As players are quickly finding out, especially on higher difficulties, Skyrim’s most popular build isn’t nearly as viable in Oblivion.
“Even if you get the 3x damage it’s basically just a flea bite. With max archery and the best gear it comes down to just luring things out one at a time and onloading [sic] a dozen arrows into each enemy in an endless slog,” u/DueOwl912 posted to the game’s subreddit. “The only thing that helps a little is if you max alchemy and use a poison on every shot but even then it’s still a slow process”.
Archery has always been really bad in Oblivion — u/Any_Bill_323.
They are playing on Master difficulty, to be fair, and the remaster’s balancing is notoriously uneven, replacing the original game’s more fluid slider with arbitrary options that don’t quite match up. But even on Adept, people are struggling to make stealth archer work. Just take u/Rizenstrom, who argued that “It’s better to view archery as a long distance poison delivery system”.
If you’re intent on reliving the glory days of Skyrim, thankfully, fans do have some tips on how to make stealth archer a little less frustrating.
“You Have To Poison Every Arrow”
The big takeaway is that a bow and arrow just isn’t enough in Cyrodiil. If you want to deal any meaningful damage, you need to level your stealth stat and coat every single arrow in poison. You’d best get to grinding those mortars and pestles.
My current stealth archer is suffering — u/Nachovyx.
“You can also add a damage speed effect to slow on shot or a damage fatigue effect to make them fall over temporarily,” u/kybotica explained. “Apply your poison of choice (you can get ones with up to three damage effects plus paralyze and damage magicka) and it’ll have double the effect listed”.
As for the measly 3x damage that doesn’t seem to help much, there’s a workaround. u/2Trashed2Delirious pointed out that you can trick the game into giving you a better damage multiplier if you swap to a dagger just before the arrow hits. Instead of x3, you’ll get x8, a significant bump that should make your stealth archer feel a little stronger.
Failing that… just use magic. It’s better.
