This build is my best effort at providing massive burst damage from stealth in PVP while staying true to my Bosmer character. (AKA nasty bow ganker build)


The gear mentioned below was priced reasonably at auctions, but still provides the highest amount of damage I could think of.

5 Marksman: Bow (Sharpened) + Necklace (Robust + weapon damage enchant) + 3 pieces of armor (Stamina / divines or impen)

5 Clever Alchemist: dual daggers or swords + 3 pieces of armor (Stamina enchants / divines or impen)

1 Molag Kena shoulder (Stamina enchant)

2 Leki's Ring (Robust + weapon damage enchant)

Warrior mundus (Yes I compared it to the shadow and the warrior did marginally more damage, thief is pretty pointless since you always crit from stealth)

Food - purple + max stamina, +max health and +max magicka (Not the regen kind)

Potions - +major brutality, +major savagery, +stamina regen

Little effort goes into regen of any sort because the fights will last less than a second if they're pulled off correctly. Most of the kill damage actually comes from a single heavy shot, so you'll be getting plenty of stam/mag regen and ultimate regen as you cycle a heavy shot in with your skills during each rotation. Stealthed heavy attacks do similar damage to a stealthed Focus Aim, so why a heavy attack you ask? Weapon enchantments proc all the time with a heavy attack and they won't proc with a focused aim. So add your favorite weapon enchantment effect to that stealthed heavy attack and you'll see more damage is dealt than with focused aim.

For this build I'm maxing weapon damage as much as possible, and even placing 40 champ points into the Atronach / Bow Expert so the first stealthed heavy shot hurts that much more. With the arrangement mentioned above, my weapon damage is over 4700 while holding the bow.

Rotation of skills starting from stealth:

Option 1:
Dual wield bar - merciless resolve, radiant magelight, drink a potion
Bow Bar - Fully charged heavy attack, ambush, surprise attack, killers blade
Dual wield bar - crouch + shadowy disguise, another surprise attack/killers blade if needed or double take and move on quickly

(For best results, attack from behind. The ambush can happen within the same instant as the heavy attack out of stealth to hit for max damage)

Option 2 (For those who just have to use focused aim):
Dual wield bar - merciless resolve, radiant magelight, drink a potion
Bow Bar - Focused Aim, halfway-charged heavy attack, ambush, surprise attack, killers blade
Dual wield bar - crouch + shadowy disguise, another surprise attack/killers blade if needed or double take and move on quickly

(The weird bow mechanics allow you to make 3 attacks all in the same instant. Focused aim takes a while to launch and hit, so charge a heavy attack immediately after starting focused aim. When focused aim releases, also release the heavy attack and immediately ambush. All three will hit at once . .. usually. My results for doing this range from awesome to crap, it's hard to pull off correctly.)

A stealth build doesn't benefit much from DOT's because a damage tick from a DOT will make it impossible to go back into stealth. In spite of this I've slotted poison injection as an option for those moments when I don't want to go near an emeny with ambush. Just replace the ambush part with the poison injection, then kite around with focused aim.

Background

I can imagine a bow-wielding Bosmer would try their hardest to not be seen in a gods-forsaken battlefield in the middle of Cyrodiil. They're stuck in a regiment of strange folk, surrounded by their old enemies the Khajiit and constantly enduring shouts coming from that snooty tall Mer wearing gaudy armor. When the enemy approaches with banners displayed and horns blaring, wooden machinery rolling over the grass and oh gods, is that a lizard holding a big scythe? What's a back-woods Bosmer out of his/her element to do?

Kill it, kill it all with arrows, but by Y'ffre they won't kill me back because stealth, and running and more stealth. Oh gods, did he die? There goes another one, and another. I .. uh. . think I'll skip the meat mandate for this battle and go sleep in the tree over there.