DragonbornVet
New Member
Okay hear me out. I've got like 1200 hours in this game across multiple playthroughs and I think we collectively gaslight ourselves about stealth archer being some kind of default fun build.
You spend half the game sneaking through dungeons doing chip damage while enemies walk in circles. It trivializes literally everything but it's also the most boring way to experience combat. You're not engaging with any of the actual mechanics - no positioning, no threat management, no real risk. You just crouch behind a pillar and watch numbers tick up.
And don't even get me started on the perks. You need Archery leveled, you need Sneak leveled, you need Light Armor leveled if you want to actually survive being seen, plus Alchemy for poisons because bows hit like wet noodles without them. Meanwhile a sword and board character gets to actually play the game.
The worst part is how it breaks difficulty scaling. Even on Legendary a stealth archer just... wins. You can skip entire encounters. The game stops being a challenge and becomes a waiting simulator.
I'm not saying bows are bad - a bow as a secondary weapon in a mixed build is genuinely fun. But the pure stealth archer thing? It's a trap build that people default to because it works, not because it's actually engaging. We should be recommending literally anything else to new players.
What's everyone else's take on this. Am I crazy or does stealth archer actually just suck the fun out of the game.
You spend half the game sneaking through dungeons doing chip damage while enemies walk in circles. It trivializes literally everything but it's also the most boring way to experience combat. You're not engaging with any of the actual mechanics - no positioning, no threat management, no real risk. You just crouch behind a pillar and watch numbers tick up.
And don't even get me started on the perks. You need Archery leveled, you need Sneak leveled, you need Light Armor leveled if you want to actually survive being seen, plus Alchemy for poisons because bows hit like wet noodles without them. Meanwhile a sword and board character gets to actually play the game.
The worst part is how it breaks difficulty scaling. Even on Legendary a stealth archer just... wins. You can skip entire encounters. The game stops being a challenge and becomes a waiting simulator.
I'm not saying bows are bad - a bow as a secondary weapon in a mixed build is genuinely fun. But the pure stealth archer thing? It's a trap build that people default to because it works, not because it's actually engaging. We should be recommending literally anything else to new players.
What's everyone else's take on this. Am I crazy or does stealth archer actually just suck the fun out of the game.