Ranged Combat - Morrowind Mechanics

In this part of my Morrowind Mechanics video series we thoroughly cover every facet of ranged combat. Includes details on archery, thrown weapons, the damage formula, the best ranged weapons, enchantments, and more!

Timestamps for your convenience:
0:47 Chance-to-Hit Overview
1:14 Hit Rate Formula
1:59 Fatigue Modifier
2:41 Hit Chance Formula
2:48 Target's Evasion Chance Formula

3:13 Damage Formula
3:27 Strength Modifier
4:26 Condition Modifier
4:44 Critical Hit Modifier or Sneak Attacks
5:16 Opponent's Armor Reduction Formula

5:59 Ranged Weapon Damage [SKIP TO HERE IF FAMILIAR WITH PREVIOUS CONCEPTS]
6:20 Bow and Arrow Damage
7:29 Crossbows and Bolts Damage
8:10 Thrown Weapons Damage

8:43 Enchanting
8:50 Enchanting Thrown Weapons
9:18 Enchanting Arrows and Bolts
9:40 Enchanting Bows and Cross Bows

10:36 The Best Bows and Crossbows

11:15 Final Notes on Ammunition

[xaflu]

You can shoot projectile spells out of the air with marksman weapons too which is cool.

[Teknuhlawgik]

today I learned what the damage range on bows meant despite playing for 15 years, this video series owns

[SerathDarklands]

It bears mentioning that the most powerful weapon in the game is a set of five arrows, the "Ebony Arrows of Slaying" which are enchanted to deal a massive 5, 000 damage to health on hit. There are only five of them, and they're located in a hollowed out stump on the east side of Thirsk Mead Hall on Solstheim. They're pretty much a guaranteed kill on any target, as long as that target can't resist the magical effect. And if your target has a reflect spell up, you WILL die.

[hopoutattheafterparty]

Morrowind combat is just a playground fight "you didn't hit me I dodged it"

[dksoulstice]

I always hate it when I find some really cool enchanted throwing stars at the beginning of the game because I know I won't be able to use them effectively lol

[roove]

Tbh, I only chose marksman so that I could snipe off cliff racers.

[Yuggothfungus]

From some reddit thread i stumbled upon
"once you're at level 35-40 marksman, grab a thousand cheap stars and go fight the orks on top of one of the strongholds. low damage and high rate of fire means you will level amazingly fast. just run around with yor fatigue up, pinging your chitin shrapnel off of the orks very effective medium armour. don't worry about taking too much damage, the tiny stars not only tickle the target, they also stagger them too. with a hit-rate of about 60-75% you'll feel confident enough to remove your armour :) or equip a shield. that's right, you can block while using thrown weapons.

at higher levels, with the dwemer darts from the ruins under mournhold you are able to absolutely obliterate anything in your path. even almalexia.

things to watch out for, are obviously keeping a supply. there are vendors in convenient places that stock a respawning supply, and thrown weapons have a higher chance of being recovered after combat.
the dwemer darts arer sold by no vendors, but the baddies that drop them respawn and are easily farmable. the dwemer dart is all about damage. think it does a flat 50-50. with the other darts, nothing can compete. the rapid fire of a mass of the cheap ones will stagger an enemy to the point of immobillity. casters can't cast, ordinators can't ordinate. if you normally run with a bow and hit a point where you're dying before you can get a third shot off, switch to chitin stars and taste god mode :)"

[jemolk]

Just to let everyone know, the Code Patch does have an option to allow you to enchant stacks of arrows/bolts, and it gets multiples at a time. It does warn you that this feature is probably not very balanced, though. You really should be using the Code Patch regardless of whether you use that option, though. It fixes so many things that are really damn annoying, and the .exe allows you to pick what things you want the patch to change. It's also incredibly easy to use. Just start up the .exe, choose among the different patches you want using the detailed descriptions of what each does (or just hit the patch button if you want all the bug fixes and nothing else, as they start selected and nothing else does) and tell it to patch the game.

[Fournier]

Holy s*** this was so amazingly helpful!!! Thanks for making my game notably more enjoyable, all these times I want to refreshing break from work.

[frogmandavitto]

There's so much to consider in Morrowind. I felt like an absolute fool when I first played it on the Xbox

[ScreamoTrojan]

I just started getting into Morrowind after loving Oblivion all my life. Initially I was overwhelmed with the game, but your videos have made it so much easier for me to enjoy this wonderful game. Your timestamps and descriptions are always helpful, and you explain very clearly. Thank you very much for helping me!

[chrispeng]

In the Chinese Three Kingdoms history, there was this dude, who pulled the arrow that hit him in the eye out, ate his own eye, then kept fighting. That was how badass people in Morrowind were like!

[HardGayMoose]

subbed, I have so many hours in Oblivion *my first*, and Skyrim. Trouble getting into
Morrowind, so appreciate these vids! Very helpful.

[frauleinhohenzollern]

I'd love a video where you talk all about morrowind. It's story, lore, the houses, etc. You have a pleasant voice and vernacular, don't try too hard... I listen to these videos to fall asleep to.

[Diskhate]

As someone pointed out: if you use the Morrowind Code Patch (WHY WOULDN'T YOU?!?!) there is an option to make arrow enchanting (IN STACKS) possible...
That was sooo fun...i remember one of my most OP characters being an archer/caster that used "paralyzing aoe arrows"...basically arrows that did something like 30-80 damage + 50 poison damage + paralyze for 10 seconds in 20 meters of the area of impact...i just went around the ashlands and cliffracers couldn't even see me before they were super dead

[vinicius]

So, I just started to play Morrowind TODAY, and as a Skyrim's WE Archer player I though that it would be quite same to play as a Marksman in Morrowind, my mistake. Good to know that there are classics RPG stats going on. Ty brother, Hello from Brazil! :D

[jaernihiltheus]

Morrowind's Marksman is.... DA BEST!!! But also the most difficult weapon style to use (without relying on magicka anymore than necessary to play the game), and it's seemingly also very counter-intuitive.

Melee is straightforward, simple, yet effective (with proper support of course), but takes the courage to run into a crowd of enemies and hack 'n slash/smash your way to victory (with a healthy dose of Restore Health/Fatigue Potions at the ready), as well as the ability to know when you come up against an opponent that you just can't beat.

Magic is the most versatile as you can do almost everything, but it takes the forethought to come prepared, as you have to plan on possible reflect effects (fuck that shit), resistances, and of course what to do *when* you run out of magicka. (it's essentially like playing Pokemon, but you are both the Pokemon and the Trainer.)

But pure *long range* stealth is tricky, as you essentially try to only use your weapons as a last resort, or to deal with enemies that you can't sneak around. You want to carry as a little as possible, so Bound Bow is your friend, and despite being considerably weaker than the rest of the Marksman weapons, Throwing Weapons actually serve this well; and Crossbows are really only meant for the bulky warrior-type classes that can afford the extra 30 or so carry weight, I advise against using them unless you're a warrior class, or a warrior-stealth hybrid class. Long range stealth is about controlling distance, getting the highest crit damage possible, keeping yourself as lightweight and mobile as you can, and *ALWAYS* keeping multiple entrance and exit strategies in mind at all times (when you can that is).

[bitfrenzy]

*Takes arrow to the face* naw m8 that didn't happen

[brettonwatts]

I know this video is old, but I absolutely love watching them! I often keep some on in the background while I’m playing Morrowind, they’re just so complete and full of every detail one could want!

[highmedic]

I am very thankful of the videos that you have made for Morrowind. It's such a great thing for the community.