held a bow in an Elder Scrolls game.

blue board btw

Skyrim is a braindead easy game where you literally cannot go wrong with your character. stealth archer is just another braindead avenue to dunking on worthless npcs

Then add tempering and enchantment to the bow itself and damage bonuses on the armor, throw in bonuses from buffing alchemy (ignore resto loop) and it goes even higher. On top of that, the higher you raise the difficulty, the more you're pushed into becoming a stealth archer. Stealth removes the risk of open combat, and archery unloads a ton of damage without the risk of breaking stealth by getting close.

Unrelated but how do people enjoy TES games once learning about the exploits? Knowing how to duplicate items in oblivion remastered and all the other minor exploits and tricks feels like getting spoiled.

It's a roleplaying game.

self control? Like anon said, it's an rpg. I have no reason to exploit. Difficulty is optional.

What if I don't want to lower the difficulty slider
True, but eventually you want to get good at the game.

One of the big reasons for the removal was that Bethesda chose to wholesale remove, rather than teach how to use things in game that the player was capable of.
Like all the removed magic spells, the consolidated magic trees, and several weapon types going as far back as Morrowind.
RIP Levitation mage with shurikens

Then don't lower the difficulty slider. It's. A. Roleplaying. Game. Roleplaying, anon, do you understand what that means?

eventually you want to get good at the game

Bethesda games do not require skill before you so much as stick a toe into the exploits.

The most frustrating thing about Todd's push to casualise each game more is that it was always rewarded with better sales than previous entries. He absolutely thinks he's making good calls here when the fact is that more people got into gaming as a hobby.

Being a stealth archer or sniper is generally the most optimal way of playing open world games.

no fear of retaliation because you are pretty much undetectable

strong single target damage

enemies are retards that stand in the open even after seeing their buddy's head explode into a pink mist

They should have added

throwable poisons

more long range enemy disruption spells like stun, stagger, poison etc.

throwable weapons like javelins, knives etc.

throwable magic weapons like javelins, knives etc.

The game already has physics objects in the world that you can pick up and interact with. The only way to throw something is telekinesis and it's really janky and doesn't do weapon damage even if the item is a weapon. It's clearly a little gimmick spell not meant for combat, you can't even "equip" anything from your inventory as ammo to use with it.

These little simple features would have saved everyone from becoming a stealth archer. Imagine being able to throw the 20 iron daggers you're carrying because you wanted to level smithing. Useless loot like a steel swords would actually have a purpose.

because sniper fags who dont want to play the game always drift to the easiest play style. that being sitting far away and killing from far away. Best part is though in Oblivion and Morrowind there were mechanics at least to the mid game that made it insanely hard to do so you had to plan.
Skyrim its just braindead.

These little simple features would have saved everyone from becoming a stealth archer. Imagine being able to throw the 20 iron daggers you're carrying because you wanted to level smithing. Useless loot like a steel swords would actually have a purpose.

I imagine a mechanic like the TK module from Dead Space 2, you click on the body with TK (or quick open inventory), a sword or other weapon flies into your 'grip', you point at a living enemy and click on it. Physics based combat.

Ah, but that would require EFFORT!

I'm a fuckin retard and can't be bothered to commit to the playstyle I chose

Correct, you have described most normalfags

magic damage not scaling is probably skyrim's biggest blunder of them all to me

Even something simple like the telekinesis spell working like a Rock-it launcher from Fallout 3. They had all the pieces already but didn't put it together.

It works against low level encounters like a bandit cave or whatever that you get from a bartender, but if you're only scaling up stealth and archery and not armor and another weapon style, you'll get killed by bosses and dragons, who you can only fire off one or two shots on before they spot you