When I tested the Huntsman's Bow, I was using my secondary character. Learned a very important thing. Not only does Bow skill affect the Stamina drain, it has a huge effect on draw time itself. Something I hadn't considered. With my 1000+ hour character the draw time on the Huntsman's Bow feels identical to the Draugr Fang. It's quite usable. With any bow you'll always have to compensate for arrow drop over distance. How much is something only experience can teach you. I looked at the Noise info on the Valheim Wiki. The Huntsman's Bow is indeed quiet, but NOT silent. It generates 4m of noise when shooting/hitting. All other bows are 15m/8m. I didn't see anything about a hidden stat for the Huntsman but... it might not be advertised it it's "hidden". I'll have to give it another look with my high level character. Regardless, if you want success with the bow, practice practice, practice. Raise that Bow skill level up!

My son says he lines his reticle directly over his target for those long distance shots, but I have to aim above and a sliver to the right. I am very very accurate with my shots though, rarely ever missing. I betcha dollars to donuts you just have to get back into the swing of things, before long you will be picking off deathsquitos in flight.

I am visually impaired so I have to line up my shots without objects in the background. When I missed and the deer ran off the arrow either went over them or under them without hitting an object.

My bow skill is higher now and I'm using Dragur fang and wolf armor so I'm not getting the benefit of extra sneak or the silence from the huntsman's bow but if I miss the deer still run off about 1/2 the time. I don't really notice any difference between the 2 sets of equipment.

If I'm out hunting deer now I'm using 3 stamina foods. A lot of time if they start to run off I can catch up to them and melee them especially if there are lots of trees and rocks that turn them around or if they wade into water. If I have a wolf along with me they are often easier to cut off.

Originally posted by TheBoot:

It's been so long since I've used a bow other than the Draugr Fang that I can't really tell if they did something with draw time. The DF still seems as good as ever. I have no problem shooting Deathsquitos out of the air at virtually any range if they're not moving.
I went back and tried the Huntsman's bow. Wow... slow draw time is painful. That seems off. Accuracy is okay. I know from the Wiki there's a calculation that improves accuracy with draw time.

If I remember correctly the huntsman's bow is the only bow in the game with a "hidden stat".

It does not reveal your position to enemies when fired (i.e. silenced)

The devs were reported so dejected by the fact that this was so unknown and underappreciated by the player base that they have little interest in adding "hidden" stats to future items and weapons. But I think they are bluffing.

Originally posted by Ryzilynt:

Originally posted by TheBoot:

It's been so long since I've used a bow other than the Draugr Fang that I can't really tell if they did something with draw time. The DF still seems as good as ever. I have no problem shooting Deathsquitos out of the air at virtually any range if they're not moving.
I went back and tried the Huntsman's bow. Wow... slow draw time is painful. That seems off. Accuracy is okay. I know from the Wiki there's a calculation that improves accuracy with draw time.

If I remember correctly the huntsman's bow is the only bow in the game with a "hidden stat".

It does not reveal your position to enemies when fired (i.e. silenced)

The devs were reported so dejected by the fact that this was so unknown and underappreciated by the player base that they have little interest in adding "hidden" stats to future items and weapons. But I think they are bluffing.

I'm not so sure that stat works as advertised. When I had my troll set on and the huntsman bow I was sneaking up on deer to increase my larder and if I missed they still alerted on the first shot and ran off about half of the time.

Nothing protects against line of sight / disturbance to environment. Skill 100 sneak, wearing troll armor, if a mob has line of sight, it sees you.

As for the "silence" of the huntsman's bow I only know what I have read and/or seen, i have honestly not done any testing trials.

Guessing if an arrow hits a tree or rock it'l make a sound outside the "protection" of any given bow stats. But I dunno, maybe i'll look.

Thank you to all of you for your replies. I will have to try and find out if I am doing something differently as I rely heavily on my bow skills.

Currently have no problems with a bow, but have noticed that correct elevation (aim above target) seems far more important than correct direction. I'm receiving easy hits when I know my aim point is off to one side but never if I over or under shoot.

Could be skill level. But, i have noticed the mobs swerving to one side or another when I'm shooting at them. It's like the game knows I shot and told the mob to move left or right....

Originally posted by TangoBlue:

Could be skill level. But, i have noticed the mobs swerving to one side or another when I'm shooting at them. It's like the game knows I shot and told the mob to move left or right....

Once you get accustomed to how each mob type moves you can anticipate and shoot where they will be.

I just know H&H, so to me bows just... you know... work as intended. Good question here, on when was the last time you were using it.

It's been so long since I've used a bow other than the Draugr Fang that I can't really tell if they did something with draw time. The DF still seems as good as ever. I have no problem shooting Deathsquitos out of the air at virtually any range if they're not moving.
I went back and tried the Huntsman's bow. Wow... slow draw time is painful. That seems off. Accuracy is okay. I know from the Wiki there's a calculation that improves accuracy with draw time.

Hm, since these are different characters, have you looked at their skill levels? Anything, say, below 25 is really slow to draw. Above it, and it becomes much faster.

Edit: Just tried with my main, bow skill 22. Draugr Fang and finewood bow. Not scientific, but to me they both took the same amount of time to draw to full.

Don't think so, but when was the last time you played where it was as expected?

Ehm bow got nerf long ago with H&H , but in draw time and damage not in accuracy , thats just you
The only bow that have bad accuracy is the crude bow , the rest with full draw have almost perfect accuracy with little fall